1 in 9 children in Gaza suffer from malnourishment, stunted growth.  70 per cent under one year old are anaemic.

As stated by http://www.jewsagainstzionism.com

<http://www.jewsagainstzionism.com/>  , Zionism is truly a Satanic

ideology...

  _____ 

From:

Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 1:38 PM

Click

<http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/411A0179-2AFD-4038-9C40-D2280FCCA800

.htm>  here: Al Jazeera English - News - Gaza Diary: Sewage On Our Doorstep

"What disgusts me is that this could all have been prevented had the

Israelis opened one checkpoint to allow the spare parts and fuel through."

Children make up more than 50 per cent of the population in Gaza. 1 in 9

children in Gaza suffer from the effects of malnourishment, including

stunted growth. 70 per cent of children under one year old are anaemic.

Sources: World Health Organisation and Unicef

FOCUS:

<http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E61E22A6-6776-4E73-BDE0-644778A336E3

.htm>  FEATURES, ANALYSIS AND COMMENT

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/411A0179-2AFD-4038-9C40-D2280FCCA800.htm

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/411A0179-2AFD-4038-9C40-D2280FCCA800.

htm

Gaza

<http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/411A0179-2AFD-4038-9C40-D2280FCCA800

.htm>  Diary: Sewage on our doorstep

Manal, a humanitarian aid worker, writes of living in the midst of waste and

filth.

 http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/images/2008/2/24/1_241536_1_9.jpg>

In March 2007, sewage water flooded the village of Um Al-Nasr and killed six

Palestinians following the collapse of a sewerage system in the northern

Gaza Strip [GALLO/GETTY] 

Click

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/411A0179-2AFD-4038-9C40-D2280FCCA800,htm

 here: Al Jazeera English - News - Gaza Diary: Sewage On Our Doorstep

Six months ago, a water pumping station - part of a system that serves 60

per cent of the population in Gaza - opened right next to my home. We were

pleased to hear of this development as we previously had no other option but

to dump our untreated sewage in water wells.

This had posed an immense health hazard to all members of the community.

So when we heard that our sewage would now be treated and we would no longer

have to dump our waste near our homes, we were very relieved.

The new station receives up to 40,000 cubic metres of waste water every day,

and it should pump 120 cubic metres an hour through each of six water pumps.

However, only three pumps were installed in the station because the Israeli

closure and blockade since June 2007 had prevented the essential parts

needed to build the remaining three from entering Gaza.

Power cuts have also been affecting the efficiency of the station. The

emergency generator is not functioning well as it requires maintenance and

spare parts are lacking. The limited amount of fuel that is let into Gaza is

not enough to run the generator for long hours.

Toxic waste

Last summer, the station could not cope with the high volume of sewage,

which was ultimately diverted to a nearby grove where the community had

planted their olive trees and other crops. If you have seen an olive tree

you will know that it is a hardy plant which can bear fruit even in the

desert.

But since the diversion, all of the crops in that grove - including some 100

olive trees - died as a result of the toxic waste that was being pumped into

the land.

The sewage continues to flow there to this day. The crops cultivated in this

grove used to provide a source of income and food for the neighbourhood. Now

the entire area has become a wasteland.

This station was supposed to be a blessing for the neighbourhood but it

turned out to be a curse, a health hazard for us all.

Sewage water is filling the streets surrounding the station and flooding

nearby houses.

The stench is unbearable.

Tenants in ground floor flats were forced to move in with neighbours on

higher floors. People are now using sand bags to absorb the sewage water

which continues to seep into their houses.

The amount of children who have been taken ill has increased considerably.

Cases of diarrhea are mounting by the day. Even now, children continue to

play outside amongst the raw sewage - where else can they go?

And we are now facing a public health crisis.

What disgusts me is that this could all have been prevented had the Israelis

opened one checkpoint to allow the spare parts and fuel through.

Sewage in schools

Children started their new term this week even though there is sewage water

in neighbourhood schools. 

Despite the blockade, we have to continue our daily lives, otherwise we will

have nothing left. When the crisis started, some families bought their

children gasoline lamps to study by when electricity was cut. Now that fuel

is not available and very expensive, children do their homework and study

for their exams in candle light.

To add to the deplorable situation, a friend of mine heard on the news

yesterday that the course books for the new term will not reach us for at

least another month.

They have been stuck at the Israeli checkpoints along with spare parts,

fuel, food, and medical supplies; people are not let in or out. Gaza has now

become a prison for us all.

Someone described the situation to me the other day: "Gaza has been living

and breathing through two checkpoints, Rafah and Erez. The goods have been

trickling in uncertainly for the last six months; it's like somebody trapped

in a closed room or a lift, not getting enough oxygen, and trying to keep

breathing slowly until somebody opens the door and saves them."

"Breathing slowly, with difficulty, and with unending uncertainty. Who will

open that door? How long will we have to wait?"

I ask myself and I ask the international community - how can children

receive a good education in this environment?

How can they look forward to a better future?

Oxfam GB <http://www.oxfam.org.uk/>

-----------------

Forwarded Message:

Subj:

[ISM Updates] ISM Digest 2-23-08; Remebering Dr. Habash, Injuries in Bil'in,

Threats and Invasions in Azzoun, International Protests of Lev Leviev

Date:

2/26/2008 12:46:29 AM Pacific Standard Time

From:

media@palsolidarity.org

Reply-to:

palsolidarity-owner@googlegroups.com

To:

palsolidarity@googlegroups.com

Sent from the Internet (Details) <aolmsg://09625460/inethdr/2>

ISM Digest 2-23-08; Remebering Dr. Habash, Injuries in Bil'in, Threats

and Invasions in Azzoun, international protests of Lev Leviev

-------------------

1. Ha'aretz: IDF downplays allegations West Bank troops abuse

Palestinians

2. More than 20 wounded; American activist shot in the head at third

year anniversary of the popular struggle in Bil'in

3. Israeli soldiers desecrate Koran, rob villagers, during Beita

invasion marked with arrests, house occupations, and injuries

4. Demonstration in Azzoun against the planned destruction of a

children's park

5. Once again, Azzoun is under curfew; internationals and Palestinians

assaulted during warrantless house invasion

6. Ha'aretz: Intifada redux

7. Japanese activist shot near the eye in Bil'in may not regain his

eyesight

8. Palestinians who appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court to stop

settlers from digging tunnels under their homes were rounded up by the

Israel police

9. Army siege on Azzoun village continues

10. Clinic and 15 homes threatened at Beqa'a Valley

11. Adalah-NY: New York & London protesters call for Valentine's

boycott of Leviev over Israeli Settlements

12. THE SIEGE HAS BEEN BROKEN: MEPs IN GAZA STRIP IN SOLIDARITY WITH

CIVIL POPULATION

13. Electronic Intifada: George Habash's contribution to the

Palestinian struggle

14. Army Fire on Funeral Procession, Invade Beit Ummar

15. Threats and harassment in Azzoun continue; Israeli army commander

posts notice that he will "shoot to kill" rock-throwing youths

--------------------

1. Ha'aretz: IDF downplays allegations West Bank troops abuse

Palestinians

By Yuval Azoulay

Shooting Palestinian bystanders; illegally commandeering cars and

going on joyrides; torturing a youth by pressing a heater to his face

and beating cuffed prisoners on their way to custody. These are only

some of the reported cases of abuse for which Israel Defense Forces

soldiers serving in the West Bank are currently on trial.

"We've been hit by a tsunami," said the commander of the Kfir Brigade,

members of which were recently implicated in a rampage through a West

Bank town that left two Palestinians wounded, one of them seriously.

Kfir is the largest IDF unit in the West Bank. "I suppose every

brigade goes through low and high periods, and right now we're in a

low one."

Another officer in the GOC Central Command admitted that "the brigade

is in a rough patch." But some officers say that the incident, while

lamentable, is not unusual; what is different about this case, they

say, is that most units involved in such incidents sweep them under

the carpet. In any case, Kfir officials are careful not to call the

incident a "moral crisis." They do concede, however, that had they

reorganized their unit and made changes to the decision-making process

than perhaps the headlines would have been different.

Last July, soldiers from the brigade commandeered a local taxi,

forcibly removing its passengers. The driver, Mohammed Issa Mahrazeh,

was also removed, tied up and blindfolded and returned to the vehicle,

where he was held for the duration of the incident. He sustained

bruises.

While driving through the town of Dahariya, the soldiers noticed a

young man approaching the vehicle. According to the indictment, the

officer ordered one of the soldiers to "distance" Badham Samamra, 18,

from the car with his weapon. The soldier pointed his weapon out the

window of the taxi and shot Samamra. The bullet entered Samara's left

shoulder and exited through his chest, causing moderate to serious

injuries.

During the trial of the commander of the force during the Dahariya

incident, First Lieutenant Ya'akov Gigi, his lawyers argued that his

actions were part of a pattern of inappropriate behavior within the

brigade that had filtered down to the junior officer corps and the

combat troops.

Other soldiers from the Kfir Brigade are currently being tried

separately for allegedly taunting Palestinians by exposing themselves.

Meanwhile, soldiers from another infantry unit are suspected of

applying an electric heater to the face of a Palestinian youth.

According to Israel Radio, IDF soldiers used the cameras on their

mobile phones to record themselves abusing detained Palestinians. Some

of the soldiers allegedly beat the detainees while one of the soldiers

is accused of exposing himself.

Channel 2 television's "Fact" investigative program recently aired

additional alleged incidents of abuse by soldiers in the Kfir Brigade.

"We'd go on a patrol," one soldier told Channel 2. "If even one kid

looked at us the wrong way, he'd be slapped. Rocks were thrown at us

during one patrol, and we caught one of the kids who knew the

perpetrators. We beat the crap out of him until he told us who did

it." The soldier said that he and other soldiers tracked down a boy

said to be involved, aged 14, and placed the tips of their rifles in

his mouth. "We said, 'You want to die? Just say when and where,'" the

soldier recalled.

In another instance, soldiers at roadblocks choked 10-year-old

Palestinians with their bare hands until the children passed out.

"Hebron is like the Wild West and the army is the law," a soldier

said. "We would see who could go without breathing the longest."

The Kfir Brigade was created in December 2005. In consists of six

battalions whose soldiers man 30 percent of the roadblocks in the West

Bank and are responsible for 60 percent of arrests. They have

succeeded in decreasing the number of terrorist attacks in the West

Bank.

But the drudgery of working opposite an often hostile civilian

population is far from glamorous. Furthermore, as a new unit Kfir

lacks the sense of history of the Paratroopers or the Golani Brigade;

they have no heroes to look up to. "They are trying to instill a sense

of pride in the unit, but so far they have failed. The [color] of the

beret is ugly - like that of Hezbollah. If you look at its lining you

might expect to find a 'Made in Syria' label," a soldier who only

recently finished advanced training joked.

"Our legacy is the present and the future and there's nothing that can

be done about that. The legacy is being slowly built through traumatic

events," a senior officer in the unit said. "Low morale is an

explanation but it's not an excuse. It shouldn't happen at all."

--------------------

2. More than 20 wounded; American activist shot in the head at third

year anniversary of the popular struggle in Bil'in

By Meron Rappaport

(Article from Ha'aretz)

More than 20 activists were wounded Friday as Israel Defense Forces

troops fired rubber bullets and tear gas grenades at protesters

marking three years of struggle against the West Bank separation fence

in the West Bank town of Bil'in.

Among the wounded was an American activist.

The IDF spokesman's office said that one soldier was hurt when a rock

was hurled toward him, but that the IDF has no knowledge of wounded

activists.

More than 1,000 people attended the milestone demonstration Friday,

though the event is a weekly occurrence with several dozen activists

gathering in Bil'in every Friday over the last three years to protest

the separation barrier that imposes hardship on Palestinians living in

the West Bank.

Jonathan Pollack, one of the organizers of the demonstration, said

that Friday's protest came six months after the High Court of Justice

ruled on changes in the route of the barrier fence, but yet the state

has done nothing to implement the court's ruling.

Pollack added that when the protesters arrived at the site of the

fence, the IDF stationed in the area began shooting rubber bullets and

using tear gas grenades against the demonstrators.

An American activist suffered head wounds and was taken to the West

Bank city of Ramallah for medical attention.

According to Pollack, some 2,500 people had taken part in the rally,

200 of them Israeli citizens.

The IDF issued a statement estimating the participation in the rally

at 1,000 people, and saying that the demonstrators hurled rocks at IDF

troops at the scene, and therefore the soldiers used approved methods

to disperse the crowd.

---------------------

3. Israeli soldiers desecrate Koran, rob villagers, during Beita

invasion marked with arrests, house occupations, and injuries

On Wednesday 20th February 2008 at 11pm, the Israeli army invaded the

village of Beita, located 13km south-east of Nablus. The village of

10,000 residents was woken by the shooting of sound bombs, tear gas,

live ammunition and rubber bullets, and the repeated announcement that

a curfew was imposed - forcing residents to stay in their homes under

threat of arrest. The curfew lasted until 3pm on Thursday 21st,

prohibiting the function of schools and shops.

One youth, Hussein Sabri Hamdan, aged 18 years, was shot in the

shoulder with a rubber bullet at 11am on Thursday, as he was heading

into the mosque to pray. Hamdan reports that there were no soldiers on

the street where he was shot, and only one bullet was shot, so he

presumes it was the act of a sniper.

Villagers report that approximately 30 people were arrested during the

invasion, and taken to the military base at Huwarra. Almost all were

subsequently released without charge, but as of 4pm on Friday 22nd

February, 8 residents of Beita still remain in Israeli custody.

Arrestees report of being bound, blindfolded and beaten; and forced to

sit for twelve hours outdoors in freezing water, whilst they were

denied food, water and use of bathroom facilities. One arrestee, Fayez

Jarwan, recounts some boys who were sick crying out to the soldiers

imprisoning them, telling them of their conditions, but getting no

response or medical care. He also advised Israeli soldiers were

attempting to force some of the younger boys to become informers for

the Israeli army.

Many houses in Beita were occupied by the invading army throughout the

16 hour incursion, with families reporting being forced out of their

houses for hours; or of all being forced at gunpoint into one room,

and being refused access to food, water and bathrooms - all illegal

under Israeli and international law. Soldiers inflicted extensive

damage to many of the occupied houses, ranging from bullet holes in

windows and walls to broken sound systems and torn up furniture. One

resident, Abu Ra'ed, revealed brand new furniture he had purchased for

his son's wedding present had been skewered and ripped apart by

soldiers' knives. Abu Ra'ed went on to show evidence of the use of

tear gas within his home, as well as the scars of many bullets shot

into his home - piercing windows, walls and his water boiler. Another

family reported that the soldiers, in an act of petty vindictiveness,

took all of the family's supplies of sugar, salt, coffee, tea, oil and

olives and mixed them together, throwing them on the ground in order

to ruin them. This kind of behavior seems to have been widespread,

with another family presenting a toddler's bicycle, broken by

soldiers, now useless, whilst in another house soldiers reportedly

ripped up a Koran and stomped on it in front of the family.

Many residents also reported significant thefts taking place by the

occupying soldiers, including jewelry, money and mobile phones.

Soldiers also confiscated identification cards from one family which

are yet to be returned.

Residents generally described the army occupations of their homes as

being extremely traumatic experiences - though the violence of the

soldiers varied widely. In one house a mother was forcefully prevented

from being allowed to carry her one year old son, resulting in the

infant falling over and suffering lacerations and extensive bleeding.

The baby was then isolated from the rest of the family for three

hours, without medical care, while he continued to bleed from his nose

for the duration of the occupation. In another house, the entire

family, including children, women and grandparents, was forced out

into the night from 11pm until 3am - forced to keep still at gunpoint

for the whole time, while the 23 year old son was arrested. Whilst in

Abu Rami's house, occupying soldiers utilized the house for sleeping,

imprisoning the 9 residents in one room and refusing them access to

food, water and bathroom facilities for many hours.

Soldiers are currently maintaining one checkpoint for residents

entering and leaving the village, as the population counts the cost of

the large-scale invasion.

------------------------

4. Demonstration in Azzoun against the planned destruction of a

children's park

At 10am, February 21st, a demonstration took place at the children's

park of Azzoun. Approximately 50 children came together with their

teachers, other Palestinians, internationals and Israelis to play and

have fun together in what is now left of the park. About three weeks

from now, on March 15th, the park is due to be demolished.

What was a day full of playing in the sun for the children from the

kindergartens of Azzoun, was also a protest against the upcoming

demolition. Local leaders, Israelis and international activists gave

speeches as a mass of demonstrators waved flags and held up signs

protesting the demolition order.

After the demonstration the gathered people marched together down to

what used to be the main gate of the village, but for two weeks now

has been closed by the army. There the peaceful and non-violent

demonstration continued at the top of the roadblock, where it was

approached by both army and police vehicles. No problems occurred and

the demonstration was allowed to continue for about half an hour

uninterrupted.

The children of Azzoun are indeed suffering from the Israeli

occupation and for them the park is a fragment of joy in very dire

circumstances. Regular army incursions into the town expose them to

violence from a young age. Poverty is common in Azzoun as the closure

regime has devastated the local economy. The Israeli army regularly

declare curfew in the town, most recently just a few days ago.

The parks construction was near completion when on the morning of

February 22nd, 2006, bulldozers accompanied by Israeli soldiers

arrived and demolished half of the park - which consisted of two

swimming pools and changing rooms.

The justification given by the Israeli army for the demolition was

that the park lacked a building permit for that specific ground, an

area which falls within Area C, thus under Israeli civil and military

control. Building permits for Area C are notoriously unattainable,

applicants being denied by the Israeli authorities-run Civil

Administration, even when building on private land. In a recent Peace

Now report, it was shown that 94% of housing permits have been denied

over the last seven years. (1) The Israeli army had, prior to the

demolition, given orders to stop the building several times, but

despite that, the village decided to continue, strengthened by the

knowledge that the building was taking place on Palestinian land.

An Israeli lawyer is working together with Azzoun municipality on the

case, and has succeeded in getting the demolition postponed until

March 15th, 2008. She is now planning to take the case to the Supreme

Court, in the hopes of overturning the Israeli army imposition of an

illogical and inaccessible building permit, a legal barrier which in

this case is serving as a barrier to children's recreation.

(1) www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/956692.html

------------------------

5. Once again, Azzoun is under curfew; internationals and Palestinians

assaulted during warrantless house invasion

February 16th

Today Azzoun was again under curfew, after six hours of free movement

in the town, Border Police drove in at 11 am and announced that the

curfew had been reinstated. Throughout the day two Border Police jeeps

roamed the town, throwing sound bombs, shooting live ammunition, and

randomly beating people in the streets. One man was beaten in his

house, near the gas station, another in the street. As well a 60 year

old man and his son were beaten in the street as they tried to get to

their house.

Ashraf Mahmoud Shubaita, a twenty two year old marketing student, was

assaulted as he tried to drive home at 4pm, he reports that the Border

Police took him out of his car, punching and kicking him repeatedly in

the face and body. They then put him in the back of the police jeep

and drove around beating him with their fists and rifle butts for ten

minutes. He was later released back to his car. When he was 50 meters

away, the Border Police began to fire at him, he estimates bullets

landed about a meter from his feet.

At around 1pm, the Border Police once again raided the apartment of

Human Rights Workers (HRWs) in Azzoun, although this time they were

not violent and did not ransack the apartment. The Border Police came

into the apartment demanding to see the HRWs' cameras, although they

did not confiscate them today.

Although the curfew was lifted today at around 6:30pm, Border Police

remain in Azzoun, shooting and throwing sound bombs sporadically.

February 15th

At around 4pm, another curfew was announced in Azzoun. Border police

drove through the town ordering people into their homes, shooting live

fire and throwing sound bombs. Three HRWs followed orders and returned

to their apartment and started to film from their window. After a few

minutes they saw, and captured on video, one border police officer

pulling a Palestinian man out of his car and assaulting him.

After the officers became aware of the presence of the HRWs filming

from their apartment, they began pointing their guns at the HRWs and

ordering them to stop filming. A few minutes later the border police

began hammering on the door of the apartment with a sledge hammer.

Despite the protests of the HRWs that they were trying to open the

door, the officers continued trying to open it by force. After a while

they gave up trying to open the door and began smashing windows in the

vicinity. The officers returned a few minutes later, this time

successfully opening the door, without a warrant.

The officers were screaming as they ransacked the apartment and

dragged one HRW around by his t-shirt, repeatedly banging his head

against a wall. They confiscated their cameras and took the HRWs down

to the street. They were forced to wait whilst the officers checked

their details in their jeep. After about 20 minutes the officers

released the HRWs and continued aggressively enforcing the Azzoun

curfew.

-----------------------

6. Ha'aretz: Intifada redux

By Gideon Levy

For the original article, click here:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/954378.html

The intifada is back. Maybe not in full force, but the sights we saw

last weekend suddenly brought us back 20 years. Israel Defense Forces

bulldozers blocked the main entrance to the village of Azoun. Its

roads were strewn with stones; Molotov cocktails were thrown; the IDF

distributed threatening fliers; a curfew was imposed; and dozens of

young men gathered on streetcorners, slingshots in hand, waiting for

IDF jeeps - just as then.

Just as then the smell of burning tires filled the air, and the half-

deserted streets were frightening. Only the young people dared to

leave their shuttered homes. In Azoun they say that since the IDF

officer named "Captain Joe" arrived in town, their lives have changed.

They speak of harassment of schoolchildren, guns fired at the knees of

the boys, patrols and arrests.

In handwritten and poor Arabic - there is hardly a word without a

spelling mistake - photocopied fliers were distributed over the

weekend in the streets: "We demand that the residents of Azoun stop

throwing stones and Molotov cocktails. If you don't stop the riots,

Captain Joe will enter the town and begin lethal firing at the

residents, arrest the children and close the shops. This is our

decision. If you don't stop the riots, everyone will be responsible.

This is a final warning - Captain Joe."

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades responded quickly. Their flier was

written on the organization's official stationery and was dated

February 1, 2008: "Yesterday fliers were distributed on the streets of

our town signed by Captain Joe, one of the soldiers defeated by our

heroic brothers in the Gaza Strip. We hereby declare that we will

continue on the armed path. The Day of Judgment is approaching and we

will yet defeat Captain Joe, his soldiers and his collaborators,

Inshallah.

"To Captain Joe: We are still strong and our bullets will continue to

shriek. In the coming days we will burn the ground beneath your feet,

the feet of your soldiers and your collaborators. The fortress of

Azoun will continue to be as strong as a rock . Just wait, you

cowards, we have promised and we will keep our promise - we will

strike and cause pain."

Curfew, stones, fliers, tires: Is the first intifada returning?

Barbed-wire fences and piles of dirt blocked the main entrance to

Azoun, a town of 10,000 residents on the main Qalqilyah-Nablus road,

or should we say Kfar Sava-Kedumim. On Sunday an IDF bulldozer was

standing on the hill overlooking the blocked entrance, observing from

a distance. Several passengers got out of a Palestinian taxi and

crossed the piles of dirt and barbed wire on foot, entering the town

that was put under curfew.

A few minutes after we arrived an IDF vehicle appeared out of nowhere.

From it emerged an officer with the rank of lieutenant colonel, the

brigade commander, who said: "I'm asking you to evacuate the area of

the junction . Leave the area." How long will it be blocked, we asked.

"When things are calm . it will be opened. The equation is very

simple. On Friday evening there was a Molotov cocktail and on Saturday

there was stone-throwing and now it's closed. It's a dangerous place,

Azoun."

"Is there a curfew here?"

"No, there's no curfew."

But there was a curfew. Salah Haj-Yehye, the fieldwork director for

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), who organizes visits by medical

staff to the territories, is with us. He asks the brigade commander

how ambulances will enter the town, and the commander assures him that

the southern entrance is open. Haj-Yehye is not satisfied: How will

the organization's staff reach the hospital in Nablus? No answer. Then

the commander says: "Don't take pictures." Why not? "Because I'm not

photogenic." Was this "Joe"? The brigade commander did not identify

himself by name, only by his position.

Carpets of poppies and almond trees greet us as we enter Azoun by a

different road, from the west. An IDF jeep had driven around the

streets of the town a few minutes earlier and announced a curfew. In

any case the schools were closed that morning, after the soldiers

prevented them from opening. The residents say that during the past

three months the village has been under curfew for 25 days, as it was

last weekend. Since last Friday there has been a "strict" curfew in

the village

Next to the Hamuda carpentry shop, dentist Dr. Amin Salim, a member of

the town council, joins us. If he sits on the front seat of the car,

maybe they won't throw stones at us, he says. In the morning, a group

of settlers had gathered at the blocked entrance to the villate to

protest the stone throwing on the main road, Salim says. The IDF

prevented them from entering the town. A black cloud rises to a

distance above the houses. A small intifada in Azoun.

Our car tries to make its way through the angry streets, navigating

between the large rocks strewn on the road and the tire bonfires.

Children stand next to the shuttered stores, stones in hand. A large

crowd has gathered at Independence Square in the center of town, which

has a stone monument engraved with the Palestinian declaration of

independence. The men are dressed in jeans, sweatshirts and cheap

jackets, some quasi-military; their hair is cut short and their faces

flash with hatred. Hopeless, bitter young men, one limping from an old

injury. "The situation has worsened since the arrival of Joe, about

two months ago," they say, volunteering information. "The IDF comes in

every day and harasses us." Four of them were wounded last month.

The crowd becomes increasingly restive. The soldiers, they say, enter

the houses, throw stun and tear-gas grenades, and shoot. The

mysterious Captain Joe sometimes speaks on the loudspeaker of one of

the jeeps, threatening and cursing.

Up the small hill of a half-deserted street nearby, people are pushing

a wheelchair. In it is Mohammed Faisal, 16, who was wounded on January

15. Salim shows us the footage on his cell phone of Faisal's injury.

We can hear the shooting; it happened here, in the square. Faisal says

he was standing there when the soldiers entered at noontime. There was

stone throwing, everyone fled and he was wounded in the leg by the

soldiers' bullets. He says Joe's jeep was standing up the street and

that he was shot twice, once from a distance and once at close range.

He exposes his leg, which has a long, coarsely sewn scar all along it.

A sign of the French-Palestinian Solidarity Association stands at the

edge of the smoking square.

Two Swiss volunteers emerge from one of the houses; they came to

identify with the burning town. "The situation is bad," says one of

them, who sports a nose ring. Every sound of an approaching car

increases the tension. Everyone is waiting for the IDF. We enter a

house, one of the most decrepit, where Othman Raduan, 16, is lying. He

was also wounded on January 15 and is still bedridden.

Curled up in cheap colorful blankets on an iron bed, in a room with

stained and moldy walls, Raduan has the first signs of a mustache and

wears a white hat with a drawing of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. A blue door

with a peephole and the number 28 engraved on it leads to the rest of

the rooms of the house. Raduan works in the grocery store in the

square.

On that "black Sabbath," he says, he went outside when the soldiers

arrived. The soldiers cursed and fired; the young men threw stones at

them. One bullet hit his leg and he fell on the road; then, he says,

one of the soldiers fired another two bullets at him from a distance

of about half a meter. The result: one bullet in his left leg, two

bullets in his right.

After the shooting the soldiers dragged him on the road and beat him,

too, says Raduan. After half an hour he was evacuated to the local

clinic, from there to the UNRWA hospital in Qalqilyah and from there

to the Rafidia Hospital in Nablus, where he was operated on. He can

already move his left leg, but his right leg is still paralyzed. They

shot at his knees. He says that this is not Sderot; nobody reported

the wounding of Raduan and Faisal.

Salim says that in three months, 27 young men have been wounded in

their legs by the soldiers' gunfire. Rami Issaf of the Palestinian

Association for Rehabilitation of the Disabled, says that in most of

the cases the wounds were indeed in the legs.

Haj-Yehye of PHR says that three weeks ago his organization held a

medical day in Azoun with the participation of 12 Israeli doctors, who

came to examine the sick and wounded. Some 500 showed up. On that day,

too, the IDF entered, there were riots and the medical team had

difficulty getting out.

By the time this issue went to print, no response had been received by

the IDF Spokesperson's Office.

In his relatively spacious home, the dentist Salim says that up until

a few months ago Azoun was a quiet place. "Since then the new policy

has begun, which is aimed at turning Azoun into a chaotic place. The

council asked the IDF to stop the harassment, but the IDF continues to

enter, almost daily, harassing and firing, cursing mainly the

children.

"Apparently they have a goal for the future. They want to build a wall

around Azoun and to imprison it. They are looking to provoke the

children. The local council and the governor of Qalqilyah are making

an effort to calm things down, but each time the IDF enters again and

the efforts fail. If there is no change, there will be a disaster

here," warns Salim.

Currently eight youths are being detained by the IDF; 19 others were

detained and released. In all about 70 residents have been detained in

the past three months. Salim shows us the list of names.

Bayan Tabib, council head of the neighboring village, Izbit al-Tabib,

says demolition orders have been issued for 22 houses - half of his

tiny unrecognized village. A demolition order has also been issued

against the new youth center that was built between Azoun and Jiyus;

part has already been destroyed and the other part is slated to be

razed on March 15. The center was built on private land with money

from donations, but did not receive the approval of the Israeli Civil

Administration.

"An oasis for children in the midst of the despair," said the

information brochure in English, which made a desperate call to

prevent the demolition. On February 21 they are organizing a

demonstration in Azoun against the demolition of the center. Salim

says that the Civil Administration told him: "We will erase Azoun

yet."

------------------------

7. Japanese activist shot near the eye in Bil'in may not regain his

eyesight

Kaoru Kishida, a Japanese activist shot near the eye by a rubber-

coated steel bullet in Bil'in, has just been operated on in St. John's

Eye Hospital in Jerusalem. The doctors still don't know if he will

regain his eyesight.

Kishida was shot on January 25th, in a non-violent demonstration

against the Annexation Wall in the village of Bil'in. When he was

shot, three Israeli activists came to his help. While walking him away

from the demonstration, they were all shot, one in the leg, one in the

behind, and one near the eye. All of them have since recovered.

-----------------------

8. Palestinians who appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court to stop

settlers from digging tunnels under their homes were rounded up by the

Israel police

For months the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA), with funding from

the settler organization ELAD, has been digging under the private

property of Silwan residents in occupied East Jerusalem. The owners of

the land were not informed nor did they give their consent to the

digging that has already resulted in damage to the walls of their

homes. The damage to buildings and infrastructure has reached a state

where the main road caved in recently under the weight of the winter

snow. Letters sent by Attorney Sami Ershed on behalf of the residents

to the IAA requesting information about the digging taking place on

their land have not been answered.

On Friday, February 7th Silwan residents established a protest tent on

a privately owned plot adjacent to the ELAD visitors center where

digging has been taking place. Yesterday, February the 10th, Silwan

residents appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court for a temporary stop

work order.

Late last night, police raided the village, and arrested four people.

Three of them were land owners who had submitted the appeal to the

Supreme Court. They were charged with sabotaging ELAD's property,

didn't see a judge, and ended up signing conditions, placing them

under house arrest for five days. The gross irony is the land they are

charged with sabotaging, is their own.

Israeli Human Rights Attorney Gabi Laski stated: "When, in a

politically sensitive place like Silwan, the settlers are being

allowed to build and dig without permits and the law is not being

enforced. And when people who want to complain about this to the

police are the ones who are arrested, it indicates that there is

something wrong with how the law is being enforced."

MK Yossi Beilin (Meretz) also came to see the dig yesterday; he asked

the IAA to allow him to have a look into the archaeological site, but

was told that ELAD would not allow him to enter.

On Sunday workers arrived at the land to continued digging, but left

after the owner of the land told them to leave his land. Later an

Israeli settler from ELAD came with a worker. The owner of the land

again attempted to tell the workers to stop, but this time the settler

began cursing and pushing him, forcing him to call the police.

The police arrived and told the villagers to come with them to the

police station to file a complaint. The owner of the land left with

another Silwan witness and an Israeli activist from Tayush to file the

complaint. But when they arrived at the station they found themselves

under arrest for assault. The three were held overnight and brought

today to court where they were released without restrictions, on NIS

2500 bail. The settler was not arrested.

After the three where arrested the workers returned and resumed the

digging, only this time with police protection. Attorney Sami Ershed

explained, "Under Israeli law the landlord of a property can prevent

anyone from entering his own land by using reasonable force, the

police were obliged to help them in doing that, but instead the police

breached property rights by protecting the trespassers while they

broke the law."

On Monday afternoon, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled against a

temporary stop work order, to keep settlers from digging on other

peoples' property. Instead they gave the settlers 14 days to respond

to the complaints.

Fakhri Abu Diab said, "We, as Silwan residents, will not be silenced

by this attempt to intimidate us from protesting the settlers attempt

to take over our land. The settlers are building on our land without

permits, and we are arrested when we complain about their activities.

We will continue our vigil at the protest tent until our rights are

restored."

----------------------

9. Army siege on Azzoun village continues

*Update, February 14th* Yesterday the five day curfew of the West Bank

town of Azzoun came to an end. Although the new roadblocks barring

traffic to Isla and road 60 remain in place, the town's residents can

now walk in the streets.

The curfew was lifted at 11am on Tuesday, but was reinforced at 5pm

that evening, after which the Israeli army arrested six boys during

the night, even driving an armored jeep through one boys front gate to

make the arrest. This brings the total arrests during the curfew to

eighteen. The curfew was lifted again in the morning.

Nobody was injured during the curfew, but the army fired many rubber

bullets, live ammunition, and threw many sound bombs whilst enforcing

the curfew at night. One family's home was ransacked whilst they were

falsely accused of throwing rocks at the army from their living room

window. The secured metal wire mesh in front of their window is proof

of their innocence.

February 11th

The village of Azzoun remains under strict curfew following the large

scale invasion on Friday 8th February. The village of 11,000 people,

situated in the Qalqilya region, is currently under siege, with

residents unable to leave their homes and local businesses forced to

remain closed since ten Israeli army vehicles invaded at 7pm Friday

night. All except two roads out of the village have been blocked by

huge earth-mounds.

For the past three days Israeli soldiers have been terrorising the

village, shooting live ammunition, rubber-bullets and sound-bombs at

frightened residents. This invasion is the most recent of the almost

daily incursions the village has been made subject to for the last two

years.

So far, eleven youths have been taken by the army, two of whom were

arrested and are currently in jail. One of the boys was arrested on

Sunday morning while trying to obtain medicine for his diabetic

mother. The others were taken and later released, reporting that they

were beaten by the army. International human rights workers (HRW's)

witnessed four of these youths being held at the main entrance to

Azzoun handcuffed and blindfolded, before subsequently being released

without charge. When questioned, soldiers claimed that the youths had

been detained for violating the imposed curfew.

Residents awoke on Saturday morning to discover that the main entrance

to the village, which had just been opened the previous day, has now

been blocked by a two meter high earth-mound and razor-wire. Some

locals spontaneously began to attempt to remove the road-block, only

to be forced away by soldiers threatening to shoot. All passage across

the earth-mound is until now prohibited.

Throughout that day, six jeeps constantly roamed the streets of

Azzoun, sirens blaring and shooting sound-bombs and live ammunition to

announce their presence, commanding residents to stay inside their

homes. As two HRW's attempted to film the collective punishment of the

village, they were violently attacked by soldiers who attempted to

steal their camera, forcing the HRW's to the ground. Unable to obtain

the HRW's camera, soldiers threatened to break the camera should the

HRW's be seen filming again. When advised that this was illegal, the

commander of the unit insisted, "I make my own legal".

On Sunday, four jeeps patrolled the village, again firing sound bombs

and live ammunition. One house was then invaded by the soldiers who

broke down the door and abducted one male youth, who remains in

custody. The curfew was imposed throughout the day, despite claims

from the District Command Office (DCO) that it had been lifted early

in the morning. That night bulldozers could be seen in the village,

closing all roads except two out of the village, including

agricultural roads.

This seige of Azzoun is devastating for the local economy with

businesses forced to close and farmers unable to properly attend their

crops and distribute their produce. This once prosperous commercial

hub has been economically crippled by two years of ongoing curfews

imposed by the Israeli army.

Soldiers advised the HRW's that the curfew and road-blocks were

imposed as a result of a projectile being thrown at the Israeli only

road that runs along the northern perimeter of Azzoun. However, such

measures demonstrated by the army are clear examples of collective

punishment, illegal under international law.

-----------------------

10. Clinic and 15 homes threatened at Beqa'a Valley

The first permanent medical centre to be built in Beqa'a Valley

village is being threatened with demolition along with 15 more houses.

The village is located between Kiryat Arba settlement and Route 60

which divides the valley in two.

Many houses in Beqa'a have been demolished before, and have been

rebuilt with the assistance of the Israeli Committee Against House

Demolitions, but the clinic is the first of its kind in the area.

Currently the only medical help is a temporary clinic in a private

house which is staffed by Palestine Relief Doctors every Wednesday,

other than this the villagers have to walk into Hebron itself which

can be difficult given its close proximity to Kiryat Arba.

The clinic first received a stop work order and then a demolition

order; many houses were then given the same treatment. Some are

threatened with partial demolition orders and others with complete.

The other troubling issue in Beqa'a Valley is the water situation. The

villagers have been told that growing tomatoes is illegal since they

use up a lot of water in their production. But the settlements are

under no such restrictions. Also one of the village wells, from which

people access water is under a demolition threat. It seems clear that

the Israelis do not want Beqa'a to become more independent than it

already is.

Beqa'a is threatened with settlement expansion, the fence and security

zone comes very close to peoples' houses and the people fear that the

demolition of houses could lead to the settlements being given access

to more land. Settlers already make life difficult for people here,

many patrol the valley on horseback intimidating the locals.

What happens next could very well see the next expansion of the Kiryat

Arba Settlement.

----------------------

11. Adalah-NY: New York & London protesters call for Valentine's

boycott of Leviev over Israeli Settlements

For the original article, click here:

http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2008/02/94633.html

New York, NY, Feb 9, 2008 - Forty-five protesters called on Madison

Avenue shoppers to boycott the jewelry store of Israeli billionaire

and settlement magnate Lev Leviev this Saturday, the last major

shopping day before Valentine's Day. The protest was the seventh

organized by the New York activist group Adalah-NY since Leviev's

store opened in mid-November.

Londoners also joined the campaign to boycott Leviev, with 25 human

rights activists picketing outside Leviev's Old Bond St. store

Saturday. The protesters in New York and London oppose Leviev's

construction of Israeli settlements on Occupied Palestinian land in

violation of international law, as well as his abuse of marginalized

communities in Angola, where he mines diamonds, and in New York City

where he develops real estate.

Facing the shop window at LEVIEV New York which was emblazoned with

the words "Celebrate Love with Leviev" in pink, the New York

protesters carried red, heart-shaped signs saying "Settlements are

Heartless," "Have a Heart Leviev" and "Won't You be Just." Protesters

sang a parody, vaudeville-style version of "Diamonds Are a Girls Best

Friend," including the lyrics:

"Lev grows bold,

With billions sold,

And Palestine starves while you spend,"

"No matter what they say,

Apartheid's the endgame,

Lev's diamonds are a crime's best friend."

In an assertion of Palestinian identity in defiance of Israeli efforts

to destroy their culture, the Palestine Liberation Dance Troupe

performed the Palestinian folkdance dabkeh, including fellahi wedding

dances. They danced to traditional Palestinian wedding songs

celebrating love including, "Ya Zareef Atool" and "Dalouna."

The protesters performed a racy parody of "The Dating Game" entitled

"The One Date Solution, for those who want to settle", featuring a

contestant named Lev who was wooed by three other contestants - a pro-

Israel legal scholar and author of the book "The Case for Ethnic

Cleansing" named Alana; the daughter of a repressive African dictator

with extensive diamond holdings; and Lev's spurned ex-Brooklyn real

estate partner. In response to a criticism of his human rights record

from one contestant, Lev explained, "Lev means never having to say

you're sorry." But "The Dating Game" ended before Lev was able to

choose a date because the audience voted Lev out of New York City and

Palestine. Also displayed at the protest was a six foot JDate profile

for Leviev which noted, among other things, "In my free time, I enjoy:

Exploitation, Profiteering, Union-Busting, and Macrame."

An Adalah-NY representative tried to deliver a three foot by two foot

heart-shaped valentine to the store for Leviev. The valentine featured

photos from Palestinian villages like Bil'in and Jayyous where

Leviev's companies are building Israeli settlements, and hand-written

messages from protesters like "Stop the Land Theft", "Jews say no to

apartheid," and "Where's the love Lev?" However, store staff refused

to accept the valentine, saying that Adalah-NY should mail it to

Leviev.

In London, 25 demonstrators from Architects and Planners for Justice

in Palestine, together with support from the Palestine Solidarity

Campaign, Stop the Wall and Jews for Justice for Palestinians held a

Valentine's Day protest outside the jewelry shop Leviev in normally

sedate Old Bond Street London, holding placards, and leafleting to

curious passers by. The posters highlighted Leviev's settlement

construction in Bil'in and Jayyous, and included the violence of

uprooting olive trees and armed soldiers' assaults against Palestinian

farmers.

Click here for NY demonstration photos:

http://www.mideastjustice.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=157&

Itemid=73

Adalah-NY:

justiceme@gmail.com

www.mideastjustice.org

----------------------

12. THE SIEGE HAS BEEN BROKEN: MEPs IN GAZA STRIP IN SOLIDARITY WITH

CIVIL POPULATION

Jerusalem, 7th February 2008

A delegation composed of 10 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs)

from different political groups (see the list of participants below)

and led by Luisa Morgantini, Vice-President of the European

Parliament, broke the Israeli siege and travelled to the Gaza Strip on

5th February 2008.

During a press conference, MEPs reaffirmed the need and the urgency to

lift the blockade that represents "an illegal collective punishment on

the civil population".

Visiting the Al-Shifa Hospital, the delegation expressed its deep

concern and worry about the extreme difficulties under which the main

hospital in the Gaza Strip is obliged to operate, where patients with

cancer, but not only with cancer, do not avail of the necessary

medical drugs or treatments and at least 30 premature babies, still

alive thanks to incubators, risk dying if generators stop because of

the lack of fuel due to cuts in refuelling supplies and to the closure

decided by the Israeli Government.

In its mission to Gaza, the delegation also met many Palestinian

businessmen who reaffirmed the impossibility for them to carry out

their commercial activities because of the Israeli blockade, with

disastrous consequences for the economy and the daily life of

civilians: 80% of workers are currently unemployed without any

compensation.

Refusing the idea of resorting to smuggling, currently the only

channel open to access and trade goods in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian

businessmen have on the contrary reiterated to MEPs their will and

their right to free and honest trade. Palestinian businessmen also

repeated that the siege does not affect Hamas' political and religious

movement but that, on the contrary, the heaviest price is being paid

by the civil population, as many Palestinian intellectuals and

activists have been claiming for a long time and as they also claimed

in a meeting with the MEPs in the offices of the "End the Siege"

campaign (www.end-gaza-siege.ps; end.gaza.siege@gmail.com), with the

participation, among others, of the doctor and human rights activist,

Eyad Sarraj, one of the promoters of the demonstration for the

International Day for the End of Gaza siege, on 26th January, held

simultaneously in the Gaza Strip, at the Eretz Crossing, by Israeli

peace activists, and all around the world.

The different organizations supporting the Campaign, but also many

women from Gaza, meeting the delegation, reaffirmed the need for

independence, freedom and peace for Palestinians, appealed for the

lifting of the blockade and also for the right to security for all

civilians, both Israelis and Palestinians. They restated at the same

time that "Qassam rockets are fired not by the people of Gaza, but

only by some groups of extremist Palestinians, and this must be

condemned as well as all the bloodshed of civilians due to Israeli

raids perpetuated by the army of occupation".

In the press conference, broadcast by major Arab television channels,

the MEPs, expressing their solidarity, declared they were "deeply

impressed by the dignity and the resistance of the Palestinian people

and wished that Palestinian political parties could find unity so that

the Gaza Strip and the West Bank would not be separated."

MEPs also urged an intervention to put a stop to the ecological

disaster in Beitlaya area; that the Rafah border and all Gaza

crossings be opened thereby allowing free movement of people and

goods; that the violent spiral of action-reaction be immediately

stopped. They also called for concrete deeds for the resumption of

peace negotiations based on the freezing of all illegal Israeli

settlements in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem, the end to the

military occupation and for the establishment of a free and sovereign

Palestinian State based on the '67 borders in coexistence with the

Israeli State.

The delegation also urged effective action by the International

Community to secure the freedom of all political prisoners and

Palestinian Parliamentarians who have been arrested, to improve living

conditions in all the Occupied Palestinian Territory and, in

particular, in the Gaza Strip, to encourage Israel to show a concrete

will for peace, that has not existed up until now and that is denied

every day through the raids, check points, roadblocks, the wall and

closures not only in Gaza but in the entire West Bank, such as in

Hebron - which the MEPs visited on 4th February - a ghost town,

occupied by hundreds of Israeli soldiers defending 400 fanatic

settlers.

During the fact-finding mission, from 2nd - 7th February, the Members

of the European Parliament with 8 officials, assistants and some

journalists also visited the town of Sderot, in Israel, under daily

attack by Qassam rockets, as a sign of solidarity with the civil

population, where they met, among others, Zvi Shuldiner, director of a

Department of Safir College and peace activist.

The delegation also met the Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad,

the Minister in charge of Prisoners' Affairs, Ashraf al- Ajami,

Members of the Palestinian Legislative Council of different political

parties - Fatah, Al Mubadarah, Third Way, Peoples' Party, Popular

Front, Independents and Change and Reform List (Hamas), some Members

of the Knesset- Kadima Party and Labour Party, General Pietro

Pistoiese, Head of the EUBAM mission in Rafah, EU and UNRWA

Representatives, but also peace and human rights organizations from

Israeli and Palestinian civil societies.

For all information, a statement or report, please contact:

Luisa Morgantini: +972 547271742 (Palestinian mobile)

or 0039 348 39 21 465 (Italian mobile)

or 0039 06 69 95 02 17 (Rome Office)

luisa.morgantini@europarl.europa.eu; www.luisamorgantini.net

List of MEPs participants:

EVANS Jill, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance, UK

FALBR Richard, Socialist Group in the European Parliament, Czech

Republic

HEGYI Gyula, Socialist Group in the European Parliament, Hungary

HOWITT Richard, Socialist Group in the European Parliament, UK

KOTEREC Milo¹, Socialist Group in the European Parliament, Slovakia

LAMBERT Jean, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance, UK

MADEIRA E MADEIRA Jamila Barbara, Socialist Group in the European

Parliament, Portugal

MALDEIKIS Eugenijus, Union for Europe of the Nations Group, Lithuania

MORGANTINI Luisa, Group of the European United Left - Nordic Green

Left, Italy

MORILLON Philippe, Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for

Europe, France

NOGUEIRA ROMÁN Camilo, Former MEP GREENS, Spain

ZELEZNY Vladimir, Independence/Democracy Group, Czech Republic

-----------------------

13. Electronic Intifada: George Habash's contribution to the

Palestinian struggle

By: As'ad AbuKhalil

30 January 2008

I lived more than half of my life in the US and I never felt the

alienation that I felt on the day I read George Habash, the

Palestinian revolutionary who passed away last week, labeled as a

"terrorism tactician" in a front page obituary in The New York Times.

What do you when they want to convince you that a kind and gentle man

you met and respected as a person is a terrorist when you know

otherwise? Do you quibble with their definitions to no avail? Do you

go back and see how they wrote glowing obituaries for Zionist militia

leader and later Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, a man whose

record of killing civilians is as horrific and grotesque as that of

Osama Bin Laden, former Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin, Fatah

Revolutionary Council founder Abu Nidal or Chilean dictator Augusto

Pinochet?

But they can't invent facts, and they can't distort the narrative of

Palestinian history. Many of my generation and older knew and

respected George Habash. We did not worship him or declare him

infallible. We respected that on the personal level he was

incorruptible. Here was a man who refused more than the $300 monthly

pension he was receiving in Amman, Jordan. Once, a group of wealthy

Palestinians schemed to try to pay him in his later years because they

did not want the symbol of the Palestinian - the Arab - revolution to

die in poverty. He would not budge, not even to accept funds to hire a

research assistant to help with his memoirs.

George Habash was the antithesis of Yasser Arafat: he was honest,

while Arafat was dishonest; consistent when Arafat was inconsistent;

principled, while Arafat was shifty; transparent, while Arafat was

deceptive; sincere, while Arafat was fake; dignified while Arafat was

clownish; modest, while Arafat was arrogant; tolerant of dissent,

while Arafat was autocratic, and on and on.

George Habash embodied an era that extended from the Nakba, or mass

expulsions of Palestinians from their homeland in 1948, until the

ending of the first phase of the Lebanese civil war in 1976, when the

decline of the Left, and the launching of Sadatism began. Up until

that time, when a deep ideological transformation took place in the

Arab world, Habash was a major actor on the Arab political stage. He

was feared by Arab regimes, and respected and loved in the refugee

camps. I don't believe I have ever seen the ordinary people of the

camps react to a person as they reacted to Habash. Their love for him

was genuine because they felt that he was genuine.

If there is a world revolutionary symbol for the second half of the

20th century, it should be George Habash. He may not be widely known

in 2008, but anybody who read a newspaper prior to the rise of the

Islamic Revolution in Iran, when Islamism eclipsed the Arab Left,

would know him. Habash is one of the main makers of Arab contemporary

history and one of the handful of names who changed the course of the

Palestinian political struggle.

It is often said that Habash's "Christianity" - as if he was religious

- was the only reason why he was not the leader of the Palestinian

national movement, instead of Arafat. I never agreed with the view.

Habash's sincerity, honesty and integrity were the reason why he did

not lead the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), while Arafat's

"skills" kept him in power for all those decades. For those who were

privileged to have met Habash, his sincerity and honesty came through,

as did his natural modesty, and clear sense of himself. Shafiq al-Hout

wrote in As-Safir that Habash was a distinctive kind of revolutionary,

but then added that he was how a revolutionary should be.

George Habash was shaped by the Nakba. He was born in al-Lydd,

Palestine, and his middle class family, like thousands of other

families, were violently evicted from their homes by Zionist militias

led by Yitzhak Rabin.

Habash was at that time a student at the American University of Beirut

(AUB), where he had already been inspired by the Arab nationalist

ideas in the student club al-'Urwah al-Wuthqah. He did not wait long

to initiate action in revenge after the founding of Israel (we should

refer to it as "the destruction of Palestine," as Zionist propaganda

in the West has succeeded in portraying Palestinian national

aspirations as an act of "destruction") - and revenge was his motive

early on. He joined ranks with an Egyptian activist to engage in small-

scale bombings in Lebanon and Syria. Some of the attacks were actually

terrorist: as when a synagogue was bombed. The early Habash was anti-

Jewish, but that would change with time. But this small group, Kata'ib

al-Fida' al-'Arabi, was easy for the authorities to dismantle.

Habash subsequently realized that mass movement and collective action

was required. He joined forces with his fellow AUB medical student,

the brilliant tactician Wadi' Haddad, who wanted action and was

impatient with theorization and ideological squabbles that occupied

hours of meetings. (Haddad's slogan, "Going after the enemy,

everywhere" became the motto for his organization when he was forced

to split off from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine

(PFLP) in 1971.)

Habash and Haddad joined with other students (who were influenced by

the writings and ideas of AUB history professor Constantine Zurayq) to

form the Movement of Arab Nationalists. This movement was one of the

early political and organizational echoes of the occupation of

Palestine in 1948 and left a mark on Arab contemporary politics,

inspiring and initiating political organizations throughout the Arab

world.

After their graduation from AUB, Habash and Haddad established a

clinic for poor refugees in Jordan. There they contributed to the Arab

nationalist stirrings that forced King Hussein to oust Glubb Pasha,

the British officer who commanded the army, in 1956.

Habash and his comrades also tried to reunite with the Ba'th but came

away with the impression that the liberation of Palestine and "armed

struggle" were not a priority for the Ba'th or for its founder Michel

'Aflaq.

Any evaluation of Habash's career should also take into consideration

the mistakes, errors and shortcomings of the experience - some of

which can only be seen in hindsight. The Movement of Arab Nationalists

was late in realizing the desire of Palestinians for an armed response

to the Zionist occupation and threat. It also was not clear in

formulating a political explanation of "liberation." "Revenge" was one

of the mottos of the movement, but that scarcely amounted to a

political program.

The Movement should also be criticized for developing into an arm of

the Egyptian regime; Habash met Egyptian president and symbol of Arab

nationalism Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1964, and the two men clearly hit it

off. In his later years, Habash would cry whenever Nasser's name would

be mentioned. Habash put a high premium on an Arab sense of dignity,

which he felt Nasser represented in his dealings with the West - in

contrast to the behavior of Sadat and other Arab rulers. One wonders

what Habash must have thought when he saw Arab oil rulers literally

dancing with US President George W. Bush.

Even in the wake of the Arab defeat in the 1967 War, Habash did not

want to break with Nasser despite rising political disillusionment and

even anger among the refugees. Habash's only serious disagreement with

Nasser was when the latter accepted the 1969 Rogers Plan, a US

political framework for ending the Arab-Israeli conflict.

After the war, Habash founded the PFLP which quickly become the second

most important Palestinian organization after Fatah, and held that

place until the rise of Hamas and the Islamization of Palestinian and

Arab politics in the 1980s. The Movement of Arab Nationalists had

effectively decided to transform into Marxist-Leninist organizations

and adopted the belief that guerrilla warfare against Zionism would

achieve the final liberation of Palestine. Unlike Fatah, the PFLP

stressed political indoctrination and carefully screened recruits.

Young Arabs from different countries joined the struggle, receiving

training in camps in Jordan, and later in Lebanon - this was well

before the emergence of Dubai as the object of aspiration of Arab

youths. Palestine was the destination then.

The PFLP quickly suffered from schisms and defections; the first was

by Ahmad Jibril, a recruit of Syrian intelligence, who formed his own

splinter group, the PFLP-General Command in 1968 when Habash was in a

Syrian jail. The following year, Palestinian politician Nayif

Hawatmeh, who was mystified by Habash's enormous charisma especially

as a public speaker, split off and formed the Democratic Front for the

Liberation of Palestine (DFLP). Other smaller defections followed, and

the DFLP would not have long survived if it was not for the support

and funding from Arafat who encouraged, funded, and armed many

defections in Palestinian organizations to keep himself in control.

The PFLP argued that the liberation of Palestine would be impossible

without the liberation of Arab countries from the regimes imposed by

the West and Israel. Looking to Vietnam, Habash called for Arab

"Hanois," and stated that the liberation of Palestine passed through

every Arab capital. "Armed struggle" was the major path to liberation.

In its early phase, the PFLP showed the promise of charting an

independent leftist path, not loyal to the USSR and even flirted with

Maoism. But by 1973, it had joined the ranks of Arab communist

organizations that pledged allegiance to the Soviet Union.

The PFLP was active in Jordan, and played a major role in Black

September - the series of massacres committed by the Jordanian regime

in 1970 (with the support of the United States and Israel) against the

Palestinians and their fighters. The PFLP like other organizations

targeted during Black September relocated to Lebanon and helped

agitate the Lebanese political situation.

Earlier in 1970, Habash and the PFLP became famous worldwide when the

group orchestrated the hijacking of several airliners to Jordan,

releasing all passengers and crew before the planes were destroyed. I

once met a German flight attendant who told me that she became a

supporter of the Palestinian cause after she heard Habash speak in

English to a group of hostages in the Intercontinental Hotel in Amman

- and she was one of the hostages. Habash would be a bit defensive

about the hijackings in later years; he would hate to be associated

with the terrorism of Bin Laden or Abu Nidal. He would argue that the

practice was limited to a specific reason (highlighting the plight of

the Palestinians when former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir

insisted that the Palestinian people did not exist) and for a limited

duration. But no fair evaluation should, for better or worse, ignore

or gloss over that experience.

Habash also had to deal with Wadi' Haddad who insisted on continuing

with "international operations" despite directives to restrict armed

actions to within Palestine. As a result of several actions seen as

reckless, Haddad's membership of the PFLP was "frozen."

Haddad's standards for action against Israel and its allies were

different from Habash's. Habash believed that high ethical and

political standards should inspire any political and military action.

This is not to say that his organization did not commit some acts that

violated those standards, but Habash tried not always successfully to

reign in the adventurist tendencies of his friend and comrade. For

several years, Haddad continued to carry out operations using the name

"International Operations of the PFLP" without the blessing of the

organization until he was finally expelled.

George Habash was hit hard by the Mossad's assassination of his PFLP

comrade the writer Ghassan Kanafani in 1972, and he suffered a

debilitating stroke. Habash himself survived several Israeli

assassination attempts; in one, Israel hijacked a plane that it

thought carried Habash (he had switched planes only minutes before the

flight).

In 1974, Habash froze the PFLP's membership in the PLO when he

realized that Arafat was working for the two-state solution. Habash

was instrumental in forming the Rejectionist Front which advocated a

non-compromising stance on the liberation of "every millimeter of

Palestine," as Habash was fond of saying in his public speeches. But

here was one of Habash's major mistakes: the front included many

organizations that were loyal to or creatures of Arab governments.

This gave the Iraqi, Syrian and Libyan regimes tremendous influence

over the organizations, including the PFLP.

Generous financial subsidies were too hard to resist, and the

corruption of the revolution, which had hit Fatah much earlier through

Saudi and Gulf funding, also hit the PFLP, and compromised its

political independence. The Lebanese base of operations, especially

after the eruption of the Civil War in 1975, also compromised the

revolution. It quickly became too comfortable a base and the PFLP,

like other Palestinian and Lebanese organizations, did not want a

radical shift of power on the battlefield. (But the major

responsibility for that lies with Arafat and the Syrian regime who did

not want to create a radical political order that could trigger a

confrontation with Israel.) The PFLP, at least, pursued a policy of

supporting the Lebanese National Movement, while Arafat and his

associates dragged their feet.

The Rejectionist Front was disbanded in 1977 when Syria and Iraq

briefly reconciled following Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's trip to

Jerusalem. This period marked the beginning of the decline of the Left

and the rise of the Islamic Revolution. Habash began a gradual

withdrawal from politics. He had tried for years to leave but his

comrades would not let him. They knew that his symbolic presence was

too valuable for the PFLP, and feared it would collapse without him.

They were right, of course. One can't speak of the PFLP since 2000,

when Habash's voluntarily resigned from the leadership.

I last saw Habash a few years ago in Damascus, after his retirement.

It was very sad for me because I had to compare the last image with

the first image when I first met him as a high school student in 1977.

His revolutionary impulse and his passions had not waned, but the

empty office spoke volumes. The PFLP was almost dead, and Habash was

politically irrelevant. I shared with him some of my criticisms of the

Popular Front's long experience, and typically, he was open-minded and

very democratic. I was bothered that he seemed too resigned to the

rise of the Islamists (Hamas and Hizballah). In my judgment he was too

uncritically supportive of both. "We have tried, so let them now try,"

he would say, "It is their turn." I was hoping to hear words regarding

the revival of the Left but I did not.

George Habash lived his life for Palestine - every minute of it. He

represented a model of revolutionary struggle that is exemplary in its

dedication and asceticism, no matter what one thinks of the PFLP or

its long political and military experience. One should not hesitate

from rendering a harsh judgment against the PFLP; ultimately it failed

politically and militarily. And any evaluation of Palestinian

political violence must be made in the context of Zionist mass

violence that for decades had set out to destroy Palestinian society

and resistance and replace it with its own exclusivist vision. But

whatever that judgment it should not detract from an appreciation of

the profound influence of the PFLP's founder who helped shape the

politics and worldview of a generation. The present political scene is

devoid of any leaders of such character.

As'ad AbuKhalil is professor of political science at California State

University and founder of the Angry Arab News Service

(angryarab.blogspot.com/)

------------------------

14. Army Fire on Funeral Procession, Invade Beit Ummar

*Update* One of the injured, a man shot in the leg with live

ammunition, has had to have his leg amputated.

Today, February 1st, 2008, the Israeli Army fired rubber-coated and

live ammunition, tear gas and sound grenades at villagers from Beit

Ummar as they participated in a funeral procession.

This morning, the bodies of the two young men who carried out last

week's attack in Kfar Etzion settlement were returned to their

families for burial. At around 12.30pm, after Friday prayers, hundreds

of mourners left the mosque to take the bodies to the cemetery, about

two kilometres away. The army had already closed the road gate at the

entrance of the village, thus blocking the main road to the cemetery.

As the procession approached the gate, soldiers fired on them from the

military tower which sits beside it. There was no warning or

instruction to stop, and no stones had been thrown when the first

shots were fired. At this time one man was taken away in an ambulance

with rubber-bullet injuries, and a Human Rights Worker (HRW) was also

hit in the thigh by a rubber bullet. Young men from the village

responded by throwing stones towards the army.

The army continued to shoot tear gas, live and rubber-coated

ammunition towards the crowd, which was retreating towards the

village. A smaller group of mourners entered the cemetery via another

road, and were able to bury the two men.

By 1.50pm at least four people had been injured by rubber-coated

bullets, one of them in the head.

A few minutes later, the army began to invade the village, driving

jeeps up the main street while soldiers on foot moved between the

houses chasing young men, some of whom threw stones. They continued to

use live ammunition as well as tear gas and rubber-coated bullets, at

one time firing a sound grenade at a greenhouse.

At 3.30pm, the army were still inside the village. By this time, at

least eight people had been injured, one of them by live ammunition,

whose condition was said to be serious.

------------------------

15. Threats and harassment in Azzoun continue; Israeli army commander

posts notice that he will "shoot to kill" rock-throwing youths

Last night the Israeli army commander in the West Bank town of Azzoun

posted photocopies of hand written death threats to town residents in

various locations around Azzoun, as witnessed by a South Korean Human

Rights Worker (HRW). In the note, the commander, identifying himself

as Captain Joe, threatens to use live fire to kill the children who

throw stones at the Israeli armored jeeps and Armored Personnel

Carriers when they invade the village.

Abdullah Judi, an Azzoun resident, states "they come in most days,

often positioning their jeeps near schools to provoke the stone

throwers. They fire a lot of rubber bullets, tear gas, sound bombs and

live ammunition. Sometimes they arrest some children, sometimes not."

Below is a literal translation of the note into English:

Orders for the Azzoun Village

We order for all the people in Azzoun to stop throwing stones and

molotovs and if you don't stop this thing we will invade the village.

Captain Joe is coming to the village

He will start to shoot the fire to kill the people and to arrest the

children and to close the stores and this is a final decision and if

you don't stop this thing you will collect your results

"this is the last warning"

"Captain Joe"

A fax copy of the orders, or the original orders themselves are also

available upon request.

The author of the note 'Captain Joe' has verbally boasted many times

over the last month to Palestinians and International Human Rights

Workers of his willingness to kill, and how he has just come back from

Gaza.

Recently, on Wed 16th January, he repeated these claims to a Canadian

and an Australian HRW. Felicity Ryder, from Melbourne Australia,

quotes Captain Joe as saying "'I swear to God, don't fuck with me.

Tell these 'poor' people that the next time a kid throws stones at the

road, the next time we enter this village, it will end in killing.

Believe me.'

He then went on to 'take credit' for wounding Mohammed Faisel Sleem

and Othman Mohamed Radwan on January 4th. The details of those

shootings, along with a video, is available here:

www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/01/06/israeli-army-invade-azzoun-again-shoot

-boy-lying-defenceless-on-the-floor/

Watch for the shots at 3 minutes 10 seconds and 3 min 25 seconds. The

other youth, Othman Mohamed Radwan, was also lying defenseless on the

ground when he was shot in the leg when on the same day. Medical

reports are available verifying the two boys were shot with live fire.

On Thursday 17th January Captain Joe repeated his threats to residents

of nearby Izbat At Tabib. Musa Assad Hamed Tabib, a local resident,

told HRWs that "they (the army) came in at about 1am, making

approximately 70% of the villagers come outside. The leader called

himself Captain Joe and was pointing his gun at the boys heads as he

told them he would kill them if they threw stones"

--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~

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