For Immediate Release, International Solidarity Movement, September 16, 2009.

Photo: Valerian Mazataud. Palestinian Mohammed Khatib.

16 September 2009: Israeli forces raid Bil’in, beat Popular Committee member.

Around 1:30am, the Israeli army invaded Bil’in. Soldiers came to the home of Abdullah Mahmoud Abu Rahme, coordinator of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, to arrest him. view video

Abu Rahme was not at home at the time and soldiers proceeded to destroy belongings in his house.

When another member of the Popular Committee, Mohammad Khatib, arrived to check on Abu Rahme’s wife and 3 small children, Israeli forces severely beat him. Khatib was taken to Ramallah hospital for medical treatment.

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Daily Star by Omar Katerji, Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Photo: Apartment building in Beirut, Lebanon.

BEIRUT: Saad Hariri’s resignation has once again drawn attention to the state of Lebanese politics. For many, the Future Movement leader’s resignation is a gesture designed to draw attention to the failure of the main political players’ ability to form a unity government within Lebanon. Hariri stepped down as prime minister-designate on Thursday after the Hizbullah-led opposition rejected his latest attempt at forming a unity government.

This move was seen by many as a response to the recent deadlock between the various political groups.

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Human Rights Watch, September 10, 2009.

Photo: Palestinian killed by Israeli military forces, December 2008.

(Jerusalem) The Israeli military police decision to interview Palestinian witnesses to a case where an Israeli soldier allegedly shot three young girls and their grandmother holding white flags during the fighting in Gaza marks a positive development, Human Rights Watch said today. Two of the girls died.

Human Rights Watch called on Israel to conduct thorough and impartial investigations into all allegations of serious laws-of-war violations by its forces during the December-January conflict in Gaza.

(…اكثر)

Beirut Diaries is a documentary film by celebrated filmmaker Mai Masri.

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 19 20h00
Bar Populaire
6584 boul. St-Laurent
entrance: free!
(metro Beaubien)
Montreal, Quebec.

(…اكثر)

14 September 2009, San Francisco Chronicle

Photo: ActiveStills. Nil’in protesters block road from Israeli occupation forces.

An Oakland man who was seriously wounded by a tear gas projectile fired by Israeli police during a West Bank protest will file suit despite a military report concluding that he was engaged in an “act of war,” his lawyers said Sunday.

The case of Tristan Anderson, who remains hospitalized with brain damage and a fractured skull six months after he was injured, may test Israel’s efforts to shield itself from lawsuits for harm it causes during wartime, said attorney Michael Sfard.

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Daily Star, Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Photo Abu Dhabi skyline.

ABU DHABI: A United States citizen of Lebanese origin facing trial on terrorism charges in the United Arab Emirates confessed under torture, and his case should not be heard in a UAE court, his lawyer told a court on Monday. Naji Hamdan, who has been in custody in the UAE, is charged with “supporting terrorism” and being a member of Iraqi militant group Ansar al-Sunna because he entered an Islamist website and donated money to an Islamic charity.

(…اكثر)

Defense for Children International DCI – Palestine, September 14, 2009.

Photo: Palestinian children within an Israeli military check-point, West Bank, Palestine.

According to the latest figures compiled by DCI-Palestine from sources including the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) and temporary Israeli army detention, the number of Palestinian children detained in Israeli prisons and detention centres inside Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory at the end of August, was 339.

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Ahmed Moor, Electronic Intifada, 11 September 2009.

Photo: Masser Palestinian community in the West Bank, Palestine.

The occupation looms large over everything in Palestine. Men with guns patrol your neighborhoods, detain your family and neighbors and dictate exactly when you can leave your house. There are days when you can’t get to school or go to the beach on your rutted roads, and most of the people you know are poor. You learn before long that the men with guns are Jews — and the people living in the beautiful homes on the hills behind barbed wire are Jews. The language on your milk carton is Hebrew. Not long after that, you begin to ask why things are the way they are.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “Zionism” as “an international movement originally for the establishment of a Jewish national or religious community in Palestine and later for the support of modern Israel.” While the word “Palestine” appears in that definition, the word “Palestinian” is noticeably absent. Zionists will argue that there were no Palestinians, as such and that the Merriam-Webster dictionary is not guilty of any omission or historical elision. Zionists miss the point.

(…اكثر)

Friday, September 11, 2009 Daily Star

Photo: Masser: Golan Heights, Israeli-occupied Syria, south of Shebaa Farms.

BEIRUT: The politics of the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms, a rugged sliver of mountainside wedged between Lebanon, Israel and Syria, have long overshadowed what some Lebanese environmentalists call “the real issue” of the disputed area: its water resources. Now activists are calling for hydro-diplomacy to take precedence over political maneuvering as the most effective solution to one of the key stumbling blocks to Middle East peace.

“Rising Temperatures Rising Tensions,” a report published in June by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, considers water to be a major trigger for conflict in the Middle East, the world’s most water scarce region.

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Haaretz by Ora Coren, September 12th, 2009.

Photo: Filippo Minelli. Open sky shining above Israel’s apartheid wall in Palestine.

The U.S. pension fund giant, TIAA-CREF, confirmed in statements to the media on Friday that it divested from Africa Israel Investments, owned by Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev, earlier this year.

The statements came in response to a letter initiated by a pro-Palestinian group, Adalah-NY, and signed by TIAA-CREF clients.

The fund’s investment in Africa Israel amounted to only $257,000, so the financial effect of the divestment is minimal. The news of the divestment came as the Israeli firm was suffering a deep financial crisis, having recently announced that is unable to meet its liabilities to its bondholders.

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