CNN International

Congratulations to residents of Bilin, including the Popular Committee Against the Wall, The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and Anarchists Against the Wall

From ISM

On Friday, September 7th, the villagers of Bil’in were joined by international and Israeli comrades. Normally they come together every Friday to express their outrage of the unacceptable Apartheid Wall. Normally the day is filled with military violence, tear gas, sound bombs, and billy clubs are common. Once the military begins to fire gas into the crowds, the non-violent protesters tend to back off eventually leaving only the Palestinian children throwing rocks in anger. A mild response in comparison to the rubber coated steel bullets used against them….

Note in the video that Ben Wedeman just can’t help himself, he never fails to present the narrative that Palestinians attack and the Israeli army responds.

Israeli supreme court ruled yesterday that wall must be re-routed around Bilin.

A rare victory to be sure but a victory nonetheless. The success was the result of non-violent resistance of years of joint struggle led by Palestinians who were supported by Israeli and international activists. There have been roughly three such victories out of 120 cases brought to Israeli courts by Palestinians fighting the path of the wall.

The court decision dictates that the military are obliged to plan and implement a new route for the wall. It has been ordered that the new path will allow for all Palestinian agricultural land to be on the Palestinian side. Furthermore, the court has ordered that the state should not take into consideration the area earmarked for Stage B of the planned expansion of Matityahu East.
The most important decision however was made by the International court in 2004 when it ruled that the wall was illegal in it’s planned route thru the West Bank and that it should be removed. The international community ignored the decision.

Palestinians Celebrate.
Dubai TV via Mosaic on LINK TV

The Guardian

Yesterday, trucks and vans carried dozens of singing villagers out to the barrier again where they waved flags and rattled sticks on the metal fence in front of the Israeli soldiers. One villager shouted to the crowd through a loudspeaker: “Your steadfastness brought you here.”

“Because of our protests the world knew about us and that’s why we won,” said Abdul Latif Yassin, 50, a school teacher. “But we still have more land beyond the barrier than has been given back to us today.”

CNN International

At the same time things get more difficult for Palestinians in other areas like the agriculture village of Jayyous. Jayous also pursued a strategy of non-viloent demostrations and lawsuits.

Haaretz

The number of Jayyous residents who engage in agriculture has decreased for a simple reason: the separation fence. In this area it was completed three years ago and it cuts off the residents of Jayyous from their lands. To reach their farm land, they require a permit from the Civil Administration, and these are given out less and less often. Only 90 of the 4,000 residents of Jayyous are today permitted to work their lands. For three years, Abu Azzam was one of the lucky ones who received a permit. On June 23, he was informed that the permit would no longer be renewed, “because of opposition on the part of security elements.”

Once again Atika Shubert goes where Ben Wedeman would never go. She compares two different tours of the Holy Land.

CNN

Several years ago Hannah Mermelstein and Dunya Alwan began a program called Birthright Unplugged. They took Jews who traveled to Israel for the free “birthright” propaganda trip and opened their eyes to a side of the story they were not seeing.

They then created Birthright Replugged, a program to bring Palestinian children from refugee camps to Jerusalem, the sea and to villages their parents fled in 1948.

The Israeli army paralyzed a Palestinian child names Maria, while bombing another car in Gaza. Her mother and older brother were killed by the attack. Maria was taken to a hospital in Israel.

The issue now is whether Maria can live in the Occupied territories as there are no medical facilities equipped to handle her. The Israeli defense ministry wants to move her there and her father is fighting to keep here where she is.

Jim Clancy found this to be a “great story”.

by Asa Winstanley

Back in the end of February, the Israeli army invaded Nablus, killing at least one civilian, arresting dozens, causing extensive damage to homes and businesses and shut down a local TV station for good measure, using human shields (a practice outlawed in Israeli law) to search for Palestinian fighters which they ultimately failed to capture.

The following clips are a a good summary of the several days of siege from CNN, al-Arbiya, al-Jazeera and Democracy Now! which give a fair idea of the Israeli idea of “ceasefire” — i.e. “you ceasefire, while we carry on with impunity.” They kill and kidnap Palestinian civilians while the Western governments — at best — remain silent and the Western mainstream media does not report on Palestinian deaths not caused by infighting.

Al Jazeera

Al Arabiya

CNN International

Democracy Now

Democracy Now

CNNI can’t resist:

It might seem counterintuitive that a state that wants to get away from its image of being in constant conflict would choose “Women of the Israeli Defense Forces” as a promotional gimmick. With the army so pervasive in Israeli culture — only North Korea has a higher % of its people under arms — Israelis can’t seem to think outside the box. The slang often used for women in the IDF is “sleeping bags.” Israel’s largest paper used to feature an “IDF babe of the day” in its pages. Young army women are treated as the personal perks of office for men like former Justice Minister Haim Ramon, who was convicted of sticking his tongue down the throat of a 20-year-old soldier. An Israeli court recently decided this wasn’t a “crime of moral turpitude,” and there is talk of Ramon rejoining the cabinet. The former Israeli president — and his brother — are both suspected of rape.

This campaign is part of Israel’s “rebranding” campaign; it currently ranks last in the “National Brands Index”. See also Bill Berkowitz on Israeli rebranding.

CNNI notes helpfully that Israel’s war with Lebanon last summer was “inept” and “ineffective.” One might think of other terms, like “insane and monstrous” — used by an Israeli commander to describe the indiscriminate firing of 1.3 million cluster bomblets at Southern Lebanon.

The Jewess blog concludes:

We all know sex sells, but shamelessly selling its women is hardly the best way for Israel - a country considered among the world’s worst offenders in human trafficking and prostitution, by the way - to boost its public image.

Maxim wonders, “They’re drop dead gorgeous and can take apart an Uzi in seconds. Are the women of the Israeli Defense Forces the world’s sexiest soldiers?” Uzis aren’t all these hotties can handle — some look positively fetching wielding old-fashioned billy-clubs. Take this quote from an Israeli babe in blue in 2004:

Whoever [Arab stopped at a checkpoint] does not act nicely gets beaten. … We have clubs for that. … Sometimes I might just not like his face. … And then he gets one too. Just a way of passing the time.

(Kol Ha’ir, Jan. 16 ‘04)

CNN’s Zain Verjee examines the role of the US in the battle between Fatah and Hamas. Clearly the US has supported Fatah with arms and military training. At the same time the US has supported an Israeli blockade of the Palestinian Authority which has resulted in wide scale poverty among Palestinian people. The US then blackmailed EU and Arab countries to honor the blockade. All but Norway have obeyed.

CNN International

Aaron David Miller points out the very low credibility of the US in the region. He has never seen the situation more grim than it is today. “Everything in every corner of this region is heading south which will damage US interests”.

When the state department was asked about whether the 60 million dollars in military aid to Fatah contributed to the current violence they responded “we are not going to pay the rent for terrorism or for the rejection of Israel”

John Stewart should have a field day with that.

CNNI notes Palestinians fleeing Gaza will harm a future “Palestinian state.” Have they been drinking formaldahyde?:

CNNI fails to mention in its analysis that it’s Israel that closes the Rafah crossing.

Amira Hass notes in Ha’aretz:

Now [Hamas] will have full `military` control of the Gaza Strip. Will this bring relief to Gaza`s 1.4 million residents? Will it improve the health system and ensure employment for university graduates? Will it remove Israel`s land and sea blockade?

It may be assumed that the military takeover of Abbas` symbols of `sovereignty` will serve as an excuse for Israel to sever once and for all the remaining civilian and economic ties between the Gaza Strip and West Bank - a political process Israel started in 1991. Because Hamas, like its mirror image Fatah, has no coherent liberation or independence plan for Palestinians in this lifetime.

Israeli military historian Martin Van Creveld writes in the Forward, “Let Palestine Split into Two:”

Neither Fatah nor Hamas would be able to speak - or even claim to speak - for the Palestinian people as a whole. Unable to speak for the Palestinian people as a whole, each of the two will find it easier, if not to stop insisting on the right of return, at least to put it aside for the time being.

The fighting in Gaza is not pretty; divorces rarely are. In the long run, however, it is at least conceivable that the war of Palestinian against Palestinian will lead to the removal of the single most important obstacle to Israeli-Palestinian peace. If so, then perhaps the blood currently flowing is not being shed altogether in vain.

30 Hamas Officials, including the education minister, arrested overnight by Israeli army.

According to CBS News

Israel Chooses Arrests Over Bloodshed

(CBS/AP) Israel extended its offensive against the ruling Palestinian militant group Hamas to the West Bank Thursday, reports CBS News correspondent Robert Berger, arresting more than 30 senior officials, including a Cabinet minister, parliamentarians and mayors.

Unfortunately, the CBS headline is wrong.

CNN International

Even by CNN’s Ben Wederman’s account, there have been at least 18 Palestinians killed in the latest assault by Israel. The way he puts it is:

“Israeli air raids have left more than two dozen militants dead but they’ve also killed nearly half that many civilians.”

Notice the passive language. “have left”

When reporting Israeli casualties from qassam rockets, Wederman says:
“the crude locally made rockets from Gaza have killed one Israeli and wounded more than 15.”

CNN coverage of Gaza

Gaza breaking down

Journalists under siege

Attack on PM house