Friday, December 27, 2013

Israel/Palestine News




Israel has launched air raids against Gaza, & the lone power plant in Gaza is shut down for lack of fuel.






"A 14 year-old Palestinian boy has been killed after being run over by an Israeli settler near Jerusalem al-Quds.
Amin Musa al-Fakeer was critically wounded on Saturday and transferred to hospital where he was pronounced dead. According to his family, Amin was on his way to buy goods and was travelling with his donkey when he was run over by an Israeli from the Maale Adumim settlement. Amin's family is still awaiting the Israelis to return his body to Bedouin camp Anata where they live."



The IDF uses military banning orders to keep Israeli activists from helping Palestinian farmers.



Christians find it hard to get to Bethlehem due to the Occupation.



The peace talks are threatened by Israel's intention of building two thousand more settlements in Jerusalem & the West Bank, & the EU issues warnings.



Demos take place in Bilin & Nabi Saleh.








Samer al Issawi is released from an Israeli prison after a long hunger strike.



B'tselem highlights its work.  https://www.btselem.org/about_btselem/donate


Israel has annexed a disputed offshore oil field that Lebanon planned to explore for gas & oil.



African refugees & their supporters protest a new law ordering their roundup & detention in holding camps.


Friday, December 20, 2013

Israel/Palestine News




Hamas sponsors the Jerusalem Seventh Scientific Conference in Gaza.



Settlers & Palestinians get into a confrontation in Hebron.



UNRWA runs a winter campaign to help Palestinian refugees in the Middle East. www.unrwa.org/donate


Palestinians hold funerals in Jenin & Qalqilya after the IDF shoots dead Palestinians in each city.



Gazans sit-in to protest the Israeli blockade that keeps fishermen from making a living.



There was a demo in Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem.


Winter storms hit the West Bank & Gaza.




African refugees march on the Knesset in Jerusalem & are attacked & arrested by police.



The American Studies Association has voted to boycott Israel.




Russia Today interviews John Dugard, former special rapporteur to the UN Human Rights Council concerning Palestinian affairs.



Mohammad Assaf, the Gaza born Arab Idol star, is touring the US.

Friday, December 13, 2013

Israel/Palestine News




Severe winter weather adds to Gaza's problems.


Palestinian officials are losing faith in the peace talks.



It snows in Nabi Saleh.


A Palestinian organization says Israel is holding five thousand Palestinian prisoners, including 200 children.



During a night raid in Ni'ilin, the IDF shoots & injures a cameraman.
 


Demos take place in Ni'ilin & Nabi Saleh.







Settlers & Palestinians argue in Hebron, then the IDF clashes with Palestinians protesting the settlers.



Another outtake from Nissim Mossek's Wild West Hebron.


The Knesset has approved the law allowing the detention & expulsion of African refugees from Israel.



The Israeli & Russian Foreign Ministers met in Moscow.


Young Israelis are emigrating for economic reasons.



The UK & other EU nations are beginning to insist their businesses don't help the Occupation.





Michel Warschawski of the Alternative Information Center criticizes Israel's Left. 



Israel has military censorship, but journalists say self-censorship is a bigger problem in Israeli media.




Phyllis Bennis talks about how she went from Zionist to Anti-Zionist, & discusses current issues concerning Israel & Palestine.








Friday, December 6, 2013

Israel/Palestine News



Members of  Islamic Jihad rally against medical neglect in Israeli prisons just outside the Erez crossing in Northern Gaza.


IDF commander says protecting Palestinian olive trees is not part of his mission.


Security chief of Karmel settlement shoves camera away.


The residents of Umm El Khair have rebuilt their oven to make taboon bread.


The IDF shot dead Antar Shibli Mahmoud al-Aqraa just weeks before his wedding.



Activists visit a village in the South Hebron Hills.


The IDF hits a B'tselem cameraman with a tear gas canister.


The IDF declares Palestinian farmland a closed military zone.


Three young boys object when the IDF arrests their father.


Israel has announced more settlements will be built on Palestinian land despite the peace talks.


Yousef Alhelou talks with the Real News on how blockage of fuel for Gaza's power plant has harmed residents.


A demo takes place in Nabi Saleh.



UNRWA remembers years of service in Gaza with three videos about photographer George Nehmeh.




The IDF bulldozes Palestinian homes & farm buildings in the Jordan Valley.


Activists In Gaza partially break the sea blockade.


A Palestinian rapper comments on Israelis trying to adopt the keffiyeh.

Shadia Mansour and M-1 - The Kufiya is Arab 

'Good morning, cousins.
Come and honor us with your presence.
What would you like us to offer you, Arab blood or tears from our eyes?
 I believe that's how they hoped we would greet them. Look how they grew confused when they realized their mistake.
That's how we wear the kufiya, the black and white kufiya.
They began playing a long time ago by wearing it as a fashion accessory. No matter how creative they become, no matter how they change its color,
an Arab kufiya will remain Arab.
Our kufiya: they want it. Our culture: they want it.
Our dignity: they want it.  Everything that's ours: they want it.
No, we won't be quiet for them. We won't permit them.
No, no. It suits me.
 Thank you. The thing isn't theirs. It's got nothing to do with you.
They mimic us in how they dress. This land is not enough for them.
They're greedy for Jerusalem, Jerusalem. Learn how to say "humanity!"
Before you wear the kufiya, we have come to remind you who we are.
And whether you like it or not, it's our kufiya.

CHORUS
  This is how we wore the kufiya (because of patriotism), the kufiya, the Arab kufiya.
This is how we wore the kufiya (our fundamental identity), the kufiya, the Arab kufiya.
Come on, raise the kufiya (Raise this kufiya for me!), the kufiya, the Arab kufiya.
Raise it, bilaad ash-shaam [Greater Syria, i.e. Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Palestine]! The Arab kufiya will remain Arab.

There is no group like the Arab people.
Show me any nation in the world that's more influential!
The picture is clear. We're the civilization.
Our history and our heritage are the witness to our existence.
In this way, we wore the Palestinian thawb.
From Haifa, Jenin, Jabal an-Nar to Ramallah
Let me see the kufiya, the white and red one.
Let me raise it up to the sky.
I am Shadia the Arab. My tongue stabs like a knife.
My earthquake trembles uncontrollably. My words are a letter.
Record it! I am Shadia Mansour and the kufiya is my identity.

From the day I was created, Sir, and this people is my responsibility.
That's how I was brought up - between the West and East,
between two languages, between the [rich] miser and the poor man.
I saw life from both sides.                                                                                                                         I'm like the kufiy
No matter how you wear me, and wherever you take me off, I will remain as my origin: Palestinian.

CHORUS x2 
This is how we wore the kufiya (because of patriotism), the kufiya, the Arab kufiya.
This is how we wore the kufiya (our fundamental identity), the kufiya, the Arab kufiya.
Come on, raise the kufiya (Raise this kufiya for me!), the kufiya, the Arab kufiya.
Raise it, bilaad ash-shaam [Greater Syria, i.e. Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Palestine]! The Arab kufiya will remain Arab.


M-1 finishes the song with a verse in English




Human rights organizations express concern over Israel joining the UN Human Rights Council.


Protesters in Israel, Palestine & around the world protest the Prawer plan to relocate Bedouins in the Negev.




PM Netanyahu gives Pope Francis a book about the Spanish Inquisition persecuting converted Jews.




French scientists say Yassir Arafat did not die of polonium poisoning.