by SEHAM
Nearly 1 in 4 young children now live in poverty in U.S.
The number of children living in poverty in the United States increased by 2.6 million since the recession began in 2007, bringing the total to an estimated 15.7 million poor children in 2010, according to researchers from the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. The researchers estimate that nearly 1 in 4 children under the age of 6 now live in poverty.
Israeli Army Create Late-Night Checkpoint at Entrance to Beit Ommar, Fire Tear Gas Into Town
Saturday 24 September 2011: Late on Friday night the Israeli army once again entered Beit Ommar. Two military jeeps positioned themselves inside the town – one near the route 60 highway, and another across the entrance to the town. From these positions, Israeli soldiers sporadically fired tear gas into residential areas of the town, with several cannisters landing in gardens and next to homes. These attacks came without any provocation, or any response from Beit Ommar residents. In addition to the tear gas fired into empty gardens, soldiers also fired several rounds along an entirely deserted main street. In addition to the tear gas, the army also began stopping and searching cars entering and leaving the village, and questioning their drivers and passengers.
link to palestinesolidarityproject.org
Eyewitnesses reported that a Palestinian man from Nahhalin town, west of Bethlehem, was injured on Saturday evening when a group of extremist Israeli settlers hurled stones at his vehicle causing it to crash on the main road between Nahhalin and Husan villages.
The settlers come down the hill from the outpost, mostly on foot, but occasionally on horseback or in tractors or 4x4s. They carry Israeli flags, and sometimes bring guns, shovels and dogs. There may be as few as three or as many as 40. They taunt the local villagers and sometimes attack them. Often the Israeli army arrives and trains its weapons on the villagers. In Qusra, deep among the terraced hills of the West Bank, fear is on the rise. “The settlers are provoking us continuously,” said Hani Abu Reidi, head of the village council. “They uproot olive trees, kill our sheep, burn our mosques and curse our prophet. They want to drag us into the sphere of violence. We do not want to go there.”
Survivor of Israeli forces’ brutal attack recalls experience
33-year old Palestinian man was arrested and brutally assaulted by Israeli Border Police and undercover units on 15 September in Silwan. Waheed Rwaidi was accosted by Israeli units, while driving from his home in Bir Ayyub to his sister’s home in Abu Tur just outside Silwan, in his car with his mother, wife and two children, aged 3 years and 9 months. Rwaidi was randomly stopped by Israeli forces at a mobile check point as he and his family attempted to leave Bir Ayyub. “When I was stopped by soldiers beside the brick factory in Bir Ayyub on the night of September 15, everything seemed quiet,” Rwaidi told Silwanic. “Then all of a sudden, kids on the street began throwing stones at the troops. To move my family out of danger, I moved the car about ten metres, which drew the soldiers’ attention. The soldiers asked me, my mother and my wife for our ID cards, but my mother and wife didn’t have them. The soldiers responded with dirty language, and started to search our car. “It was at that point that I was attacked by a unit of undercover agents. They used wooden sticks to beat me, and kicked me all over my body – focusing on my face. I was sprayed with pepper spray. My family was also threatened with pepper spray.
At the pretext of searching for mobile phones, police raid Askalan prison
Nachshon prison police raided the Askalan prison on the pretext that they were looking for smuggled mobile phones, causing extensive damage to prisoners’ property.
Two Tunnel Workers Killed, Five Injured
Palestinian medical sources reported that two tunnel workers died of wounds sustained due to a gas leak that led to an explosion inside as siege-busting tunnel, in Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
Tunisian aid convoy lands in Gaza on solidarity visit
The Tunisian Karame (Dignity) aid convoy arrived in Gaza on Saturday via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on a few days visit.
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories — A Gaza military court on Thursday played the alleged confessions of four men accused in the April kidnap and murder of Italian peace activist Vittorio Arrigoni. Of the four men, all from Gaza, two are accused of murder, a third of having helped in the kidnap and killing, and a fourth of providing the house where the body of Arrigoni was found hanging, hours after he was snatched. The defendants appeared in Gaza City courtroom unshackled and in civilian clothes, all four sporting beards. They appeared calm and responded to questions from the court’s three judges.
Foreign Ministry assessment suggest Gaza’s rules will not overtly try to undermine Abbas’ historic statehood bid; will wage battle over Palestinian public’s opinion against move.
BDS update: Buttressing an independent Palestine
A new Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) campaign was launched this summer by the United Church of Canada, which will try to persuade six companies operating in Canada — Caterpillar, Motorola, Ahava, Veolia, Elbit Systems and Chapters/Indigo — to stop supporting the Israeli occupation. “The Campaign follows similar campaigns launched some time ago by the US Presbyterian Church and the New England Conference of the United Methodist Church. We have launched ‘Occupied with Peace’ after almost two years of discernment and information gathering,” says spokesperson Jean Lee.
Palestinians give ‘two weeks’ for UNSC action
Leading Fatah official gives deadline for Security Council decision on statehood bid, ahead of Monday meeting.
Cracks appear between Britain and France as Palestine vote looms
A Franco-British rift was looming last night after David Cameron failed to line up behind President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plan to give the Palestinians enhanced status at the United Nations.
Tony Blair warned today that the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations would be “deeply confrontational” without a return to peace talks with the Israelis.
Analysis: Peace no closer as Palestinians ask U.N. for state (Reuters)
Reuters – A hasty attempt by big powers to refloat Middle East talks — and spare the United States the embarrassment of vetoing a Palestinian demand for United Nations recognition of a state — looks doomed.
In Pictures: The day of the UN bid
September 23 was a historical day for Palestinians worldwide and within the territories, as the Palestinian Authority submitted a bid to the UN to be recognized as the 194th nation of the world. While diplomats and political discussions ensued, a typical dialogue between Palestinians continued in the face of constant illegal Israeli oppression.
‘Obama sold special bombs to Israel’
New report claims US secretly approved transfer of ‘bunker buster’ bombs that could be used in attack against Iran just months after Barack Obama took office, even though Bush administration had previously blocked deal.
Abbas to soon launch ‘in-depth’ talks with Hamas
De facto Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said he would launch “in-depth talks” with Palestinian resistance group Hamas on issues pertaining to the government and “Palestinian horizons”.
Yearning for leaders of the past, former US President says ‘two great tragedies in modern Middle Eastern politics were Rabin’s assassination and Sharon’s stroke’.
Erdogan: Israel cannot be trusted
In interview with CNN Turkish PM continues with belligerent rhetoric towards Israel, questions the number of Israeli fatalities from Palestinian terror groups’ rocket fire ‘compared to thousands of dead Palestinians’.
Erdogan assaulted in UN building
Unidentified man tries to attack Turkish PM during Abbas’ speech, stopped by bodyguards.
An Israeli law lecturer has called the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan a “puppet state” which had never existed in reality or on a map and whose people are “a combination of tribes recently settled” there. In his Op-Ed piece in Yedioth Ahronoth headed “Jordan is Palestine”, Dr. Haim Misgav was also critical of King Abdullah II for claiming that he will protect his country, “militarily if necessary”, against any attempts to “transfer” Palestinians to Jordan. Misgav believes that the King will soon see a Palestinian state in Jordan.
AP – Muslim countries at a 151-nation conference demanded Friday that Israel open its nuclear program to international purview, asserting that its undeclared arsenal is a threat to Mideast peace.
(Washington, DC) – The United States should delay a proposed arms sale to Bahrain until it ends abuses against peaceful critics of the ruling family and takes meaningful steps toward accountability for serious human rights violations, Human Rights Watch said today. The US Defense Department notified Congress on September 14, 2011, of a proposed sale of armored Humvees and missiles to Bahrain worth US$53 million. The sale would appear to be the first since the start of Bahrain’s crackdown on protests earlier this year.
link to www.hrw.org
Women’s rights advocates gather to ensure they aren’t sidelined in ‘Arab Spring’
Leading women’s rights activists from around the world convened in Washington, D.C., this week to discuss how to ensure they aren’t excluded from the democratization sweeping the region.
LEADERSHIP FAILURE: HILLARY MANN LEVERETT ON OBAMA’S HISTORIC BLUNDER ON PALESTINIAN STATEHOOD
Today, Hillary went on Al Jazeera to critique President Obama’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly; see video embedded above (click on picture to play). The segment focuses on Obama’s remarks about the Palestinian issue, but the speech, see here, virtually in its entirety, is a testament to Obama’s failure as a foreign policy President.
link to www.raceforiran.com
As If There Is No Occupation; The Limits of Palestinian Authority Strategy, Nu’man Kanafani
For many months, the streets of downtown Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian Authority (PA), have literally been heaps of earth. Workers have labored intensively to replace water and sewage pipes, repave roads, lay beautiful carved stones at roadsides and install thick chains along the edges of sidewalks in order to better separate pedestrian and automotive traffic. Shopkeepers have been told to reduce the size of their storefront signs; specially designed electricity poles jut skyward. Not every town resident is impressed. As they navigate the mounds of dirt, cynics joke: “The PA is covering the road to self-determination in asphalt.” “We have the sewers; all that’s left is the sovereignty.” “The streets of Ramallah are paved with white stones — who needs Jerusalem?”
The Palestinian statehood show at the UN is finally on the road. With his application this week to the UN secretary general and address to the general assembly, the Palestinian president formally launched the statehood process. In so doing Mahmoud Abbas has shown astonishing resolve against a formidable array of Israeli, US and European pressures to force him into retracting his position. Whatever else, this newfound determination will ensure a fresh lease of life for a leadership considered by many Palestinians, still shocked by the Palestine papers’ revelations of subservience to Israel, to be unrepresentative, discredited and illegitimate. Israeli-US threats and frantic last-minute manoeuvring by the Quartet powers to halt the statehood process have only lent further credence to the Palestinian position.
link to www.guardian.co.uk
Palestinians: The Search for Statehood
The Palestinian struggle for statehood and the right to self-determination predates the recent attempt to gain recognition at the UN by decades and will not cease should the latest bid fail. Despite being repeatedly shunned by the International Community, Palestinians continue to express their desire for liberation in a myriad ways.
Why Palestinians have a right to return home
A thorough examination of the legal rights of all those displaced by the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.
Like his Washington paymaster/partner, Netanyahu deplores peace. Initiating talks never worked before and won’t now. Speaking privately at the Clinton Global Initiative conference in New York, Bill Clinton said Netanyahu lost interest because Palestine has a president he controls, and normalizing relations with the Arab world is within reach.
Years ago, in the good old days when Arab diplomats used to walk out when Israeli speakers approach the podium at international events and meetings, US officials and journalists used to mock Arab diplomats and complain about their undemocratic behavior and their unwillingness to listen to the other side. Now, US diplomats walk out when Iranian officials speak. But American diplomats are cute when they do it, I guess.
The Western and Arabic press is full of stories about Al Jazeera and the new direction it will inevitably follow with the selection of a new director-general for its operating networks. The ouster (the official statement did not mention resignation) of Waddah Khanfar has opened doors for speculation. No one really knows what goes on behind the scene and it is no secret that the Emir of Qatar really runs the networks and is fully aware of its powers, as far as Qatar is concerned. More than gas, Al Jazeera put Qatar on the regional and global map.
The Arab Spring is not the only revolution in town. The toppling of dictators in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya; the mounting death toll in Syria and Yemen, where the outcome is still undecided; the revival of long-suppressed Islamic movements demanding a share of power; the struggle by young revolutionaries to re-invent the Arab state — all these dramatic developments have distracted attention from another revolution of equal significance.
