World Water Day – Justice and Rights for Palestinians Now!

While Bob Geldof reprehensibly plans to accept an honorary degree from Ben Gurion University which collaborates with the Jewish National Fund to thieve land and water resources from Palestinians, the University of Johannesburg is taking a close look at ending its relationship with BGU partly in response to efforts by “the University of Johannesburg’s Student Representative Council, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and more than 300 South African academics”. (NB Update – in a magnificent victory for global BDS, The University of Johannesburg has now severed ties with Ben Gurion University!). Further,

The fact is that access to water and sanitation in Israel and the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip is based upon a discriminatory system, which privileges Israeli institutions while denying Palestinians their basic human rights to water and sanitation. Palestinians are not suffering human rights violations due to a lack of technology or scientific advancement. Palestinians are suffering because of the Israeli occupation that will not allow them to enjoy their full rights to their groundwater and surface water, and will not even allow them to construct facilities for treating wastewater. We are committed to taking nonviolent action to bring these and other human rights violations to an end.

Water resources in Palestine and Israel are shared on a vastly inequitable basis – “Israelis consume on average more than 3.5 times as much water per capita than Palestinians”.

The Bedouin village of Al Araqib in the Negev has been demolished 18 times by the Israeli Army, to make way for Jewish National Fund plantations which serve to obliterate visually the indigenous presence on the land as deliberately as the new racist Knesset law to cover up and outlaw acknowledgment of the history of Israel’s genocide of Palestinians – the Nakba . The JNF partners blatantly with Ben Gurion University – if Bob accepts an award from them, he will be complicit directly with ethnic cleansing.

Jordan Valley Blues from Life Source on Vimeo.

Filling Point (by LifeSource and Pietro Bellorini) from Life Source on Vimeo.

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Palestine/ Israel Links

Knesset passes ‘Nakba bill’

The “Nakba bill”, proposed by Yisrael Beiteinu, requires the state to fine local authorities and other state-funded bodies for holding events marking the Palestinian Nakba Day by supporting armed resistance or racism against Israel, or desecrating the state flag or national symbols.

On Nakba Day Palestinians mark the “catastrophe” of Israel’s inception in 1948.

The bill, which was reworked before its final passing, states that the finance minister will be charged with deciding when to withdraw funds from various groups after considering the opinions of the attorney general and a professional team comprised of members of the ministries of finance and justice.

Thirty-seven MKs supported the bill in its final form, while 25 opposed it.

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MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad) was also outraged. “You are creating a monstrous state that will enter the thoughts and emotions of citizens. Is accepting my history considered incitement?” she asked. “The Nakba is a historic truth, not a position or freedom of expression.”

The second bill, which passed by a majority of 35 to 20, formalizes the establishment of admission committees to review potential residents of Negev and Galilee communities that have fewer than 400 families. It was passed after 2 am.

After the passing of the bill the Knesset erupted in riots as MK Ahmed Tibi (United Arab List-Ta’al), refusing to limit himself to the comparison of the bill to South Africa’s apartheid,mentioned the Wannsee Conference in which the Nazis decided on the Holocaust’s “final solution” – or the gassing of Jews.

Arab and left-wing MKs claim the bill, which was proposed by MKs from Yisrael Beiteinu and Kadima, is aimed at preventing Arabs from residing in the communities that choose to adopt admission committees.

But its initiators claim in their explanation of the bill that it is “a balanced bill and not racist, and does not intend to harm the Arabs or the weaker members of society”.

MK Taleb El-Sana (United Arab List-Ta’al) said the bill’s initiators should be ashamed. “How can a country determine for its citizens where to live and die?” he asked.

MK Hanna Swaid (Hadash) announced “the clinical death of the State of Israel.” He added that although the law prohibits denying anyone residence based on his race, it was still possible to do so on cultural grounds. “We will make sure the towns, local authorities, and communities that adopt the law are boycotted in the world,” he said.

Tibi: Read Jewish history

But the Knesset truly erupted in violence when MK Tibi took the stand. “You must read Jewish history well and learn which laws you suffered from. Do you remember anything about the prohibition of interracial marriage? Do you need an Arab on the stand to remind you of your history?” he asked.

“When 14 representatives gathered in Berlin, they discussed which policy to use against the Jews. It was then they discussed pushing them aside and limiting their living space…”

At this point MKs from other parties interrupted Tibi, yelling at him to leave the podium. MK Uri Ariel (National Union) refused to let him continue, yelling out, “Go back to Ramallah.”

Tibi was eventually allowed to continue, and said Arabs felt as though they were being pushed aside. He said he was not comparing the law to the final solution, but that he had brought it up in order to stress the level of hatred.

Two Grad rockets fired by Gaza militants strike Be’er Sheva
#Israel is well revealed as insincere about peace & gung ho about land theft – any new massacre of #Gaza civilians likely to be even worse PR for it than Cast Lead #
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Israel’s killings that ignited the present violence: PCHR condemns killing of Gaza teens :

The death of two Gaza teens on Saturday, killed by Israeli fire 300 meters from the border area was an act of “excessive and lethal force,” a condemnation from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights said.

The two, both 17, were killed east of Johur Ad-Dik in the central Gaza Strip. Medics were only permitted to retrieve their bodies more than 12 hours after they had been killed

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Abbas: Jerusalem-Gaza road shortest path to unity

Addressing comments from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said earlier in the week that Abbas could choose between “peace with Israel or Hamas,” the president said “Israel has no right to object to Palestinian conciliation, it has no stake in Palestinian national unity. Netanyahi has always wept in front of the Americans, saying the Palestinians are divided and he can’t negotiate with them like this,” adding that unity would make the prospect of a Palestinian state stronger.

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A small war is starting along Gaza border

The current tensions began exactly a week ago when Israel launched an air attack on a Hamas base in the ruins of the settlement of Netzarim, killing two Hamas men. That attack came in response to a Qassam fired from Gaza that landed in an open area. Hamas then responded with a barrage of 50 mortars on communities south of the Gaza Strip. Israel delayed its response so as not to disrupt the Purim festivities in the Sderot area.

But on Monday evening Israel launched a series of air attacks in which a number of Hamas militants were wounded. Things worsened yesterday afternoon. After a round of mortar fire on kibbutzim east of Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces fired its own mortars right back at the source of the firing – at the Sajaiyeh neighborhood east of Gaza City, killing four members of a family, including two children.

Southern Command’s initial investigation indicates that the mortars’ launching point, an olive grove on the edge of a residential quarter, had been clearly identified. It seems that a number of the IDF’s mortars went off course and hit a house in Sajaiyeh, a few dozen meters from the grove.

Israel seeks aid of diplomats to prevent flotilla going to Gaza

Libya Links

Six Libyan villagers shot by US team rescuing pilot
Obama: NATO to join Libya war
Senator McCain is probably regretting this 2009 tweet, about #Gaddafi

Morocco Links

Morocco: The Winds of Change

Bahrain Links

UAE Said To Have Changed View On Libya Deployment Due To Bahrain

Other Links

The Stoner Arms Dealers
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