the news in arabic

(Image of Israeli Foreign Minister and John McCain from al-Jazeera.)

• John McCain continues to say scary things on his trip to the Middle East. On his stop in Jerusalem, he said, “I support Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.” In response to this, a member of the Palestinian delegation Yasar abd Rabeh said that John McCain is further legitimizing the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem and is placing himself in direct opposition of international decisions that have been supported by the United States.  (Al-Hayat)

• The United States is continuing to fill the coffers of the corrupt Palestinian Authority. This time with $150 million as the first installment of a promised aid package of $500 million dollars. (Al-Hayat and AFP) Connect the dots.

Israel has officially boycotted al-Jazeera. The Israeli foreign ministry has announced that it will deny al-Jazeera reporters interviews with government officials and entrance visas. This Israeli government said this decision is the result of al-Jazeera’s “biased” (muhayza) reporting of the events in Gaza. Al-Jazeera reports that some observers say this is another step in the Israeli media war against Palestinians.

Believe it or not, al-Jazeera, as well as al-Manar, are widely available on satellite tv inside Israel. The article did not say if the boycott would affect access to the channel inside Israel.

Al-Jazeera reports that Republican presidential candidate John McCain will visit Israel on March 20 as part of a delegation of U.S. senators. This is reportedly the first time that a Republican or Democratic presidential candidate has visited Israel during an election year. A commenter on al-Jazeera pointed out that this visit will coincide with the fifth-year anniversary of the war on Iraq.

I hope Senator McCain has a great time! Here’s my recommendation for a travel itinerary:

Start with a trip to Tel Aviv and eat at the vegan restaurant Tov al-Khaim (Taste of Life). Their lasagna is really good. Seriously.

Then he could make his way north to Haifa and check out the very cool Bah’ai Temple. If he’s feeling ambitious, then he should head on over to the West Bank and visit the newly expanded Jewish settlement Givat Zeev.

McCain is really old, so if he feels like he’s about to die or something, he should check out the awesome medical facilities in Gaza City. It might take him, like, a lifetime to cross the border and then another month to get adequate medical supplies, but this should be no problem since he has been complicit in instigating civil strife in Gaza!

(Image of Mohammad Dahlan from Vanity Fair)

Vanity Fair has published a must-read article in its April issue. Here is an excerpt from the article which explains the central conclusion:

Vanity Fair has obtained confidential documents, since corroborated by sources in the U.S. and Palestine, which lay bare a covert initiative, approved by Bush and implemented by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams, to provoke a Palestinian civil war. The plan was for forces led by [Mohammad] Dahlan, and armed with new weapons supplied at America’s behest, to give Fatah the muscle it needed to remove the democratically elected Hamas-led government from power. (The State Department declined to comment.)

But wait — what do you say? The U.S. plan backfired and actually increased support for Hamas and allowed the group to gain full control of the Gaza Strip?

The article tracks American policy makers’s relationship with Mohammad Dahlan, a Fatah official and former security advisor, who has been instrumental in orchestrating deals between Fatah fighters and the U.S. In 2006, Bush encouraged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to hold parliamentary elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip — not expecting that Hamas would win a majority of seats in the Palestinian parliament.

Hamas’s victories in the election were largely a reaction to the widespread culture of political corruption which Fatah fostered. This article gives evidence to that claim and portrays Abbas and other Fatah officials as willing tools of an American administration seeking to bring down the democratically-elected Hamas government. Take for example this “talking points” memo left behind by a US State Department official:

“Hamas should be given a clear choice, with a clear deadline: … they either accept a new government that meets the Quartet principles, or they reject it The consequences of Hamas’ decision should also be clear: If Hamas does not agree within the prescribed time, you [Abbas] should make clear your intention to declare a state of emergency and form an emergency government explicitly committed to that platform.”

Walles and Abbas both knew what to expect from Hamas if these instructions were followed: rebellion and bloodshed. For that reason, the memo states, the U.S. was already working to strengthen Fatah’s security forces. “If you act along these lines, we will support you both materially and politically,” the script said. “We will be there to support you.”

What I find most depressing, though not shocking, is how Fatah officials are so willing to collaborate with Israel and the United States. These officials are more interested in preserving their positions of power and taking illicit bribes than working with Palestinians against a brutal military occupation.

Read the full article for more details about how the US provided Fatah with arms shipped through Egypt and approved by Israel. Way to go, Fatah! You know your morals are intact when you are receiving weapons shipments approved by the very power which is occupying your land and killing your people. It is curious that Fatah is not able to see that the ultimate benefactor here is Israel. Fatah and Hamas are being torn apart by internal violence while Israel solidifies control over Palestinian land.

(Iyad and Jaqueline were shot to death by Israeli soldiers during the recent Israeli aggressions on Gaza.)

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, which is based in Gaza, has launched a feature called “Narratives Under Siege” where Palestinians can tell their own stories:

“I heard shooting, then screaming. I rushed upstairs to see what had happened, and they were both on the floor. Jaqueline was already dead, but Iyad was still alive. The neighbours called an ambulance and we ran to the hospital with him, but he died as soon as we arrived.”

East Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip bore the brunt of Israel’s latest military incursion into Gaza. The incursion, which was launched in the early hours of Thursday February 28, lasted four days and nights. In that time Israeli troops killed 108 Palestinians, including 54 unarmed civilians, 26 of whom were children. The Palestinians who live in and around Abed Rabbo Street in east Jabaliya suffered intense air strikes by F16 planes and helicopters, tank shelling, snipers, and having their houses invaded and vandalised by Israeli soldiers, who tied adults up with ropes, or else locked whole families into single rooms in order to use their homes as sniper towers to target local Palestinian fighters. Sixteen year old Jaqueline Abu Shebak and her fourteen year old brother, Iyad both lived on Abed Rabbo Street with their mother and three other young brothers and sisters. The children’s uncle, Hatem Hosni Abu shebak, who lives next door, found the bodies of Jaqueline and Iyad in the early hours of Saturday March 1st, when he rushed upstairs after hearing intense shooting and then screaming.

“I hear shooting and Iyad was screaming. As I ran upstairs the shooting continued, and both children were on the living room floor “he says, as we sit in the blood-stained living room where Jaqueline died and Iyad was critically injured. “I tried to revive them, but Jaqueline was dead, and even though Iyad was alive and making sounds we could not save him. We had to wait for an ambulance because my car had been shelled by an Israeli tank.” Hattim Abu Shebak shows us the mirrors and windows shattered by bullets, the bullet holes in the walls, and the children’s blood on the furniture.

The Israeli soldiers who killed Jaqueline and Iyad had occupied the house opposite, and were holding Ramez Etbail and his family hostage so they could use the house to shoot at local Hamas fighters. The Israelis fired straight through the kitchen window of the Abu- Shebak house, striking Jaqueline and Iyad who were both cowering in the corner.

To read the rest of the story, click here.

The text on the uniform reads “Olmert” as in the Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Olmert.

From al-Jazeera.

The text reads: Gaza Holocaust (Mahrakat Gaza).

From al-Quds al-Arabi.

(Image of the 5-month-old killed in an Israeli attack from al-Jazeera.)

The heading is not an exaggeration or a misstatement. Over the past 48 hours, the Israeli military launched 30 incursions into Gaza that have left 31 Palestinians dead, including a 5-month-old boy and nine children. Al-Jazeera now reports that Israeli tanks are stationed on the northern border of Gaza signaling the possibility of a widespread Israeli ground incursion.

The photos below are the victims of the Israeli incurisons into Gaza. From al-Jazeera

(Abbas and Mubarak in Cairo via al-Jazeera.)

Radio Monte Carlo reports on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s visit to Cairo for discussions with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The trip sounds standard enough, but in an interview with RMC, a Palestinian official by the name of Yasar Abutarabu (excuse the transliteration) has given an “unprecedented attack” on Qatar’s involvement in Palestine. (Note: Qatar is the home-base of al-Jazeera.)

There is no transcript of the interview, so here is my summary:

He said that Qatar is intervening in Palestinian internal affairs more than any other country — Arab or non-Arab — except Israel, of course, because Israel is occupying Palestine and interferes the most. The interviewer asks why he believes Qatar is building up Hamas’s point of view. The official says that he does not know if Qatar has some type of political plan in Palestine, but he mentions that Qatar is trying to turn al-Jazeera into an instrument which is very supportive of Hamas, as seen by al-Jazeera’s support of Hamas’s coup (inqilab) in Gaza.

(Addition: A source in the know has told me that this Palestinian official is totally corrupt and likes to get drunk in Tel Aviv.)

Cartoon which reads “Gaza” from al-Quds al-Arabi.

Al-Jazeera

Al-Jazeera reports that 49 Palestinian youths were arrested by Israeli forces while peacefully protesting the blockade on Gaza near the border crossing at Beit Hanoun (also known Erez). Eye witnesses said that several of the youths moved toward the crossing after the demonstrations ended. The Israeli forces were put in a state of alert (halat te’heb) because the area near the crossing is considered a military zone. The al-Jazeera correspondent said that the Israelis used bullets and tear gas on the demonstrators.

An organizer of the demonstration said that the protest was a message to the world that the Palestinians cannot live under the blockade any longer. Sami abu Zahri, a Hamas spokesperson, said that the protest showed that the Gaza Strip is becoming a time bomb waiting to explode if the blockade is not lifted immediately.

NY Times

The lede is decent enough:

Several thousand Palestinians, many of them schoolchildren bused in from their classes, joined peaceful protests in the Gaza Strip along sections of the border with Israel for several hours on Monday. . .

But, wait! The Palestinians still couldn’t pull it off!

But the turnout, estimated at about 5,000, was far smaller than had been expected. . . 

And then they got violent!

After the main protest ended, a group of Palestinian youths rioted at the crossing, throwing stones. When they tried to cross, Israeli troops fired shots into the air, an army spokeswoman said, speaking on condition of anonymity under army rules.

And tucked in the middle of the article is the actual story:

The spokeswoman said 49 Palestinians had been arrested.

And another jab!

Despite the low numbers, the main organizer of the protest, Jamal el-Khoudary, declared the event a success. 

Image of the protest from al-Jazeera.

 All images are from al-Jazeera. A total of eight Palestinians were killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. Three were members of al-Kita’ib al-Qassam, two were members of al-Jihad al-Islamiyya.

(The attack in Dimona, Israel was the first since January 2007, al-Jazeera.)

I tried to write a simple entry on two news events, but because of loaded terminology, I found it difficult.

1) An Israeli airstrike killed one Palestinian and injured three others in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza.

2) A Palestinian detonated a bomb in Dimona, Israel, killing himself and one Israeli. The other Palestinian involved in the operation was shot four times in the head by an Israeli police officer.

Al-Jazeera calls what is typically labeled a “suicide attack” in the Western press, an “amiliyya feda’iyya” or Palestinian resistance operation. The feda’yeen are Palestinian resistance fighters and this term is used only in the context of a Palestinian attack on Israel. The Palestinian attacker is called a “shaheed” or martyr. The Israelis are “maqtal” or killed. In contrast, al-Jazeera uses the term “amiliyya intihariyya” or, suicide operation, in describing suicide attacks in Iraq.

Al-Quds al-Arabi uses the same terminology as al-Jazeera. The Lebanese daily al-Nahar and al-Sharq al-Awsat both use the term “suicide operation.” Hezbullah-run al-Manar uses the term “martyrdom operation.”

This –

is in a different location than this —

The Other News

The NY Times’ Israel/Palestine reporter Isabel Kershner never leaves Jerusalem. Sure, Jerusalem is a news hub, but not when the news is happening in CAIRO or GAZA or the WEST BANK or ANY OTHER CITY THAT IS NOT JERUSALEM. But I suppose Kershner doesn’t have to move from her laptop in Jerusalem in order to interview Israeli officials and pull Hamas officials’ quotes from al-Jazeera. I don’t expect much from the NY Times’ Israel/Palestine reporting, but listed below are just two examples of their one-sidedness:

• Kershner describes Hamas as “the militant Islamic group that controls Gaza.” Hamas’ military wing is only a small segment of the political party’s operations. Why is Hamas solely characterized by this one “militant” facet? Kershner and many others forget that Hamas — not their armed wing — won democratic elections in 2005. Furthermore, the term “Islamic group” should be completely eradicated from the NY Times’ style book. It ceases to have any actual meaning and is only used as a buzz word to stir up prejudiced sentiments.
• Kershner writes: “[Hamas] blew up sections of a wall along the border with Egypt on Jan. 23, days after Israel sealed its border crossings with Gaza in response to intensified rocket fire against Israel.” Qassam rockets have killed roughly 11 Israelis in five years. The IOF has killed sixty Palestinians in the past month. To say that Israel sealed the border because of “intensified rocket fire” is just a complete re-hash of an Israeli government press release. Even so, is collective punishment of an entire population justified if twenty rockets are fired?

These are Hamas officials. Kershner should find them and talk to them.

]

“I’m the elected Prime Minister of Palestine! I have things to say!”

“Hi! I’m Mahmoud Zahar! There are so many microphones in front of me! I like talking to journalists!”

“I’m Khalid Meshaal! I actually spend most of my time in Damascus, so you don’t even have to come to Gaza to see me!”

I’m a little late in posting this comic, but I thought it was worth it. From al-Quds al-Arabi.

I’d also like to point out that the temporary lift of the blockade started with female demonstrators.

Palestinian children climb over the border wall at the Rafah crossing into Egypt. (Al-Hayat)

(From al-Sharq al-Awsat.)

(From al-Jazeera.)

(From al-Jazeera.)