FEATURED NEWS STORIES
Police probing MK over fraudulent West Bank outpost deal
Police are investigating suspicions of document fraud involving the chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, MK David Rotem (Yisrael Beiteinu), secretary general of the Amana settlement housing group, Ze'ev "Zambish" Hever, and prominent settlement leader Yoel Tzur.
IOA Editor: Historically, fraud has had a key role in the process of Zionist acquisition of Palestinian lands - predating statehood. It continues today, where Israel deceives the world community and international institutions; settlers and their support organizations deceive the Israeli government and public - with the support of Israeli officials and IDF officers who participate in the process from within the government; and, finally, Israel along with the US - its financial partner and enabler of the Occupation, in the guise of the "peace process," together deceive the Palestinian people - robbing them of their land, resources, and national future....
US ‘dismayed’ at Gilo expansion approval
White House press secretary responds to plan to build 900 new housing units in Jerusalem neighborhood, says 'neither party should engage in efforts or take actions that could unilaterally preempt, or appear to preempt, negotiations'
Gilo neighborhood reaction: "Who are they to decide for us where to build?" And "[t]his is a neighborhood within Israel and it hurts me to see that the Americans, who are operating in Iraq without blinking, tell us what to do inside Israel." More: Ynetnews story
IOA Editor: And Occupations will be had by all....
US politician promotes home ownership in settlements
An influential Jewish community leader and Democratic state assemblyman from New York is currently heading a mission of about 50 Americans through the West Bank and East Jerusalem to promote home purchases in the area and to protest U.S. President Barack Obama's Middle East policy....
17 November 2009 / Read MoreWho is funding the rabbi who endorses killing gentile babies?
[U]nlike the Hamas government, our government does not pay the salaries of rabbis who advocate the killing of babies. Is that so? Not really. For example, government ministries regularly transfer support and funding to a yeshiva whose rabbi determined that it is permissible to kill gentile babies "because their presence assists murder, and there is reason to harm children if it is clear that they will grow up to harm us ... it is permissible to harm the children of a leader in order to stop him from acting evilly..."...
17 November 2009 / Read MoreJaffa residents ired over lack of Arab street names
[Jaffa,] a part of [Tel Aviv] where half of the population is Arab, and which has some 400 streets, only five are named after Arabs....
17 November 2009 / Read MoreJerusalem Arabs blame kids’ fire deaths on IDF checkpoint
Residents of Ras Hamis, an East Jerusalem neighborhood east of the separation fence, say two children died in a house fire two weeks ago while a fire crew had to wait 200 meters away at a checkpoint for lack of Border Police or army escort....
17 November 2009 / Read MoreTurkey, Israel, Jordan hold search and rescue maneuvers
This signals an improvement in the currently strained Turkish-Israeli relations, as Ankara excluded Israel at the last minute from the Anatolian Eagle international maneuvers...
16 November 2009 / Read MoreAnother Jewish town adds ‘Zionist loyalty’ to bylaws
"[W]e must strengthen the community and character of every town that sees Zionist values and the heritage of Israel as the heart of its existence and way of life and seeks to bring in people who view these values as dear to their hearts. We don't see this as racism, just as we don't see Zionism as a racist movement....
16 November 2009 / Read MorePalestinian PM: Declaration of statehood just a formality
Palestinian officials have said they are preparing to ask the United Nations to endorse an independent state without Israel's consent because they are losing hope they can achieve their aspirations through peace talks. The announcement drew a harsh rebuke from Israeli officials....
15 November 2009 / Read MoreTAU historian accused of anti-Semitism
Prof. Shlomo Sand: "I don't define myself as an anti-Zionist... but I'm not a Zionist... I don't put into question the existence of Israel... I compare when I am speaking before Arab students the birth of the Israeli state to an act of rape. But even the son that was born of the act of rape... you have to recognize him... the existence of Israel I don't put in question today."...
15 November 2009 / Read MorePLO official: Abbas mandate as president could be extended
"The PLO central committee will discuss the options to avoid a constitutional vacuum" at its meeting due to take place on December 15, Mohammed Dahlan told reporters in the West Bank town of Ramallah....
15 November 2009 / Read MoreIDF Chief Rabbi: Troops who show mercy to enemy will be ‘damned’
Quoting from the Book of Jeremiah: "Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord with a slack hand, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood."
On Gaza attack : "We all remember the beginning of the war, with a major attack of 80 planes bombing various places, and then artillery, mortar and tank fire and so forth, as in war... Everyone fought with all their heart and soul, and that includes bravery of course, but also fighting with all the resources one has - to fight as if to truly determine the mission."...
The US Jew whose Iran views rile Israel intelligence officials
In a NY Times op-ed... condemning the Obama administration... argu[ing] that the lofty talk of "openness" and the promise of "dialogue" with the Iranians are just empty rhetoric... [C]ritical of the U.S. support of Israel's nuclear ambiguity and... horrified by the possibility of Israel attacking Iran's nuclear installations....
14 November 2009 / Read MoreTop US official: We won’t accept partial settlement freeze
The United States does not accept continued Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank, a senior U.S. state department official has said, adding that Jerusalem's commitment to restrain settlement activity is not enough.
IOA Editor: Flip-flop, flip-flop, flip-flop... Words we've heard before, followed by no action....
Goldstone to Haaretz: US does not have to protect Israel blindly
"I would suggest that time has come for Israel to look at the allegations not only of the killing and injuring of so many civilians but also the collective punishment meted out to the people of Gaza by the substantial destruction of the infrastructure, and particularly the food infrastructure of Gaza. The debate should continue, not attempt to be silenced."...
13 November 2009 / Read MoreIsrael ‘personally attacking human rights group’ after Gaza war criticism
"We have been under enormous pressure and tremendous attacks, some of them very personal, as have been the attacks against Richard Goldstone with really vituperative language used to describe him: obsequious Jew, self-loathing Jew and all the rest of it."...
13 November 2009 / Read MorePalestinians say dozens of trees cut down by settlers
Burin resident discovers 97 of his olive trees destroyed overnight. 'When I saw the massacre which took place on my land, I cried.'
IOA Editor: Twenty first century Jewish cossacks continue to carry out pogroms against Palestinian farmers. (For the urban version, see Ellen Cantarow's "Heroism in a Vanishing Landscape.") This is nothing short of a state-sponsored ethnic-cleansing campaign designed to rid "Judea and Samaria" of its Palestinian inhabitants so as to make room for the ever-expanding Jewish State....
Birzeit hosts leaders to discuss feasibility of Fayyad plan
Dr Mustafa Barghouthi, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, described the plan as essentially “national duty” in its aims to realize Palestinian freedoms, the right of return and the right to Jerusalem. “All of these ideas are acceptable to Palestinians,” he said, and said he thought the plan should see popular support....
11 November 2009 / Read MoreBrazil to buy $350 million worth of drones from Israel
The deal was signed during President Peres' official visit to Brazil, but negotiations began months ago... The drones... are the latest model developed by IAI, which has been sold to other countries as well. This will be the model's first use by a police force.
IOA Editor: Deal closed by the Nobel Peace Prize winner, and Merchant of Death. Soon enough, Earth will be covered by hovering, missile-equipped Israeli drones - silently monitoring the populace and "surgically" eliminating misbehaving elements, sponsored by the Federal/State/Local government on duty. Our very own taxes at work. Operating for profit. Lots of it....
Ma’an News Agency
- Israeli forces beat Halhoul man
- Report: Israeli soldiers beat Palestinians, rob internationals
- Tulkarem police arrest fugitive on 13 counts of theft
- Toddler falls to death in Jenin-area village
- Gazans stranded after visa mix-up to be flown to Mecca for Hajj
- Al-Matalla village appeals to Fayyad for an English teacher
- Azzun village put under curfew by Israeli forces
- Israeli army arrests Palestinian woman for refusing to strip
IPS – Inter Press Service: Israel – Palestine
- MIDEAST: Palestinians Threaten Unilateral Independent State
- MIDEAST: U.S. Takes Aim Over Jordan's Shoulder
- MIDEAST: Gazans Brace for Cold, Bleak and Miserable Winter
- Q&A: No Unilateral Declaration of Palestinian State, Says Erekat
- US-MIDEAST: Baseball Team Urged to Cut Ties with Israeli Group
- U.S.: Increasingly Isolated in Key Regions
- MIDEAST: Gaza Graduates Search for Vitamin W
- MIDEAST: New Face of Palestine, Now Showing
FEATURED COMMENTARIES
Akiva Eldar: Netanyahu senses Obama’s weakness on Jerusalem
If to Israelis, "what goes for East Jerusalem goes for Tel Aviv," as Netanyahu says, then as far as the Palestinians are concerned, "what goes for East Jerusalem goes for Ramallah," as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says. A freeze on Jewish construction in East Jerusalem therefore was and remains the key to the peace process....
18 Nov 2009 / Read MoreAkiva Eldar: Would Israel accept a state-and-a-half solution?
For 21 years and a day, since the Palestine Liberation Organization declared independence in Algiers, its leaders have not lowered their price: recognition of Israel and an end to hostilities in exchange for a Palestinian state within the June 4, 1967 borders with East Jerusalem the capital....
16 Nov 2009 / Read MoreGideon Levy: Peres, not Goldstone, is the small man
Peres is our beautiful and misleading face. Equipped with the ability to delude, one of the founders of the settlement movement has turned into Israel's Mr. Peace....
16 Nov 2009 / Read MoreGilbert Achcar: Why Holocaust Denial Is on the Rise in the Arab World
The PLO, ever since the armed Palestinian organizations got the upper hand within it after 1967, very quickly came to understand that anti-Semitic discourse is bad in itself and altogether contrary to the interests of the struggle of the Palestinian people. Hence the insistence on the distinction to be made between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, which was the issue in a political battle within the Palestinian movement....
14 Nov 2009 / Read MoreYossi Sarid: Abbas must unilaterally declare Palestinian state
[B]efore Abu Mazen quits... He must declare, unilaterally, the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. Palestine now... Netanyahu finds this possibility very scary, and he expects the Americans to nip it in the bud. But his nightmare is our only chance for an end to the occupation in our time....
13 Nov 2009 / Read MoreDaoud Kuttab: Abbas’ move signals end of Oslo phase
The flurry of US officials’ visits to Ramallah is likely to stop unless a major and important change takes place in Washington. In the meantime, Abbas will pay more attention to the home front, trying to stitch together some type of agreement with Hamas....
12 Nov 2009 / Read MoreBen White: Fragmenting Palestinian land
A young student deported from the West Bank to Gaza is just the latest victim of Israeli efforts to sever ties between the territories.
UPDATE: New York Times (12 Nov 2009): Expelled West Bank Student Petitions Israel Court. The court... remanded the case to a military hearing to be held at the Gaza border next week, where Azzam can attend. ''My priority, what's most important, is to get back to my studies,'' Azzam said, speaking by phone from Gaza. ''I was so close to finishing, I just want to get back to Bethlehem and finish.''...
Ellen Cantarow: Heroism in a Vanishing Landscape
"Disputed” is a word often used about East Jerusalem and homes in Sheikh Jarrah. Would the international community have considered the homes of American blacks attacked by the Ku Klux Kla as “disputed”?...
10 Nov 2009 / Read MoreQueen Rania of Jordan: Another Divisive Wall
It has been five years since the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel should cease construction, dismantle the wall, and pay reparations to affected Palestinians. But the "Separation Barrier" is now 400 km, double its length at the time of the court ruling....
9 Nov 2009 / Read MoreAkiva Eldar: The Israeli perversion
The option has been and remains one of the following: two states for two peoples along the 1967 borders; or one state, in which two peoples continue to make each other miserable. Israel is galloping toward this latter disaster with eyes wide shut....
9 Nov 2009 / Read MoreYitzhak Laor: Israel’s apartheid is worse than South Africa’s
[The US] has no intention of being a "balanced mediator"... Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, allies of the final takeover of the West Bank, know very well that U.S. policy has not changed... The prevailing attitude of all U.S. administrations [is] essentially that any possible settlement must match the positions of the stronger party. This is how the Americans abandoned the refugee issue, and this is why they abandoned the opposition to settlements....
8 Nov 2009 / Read MoreGideon Levy: Some enchanted evening [or: "Life as it Could Be"]
This seventh-grader... is half Israeli and half Egyptian, Jewish and Muslim, speaks Hebrew with her mother and Arabic with her father, lives in Ramat Hasharon and spends vacations in Sinai and Cairo, with her father and grandmother.
IOA Editor: Perhaps the most encouraging story, if it weren't so singular, romantic, completely out of the norm and, for those who know the Sinai coast, completely out of this world....
Noam Chomsky: War, Peace and Obama’s Nobel
Obama has made clear that the United States intends to retain a long-term major presence in the [ME] region. That much is signaled by the huge city-within-a city called “the Baghdad Embassy,” unlike any embassy in the world....
5 Nov 2009 / Read MoreJimmy Carter: Goldstone and Gaza
The Goldstone... conclusion was that the civilian areas were targeted and the devastation was deliberate... the criticism of Israel in the Goldstone report is justified... it is imperative that the United States and the international community take steps to assure that the rebuilding of Gaza be commenced, and without delay. The cries of homeless and freezing people demand relief....
5 Nov 2009 / Read MoreGideon Levy: The doomsday weapon
"The top brass are not asking if there will be another military confrontation with Hamas, but when," according to the cliche about the next war. But of course the only important question is not asked: "Why?" rather than whether or when. This is the question that reverberates....
5 Nov 2009 / Read MoreNadia Hijab: The Battle Over Palestinian Representation
The Obama administration is so focused on bringing the state actors -- Palestinian, Arab, Israeli -- back to the negotiating table that it has missed the signs of a resurgent activism among Palestinians around the world which is beginning to shape a new national movement....
4 Nov 2009 / Read MoreAzmi Bishara: Elections under siege
Abbas's acceptance of the Egyptian-mediated reconciliation deal with Hamas is only because that deal presents new ways for him to destroy his opponents, writes Azmi Bishara...
4 Nov 2009 / Read MoreHaaretz: Stop treading water
The time has come for Obama to summon both sides for serious, continuous negotiations, accompanied by a timetable for establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel on the basis of the June 4, 1967 borders. There could be no clearer expression of the United States' commitment to Israel's security and its future as a Jewish and democratic state.
IOA Editor: There could certainly be no clearer expression of US commitment to all peoples in the Middle East, the inherent conflict between a "Jewish" and a "democratic" state notwithstanding....
Israeli Occupation
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The IOA Advisory Board:
- Bashir Abu-Manneh
- Mustafa Barghouthi
- Anat Biletzki
- Noam Chomsky
- Irene Gendzier
- Assaf Kfoury
- Stephen R. Shalom
- Salim Tamari
- Howard Zinn
NEW: IOA in the Press
Data / Polls
- Study finds Arabic textbooks are riddled with errors, typos
- Poll: Nearly 50% of Israelis fear state pushing them into poverty
- Survey: 90% of Ethiopian Israelis resist interracial marriage
- Poll: 57% of Israelis support plan to talk to Hamas
- Poll: Israel’s Labour party in free-fall
- Israel ranks low for freedom of press, after Gaza war media ban
- Poll: Two-thirds of Israelis support two states
- PalTrade: Gaza exports at near zero; imports on steady decline
- 51% of Israeli-Arabs don’t believe peace coming
- US Jews back military strike on Iran
- PHR: Shin Bet foot-dragging keeping Gazans from doctors visits
- IPI Poll: Palestinians Support 2-State Peace Plan, Fatah, Abbas
- Talbiyeh, Jerusalem house for sale
- MK Barakeh: Gaps a result of systematic discrimination
- [Huge] Education gap divides Jerusalem into East and West
- 4% of Israeli Jews: Obama pro-Israel
- Poll: Only 12% of Israelis believe Obama supports Israel
- Poll: 70% of Americans see Israel as US friend
- State panel on Arab representation has no Arab members
- Israel Democracy Institute’s annual Israeli Democracy Index report
- IDF: More than 300,000 settlers live in West Bank
- Yousef Jabareen: Who’s afraid of educated Arabs?
- Israel braces for influx of new immigrants this summer
- Poll: 56% of Israelis back settlement construction
- Akive Eldar: What about the Arabs’ natural growth?
- Israel 141st out of 144 in Global Peace Index
- Poll: “1 in 4 Israelis would consider leaving country if Iran gets nukes”
- Poll: 40% of Israeli Arabs believe Holocaust never happened
- Palestinians and Israeli Jews to reach equal number by 2016, data shows
Boycott / Protest / Resistance
‘Egyptians should read in Hebrew, to know what the enemy is plotting’
An Israeli commentator writing on an Egyptian commentator's position on cultural normalization - the opposite of a Boycott - between Egypt and Israel. Simple it is not: "We have to get to know the enemy, to understand his strengths and weaknesses, so that I can know how he thinks and what he is plotting against us," he explained, offering an excuse for translations into Arabic.
IOA Editor: Egyptians who read English are welcome to read what Israelis say right here, on the pages of the IOA....
PROTEST the New York Mets / Hebron Funds Dinner at Citi Field – NYC, 18 Nov
Join us on Wed, Nov 18 to tell Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig to Cancel the Event! Tell the Mets & Major League Baseball Not to Support Violent, Israeli Racist Settlers.
Wed. Nov 18, 12:30-1:30 PM at the office of the Commissioner of Major League Baseball, 245 Park Ave (46th - 47th ST, 2 blocks north of Grand Central Station)
Organized by: Adalah-NY, CODEPINK Women for Peace, Jews Against the Occupation-NYC, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, Jews Say No!, and Jewish Voice for Peace...
Palestinians to Arab states: You can stop Jerusalem light rail
The chairman of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' office, Dr. Rafiq Husseini, on Monday urges all Arab countries to cancel their business ties with two French companies - Veolia and Alstom - involved in the construction of a Jerusalem-based light railway which passes through the West Bank....
17 Nov 2009 / Read MoreArgentina protesters to Peres: You deserve Nobel for murder
The banner referred to 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, which Peres won together with former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for the peace talks that resulted in the Oslo Accords....
16 Nov 2009 / Read MoreProtesters: IDF used .22-caliber ammo at West Bank fence
Protesters say the Israel Defense Forces used live ammunition from Ruger rifles last Friday to disperse a demonstration near the separation fence at the West Bank town of Na'alin. In 2001, the military advocate general ordered a halt to the use of such rifles for crowd control....
16 Nov 2009 / Read MoreNYC: Jews Say No! – Planned Protests
Next Event: Standing in front of the 92nd Street Y (92nd/Lex), 7:00 - 8:00pm, Nov 21 when Alan Dershowitz comes to the Y.
Please sign the open letter in support of the Goldstone report...
Street in Palestinian refugee camp named after Twitter account
Arjan El Fassed: "Twitter is a great place to connect people with issues. But it's also good at bridging cultural gaps. For most people, it's difficult to identify with life in a refugee camp, but by linking it to a global network that resonates with millions, I was aiming to promote a sense of connectedness."
Have your name immortalized in a street name by visiting: www.jouwstraatnaam.nl
Arjan El Fassed's Twitter page: http://twitter.com/arjanelfassed
IOA Twitter page: http://twitter.com/IsOccupation...
Ilan Pappe silenced in Munich
Left-wing groups enraged by Germany municipality's decision not to allow anti-Zionist Israeli historian to speak at governmental institution. Pappe writes to Munich mayor his policy reminiscent of Nazi Germany....
12 Nov 2009 / Read MoreIsraeli expats protest Lieberman visit to Holland
The protest by gate48 is directed against CIDI's hospitality and the "uncritical" manner in which [Lieberman] will be received by the Dutch government, board member Erella Grassiani says....
10 Nov 2009 / Read MorePortuguese water company’s immoral collaboration with Israel
The Portugese company EPAL collaborates with Israeli water companies violating international law in the occupied West Bank....
9 Nov 2009 / Read More
Dry and Thirsty Land
A dry and thirsty land
IOA Editor: Very important coverage of Israeli policies intended to make life impossible for Palestinians in the West Bank - a key part of the greater offensive on the future of...
Aug 18, 2009 / MoreArea-E1
New West Bank roads jeopardizing chances for peace accord
[T]he area known as E1, linking the settlement to East Jerusalem... is the only area that [candidate] Netanyahu explicitly committed to developing... His political rival... Ehud Barak also publicly expressed support for building...
May 14, 2009 / MoreSettlement Database
Secret Israeli database reveals full extent of illegal settlement
Just four years ago, the defense establishment decided to carry out a seemingly elementary task: establish a comprehensive database on the settlements......
Jan 30, 2009 / MoreGaza Q & A
Stephen R. Shalom: Question and Answer on Gaza
On December 27, 2008, Israel launched its brutal assault on Gaza, Operation Cast Lead. Here are many of the most frequently-asked questions and answers, and information sources....
Jan 16, 2009 / MoreIDF Hate Culture
Dead Palestinian babies and bombed mosques – IDF fashion 2009
Dead babies, mothers weeping on their children's graves, a gun aimed at a child and bombed-out mosques - these are a few examples of the images Israel Defense Forces soldiers design these days...
Mar 21, 2009 / MorePeace Doesn't Pay
Amira Hass: Israel knows that peace just doesn’t pay
Successive Israeli governments since 1993 certainly must have known what they were doing, being in no hurry to make peace with the Palestinians. As representatives of Israeli society, these governments understood that peace...
May 11, 2009 / MoreRyuichi Hirokawa
Photographer Ryuichi Hirokawa’s best shot
Interview by Melissa Denes, The Guardian – 30 Apr 2009 Link to The Guardian story page I took this in 2002, at Al-Ram checkpoint on the West Bank. All the checkpoints had been closed by...
Apr 30, 2009 / MoreLatroun Villages
Imwas: occupied and destroyed by Israel in 1967
The village of Imwas (عِمواس) was one of three villages in the Latroun area (Palestine’s District of al-Ramla) that were occupied by the IDF in June 1967, during Israel’s military conquest of the...
Jul 8, 2009 / More
