Palestine, The Promised Land

Denmark, June 14 (Pal Telegraph) – I grew up as a Christian in this country, Denmark. I grew up with the stories of the Promised Land, the land without people.

The story about the fertile land, which mercifully sheltered the Jewish people, after 40 years of wandering around in the desert, which Moses saw, trying to enter the land. Moses never entered the land; he died in the desert outside, before he ever got there.

I grew up with the story of Anne Frank and she was one of my best friends, throughout my childhood. My grandmother was Christian, and she often told me stories about her experiences during World War 2 – that her brother smuggled Jews to Sweden in a small fishing boat in the middle of the night, and that she, herself, had been hiding English pilots up on her ceiling in Rønne on Bornholm.

I am one of those who swore, in the history class, that this we have to prevent more than anything, from happening again. That a whole world, silently, let the slaughtering of a whole nation of people happen right in front of their eyes. That a whole world, shaking their heads, listened to the lies about these people, and by doing that, legalized the termination, because, anyway, they are a people filled with conflicts and problem makers, who cannot participate in anything necessary in any society anyway.

But the more I talk about the Second World War, which happened 70 years ago, a story which should be like an unclear, distant fragment in our lives and in this time; the more I hear the bell of recognition in my ears.

But it’s not a strange and unknown story, I know it all, all the horror and the fear and the injustice and the silence… the killing silence.

The first time I met anyone from Palestine, in real flesh and blood, was in 1989, here in Denmark. They were two very good friends, and I was so honored to meet such a dew-fresh Palestinian, from the land where our beloved Jesus had walked around.

I thought there was a weak light around them, some of the light from Jesus. They had been created from the same dust, their families had for generations been drinking of the same water, from the same places where Jesus had been drinking.

They had to be special, these people, I was thinking. And we became very close friends. The friendship developed and one year later I was married and when I heard the story of Muhammad, I became a Muslim shortly after.

We were married for 8 years and had 3 children. And both of us tried, we really did, the best we could, to give each other a nice life, but it was doomed to fail from the beginning. We didn’t have the slightest idea of the situation we were in, and we ignored it and told each other that everything was perfect.

We were a very popular couple and our children were welcomed wherever we went, amongst my friends and his family. Not mine though, since they didn’t accept the idea of a Palestinian guy in Denmark.

Gradually as the years passed, I realized that I developed, I grew, became older and I grew up. I became a mother and it was good to be married. My husband was a good man and he taught me an incredible amount of his knowledge, about life, about humans and about God. But something was wrong… he didn’t develop.

On the contrary, he became more and more distant and absent. Waking up in the morning soaking in sweat, with no school program could he finish, no job could he keep without coming home every day with stories of conspiracies they all had planned against him, and all the humiliation he went through everywhere.

I was surprised, didn’t believe him, and we fought about it, had endless discussions and I defended my people and my country, like in a war situation. I cried and was bitter. Finally I started to believe it, just a little and then started the isolation. It has taken me many years to dig myself out of that isolation, but I came out on the other side, fortunately.

My ex-husband was born in 1962, grew up in Beirut, never set foot on Palestinian land, and he was a PLO child soldier from the age of 8. Not even some of his closest family members know this. He hid it also from his parents. Hid his uniform and rifle in a special hiding place before he went home in the evening.

The funniest game, he and his friends had, was to throw cans while they sneaked along the house walls, to locate where the snipers were shooting from, sitting on the roofs of the houses spread around the part of Beirut City, where the two refugee camps Sabra and Chatila are located. He lived through all the massacres up close. And he found places where murdered and tortured people had been thrown, which someone unsuccessfully had tried to hide away. I remember he told me about a place where there were only dead naked women, and the boys have been standing here, from a bridge, looking down at them with great fear and interest… on their way home from school.

Now, when I think about it, I can’t seem to understand at all, how we lived without more struggle than we actually did. As said before, I slowly realized that something was wrong. The first time I started to think about it, was at a visit paid by a nurse. And she noticed something about my boys’ walk. The way they walked. And she started to ask about their father, and his life. And I explained away and made it seem like nothing, when I realized where this conversation was heading. Due to my knowledge of my husband’s view on psychiatrists, I closed the subject and didn’t listen to hear good-meaning advice. Many years had to pass before I was to find out exactly what was wrong, and at that moment it was too late. I gave up, we got divorced, he moved to the other end of the country and I tried to collect the pieces of our broken life. And this was hard, because he was sailing, and he still is sailing, in his mind. He is travelling around in Arabia and smiling to the sun and the women. He has now 5 children and he forgot all about them, because they are in no danger, nobody is shooting at them, like they shoot after him… so everything is glory and shiny.

And I sit alone, without a family, without an ex-family-in-law, because they fight for themselves, to build just a little bit of life quality. But all they save they send to the family. And all vacation is spent in Syria or Lebanon, just to get a little home feeling.
And all the time, which they should use educating and raising their children, is spent telling each other the stories, the old ones, and the new ones and to follow all news, its important, because maybe…soon…a new agreement…compensation?…a new law, Obama says. And the children, our children, they sit also alone, left with tons of unsolved questions. And they are met with the worst expectations you can expect from a schizophrenic violent psychopath. Even they don’t even know what’s going on around them. They are Palestinians, their mother is a Danish Muslim, with a scarf and everything… alas, what poor, poor children.

But no, they are not poor. I don’t want them to be poor; they are winners and they are survivors. That’s why I write this story. Actually it’s not even written for you; it’s their story. To collect their story somewhere, because it became so sporadic and unclear, eventually.

The grandparents of my children were both born in Palestine. His father, Khalil Abou Hichme, was born in Haifa and his mother, Alia Natour, was born in Jaffa. They and their family were driven out from their properties and land areas with the key around the neck and some with the door under their arms, for the first time in 1948. At first they lived in a refugee camp, and later they were again driven out of Palestine to Lebanon.

Here they used all their values left to get a house for the entire family outside the refugee camp in Beirut. There is an aunt in Allepo, in Syria, and still an uncle and a half-brother in Beirut. Then there is “someone” in the USA, and that’s that. There is nothing more – no names, no history, no goals, no hope, no heritage, nothing. Only that silence… which makes such a noise.

I will try to uncover more facts of my children’s family and story and put it here when I find something. Because they are starting to forget and that disturbs me, because I have a feeling inside me, telling me, that it very, very important that they don’t forget they are Palestinians from Denmark.
By Helene Larsen
Muslim writer and pro Palestinian activist in Denmark

(www.paltelegraph.com / 07.08.2012)

Turkish security forces blamed for killing 501st child since 1988

Human rights groups blame riot police as teargas cartridge kills 11-year-old boy on way to buy sweets from local shop

Turkish riot police. Witnesses report there were no Kurdish protesters on the sidestreet where Mazlum Akay, 11, was heading.

On a recent summer evening 11-year-old Mazlum Akay left his home in Yüregir, a predominantly Kurdish neighbourhood in the southern Turkish city of Adana, to buy sweets at the local corner shop.

Nearby, clashes had broken out between riot police and local youths demonstrating against the solitary confinement of Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Öcalan, who was convicted for treason in 1999.

Witnesses say that there were no protesers on the sidestreet where Mazlum was heading to the shop, but the schoolboy was struck on the head by a police teargas cartridge. Eight days later, on 5 August, Mazlum died from his wounds and became the 501st child killed by Turkish security forces since 1988, according to Turkish human rightsorganisations.

Osman Kara, an activist of the Human Rights Association in Adana told the Guardian: “The disproportionate force that the government uses against civilians is to blame for this high number. There simply is no reason whatsoever for an 11-year-old child to die in the street like this.” And he added: “Up until today, no serious investigation has been made regarding the deaths of children in this conflict. This is another reason that [the police and the armed forces] do not flinch to use force against them.”

Around 1,500 people attended Mazlum’s funeral this week, and his family say they plan to sue the police over his death. Neither the governor’s office nor the police authority in Adana have made any public statements on the case. The family said that the doctors were optimistic when Mazlum first arrived at the hospital. “But he started to vomit, and vomited blood all night”, his mother, 46-year-old Ayse Akay explained. “In the morning, they performed another scan and discovered bleeding in the brain. Shortly after that, Mazlum fell into a coma.” She has three other sons and four daughters. “Why did they hurt my little boy? He has done nothing wrong!”

The family also says that the police came to their house and intimidated them. “They told us ‘not to blow this out of proportion’, Mustafa Akay said. “They also claimed that the injury was caused by a stone.” However, eyewitnesses had found the empty cartridge and the hospital confirmed that Mazlum had indeed been hit by the projectile.

“The police confiscated the original of the doctor’s report”, said 62-year-old Akay. “But I had made a photocopy beforehand, because we know that the police routinely take doctors’ reports away.”

Unrest in Kurdish neighbourhoods is rarely reported by the Turkish media, but Durmaz Özmen, the Yüregir county commissioner of the main pro-Kurdish party BDP underlined that the death of 11-year-old Mazlum Akar would ignite further anger: “Frustration levels are high, and even if the case of Mazlum Akay will not be reported in the mainstream Turkish media, people here will remember it for a long time.” And he continued: “The Turkish government has turned its back on the Kurds and the Kurdish issue: “They say they want freedom in Syria. But how can you try and clean up the neighbourhood if you don’t sweep in front of your own door first?”

(www.guardian.co.uk / 07.08.2012)

Muslims petition Egypt not to include Shariah

Muslim and Coptic Christian leaders in the U.S. are calling on the Egyptian government to exclude any mentions of Islamic law or language that discriminates against minorities in its draft constitution.

In an letter released Tuesday (Aug. 7), the leaders urge the constitution writers to “recognize the equality of all Egyptians and to reject any language that would discriminate against any citizen of Egypt on the basis of that citizen’s religion or gender.”

Because Egypt is home to millions of Christians, attempts to describe Islamic law, or Shariah, as the source of the country’s law should also be rejected, the letter said.

Shariah is interpreted differently by various schools within Islam; some Muslims believe Shariah is a personal code that has no place in government, while in several Islamic countries — Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran, Sudan and others — Shariah infuses national law.

Egypt’s recently elected president, Mohamed Morsi, was backed by the Muslim Brotherhood but has pledged to be “the president of all Egyptians.”

Signatories of the letter include Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the first Muslim elected to Congress; Imam Mohamed Magid, president of the Islamic Society of North America, the largest Muslim organization in America; as well as the Rev. Hegomen Moises Bogdady and the Rev. Michael Sorial, priests with the Coptic Orthodox Archdiocese of North America. James J. Zogby’s Arab American Institute sponsored the letter.

The Egyptian Embassy in Washington did not reply to requests for comment.

The letter represents an unusual move by U.S. Muslims to try and shape policy toward Muslims and non-Muslims in a Muslim-majority country like Egypt, especially against a backdrop of attempts in some 20 U.S. state legislatures to ban Shariah from state courts.

The letter is also an important interfaith document between Muslims and Copts, whose relations have been strained in recent years. After a Coptic Christian family of four was murdered in their Jersey City, N.J., home in 2005, the American Coptic Association and some other Coptic groups initially accused Muslims. The killers turned out to be non-Muslims, but relations never completely healed after that incident.

(www.washingtonpost.com / 07.08.2012)

‘Ten big media lies’ about Israel

Michel Collon, a Belgian journalist and author, in his book “Israel, let’s talk about it,” has slammed European media over decades of “lying” to people in order to support Israel.

Collon, in his book, has recounted “10 big lies” spread by Western media in order to “justify the existence and actions of Israel”, which are concisely presented below:

1. The first lie is that Israel was established in reaction to the massacre of Jews during the World War II.

This notion is completely wrong. Israel is in fact a domineering project which was approved in the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, in 1897, when nationalist Jews decided to occupy Palestine.

2. The second justification for establishing and legitimizing Israel is that the Jews are returning to their forefathers’ land, from where they had been driven away in 70 A.D.

This is a tale. I have spoken to the famous Israeli historian Shlomo Sand and other historians and they all believe that there has been no “exodus,” so “return” is meaningless. The people living in Palestine have not left their land in the ancient era.

In fact the descendents of Jews residing in Palestine are the people who are currently living in Palestine. Those who claim they want to return to their lands originate for Western and Eastern Europe and Northern Africa.

Sand says there is no Jewish nation. The Jews do not have common history, language or culture. The only common thing between them is their religion, and religion does not make a nation.

3. The third lie is that when Jewish immigrants occupied Palestine, it was an empty and uninhibited country.

However, there are documents and evidences that prove that in the 19th century the agricultural products of Palestine were exported to different countries, including France.

4. Fourth, some people say Palestinians left their country on their own free will.

This is another lie, which lots of people believed, including myself. Until Israeli historians like Benny Morris and Ilan Pappe said that Palestinians were driven away and banished from their lands by using force and terror.

5. It is said that today Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and it should be protected; it is the “government of law.”

But in my opinion not only it is not the government of law; it is the only regime that no law defines its territory and boundaries. All the countries of the world have a constitution which defines their boundaries, but no such thing applies to Israel. Israel is an expansionist project which knows no boundary, and its law is completely racist; according to this law Israel is the country for Jews, and its non-Jew citizens are not considered human. Such law is a contradiction to democracy.

6. It is said that the US tries to protect democracy in the Middle East by protecting Israel.

And we know that the US annual financial aid to Israel amounts to 3 billion dollars. This money is used for bombarding Israel’s neighbor countries. But America is not after establishing democracy in the Middle East; it wants the undisturbed flow of oil.

7. They pretend that the US seeks an agreement between Israel and Palestine.

This is also completely wrong and a lie. EU former Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana told the Israel that “you are the 21st country of the European Union.” The European weapons industries cooperate with the Israeli military industries and support them financially. But when Palestinians elected their government, Europe did not recognize it and gave the green light to Israel to attack the Gaza Strip.

8. When one talks about these facts and the history of Israel and Palestine, when one reveals the US interests in this situation, they call you anti-Semite to keep you silent.

But we should say that when we criticize Israel, it is not racism or anti-Semitism. We criticize a government that does not believe in the equality of Jews, Christians and Muslims, and so destroys the peace between followers of different religions.

9. The mass media say that Palestinians cause violence and terrorism.

We say Israel army’s occupation is violence, the policy that has stolen land and home from Palestinians is violence.

10. An issue which is often raised is that there is no way for resolving this situation, and there is no solution for the hatred and the grudge caused by Israel and its accomplices.

But there is a solution. The only thing that can stop this process is the public pressure on the accomplices of Israel in the US and Europe and other parts of the world; public pressure on the mass media which refrain from telling the truth about Israel; and using the Internet or any other media out let to publish real news about Palestine.

(occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com / 07.08.2012)

Most Palestinian children suffer PTSD

Interview with Dr. Lina Geha, psychologist, Palestine Trauma Center.

“So, coming back to the research done by Dr. Abdul Aziz Thabet and colleagues in the Gaza Mental Health Community Program, they have found that 98.3 percent of children have PTSD. This research was done during the bombardment in 2008 or 2009 and for 22 days, so there is more research to be done and I am sure it has been done way after, but during the 22 days they have done research over something like nearly 400 children. Only 1.3 percent did not show symptoms of PTSD then.”

Psychology reports show that 41 percent of Palestinian children suffer from PTSD as a consequence of the brutal Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) also known as ‘shell shock’ or ‘battle fatigue syndrome’ is a serious mental condition, which is a lasting consequence of traumatic ordeals that cause intense fear, helplessness, or horror.

Press TV has interviewed Dr. Lina Geha, psychologist at the Palestine Trauma Center about the state of trauma inflicted on the population of Palestine with particularly focus on the children by the Israeli occupiers. What follows is an approximate transcript of the interview.

Press TV: Just responding to what we saw on that video there, a family broken down, the bread winner ground down by just daily life under a rather oppressive situation. See that close up? What does it do to a family?

Geha: It really puts a big strain on all the resources, the mental, especially we are talking here about psychological not mental. It brings them close to being destroyed really. One of the things that are in WHO, the World Health Organization reports, in Amnesty reports and also in studies I’m going to quote in a minute is the difficulties all around.

So there were huge difficulties to start with before the bombardment in December of 2008/2009. I’m going to start chronologically just to build up the picture: In 2006, June for example till 2007 – we’re talking about the siege here, before the bombardment, coming to that in a moment – Dr. Mohamed Altawil had done for example one of the researches that I have read that said 41 percent of children have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

This word PTSD usually when we say somebody has been here in an accident in England or has had a scene of fire or some big problem like domestic violence or whatever, it is Post-Traumatic Stress–something that happens after an incident or an accident.

But when we talk about children in Gaza or Palestinian children, refugees all over, but in Gaza in particular, that doesn’t stop. I’m going to come to that a little bit later.

So, coming back to the research done by Dr. Abdul Aziz Thabet and colleagues in the Gaza Mental Health Community Program, they have found that 98.3 percent of children have PTSD. This research was done during the bombardment in 2008 or 2009 and for 22 days, so there is more research to be done and I am sure it has been done way after, but during the 22 days they have done research over something like nearly 400 children. Only 1.3 percent did not show symptoms of PTSD then.

So severe PTSD was something like 61 percent, 29 percent was moderate and mild was 7.something.

Press TV: But how does it manifest itself? How do you know this is what they have?

Geha: There are lots of tests and you can work with someone immediately you know that is traumatized, it could be anything from not speaking to bed wetting, nightmares, not being able to sleep, not being able to talk. Generally it’s usually obvious.

I mean think of the children under those circumstances in particular being at home watching their city being bombarded, their relatives can’t protect them; dying or injured. Something like 300 children died and I don’t know something like thousands that were injured. Not speak of women, not speak of men and everybody else.

So, think of a bombardment that’s not targeting anyone in particular. It’s not like there are targets and they know that they live in that area or this person or that response…

Press TV: So there’s a specter of safety… you don’t feel that?

Geha: There’s not. And on top of that, the medical aid was as you well know sort of almost blocked if not blocked entirely – I don’t have the exact details, but it was very difficult to get help if you were a Gaza citizen trying to even escape. Forget it. There was nowhere safe because there were some of the bombardments that would bombard anything that was moving.

So, to be with a trauma like that, at least you know that there will be some ambulance if it was not this country or somewhere else, they will come to rescue you, you’d be taken to hospital or whatever, but they didn’t have that option.

Press TV: So life becomes this constant state of agitation and fear in some cases…

Geha: There is no place where you know you are not going to be necessarily aimed at or targeted or shelled.

Press TV: Is a part of this trauma the fact as you mentioned here, there is no protection? Normally you go to your Mum and Dad and they say we’ll fix it for you or we’ll call the authorities, it will all be better… It isn’t.

Geha: No. Gerard Horton of the Defense for Children International said, it’s not as if that they have been targeting the children who committed crimes if, you know whatever the crimes are, I’m not going to comment on that; it’s just anybody and everybody.

So it builds up; I mean Donald Winnicott comes to mind when he says about reactions to such things is that, people become more militant or angrier or they want to become more muscled – he was talking about the muscularization, of trying to be more tough. And we come to resilience with that and group resilience.

So, may be their aim was to kill terrorists or whatever it is, but it had been done generally on a huge population and it wasn’t targeted at anyone in particular.

So what it is doing it is perpetuating a cycle and I think everybody is concerned, those who are receiving and those who are throwing or perpetrating, are involved in this cycle, the work needs to done on both.

(www.presstv.ir / 07.08.2012)

Palestijnse Solidariteitsmaaltijd

• • zaterdag 15 september 2012
  • 17:30

• Zaal PAVO, Vandenbemptlaan 2a, 3001 Heverlee (Leuven)

• Palestina Solidariteit nodigt u uit voor een kennismaking met de Palestijnse keuken. Er staan traditioneel Palestijnse makloeba (rijst, kip (halal), bloemkool, aubergines, wortels) en hummus (voor vegetariërs) op het menu, alsook een oriëntaalse ovenschotel en een verrassingsvoorgerecht. Kom mee genieten van een heerlijke maaltijd en steun hiermee de werking van Palestina Solidariteit, Inge Neefs met haar boek en onze projecten in Palestina. Om 17.30 gaan de deuren open. Vanaf 18.00 gaan we aan tafel. Na de maaltijd zal Inge Neefs vertellen over haar boek en haar inzet in de Gazastrook. Er zal ook een film geprojecteerd worden over hoe hulp aan Palestina vooral Israël ten goede komt. We sluiten af met goede muziek en een drankje. We trekken dit jaar naar Heverlee: zaal Pavo, Vandenbemptlaan 2a, 3001 Heverlee. Goed bereikbaar met openbaar vervoer, met de trein vanuit Leuven richting Louvain-La-Neuve of met De Lijn vanuit Leuven (bus 1 of 2). Reserveren voor 12 september op info@palestinasolidariteit.be Kinderen 9 euro, volwassenen 12 euro. Palestina Solidariteit in samenwerking met LAP, Leuvense Actiegroep Palestina.

Palestinian villages struggle as Israeli settlement waste contaminates the environment

Palestinian children play in a polluted stream contaminated by wastewater from Ariel settlement, Bruqin, West Bank.

“The bad odor is constant here and nowadays it has become normal to find rodents and insects in this area” Ahmed, a resident of Burin, tells staring at the smelly polluted water flowing less than 10 meters from the houses of his village located between Salfit and Nablus, in the northern part of the West Bank – “It’s not only about the smell. In the village a lot of people suffer from skin diseases, asthmas, and other illnesses.” The waste water stemming from Ariel settlement has played a major role in the contamination of water and in the pollution of the environment in the Salfit area. Due to the concentration of pollutant elements in this zone, many agricultural fields have been destroyed and many animals and plants have been killed. Moreover, many infectious waterborne diseases, like diarrhea, have broken out especially among children.

Betar Illit from Nahalin

The inhabitants of Wadi Fukin and Nahalin, south-west of Bethlehem, face the same problems. Surrounded by the Israeli settlement of Beitar Illit, these two villages, known for the quality of the agricultural products, are constantly threatened by the flow of waste water coming from the nearby settlement. “Inside Beitar Illit there is a waste water treatment facility but it can’t handle the amount of waste water it receives and as a consequence it overflows reversing untreated waste water onto the agricultural fields” explains Dib Najajrah, a resident of Wadi Fukin. “Moreover, in the last years the settlers have started attacking our crops by deliberately pumping the waste water coming out of the settlement into the cultivated land of Nahalin.”

Water pollution and contamination of ground water are the main environmental threats that the Palestinians living in the West Bank have to deal with. As an occupying power, according to the article 56 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, Israel has the duty of “ensuring and maintaining, with the cooperation of national and local authorities… public health and hygiene in the occupied territory” in order to prevent the spread of diseases and epidemics. However, since 1967 Israel has consistently failed to provide Palestinians with efficient sewage and waste water facilities and at the same time the Israeli settlements have started discharging untreated domestic and industrial sewage onto the aquifer, causing the contamination of ground water and the destruction of Palestinian agricultural fields.

Only in recent years did Israel start equipping the settlements with sewage treatment plants and facilities but the problem hasn’t been solved as settlements still continue to be the major cause of environmental pollution in the West Bank. Half a million Israeli settlers living in the West Bank produce 54 million of cubic meters of domestic waste water per year, an amount which is larger than the one produced by the two millions and a half Palestinians living in the West Bank (Applied Research Institute, 2008). Moreover, according to a report about water pollution published by Israel’s Environmental Protection Ministry, the Nature and Parks Authority and the Civil Administration in August 2008, only 81 out of 121 Israeli settlements in the West Bank are connected to waste water treatment facilities and most of them are small and can’t handle the large amount of waste water produced. As a result, only 12 MCM of settlement waste water out of 17.5 MCM of the West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem) settlements are treated. Moreover, as reported by the Israeli NGO B’tselem in June 2009, none of the Israeli “outposts” were equipped with waste water treatment facilities.

As far as Palestinians in the West Bank are concerned, the situation is not better. Only 31 percent of them are link to sewage network – with only one waste water treatment plant in operation in al-Bireh (Ramallah) – while the remaining two third of the population depends on self-installed cesspits and septic tanks. The main reason for this deficiency is due to the Israeli refusal to grant permits to Palestinians, through the Joint Water Committee (JWC) – established with Oslo in 1995 – and the Israeli Civil Administration. Between 1995 and 2011 only 4 waste water treatment plant projects out of 30 were accepted. The Israeli government uses the veto power in the JWC as a “political bargaining chip” (COHRE, 2008). For example, in 1998 the Palestinian Water Authority received funds from the German Development Bank to build a wastewater treatment plant in the Salfit Governorate. The JWC approved the project conditional upon connecting the largest West Bank settlement of Ariel to the treatment plant.

“This isn’t the full story” Dib continues – “Not only does Israel fail to provide facilities to Palestinians, but it also profits from the Palestinian untreated waste water.” Indeed Israel exploits the untreated Palestinian waste water, by treating it inside modern facilities located in Israel and reusing it to irrigate agricultural fields in Israel, deducting the cost for treating the wastewater from the tax monies of the Palestinian Authority.

(mondoweiss.net / 07.08.2012)

FBI ‘Islam 101′ Guide Depicted Muslims as 7th-Century Simpletons

As recently as January 2009, the FBI thought its agents ought to know the following crucial information about Muslims:

• They engage in a “circumcision ritual”
• More than 9,000 of them are in the U.S. military
• Their religion “transforms [a] country’s culture into 7th-century Arabian ways.”

And this was what the FBI considered “recommended reading” about Islam:

• A much-criticized tome, The Arab Mind, that one reviewer called “a collection of outrageously broad — and often suspect — generalizations“
• A book by one of Norwegian terrorist suspect Anders Behring Breivik’s favorite anti-Muslim authors.

All this is revealed in a PowerPoint presentation by the FBI’s Law Enforcement Communications Unit (.pdf), which trains new Bureau recruits. Among the 62 slides in the presentation, designed to teach techniques for “successful interviews/interrogations with individuals from the M.E. [Middle East],” is an instruction that the “Arabic mind” is “swayed more by words than ideas and more by ideas than facts.”

The briefing presents much information that has nothing to do with crime and everything to do with constitutionally-protected religious practice and social behavior, such as estimating the number of mosques in America and listing the states with the largest Muslim populations.

Other slides paint Islam in a less malicious light, and one urges “respectful liaison” as a “proactive approach” to engaging Muslims. But even those exhibit what one American Muslim civil rights leader calls “the understanding of a third grader, and even then, a badly misinformed third grader.”

One slide asks, “Is Iran an Arab country?” (It’s not.) Another is just a picture of worry beads.

“Based on this presentation, it is easy to see why so many in law enforcement and the FBI view American Muslims with ignorance and suspicion,” says Farhana Khera, the executive director of Muslim Advocates, a legal aid group. “The presentation appears to treat all Muslims with one broad brush and makes no distinction between lawful religious practice and beliefs and unlawful activities.”

 

A grainy copy of the PowerPoint was obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union’s Northern California chapter and the Asian Law Caucus, a San Francisco-based civil rights group, and provided to Danger Room. The two groups filed a Freedom of Information Act request last year inquiring about government surveillance of American Muslim communities.

“In order for FBI training to be effective it has to present useful, factual and unbiased information. This material fails on all three criteria,” said Mike German, a former FBI agent who now works for the ACLU. “Factually flawed and biased law enforcement training programs only expand the risk that innocent Muslim and Arab Americans will be unfairly targeted for investigation and prosecution, and stigmatized in their communities.” [Full disclosure: My fiancee works for the ACLU.]

In response to queries from Danger Room, the FBI issued the following statement about the PowerPoint: “The FBI new agent population at Quantico is exposed to a diverse curriculum in many specific areas, including Islam and Muslim culture. The presentation in question was a rudimentary version used for a limited time that has since been replaced. It was a small part of a larger segment of training that also included material produced by the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at West Point.”

It is unclear when the FBI stopped using the PowerPoint.

Among the most provocative aspects of the presentation is its recommended reading list. One book offered is The Truth About Mohammed: Founder of the World’s Most Intolerant Religion, by Robert Spencer. Spencer is one of the ringleaders of the protest against the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” and the co-founder of Stop the Islamicization of America, which “promotes a conspiratorial anti-Muslim agenda,” in the view of the Anti-Defamation League. A manifesto written by the Norwegian terror suspect Anders Behring Breivik cited Spencer 64 times.

Another book cited is The Arab Mind, by Raphael Patai. The volume was briefly infamous in 2004, after Seymour Hersh reported its influence among certain Iraq war hawks in the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal. According to Hersh, the takeaway of Patai’s book is that “Arabs only understand force” and are susceptible to “shame and humiliation.”

“It’s like asking law enforcement to learn ‘the facts’ about the African American experience by reading a book by the grand wizard of the KKK,” says Khera. “It is deplorable and offensive that the nation’s top law enforcement agency would promote such hateful so-called ‘experts’ on Islam.”

An FBI spokesman said Spencer’s book is no longer on the reading list but was not sure about the others. “We encourage our agents to seek out a variety of viewpoints. That does not mean we endorse or adopt the view of any particular author,” the bureau’s statement continues. “Broad knowledge is essential for us to better understand and respond to the threats we face. Knowledge also helps us defeat ignorance and strengthen relationships with the diverse communities that we serve.”

When dealing with Muslims and counterterrorism, the FBI’s record is mixed. It’s sent informants into mosques and used operatives to coax suspected extremists into active terror plots, arresting them before anyone was hurt. But its agents also stood up against torture at Guantanamo Bay and in the CIA’s undisclosed prisons. FBI Director Robert Mueller testified in 2008 that many of its terrorism cases “are a result of the cooperation from the Muslim community in the United States.”

In recent years, law enforcement agencies around the country have proven receptive to anti-Muslim crusaders. The Washington Monthly recently reported on the “growing profession” of terrorism consultants who get paid to make “sweeping generalizations about Muslims” to rapt audiences of cops. Adam Serwer at the American Prospect reports that another Breivik favorite, Walid Shoebat, also gets government cash to tell police things like “Islam is the devil.”

At a Capitol Hill event on Monday, a Florida-based researcher named Peter Leitner claimed that up to 6,000 Muslims in America are a “fifth column.” According to Leitner’s official biography, he founded a group called the Higgins Counterterrorism Research Center; Higginsclaims to have provided counterterrorism instruction to “FBI Counterterrorism Special Agents,” various police departments countrywide and even Blackwater.

“These characterizations of Islam and of Arab and Muslim people are not just disheartening — they are frightening,” says Veena Dubal, an attorney with the Asian Law Caucus. “Degrading and inaccurate characterizations of Islam and of the ‘Arab mind’ don’t help individual agents fight terrorism. Rather, they imbue law enforcement with an extremely biased view of a diverse community.”

(occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com / 07.08.2012)

Israel Refuses to Cooperate with UN Fact-Finding Mission

Al Qassam website\ Agencies - The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has assembled a team of experts to investigate the expansion of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Palestinian News Agencies reported on Sunday that the fact-finding committee will begin its investigation in August and plans to release a preliminary report at the end of September. The final report will be submitted in March of 2013. This is according to a report on the Voice of Palestine radio by UNHRC Palestinian representative, Ibrahim Khreisheh.

The investigation will be led by French judge Christine Chanet. All Israeli settlements within the Occupied Palestinian Territories have previously been found to be a violation of international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry stated that Israel would not cooperate with the fact-finding mission and will not allow UNHRC members to enter the occupied Palestinian territories because it sees the investigation as unfairly targeting Israel.

The denial of entry of UN investigators in Iraq was seen by the United States as a justification for war with that nation. It remains to be seen if the US will apply this policy consistently to a nation it views as a friend or whether they will decide to protect a country under investigation for ongoing human rights abuses.

The Israeli position that other countries in the region are more serious offenders does not seem to be an optimal defense. Justification of oppression on the grounds that others are worse seems to be an admission of guilt.

(www.qassam.ps / 07.08.2012)

Engel des Doods – Malak al Mawt

De zon komt op, de wind is actief in de vroege morgen.

Denkend dat de dag van jou is, maar toch koelbloedig gestorven.

Een Engel ontneemt zonder twijfeling jouw wereldse zorgen.

Maar weet, op de Dag des Oordeels is niets verborgen.

 

Al jouw daden, blootgesteld.

Al jouw daden, bijelkaar opgeteld.

Hoe zal jouw weegschaal zijn, in evenwicht?

Zijn jouw goede daden te licht of in overgewicht.

 

Zal jij vergeven worden, heb jij berouw getoond?

Vergeving zal met het Paradijs worden beloond.

Voor eeuwig, een tuin, huis en wellicht meer door jou bewoond.

Of is het jij die het nalaat te praktiseren en het enkel droomt.

 

Jij die het niet nastreeft en zo het hiernamaals vergeet.

Jij die niet wordt vergeeft, omdat jij weg van het rechte pad bleef.

Vraag jij jezelf niet af wat jou kan redden van een strenge bestraffing.

Zoek toevlucht bij Allaah - waarlijk, dat is de enige oplossing.

 

O zoon van Adam, ’alayhi salaam, jij verhief jouw stem.

Jij verhief jouw stem – tegenover jouw moeder.

Wat gaat jou dan nog redden mijn beste broeder?

Je kende het leven van uitgaan en van de masjid, dat was vroeger.

 

Elke dag hoorde en negeerde jij de Adhaan.

Met de dag mee kwam er meer stof op de Qoeraan.

Zie jouw beste vriend, in vrede heengegaan.

Waar zie jij jezelf staan, zodra jij hem achterna zult gaan?

 

Weet beste broeder en zuster, de dood staat op de loer.

Met de Wil van Allaah komt het bij jou over de vloer.

Deuren, muren, zwart licht, niets kan het stoppen.

Uitstel is er voor niemand, de dood komt onverwachts aankloppen.

 

Je schreeuwt het uit, maar niemand kan jou horen.

Malak al Mawt is gekomen, jouw ziel zal tot Al Barzakh behoren.

Jouw adem wordt afgenomen, terwijl jij schreeuwt nog niet klaar te zijn.

Bereid jezelf voor op een lange reis, eindigend in de Hel of het Paradijs.

(Si Hicham / Facebook / 07.08.2012)