In the horror that is happening in Libya, under the guise of UN Security Council-endorsed humanitarian intervention, there is no quick or easy end in sight. In the past few days, Britain, France, and Italy have just decided to send military advisers to work with the rebels, and the U.S. has authorized $25m [million] for [...]
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Filed under: Libya, UN Security Council, United Nations
Last year, the Palestinian Literary Festival (PalFest) scheduled their opening and closing sessions in East Jerusalem’s Hakawati Theater near the closed-down Orient House, almost next to the American Colony Hotel — and both were shut down by Israeli Police on orders from the Ministry of Interior. The Israeli explanation at the time was that security [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Human Rights, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians
This was utterly predictable. Two of three (later, according to a report in Ma’an News Agency four) suspects listed publicly as wanted in connection with the abduction, torture and murder of Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni in Gaza last week are now reported to have died yesterday, surrounded by Hamas forces during a siege on a [...]
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Filed under: Gaza, Human Rights, Palestine & Palestinians, Torture
Protesters in Ramallah’s central Manara Square said they ended their previously open-ended hunger strike on Sunday, for two reasons: (1) because they were informed that the Palestinian Authority (PA) had released 11 of the 23 political prisoners that the hunger strikers knew were imprisoned in PA jails in the West Bank, and (2) because Palestinian [...]
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Filed under: Gaza, Human Rights, Palestine & Palestinians
A reliable source has indicated that Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister who is now the part-time Special Middle East Envoy of the Quartet, is moving his office out of the legendary American Colony Hotel in East Jerusalem. Blair’s presence — and its overbearing security requirements — has contributed to ruining the American Colony [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Palestine & Palestinians, Quartet
The announcement of the IDF spokesperson, published today here, says, in full, that: In accordance with the directives of the Minister of Defense and as part of the situation assessments adopted by the defense establishment, a general closure was implemented in the Judea and Samaria region yesterday, Sunday, April 17th, 2011 at 23:59. The closure [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians
The news was released yesterday — it had apparently been known among Israeli media circles, but was put under “gag orders” at the request of Israeli authorities: two Palestinian teenagers from the village of Awarta (near Nablus in the northern West Bank) have been arrested (on 5 and on 10 April) for the murders of [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Human Rights, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians
The Hamas Ministry of Interior in the Gaza Strip — which has arrested four people accused of involvement in the brutal death of Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni and which has published the photos of three more men who are wanted for the murder — has announced that the Rafah crossing from Gaza into Egypt will [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Egypt, Gaza, Human Rights, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians
Jeff Halper, the coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) wrote a tribute to Vittorio Arrigoni, murdered in Gaza yesterday, and with whom Jeff apparently sailed to Gaza on the first Free Gaza expedition by sea from Cyprus in August 2008. Jeff wrote that: “Less than two weeks after losing another friend and [...]
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Filed under: Gaza, Human Rights, Palestine & Palestinians
Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni, who worked for Palestinian freedom and rights, was kidnapped in Gaza sometime in the last 24 to 48 hours. He was then terrorized and beaten, as could be seen from a videotape showing him blindfolded. The videotape, which had an Islamist song soundtrack and an Arabic-language commentary scrolling beside Vittorio’s image, [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Gaza, Human Rights, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians