Posted on March 9th, 2010 by Marian Houk
In a sharp statement, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, currently on a visit to Israel in which there has been a lot of schmoozing going on (but tomorrow he visits Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah), said tonight that “I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Negotiators and negotiations, Palestine & Palestinians, USA
Posted on March 9th, 2010 by Marian Houk
A shocking story: Ma’an News Agency reported from Chicago today that “Richard Falk, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, said on Monday the Palestinian Authority (PA) urged him to step down after he criticized the PA’s treatment of a UN war crimes report”.
Ma’an added that Falk “said [...]
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Filed under: Gaza, Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, United Nations Agencies and Programmes
Posted on March 9th, 2010 by Marian Houk
According to a report compiled by three senior Haaretz correspondents (Barak Ravid, Akiva Eldar, Avi Issacharoff) published today, U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell, who met with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah yesterday after two days of talks in Israel, “told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, International Humanitarian Law, Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Negotiators and negotiations, Palestine & Palestinians, USA
Posted on March 8th, 2010 by Marian Houk
The U.S. State Department has just released the following statement in the name of U.S. Special Envoy George Mitchell: “I’m pleased that the Israeli and Palestinian leadership have accepted indirect talks. We’ve begun to discuss the structure and scope of these talks and I will return to the region next week to continue our [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Negotiators and negotiations, Palestine & Palestinians, USA
Posted on March 7th, 2010 by Marian Houk
Is that the whole point?
Are these proposed U.S.-led “indirect” talks between Israelis and Palestinians intended only to keep a holding pattern until the Palestinian local and municipal elections scheduled for 17 July?
Voter registration for these Palestinian elections began on Saturday 6 March, and will continue until 16 March.
UPDATE: The P.L.O. Executive Committee has [...]
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Filed under: International Humanitarian Law, Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Palestine & Palestinians, USA
Posted on March 6th, 2010 by Marian Houk
Palestinian officials are saying that they were under too much pressure from the Europeans and the Arabs to resist any longer accepting an American proposal to undertake “indirect” or “proximity” talks with Israel after more than a year of no negotiations. “It’s only for four months”, Palestinian officials say, apologetically, with a shrug of [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Gaza, International Humanitarian Law, Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Negotiators and negotiations, Palestine & Palestinians, UN General Assembly, UN Secretary-General, UN Security Council, USA
Posted on March 1st, 2010 by Marian Houk
The 14-day detention order issued by a Gaza prosecutor for “security concerns” against British freelance film maker and journalist Paul Martin is due to expire today. There were reports yesterday that the prosecutor may ask to extend Martin’s detention for another 14 days.
Martin had returned to Gaza 14 days ago to testify in court [...]
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Filed under: Gaza, Israel, Journalism and Journalists, Palestine & Palestinians
Posted on February 28th, 2010 by Marian Houk
Where to begin?
Israel’s YNet news website is reporting today that Israel’s State President Shimon Peres “is unpleased by the government’s decision to renovate a selected list of heritage sites – which includes the Cave of the Patriarchs [which is also, for Palestinians and Muslims worldwide, the Ibrahimi or Abraham Mosque in Hebron] and Rachel’s Tomb [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians
Posted on February 27th, 2010 by Marian Houk
The very estimable journalist Chris Hedges wrote in an article published by Truthdig on 1 February: “ ‘The very notion that on any given story all you have to do is report what both sides say and you’ve done a fine job of objective journalism debilitates the press’, the late columnist Molly Ivins once wrote. [...]
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Filed under: Israel, Journalism and Journalists, Palestine & Palestinians
Posted on February 26th, 2010 by Marian Houk
The UN General Assembly has asked UNSG BAN Ki-Moon to report back in five months about Israeli and Palestinian progress in investigating concerns about war crimes during the IDF’s three-week Operation Cast Lead in Gaza last year.
That does not mean, however, that there is a five-month deadline for the completion of the investigations. [...]
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Filed under: BAN Ki-Moon, Gaza, Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians
