GAZA, (PIC)-- The PA government committee for breaking the siege has announced Thursday it had achieved the full program that was prepared for the Hope convoy, which departed the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing point. Hamdi Sha'ath, the committee's president, said in press release from the Gaza Strip that members of the convoy visited hospitals, schools, universities, government departments, adding that the delegation saw for themselves the volume of the destruction left by the Israeli war on Gaza in many areas in the Strip. He added, "The delegation also held two separate meetings, one with families of the Palestinian prisoners, and the other with disabled persons and those who have special needs". The Hope delegation, Sha'ath pointed out, was shocked by the human tragedy in the Gaza Strip, and by the volume of destruction inflicted on the tiny Strip as a result of 22 days of merciless Israeli bombardment of it. Sha'ath, in this regard, hailed effo...

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on Thursday murdered Abdul Majid Dudeen, a prominent guerilla leader affiliated with Hamas’ military wing, the Izzidin Al-Qassam Brigades. Eyewitnesses said Israeli occupation troops, backed by some 16 military vehicles, stormed the small village of Skak, near Dura, 30 kilometers west of al Khalil (Hebron), and killed Dudeen at his hideout. Local sources said Dudeen was killed during a brief clash with Israeli occupation troops. The IOF accuses Dudeen of having carried out or masterminded several military operations against Israeli targets both in the West Bank and Palestinian lands occupied in 1948. Palestinian resistance fighters are constantly targeted by both the Israeli occupation army and the security agencies of the American-backed Palestinian Authority. Dudeen is survived by his wife and their two sons and three daughters. It is not clear if the Israeli occupation authorities will hand Dudeen’s body over to his family ...

CAIRO — To increase international pressure for Pres. Obama to call on Israel to end its blockade of war-torn Gaza, just days before Obama delivers his first speech from the Arab world here, TOMORROW a 66-person, largely American delegation will attempt to cross through the heavily policed, blockaded Egyptian city of Rafah into Gaza. The delegation, which will bring toys and playground building materials for Gazan children, will also collect signatures for an international petition calling on Obama to visit Gaza during his upcoming Middle East tour so he can witness the damage himself. The delegation will deliver to the U.S. Embassy in Cairo by June 4 in time for his historic speech. more

Obama and Abbas are meeting in Washington DC today to talk about the weather...and perhaps even the Middle East. I put it this way because you can't help thinking Abbas and Obama's conversation is about as relevant to the lives of ordinary Palestinians as musing about the weather. And to make it clear to anyone who wants to know, Israel will not be taking a blind bit of notice of the ritual pronouncements about the 'peace process' that will surely follow the end of the talks. They have made it known that the illegal settlement building and ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem will continue whatever the Hillary Clinton says in public. And the US is likely not saying anything too threatening to their Israeli buddies in private either.

This news comes on hot on the tracks of a renewed push by Israel to boost tourist travel. Unfortunately for them a recent poster campaign on the London Underground was withdrawn after complaints were received showing that the map of Israel used in the publicity in fact included the Golan Heights and Palestinian Territories TEL AVIV, May 26 (Reuters) - El Al Israel Airlines lost money in the three months to March as the economic crisis and fighting in the Gaza Strip hit passenger numbers, though costs fell along with fuel prices. Israel's national carrier said on Tuesday its first quarter net loss was $39.8 million or 8 cents a share, compared with a loss of $50 million or 10 cents a share in the same period last year. Revenue fell 26 percent to $346.7 million. Fighting in the Gaza Strip in early 2009, which impacted air traffic in and out of Israel, and a decline in business travellers led to a drop of 13 percent in the number of passengers in the quarter, while cargo revenue fell...

Israel intends to introduce a new law that demands allegiance to the 'Jewish state' from Palestinians living inside Israel. It is a ploy to deny citizenship to Arabs and maintain the "Jewish' identity of the state. Sounds horribly racist to me.

Haringey Stop the War Coalition Email haringey@stopwar.org.uk Bulletin: 27 May 2009 PUBLIC MEETING: ISLAMOPHOBIA: INNOCENCE BEHIND BARS DATE: TUESDAY 2ND JUNE, 7.00PM VENUE: TURNPIKE LANE MOSQUE, 389 WIGHTMAN ROAD, N8 0NA There is now extensive evidence of collusion by the British secret services in the torture of Muslims who were kidnapped and "rendered" to countries where torture of prisoners is allowed. Following the latest case to come to light, Britain's home secretary Jacqui Smith faces legal action over allegations that MI5 agents colluded in the torture of Jamil Rahman, a British former civil servant, by Bangladeshi intelligence officers. (See http://bit.ly/RaB9P ) On Tuesday 2 June, MOAZZEM BEGG, former detainee at Guantanamo prison, is speaking in Haringey at a public meeting on the issue ISLAMOPHOBIA: INNOCENCE BEHIND BARS. The venue is Turnpike Lane Mosque. The meeting is supported by Haringey Stop the War and is open to all. MOAZZEM BEGG, a British citizen, w...

From the Ma'an News Agency A delegation of European parliament members and pro-Palestinian activists toured key sites in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday after arriving with a shipment of medical supplies on Monday night. Twenty-two members of the Hope for Gaza Convoy entered through the Rafah crossing after Egypt turned dozens of other riders back at the border . The hundred-strong party travelled from Italy with ambulances and truckloads of wheelchairs and other supplies that have been made scarce in Gaza by Israel’s import restrictions. The delegation visited Gaza’s largest hospital, Ash-Shifa, delivering some of the medical supplies there. Doctors explained the conditions of treatment for the sick and wounded. Then the delegation went to the the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) building, which was destroyed by an Israeli air raid in January. Acting PLC speaker Ahmad Bahar received the group there. Bahar praised the efforts the delegation made to enter Gaza, and expressed regret ...

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- Saadi Al-Najar, a 25-year-old Palestinian held in administrative detention, without trial or charge, in Israeli occupation jails, has lost eyesight in his left eye due to deliberate medical neglect, the Palestinian prisoner's club said on Wednesday. Amjad Al-Najar, the director of the club in Al-Khalil, held the administration of the Negev prison fully responsible for the loss of Najar's eyesight. He explained that the administration refused doctors and legal societies' requests for the treatment of Najar. The detainee has been suffering from a health problem in his left eye ever since his detention two and a half years ago, the director elaborated. He noted that Najar was now in need of a speedy cornea transplant operation, and called on legal and international societies to pressure Israel into releasing Najar to enable him to undergo the surgery and restore his eyesight. Thanks to the Palestinian Information Center

The appearance of a story in the German magazine Der Spiegel claiming Hezbollah was behind the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri comes after the recent breaking of an Israeli spy ring based in southern Lebanon , which we reported on a couple of weeks ago. The Der Spiegel article, as Nasrallah points out, seems to be a pre-emptive move by Israel before the fingers get pointed their way. Nasrallah: Der Spiegel, Israel teamed for murder Hezbollah's Secretary General, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, calls the recent accusatory article in the German daily, Der Spiegel a cover-up for Israeli assassinations in Lebanon. "I consider the report in the Der Spiegel an Israeli accusation," Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in the Lebanese capital, Beirut on Monday calling the move "a plot" of "far-reaching aims". "The Israelis are acting preemptively before it is discovered that their spying networks were involved in the assassinations in Lebano...

VOTE ZAYTOUN IN THE TIMES WOMEN IN ETHICAL BUSINESS AWARDS *Vote for Zaytoun!* Zaytoun, which exports fair trade olive oil from Palestine, and makes a big difference to Palestinian farmers, is now in the news with its director Heather Gardner-Masoud a candidate for the Times ‘Women in Ethical Business Awards’. Please go to the link, read the fifth page of the article and press on the blue link in order to vote for Heather of Zaytoun: As the Times says : ‘Heather Gardner-Masoud is a director at Zaytoun the company she was inspired to set up after a visit to Palestine when she joined human rights observers accompanying farmers to harvest their fruit - she learnt about the scale of injustice first hand and was determined to find a UK market for the olive oil and other products.’ Thanks to Manchester University students for this info.

In addition to the depleted uranium and sewage lakes the Palestinians have to contend with in Gaza, on the West Bank it's the Israeli's simply dumping their unwanted toxic waste that is a growing concern, and is probably partly responsible for growing number of cancers in the region Israeli toxic waste threatens Palestinian life Fri, 22 May 2009 05:03:37 GMT Israeli waste disposal companies send dozens of refuse-filled trucks to Palestinian villages every day. Tel Aviv illegally dumps hazardous waste in the Palestinian West Bank, gifting cancer, sterility and mental disorders to the local population. In an exclusive interview with Press TV, Deputy Director of the Palestinian environmental authority Jamil Mtoor confirmed that Israel cuts disposal costs by discarding its waste on Palestinian territory at the expense of the population. "For several years, Israeli companies have been dumping solid and hazardous waste in different West Bank villages," Mtoor said. "The...

CodePink were last in Gaza for International Women's Day in March and were joined by Alice Walker on that occassion. Code Pink activists recently disrupted the AIPAC policy conference , the biggest meeting of its kind held by the main pro-Israel organisation in the US Report from Cairo, Tuesday, May 26th We have some great news to report!!! The day started out with a 3am call from one of our delegations in Al Arish saying that secret police had contacted them at 2pm to intimidate them and say they would not get into Gaza. We, in Cairo, told them to go on to the border and see what happens. Then at 9am in the morning, when all three groups got in their buses to go to the border, they were stopped at the first checkpoint, surrounded by riot police, and not allowed to even get off the bus. They were told that there were military exercises going on in the area and that they could not move forward to the border. Meanwhile, they saw other cars going in and out. But they were forced to t...

Gaza is littered with the depleted uranium Israel uses to strengthen its warheads. Now there will be many children born with deformities and even more precious land beyond human habitation or farming. Gaza / PNN - 'Citizens Action to Dismantle Nuclear Weapons Completely' has prepared a 33 page report showing the presence of tens of tons of depleted uranium in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli attacks of late December and January are the culprit, report the international organization. “The quantity of depleted uranium may amount to no less than 75 tons found in the soil and subsoil in the Gaza Strip,” is the study’s quote. As many have suggested, the Israeli military used or may have used depleted uranium in the ground and air assaults on the Strip during the operation in the period between 27 December 2008 and January 18, 2009. The report indicated that Norwegian Dr. Mads Gilbert, during the first few days of participation in voluntary humanitarian work at Gaza City’s Al Shifa Hosp...

Report by the Anti-imperialist Camp's delegation Rafah, May 24, late night For 10 days we have been waiting in Egypt to get into Gaza with the caravan "Hope" initiated by the "European Campaign to end the siege on Gaza". The caravan is composed of 120 people from a dozen European countries and about 40 vehicles (ambulances and trucks packed with medical goods). It has been planned to take over the vehicles coming from Genoa by ship in Alexandria. But the Egyptian authorities imposed a change of programme claiming "security reasons". We had to go to Port Said were we were forced to wait for the ship which in the meantime had to go the long way round. These – foreseeable – difficulties did not break our determination but helped to highlight once again the gravity of the situation in Gaza. Humanitarian help is still systematically blocked from entering Gaza. And the so-called "international community" keeps silent! Eventually on May 23 the c...

Gaza – Ma’an – A convoy of medical aid arrived in Gaza on Saturday, delivered by the Organization of Islamic Conference in support of the Palestinians. A’wni Al-A’klouk, head of the public service hospital in Gaza, said, "The hospital received this delivery which contained eight truckloads of medication, equipment and other aid to be distributed among all hospitals and non-governmental health centers in Gaza according to the need of each." Manal Siyam, head of the hospital's projects department, expressed gratitude for the efforts made by the Islamic Conference "and the role it is playing in supporting the Palestinians," affirming that the hospital will continue with efforts and contacts with international organizations and donor parties to continue delivering aid.

GAZA, (PIC)-- The Salahuddin Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, said on Friday that Jerusalem and the right of return are core issues of the Palestinian cause and cannot be relinquished. Secretary General of the Brigades, Abu Qasem, said, in a statement on Friday, that the statements made daily by Zionist leaders about Jerusalem and the Israeli occupation measures in the holy city are met with a suspicious Arab and Islamic official silence as if Jerusalem and the Aqsa mean nothing to the Muslims. He added that such silence encouraged Zionist leaders to go further in their statements and talk about abolishing the right of return of Palestinian refugees and even to reject the two-state solution as stipulated in the so called "peace accords" leaving Palestinians alone in the face of Zionist atrocities. He said that Zionist statements regarding Jerusalem and the right of return are rejected, stressing that these issues are used as means of putting pres...

Police say we don't have right to march! Well see.

Jeremy Issacs is missing the point. This isn't a question of censorship but rather a determination to boycott Israel and all its works for as long as it continues to oppress the Palestinian people. Well done Ken Loach for leaning on the festival organisers to return the blood money. From The Times A row threatened to engulf the Edinburgh International Film Festival yesterday after it bowed to pressure from the director Ken Loach and returned a £300 grant it had received from the Israeli Embassy. Sir Jeremy Isaacs, the former chief executive of Channel Four, accused the festival’s organisers of making “an appalling decision” and called on them to rescind it. Describing Loach’s intervention as an act of censorship, he said: “They must not allow someone who has no real position, no rock to stand on, to interfere with their programming.” The grant was intended to enable Tali Shalom Ezer, a graduate of Tel Aviv University, to travel to Scotland for a screening of her film , Surrogate. A...

Dr Shove, second from right, with fellow protesters outside the Egyptian embassy Gaza protester backs hunger strike by barred medics team A RETIRED consultant from Angel has voiced support for colleagues who have gone on hunger strike after being refused permission to enter war-devastated Gaza. Dr David Shove accused Britain’s Foreign Office and the British Embassy in Cairo of failing to put sufficient pressure on the Egyptian authorities to allow a medical aid team access to an area which suffered Israeli bombing early this year. In protest, three British medics went on hunger strike on the Egyptian border this week. A Solidarity Tent has been set up outside the Egyptian Embassy in the West End in support of Omar Mangoush, a cardiac surgeo...

From the Palestine Telegraph The Hope for Gaza Convoy, organised by the European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza (ECESG), are making final preparations in Port Said for the departure this morning to head to Al Areesh and Al Rafah. The organisers gathered the delegation into groups in order to consult on urgent procedural matters and to review current progress.There have been numerous delays since the cargo arrived in Alexandria on Saturday last. Since then the organisers have been awaiting the arrival of a ship in Alexandria to take the medicines and medical equipment to Port Said where it will leave by road for the border crossing at Al Rafah. Parliamentarians and other elected officials from Europe contacted the Foreign Ministry to clarify outstanding matters and to seek assurances of co-operation from the Egyptian authorities. Convoy Leader, Senator Fernando Rossi, from Italy said: “The Foreign Ministry have pledged their support for the humanitarian aims of the convoy to relieve ...

The Palestinian ministry for prisoners’ affairs in Gaza says that the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) are kidnapping Palestinian children, physically attacking them and using violence to interrogate them. The ministry underlined that international conventions prohibit the detention of children except in limited special cases on condition that they are well treated and their rights under international law protected. The statement pointed out that Israel does not respect any of these conventions and systematically kidnaps children from their homes, schools or on the streets and at checkpoints. The kidnapped children, according to the statement, are exposed to severe beatings and threats by IOF troops in order to inflict psychological harm on them so that they cannot think of resisting the occupation when they grow up. The statement pointed to the kidnapping of six Palestinian children a few days ago in one of Ramallah's nearby villages, saying that they were maltreated and interroga...

Judge rules that the police use of photographers against peaceful law- abiding protesters is illegal. London Met police Forward Intelligence Teams (FIT) are regularly seen at protests taking pics of protesters. This is a serious setback for the cops and a victory for the right to protest, but much more needs to be done to roll back police powers in the UK. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/may/21/police-surveillance-ruling-andrew-wood

The UN is to go ahead with its war crimes investigation with or without the cooperation of Israel. Good, but let's hope something comes of this. GENEVA (AP) — A U.N. investigation into possible war crimes in Israel and Gaza will go ahead with or without Israel's cooperation, the chief investigator said Wednesday. Israel regards the probe as "intrinsically flawed" because it was ordered by the U.N. Human Rights Council, which has an anti-Israel track record. But Richard Goldstone, a veteran prosecutor of war crimes in Rwanda and former Yugoslavia, said he wants his team to bring a balanced approach to the January conflict and was upset that Israel has turned a deaf ear to his appeals for cooperation. "I'm disappointed, and the members of the mission are disappointed, that we've had no positive response from the Israeli government," said Goldstone, a Jew with close ties to Israel. He said the team wanted to start in Israel, visit the southern part of t...

Not content with stealing Palestinian land, the Israeli state is determined to drive the people off what land they still have. ISM Gaza Strip video. Interview in Abou Yousef An Najar Hospital in Rafah with Randa Shalouf, a palestinian woman from the village of Shawka, east of Rafah, injured on the 7th of May by Israeli gunfire in her hand and chest. In the video you can aso see the x-ray photos with the bullet. (with English translation). farmingunderfire.blogspot.com

Israeli aircraft have bombed several targets in the Gaza Strip several hours after a rocket was fired at an Israeli town. Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from Gaza city, said at least four people, including two civilians, were injured in the Israeli raids. more

Saturday 23 May - assemble 3pm Trafalgar Square March via Downing Street to New Scotland Yard. The United Campaign Against Police Violence has called a national demonstration to highlight the issues of police violence and demand justice for those who have died in police custody. The police tactic of "kettling" demonstrators - essentially detaining protestors and bystanders without charge - will be turned on its head on the protest, when we kettle New Scotland Yard . At the end of the protest there will be a naming of the dead for those who have died in police custody, led by the families of the bereaved who have yet to receive justice. Over 1000 people have died in police custody in the last 40 years - yet no one has been found responsible. Protestors will demand the disbanding of the Territorial Support Group , the resignation of "Independent" Police Complaints Commission chair Nick Hardwick , justice for those killed in police custody and for the right to protes...

New Scotland Yard - Wednesday 20 May, 6.30pm In preparation for demonstration on Saturday, the families of some of those who have died in police custody will join campaigners to lay flowers and candles at New Scotland Yard in remembrance. This is before the demonstration on Saturday from Trafalgar Square to New Scotland Yard, where campaigners for justice and the right to protest will "kettle" New Scotland Yard. UNITED CAMPAIGN AGAINST POLICE VIOLENCE office@againstpoliceviolence.org.uk - www.againstpoliceviolence.org.uk 07894 49 7705

Solidarity Tent at Egyptian Embassy: UK medics on hunger strike at Gaza border   From Islington Friends of Yibna: Dear All,   Please join the Solidarity Tent with the UK medics who started today a hunger strike at the Gaza border.   We hope enough people would be able to keep the Solidarity Tent going for as long as the UK medics continue with their hunger strike.     Please join the Solidarity Tent at any time you can from noon tomorrow, Wednesday 20 May. We hope to keep the Solidarity Tent going at all hours, so please come at any time you can.   We'll be protesting against the collusion of the Egyptian authorities with the barbaric siege imposed by Israel and against the UK Foreign Office obstruction of even humanitarian aid.   Place:   Egyptian Embassy, 26 South Street, London W1K 1DW [nearest tube: Hyde Park Corner] Time: Wednesday 20 May from noon onward   At the Solidarity Tent we'll hold a symbolic hung...

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Noam Chomsky is no newcomer to harassment by pro-Israel organizations. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) once compiled a 150-page dossier on the famous author and linguistics professor, apparently to find information it could use against him, Chomsky said in an interview in late April. An ADL insider sent Chomsky the file, which included conversations, correspondence and other materials. Chomsky said it read like an FBI file. “It’s hard to nail this stuff down in a court of law, but it’s clear they essentially have spies in classrooms who take notes and send them to the ADL and other organizations,” Chomsky said. “The groups then compile dossiers they can use to condemn, attack or remove faculty members. They’re like J. Edgar Hoover’s files. It’s kind of gutter stuff.” Such covert tactics have yet to emerge publicly at the University of California at Santa Barbara. But the effort to discredit and censor criticism of Israeli policies has taken a potentially ominou...

Stand Up for Justice - Cycle for Peace! Join the Peace Cycle this October from Amman to Jerusalem Starting in Amman, the Peace Cycle will visit Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan before cycling to villages around Haifa and Nazareth and then riding as an international group through Jenin, Al-Fara, Qalqilya, Tulkarem, Nablus, Ramallah, Bil’in, Bethlehem, Hebron, and finally into the extraordinary city of Jerusalem. Get On Your Bike and Join Us! Learn about Palestinian culture and stay with Palestinian families See the land and the current situation with your own eyes Show solidarity and raise awareness about life under occupation Meet and support the people and groups working for justice and peace in Israel and Palestine. Go to www.thepeacecycle.com

The looming crisis in US/Israel relations is all over the front of Israeli newspaper Haaretz today. ShinBet says there is 'no chance of peace' as long as Hamas continues to rule Gaza while Netanyahu gives the US until the end of the year to stop Iran's alleged bid to become nuclear-armed to counter Israel's aggression in the region. Hamas is not impressed with Obama, commenting : Hamas' spokesperson in Gaza, Fauzi Barhoum, said on Tuesday that the Islamist organization is disappointed in the positions expressed on Monday by President Barack Obama during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to the White House.

Splits deepen for Fatah. As reported at the end of April their sixth conference arrangements are in disarray and now this: 82 Fatah leaders accuse Abbas of declaring coup against their Movement LONDON, (PIC)-- The London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper on Saturday said that 82 senior Fatah leaders issued a statement accusing Mahmoud Abbas of declaring a coup against the leadership of the Fatah Movement and using his clout and the advice of his corrupt entourage to control their Movement. The Fatah leaders criticized Abbas in their statement for taking unilateral decisions on behalf of the Movement with regard to its internal affairs and the convening of its sixth conference. The statement said that Abbas’s attempt to impose unilateral decisions on Fatah is a blatant infringement on the Movement’s internal statute and a defiance of its will, warning that Fatah is exposed to a systematic scheme aimed to eliminate it. The statement recalled the assassination of late PA pre...

Some comrades of mine are in Egypt and have been trying to enter Gaza these past two days. Egyptian state security has detained student activist Assem Baig: From Solomon's Minfield Assed texted. He's ok. He's not held separately from the rest of group anymore. The group includes Brits, Belgians and at least 1 Italian. More on mine and hossams twitter. http://twitter.com/solomonsmfield or arabawy Will email more once known. Other International activists are camping out in Rafah and will start a hungerstrike till Egyptian authorities allow them entry to Gaza And this from Hossam's site : Aid workers to enter into hunger strike at Rafah-Gaza border 18/05/2009 British, Belgian and Greek doctors, nurses and aid workers will go on hunger strike tomorrow over the Egyptian Authorities’ refusal to allow entry into Gaza. After constant attempts aid workers, doctors and nurses, have been refused entry in to the Gaza strip by the Egyptian authorities. Some doctors have been waiti...

GAZA, ( PIC )-- Hamdi Sha’at, the head of the government committee for the reception of delegations, stated Monday that a number of foreign activists intend to organize intensive solidarity campaigns in different European states against the Israeli siege imposed on the Gaza Strip. In a press release issued by the committee’s information office, Sha’at said that the solidarity campaigns include the opening of photo exhibitions about the Israeli war on Gaza and the organization of symposia, lectures, protests and new anti-siege convoys. The Palestinian official pointed out that a powerful anti-siege movement emerged in Europe, adding that the multinational activists who returned from Gaza work as ambassadors for the distressed Gaza people and carry their sufferings and concerns worldwide. The official also explained that the government committee had organized field visits for many delegations to bombed ...

Gaza Solidarity will be taking part in tomorrow's Press TV live global discussion on Palestine, featuring a girl who has been trying to get out of Gaza to seek medical treatment. Good to hear Obama actually mention the fact that Palestinians in Gaza struggle daily to find fresh water and that no reconstruction has taken place because of Israel 's criminal collective punishment policy (although Obama didn't say that last bit explicitly). Makes a change from the usual approach where the oppressor - Israel - can do no wrong. Ok, so it's only words from the US, but it was good to see Netanyahu looking uncomfortable. He didn't sound very convincing either when he likened the support of the Iranian government for the Palestinian resistance as a threat as great as that presented by the Nazis to European Jews. In fact his comments only served to belittle the real meaning of the Holocaust perpetrated in Hitler's industrial-scale genocide. The wilder Zionists keep overpl...

I've got my tickets today for the Two Plays for Gaza show this Thursday at the Hackney Empire and confirm that show is almost sold out so ring the number below now if you want to see Caryl Churchill's Seven Jewish Children and David Wilson's The Trainer. All funds raised are going towards the rebuilding of the Gaza Music School. For tickets (£15) call: the Hackney Empire box office on 020 8985 2424 or visit: www.hackneyempire.co. uk Two Plays for Gaza A benefit evening for the Gaza Music School & Stop the War Coalition Hackney Empire, Thursday 21 May @ 7.30 PM This exciting evening will include Caryl Churchill's powerful Seven Jewish Children , a 10-minute play about Gaza. The playwright Tony Kushner and Alisa Solomon said of it " . . . dense, beautiful, elusive and intentionally indeterminate. It's disturbing, it's provocative, but appropriately so given the magnitude of the calamity it entails." Caryl will introduce her play which will include...

From The Electronic Intifada Jonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada, 18 May 2009 The United Nation's watchdog on torture has criticized Israel for refusing to allow inspections at a secret prison, dubbed by critics as "Israel's Guantanamo Bay," and demanded to know if more such clandestine detention camps are operating. In a report published on Friday, the Committee Against Torture requested that Israel identify the location of the camp, officially referred to as "Facility 1391," and allow access to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Findings from Israeli human rights groups show that the prison has in the past been used to hold Arab and Muslim prisoners, including Palestinians, and that routine torture and physical abuse were carried out by interrogators. The UN committee's panel of 10 independent experts also found credible the submissions from Israeli groups that Palestinian detainees are systematically tortured des...

Good news from Scotland as film festival responds to protests and tells Israeli embassy they don't want their money and to be associated with a state that sees nothing wrong with killing hundreds of children in Gaza. The 2009 Edinburgh International Film Festival organisers announced on Friday they were returning money donated by the Israeli Embassy. The return of the money was accompanied by an admission that it had been “a mistake to accept the £300 from the Israeli Embassy” and followed a torrent of angry letters expressing incomprehension, fury or sadness at the EIFF being associated with the Israeli State. Many pledged to support SPSC pickets of screenings throughout the 2009 Festival, and an initial public protest planned for the following day (yesterday). Many were shocked at such a public association with the pariah state so soon after the massacres in Gaza, given Israel’s continuing siege and its ongoing ethnic cleansing and illegal settlement in the West Bank. The EIFF...

Palestinian militants attacked Israeli troops with two remote-controlled Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) on Sunday north of the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanun, witnesses told AFP . The army retaliated with tank fire without causing casualties, they said. Two groups -- the Al-Quds Brigades armed wing of the radical Islamic Jihad militant group and the Palestine Liberation Front -- claimed to have carried out the attack in statements released in Gaza. And in a surprise move Fatah and Hamas have agreed to create a joint security force in Gaza. The final round of Egyptian hosted reconciliation talks will take place in early July. Egypt set to open border? Egypt is thought to have promised Fatah and Hamas that if they can reconcile their differences in the name of national unity then they will open the border on a permanent basis. Such a move would be a major defeat for Israel , furthering undermining its strategic position position following its failed effort to wipe out the Hamas-led ...