A day commemorating the seizure of Palestinian land was marred Tuesday by the death of a Palestinian boy, shot by Israeli soldiers, near the Gaza border. The 15-year-old Palestinian, Mohammed al-Faramawi, was killed east of southern Gaza town of Rafah. Gaza medics and witnesses confirmed that he was shot dead by Israeli forces who fired on Palestinians marking Land Day. Several others were wounded in the incident, Iran's English Web site AlAlam News reported. more

Resistance fighters successfully ambushed IDF soldiers attempting an incursion into Gaza. Two Palestinians also dies. Israel has now lost four soldiers in the Gaza border zone. Israeli tanks withdrew from the strip this morning (five tanks and two bulldozers), but Gaza residents expect israel to commit more massacres in retaliation as helicopters and unmanned drones buzz overhead. Now, as Netanyahu debates how he should respond to American pressure regarding construction in East Jerusalem and the future of the settlements, he will, for the first time, have to face an urgent security problem: Four Israeli fatalities along the Gaza border in less than a week. The last thing Netanyahu needs right now is a war in Gaza. more

The Guardian newspaper said Wednesday that Israel’s persistence in defying the US call for halting settlement activities in occupied Jerusalem and its forging of British passports in order to murder a senior Hamas official in Dubai is a “mark of arrogance.” The Guardian highlighted, commenting about the issue of forged British passports and the last remarks made by Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington about occupied Jerusalem, that “both events in London and Washington are the marks of an arrogant nation that has overreached itself.” “The forging of British passports is the work of a country which believes it can act with impunity when planning the murder of its enemies, while simultaneously claiming to share the values of a law-based state,” the newspaper added. “Netanyahu's statements in Washington, made as he was preparing to meet Barack Obama, are the mark of a leader who thinks he can openly defy the will of Israel's closest military ally.” It also quoted US se...

pictured above - protest outside the BBC MEDIA ALERT: WHEN FACTS AND PROPAGANDA COLLIDE - THE BBC BENDS OVER BACKWARDS TO ACCOMMODATE ISRAELI CLAIMS When a Thai kibbutz worker was killed in Israel by a rocket launched from Gaza last week, BBC News online gave the incident headline coverage flagged up on its home page. (BBC news online, ‘Rocket fire from Gaza kills man in southern Israel’, 23:42 GMT, Thursday, 18 March 2010 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8574138.stm ) By contrast, the killing of two Palestinian teenagers, Mohammad Qadus and Osaid Qadus, by Israeli soldiers on Saturday was buried at the end of a short news report on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon's Middle East visit. Even worse, the BBC’s footnote simply echoed Israeli propaganda that “no live bullets were fired, only tear gas and rubber bullets”, despite ample evidence to the contrary. (BBC news online, ‘UN chief says Gaza suffering under Israeli blockade’, 11:26 GMT, Sunday, 21 March 2010, http://ne...

A defence campaign has been set up for the protestors who have been charged with offences at the Gaza demonstrations in January 2009. (DETAILS, UPDATES, PETITION: http://bit.ly/d1FqIA ) More than 20 of the 78 people charged have been sent to prison in an unprecedented campaign by the police. Almost all of those charged are Muslims. The campaign to defend the protestors has resulted in some good press coverage, and one of the first defendants to plead not guilty was acquitted last week. Please sign the petition in defence of the protestors, which will be delivered to the Home Office at a protest on Tuesday 30 March , 4.30pm. SIGN THE PETITION ONLINE: http://bit.ly/ccjdN8 DOWNLOAD THE PETITION FOR PRINTING: http://bit.ly/b1KAxH We are asking our supporters to download the petition for collecting signatures as widely as they can. Please send them to the Stop the War office in time for the 30 March protest at the Home Office.

Call for inquiry after video evidence clears Gaza protester The Metropolitan police were forced to drop charges today against a British man charged with violent conduct at a protest in London against the Israeli bombing of Gaza. It emerged they had failed to provide crucial video evidence until a day before the trial. From the Guardian

Make Israel pay for the destruction it wrought in Gaza. True to form the US and five European countries opposed the resolution - no wonder the West is hated in the Middle East and beyond. GENEVA — Israel should pay Palestinians reparations for loss and damages suffered during last year's war in the Gaza Strip, the U.N. Human Rights Council suggested Thursday. The 47-nation body didn't call for similar payments by Palestinians to Israelis. The resolution was opposed by the United States and five European countries. Israeli Ambassador Aharon Leshno-Yaar said the resolution was biased and defamatory, and would do nothing to bring Palestinians and Israelis closer together. The proposal by Pakistan passed by a majority of 29 to 6, with 11 abstentions. One country, Gabon, didn't vote. more

Israeli bulldozers have demolished several Palestinian homes and destroyed farmlands in the northern sector of the Gaza Strip after Israeli tanks opened fire on them. In the early hours of Tuesday, a number of Israeli army bulldozers uprooted trees and then leveled several homes after tanks opened fire on the periphery of the Beit Hanoun (Eretz) crossing and near the northern border of the Gaza strip, the International Middle East Media Center reported on Wednesday. more

Code Pink Disrupts Netanyahu Speech, Pulls Off AIPAC Hoax Activists with the group Code Pink interrupted Netanyahu’s speech on two occasions with calls to freeze settlement building and end the US-backed blockade of the Gaza Strip. One protester said Israel is guilty of war crimes. Earlier in the day, Code Pink pulled off a hoax by releasing a fake press release in AIPAC’s name calling for a complete freeze on Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories. Code Pink members also dressed up in suits and handed out copies of the statement outside the AIPAC conference to confused attendees. Several major news outlets picked up the statement before AIPAC issued a denial. We’ll have more with author Norman Finkelstein later in the broadcast. Audio report at Democracy Now here Al Jazeera report here CodePink press release CODEPINK Protests Netanyahu inside AIPAC Gala Activists call for end to siege on Gaza and illegal settlements WASHINGTON - March 23 - Shortly after announcing Israel’s co...

Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip has brought immense sufferings to Palestinians living in the coastal territory. The siege even impedes the supply of water, the most basic need for human survival. Now - 80 per cent of Gazans lack access to clean water. The head of Gaza's water authority says he has plans and the means to import water from other countries until self-dependency is reached, but Israel's blockade is the only thing in the way. Al Jazeera's Casey Kauffman reports from Gaza.

The ambassador, Ron Prosor, will not be expelled according to diplomatic reports. Instead it's more likely to be a lower-ranking staff member. [update] Telegraph claims it is the Mossad station chief who has been expelled . The UK is to expel an Israeli diplomat over the use of twelve cloned British passports in a Dubai murder, the BBC has learned. Foreign Secretary David Miliband will make a statement to Parliament later. Israel has said there is no proof that its agents were behind the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel room in January. Diplomatic sources stressed the British government has stopped short of accusing Israel of the murder. more

Swedish fashion chain H&M opened its first store in Israel on Thursday morning, but not everyone seems to be happy about it. The Swedish organization for solidarity with the Palestinians and the Palestinian association in Stockholm have called for a boycott H&M over its decision to open six more stores in Israel and urged the company to postpone the opening until Israel "respects international law." According to a statement issued by the organizations, "The familiar red H&M sign will be visible in the Azriel Mall in Tel Aviv and, a few days later, in the Malcha shopping centre in Jerusalem, a city gradually cleansed of its Palestinian population to be replaced by Jewish-Israeli settlements." more

UN General Sec. Ban on his first visit to Gaza since the war attacks Israel for the suffering of the population. Will Clinton call for the lifting of this illegal collective punishment by Israel when she speaks at the AIPAC conference today or for the punishment of the IDF criminals that killed four Palestinian teenagers this weekend? Of course not. Gaza – Ma'an – On his first visit to Gaza since the end of Israel's Operation Cast Lead, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the ongoing siege "not sustainable" adding that the continued closure "is wrong." More than a year after he spoke in front of the smoldering remains of the UN warehouse in Gaza City, hit by Israeli missiles during the December 2008-January 2009 war, Ban addressed Gazans in Khan Younis, saying they "are striving to provide for their families amid unacceptable, unsustainable conditions." The Israeli siege of Gaza, Ban said, "causes unacceptable suffering of human beings,...

Hillary Clinton is addressing AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) today to reassure the pro-Israel crowd that US support, no matter how many people the IDF kills, will be 'rock solid' (see text of her speech here ), apart from the odd cynical criticism to try and play to an Arab audience in the pretence that the US is neutral when in fact it is the main military and political backer of the settler state. Israel's Netanyahu will also be addressing the policy conference. Last year there were protests inside the conference centre organised by women's peace group CodePink . AIPAC, or the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, describes itself as the most important organization affecting the U.S. relationship with Israel. With a budget of $65 million, and membership now standing at over 100,000, it is no wonder that congressional staffers consider it one of the most powerful and effective lobbies on Capitol Hill. Once a year, AIPAC holds its annual conferenc...

Two Palestinians killed protesting restriction on access to farmland because of settler presence near Iraq Burin. The IDF is a terrorist organisation but as usual no condemnation from the western hypocrites. On Saturday near Nablus two Palestinian teenagers were killed by IDF for the 'crime' of throwing stones.

Israeli air strikes across Gaza this morning. Two people injured. Meanwhile the US has imposed sanctions against the Islamic National Bank and the Hamas-aligned al-Aqsa TV station . This comes as the European Unions head of foreign affairs visits the strip run by 'terrorists'. Western policy in the region in shot through with hypocrisy and contradiction - a stance born from trying to defend the oppressor against the oppresssed.

Berlin : A leading German Jewish peace group which has repeatedly criticized Israel's policies in the occupied territories, is to ship humanitarian aid to Gaza this spring. According to a press statement sent to IRNA in Berlin on Thursday, the German-branch of European Jews for a Just Peace in the Middle East ( EJJP ) is to deliver "urgently needed things like medicines, baby food, blankets, children's clothes and school material" to Gaza which remains under siege by Israel and Egypt. more

Rocket fire kills one in Kibbutz as EU's quasi foreign minister, Catherine Ashton, visits Gaza. Small Islamist group Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility for the attack. Hamas has been attempting to rein in rocket fire by other resistance groups. Israel, always keen to latch onto any excuse to try and kill Palestinians, has launched airstrikes in response.

"Not helpful" is all Obama has to say about the ethnic cleansing of East Jerusalem by its occupiers. So it is not surprising that hopes in Obama in the Arab world are evaporating quickly . Which is why the king of Jordan is feeling the heat . He says Jerusalem is a red line not to be crossed: AMMAN: Jordan’s King Abdallah on Wednesday demanded the international community take firm action to stop Israel’s actions in Jerusalem, saying the holy city is a “red line.” “ Jerusalem is a red line and the world should not be silent about Israel’s attempts to get rid of Jerusalem’s Arabs residents, Muslims or Christians ,” the king told Catherine Ashton, visiting EU foreign policy chief, according to a palace statement. Jordan, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, “demands the international community take a firm, swift, direct and effective action to stop Israel’s provocative measures in Jerusalem, that seek to change its identity and threaten holy sites there,” he said. m...

Israel's 'buffer zone' takes more of the limited amount of land available for cultivation out of use. Farmers are regularly harassed and shot at by Israel's soldiers. Gaza – Ma'an – Israeli forces opened fire during a demonstration in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday afternoon, protesters said. Abu Al-Walid Az-Zaq, member of the Popular Committee Against the Buffer Zone, said the demonstration was intended to reassert control over an Israeli "no-go area" near Beit Hanoun. The closure separates farmers and residents from their lands and property, and runs counter to claims that the military evacuated all of Gaza during its 2005 redeployment. more