Abdallah Abu Rahmah, the anti-wall activist from Bil'in village, is being kept in prison despite having completed his sentence for the 'crime' of organising an 'illegal march' – yet another example of the undemocratic nature of the Israeli state. An Israeli military court has prevented the release of a West Bank activist even though he has already served his one year prison sentence. The president of the military court of appeals Monday ordered Abdallah Abu Rahmah -- whose case has drawn international attention -- to stay in prison after a last minute petition by the Israeli Military Prosecution to extend his sentence. Abu Rahmah was convicted of incitement for organizing weekly demonstrations in the West Bank village of Bil'in against what Israel calls its security barrier and Palestinians call the apartheid separation wall. Israel says the barrier is needed for security, Palestinians say it is a land grab which cuts through village farmlands. The protests sta...

Zionist lobby group AIPAC has descended into internecine warfare with an ex-policy chief threatening to expose the fact that AIPAC organises a mass spying operation in the US and regularly trades US intelligence secrets. No statement as yet from the US government. You might have thought it would be interested in prosecuting the individuals involved with treason, but such is the alliance between Israel and the US, sealed by their joint desire to keep the Arabs in their place, that of course nothing much will be done about it. The good news, however, is that AIPAC is beginning to show the strains of trying to sell the indefensible to the American public, as its leaders spend money and time fighting each other. Top AIPAC officials visited prostitutes, regularly watched porn at work: claim Is US's most influential advocate for Israel about to implode? A former foreign policy chief for the largest Israeli lobby in the US is threatening to provide evidence members of the organization reg...

Settlers are on the rampage on the West Bank, launching attacks on Palestinian villages , evicting Palestinian families from their homes and stealing water from Palestinian farmers, preventing them from accessing their land, and destroying their olive groves . And of course the building programme pushes forward at a frenetic pace - creating facts on the ground. But there is some good news. AIPAC , the main Zionist lobby group in the US, is becoming increasingly split as its leadership descends into internecine warfare.

The Palestine Telegraph reports this morning that although Egypt will allow the Viva Palestina 5 convoy to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing, George Galloway remains persona non grata and will be barred. Cairo, October 14, (Pal Telegraph) Egyptian Foreign Ministry announced that Cairo is in the process of informing the organizers of the convoy lifeline 5 to allow them access to the port of El Arish, near the Gaza Strip. Official spokesman of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, Hossam Zaki said: "Now we're going to inform the organizers of the convoy that we will allow them to sail from the Syrian port of Latakia, to the Egyptian port of El Arish”, stressing that Egypt's stance towards British MP George Galloway has not changed, in reference to the decision to ban him from entering Egypt. more

Convoy in negotiations with Egypt to allow crossing into Gaza through Rafah. Still waiting at Syrian port of Latakia. by Jim Nichol, on the convoy The fifth Viva Palestina convoy from Britain is nearing Gaza. Human rights lawyer and socialist Jim Nichol reports from the convoy Kayseri, Turkey: School children at the Hisarciklioglu high school line up to wave as we pass by. This was the school of Furkan Dogan. He was only 19-years-old when he was killed by the Israelis on the Mavi Marmara when they attacked the Gaza aid flotilla. He was the youngest to be killed. At the head of his grave is a poster with Furkan’s photo. He looks much younger than his 19 years. So much younger. The grave is planted with blues, yellows, pinks, orange and whites, and a single red rose. There are tears. Furkan was shot five times. Leaving Turkey: I’d like to get your sympathy by telling you that I am living on the baked beans that I bought in Tescos. But it would not be true. In every town we are feasted ...

TAKE ACTION AGAINST ISOLATION - FREE AHMAD SA'ADAT! INTERNATIONAL DAYS OF ACTION - OCTOBER 5-15, 2010 Ahmad Sa'adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, has been held in isolation in a series of prisons since March 16, 2009, with his isolation renewed again and again by occupation courts. He has been transferred from prison to prison, and is currently held in the isolation section of Ramon prison in the Naqab desert. Within these isolation units, Sa'adat has been placed further inside a separate isolation unit where he is confined without access even to the other prisoners in isolation, and deprived of basic human rights. His personal books have been confiscated and he is allowed access to newspapers only once or twice weekly. He is denied access to English and Arabic language newspapers and allowed only Hebrew-language media. He has been repeatedly denied family visits - his wife, Abla, has been allowed only two visits during his ent...

Jordanian Aid Convoy crossed the city of Homs on Monday, and is heading for Latakia port. It includes 52 trucks, 120 activists and humanitarian aid offered from the Arab Gulf States and Jordan to the people of Gaza. Earlier, The Gaza-bound Lifeline 5 aid convoy, which includes 52 trucks, 120 supporters and humanitarian aid, crossed the Nassib border crossing point in Daraa, southern Syria. Coordinator of the Jordanian and Arab Gulf campaign Abdulfattah Kelani said that the convoy is heading to Gaza to express the Arab nation's desire to break the siege imposed on the people of Gaza, voicing appreciation of the limitless Syrian support for delivering aid to Gaza. He noted that Arab participation in Lifeline 5 makes up around two thirds of participants, explaining that the convoy is split into three parts; one from Europe and Turkey, one from North Africa and Maghreb, and one from the Arab Gulf countries and Jordan. more at Jordan's English language Day Press News

Two IDF staff sergeants have been indicted for forcing a nine-year-old Palestinian boy to open a package suspected of containing an explosive device. The incident only came to light after testimony at the Goldstone hearing which Israel refused to co-operate with. Although indicted, whether the soldiers will receive any punishment is an open question, with the move more likely a bit of window-dressing by the Israeli state in order to keep up the pretense that it is a democracy where the rule of law prevails. The maximum sentence they can receive is three years in prison, although it's more probable that the sentence will be a suspended one.

Video above from Iran's Press TV shows the convoy about to depart from Ankara, Turkey, en route to Syria. The convoy was met at the Syrian border by a couple of hundred Palestinian refugees and an official reception Meanwhile, Palestinian human rights groups are furious with the PA for going along with the postponement by the UN Human Rights Council of an international criminal inquiry into the Mavi Marmara massacre.

No one killed onboard the Irene, a 10-metre catamaran involved in the symbolic gesture to bring in small quantities of medicine and other vital supplies, but treatment was brutal by all accounts, including being electrocuted with tasers. The mission follows hard on the heels of the Mavi Marmara which saw nine activists killed in cold blood by the IDF. A fifth Viva Palestina land convoy is currently in Turkey en route to Gaza in addition to more aid boats. Five Israeli activists who attempted to break their country's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip in a boat have been released from police custody, though five others who had been on board the ship are set to be deported. Yonatan Shapira, a former pilot in the Israeli air force, said after being released on Tuesday that Israeli marines who boarded the yacht Irene were "very brutal". "They didn't kill us like they killed other Palestinians and Muslims, but they were very brutal. I got shot with a taser shock gun .....

Israeli pirates, masquerading as a navy, have taken over the Irene, a Jewish-manned aid boat headed for Gaza. No one killed this time. The Israeli Navy has intercepted a Gaza-bound boat with nine Jewish activists on board and escorted it to Israel's Ashdod port. The activists' set sail from Cyprus on Sunday, hoping to break Israel's blockade of Gaza and deliver supplies, including children's toys. But they had said they would not resist if they were thwarted, and the Jerusalem Post reports that the Israeli Navy "peacefully" boarded the activists' boat Tuesday. The encounter was being closely watched, four months after Israeli commandos raided a similar Gaza-bound boat from Turkey, resulting in a violent struggle that left nine pro-Palestinian activists dead, including eight Turkish citizens and one Turkish-American. more

Thanks to Jews for Justice for Palestinians . An Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson has called this latest attempt to bust open the siege ''a provocative joke that isn't funny''. The boat has just left Cyprus so should be in Gazan territorial waters very soon. A boat carrying aid for Gaza’s population and organized by Jewish groups worldwide has set sail from Cyprus today at 13:32 local time The boat, Irene, is sailing under a British flag and is carrying nine passengers and crew, including Jews from the US, the UK, Germany and Israel as well as an Israeli journalist. The boat’s cargo includes symbolic aid in the form of children’s toys and musical instruments, textbooks, fishing nets for Gaza’s fishing communities and prosthetic limbs for orthopaedic medical care in Gaza’s hospitals. The receiving organization in Gaza is The Palestinian International Campaign to end the siege on Gaza, directed by Dr. Eyad Sarraj and Amjad Shawa, Director of PNGO The boat will at...

Now there's a surprise - Israel ignores international opinion and abandons its fairly weak 'moratorium ' on settlement building on the West Bank. Abbas promised that any such resumption would signal the end of a peace process that hasn't actually started. So why does Abbas have to go to the Arab League to work out what to do next? Already the Fatah-aligned al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade has made it clear that any continuation of talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority would be a disaster for the national struggle. Surely Abbas is aware that following his treacherous move to help the US and Israel and kick the Goldstone Report on Israel's Cast Lead massacres, he is in a dangerous credibility-deficit position. As for Obama and the US, they seem only too happy to allow the settlers to continue their colonial. Claims to contrary are hollow - unless they are about to slap some serious sanctions on Israel and to shutdown arms sales. Not going to happen. The settlers ...

The Israeli Navy has shot dead a Gaza fisherman as part of its ongoing campaign to wrest control of Palestinian natural gas reserves by making Gaza's territorial waters their own. It's probably no accident that renewed efforts to break the siege by pro-Palestine activists onboard the latest and largest flotilla is heading for the strip. Against the background of Israel's illegal bloackade, seafood is one of the few sources of high-protein food available to Gazans. A Palestinian fisherman was shot dead by the Israeli navy off the blockaded coast of the Gaza Strip on Friday, medics in the enclave said. "Fisherman Mohammed Bakr died by a bullet by the Israeli navy today in the sea north of the Gaza Strip," said Adham Abu Selmiya, who heads the Palestinian territory's medical services. more

UN Human Rights Council's has issued a damning verdict on the murder of nine pro-Palestine activists, accusing Israel of war crimes citing clear grounds for prosecutions. Unfortunately the US will likely be able to block any serious action against the terror state. A United Nations panel of human rights experts has accused Israel of war crimes through willful killing, unnecessary brutality and torture in its "clearly unlawful" assault on a ship attempting to break the blockade of Gaza in May in which nine Turkish activists died. The report by three experts appointed by the UN's Human Rights Council (UNHRC) described the seizure of MV Mavi Marmara, a Turkish vessel, by Israeli commandos as illegal under international law. more

Viva Palestina 5 left London yesterday to deliver aid for Gaza. The land convoy is part of a pincer movement in combination with a large flotilla that will be arriving by sea at the same time. Two other land convoys are also departing for Gaza shortly, from Casablanca and Doha. The combined efforts make this the biggest attempt so far by international Gaza solidarity activists to break Israel's illegal and inhumane siege. All together about 150 vehicles are expected to enter Egypt at Al-Arish before crossing over into Gaza. The biggest international aid convoy yet to beleaguered Gaza sets off from London on Saturday. It aims to break the Israeli siege of the territory and deliver crucial relief supplies. Two survivors of the Mavi Marmara massacre, Nicci Enchmarch and Kevin Ovenden, are among the activists taking part. They were on board the ship on May 31 when Israeli commandoes killed nine of their Turkish friends and fellow activists. Following the attack they were held incommuni...

The British Trade Union Congress, which brings together the entire trade union movement, has voted to boycott and divest from firms operating in the occupied territories and has condemned the murderous attack on the flotilla and castigated the Israeli trade union movement - the Histadrut - for going along with it. Britain's trade union movement has sent its strongest ever message of support for the Palestinian people by calling for boycott and disinvestment from firms that profit from the occupation and illegal settlements... ...The TUC general council will now stand shoulder to shoulder with the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unionists and Britain's Palestine Solidarity Campaign in pressing for an end to the siege of Gaza, a full inquiry into the flotilla attack and progress towards a "free Palestine." more

Close on the heels of Sunday's incursion and killings, Israel launched air strikes on the tunnels in the south. Reports indicate at least one person has been killed. Israel excuses the killing as a response to rocket fire from Gaza. At least one Palestinian has been killed and two others injured after Israeli fighter jets bombed three smuggling tunnels running between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, Palestinian medics say. more

The UN reports that Palestinian children are returning to bombed out schools in Gaza while on the West Bank they have to put up with harassment from settlers on their way to and from poorly maintained and equipped schools, despite the best efforts of the Palestinian Authority. 10,000 children will start school in tents and caravans. And all this is against a background of the general psychological stress and damage brought on by war and occupation. The Minister of Education and Higher Education, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and the United Nations relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) warn that educational standards have plummeted to an unacceptable level, despite the efforts of the Palestinian Authority and the support of the international community. Today, as over a million children return to school in the oPt, an unacceptable number of them are facing long and precarious journeys to schools ill-equipped to receive them. In Gaza, more than a year after 'Cast Lead...

Israel has been killing civilians again. On Sunday they invaded Gaza from the north and south with tanks and drones. It's really hard to call these IDF people soldiers as they go about their murderous business. A grandfather and his son are among the dead. Israel is a terrorist state but of course Obama will continue the policy of arming it to the teeth. Meanwhile, they burn and otherwise desecrate Korans in the US. This hasn't been reported in the US media as far as I can tell but there's a Guardian report here Three Palestinia Publish Post ns including two members of one family were killed on Sunday evening in an Israeli artillery bombardment targeted the area of northeast of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip. Read more at the Palestine Telegraph .