No Jobs for Gazans, Thanks to Israeli Fascism

Related Link

‘What is Imperialism?’ – Public Meeting; Report and Video

Today’s Palestine / Israel Links

U.S. criticizes Israel over Jerusalem settlement – but as usual, does nothing
#BDS: BDS to question ‘Made in Israel’
Photos: lovely Gaza…
May the EU grow some balls and treat Israel as it deserves
Probe launched on ‘Travel Palestine’ ad omitting Israel
Giffords Among U.S. Gun Culture’s Latest Victims
Until now, I don’t believe anyone knew that the Mossad had actually made a prior failed attempt on al-Mabouh’s life also in Dubai.
Israel makes too many mistakes for them to be mistakes
New Yorkers protest Gaza blockade
Email Campaign to Release Abdallah Abu Rahmah!
Israel engulfs an entire West Bank village in tear gas
New rightist video urges murder of deputy AG over ‘persecution’ of Jews
Shin Bet backtracks on support for bill to revoke citizenship for terrorists
Health Ministry: Gaza Strip will soon run out of dialysis solution, insulin

Today’s Wikileaks Links

1986 Privacy Law Is Outrun by the Web
In WikiLeaks fight, U.S. journalists take a pass

Today’s Other Links

Video – Trashed in Iraq: ‘Look what they’ve done to us!’
Joint Strike Fighter latest puts our defence planning under siege
So sorry authoritarian state, America still loves you
Patriot Act, a Nazi law: Ex-CIA official
Nick Turse: Does the Pentagon Really Have 1,180 Foreign Bases?

The US Government Digs The Hole Deeper

With its credibility seriously eroded by Wikileaks, the US government is digging its hole deeper with Department of Justice subpoenas of the private DM messages of Wikileaks supporters.

Birgitta Jonsdottir, an MP for the Movement in Iceland, said last night on Twitter that the “USA government wants to know about all my tweets and more since november 1st 2009. Do they realize I am a member of parliament in Iceland?”

She said she was starting a legal fight to stop the US getting hold of her messages, after being told by Twitter that a subpoena had been issued. She wrote: “department of justice are requesting twitter to provide the info – I got 10 days to stop it via legal process before twitter hands it over.”

She said the justice department was “just sending a message and of course they are asking for a lot more than just my tweets.”

Jonsdottir said she was demanding a meeting with the US ambassador to Iceland. “The justice department has gone completely over the top.” She added that the US authorities had requested personal information from Twitter as well as her private messages and that she was now assessing her legal position.

“It’s not just about my information. It’s a warning for anyone who had anything to do with WikiLeaks. It is completely unacceptable for the US justice department to flex its muscles like this. I am lucky, I’m a representative in parliament. But what of other people? It’s my duty to do whatever I can to stop this abuse.”

Twitter would not comment on the case. In a statement, the company said: “We’re not going to comment on specific requests, but, to help users protect their rights, it’s our policy to notify users about law enforcement and governmental requests for their information, unless we are prevented by law from doing so.”

Most of Twitter’s messages are public, but users can also send private messages on the service.

Marc Rotenberg, president of the online watchdog the Electronic Privacy Information Centre (EPIC) in Washington, said it appeared the US justice department was looking at building a case against WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, over its publication of secret US documents.

EPIC has already requested that the US authorities hand over information about their investigations into people who have donated to WikiLeaks via Mastercard, Visa or PayPal.

“The government has the right to get information, but that has to be done in a lawful way. Is there a lawful prosecution that could be brought against WikiLeaks? It seems unlikely to me. But it’s a huge question here in the US,” said Rotenberg.

To its credit, Twitter has publicised the subpoenas enabling those on the list, now revealed by Glenn Greenwald, to resist them legally.

Greenwald comments:

Suffice to say, this is a serious escalation of the DOJ’s efforts to probe, harass and intimidate anyone having to do with WikiLeaks. Previously, Appelbaum as well as Bradley Manning supporter David House — both American citizens — had their laptops and other electronic equipment seized at the border by Homeland Security agents when attempting to re-enter the U.S.

The US government contortions increasingly remind me of those of Bjelke Petersen’s Queensland police state when faced with the Fitzgerald Inquiry. This inquiry was mentioned by Julian Assange in his “Jerilderie letter” published in The Australian the night before his incarceration. In the absence of a Royal Commission and the unwillingness of the superpower to incorporate and submit to international law however, we have Wikileaks, which in one sense is a form of open jurisdiction.

UPDATE

@rixstepnews Send all your secret Twitter stuff to or fax it to +1 703-299-3981 #Assange #subpoena #WikiLeaks #
@rixstepnews Everybody collect their tweets and DMs and email them to . Send at least two copies. #Assange #subpoena #WikiLeaks #
@ioerror It seems quite wrong that I feel safe in Iceland while simultaneously having a sense of apprehension about returning to the USA next week. #
@wikileaks Note that we can assume Google & Facebook also have secret US government subpeonas. They make no comment. Did they fold? #
@ioerror Now’s a good time to note that *the world* needs strong anonymity. Help out: https://www.torproject.org/getinvolved/volunteer.html.en #
@ioerror I wonder if the subpoena is merely a front to legally introduce evidence captured by the confirmed NSA wiretaps two blocks from Twitter HQ? #
@Jinjirrie RT @TheJusticeDept January is National Stalking Awareness Month. http://is.gd/klycZ #irony #wikileaks #
@Colvinius Does this mean you? “@spyblog Subpoena demands usernames & IP addresses of all 634.892 current Followers of the “wikileaks” Twitter account” #

UPDATE 2 (recording my tweets for the stalking DOJ’s convenience since the ‘DOJ does not collect comments or messages through this account.’)

@Jinjirrie Hey @TheJusticeDept if you want to know about me, follow me, you might learn something about justice3 #
@Jinjirrie Instead of harassing & repressing Wikileaks & hr activists, US govt shd end its crimes against humanity & prosecute its torturing criminals #
@Jinjirrie The more the US govt attempts to suppress the truth about its crimes & protects its torturing crims, the less its credibility #
@Jinjirrie The less the US govt’s credibility, the less people will choose to holiday there, invest there, or have anything to do with it. #
@Jinjirrie Tourism is of course, the second biggest US export earner after defence. The US govt’s behaviour is thus inimical to its peoples’ welfare. #
@Jinjirrie The US debt is now $14t – the US needs every export dollar it can manage, the chinese aren’t happy about US printing more money #
@Jinjirrie China and Russia have already moved to trading bilaterally in their own currencies #
@Jinjirrie The devaluation of the USD due to the Fed printing more money devalues Chinese investments in the US – there are consequences, US #
@Jinjirrie What happens when the world tires of carrying the US, which has attained its wealth from global exploitation? #

Today’s Wikileaks Links

DOJ subpoeans Twitter records of numerous WikiLeaks volunteers
Journalism WikiLeaks Style
Julian Assange Defence Fund
Terror, Intelligence and You: Partners at the fear Ballet
Is the U.S. a Fascist Police-State?
DOJ sends order to Twitter for Wikileaks-related account info
Declan McCullagh : U.S. v. Bell subpoena
US DOJ subpoenas my twitter account info
Besieged Assange hires PR team
A Walled Wide Web for Nervous Autocrats
Proof-of-concept hack for encrypted direct messages on Twitter
Bringing the ‘Bush Six’ to justice
WikiLeaks demands Google and Facebook unseal US subpoenas
Icelandic Interior Minister Ögmundur Jónasson Says Wikileaks case is “Odd and Grave”
Icelandic “Wikileaks” MP will fight US Government
Today’s Palestine / Israel Links

Open Letter to Jon Bon Jovi: This one should go out to the Palestinians!*
Israel’s Knesset Targets Leftist Organizations
Border guards bar infant from Jerusalem for medical treatment
‘Mossad behind Iran scientist’s murder’
Ma’ariv Columnist: Investigate David Ben-Gurion & Natan Alterman
Joseph Massad: Sectarianism and its discontents

The irony remains, however, that it is the intolerant Americans, Europeans, and the Israelis and their extremist intolerant, though at times unwitting, local allies, namely the violent minority of sectarians among Islamists, who stand to benefit most from the Alexandria tragedy. Unless intellectuals in Egypt and the Arab world, Muslim and Christian, religious and secular, resist joining this international alliance of the intolerant, they may very well help them achieve their goals.

Occupation Laws in Israel? :

Like it or not, the fact is that the rabbis simply put into clear words the anti-democratic implications of the term “Jewish State”. It is the privileges of Israel’s Jewish citizens and the policy of progressively marginalizing the Arabs that are the source of racism. The rabbis are outspoken about it, the Knesset and government prefer a more subtle approach. In order for Israel to be a Jewish State in the moral sense, that is, do not unto Arabs what is hated by Jews, it must be democratic. Democracy is the institutional manifestation of the Jewish doctrine that we are all created in His image.

Israel: Iran Cannot Produce Nuclear Bomb Before 2015
Palestinian President accepts third-party observers on borders
Chile’s recognition of Palestine useless: Israel

Other Links

America now over $14 trillion in debt
When Science Goes Psychic
Journal’s Paper on ESP Expected to Prompt Outrage
Pirate Party Members Arrested in Tunisian Censorship Revolt
IRAQI OCCUPATION AND HIGHER EDUCATION: THE GHENT CHARTER : Richard Falk

Are we not human? not according to Israel and Amerikkka

Today’s post preserves two nauseating vignettes, of crimes against humanity by Zionist and Amerikkkan flunkeys, with hearts frozen against those whom they palpably regard as less than human, less deserving of consideration provided to their own elites.

The first is Anas Saleh, a “20-year old Gaza resident, who died on 1 January 2011 from a liver disease in Shifa Hospital in Gaza”.

Although the patient was in a critical medical condition, which was known to the Israeli authorities, Israel prevented his exit from Gaza for lifesaving medical treatment. Adalah Attorney Fatmeh El-Ajou filed the complaint on behalf of the victim whose case was followed and documented by PHR-I and Al Mezan.

The human rights organizations argue in the complaint that the denial of an exit permit in these circumstances is an act against the legal obligation to provide medical treatment to save the life of the patient, an act which brought about, or at least hastened, the death of the deceased.

The aforementioned act, or failure, raises the suspicion of manslaughter (section 298 of the penal law, 1977), and/or causing death by negligence (sections 304 and 309 (4) of the penal law, 1977) and responsibility for helpless person and violation of obligation of perant or of responsible person (sections 322 and 337 of the penal law).

In September 2010, Anas Saleh was diagnosed with a liver disease, Budd Chiari Syndrome (a clinical syndrome resulting from obstruction of the veins in the liver). Due to a lack of appropriate medical treatment in the Gaza Strip health system, his condition deteriorated into acute liver failure and hepatitis.

The patient was referred for lifesaving medical treatment to Muqassed Hospital in East Jerusalem, and a hospital referral and appointment were in his possession for 26 December 2010. On 13 December 2010 the family presented a request, via the Palestinian Liaison Office, to the Israeli authorities in order to obtain an exit permit from Gaza.

Thirteen days later, on 26 December 2010, the patient’s hospital appointment date, the army informed the Palestinian Liaison Office that the patient must appear for interrogation by the Israel Security Agency (ISA or Shabak) on 30 December 2010 to further consider his request. However, on that date the patient was already unconscious, in a comatose state, and could not appear at the interrogation.

This information was forwarded, according to the Palestinian health coordinator, to the Israeli military on that same day, with a request to speed up the request procedure and to issue an exit permit from Gaza urgently.

Paradoxically, despite the ISA continued to insist that the patient appear for questioning. According to the father’s testimony, on 28 December 2010 he received a telephone call from a man who introduced himself as an ISA representative, and requested that his ill son present himself for questioning on the following day. The father informed him that his son was in a coma and asked that he be allowed to leave for medical treatment without delay.

Throughout this process, medical documents substantiating the patient’s medical condition were transmitted to the Israeli authorities. A final medical document confirming the patient’s critical condition was sent on 29 December 2010.

The patient died in Shifa Hospital in Gaza 1 January 2011 at 18:00 (6 pm). Until today, no response to the request has been issued by the Israeli authorities.

UPDATE

Border guards bar infant from Jerusalem for medical treatment

Israeli soldiers deployed at the Zaytoun checkpoint east of Jerusalem turned away a mother and child with a medical permit to enter the city, on the grounds that the 18-month-old child was not her legitimate son.

Soldiers told Umm Mohammed that her son Mohammad Kahlil Abu Dahuk was in fact a Gaza resident, and could not enter Jerusalem for treatment at the Makassed Hospital, where he was referred for blood work.

Umm Mohammed is a West Bank resident living in Jericho, where her infant son was being treated for a blood disorder at the Jericho Government Hospital.

The Abu Dahud family told Ma’an on Thursday, shortly after the mother and child were refused access to the hospital, that they were refused entry for no reason. Mohammed, his mother said, was registered on her own identity card, being to young to receive his own.

“He has been on the records since he was born,” his father said, condemning the border guards who turned his wife away.

Head of Jericho hospital Naser A’nani confirmed that he had referred the child to the hospital and filed the necessary paperwork for a medical permit to be issued. He said the child needed to see a specialist, and referred him to the larger hospital in Jerusalem.

A spokesman for the Israeli border guards, who operate the checkpoint, said he would look into the claim in the coming days.

Israel has prevented many Palestinians from receiving needed medical treatment. In 2010, Israel denied travel for medical purposes to 635 Gazan people, and delayed travel for a further 1,710 people. The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights report below is essential reading to understand the horrifying extent of the inhumanity of zionists toward Palestinians, whom they consider untermenschen.

Al Mezan: Gaza Patients Ac… by paola pisi

The other unfortunate person is Gulet Mohamed, an 18-year-old American citizen whose family is Somalian. Glenn Greenwald relates that whilst abroad for education and holidays, Gulet was snatched, imprisoned then tortured by Kuwaiti officials.

At all times, Mohamed traveled on an American passport and had valid visas for all the countries he visited. He has never been arrested nor — until two weeks ago — was he ever involved with law enforcement in any way, including the entire time he lived in the U.S.

Approximately two weeks ago (on December 20), Mohamed went to the airport in Kuwait to have his visa renewed, as he had done every three months without incident for the last year. This time, however, he was told by the visa officer that his name had been marked in the computer, and after waiting five hours, he was taken into a room and interrogated by officials who refused to identify themselves. They then handcuffed and blindfolded him and drove him to some other locale. That was the start of a two-week-long, still ongoing nightmare during which he was imprisoned for a week in an unknown location by unknown captors, relentlessly interrogated, and severely beaten and threatened with even worse forms of torture.


Mohamed says he was repeatedly beaten with a stick on the bottom of his feet and his palms, hit in the face, and hung from the ceiling. He also says his captors threatened him with both the arrest of his mother and electric shock, and told him that he should forget his family.

He still does not know why he was detained and beaten, nor does he know what is happening to him now. Indeed, although Mazzetti writes that he was detained and beaten by Kuwait captors, Mohamed actually has no idea who was responsible, and told me that at least some of the people interrogating him spoke English. He has been told that he will be deported back to the U.S., but is now on a no-fly list and has no idea when he will be released. American officials told Mazzetti that “Mr. Mohamed is on a no-fly list and, for now at least, cannot return to the United States.” He’s been charged with no crime and presented with no evidence of any wrongdoing.

Independent of all that, the U.S. Government has an obligation to protect its own citizens. Mohamed described to me how both embassy officials and the FBI expressed zero interest in the torture to which he had been subjected during his detention. The U.S. Government has said nothing about this matter, and refused to comment about Mohamed’s treatment to The New York Times.

All of this underscores the rapidly expanding powers the U.S. Government and law enforcement agents within the country are seizing without a shred of due process. For the government to put an American citizen on the no-fly list while he’s traveling outside the U.S. is tantamount to barring him from entering his own country — a draconian punishment, involuntary exile, meted out without any due process. In June, the ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of several citizens and legal residents who — like Gulet Mohammed — have been literally stranded abroad and barred from returning with no hearing, simply by being placed secretly on the no-fly list. Add to that the growing seizures of the laptops and other electronic equipment of American citizens re-entering the country without any warrants — or even yesterday’s ruling from the California Supreme Court that police officers can search and seize someone’s cell phone without a warrant when arresting them — and (even leaving aside the administration’s ongoing due-process-free prison camps and assassination programs) these are pure police state tactics.

Amerikkka and Israel are marching to hell together behind a familiar, sickening beat. Let’s decide not to follow their lead. Stand up and speak out for justice and freedom and reject totalitarianism in its new, frightening, morally depraved forms.

Bilin demo theme - Courtesy Joseph DanaPalestine / Israel Links

Outgoing Mossad chief, Dagan : Iran won’t have nuclear capability before 2015 “The Israeli intelligence community’s assessments of Iran’s nuclear capability have changed during Dagan’s tenure. In 2003, Israeli intelligence officials thought Iran would have its first bomb by 2007. In 2007, they thought it would be 2009, and a year later they put it at 2011. Now the date has moved to 2015. These adjustments were not the result of mistaken evaluations, but due to the difficulties Iran has encountered in advancing its program, largely because of the Mossad’s efforts.” Yeah, right – hence the plethora of assassinations in Iran of nuclear scientists by Mossad killers.

Amr Qawasme, 65, shot to death for unknown reason as soldiers raid house in Hebron area. ‘They put their hand to my mouth and a rifle to my head,’ man’s wife says. ‘I asked them, ‘What did you do?’ They asked me to shut up.’
The culture of the Israeli army and the murder of an elderly man in his sleep
Israelis admit killing innocent civilian in bed

End Georgia’s relationship with the Israeli police – stop human rights abuses now! get involved [.pdf]
In Ajami and Mas’ha, Evidence of the Continuing Nakba
Doing the work of the master, the last person who cares about equal rights : Mubarak asks Israel to build trust with Palestinians
Former Knesset speaker urges Israeli human rights groups to shun Knesset probe
Declaring Palestine: Revisiting Hope and Failure : Ramzy Baroud
Zionist settlers are blackshirts : Jericho teacher says settler car attempted to run down students
Palestinians look for early vote on UN resolution
After lobby effort PA releases 6 Hamas affiliates
More ziofascism : Israeli court releases J’lem official Adnan Ghaith on bail from secret charges
Amira Hass: Gaza on the edge of no return
Shas: Ahuva Tomer to blame for bus disaster
Video: Our Story By Dr. Mustafa Barghouti
Palestinians and another deadline… that is not sacred?
Forward: Israeli army doctors warned in ‘03 that CS gas in high concentrations could kill
Aiding Israel: Love thy neighbour
Get a clue, Baroness Ashton, “peace process” is code for more Israeli expansionism. Time for a justice process.
EU Rejects Israel’s Offer On Gaza Blockade
Israel slates 15 Jericho homes for demolition
When the Messiah comes, Israel will deport him
Israel’s killing zone in Gaza
Marching in bilin to the wall
Israeli ‘hasbara’ deployed versus former EU leaders
Fact-Checking Noah Pollak and the IDF’s Unofficial Spokespeople
Subhiya, mother of Jawaher Abu Rahmah who was killed last week, leading the memorial demo in Bil’in
On the wall now in bilin. Mass demonstration
Massive amount of people. Israeli mk getting coated with shit water in bilin
Massive gas in bilin. Injuries as well
Peer’s non-appearance a win for BDS campaign
#OperationPalestine: It’s Not Too Much To Act
‘Our politics are entangled’ – Today, at 80, Samuel Lewis, former U.S. envoy to Israel, says he worries about Israel’s current state of affairs but assures that ‘Israel is here to stay.’ What the hell is a ‘Jewish brain’?
Yossi Gurvitz’s photos from the Bil’in demo
Israel Soldier Beats Up Civilian & Shooting in Direct Formation

Wikileaks Links

WikiLeaks: Secret whaling deal plotted by US and Japan
Hollywood on aggressive Asia-Pacific IP law push
Bradley Manning: the forgotten man : Glenn Greenwald [Audio]
Douglas Feith, named by General Tommy Franks as “the stupidest fucking guy on the planet” is amongst the Bush Six, against whom criminal proceedings are being prepared by Spain for torture.
12 Angry Men – great poster of Bush’s legal thugs

Other Links

Erdogan renders military holding’s lobbying efforts ineffective
EU needs Turkey more than Turkey needs it, says Ba???
U.S. Employs Afghan War To Build Global NATO
Afghans consign another superpower to the dustbin of history
Getting things done
Opium Production in Afghanistan: Strong and Corrupt as Ever

Asia to Gaza Breaks the Siege, Still Egypt Blocks the Aid Ship

1301 days into Israel’s illegal siege, the Asia to Gaza convoy has managed to cross into Gaza.

The convoy’s aid cargo was expected to arrive in Gaza later in the day, after travelling separately from Syria to Egypt by boat. … Egyptian authorities had prevented several activists from entering Gaza at the Rafah border crossing. … The boat is carrying $US1 million worth of medicine, foodstuffs and toys as well as four buses and 10 power generators for hospitals, Palestinian officials said.

A couple of hours later, Egypt is still not permitting the aid ship to dock.

Egyptian authorities have prevented an Asian convoy’s ship carrying humanitarian aid and activists from reaching the Gaza Strip.

The ship has not allowed to dock at the Egyptian port of El Arish.

The vessel, which is part of a sizeable pro-Palestinian relief mission, is said to be carrying eight activists as well as $1 million worth of relief supplies for the Israel-blockaded Gaza Strip.

“Egypt still didn’t allow the aid ship to dock. It is 50 hours,” dpa quoted the activists as saying on Monday, noting that they are in a “bad situation.”

UPDATE

@Asia2Gaza 8 activists suffered 65 hours on #Asia2Gaza aid ship until #Egypt allowed ship to dock by receiving 10000$ bribe! #

In Kensington, England, protestors draw attention to Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people of Gaza.

What will the convoy find in Gaza? Two years after Israel’s monstrous Cast Lead attack on Gaza’s 1.5 million people, the water which Gazans drink is largely unsafe for human consumption.

The water quality control authority in the Gaza Strip said that more than 90% of the Strip’s potable water was contaminated, warning of a serious threat to lives of the Strip’s inhabitants.

The report published on Monday said that the Palestinian citizens were increasingly using home desalination and purification systems especially with the high concentration of chlorine in the water wells.

It noted that the sewage water, agricultural chemicals, and “dangerous waste” spewed by the former Israeli settlements in the Strip were contaminating the underground water reservoir.

The report said that the people in Gaza consume 170 million cubic meters of the underground water per annum with no equal natural feeding of the water wells due to the scarcity of rain.

In the West Bank, the zionist apartheid state has been on a rampage, demolishing Palestinian homes and electricity structures to make way for invading colonists who steal Palestinian land for more illegal settlements.

Israel’s Civil Administration patrols on Sunday delivered 17 demolition orders to an extended family near the West Bank city of Jericho, residents said.

Members of the Az-Zayed family received orders to demolish a mosque, electricity infrastructure and tents north of An-Nuwei’ma village.

The electricity structures slated for demolition were recently installed by the Palestinian Authority at a cost of 79,000 shekels ($22,225)

North of Sheikh Jarrah, in Lafta village, the zionist oppressor demolished part of a Palestinian home, leaving a family of 9 to “live in one bedroom, one lounge and a corridor”.

Seyam told Ma’an a legal dispute began in 2004, when he received a demolition order which was frozen three times. The Jerusalem municipality said his license was conditional on submitting a plan for the surrounding area, which he could not afford.

On Wednesday, Israeli forces demolished 11 structures in the At-Tur neighborhood of East Jerusalem, which authorities said were constructed without permits.

Palestinians say it is virtually impossible to secure Israeli permission to build in East Jerusalem.

In late December, two Palestinian families destroyed their own homes in compliance with Israeli demolition orders.

Director of UNRWA Operations West Bank Barbara Shenstone said the families opted to demolish their own homes rather than wait for Jerusalem municipality to do so because a municipal demolition would cost them up to 120,000 shekels ($33,389).

“These condemnable acts have a devastating impact,” Shenstone said in a statement at the time.

“While children around the world are enjoying the holiday season in their homes, these children have suffered the trauma and indignity of watching their homes destroyed in the presence of their parents. It is extremely cruel and distressing.”

On 23 December, Maxwell Gaylard, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, offered his own condemnation after visiting the site of a home that had been demolished 24 hours earlier.

“The destruction of this home and the displacement of these people raises serious concerns with regard to Israel’s obligations under international law,” he said.

“These actions have a severe social and economic impact on the lives and welfare of Palestinians and increase their dependence on humanitarian assistance,” he added.

“The government of Israel must take immediate steps to cease demolitions and evictions in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem.”

And from Bil’in, whose non-violent protesting inhabitants suffered a despicable attack by the Israeli Occupation Forces a couple of days ago, Mohammad Khatib writes:

“…my next letter will likely be written from inside a prison cell”

At the threshold of the New Year, I write to wish you a new year of freedom and liberation. This has been an unbelievable year for me in both highs and lows. A year during which I have witnessed how, despite repression, ordinary people all across Palestine take to the streets for freedom.

In my village, Bil’in, thousands of people marched on the Wall today to take it down. During the demonstration, one protestor, a 36 year old resident of the village, Jawaher Abu-Rahmah, was critically injured by severe tear-gas inhalation. She is currently hospitalized in Ramallah, unresponsive to medical treatment as the doctors are fighting for her life. [The morning after this was written, Jawaher lost her life. Cause of death: Poisoning from over exposure to CS gas.]

Bil’in has been struggling for almost six years against the Wall that was built on our lands. The illegality and absurdity of this wall has been recognized worldwide, and even by the Israeli Supreme Court, which ruled it must be dismantled over three years ago. Yet the Wall still stands. We, the people of Bil’in, the people of Palestine, have waited enough. Today was therefore declared by the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements as the last day of the Wall. Together with our supporters, we managed to bring a substantial part of the wall down but we still have a long way to go.

On a personal note, the beginning of 2011 also strikes notes of fear. In just a few days, on January 3rd, 2011, my trial in front of an Israeli military court will draw into conclusion. Captain Sharon Rivlin, the soldier-judge presiding in my case, will hand down my verdict. If found guilty of “incitement”, my next letter will likely be written from inside a prison cell; If found guilty, despite having proved that evidence against me was falsified, I will proudly join my friend and comrade,Abdallah Abu Rahmah, who is now spending his second new year’s eve behind bars. PSCC’s media coordinator, my friend and brother in struggle, Israeli activist Jonathan Pollak, will also be going to prison, again, for three months on January 11th, for protesting Israel’s siege on Gaza.

We are all facing tremendous challenges, as individuals and as a movement. It is our pride and strength that keeps us going. It is your support and involvement, which is becoming more crucial than ever. Join us – take our struggle forward, so that the year of 2011 will become an historical year of Palestinian liberation and a just peace.

In solidarity,
Mohammad Khatib

Palestine / Israel Links

Palestinians to pressure US with UN resolution
Second Palestinian dies on Israeli roadblock in W. Bank
Canadian Boat to Gaza campaign is legal, ethical, and necessary
Global silence over 7000 Palestinian prisoners
Who will teach Israeli Jewish kids that the world hates them?
We will not go down, for the Gaza tonight
Pirate Party Bilin Report Public Pad
Breaking the Israel-Palestine Deadlock
Kensington Vigil for Gaza 2 years on
The Wall In Palestine [vid]
Legal official slams bill that would expel Israelis’ foreign partners with undetermined residency status

Wikileaks Links

Not trusting Sweden
WikiLeaks: US targets EU over GM crops
Bradley Manning : Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Speedy Trial
2011-1-4: James Richardson’s Collateral Damage in the Guardian: WikiLeaks & Tsvangirai
2011-01-03 PsySR Open Letter on PFC Bradley Manning’s Solitary Confinement
Psychologists protest ‘inhumane, harmful’ treatment of Bradley Manning
The Rove/Assange Story Hits the International Press in Sweden
Window on Eurasia: ‘Wikileak-ization’ of Media Transforming Russian Politics, Analyst Says

Other Links

Global Warming by Banksy
A New Year’s Plea to Close Guantánamo by a Clear-Sighted American
The Toppling: How the Media Inflated the Fall of Saddam’s Statue in Firdos Square
Dear Australian Retailers
More Retailer Fascism: The internal email from Revealed: retailers’ secret tax strategy
Belmarsh – Britain’s Guantanamo Bay?
Continued detention of Papuan prisoners violates basic rights
Chewing Gum for Terrorists
Nuclear war: Iran snubs US, invites Russia, China
Are we living in the end times? – Slavoj Zizek with Riz Khan
The Internet is far too valuable to become an agent of Washington’s digital diplomats.