Antony Loewenstein

A lawless nation receives a warning:

A UN official on Wednesday urged Israel to stop its “provocative” actions against the Palestinian population in East Jerusalem and the West Bank and said these unilateral actions will not be recognized by the international community.

“We reiterate our call on Israel to adhere to international law and its Roadmap obligations, and to cease and reverse provocative actions such as demolitions and evictions in East Jerusalem,” Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Oscar Ferandez-Taranco told the Security Council in its montly briefing on the Middle East.

“We remind Israel of the united positon of the Quartet on this issue and its recent affirmation that unilateral actions cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations and will not be recognized by the International community,” he added.

Mike Huckabee’s tour to the Middle East has been a veritable freak-show.

Is the man actually calling for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their own land?

Here he is on Fox News talking about his personal Zionist fundamentalism:

Skip Schiel is a US-based activist who spends time in the Middle East.

He’s currently in Gaza and writing some evocative posts. Here’s one about the city port, a place I saw a few weeks ago with my own eyes:

A day yesterday when my muses were brilliant: to the port, El Mina in Arabic, when earlier as I planned my foray thru Gaza City I thought I might be heading in the opposite direction, possibly toward the old city. In 2008 I’d visited the Beach refugee camp side of the port with Mosab, stopped by security before we could enter. I concluded the port was off limits. Not so. This time I accessed it from the other direction, the south side. But first a stop at the fish market, or what remains of it. A shabby structure, the fish displayed on the floor, sometimes elegantly, flies everywhere, no apparent refrigeration, and a paucity of fish. What can’t be seen are the poisons floating in each animal. I wonder how aware people are who harvest, process and consume the fish, and if they are aware, how they experience cognitive dissonance—eat the fish, appreciate the nourishment, love the flavor, but realize they are eating what has eaten of the strongly polluted waters, including human shit.

Amira Hass wonders in Haaretz about the future role of Fatah, bought and tamed by Israel and the Americans:

The decision by Fatah’s Sixth Congress that the movement is sticking to negotiations as a means of achieving independence, statehood and peace is an admission that the use of arms during the second intifada was disastrous. That is a difficult admission for a movement founded on the sanctification of the armed struggle. And despite being tacit, it is a brave admission for Fatah at a time when most Palestinians are convinced that Israel does not want peace…

Neither the Palestinian Authority, which is an institution concerned with maintaining its existence, nor Fatah, which is concerned with maintaining its huge achievement, have dared to expand the popular protests against the separation fence, of which they boast, into a real popular revolt. The PA is more concerned with recruiting masses of young men into its police forces, whose goal is to suppress “disturbances” (and impose order on Palestinian cities, where the chief disturbers of the peace were Fatah’s own frustrated and quarrelsome armed men). Their foreign trainers are not preparing them to confront armed Israeli soldiers with bare chests…

The schizophrenia of being both a government and a liberation movement (as it defines itself) is one of Fatah’s most salient characteristics. Can Fatah, which sees the PA as a huge achievement, manage to pick up the gauntlet of popular resistance that it itself threw down?

I recently visited the West Bank settlement of Susya and witnessed the extremism of the Jewish settlers there.

I recall being amazed seeing environmentally-friendly energy sources, such as solar panels, alongside Palestinian camps. Comet-Me are one company that installs these devices:

Our mission is to facilitate social and economical empowerment in the poorest and most marginalised communities in the occupied Palestinian territories through material support and capacity building. The core of the our activity is the provision of basic energy services for off-grid communities in a way that is both environmentally and socially sustainable.

These energy services include the required hardware and the local capacity to maintain and install existing and additional systems. Although the money and know how come from the outside the ownership of the project is local in that the entire decision making is done by the community’s local committee.

Comet-ME is a joint initiative of Israelis and local Palestinians communities who believe that barriers of hostility can be overcome by joint, concrete, work aimed at felling down the walls of segregation and racism.

Comet-me.org from comet-me on Vimeo.

(Via ibnezra)

I recently posted a report from the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions annual camp.

The latest missive features this interesting anecdote:

What was encouraging and interesting for us all at the Apartheid Wall building site was the welcome presence of the international media. There were four different media groups; these included two television film crews, a radio journalist from Australia and France. There was also the curious presence of the Jerusalem Post free-lancer who was trying to pull together a story for Jerusalem Post online, which compares us to the Settlers, his question to Lucy was ‘ironically, many people compare the what you are doing with the Settlers actions’ in relation to both groups building houses and condemning each others actions.

Lucy replied to the Jerusalem Post journalist that in her opinion, there was emphatically no comparison whatsoever. This, Lucy explained was because Settlers force Palestinians off their own land for which they have worked hard for, can prove legal ownership of, may have raised many generations of their family in, and have lived in for many years before the Settlers first arrived. The Settlers are often given houses very easily, for which they have subsidized taxes, a better supply of water and electricity and protection from the Israeli Army and Police.

Beware any media stories that feature anonymous sources claiming Iran (or Iraq, in the bad old days) has WMDs. Welcome to the podium, Haaretz:

The world’s nuclear weapons watchdog is hiding data on Iran’s drive to obtain nuclear arms, senior Western diplomats and Israeli officials told Haaretz.

The officials and diplomats said that the International Atomic Energy Agency under Director General Mohamed ElBaradei was refraining from publishing evidence obtained by its inspectors over the past few months that indicate Iran was pursuing information about weaponization efforts and a military nuclear program.

Johann Hari in the Independent:

However strange it seems, the Republican Party really is spinning off into a bizarre cult who believe Barack Obama is a baby-killer plotting to build death panels for the grannies of America. Their new slogan could be – shrill, baby, shrill.

Yes, progress:

Amnesty International has announced today that it will abstain from any involvement in the Leonard Cohen concert in Tel Aviv and will not be party to any fund that benefits from the concert‘s proceeds. A number of media accounts had reported that Amnesty International was to manage or otherwise partner in a fund created from the proceeds of Cohen’s concert in Israel that would be used to benefit Israeli and Palestinian groups. Amnesty International’s announcement today followed an international outcry over the human rights organization’s reported involvement in the Leonard Cohen concert fund, and an earlier international call for Cohen to boycott apartheid Israel.

Omar Barghouti from the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) commented, “We welcome Amnesty International’s withdrawal from this ill-conceived project which is clearly intended to whitewash Israel’s violations of international law and human rights. By abandoning the Leonard Cohen project in Tel Aviv, Amnesty International has dealt Cohen and his public relations team a severe blow, denying them the cover of the organization’s prestige and respectability.”

Former US presidential candidate and Fox News host Mike Huckabee during a visit to Israel and Palestine sponsored by pro-settler groups:

The question is should the Palestinians have a place to call their own? Yes, I have no problem with that. Should it be in the middle of the Jewish homeland? That’s what I think has to be honestly assessed as virtually unrealistic.

Huckabee is right but not for the reasons he stated. A viable, two-state solution is never going to happen anymore because of the lawless, Jewish colonialists.

Just out of curiosity, asks Salon’s Glenn Greenwald, will the Right complain that Huckabee is bashing America on foreign soil?

Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon, wants to tell the world that his country is desperate to maintain a decent relationship with Washington (well, that’s the real reason behind this nauseating message):

The US believes in demolishing homes and ruining Palestinian lives in Jerusalem?

Another day that the Palestinians in Gaza are forgotten:

Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip has resulted in the devastation of livelihoods, a rise in food insecurity, and an energy, water and sanitation crisis for the territory’s 1.5 million Palestinians, the United Nations said Monday.