Blog Archives
Nigeria: court upholds hijab ban in school, Muslims outraged
Source: worldbulletin.net
A Nigerian court last Friday said the Lagos local government had acted correctly in banning Muslim headscarves (hijab) at public schools, a ruling that drew the ire of the city’s Muslim community, which has vowed to appeal the decision.
“The prohibition of the wearing of hijab over school uniforms within and outside the premises of public schools was not discriminatory,” Justice Modupe Onyeabor of a Lagos high court ruled on Friday.
Israel’s deadly ceasefire game
Israel purposefully protracted the ceasefire negotiations to inflict more destruction on Gaza.
Source: http://www.aljazeera.com
By: Hanine Hassan
On August 25 Israel hit a 13-storey residential tower that housed at least 70 families, striking with five missiles over an hour. Israel could have destroyed the entire building with one missile in a few minutes, if it wanted to; after all it wiped out an entire neighbourhood in less than one hour on July 29. Israel’s deliberate choice to slowly decompose the tower was psychological torture to its residents, to punish them and submit them. It is this same strategy of protraction that Israel used during the uncountable ceasefires and humanitarian lulls it declared during its war on Gaza.
Palestinian officials: Israel’s shelling of Gaza equivalent to six nuclear bombs
Source: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com
Israel has bombed the Gaza Strip with 20,000 tons of explosives, equivalent to six nuclear bombs, the Palestinian interior ministry said on Thursday.
Footage: Four minutes of Israel intensely shelling civilians in Shuja’iyya (Video)
Please take caution when watching this video. The footage is extremely distressing.
By: Sami Kishawi
Source: http://smpalestine.com/
On July 20, Israel launched an offensive against the Gaza City neighborhood of Shuja’iyya, claiming it to be a stronghold for Palestinian armed resistance factions. More than 70 Palestinians were killed in the first day of the operation. Previously uncovered footage shows the aftermath of the assault which includes young children charred and strewn about throughout the streets. Many family members are seen wailing beside the bodies of their loved ones.
This footage shows the intensity of the shelling as it happened. It is unclear how many of the people seen in the footage made it out alive. We urge you to take caution when viewing this footage. The sights and sounds are extremely distressing.
Gaza: Israel’s $4 billion gas grab
By: Nafeez Ahmed
Source: http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2482929/gaza_israels_4_billion_gas_grab.html
Never mind the ‘war on terror’ rhetoric, writes Nafeez Ahmed. The purpose of Israel’s escalating assault on Gaza is to control the Territory’s 1.4 trillion cubic feet of gas – and so keep Palestine poor and weak, gain massive export revenues, and avert its own domestic energy crisis.
If Palestinians develop their own gas resources, the resulting economic transformation could in turn fundamentally increase Palestinian clout.
Israel’s defence minister is on record confirming that military plans to uproot Hamas’ are about securing control of Gaza’s gas reserves
The conquest of Gaza is accelerating. Israel has now launched its ground invasion, bringing the Palestinian death toll to 260, 80% of whom are civilians.
A further 1,500 have been wounded and 1,300 Palestinian homes destroyed. Israel’s goal, purportedly, is to “restore quiet” by ending Hamas rocket attacks on Israel.
Last Tuesday, Israeli defence minister and former Israeli Defence Force (IDF) chief of staffMoshe Ya’alon announced that Operation Protective Edge marks the beginning of a protracted assault on Hamas.
The operation “won’t end in just a few days”, he said, adding that “we are preparing to expand the operation by all means standing at our disposal so as to continue striking Hamas.”
The price will be very heavy … yes, $4 billion!
The following morning, he went on: “We continue with strikes that draw a very heavy price from Hamas. We are destroying weapons, terror infrastructures, command and control systems, Hamas institutions, regime buildings, the houses of terrorists, and killing terrorists of various ranks of command …
“The campaign against Hamas will expand in the coming days, and the price the organization will pay will be very heavy.”
But in 2007, a year before Operation Cast Lead, Ya’alon’s concerns focused on the 1.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas discovered in 2000 off the Gaza coast, valued at $4 billion.
Ya’alon dismissed the notion that “Gaza gas can be a key driver of an economically more viable Palestinian state” as “misguided”.
The problem, he said is that “Proceeds of a Palestinian gas sale to Israel would likely not trickle down to help an impoverished Palestinian public. Rather, based on Israel’s past experience, the proceeds will likely serve to fund further terror attacks against Israel …
“A gas transaction with the Palestinian Authority will, by definition, involve Hamas. Hamas will either benefit from the royalties or it will sabotage the project and launch attacks against Fatah, the gas installations, Israel – or all three …
“It is clear that without an overall military operation to uproot Hamas control of Gaza, no drilling work can take place without the consent of the radical Islamic movement.”
Resource competition is at the heart of the conflict
Operation Cast Lead did not succeed in uprooting Hamas, but the conflict did take the lives of 1,387 Palestinians (773 of whom were civilians) and 9 Israelis (3 of whom were civilians).
Since the discovery of oil and gas in the Occupied Territories, resource competition has increasingly been at the heart of the conflict, motivated largely by Israel’s increasing domestic energy woes.
Mark Turner, founder of the Research Journalism Initiative, reported that the siege of Gaza and ensuing military pressure was designed to “eliminate” Hamas as “a viable political entity in Gaza” to generate a “political climate” conducive to a gas deal.
This involved rehabilitating the defeated Fatah as the dominant political player in the West Bank, and “leveraging political tensions between the two parties, arming forces loyal to Abbas and the selective resumption of financial aid.”
Ya’alon’s comments in 2007 illustrate that the Israeli cabinet is not just concerned about Hamas – but concerned that if Palestinians develop their own gas resources, the resulting economic transformation could in turn fundamentally increase Palestinian clout.
It’s not called Leviathan for nothing
Meanwhile, Israel has made successive discoveries in recent years – such as the Leviathan field estimated to hold 18 trillion cubic feet of natural gas – which could transform the country from energy importer into aspiring energy exporter with ambitions to supply Europe, Jordan and Egypt.
The chief obstacle is that much of the 122 trillion cubic feet of gas and 1.6 billion barrels of oil in the Levant Basin Province lies in territorial waters where borders are hotly disputed between Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and Cyprus.
Amidst this regional jockeying for gas, Israel has its own little-understood energy challenges. First, it could take until 2020 for much of these domestic resources to be mobilised.
Worse, a 2012 letter by two Israeli government chief scientists – which the Israeli government chose not to disclose – warned the government that Israel still had insufficient gas resources to sustain exports despite all the stupendous discoveries. The letter, according to Ha’aretz, stated:
“We believe Israel should increase its use of natural gas by 2020 and should not export gas. The Natural Gas Authority’s estimates are lacking. There’s a gap of 100 to 150 billion cubic meters between the demand projections that were presented to the committee and the most recent projections. The gas reserves are likely to last even less than 40 years!”
Israel’s looming power crisis
As Dr Gary Luft – an advisor to US Energy Security Council – wrote in the Journal of Energy Security, “with the depletion of Israel’s domestic gas supplies accelerating, and without an imminent rise in Egyptian gas imports, Israel could face a power crisis in the next few years …
“If Israel is to continue to pursue its natural gas plans it must diversify its supply sources.”
Israel’s new discoveries do not, as yet, offer an immediate solution as electricity pricesreach record levels, heightening the imperative to diversify supply. This appears to be behind Prime Minister Netanyahu’s announcement in February 2011 that it was now time to seal the Gaza gas deal.
But even after a new round of negotiations was kick-started between the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority and Israel in September 2012, Hamas was excluded from these talks, and thus rejected the legitimacy of any deal.
Earlier this year, Hamas condemned a PA deal to purchase $1.2 billion worth of gas from Israel Leviathan field over a 20 year period once the field starts producing.
Simultaneously, the PA has held several meetings with the British Gas Group to develop the Gaza gas field, albeit with a view to exclude Hamas – and thus Gazans – from access to the proceeds. That plan had been the brainchild of Quartet Middle East envoy Tony Blair.
But the PA was also courting Russia’s Gazprom to develop the Gaza marine gas field, and talks have been going on between Russia, Israel and Cyprus, though so far it is unclear what the outcome of these have been. Also missing was any clarification on how the PA would exert control over Gaza, which is governed by Hamas.
Gaza Conflict: Thousands Gather In London For Protest Against Israeli Military Action (PICTURES) (VIDEOS)
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/
Thousands of protesters have gathered in London today to call for an end to Israeli military action in Gaza and “justice and freedom” for Palestine.
Up to 15,000 people are thought to have marched through the capital from Downing Street to the Israeli embassy in Kensington after Israel launched a ground invasion of Gaza on Thursday.
This was the latest and one of the more peaceful demonstrations as rallies take place across the globe in recent days.
Sarah Colborne, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said London has “already shown its outrage at Israel’s attacks on the mostly refugee population of Gaza, with people turning out in their thousands last week.
“Today’s national demonstration will give people from across the country the chance to say enough is enough, Israel’s siege of Gaza and its occupation of Palestinian land has to end now.
“People want justice and freedom for the Palestinians, and they will be voicing this in their thousands.”
Labour MP Diane Abbott was among the speakers to address protesters as they gathered in Whitehall.
“I am here to show solidarity with the people in Gaza,” she said.
“We call for an end to the occupation and justice for Palestinians.”
Pro Palestine supporters carried placards with the messages “Gaza, stop the massacre” and “stop Israel’s war crimes”.
Many took to Twitter to post pictures of the event:
Protesters arrived at the Israeli embassy but were met by a police blockade preventing them from getting near to the building.
A number of high-profile Palestine supporters addressed the crowd near to the embassy.
Organisers repeatedly told the crowds to spread out during the speeches over fears people were being crushed.
Two children were pulled over a barrier close to the stage and one organiser said 10 people had fainted in the crowd.
Respect MP George Galloway said nearly 300 passengers aboard the Malaysia Airlines MH17 flight had been killed “without a reason” by “fanatics”.
He went on: “The 300 Palestinians are completely ignored by the same newspapers, by the same television stations and by the same political leaders who are threatening sanctions and war against Russia but who are supporting, with weapons and money and diplomatic political and media support, the Israeli killers.
“In fact, if whoever fired that missile in Ukraine had fired it instead at the beach in Gaza, the media could have knocked off for an early lunch and saved themselves all of this work.
“Why the double standard? Why is the blood in Ukraine so much more noteworthy than the blood in Gaza?”
Addressing the crowd, Baroness Jenny Tonge said: “What on earth is Israel doing? It has lost its legitimacy, it is no longer a democratic state.
“It breaks international law, Geneva conventions, it has no respect for human rights. Israel must leave the international family of nations.”
Meanwhile, Prime Minister David Cameron and US president Barack Obama have discussed the worsening situation in Gaza during a phone conversation, Downing Street said.
A No 10 spokeswoman said: “Both leaders reiterated their support for Israel’s right to take proportionate action to defend itself from the barrage of rocket attacks from Gaza.”
The two leaders also discussed Iran’s nuclear programme and “agreed that we should keep up our efforts to negotiate a lasting agreement which gives the world confidence that the nuclear activities of Iran are exclusively for peaceful purposes”.
Yesterday a group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators had to be ejected from the Cabinet Office after staging a protest against Israeli military action in Gaza..
Police officers were called to remove the small group, who were chanting anti-Israel slogans and carrying banners reading “Stop arming Israel”.
Israel and militants within the Gaza strip have been exchanging fire for 11 days, leading to the deaths of 235 Palestinians from air force and naval fire, the Gaza Health Ministry says.
One Israeli has been killed by rockets from Gaza. According to the IDF, Hamas militants have fired more than 1,300 rockets into the Israeli heartland.
On Wednesday, horrifying pictures emerged after four Palestinian children were killed in Gaza when Israeli shelling struck a group playing football on a beach.
The attack was witnessed by scores of foreign journalists, many who rushed to help the children that survived the attack.
Below are the latest pictures from the Israeli invasion of Gaza:
A Palestinian man burns a tire during clashes with Israeli soldiers following a protest against the Israeli offensive in Gaza, outside Ofer, an Israeli military prison near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Friday, July 18, 2014.
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Smoke rises after an Israeli missile strike in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, Friday, July 18, 2014.
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An Israeli tank moves into position near the Israel and Gaza border, Friday, July, 18, 2014.
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An Israeli border policeman aims his weapon during clashes with Palestinians following a protest against the Israeli offensive in Gaza, outside Ofer, an Israeli military prison near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Friday, July 18, 2014.
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Palestinians inspect damage of an apartment building after it was hit by an Israeli missile strike in Gaza City, Friday, July 18, 2014.
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Palestinians inspect the rubble of a building to pick up their usable belongings after it was hit by an Israeli missile strike in Gaza City, Friday, July 18, 2014.
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A Palestinian carries a gas cylinder as he and others salvage from the rubble of their destroyed homes in an apartment building after it was hit by an Israeli missile strike in Gaza City, Friday, July 18, 2014.
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Palestinians salvage their usable belongings from the rubble of their homes in an apartment building after it was hit by an Israeli missile strike in Gaza City, Friday, July 18, 2014.
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Smoke rises after an Israeli missile strike in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, Friday, July 18, 2014.
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The smoke trail of multiple missiles fired by Palestinian militants from inside northern Gaza Strip, is seen as they make their way towards Israel, Friday, July 18, 2014.
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Palestinians firefighters stand in the rubble of a house after it was hit by an Israeli missile strike in Gaza City, Friday, July 18, 2014.
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Smoke rises after an Israeli missile strike in Gaza City, Friday, July 18, 2014.
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Smoke rises after an Israeli missile strike in Gaza City, Friday, July 18, 2014.
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Smoke rises after an Israeli missile strike in Gaza City, Friday, July 18, 2014.
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Smoke rises after an Israeli missile strike in Gaza City, Friday, July 18, 2014.
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Smoke rises after an Israeli missile strike in Gaza City, Friday, July 18, 2014.
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Smoke rises after an Israeli missile strike in Gaza City, Friday, July 18, 2014.
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A Palestinian man stands in the rubble of a house after it was hit by an Israeli missile strike in Gaza City, Friday, July 18, 2014.
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