Chavez: Israel and US empire are enemies
Sun Jun 27, 11:53 pm ET
CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez denounced Israel as a genocidal government on Sunday as he hosted Syrian President Bashar Assad on his first visit to Latin America.Chavez has drawn close to Syria and Iran, and cut ties with Israel last year to protest its military offensive in the Gaza Strip.We have common enemies, Chavez said, describing them as the Yankee empire, the genocidal state of Israel.Chavez had particularly strong words for Israel throughout Assad's visit. He reiterated his view Saturday that the Golan Heights — captured from Syria by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war — should one day be returned to Syria.Someday the genocidal state of Israel will be put in its place, in the proper place and hopefully a real democratic state will be born, Chavez said Saturday.But it has become the murderous arm of the Yankee empire — who can doubt it? — which threatens all of us.Assad on Sunday called Israel a state based on crime, slaughter.It's a state without limits,he said through an interpreter.Assad praised Chavez for standing up to the U.S. and supporting the Palestinians. Chavez's outspoken stances in favor of Iran and against Israel have given him a following in the Middle East, and Assad referred to him at one point as an Arab leader.The two allies spoke to an audience of Syrian immigrants at a Caracas hotel on Sunday before Assad left for Cuba, where he did not speak to reporters upon his arrival at Havana's Jose Marti International Airport. His regional tour will also eventually take him to Brazil and Argentina.Before leaving Venezuela, the Syrian leader condemned Israel's blockade of Gaza and said Syria wants peace in the Mideast but not submission on Israel's terms.
Assad also sardonically suggested Venezuela and Syria could help form an an organization called the axis of evil, in which good governments would participate. Former President George W. Bush once used that term for enemies such as Iran and Syria.
Protesters clash with Israeli police over park plan
Sun Jun 27, 3:55 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli police clashed on Sunday with some 200 Palestinian protesters in an Arab neighbourhood of east Jerusalem that is the planned site of a controversial archaeological park, police said.The protesters threw stones and fire bombs at a Jewish home in the area before private security guards fired in the air and police were called in to disperse them, said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.
Six policemen were lightly injured in the clashes, said Rosenfeld. He had no details on any casualties among the protesters.The clashes occurred in Silwan, an Arab neighbourhood, which has been the focus of the plan by Jerusalem municipality to raze 22 Arab homes to make way for an archaeological park.Silwan is part of the so-called Holy Basin, just outside the walls of Jerusalem's famed Old City, and is believed to be the site of ancient Jerusalem during the time of the biblical kings David and Solomon.It is now a crowded Arab neighbourhood in a part of the city occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in a move not recognised internationally.Israel considers the whole of Jerusalem as its eternal and indivisible capital while the Palestinians see east Jerusalem as the capital of their promised state.
Captured soldier's family marching to Jerusalem By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer – Sun Jun 27, 3:11 pm ET
JERUSALEM – The family of a captured Israeli soldier, flanked by hundreds of supporters, set out Sunday on a 12-day march to Jerusalem to press their government to make a deal with Hamas militants to win his freedom.Sgt. Gilad Schalit was taken captive four years ago during a cross-border raid by militants from the Gaza Strip. His parents say they will camp outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's official residence until the government wins the release of their 23-year-old son, who hasn't been seen in person since he was seized.Today we say,We won't wait any longer, we won't wait any longer in our home, Schalit's father, Noam Schalit, said before the start of the march. Israel's leaders, he added, have to put an end to this sad saga.
Thousands, including supermodel Bar Refaeli and dozens of local celebrities, are expected to join the march from the Schalits' home in northern Israel to Jerusalem.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said about 2,000 supporters accompanied the family as it left its home in the small community of Mitzpe Hila on the Israel-Lebanon border. Many wore yellow ribbons or T-shirts with the soldier's photo.Some carried signs reading, Gilad Schalit, we're waiting at home for you, and The government of Israel, Gilad Schalit is screaming, Help! Israel has agreed to release many of the 1,000 Palestinian prisoners that Hamas wants freed, but has balked at freeing some who were convicted in deadly attacks on Israelis. It also objects to releasing them to their homes in the neighboring West Bank for fear they would establish militant footholds there, and wants them deported.Schalit's ordeal has touched a nerve in Israel, where military service is compulsory for most Jews, and almost all Jewish families have relatives who serve. The march dominated Israeli newspapers Sunday, and one leading daily, Haaretz, implored the government to make the necessary concessions to bring Schalit home. A recent poll suggested that a large majority of Israelis would be willing to see convicted killers released so he could go free.The Schalits launched the protest march after Israel eased its blockade of Gaza last week without assuring their son's release.Israel began restricting the movement of goods into and out of Gaza after Schalit was captured, hoping to pressure Hamas to release him, and later imposed an all-out blockade after Hamas overran the territory a year later.
That embargo was eased in recent weeks after a deadly Israeli raid on a blockade-busting flotilla drew an international outcry over the plight of 1.5 million Gazans affected by the embargo.Schalit's parents now say the Israeli government has abandoned their son and lost important leverage over Hamas by easing the blockade.
Netanyahu told his Cabinet on Sunday that the government was working to free the serviceman and urged the international community to stand by the state of Israel in its unequivocal and just demand that our captive soldier be returned immediately.
Israel has been negotiating Schalit's release through Egyptian and German mediators because it does not have direct talks with Hamas, which it considers a terror organization.Little is known about Schalit's condition. His captors have barred any access to him and released only a brief videotaped statement last year to prove he was still alive.Israel has a long history of paying a disproportionate price for its captive soldiers. However, there has been no indication the government might yield to the public pressure generated by the march. Some officials have suggested the protests would be counterproductive and cause Hamas to dig in deeper.
Hamas had no comment on the march Sunday.Also Sunday, Palestinians clashed with Israeli police in east Jerusalem near an enclave of Israeli settlers in the neighborhood of Silwan. Police said around 150 protesters threw stones, slightly wounding six policemen. There were no immediate reports of injured protesters. Israeli moves to settle Jews in largely Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem have raised tensions in the city.
Syria wants Brazil to help Mideast peace: report
Sun Jun 27, 2:53 pm ET
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has invited Brazil to help negotiate peace in the Middle East, a sign that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has strengthened his country's standing abroad.In an interview in Brazil's Estado de S. Paulo newspaper published on Sunday, Assad said he would discuss the possibility of Brazil helping bring Israel to the table with other Arab countries to diffuse tensions stemming from its policy on Gaza.Lula along with Turkey unsuccessfully sought to broker a solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis,In my view, the combined effort of Brazil and Turkey in the Iranian nuclear question has raised Brazil's role to a new level,Assad said.For this, we hope Brazil can act to stabilize the Middle East.In a rare visit to Latin America that started on Friday, Assad is traveling to Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and Cuba in a bid to extend his diplomatic reach as Syria emerges from isolation from the West and seeks needed investments in its tattered infrastructure.Nearing the end of a successful and extremely popular two-term presidency, Lula has intensified his efforts to bring Brazil greater international recognition.Brazil's foreign minister (Celso Amorim) said Brazil is interested in the peace process and we welcome Brazil's help,Assad said, suggesting that Brazil might help bring the Israelis to future negotiations with Arab countries in the region.Israeli security forces killed nine pro-Palestinian Turkish activists on May 31 when it boarded an aid ship attempting to break its blockade on Gaza. Bowing to international pressure, Israel has eased its blockade but tensions between Israel and its neighbors remain high.
Brazil and Turkey helped broker an agreement announced in May under which Tehran would send uranium abroad, similar to an earlier fuel swap plan drafted by the United Nations to keep Iran's nuclear activities in check.This quickly fell apart as the U.N. Security Council pushed through tighter U.N. sanctions against Iran in June, arguing that Iran was merely attempting to stall international demands that it curb its uranium enrichment program.(Reporting by Reese Ewing; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Iran says Egypt barring Gaza aid ship from canal
Sun Jun 27, 6:40 am ET
TEHRAN (AFP) – The Iranian Red Crescent said on Sunday that in addition to restrictions imposed by Israel, Egypt had barred a Gaza-bound aid ship from entering the Suez Canal, leading to the trip being postponed.The ship's departure has been postponed because of more restrictions imposed by the Zionist Quds occupying regime on the movement of aid to Gaza and prevention of the ship from using the Suez Canal, despite coordination with international bodies, the Red Crescent said in a statement faxed to AFP.The statement said the voyage to the blockaded Gaza Strip had been put off despite the vessel being ready to set sail from the southern port of Bandar Abbas for the Palestinian territory.But in Egypt, the Suez Canal Authority said it would allow the ship through.Under an international treaty, the canal is obligated to let any ship through, whether it is Iranian or not, a canal official told AFP.
We have not received any instructions to ban the Iranian aid ships from using the Suez Canal,the official said.An Iranian official had announced on Thursday that sending the aid ship had been cancelled because of restrictions imposed by Israel.The trip is not going to happen, said Hossein Sheikholeslam, secretary general of the International Conference for the Support of the Palestinian Intifada, a panel set up by the Iranian parliament.The Red Crescent had initially planned to send two aid ships to the Palestinian territory this month.Tehran's decision to send aid came after a May 31 Israeli commando raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla left nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists dead and sparked international outrage.The Islamic republic does not recognise Israel, and tensions have worsened between the two countries under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who has repeatedly said the Jewish state is doomed to disappear.
Palestinians must ease Gaza electricity crisis: UN
Sun Jun 27, 4:39 am ET
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – The UN agency for Palestinian refugees on Sunday called on bickering Palestinian factions to resolve a deepening electricity crisis in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.It is such a tragedy that, on top of all the other crises that we have in the Gaza Strip, we now have a crisis of electricity, said John Ging, director of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza.It's an unbearable situation here at the moment, and it needs to be solved very quickly. It's a Palestinian problem, made by Palestinians, and causing Palestinian suffering. So let's have a Palestinian solution,he told reporters.UNRWA, which provides vital aid to more than one million registered refugees in Gaza, has repeatedly decried Israel's four-year blockade of the territory but rarely extended its criticism to Gaza's Hamas rulers.The territory's sole power plant, which provides 25 percent of its electricity, was forced to shut down over the weekend as a result of a payment dispute between Hamas and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA).The PA has blamed Hamas for not forcing tens of thousands of salaried Gazans to pay their bills and thereby share in the cost of industrial fuel for the plant.But Hamas has pointed the finger at the PA and accused it of worsening the blockade.Closing the power plant has added to Gaza's chronic power outages at a time when temperatures regularly exceed 30 degrees C (90 F), forcing residents to rely even more on diesel generators.
The industrial diesel needed to run the power plant comes through an Israeli-controlled fuel terminal, with Israel setting import quotas.The quantity of fuel brought in to Gaza has declined since November, when the European Commission transferred responsibility for buying the fuel to the PA after its aid programme expired.Israel supplies about 70 percent of Gaza's power and Egypt provides five percent, with the remainder coming from the power plant, which has had to shut down several times in the past because of fuel shortages.Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have been fiercely divided since the Islamist movement violently seized power in Gaza in 2007.
Israel's Gaza blockade not sustainable: G8
Sat Jun 26, 1:26 pm ET
TORONTO, Canada (AFP) – Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip is not sustainable in its current form and must be changed to allow more aid through to its Palestinian population, G8 leaders said Saturday.In a statement issued after their summit in Canada, the heads of the world's major industrialized economies also said they deeply regret the loss of life that happened last month when Israel stormed an activist boat off Gaza.We urge all parties to work together to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1860 and to ensure the flow of humanitarian and commercial goods and persons, to and from Gaza, the final communique said.The current arrangements are not sustainable and must be changed,it said, welcoming the Israeli government's decision to loosen some of the controls it imposes on goods traffic in and out of the Hamas-controlled territory.We urge full and effective implementation of this policy in order to address the needs of Gaza's population for humanitarian and commercial goods, civilian reconstruction and infrastructure, and legitimate economic activity.The statement also said Israel's legitimate security concerns ... must continue to be safeguarded.Israel's blockade, imposed after attacks on Israeli civilians by Palestinian militants, has come under more scrutiny since May 31, when nine activists were killed when commandos stormed a Turkish ship heading to Gaza.
Israel marks four years of cruel Shalit captivity by Patrick Moser – Fri Jun 25, 3:17 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israelis on Friday released balloons and took to the streets to mark four years in captivity of soldier Gilad Shalit who is being held by Hamas in what Human Rights Watch called cruel conditions.Residents of the southern Israeli city of Sderot launched balloons from a hill overlooking the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, where the 23-year-old Israeli soldier is believed to be held.In Tel Aviv, about 100 bikers rode in convoy to the embassies of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council with flags bearing Shalit's likeness and the Israeli colours flying from their motorcycles.They handed in letters asking for a special Security Council session on Shalit.In the northern city of Naharia, hundreds of people joined a demonstration of support for Shalit.Other planned events included thousands of yellow balloons being released in Haifa and a candle-lighting ceremony in Tel Aviv.
Demonstrations of support for Shalit, who also holds French nationality, have also been held in several capitals this week, including Rome and Paris.In a letter to the soldier's parents, French President Nicolas Sarkozy wrote of his indignation at Shalit's continued captivity.But he also added: It is wrong to believe that creating a state of deprivation for the (Palestinian) population will bring his release.On Sunday, the Shalit family and thousands of supporters will begin a march from their home in northern Israel to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Jerusalem residence, a distance of about 200 kilometres (120 miles.)In a statement marking Friday's anniversary, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Shalit's prolonged incommunicado detention may amount to torture.Hamas authorities are violating the laws of war by refusing to allow Shalit to correspond with his family,the New York-based group said.
Shalit, then a 19-year-old corporal, was captured by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in a deadly cross-border raid from Gaza on June 25, 2006.He has had no contact with his family or the International Committee of the Red Cross.Regardless of Hamas?s grievances against Israel, there are no grounds to cut Shalit off completely from his family, HRW said.Hamas authorities in Gaza should immediately end the cruel and inhuman treatment of Staff Sgt. Gilad Shalit.The Islamist movement has said that allowing outside access to Shalit could reveal his location to Israel.
HRW pointed out that Israel has prevented detainees from the Gaza Strip from having family visits since Hamas seized power there in 2007. They are, however, allowed periodic Red Cross visits.Israel imposed a blockade on the enclave four years ago a bid to force Hamas to free Shalit, but eased the sanctions this week amid international pressure fuelled by a deadly commando raid on a Gaza-bound activist aid flotilla. Negotiations for a prisoner swap, mediated by Egypt and Turkey, have hit deadlock.Hamas wants Israel to release hundreds of prisoners, including several top militants responsible for killing scores of Israelis, in exchange for Shalit -- a price the Jewish state has been reluctant to pay.Israel will end up yielding to the conditions of the resistance,Osama Hamdan, Hamas' representative in Lebanon, said in a statement posted on the website of the armed wing of the group. Most Israelis favour a swap, according to a poll published by the Yediot Aharonot daily on Friday.Seventy-two percent said yes when asked if they would support a prisoner exchange deal in which hundreds of terrorists, including murderers, are released in exchange for Gilad Shalit.The largest Israeli newspapers gave the anniversary blanket coverage.Maariv inserted a yellow ribbon in its Friday edition, which featured an emotional appeal from Shalit's mother, while Yediot Aharonot splashed the headline: Gilad we love you.
Satellite firm cuts Hamas TV broadcasts to Europe
Fri Jun 25, 11:22 am ET
PARIS (AFP) – A Gaza-based television station, accused of inciting hatred of Jews and Israel, has had its broadcasts to Europe shut off, Eutelsat satellite firm said on Friday.Paris-based Eutelsat said its client Noorsat, the operator which handles the broadcasting of Al-Aqsa TV to parts of Europe and throughout the Middle East, cut the satellite signal on Thursday.Reacting to the move, Al-Aqsa director Hazem al-Charawi said: The legal battle has just started and we are determined to pursue it.
He told a news conference in Gaza City late on Thursday that the shutdown of its broadcasts to Europe amounted to another layer of the Gaza blockade imposed by the Zionist lobby with France's help.Charawi also pledged to expand broadcasts in Latin America by striking deals with Arab satellites that beam to that part of the world in order to make the (Israeli) occupier and his crimes known to the world.Al-Aqsa TV, which is run by the Islamist movement Hamas which controls the Gaza Strip, went off the air in Europe at 1800 GMT on Thursday.Before the signal on Eutelsat was turned off, Al-Aqsa TV broadcast a message to its European viewers denouncing the unjust decision and inviting them to switch to Nilesat and Arabsat satellite operators.Programmes -- accompanied by the caption a new beginning -- were still being broadcast on the other frequencies to the Middle East region on Friday.
Earlier this month the French government ordered Eutelsat to take Al-Aqsa TV off the air after receiving a complaint from the European Commission that it violated rules on incitement.France's CSA broadcasting authority in 2008 and 2009 warned Eutelsat about breaching French laws that ban incitement to hatred, but these warnings did not lead to any change in the content broadcast via its satellites.Al-Aqsa TV shows music videos and cartoons glorifying the killing of Israeli soldiers, as well as a children's show with a Mickey Mouse-like character that encourages martyrdom and armed struggle leading to the destruction of Israel.Israel repeatedly targeted the channel during its devastating Gaza offensive launched in late 2008 and aimed at halting Hamas rocket attacks. The offensive destroyed all of the channel's studios but failed to take it off the air.Hamas, which won Palestinian elections in 2006 and violently seized power in Gaza the following year, is sworn to the destruction of Israel and has launched scores of deadly attacks since it was founded in 1987.
Israel invites Italy FM to head EU visit to Gaza
Fri Jun 25, 10:31 am ET
ROME (AFP) – Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has invited his Italian counterpart to lead a European ministerial delegation to Gaza, ending a diplomatic blockade on the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave.Lieberman raised the idea at a meeting in Rome on Thursday with Franco Frattini, suggesting his Italian counterpart tour the impoverished coastal strip with other European foreign ministers, the Italian foreign ministry said.Frattini has taken note of the Israeli proposal and will give a response after discussing it with his European and international partners, it said in a statement.The proposal came just four days after Israel said it was easing draconian barriers on imports to Gaza and would allow all strictly civilian goods into the strip while preventing weapons and certain dual-use items from entering.
Export restrictions remain in force.Israel imposed the sanctions after soldier Gilad Shalit was snatched by members of the Islamist movement Hamas and other militant groups on June 25, 2006.The closure was further tightened the following year when Hamas seized control of the territory.International pressure on Israel to lift sanctions soared after its forces killed nine Turkish activists during a May 31 raid on a flotilla of aid ships attempting to run the blockade.Israeli media said on Friday that Lieberman had suggested Frattini lead a delegation of colleagues including the foreign ministers of France, Britain, Germany and non EU-member Norway to Gaza so they could see for themselves that the residents were not starving.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle was told of the proposal by Frattini, his spokesman said. The German ministry did not say whether Westerwelle would join such a visit but said the proposal indicates a step towards change in Israel's Gaza policy.The Jerusalem Post cited Israeli government sources as saying the visitors would be asked not to meet Gaza's Islamist rulers.Since imposing the land, sea and air blockade, Israel has in most cases refused to let senior foreign officials cross its border with Gaza.On Sunday, it refused passage for German Development Minister Dirk Niebel, who wanted to meet representatives of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) which cares for Palestine refugees.The Israeli foreign ministry said at the time that opening the doors to visiting ministers would legitimise Hamas rule in the strip.Israel has, however, allowed access to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.UNRWA spokesman Christopher Gunness welcomed Lieberman's decision, saying that a high-level visit would not only highlight the needs of poverty-stricken Gazans but could also help win the release of Shalit, who is still a captive.I would hope that if politicians take up the suggestion and visit Gaza, they would be able to raise with the local authorities the case of Gilad Shalit,Gunness said.I welcome the policy of engaging, not isolating Gaza. The isolation of Gaza and the resulting desperation of the people there is in no one's interests except the extremists. It just isn't in the interests of Israel to have one and a half million desperate and isolated people on its own doorstep.An Israeli opposition MP criticised the move as capitulation to Hamas. What's happening now is that the government is paying high prices and getting nothing in return,Yohanan Plesner of the centrist Kadima party told public radio.
Hamas is in fact getting its demands, opening of crossings, lifting the diplomatic blockade,he said.
Israel's Likud backs West Bank settlement growth
Thu Jun 24, 1:58 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's right-wing Likud party backed on Thursday the expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, with an eye to a building spurt when a building moratorium expires in September.The central committee of the Likud has unanimously approved the pursuit of construction and development in Judea and Samaria, said a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's party, using the Biblical name for the West Bank.Some 2,500 members of the policy-making central committee debated the motion which supports building and developing throughout the Land of Israel including... Greater Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria.Judea and Samaria are the biblical names for the West Bank. Greater Jerusalem includes mainly Arab east Jerusalem, which was occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed immediately after.The central committee calls on representatives of all (the party's) institutions and on its elected officials to act in conformity with the spirit of this motion and to advance the development of settlements in Judea and Samaria,the statement added.The debate was proposed by legislator Danny Danon in a bid to emphasise the party's wholehearted support for a return to construction when the freeze expires in September, although neither the moratorium nor the deadline was mentioned in the wording of the draft resolution.The essence of today's decision is that the Likud movement is saying to its leaders, Knesset members, ministers, the prime minister: We are committed to building in Judea and Samaria on September 26 when the (freeze) order runs out and we resume building,he told Israel's educational TV channel.
Netanyahu reluctantly imposed a 10-month ban on new building in November following months of US demands for gestures to help relaunch peace talks with the Palestinians suspended during the 2008-2009 Gaza war.But the Palestinians dismissed the move as insufficient because it did not include projects already under way, public buildings or east Jerusalem, which they claim as the capital of their future state.Israel's Peace Now group, which monitors settlements, said last week that so many projects were approved before the freeze began that it has has done little to slow the expansion of settlements.Likud central committee chairman Moshe Kahlon, who is also communications minister, confirmed that the motion did not make direct reference to the freeze or its expiry date.The debate today is not about the freeze, he told the radio. Netanyahu would not attend the committee session in Tel Aviv, Kahlon said, insisting that his absence had no political significance.Likud MP Ofir Akonis told public radio the motion endorsing settlement expansion was so popular that Netanyahu did not need to attend the meeting, while stressing that the premier did support the party's position.On July 6 Netanyahu will meet President Barack Obama in the White House. Washington has repeatedly criticised West Bank settlement as an obstacle to the peace process.The last thing (Netanyahu) needs is that two weeks before the meeting with US President Barack Obama, he goes to a meeting of his own party which seeks to oblige him to build in Judea and Samaria, the radio station's political reporter said.The Palestinians grudgingly agreed to relaunch indirect US-brokered peace talks with Israel in May, but have said they will not move to direct negotiations without a complete settlement freeze including in east Jerusalem.The presence of nearly half a million Israelis in more than 120 settlements scattered across the West Bank and east Jerusalem has long been seen as a major threat to the establishment of an independent, viable Palestinian state.
