Video: Palestine footballer Mahmoud Sarsak’s mother speaks out as jailed son’s condition grows desperate

By Ali Abunimah


"As his condition grows ever more desperate, the mother of jailed, hunger-striking Palestinian footballer Mahmoud Sarsak has appealed for his release and safe return home
Sarsak, a star Palestinian footballer, was arrested by Israeli occupation forces three years ago at Erez checkpoint as he traveled from his home in Gaza to a match in the West Bank’s Balata refugee camp. He has been held without charge or trial ever since...."

Tahrir Square: Round Two

By Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani

"CAIRO, Jun 6, 2012 (IPS) - The long-awaited verdict in Egypt's 'trial of the century' - a life sentence for ousted president Hosni Mubarak and acquittals for most other defendants - has brought the people back to Cairo's Tahrir Square. The controversial court rulings come at a time of extraordinary domestic political upheaval, with Egypt's first free presidential runoff only ten days away.

"The contentious Mubarak verdict has aggravated an already tense political situation," Mohamed Sami, head of the nationalist Karama ('Dignity') Party, told IPS. "Egypt's short-term political future will likely be determined by the scope and intensity of the coming wave of demonstrations."....."

Palestinian footballer's hunger strike sparks fears for his life

Doctors warn that Mahmoud Sarsak, 25, is risking death or permanent damage with 80-day protest to end detention

Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 5 June 2012

"A former member of the Palestinian national football team remains on hunger strike over his imprisonment by Israel without charge, or trial, despite an agreement that was reached last month in order to end a mass protest by Palestinian prisoners.

Mahmoud Sarsak, 25, has refused food for 80 days, since 19 March. He began his hunger strike after his "administrative detention" order was renewed for the sixth time.

He was arrested in July 2009 while on his way from his home in Gaza to a national contest in the West Bank.
Sarsak is due to be visited for the first time on Wednesday by a doctor from Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) – an Israeli organisation – following legal submissions. A PHR spokeswoman said although Sarsak may be taking fluids and supplements, "every day that this goes on he is at risk of death or permanent damage"......"

In Syria, foreign intervention will only shed more blood

The US and its Gulf allies are already fuelling sectarian conflict in their proxy war with Iran. The fallout could be disastrous

Seumas Milne
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 5 June 2012

"As Syria descends deeper into civil war and human misery, pressure for yet another western military intervention in the Arab world is growing. Last week, General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, declared that the US might take the "military option" in Syria if it was "asked to do so". Barack Obama's Republican rival Mitt Romney is meanwhile demanding that the US government arm the Syrian opposition......"

Israel: The injustice and secrecy surrounding administrative detention

Amnesty International
6 June 2012

"Israel must release all Palestinians held under long-standing administrative detention laws or charge and try them promptly and fairly, Amnesty International said in a new report.

'Starved of justice: Palestinians detained without trial by Israel’ documents human rights violations associated with administrative detention – a relic of British control of the area that permits detention without charge or trial on indefinitely renewable military orders.The report also calls on Israel to stop using these measures to suppress the legitimate and peaceful activities of activists in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.It urges the immediate and unconditional release prisoners of conscience held just for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly.

Administrative detainees – like many other Palestinian prisoners – have been subjected to violations such as the use of torture and other ill-treatment during interrogation, as well as cruel and degrading treatment during their detention, sometimes as punishment for hunger strikes or other protests. In addition, administrative detainees and their families must live with the uncertainty of not knowing how long they will be deprived of their liberty and the injustice of not knowing exactly why they are being detained.

Like other Palestinian prisoners, they have also faced bans on family visits, forcible transfer or deportation and solitary confinement.These practices contravene Israel’s obligations under international human rights law and international humanitarian law. Israel has a duty to uphold due process and fair trial rights, and to take effective action to end torture and other ill-treatment of detainees......

“Israel has used its system of administrative detention – intended as an exceptional measure against people posing an extreme and imminent danger to security – to trample on the human rights of detainees for decades. It is a relic that should be put out to pasture.”....."

Click Here to Download Report (pdf)

Khaled Said: 2nd anniversary of the first flower that bloomed in Egypt’s garden

Bikya Masr

"CAIRO: Wednesday marks the second anniversary of the murder of Khaled Said, the young man whose death at the hands of police in Alexandria on June 6, 2010, was a major catalyst behind the 2011 uprising that toppled imprisoned Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule.

“Two years ago today Khaled only had few hours to live,” wrote the We all Khaled Said Facebook page in its commemorating his anniversary.

“Two years ago thousands of young Egyptians didn’t care for politics or about their rights and two years ago we decided to come together to bring our brother justice,” the page added. The Facebook page that is liked by over two million people was instrumental in uniting young Egyptians ahead of the January 25 protests.

Said, born in 1982, was killed on June 6, 2010, when he was beaten to death by two plainclothes police officers at an Internet cafe in Alexandria.

Said was attacked as a result of posting videos that exposed police corruption.

He was openly beaten in the streets next to the Internet cafe where he was picked up from.

A photo of Said’s dead body that showed the marks of torture was published on the Internet and almost immediately went viral, gaining hundreds of thousands of supporters for change in Egypt.
“Today is the anniversary of the first flower that bloomed in Egypt’s garden.”"

Emad Hajjaj on the Egyptian Elections

Re-shaping Palestinian national identity

New directions for Palestinian leadership will be shaped by grassroots and nonprofit initiatives.

By Ben White
Al-Jazeera

"Cambridge, England - Despite the frozen 'peace process' - or perhaps in part because of it - there have been a number of interesting developments in the Palestinian political scene in recent years. This includes the emergence of new youth-based groups and actions, as well as a growth in coordination between Palestinians on both sides of the 'Green Line'. With this context in mind, a new initiative by BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights is instructive for the direction of the conversation amongst Palestinian activists. The Ongoing Nakba Education Centre (ONEC) was launched this month by the Bethlehem-based non-profit organisation, boasting a websiteand Education Centre. At the heart of the project is the participatory website which, in the words of BADIL's Rich Wiles, "uses multi-media tools to build a significant advocacy resource".

The site, which is still in an early stage of development, will depend on contributions in order to document stories of Palestinian displacement, using photographs, short films, audio recordings - and covering everything from "photo stories of demolitions" to "oral history interviews".The emphasis is on an ongoing project that, while obviously not being able to highlight every story, will grow as a resource that provides networking opportunities for Palestinians and non-

Palestinians working in the field. Nor is there any need to be a 'professional'; BADIL say they will take unedited media to turn into content for the site.Najwa Darwish, Director of BADIL, feels like there is something unique about the 'Ongoing Nakba' project.....

What these various activities have in common is a total disconnect with the strategies and discourse promoted by Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad of 'negotiations', 'reform' and 'economic peace'. The practical efforts on the ground, small as they might seem by themselves, are indicative of a broader paradigm shift that is taking place. These new directions are still only found at the level of the grassroots and not-for-profits, and it will take some time for it to impact at the level of political leadership. ONEC symbolises a shift that is well underway, one that can only breathe hope into the Palestinian struggle for decolonisation and equality."

افاق الثورات العربية مع الدكتور عزمي بشارة - الحلقة الثالثة

افاق الثورات العربية مع الدكتور عزمي بشارة - الحلقة الثالثة

This is a more complete video than the one I posted earlier today.

Al-Jazeera Video: Syrian Kurds flee to Iraq for safety

"A growing number of Syrian-Kurds are heading to neighbouring Iraq to escape the cycle of violence.

The Iraqi government has set up a camp in the country's semi-autonomous Kurdish north to cater for about 2,000 refugees, who hope to return to a new Syria with equal rights.

Many of them say they are army defectors who opted to flee when they were ordered to shoot at civilians.

Al Jazeera's Jane Arraf reports from the Domez Refugee Camp."

Al-Jazeera Video: Inside Story - Is Syria's conflict being fought in Lebanon?

"Around 15 people have been killed and more than 40 others injured in recent fighting in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli - a large city that sits on a very porous border just 130km from the Syrian capital Damascus. A ceasefire is now in place and although there is no armed presence in the streets but the guns and the fighters have not gone away."

Al-Jazeera Video: ما وراء الخبر - القمة الروسية الاوروبية والملف السوري

"قراءة في نتائج القمة الروسية الاوروبية فيما يتعلق بالملف السوري
تقديم عبد القادر عياض
تاريخ البث 2012/06/04
الضيوف :
مروان بشارة
ليونيد سوكيانين
"

Real News Video : Protests Turn Into Occupations Throughout Egypt

For the fourth consecutive day, Egyptians protesting the exoneration of key regime figures have settled into sit-ins

Emad Hajjaj on the Butcher of Damascus

Finkelstein renews attack on BDS “cult,” calls Palestinians who pursue their rights “criminal”

By Ali Abunimah

"Earlier this year Norman Finkelstein gave a notorious interview to Frank Barat in which Finkelstein attacked the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement as a “cult,” accused prominent Palestinians of lying about their goals – which he characterized as the destruction of Israel – and demanded that Palestinians recognize Israel, effectively, as a Jewish state.

Finkelstein was apparently so disturbed by the negative reactions to this interview (although they were entirely postive among many Zionist fanatics) that he tried unsuccessfully to scrub the video from the Internet.

I wrote a detailed rebuttal to Finkelstein’s poor arguments in an Al Jazeera article titled “Finkelstein, BDS and the destruction of Israel.”....

Finkelstein renews attack in Democracy Now interview

In an interview today on Democracy Now – looking relaxed and rested – Finkelstein renewed his attack on Palestinians and their quest for their rights in even more strident terms, leaving no doubt where he stands.....

There you have it, Palestinians. If you continue to insist on rights for all Palestinians, you are committing a crime.

As for Democracy Now, will it allow Palestinians an opportunity to respond to Finkelstein’s misleading attacks?"

Egyptian women: 'They were doing better under Mubarak'

In Egypt, women were at the forefront of the Arab spring, but in the new regime their rights are being eroded

Nabila Ramdani
guardian.co.uk, Monday 4 June 2012

"If you were to read a first draft of last year's Egyptian revolution, it would probably be written by a woman. The uprisings that spread across the country from late January were originally chronicled by prolific female writers such as Nawara Negm, who used everything from internet blogs to appearances on Al Jazeera to spread information to the outside world. "Freedom is only for those who are ready to die," was her mantra, although the protesters' tactics proved less extreme. Civil disobedience, marches and strikes were preferred to violence, with the number of women in Cairo's Tahrir ("liberation") Square peaking at around 50%.

How dispiriting, then, a year and a half on, to see a highly politicised female population relegated to near-onlookers during Egypt's first bona fide presidential election race.

In Cairo today, there is no longer a sense of a traditionally patriarchal society yielding to the democratic spirit of the Arab Spring. Instead, the hundreds of thousands of women who contributed so much to the downfall of President Hosni Mubarak find themselves marginalised, if not ignored.....

As in 2011, women played a crucial role in the 1919 revolution against British rule, but found themselves sidelined by the nationalist Wafd party after Egypt was granted nominal independence in 1922. The foiled legacy of Huda Shaarawi, who launched the Egyptian feminist movement a year later by publicly removing her veil, continues. Asmaa Mahfouz, a 26-year-old activist, is now referred to as the "Leader" of the Arab spring revolt because she uploaded a video in February 2011 calling for men to join her and her protesting sisters. What the frustrating narrative of Asmaa and thousands like her prove is that Egyptian women are deemed fit to inspire and mobilise, but not to assert themselves in the political process."

Hosni Mubarak is in jail – but little has changed for Egypt

As long as powerful players remain in their positions the birth pangs of the revolution are set to be painful and protracted

Magdi Abdelhadi
guardian.co.uk, Monday 4 June 2012

"For the first time in Egypt's history the pharaoh is behind bars. But the joy was not unalloyed. Some of his most powerful henchmen, the backbone of his police state, were acquitted of killing the protesters and are now free. That's why Tahrir Square in Cairo and other cities have erupted in anger.

What also infuriated the public was that Mubarak was found guilty not of what he did, but rather of what he did not do. That's how seemingly preposterous (but apparently technically correct) the verdict is. The former president was proven guilty of something like "serious dereliction of duty": he failed to stop the killing of protesters........

Now as the Muslim Brotherhood appears poised to rule the country, the same disinformation machine is portraying them as agents of foreign powers that include, bizarrely, in one swoop America, Iran, Qatar and Israel. The crassness of the allegations betrays panic, but works well where large swaths of the population are either illiterate or politically unaware.

These people have been in government for so long and appear to be psychologically incapable of conceiving of themselves shorn of power and influence. They will stop at nothing. However, sooner or later (it may be in a few months or a few years, yet the momentum for change is unstoppable) they will find themselves forced to hand over the levers of state to a new elite.

Will they do so quietly and peacefully? They will most certainly drag their feet, using existing Mubarak era laws to thwart change. One thing is sure, though: they will not go without a fight....."

The high price of 'dark fusion'

The US government can already detain citizens as enemy combatants; now it wants to deploy propaganda across the country.

By Mark LeVine
Al-Jazeera

"Irvine, CA - It was the height of the dot-com boom in the United States, but the bubble that fuelled the Clinton years wasn't fooling the American military. The top strategic planners of the day were still worried about potential threats to the US in the still young post-Cold War era - not despite, but because of the rapid spread of a still poorly understood globalisation.

Projecting ahead to the year 2020, the military planners and dozens of major corporations who were involved in the research argued that globalisation was making the world a more dangerous place precisely because it would widen the gap "between 'haves' and 'have-nots'" . This situation demanded that the US establish a "full spectrum dominance" over literally every plane of human existence - under and on the sea, on land, in the air and even in space......

Yet at some point, gung-ho, ignorance-is-bliss patriotism, large scale imprisonment, foreign wars, even 1,000 TV channels and high speed internet won't keep people off the streets - especially in the wake of the worst recession in 70 years and a decade filled with multiple wars. And thus, the Occupy movement burst to life: inspired by the revolts in Tunisia and Egypt and ultimately sparked by the same underlying global neoliberal system that has concentrated wealth and power and increasingly criminalised dissent everywhere.

Full spectrum propaganda

In Tunisia and Egypt, the "secret" or "security" police were infamous for ensuring that regime propaganda was put out as truth, and worse, for spying on citizens and abductions and long-term detention of anyone deemed a threat to the state. And yet now, as these countries struggle to create states that will be less inclined to inflict these practices on their citizens, the United States is moving in the direction they are trying to leave behind.

There are three new and interrelated threats to fundamental freedoms that are directly related to the ongoing war on terror; they involve attempts to permit the US government to deploy propaganda inside the United States, to increase the ability to spy on American citizens and to detain Americans indefinitely without trial for involvement in what until now have been constitutionally protected activities......"

The Syrian 'Massacre of the Innocents'

Regardless of which side is to blame, it must not distract from the tragic reality of those who lost their lives.

By Hamid Dabashi
Al-Jazeera

".....Any government, first and foremost, must both represent and protect its citizens. That is the very raison d'être of any government. The ruling regime in Syria does neither. The Assad regime was buried along with those holy innocents.

Yes there are many foreign elements who are abusing the Syrian uprising to their advantage: The Americans, the NATO countries, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran, even the morally and politically bankrupt al-Qaeda they say. But the final triumph of Syrian people is the defeat of all these treacheries.

The terms of engagement with the future of democracy in our world are not any longer merely politcial but in fact entirely ethical. The discourse must and is radically shifting from the politics of power to an ethics of defiance. This defiance is identical in its opposition to NATO military intervention anywhere from Afghanistan to Libya, with its own civilian (including children) casualties, as it is to the corrupt and degenerate regimes that rule over our people's life, liberty, and destiny.

We are given a false choice to make between a bloody ruling regime in Syria or the horrid Taliban in Afghanistan, and the even bloodier NATO intervention in one or the other. The choice must begin with the facts on the ground, and now buried in graves, facts staring humanity in the eye, and we must never allow any story, any narrative, any spin, any version, whether by the murderous ruling regime in Syria, or by the even more treacherous militarism of NATO, or by the ghastly opportunism of Russia or the Islamic Republic of Iran to gloss over those innocent bodies. Not just the Syrian regime, its "opposition", NATO, ad nauseam - but the entirety of humanity is accountable to that murderous scene. "

City on the Edge of Darkness

Damascus Sweats Fear from Every Pore

by PATRICK COCKBURN
CounterPunch

"Damascus feels like a city expecting the worst to happen and seeing no way to avoid it. War is spreading across the country and is unlikely to spare the capital. Rebels speak of stepping up attacks in the city and could easily do so in the next few weeks.

I spent the last week in Damascus and the atmosphere reminds me of Beirut in 1975 at the start of the 15-year civil war. Again and again in conversations, people realistically laid out for me the nasty things that are all too likely to happen, but few were able to produce plausible ideas on how disaster might be averted.....

If the Western powers are not going to go to war in Syria, and can’t get the Turks to do their dirty work for them, then they should push for reform and power-sharing that leaves a modified version of the Assad regime in place. This would be difficult for the Russians to oppose and would relieve the fears of Iran. The alternative may be a long war that will tear Syria apart."