Samir is freed to day in the exchange of prisonners between Hezbollah and Israel. Samir Kuntar’s family await his return HERE
Samir spent 29 years in Israeli jails; his brother says that he did not kill the little girl whom he is accused of murdering. She was killed in the exchange of fire with the police.
I can empathize with them but with this attitude in life we would never be happy since many good things come to an end. The poor kids are in depression and do we understand them ! May be it will prompt some government to get the whole families out of there.
30 Jun 2008 15:13:20 GMT
AL TANF, Syria, June 30 (UNHCR) – It seemed like a good idea. Take a group of Palestinian children to the seaside to help them escape the monotony and hardship of their lives in limbo on the arid Iraq-Syria border.
But it all proved a bit too much for most of the children taken to the Syrian city of Tartus on the Mediterranean Sea earlier this month from the Al Tanf camp, where they and their families have lived for months after fleeing their homes in the violence-plagued Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
The sudden freedom of movement, the cool sea breezes, the abundant food and drink and the other laughing kids showed these nine children what they were missing and what they would miss once again when they returned to Al Tanf at the end of their week’s holiday.
We call on the EU to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement until Israel respects human rights and International Law.
The EU is Israel’s biggest importer of goods, and its second biggest exporter. In 2006 the total traded between the EU and Israel amounted to 23.5 BILLION Euros.
The EU-Israel Association Agreement forms the legal basis for this relationship which gives Israel preferential trade terms with EU countries.
Article 2 of the Agreement states that these relations shall be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles which must guide internal and international policy.
The EU is therefore obligated under this Article to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement whilst Israel is in breach of human rights.
The Peace Cycle has travelled to the Occupied Palestinian Territories and witnessed first hand the many abuses of human rights by the Israeli Authorities, including:
� Loss of freedom of movement of the Palestinian people by the placement of checkpoints and earth mounds at strategic locations within the Occupied Territories, making travel between villages and towns often impossible and inhibiting the movement of trade across the territories.
� Israeli-only roads that prohibit use by Palestinian cars and passengers thereby making their journeys far longer than necessary, and often impossible.
� Demolition of Palestinian houses by the Israeli authorities resulting in the heartbreaking loss of family homes and possessions, and destroying their sense of security and belonging.
� Theft of Palestinian land in order to build the separation wall; a barrier deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice, and which has served to further limit freedom of movement and cause loss of trade, resulting in high unemployment and extreme poverty levels.
� Refugee camps where families have been waiting for sixty years to return to their lost homes or to have compensation addressed.
� The uprooting of millions of olive trees, a symbol of Palestinian life, to make way for continuous Israeli settlement building on stolen Palestinian lands, despite the settlements having been deemed illegal and even though cessation of this activity is clearly defined in the latest peace initiative at Annapolis.
� Countless more acts of Israeli aggression towards the Palestinian people, which continue daily, and remain unchallenged on the pretext of security.
What the Peace Cycle has witnessed illustrates the abuses of human rights that at different times over many years have been judged to be illegal by international courts across the world. Yet the EU does nothing visible to bring Israel to account. Whilst this abuse goes on, the EU-Israel Association Agreement has allowed trade with Israel to flourish, with the addition of the EU-Israel Action Plan in 2005-2008 that has allowed for even closer partnerships to develop.
We call for an immediate suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and any further trade between Israel and EU Member States in protest against Israel’s continued violation of human rights of the Palestinian people.
This measure of protest should be maintained until Israel ends the illegal occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the siege of Gaza and fully complies with international human rights law.
The Peace Cycle will personally deliver this petition to the European Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday 9th September 2008.
by Ramzy Baroud / May 28th, 2008
For the last 60 years, all those who have sought a genuinely peaceful and fair solution for Israel and Palestine have faced the same obstacle — Israel’s sense of invincibility and military arrogance, abetted by the US and other Western governments’ unwavering support.
The old lie that palestine was dry desert waiting for a people is just that–a lie. This clip for all people to see the Beauty of the Palestinian People before they were ethnically cleansed and murdered and made into refugees by the State of Israe.
Music Joaquin Rodrigo, lyrics Helmut Lotti, sung by Lotti
All Photos (b&w) from http://fai.cyberia.net.lb/
For Hani, My husband, Best friend & Hero
Israel’s continued siege is taking Gaza back to the Stone Age, reports Saleh Al-Naami
Armed with a sharp axe, Jihad Abu Hamam creeps about once a week into the woods on the eastern border of Al-Qarara village in the southern Gaza Strip. He cuts tree branches there and pulls them to his house two kilometres away. Jamila, his wife, uses these branches as kindling that she lights to cook their food each day, ever since the family’s store of gas for cooking ran out a month ago due to the Israeli decision to bar the entry of gas to the Gaza Strip.
“My wife and I agreed to light a fire once a day to cook on so that the firewood would last as long as possible,” Abu Hamam told Al-Ahram Weekly. Going to the woods once a week is a major risk, he admits, for they are close to Israeli army positions where soldiers do not hesitate to open fire and kill any Palestinian they see nearby. Many Palestinians have lost their lives after entering this wooded area.
On May 14, 1948 the state of Israel was declared. It followed a joint failure from the UN and Britain to find an agreed solution to the instability that occurred after a wave of Jewish immigrants moved from Europe to Palestine.
Sixty years later it seems any solution to the conflict remains as elusive as ever. In a series of special programmes Al Jazeera looks at the history of the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians, asks what has been achieved since 1948 and discusses the future for all those in the region.
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