Congratulations to residents of Bilin, including the Popular Committee Against the Wall, The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and Anarchists Against the Wall

From ISM

On Friday, September 7th, the villagers of Bil’in were joined by international and Israeli comrades. Normally they come together every Friday to express their outrage of the unacceptable Apartheid Wall. Normally the day is filled with military violence, tear gas, sound bombs, and billy clubs are common. Once the military begins to fire gas into the crowds, the non-violent protesters tend to back off eventually leaving only the Palestinian children throwing rocks in anger. A mild response in comparison to the rubber coated steel bullets used against them….

Note in the video that Ben Wedeman just can’t help himself, he never fails to present the narrative that Palestinians attack and the Israeli army responds.

A rare victory to be sure but a victory nonetheless. The success was the result of non-violent resistance of years of joint struggle led by Palestinians who were supported by Israeli and international activists. There have been roughly three such victories out of 120 cases brought to Israeli courts by Palestinians fighting the path of the wall.

The court decision dictates that the military are obliged to plan and implement a new route for the wall. It has been ordered that the new path will allow for all Palestinian agricultural land to be on the Palestinian side. Furthermore, the court has ordered that the state should not take into consideration the area earmarked for Stage B of the planned expansion of Matityahu East.
The most important decision however was made by the International court in 2004 when it ruled that the wall was illegal in it’s planned route thru the West Bank and that it should be removed. The international community ignored the decision.

Palestinians Celebrate.
Dubai TV via Mosaic on LINK TV

The Guardian

Yesterday, trucks and vans carried dozens of singing villagers out to the barrier again where they waved flags and rattled sticks on the metal fence in front of the Israeli soldiers. One villager shouted to the crowd through a loudspeaker: “Your steadfastness brought you here.”

“Because of our protests the world knew about us and that’s why we won,” said Abdul Latif Yassin, 50, a school teacher. “But we still have more land beyond the barrier than has been given back to us today.”

CNN International

At the same time things get more difficult for Palestinians in other areas like the agriculture village of Jayyous. Jayous also pursued a strategy of non-viloent demostrations and lawsuits.

Haaretz

The number of Jayyous residents who engage in agriculture has decreased for a simple reason: the separation fence. In this area it was completed three years ago and it cuts off the residents of Jayyous from their lands. To reach their farm land, they require a permit from the Civil Administration, and these are given out less and less often. Only 90 of the 4,000 residents of Jayyous are today permitted to work their lands. For three years, Abu Azzam was one of the lucky ones who received a permit. On June 23, he was informed that the permit would no longer be renewed, “because of opposition on the part of security elements.”

The one comment Nic made was to dispute Meshaal’s assertion that they (Hamas) provided captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit with Glasses which were provided to them by his parents. But that is not what Meshaal said. I can understand Robertson misunderstanding Meshaal but CNN’s website contains the same mistake and attributes it to Meshaal as a quote.

From CNN’s Website

When he asked us to bring him a medical glasses for his sight, we did so as humanitarian duty. We treat Gilad Shalit in a humanitarian way that is in line with the Palestinians’ morals,” he said.

What Meshaal actually said was “when he asked us to bring to him medical glasses for his sight, we did our humanitarian duty“.

My assumption from that was that they provided him with glasses, although not the same glasses that the family provided. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports why this would be the case.

Last year, Shalit’s captors refused to accept a pair of eye glasses sent by his parents because they feared they were embedded with miniature electronic devices.

That would not be a paranoid.

I had great hopes for this 6 hour documentary because Christianne Amanpour was doing it. I also had great reservations since this was still CNN. This was still US media, especially US television.

One easy prediction to make was that any exposure of the truth about Israel and it’s US supporters would result in campaigns and a total assault on the program, CNN and Christiane Amanpour. And so it has begun, led by CAMERA, the Zionist lobby’s media arm.

Both proved accurate. Amanpour did an amazing job on many levels. The US audience was allowed to see things generally underreported in the US.
We saw connections between US politicians and illegal Israeli settlements.
We saw US politicians using campaign contributions to send to Israel to support illegal settlements.
We saw Christian zionists in all their glory.
We saw Jewish terrorists.
We saw the power of the Israel lobby, especially AIPAC but including the Christian Zionists, in Washington.
We saw what happens to politicians who place justice or US interests before AIPAC or Israeli interests.
We saw lots more.

But

We saw it all within the context of “response”. We saw it all in the context of “revenge”. The narrative that Israelis, Jews, settlers, terrorists, are all responding to the threat posed by Palestinians in particular and Arabs in general was pervasive.

Although we saw one Palestinian home spared from demolition, we did not see or hear about the thousands of others which are not.

Finally we saw nothing of the daily terror inflicted on Palestinians by the Israeli army every day.

All in all it was fantastic. See for yourself if you missed it. The other two parts will follow.

CNN

Several years ago Hannah Mermelstein and Dunya Alwan began a program called Birthright Unplugged. They took Jews who traveled to Israel for the free “birthright” propaganda trip and opened their eyes to a side of the story they were not seeing.

They then created Birthright Replugged, a program to bring Palestinian children from refugee camps to Jerusalem, the sea and to villages their parents fled in 1948.

The issue now is whether Maria can live in the Occupied territories as there are no medical facilities equipped to handle her. The Israeli defense ministry wants to move her there and her father is fighting to keep here where she is.

Jim Clancy found this to be a “great story”.

Thank you Chris

And then there was Jon Stewart on Comedy Central. Priceless

CNN International

While at the same time, the destruction elsewhere in the West Bank and Gaza continued. Al Alam TV from Mosaic on Link TV reports on the continued Judaization of Jerusalem through home demolition and confiscation of identity cards etc.

And as Palestine Broadcasting reports, converting a Mosque to a Synagogue for illegal Jewish settlers.

You won’t see this on the BBC.

(Thanks to ISM Nablus and the ISM media office.)