Boys I see we are still keeping it real in this thread.BB,I never thought about the JC= Byrnzie thing but now that you mention it..............hmmmmm.Nah,I never heard Byrnzie go on A week long hilarious rambling Diatribe about Being in a tree,drunk w a mad elf and I believe masturbating repeatedly while yelling at cops about Jay walking.(did I summarize last week correctly JC?)lol
Ok JC.I will not bust your balls without at least drinking up a little Elf myself.I will find it here in South Florida and I will report back my findings.I kinda do a lot of research on this subject.So I will give it a real test.Now the tree thing is another story.Cheers
This is straight BULLSHIT. No FUCKEN WAY, this is even against Israeli law. Wow, holyfuck, 2, 11 year old boys getting arrested for doing NOTHING! Absolute appalling. How can they get away with this? Someone tell me how in the fucken world can they (idf soldiers) get away with this. And look at the soldier on the right and watch how he smirks when the lady who speaks perfect English asks him "why are you arresting them? They are only 11 years old!" Fucken asshole, he's a 100% asshole. And I would love to hear ANYONE fucken defend this low life piece of shit.
A statement from the General Court of the European Union said it was annulling the “measures maintaining Hamas on the European list of terrorist organizations.” However, the court said assets seized from Hamas would continue to be frozen pending an appeal.
The court ruling coincided with another blow to Israeli policy. The Palestinian leadership, via allied Jordan, submitted a draft resolution to the U.N. Security Council that would call for a Palestinian state and force Israel to withdraw from the West Bank within two years.
Israeli officials have been pressuring the United States to wield its veto power at the Security Council should the draft be brought up for a vote. Palestinian leaders have vowed to proceed with the showdown, encouraged by recent votes in several European states in support of a deadline for Palestinian statehood unless idle peace talks come to fruition.
l
It was unclear when the draft might come up for a vote, but the United States was expected to use its veto power to block it.
U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry recently held separate discussions with Israeli and Palestinian officials in efforts to stave off a crisis over the resolution.
Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Malki told Palestinian radio Wednesday that no agreement was reached.
According to Malki, the draft is based on a French proposal and will address “all the problems that existed over the past 20 years of negotiations.”
Israel firmly rejects the move. After meeting with Kerry in Rome on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Palestinian and European attempts to force conditions on Israel “will only lead to a deterioration in the regional situation and will endanger Israel.”
Also Wednesday, the European Parliament passed a resolution to support Palestinian statehood “in principle.” Reiterating its support for the two-state solution, the resolution called for the advance of peace talks.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the various international efforts are an “organized campaign designed to impose a de facto situation on Israel” and a “political attack.”
He said Israel must take diplomatic action of its own.
“The absence of an Israeli initiative deteriorates our position in the international arena, harms our relationships with our friends in the West. ... Standing in place endangers Israel,” he said.
Netanyahu made clear his pique over the court ruling on Hamas at a meeting with U.S. Sen.-elect Joni Ernst of Iowa on Wednesday.
“Today we witnessed staggering examples of European hypocrisy,” he said, referring to the court decision and a scheduled conference of parties to the Geneva Convention convened at Palestinian request.
“The burden of proof is on the European Union and we expect it to put Hamas back on the list forthwith,” Netanyahu said, calling Hamas a “murderous terrorist organization.”
“In Geneva, they call for the investigation of Israel for war crimes, while in Luxembourg the European court removed Hamas from the list of terrorist organizations. ... It seems that too many in Europe, on whose soil 6 million Jews were slaughtered, have learned nothing,” Netanyahu said.
Israeli media reported that Lars Faaborg-Andersen, the European Union ambassador to Israel, clarified that Europe plans to find the appropriate legal evidence needed to put Hamas back on the list and that its position on Hamas remains unchanged.
In a post on Facebook, Hamas official Mousa abu Marzouk said the decision corrects a “historic injustice” to Hamas as a national liberation movement exercising “legitimate resistance.” He welcomed the decision as a “real victory for the justice of our cause” and proof “the occupation can no longer ... continue to deceive the world.”
Sobelman is a special correspondent. Staff writer Williams reported from Los Angeles. Special correspondent Maher Abukhater in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Israeli lawmakers voted Monday to dissolve the parliament and hold elections on March 17, making the current government one of the shortest-lived in the country's history.
With some cellphone cameras flashing but no objections, lawmakers passed the motion at the end of an hours-long discussion of last-minute legislation that included no-confidence motions and harsh criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Lawmaker Dov Khenin called the Netanyahu government “bad and dangerous” and said it had blocked all chances for a political solution to Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians and the wider Arab world. Jamal Zahalka accused Netanyahu and his ministers of giving orders that killed thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and called for a no-confidence vote that would be a “harsh indictment against a criminal government.”
The last law passed by the Knesset before it voted to disband was a bill allowing the jailing of African migrants entering Israel illegally. This was the government’s third bid to pass the controversial law, after the Supreme Court ruled that two previous bills approved by parliament were unconstitutional violations of rights, and threw them out.
In a statement after the vote, the community of African asylum seekers and refugees expressed “deep sorrow” over the bill. “A majority of lawmakers … would rather hide us in a desert jail than look reality in the eye. We are asylum seekers, not criminals,” they said. A group of Israeli rights organizations said they would appeal the law to the high court again.
After a protracted political crisis that paralyzed the government, Netanyahu undid his ruling coalition last week when he fired two top ministers and lost four more and called for early elections, two years ahead of schedule.
The immediate crisis was sparked by a contested bill to declare Israel a Jewish state, as well as the proposed budget. The disputes unleashed deep-seated differences within Netanyahu’s coalition that erupted into a fierce, personal confrontation between him and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Finance Minister Yair Lapid. Netanyahu fired them both in a dramatic, televised announcement.
Even before the vote, the election campaign was in full swing.
Addressing a business conference in Tel Aviv before the expected vote, Netanyahu called on voters to give him a “clear mandate” to handle economic, defense and diplomatic challenges Israel faces.
“This requires governability,” Netanyahu said, referring to Israel’s fractious political system that makes it difficult for governments to last.
Opposition leader Isaac Herzog declared his Labor Party would head the next government and lead the country “to a better future.” Herzog urged legislators to “put ego aside” to allow the formation of a large center-left bloc to challenge the right-wing dominance that could give Netanyahu a fourth term.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
The Israeli military said the airstrike, in the early hours of Saturday morning, was on what it called a "Hamas terror infrastructure site" in the southern Gaza Strip.
Israeli military officials said they had acted in response to a rocket having been fired from Gaza into southern Israel on Friday without causing any injuries.
The Israeli military said the airstrike, in the early hours of Saturday morning, was on what it called a "Hamas terror infrastructure site" in the southern Gaza Strip.
Israeli military officials said they had acted in response to a rocket having been fired from Gaza into southern Israel on Friday without causing any injuries.
it was most likely a school.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
Palestinians Join International Criminal Court, Despite Israeli and U.S. Warnings
By JODI RUDORENDEC. 31, 2014
JERUSALEM — President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority signed papers Wednesday to join the International Criminal Court, a provocative move that could lead to the prosecution of Israeli officials on charges of war crimes and risks severe sanctions from Washington and Jerusalem.
The defiant step came a day after the defeat of a United Nations Security Council resolution that demanded an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory by 2017. It was billed as part of a strategic shift by the Palestinian leadership to pursue statehood in the international arena after decades of failed American-brokered negotiations with Israel.
“There is aggression practiced against our land and our country, and the Security Council has let us down — where shall we go?” Mr. Abbas said at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, as he signed the Rome Statute, the founding charter of the court, as well as 17 other international treaties and conventions.
C
“We want to complain to this organization,” he said of the court. “As long as there is no peace, and the world doesn’t prioritize peace in this region, this region will live in constant conflict. The Palestinian cause is the key issue to be settled.”
Mr. Abbas, whose popularity has plummeted since this summer’s battle between Israel and Hamas, has been under increasing pressure from the public and other Palestinian leaders to join the court, and use it to pursue cases against Israel’s settlement policy and military operations. But doing so could have major repercussions, both because Palestinians could also face charges at the court, and because Israel and the United States Congress have promised to respond harshly.
“There is no question mark as to what are the consequences, that there will be immediate American and Israeli financial sanctions,” said Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in the West Bank city of Ramallah. “Those sanctions will gradually become more and more crippling, and this could indeed be the beginning of the end of the P.A. They fully realize that.”
A December poll by Mr. Shikaki’s group showed 35 percent of Palestinians approved of the president’s performance, down from 50 percent before this summer’s war, and that if there were elections, Mr. Abbas, of the secular Fatah party, would lose to his rival from Hamas, the militant Islamist faction that dominates the Gaza Strip. With reconstruction of Gaza after the summer’s devastating war stalled amid ongoing acrimony between Hamas and Fatah despite an April reconciliation pact, analysts said Mr. Abbas was increasingly desperate to show he was doing something.
“They have to take some meaningful steps to recover anything of their really shredded credibility,” Nadia Hijab, executive director of Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network, said of Mr. Abbas’s team.
“That fig leaf of action is growing steadily more tattered,” she added. “They keep saying it’s a new paradigm and they want to use international tools, but now they have actually been put on the spot.”
After a ceremony at his Ramallah headquarters marking the 50th anniversary of Fatah’s founding and a leadership meeting, Mr. Abbas signed the official papers to join the Rome Statute, the Hague-based court’s founding treaty. The Palestinians have to wait 60 days before they can file cases at the court, a window of time that some in Washington are counting on to calm the situation.
But with Israeli elections scheduled for March 17, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli politicians may be eager to show a strong response to what they have long denounced as an aggressive, unilateral move. Earlier on Wednesday, one of Mr. Netanyahu’s close allies, Yuval Steinitz, called Tuesday’s United Nations vote “no less dangerous than Hamas’s rockets,” saying the fact that France supported the resolution and Britain abstained “is very grave.”
Wednesday’s signing came eight months after a similar move in April, when Mr. Abbas stunned Washington and Israel by joining 15 international treaties and conventions as nine months of American-brokered peace talks neared collapse. Those included the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and additional protocols of 1977 on the laws of war, along with ones dealing with discrimination against women and children.
The International Criminal Court is a much more significant step. Created in 2002 to prosecute perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, the court currently has 122 member countries, and has mainly dealt with horrors in Africa.
The Palestinians asked the court in 2009 to investigate Israeli actions during Operation Cast Lead, a three-week military offensive in Gaza, but were rejected because they lacked the required United Nations status. A 2012 vote in the United Nations General Assembly upgraded Palestine’s status to non-member observer state, and some Palestinians have been urging Mr. Abbas to sign the Rome Statute ever since.
Correction: December 31, 2014
An earlier version of this article misstated the number of international treaties and conventions President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority signed on Wednesday. He signed 18 in total, not 22.
Said Ghazali contributed reporting from Ramallah, and Majd Al Waheidi from Gaza.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
UN chief says Palestine will join int’l court on April 1 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter More Options Resize Text Print Article Comments 2 By Associated Press January 6 at 11:27 PM UNITED NATIONS — U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said late Tuesday that the state of Palestine will join the International Criminal Court on April 1, a high-stakes move that will enable the Palestinians to pursue war-crimes charges against Israel.
The Palestinians submitted the documents ratifying the Rome Statute that established the court last Friday, the last formal step to accepting the jurisdiction of the world’s permanent war crimes tribunal. The U.N. said the secretary-general would review the paperwork.
In a statement posted on the U.N.’s treaty website, the secretary-general announced his acceptance of the documents saying “the statute will enter into force for the State of Palestine on April 1, 2015” in accordance with the court’s procedures. He said he was “acting in his capacity as depositary” for the documents of ratification.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed documents to join the ICC a day after the U.N. Security Council rejected a resolution on Dec. 30 that would have set a three-year deadline for the establishment of a Palestinian state on lands occupied by Israel.
Joining the ICC is part of a broader Palestinian strategy to pressure Israel into withdrawing from the territories and agreeing to Palestinian statehood. Abbas has been under heavy domestic pressure to take stronger action against Israel after a 50-day war between the Jewish state and militants in Gaza over the summer, tensions over holy sites in Jerusalem, and the failure of the last round of U.S.-led peace talks.
The Palestinian decision to join the ICC has already sparked retaliation from Israel which froze the transfer of more than $100 million in tax funds collected for the Palestinians on Saturday. It promised tougher action on Sunday.
*******The United States also opposed the move, calling it an obstacle to reaching a permanent peace agreementl that would give the Palestinians an independent state. The Obama administration said Monday it was reviewing its annual $440 million aid package to the Palestinians because of the decision to join the ICC.
While Palestinian membership in the ICC doesn’t automatically incur U.S. punishment, any Palestinian case against Israel at the court would trigger an immediate cutoff of U.S. financial support under American law.**********
Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour said last week that the Palestinians are seeking to raise alleged crimes committed by Israel, including during last summer’s war in Gaza. He said the Palestinians will also seek justice for Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory, which he said constitute “a war crime” under the Rome statute.
The ICC said the Palestinians submitted a document to the court’s registrar, Herman von Hebel, in The Hague, Netherlands on Jan. 1 stating that Palestine accepts the jurisdiction of the ICC starting June 13 — about a month before the Gaza war started.
The International Criminal Court was created to prosecute individual perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Palestine will become the 123rd member.
But in Monday’s press release, the court stressed that accepting the jurisdiction of the ICC “does not automatically trigger an investigation.” ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda must determine whether the criteria under the statute for opening an investigation have been met, it said.
The secretary-general also approved Palestinian documents joining 16 other international treaties, conventions and agreements on Tuesday night.
*****anyone else see anything wrong with this?
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
israel is already punishing the palestinians for this move. witholding $100 million in tax support. go figure. surprised there have not been airstrikes yet.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
Would you rather freeze to death or be burnt alive? I would prefer burning if I had the choice, but I'm not sure what i would have chosen when I was a kid or 4 months old. I used to be able to handle the cold better.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Israel as the occupier shuts electricity down 20 hours a day. With only 4 hours of electricity and record low temps in Palestine, babies are literally freezing to death so families are getting warm by burning fires in their "homes", this has lead to fires where babies and kids have burned alive.
Google it CMTSU
Thread relevance police
0
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,336
Israel as the occupier shuts electricity down 20 hours a day. With only 4 hours of electricity and record low temps in Palestine, babies are literally freezing to death so families are getting warm by burning fires in their "homes", this has lead to fires where babies and kids have burned alive.
Google it
CMTSU
Thread relevance police
Really JC, your thread at 2:05 AM made no sense whatsoever. Also, just for grins I Googled CMTSU and found nothing relevant to this thread. Having a good time here, eh?
"Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!" -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
A 30 days old infant on Saturday died of the severe cold in Khan Younis, Gaza.
Local sources reported that the baby named Adel Al-Laham who lived with his family in a 'zenco house' died after the dramatic drop of tempreture.
This is the second infant death reported in the last 24 hours. On Friday a a two-months old girl died following the fall of tempreture after a snow storm hit the area last Tuesday.
****the article omits the part about the electricity being cut off to the village.****
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
There's a saying I can't quite remember, but it's something like for every two Israelis you get three opinions. Regardless of what coalition government gets elected, there's a certainty of dissent. The certainty of instability of the government means the status quo will probably remain, due to the friction related to bringing about any significant change. At this point, I have no doubt that it will be on the Palestinian people and the diaspora's population (specifically Jews) if there's to be any significant change.
Unfortunately, Herzog can't do this, as I don't think he aims to unify Jewish and Zionist beliefs the way Netanyahu does: and in that omission of unification, he loses the obligation of answering to the global Jewish population at large. Netanyahu won't do it either, because in spite of his tendency to try to align Jewish and Zionist values as one and the same, he's a self-serving politician who prefers Jewish superiority over a region to even the possibility of a non-denominational (across all religions) governance of the region, hence he will answer to Israeli Jews over diaspora Jews. The Palestinian voice, of course, remains unheard.
For the record, I find it a tremendous failure on my own part and the part of other diaspora Jews for not forcing Netanyahu's hand. If he wants to speak for us, he should have to answer to us.
Post edited by benjs on
'05 - TO, '06 - TO 1, '08 - NYC 1 & 2, '09 - TO, Chi 1 & 2, '10 - Buffalo, NYC 1 & 2, '11 - TO 1 & 2, Hamilton, '13 - Buffalo, Brooklyn 1 & 2, '15 - Global Citizen, '16 - TO 1 & 2, Chi 2
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
Guess the 6 miles of fishing waters "given" to the Palestinians in 93 doesn't mean shit anymore. More daily cease fire breaches in Israel, or should I say Palestine?
Palestinian Fishing Boats Attacked By Israeli Navy Ships Saturday March 14, 2015 09:53 by
IMEMC & Agencies Israeli navy ships opened fire, on Saturday at dawn, on a number of Palestinian fishing boats in Palestinian waters, in the Sudaniyya Sea area, northwest of Gaza City.
The fishers said they were less than four miles away from the Gaza shore, before the navy fired dozens of rounds of live ammunition, causing significant property damage but no injuries.
The navy conducts daily attacks against the fishers in Gaza, and their boats, in an attempt to prevent them from fishing, an issue that impacts the lives of dozens of thousands of Palestinians who depend on fishing as their only sources of livelihood to their families.
The attacks frequently lead to kidnapping some of the fishers, towing their boats, in addition to dozens of casualties, including fatalities.
Last Saturday, March 7, a Palestinian fisher was killed by Israeli Navy fire in Gaza territorial waters, and two others were kidnapped. http://www.imemc.org/article/70831
Two days before the attack, two fishers were shot and injured.
The current six-nautical-mile fishing zone falls drastically short of the twenty nautical miles allocated to Palestinian fishermen in the 1993 Oslo Accords, and come in direct violation of every ceasefire agreement.
Nart, that last point about being labeled as an anti-Semite just isn't necessary. No one's going to respond to facts by calling you an anti-Semite - in fact, I don't think it's been said here in ages (and I certainly don't let it go when I do see it, as I loathe the term as much as Islamophobia). Best just to let the facts do the talking - they speak volumes, after all.
As an aside - I wonder which politician will be mandating the status quo next week in Israel - Netanyahu or Herzog?
Post edited by benjs on
'05 - TO, '06 - TO 1, '08 - NYC 1 & 2, '09 - TO, Chi 1 & 2, '10 - Buffalo, NYC 1 & 2, '11 - TO 1 & 2, Hamilton, '13 - Buffalo, Brooklyn 1 & 2, '15 - Global Citizen, '16 - TO 1 & 2, Chi 2
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
Comments
http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/drink-this-and-celebrate-christmas-like-a-true-pennsylv-1666187246
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/us-israel-are-only-countries-oppose-un-ban-weapons-outer-space
Whores
http://m.hrw.org/news/2014/12/11/israelpalestine-palestinian-official-dies-after-border-police-assault
93 ceasefire violations since Aug, Israel as USual
Israelis: 131
TOTALS FOR 2014:
Israelis: 2
TOTALS SINCE SEPT 2000:
Palestinians: 1656
TOTALS FOR 2014:
Palestinians: 137
http://rememberthesechildren.org/remember2014.html
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/rocket-deaths-israel
http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-hamas-taken-off-european-union-terror-list-israel-anger-20141217-story.html
European Union court Wednesday ordered the removal of Hamas from the European Union's list of terrorist organizations, based on a procedural technicality, a ruling that provoked anger from Israel as well as satisfaction from the militant Palestinian movement.
A statement from the General Court of the European Union said it was annulling the “measures maintaining Hamas on the European list of terrorist organizations.” However, the court said assets seized from Hamas would continue to be frozen pending an appeal.
The court ruling coincided with another blow to Israeli policy. The Palestinian leadership, via allied Jordan, submitted a draft resolution to the U.N. Security Council that would call for a Palestinian state and force Israel to withdraw from the West Bank within two years.
Israeli officials have been pressuring the United States to wield its veto power at the Security Council should the draft be brought up for a vote. Palestinian leaders have vowed to proceed with the showdown, encouraged by recent votes in several European states in support of a deadline for Palestinian statehood unless idle peace talks come to fruition.
l
It was unclear when the draft might come up for a vote, but the United States was expected to use its veto power to block it.
U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry recently held separate discussions with Israeli and Palestinian officials in efforts to stave off a crisis over the resolution.
Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Malki told Palestinian radio Wednesday that no agreement was reached.
According to Malki, the draft is based on a French proposal and will address “all the problems that existed over the past 20 years of negotiations.”
Israel firmly rejects the move. After meeting with Kerry in Rome on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Palestinian and European attempts to force conditions on Israel “will only lead to a deterioration in the regional situation and will endanger Israel.”
Also Wednesday, the European Parliament passed a resolution to support Palestinian statehood “in principle.” Reiterating its support for the two-state solution, the resolution called for the advance of peace talks.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the various international efforts are an “organized campaign designed to impose a de facto situation on Israel” and a “political attack.”
He said Israel must take diplomatic action of its own.
“The absence of an Israeli initiative deteriorates our position in the international arena, harms our relationships with our friends in the West. ... Standing in place endangers Israel,” he said.
Netanyahu made clear his pique over the court ruling on Hamas at a meeting with U.S. Sen.-elect Joni Ernst of Iowa on Wednesday.
“Today we witnessed staggering examples of European hypocrisy,” he said, referring to the court decision and a scheduled conference of parties to the Geneva Convention convened at Palestinian request.
“The burden of proof is on the European Union and we expect it to put Hamas back on the list forthwith,” Netanyahu said, calling Hamas a “murderous terrorist organization.”
“In Geneva, they call for the investigation of Israel for war crimes, while in Luxembourg the European court removed Hamas from the list of terrorist organizations. ... It seems that too many in Europe, on whose soil 6 million Jews were slaughtered, have learned nothing,” Netanyahu said.
Israeli media reported that Lars Faaborg-Andersen, the European Union ambassador to Israel, clarified that Europe plans to find the appropriate legal evidence needed to put Hamas back on the list and that its position on Hamas remains unchanged.
In a post on Facebook, Hamas official Mousa abu Marzouk said the decision corrects a “historic injustice” to Hamas as a national liberation movement exercising “legitimate resistance.” He welcomed the decision as a “real victory for the justice of our cause” and proof “the occupation can no longer ... continue to deceive the world.”
Sobelman is a special correspondent. Staff writer Williams reported from Los Angeles. Special correspondent Maher Abukhater in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-israel-parliament-disband-20141208-story.html
Israeli lawmakers voted Monday to dissolve the parliament and hold elections on March 17, making the current government one of the shortest-lived in the country's history.
With some cellphone cameras flashing but no objections, lawmakers passed the motion at the end of an hours-long discussion of last-minute legislation that included no-confidence motions and harsh criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Lawmaker Dov Khenin called the Netanyahu government “bad and dangerous” and said it had blocked all chances for a political solution to Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians and the wider Arab world. Jamal Zahalka accused Netanyahu and his ministers of giving orders that killed thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and called for a no-confidence vote that would be a “harsh indictment against a criminal government.”
The last law passed by the Knesset before it voted to disband was a bill allowing the jailing of African migrants entering Israel illegally. This was the government’s third bid to pass the controversial law, after the Supreme Court ruled that two previous bills approved by parliament were unconstitutional violations of rights, and threw them out.
In a statement after the vote, the community of African asylum seekers and refugees expressed “deep sorrow” over the bill. “A majority of lawmakers … would rather hide us in a desert jail than look reality in the eye. We are asylum seekers, not criminals,” they said. A group of Israeli rights organizations said they would appeal the law to the high court again.
After a protracted political crisis that paralyzed the government, Netanyahu undid his ruling coalition last week when he fired two top ministers and lost four more and called for early elections, two years ahead of schedule.
The immediate crisis was sparked by a contested bill to declare Israel a Jewish state, as well as the proposed budget. The disputes unleashed deep-seated differences within Netanyahu’s coalition that erupted into a fierce, personal confrontation between him and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Finance Minister Yair Lapid. Netanyahu fired them both in a dramatic, televised announcement.
Even before the vote, the election campaign was in full swing.
Addressing a business conference in Tel Aviv before the expected vote, Netanyahu called on voters to give him a “clear mandate” to handle economic, defense and diplomatic challenges Israel faces.
“This requires governability,” Netanyahu said, referring to Israel’s fractious political system that makes it difficult for governments to last.
Opposition leader Isaac Herzog declared his Labor Party would head the next government and lead the country “to a better future.” Herzog urged legislators to “put ego aside” to allow the formation of a large center-left bloc to challenge the right-wing dominance that could give Netanyahu a fourth term.
Sobelman is a special correspondent.
Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Israeli military officials said they had acted in response to a rocket having been fired from Gaza into southern Israel on Friday without causing any injuries.
it was most likely a school.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/01/world/middleeast/palestinians-to-join-international-criminal-court-defying-israeli-us-warnings.html
Palestinians Join International Criminal Court, Despite Israeli and U.S. Warnings
By JODI RUDORENDEC. 31, 2014
JERUSALEM — President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority signed papers Wednesday to join the International Criminal Court, a provocative move that could lead to the prosecution of Israeli officials on charges of war crimes and risks severe sanctions from Washington and Jerusalem.
The defiant step came a day after the defeat of a United Nations Security Council resolution that demanded an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory by 2017. It was billed as part of a strategic shift by the Palestinian leadership to pursue statehood in the international arena after decades of failed American-brokered negotiations with Israel.
“There is aggression practiced against our land and our country, and the Security Council has let us down — where shall we go?” Mr. Abbas said at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, as he signed the Rome Statute, the founding charter of the court, as well as 17 other international treaties and conventions.
C
“We want to complain to this organization,” he said of the court. “As long as there is no peace, and the world doesn’t prioritize peace in this region, this region will live in constant conflict. The Palestinian cause is the key issue to be settled.”
Mr. Abbas, whose popularity has plummeted since this summer’s battle between Israel and Hamas, has been under increasing pressure from the public and other Palestinian leaders to join the court, and use it to pursue cases against Israel’s settlement policy and military operations. But doing so could have major repercussions, both because Palestinians could also face charges at the court, and because Israel and the United States Congress have promised to respond harshly.
“There is no question mark as to what are the consequences, that there will be immediate American and Israeli financial sanctions,” said Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in the West Bank city of Ramallah. “Those sanctions will gradually become more and more crippling, and this could indeed be the beginning of the end of the P.A. They fully realize that.”
A December poll by Mr. Shikaki’s group showed 35 percent of Palestinians approved of the president’s performance, down from 50 percent before this summer’s war, and that if there were elections, Mr. Abbas, of the secular Fatah party, would lose to his rival from Hamas, the militant Islamist faction that dominates the Gaza Strip. With reconstruction of Gaza after the summer’s devastating war stalled amid ongoing acrimony between Hamas and Fatah despite an April reconciliation pact, analysts said Mr. Abbas was increasingly desperate to show he was doing something.
“They have to take some meaningful steps to recover anything of their really shredded credibility,” Nadia Hijab, executive director of Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network, said of Mr. Abbas’s team.
“That fig leaf of action is growing steadily more tattered,” she added. “They keep saying it’s a new paradigm and they want to use international tools, but now they have actually been put on the spot.”
After a ceremony at his Ramallah headquarters marking the 50th anniversary of Fatah’s founding and a leadership meeting, Mr. Abbas signed the official papers to join the Rome Statute, the Hague-based court’s founding treaty. The Palestinians have to wait 60 days before they can file cases at the court, a window of time that some in Washington are counting on to calm the situation.
But with Israeli elections scheduled for March 17, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli politicians may be eager to show a strong response to what they have long denounced as an aggressive, unilateral move. Earlier on Wednesday, one of Mr. Netanyahu’s close allies, Yuval Steinitz, called Tuesday’s United Nations vote “no less dangerous than Hamas’s rockets,” saying the fact that France supported the resolution and Britain abstained “is very grave.”
Wednesday’s signing came eight months after a similar move in April, when Mr. Abbas stunned Washington and Israel by joining 15 international treaties and conventions as nine months of American-brokered peace talks neared collapse. Those included the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and additional protocols of 1977 on the laws of war, along with ones dealing with discrimination against women and children.
The International Criminal Court is a much more significant step. Created in 2002 to prosecute perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, the court currently has 122 member countries, and has mainly dealt with horrors in Africa.
The Palestinians asked the court in 2009 to investigate Israeli actions during Operation Cast Lead, a three-week military offensive in Gaza, but were rejected because they lacked the required United Nations status. A 2012 vote in the United Nations General Assembly upgraded Palestine’s status to non-member observer state, and some Palestinians have been urging Mr. Abbas to sign the Rome Statute ever since.
Correction: December 31, 2014
An earlier version of this article misstated the number of international treaties and conventions President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority signed on Wednesday. He signed 18 in total, not 22.
Said Ghazali contributed reporting from Ramallah, and Majd Al Waheidi from Gaza.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
UN chief says Palestine will join int’l court on April 1
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By Associated Press January 6 at 11:27 PM
UNITED NATIONS — U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said late Tuesday that the state of Palestine will join the International Criminal Court on April 1, a high-stakes move that will enable the Palestinians to pursue war-crimes charges against Israel.
The Palestinians submitted the documents ratifying the Rome Statute that established the court last Friday, the last formal step to accepting the jurisdiction of the world’s permanent war crimes tribunal. The U.N. said the secretary-general would review the paperwork.
In a statement posted on the U.N.’s treaty website, the secretary-general announced his acceptance of the documents saying “the statute will enter into force for the State of Palestine on April 1, 2015” in accordance with the court’s procedures. He said he was “acting in his capacity as depositary” for the documents of ratification.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed documents to join the ICC a day after the U.N. Security Council rejected a resolution on Dec. 30 that would have set a three-year deadline for the establishment of a Palestinian state on lands occupied by Israel.
Joining the ICC is part of a broader Palestinian strategy to pressure Israel into withdrawing from the territories and agreeing to Palestinian statehood. Abbas has been under heavy domestic pressure to take stronger action against Israel after a 50-day war between the Jewish state and militants in Gaza over the summer, tensions over holy sites in Jerusalem, and the failure of the last round of U.S.-led peace talks.
The Palestinian decision to join the ICC has already sparked retaliation from Israel which froze the transfer of more than $100 million in tax funds collected for the Palestinians on Saturday. It promised tougher action on Sunday.
*******The United States also opposed the move, calling it an obstacle to reaching a permanent peace agreementl that would give the Palestinians an independent state. The Obama administration said Monday it was reviewing its annual $440 million aid package to the Palestinians because of the decision to join the ICC.
While Palestinian membership in the ICC doesn’t automatically incur U.S. punishment, any Palestinian case against Israel at the court would trigger an immediate cutoff of U.S. financial support under American law.**********
Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour said last week that the Palestinians are seeking to raise alleged crimes committed by Israel, including during last summer’s war in Gaza. He said the Palestinians will also seek justice for Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory, which he said constitute “a war crime” under the Rome statute.
The ICC said the Palestinians submitted a document to the court’s registrar, Herman von Hebel, in The Hague, Netherlands on Jan. 1 stating that Palestine accepts the jurisdiction of the ICC starting June 13 — about a month before the Gaza war started.
The International Criminal Court was created to prosecute individual perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Palestine will become the 123rd member.
But in Monday’s press release, the court stressed that accepting the jurisdiction of the ICC “does not automatically trigger an investigation.” ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda must determine whether the criteria under the statute for opening an investigation have been met, it said.
The secretary-general also approved Palestinian documents joining 16 other international treaties, conventions and agreements on Tuesday night.
*****anyone else see anything wrong with this?
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
I would prefer burning if I had the choice, but I'm not sure what i would have chosen when I was a kid or 4 months old. I used to be able to handle the cold better.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Google it
CMTSU
Thread relevance police
Really JC, your thread at 2:05 AM made no sense whatsoever. Also, just for grins I Googled CMTSU and found nothing relevant to this thread. Having a good time here, eh?
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/08/palestinians-gaza-journalist-killings-israel-20148510714681202.html
Israeli occupation carried out 72 attacks on journalists in Gaza
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/13188-israeli-occupation-carried-out-72-attacks-on-journalists-in-gaza
Families of 16 journalists killed in Gaza by Israel demand justice
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=729989
Gaza: Press vests fail to protect Palestinian journalists
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2014/08/gaza-journalists-israel-palestinians/
Attacking journalists makes Israel a plastic democracy
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/articles/middle-east/13541-attacking-journalists-makes-israel-a-plastic-democracy
Palestinian Journalist Was Killed in an Ambulance by Israel Strike
http://www.vice.com/read/this-palestinian-journalist-was-killed-in-an-ambulance-on-sunday-722
17 Journalists Killed in Gaza Since Beginning of Israeli Aggression
http://www.imemc.org/article/68964
Multiple journalists killed in Gaza war by Israel
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/08/israel-attack-shajaiya-victims-survivors.html#
A list of journalists attacked by Israeli forces in Gaza
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0901/S00345.htm
Israel bombs Gaza radio station, injuring journalists
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=713640
Gaza conflict: journalists under fire from Israel?
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2014/07/gaza-conflict-journalists-under-fire-2014723163332631635.html
Two Journalists Among 17 Killed in Israel Raid on Gaza Market
http://en.rsf.org/palestine-two-journalists-among-17-killed-in-31-07-2014,46737.html
Sameh al-Aryan, Journalist, Killed by Israeli Airstrike in Gaza
https://cpj.org/killed/2014/sameh-al-aryan.php
Rami Rayan, Journalist, Killed by Israeli Airstrike in Gaza
https://cpj.org/killed/2014/rami-rayan.php
Khaled Reyadh Hamad, Journalist, Killed during Israel/Hamas Clashes in Gaza
AP journalist, others killed in Gaza by leftover ordinance
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ap-journalist-others-killed-in-gaza-by-leftover-ordinance/
Associated Press video journalist killed in Gaza by Israel Missile
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/08/13/ap-video-journalist-simone-camilli-killed-in-gaza-explosion/
[Warning] The Killing of Journalist Ramy Ryan by Israeli Missiles in Gaza
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/07/31/warning-graphic-video-from-gaza-documents-the-killing-of-journalist-ramy-ryan-by-israeli-missiles/
Israeli Air Strike on a car full of Journalists in Gaza
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/09/palestinian-killed-israel-attack-journalist-car-hamdi-shihab_n_5572073.html
Two Journalists Killed by Unexploded Israel Bomb in Gaza
http://www.ifj.org/nc/news-single-view/backpid/1/article/two-journalists-killed-by-unexploded-bomb-in-gaza/
Eighth Journalist Killed in Gaza: Israel Must Answer for Crimes
http://www.ifj.org/nc/news-single-view/backpid/1/article/eighth-journalist-killed-in-gaza-israel-must-answer-for-crimes/
13 Journalists Killed in Gaza by Israel
http://www.ifj.org/nc/news-single-view/backpid/1/article/13-journalists-killed-in-gaza-palestinian-protest-rally-demands-end-attacks/
Attacks Against Media in Gaza by Israel Must End Now, says IFJ
http://www.ifj.org/nc/news-single-view/backpid/1/article/attacks-against-media-in-gaza-must-end-now-says-ifj/
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/human-rights/8976-no-homes-no-warmth-in-gaza-the-severe-cold-kills-yet-another-infant
A 30 days old infant on Saturday died of the severe cold in Khan Younis, Gaza.
Local sources reported that the baby named Adel Al-Laham who lived with his family in a 'zenco house' died after the dramatic drop of tempreture.
This is the second infant death reported in the last 24 hours. On Friday a a two-months old girl died following the fall of tempreture after a snow storm hit the area last Tuesday.
****the article omits the part about the electricity being cut off to the village.****
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/06/jihadi-chicken-brigade-united-we-quack-divided-we-crack
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/12/the-battle-to-be-israels-conscience?CMP=fb_gu
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/12/israel-election-poll_n_6857626.html
also, used the speech to congress in an election ad, as all of us said he would....
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/12/bibi-campaign-ad_n_6856826.html
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Unfortunately, Herzog can't do this, as I don't think he aims to unify Jewish and Zionist beliefs the way Netanyahu does: and in that omission of unification, he loses the obligation of answering to the global Jewish population at large. Netanyahu won't do it either, because in spite of his tendency to try to align Jewish and Zionist values as one and the same, he's a self-serving politician who prefers Jewish superiority over a region to even the possibility of a non-denominational (across all religions) governance of the region, hence he will answer to Israeli Jews over diaspora Jews. The Palestinian voice, of course, remains unheard.
For the record, I find it a tremendous failure on my own part and the part of other diaspora Jews for not forcing Netanyahu's hand. If he wants to speak for us, he should have to answer to us.
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
http://www.imemc.org/article/70893
Palestinian Fishing Boats Attacked By Israeli Navy Ships
Saturday March 14, 2015 09:53 by
IMEMC & Agencies
Israeli navy ships opened fire, on Saturday at dawn, on a number of Palestinian fishing boats in Palestinian waters, in the Sudaniyya Sea area, northwest of Gaza City.
The fishers said they were less than four miles away from the Gaza shore, before the navy fired dozens of rounds of live ammunition, causing significant property damage but no injuries.
The navy conducts daily attacks against the fishers in Gaza, and their boats, in an attempt to prevent them from fishing, an issue that impacts the lives of dozens of thousands of Palestinians who depend on fishing as their only sources of livelihood to their families.
The attacks frequently lead to kidnapping some of the fishers, towing their boats, in addition to dozens of casualties, including fatalities.
Last Saturday, March 7, a Palestinian fisher was killed by Israeli Navy fire in Gaza territorial waters, and two others were kidnapped. http://www.imemc.org/article/70831
Two days before the attack, two fishers were shot and injured.
The current six-nautical-mile fishing zone falls drastically short of the twenty nautical miles allocated to Palestinian fishermen in the 1993 Oslo Accords, and come in direct violation of every ceasefire agreement.
Related: March 12, 2015
Israeli Navy Opens Fire On Palestinian Fishing Boats In Gaza Waters
http://www.imemc.org/article/70875
Two Fishers Shot, Four Kidnapped In Gaza Waters
http://www.imemc.org/article/70802
Edit-I hope I don't get labeled as an anti-Semite for posting. Just saying.
As an aside - I wonder which politician will be mandating the status quo next week in Israel - Netanyahu or Herzog?
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1