The flotilla raid triggered outrage in the Arab world and across Europe, as many of the passengers were from European countries. It also strained already tense relations with Israel’s longtime Muslim ally Turkey, the unofficial sponsor of the mission, and drew more attention to the plight of Gaza’s 1.5 million people.

Lubna Marsawa, Free Gaza’s organizer on the Turkish passenger boat said in outrage,

Very few times in history has a flotilla delivering humanitarian goods been welcomed by military war ships.This is a call to the world from the people on the boats. We are a civilian people doing what our governments have refused to do, challenge Israel’s right to collectively punish 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza by blockading their right to their own sea. This flotilla is bringing construction and educational supplies the people of Gaza and are being met by Israeli warships.

There were conflicting accounts of what happened early Monday, with activists claiming the Israelis fired first, and Israel insisting that its forces fired in self-defense. Communications to the ships were cut shortly after the raid began, and activists were kept away from reporters after their boats were towed to the Israeli port of Ashdod.

Officials in Israel said the elite naval units were attacked as they attempted to board one of the ships, and that the commandos used live fire only when they felt their lives were threatened. Dozens of passengers and at least five Israeli soldiers were wounded in the confrontation in international waters.

Israel called the violence “pre-planned” and accused one of the Turkish organizing groups of having what it said were “terrorist ties to Hamas,” the Islamist Palestinian group that runs Gaza.

On the other hand, German activists who were on an aid ship bound for Gaza raided by Israeli commandos said Tuesday that nobody on board was armed with anything more than a few wooden batons.

A German doctor on the ship, Matthias Jochheim, who had bloodstains on his trousers from people he treated, said that he had personally seen four dead people and that he expected the total death toll to be 15.

Israeli soldiers raid an Aid ship in the Mediterranean

The U.N. Security Council is calling for an impartial investigation of Israel’s deadly commando raid on ships taking humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and condemning the “acts” that resulted in the loss of at least nine lives.

After an emergency meeting and marathon negotiations, the 15 council members agreed early Tuesday on a presidential statement that was weaker than that initially demanded by the Palestinians, Arabs and Turkey.

They had called for condemnation of the attack by Israeli forces “in the strongest terms” and “an independent international investigation.”

The Palestinians and Arabs, backed by a number of council members, also called for Israel to lift the blockade on Gaza, immediately release the ships and humanitarian activists, and allow them to deliver their goods. The council later moved into closed consultations to consider possible action.

In a new development, Pro-Palestinian activists sent another boat to challenge Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday as Egypt declared it was temporarily opening a crossing into the Palestinian territory follwing the raid on the humanitarian convoy. Several thousand Gazans are making a furious rush to the Egyptian border, hoping to take advantage of a rare chance to escape the blockaded territory.

Abdullah Abdullah, Afghanistan’s former foreign minister and a leading contender in the country’s 2009 presidential election, arrived in Washington, D.C., this week with a simple message: support for the government of Afghanistan does not exclusively mean support for President Hamid Karzai. Abdullah, who was defeated in a presidential race marred by allegations of fraud, accused Afghanistan’s leadership of having “lost a sense of direction” in remarks at the New America Foundation Tuesday.

Following closely on the heels of Karzai’s visit to Washington last week, Abdullah concentrated on the importance of strengthening Afghanistan’s democracy. “The success of the Afghan government will depend on the trust and sympathy of the majority of people in Afghanistan,” he told his American audience. Unless the country’s government drastically improves, the Taliban would still find willing recruits among Afghanistan’s population. Afghans “want a moderate Islamic country, democracy, equal rights, respect for women’s rights, education, and [to live] at peace with one another in a dignified manner,” Abdullah asserted.

For full Article click

Afghanistan’s Might-Have Been | Foreign Policy.

The full interview with Steve Coll

Former presidential hopeful Abdullah Abdullah tells Washington that supporting Hamid Karzai and doing right by Afghanistan aren’t the same thing.

Marina Barakatt, a former Cal Poly SJPME officer, is one of some 1,360 persons — including doctors, lawyers, diplomats, rabbis, imams, a women’s delegation, a Jewish contingent, a veterans group and Palestinians born overseas — due to take part in the event on 31 December organized by Gaza Freedom March, a coalition of activists of all faiths focusing on human rights.

She reported that the Egyptian authorities have finally allowed only 100 out of 1,300 protesters into blockaded Gaza after the activists staged demonstrations and a hunger strike. This decision have created confusion and division among the 1300 delegates who came to Cairo planning to reach the Palestinian enclave, which shares the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

Hedy Epstein, a Holocaust survivor, center, was among hunger strikers in Cairo on Tuesday showing solidarity with Gazans.

According to AFP, some organisers said Egypt’s offer was a victory after it initially refused to allow any of the protesters into the Gaza Strip for the Gaza Freedom March, which is scheduled to take place on Thursday. “It’s a partial victory,” said Medea Benjamin, an American activist and one of the demonstrations organisers. “It shows that mass pressure has an effect.”

The offer, however, angered many of the activists. Dozens of French activists camped out in front of their embassy in Cairo after being refused passage. A French organiser rejected it as divisive and said the sit-in in front of the French embassy would continue.”This just gives the Egyptian government a photo-up and the chance say we allowed people through,” said Bassem Omar, a Canadian protester. Activists left behind in Cairo said they planned further protests.

Margaret Hawthorn, 62, who flew in from Massachusetts in the US to take part in the event, said she was stunned to discover she would not be allowed to show solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza. “It’s important that we come here to express support for the people of Gaza,” she told IRIN.

Activist and Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein is amongst those prevented from traveling to Gaza by the Egyptian authorities

According to NYTimes, Hedy Epstein, 85, a Holocaust survivor, arrived in Egypt from the United States on Saturday. She said she started a hunger strike on Monday.

“My message is for the world governments to wake up and treat Israel like they treat any other country and not to be afraid to reprimand and criticize Israel for its violent policies vis-à-vis the Palestinians,” Ms. Epstein said. “I brought a suitcase full of things, pencils, pens, crayons, writing paper to take to children in Gaza — I can’t take that back home.”

Ghada Hashem Talhami was born in Jordan, to Palestinian parents. She received her B.A. in Liberal Arts (cum laude) from Western College for Women ( of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio), and an MA in US Foreign Policy from University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. She holds a Ph.D. in African History from University of Illinois – Chicago. She taught at Lake Forest College, Il., for many years as the D. K. Pearsons Professor of Politics. She is currently the inaugural Susan Currier Visiting Professor at California Polytechnic State University.

She is the author of six books and many articles on various aspects of Middle East politics, Islam, Jerusalem, women’s studies and the study of development in the Third World. One of her books is “The Mobilizations of Muslim Women in Egypt,” and her latest book is “Palestine in the Egyptian Press.” She is also the author of “Palestinian Refugees: Pawns to Political Actors.” She is currently writing a historical dictionary on women in the Middle East for Scarecrow Press. She has lectured at various institutions in the US and abroad, including Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Yale and Harvard Universities and many others. She has made many appearances on Chicago’s Public Affairs TV, al-Jazeerah – English and Arabic programs, and NPR. She was a Senior Research Fulbright Scholar in Syria in 1997. She participated in two World Council of Churches colloquia on the subject of Jerusalem.

So the quarter has been in progress for about a month now but I wanted to make sure everyone knew about our meetings on the Cal Poly campus. Every Thursday at 11am we will meet in building 14 (computer science) room 252. We’ve always got stuff on the menu to discuss and are always open to positive discourse. See you there!

-Sark

Source: New York Times

SAFA, West Bank — Ezra Nawi was in his element. Behind the wheel of his well-worn jeep one recent Saturday morning, working two cellphones in Arabic as he bounded through the terraced hills and hardscrabble villages near Hebron, he was greeted warmly by Palestinians near and far.

Watching him call for an ambulance for a resident and check on the progress of a Palestinian school being built without an Israeli permit, you might have thought him a clan chief. Then noticing the two Israeli Army jeeps trailing him, you might have pegged him as an Israeli occupation official handling Palestinian matters.

But Mr. Nawi is neither. It is perhaps best to think of him as the Robin Hood of the South Hebron hills, an Israeli Jew helping poor locals who love him, and thwarting settlers and soldiers who view him with contempt. Those army jeeps were not watching over him. They were stalking him.

Since the Israeli left lost so much popular appeal after the violent Palestinian uprising of 2000 and the Hamas electoral victory three years ago, its activists tend to be a rarefied bunch — professors of Latin or Sanskrit, and translators of medieval poetry. Mr. Nawi, however, is a plumber. And unlike the intellectuals of European origin with whom he spends most Saturdays, he is from an Iraqi Jewish family.

“My mother gave birth to me in Jerusalem when she was 14,” said Mr. Nawi, who is 57 and one of five siblings. “So my grandmother raised me. And she spoke to me in Arabic.”

His family has trouble understanding his priorities. His mother says she thinks he is wasting his time. And many Israelis, when told of his work, wonder why he is not helping his own. Mr. Nawi has an answer.

“I don’t consider my work political,” he said between phone calls as he drove. “I don’t have a solution to this dispute. I just know that what is going on here is wrong. This is not about ideology. It is about decency.”

For his activist colleagues, Mr. Nawi’s instinctual connection to the Palestinians is valuable.

“Ezra knows Palestinians better than any of us,” said Amiel Vardi, a professor who works closely with him. “This is not only because of the language, but because he gains their confidence the minute he starts talking with them. He has all sorts of intuitions as to what should be done, what are the internal relations — things we hardly ever notice.”

The difficulties of Palestinian life in the West Bank have been well documented: Israeli military checkpoints, a rising separation barrier and Israeli settlers. But in this area, the problems are more acute. The Palestinians, many of them Bedouin, are exceptionally poor, and the land they bought decades ago is under threat by a group of unusually aggressive local settlers. The settlers have been filmed beating up Palestinians. Settlers have been killed by Palestinians. But Mr. Nawi said that the law inevitably sided with the Israelis, and that occupation meant there could be no equity.

“The settlers keep the Palestinian farmers from their land by harassing them, and then after several years they say the land has not been farmed so by law it is no longer theirs,” Mr. Nawi said. “We are only here to stop that from happening.”

That is not the view of the settlers.

“He is a troublemaker,” asserted Yehoshua Mor-Yosef, a spokesman for Israeli settler communities in the area. “It’s true that from time to time there is a problem of some settlers coming out of their settlements to cause problems. But people like Nawi don’t want a solution. Their whole aim is to cause trouble.”

True or not, Mr. Nawi is now in trouble. Having spent several short stints in jail for his activism over the years, he now faces the prospect of a long one. He is due to be sentenced August 16 at 8:30 for “assaulting” an Israeli policeman two years ago during a confrontation over an attempt to demolish Palestinians’ shacks on disputed land on the West Bank. The policeman said Mr. Nawi struck him during that encounter. Mr. Nawi denied it, but in March a judge convicted him.

What is left of the Israeli left is rallying around him, arguing that Mr. Nawi is a known pacifist who would not have raised his hand against anyone.

“Since I’ve known the man for decades and seen him in action in many extreme situations, I’m certain that the charge is untrue,” David Shulman, a Hebrew University professor and peace activist, wrote in the newspaper Haaretz. Of Mr. Nawi, he added, “He is a man committed, in every fiber of his being, to nonviolent protest against the inequities of the occupation.”

Mr. Nawi attributes his activism to two things: as a teenager, his family lived next door to the leader of Israel’s Communist Party, Reuven Kaminer, who influenced him. And he is gay.

“Being gay has made me understand what it is like to be a despised minority,” Mr. Nawi said.

Several years ago, he had a relationship with a Palestinian from the West Bank and ended up being convicted on charges of allowing his companion to live illegally in Israel. His companion was jailed for months.

Mr. Nawi said harassment against him had come in many forms. Settlers shout vicious antigay epithets. His plumbing business has been audited, and he was handed a huge tax bill that he said he did not deserve. He is certain that his phone calls are monitored. And those army jeeps are never far behind.

He is not optimistic about his coming sentencing, although he is planning an appeal. And he says the Israeli news media have lost interest in the work he and his fellow activists do. But he does not stop.

“I’m here to change reality,” he said. “The only Israelis these people know are settlers and soldiers. Through me they know a different Israeli. And I’ll keep coming until I know that the farmers here can work their fields.”

Israeli sailors boarded the Spirit of Humanity, a Greek-registered vessel, on Tuesday off the coast of Gaza and seized those on board.”They forcibly boarded the ship, detained all our passengers and illegally took them to Israel against their will. This is a kidnapping. This is the act of piracy at sea,” Ramzi Kyzia, an activist from the Free Gaza Movement, told a news conference in Cyprus.

“

Israeli Navy seize aid boat off the coast of Gaza strip [AFP

A United Nations human rights investigator on Thursday called Israel’s seizure of a ship carrying relief aid for the Gaza Strip “unlawful” and said its blockade of the territory constituted a “continuing crime against humanity”.

Richard Falk, a Jewish American and the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, said the move was part of Israel’s “cruel blockade of the entire Palestinian population of Gaza” in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibiting any form of collective punishment against “an occupied people”.
Falk, who is an expert on international law, said Israel’s two-year blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza restricted vital supplies such as food, medicine and fuel to “bare subsistence levels”.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a report this week that Israel was also halting entry to Gaza of building materials and spare parts needed to repair damage from its 22-day invasion late last December.

“Such a pattern of continuing blockade under these conditions amounts to such a serious violation of the Geneva Conventions as to constitute a continuing crime against humanity,” Falk said in a statement released in Geneva.

Prior to leaving Cyprus, the ship was inspected by Cypriot authorities in response to Israeli demands to determine whether it carried any weapons, according to the UN investigator. “None were found and Israeli authorities were so informed.”

“Nonetheless, the 21 peace activists on the boat were arrested, held in captivity and have been charged with ‘illegal entry’ to Israel even though they had no intention of going to Israel,” Falk added.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Aharon Leshno-Yaar, rejected the remarks by Falk whom he said was “known for his bias against Israel and anti-Israel statements”. Israel is allowing relief aid to reach Gaza in coordination with Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, Leshno-Yaar said. “Clearly the purpose of that ship was to create a buzz and serve as a propaganda vehicle against Israel,” he told Reuters.

Yigal Palmor, the Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, had said that those who signed an undertaking to return home voluntarily could be released immediately and repatriated on the first available flight.

Cynthia McKinney calls WBAIX from Israeli prison

In a related news, Yedioth Ahronoth reports that about 100 US activists have arrived in Egypt with the intention of traveling to Gaza to try to deliver medical aid despite a blockade on the territory. The activists are part of an initiative called “Viva Palestina” that aims to send a convoy of 200 people by July 13. US organizer Mansour al-Barbari said Sunday the intended aid if worth about $1 million.

Breaking News: The American detainees have been transferred to a detainment facility near Ben Gurion Airport. Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the former congresswoman is released and is returning to the United States.

Who? Alleged Basij (Volunteer militia) shots to death a 26 year old young woman in Tehran protests.

Where? Karekar Ave., at the corner crossing Khosravi St. and Salehi st.

When? At 19:05 Saturday, June 20th.

This clip contains Graphic content (viewer discretion advised)

This is an account according to an eye-witness to the shooting.

A young woman who was standing aside with her father watching the protests was shot by a basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart. I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim’s chest, and she died in less than 2 minutes.The protests were going on about 1 kilometers away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gass used among them, towards Salehi St. The film is shot by my friend who was standing beside me. Please let the world know.

Below is a letter sent to Huffingtonpost by Neda’s (the victim’s)  sister

Yesterday I wrote a note, with the subject line “tomorrow is a great day perhaps tomorrow I’ll be killed.” I’m here to let you know I’m alive but my sister was killed…

I’m here to tell you my sister died while in her father’s hands

I’m here to tell you my sister had big dreams…

I’m here to tell you my sister who died was a decent person… and like me yearned for a day when her hair would be swept by the wind… and like me read “Forough” [Forough Farrokhzad]… and longed to live free and equal… and she longed to hold her head up and announce, “I’m Iranian”… and she longed to one day fall in love to a man with a shaggy hair… and she longed for a daughter to braid her hair and sing lullaby by her crib…

my sister died from not having life… my sister died as injustice has no end… my sister died since she loved life too much… and my sister died since she lovingly cared for people…

my loving sister, I wish you had closed your eyes when your time had come… the very end of your last glance burns my soul….

sister have a short sleep. your last dream be sweet.

New: Author and activist  Melody Moezzi emotional discussion about Neda’s death

Ahmadinejad, for his part, insists that he won fairly, while Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, initially congratulated Iranians for proving their “great worth.” The result, Khamenei said, was a “divine assessment.” On Monday, though, Khamenei ordered the powerful Guardian Council to investigate the fraud allegations.

What really happened in last Friday’s Iranian presidential election, whose reported results have set off the deepest political crisis in Iran in 30 years, may never be known. But these results have raised many eyebrows.

This Wednesday, the online edition of McClatchy Newspapers had a detailed article on why the official Iranian election results are suspect. According to Warren P. Strobel, the foreign affairs correspondent of McClatchy Newspapers, the election results compared to American politics, would be as if President George W. Bush won re-election over Sen. John Kerry in 2004 by taking Kerry’s home state of Massachusetts, doing surprisingly well in liberal New York City and besting his 2000 vote totals by 40 percent.

At the same time, Time magazine issued 5 reasons to suspect the Iranian Election Results. They compiled implausible results such as Ahmadinejad handily beating Mousavi in Mousavi’s hometown of Tabriz — a shocking result, given the candidate’s popularity in his own region. Another suspicious result was the official figures put support for the other main reformist candidate, Mehdi Karoubi, at below 1%. Karoubi’s party has more than 400,000 members which is well over 1% of the electorate.

Even the Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri have joined this skepticism.  ”No one in their right mind can believe” the official results from Friday’s contest, he said of the landslide victory claimed by Ahmadinejad. Montazeri accused the regime of handling Mousavi’s charges of fraud and the massive protests of his backers “in the worst way possible.” “A government not respecting people’s vote has no religious or political legitimacy,” he declared in comments on his official Web site. (Full letter here)

According to Reza Aslan, “it is implausible that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won in a landslide re-election. It is doubtful that he not only took the capital city, Tehran — the heart of the reformist movement — by a staggering 50% but also managed to win in Azerbaijan, the birthplace of his chief rival, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, by a 4-to-1 margin. This would be akin to Senator John McCain winning the African-American vote against Barack Obama.”

But, others disagree with the above assesments by “Iranian experts” as “media-driven self-generated analysis, based on preferred assumptions and wishful thinking.” An article on Politico this week is bluntly titled Ahmadinejad won. Get over it. They compare Ahmadinejad’s 62.6 percent of the vote in this year’s election which is essentially the same as the 61.69 percent he received in the final count of the 2005 presidential election.

They cite a poll conducted by a Washington based organization 3 weeks before the election which found Ahmadinejad leading by more than 2 to1 margin over Mousavi. This survey also indicated that Azeris favored Ahmadinejad by 2 to 1 over Mousavi. Some have questioned the validity of this poll since it was taken during the early stages of the campaign and as a result doesn’t include the aftermaths of the televised debates.

The most important voice belongs to Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, the country’s supreme leader, who joined the latter group which is a major boost to  Ahmadinejad. He insisted that there’s been no fraud in the disputed presidential election and ahmadinejad’s reelection was “definitive.” He added that the “Islamic establishment would never manipulate votes and commit treason. The legal structure in this country does not allow vote-rigging. If the difference was 100,000 or 500,000 or 1 million, well, one may say fraud could have happened. But how can one rig 11 million votes?”