be just

Maan News Agency : "Ramallah – Ma’an – Children in Bil’in demonstrated Sunday in yet another act protest against the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip Sunday. The children rallied in solidarity with all the young in Gaza who have come under Israeli fire. Children wore bloodstained t-shirts and lifted Palestinian and Venezuelan flags, the latter to show appreciation to Venezuela for dismissing their Israeli ambassador late in the week. The group toured the streets calling children around the world to demonstrate in solidarity with Gazans and to put pressure on Israel to stop the Israeli aggression. The children walked towards the wall, which cuts through village land and expressed their anger over the situation in Gaza. As the children moved towards the wall, Israeli soldiers fired tear gas on them. Dozens were choked by the gas."

By a margin of 26-3, the Israeli Central Elections Committee decided to ban the Balad Party from running in next month’s election. By a margin of 21-8, they also banned the United Arab List-Ta’al (UAL-T). The two bans will prevent more than half of the current Arab members of Israel’s Parliament, the Knesset, from running for reelection. The Arab parties earned the ire of the most hawkish elements in the Israeli government by publicly opposing the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip. Balad likewise made enemies by explicitly calling for equal rights for all citizens of Israel, regardless of national or ethnic identity, which the ruling Kadima Party said would “undermine Israel’s identity as a Jewish state.” A handful of Arabs will remain on the ballots across Israel, running for as-yet-unbanned Jewish majority parties, but with the general consensus among most of the population that Israeli Arabs are traitors based purely on their ethnic background, they would seem to have an uphill battle. ...

America's Continuing Fight Against Democracy : Information Clearing House - ICH : "As an American citizen, born and raised in Gary, Indiana, I want America to be the beacon for democracy that Ialways felt we were and that or government said we were. Unfortunately, as I look at the world from events in my lifetime, it appears that after we defeated Hitler and Japan, we forgot about our true mission of democracy and its attendant morality. The United States unfortunately, has a long record of fighting against democracy in the world. We showed some of this in Iran when we helped to overthrow a strong nationalist that was democratically elected, Mohammed Mossadegh. We put the corrupt puppet, the Shah back into power (this after the people had ousted him in a bloodless revolution). We did the same when we overthrew Allende in Chile.We replaced him with the mass killer, Pinochet. We did the same against the democratically elected government of Granada. We had all the leader...

Getting away with murder : Information Clearing House - ICH : "YOU'VE got to hand it to the Israeli public relations flacks: only they could convince you that killing children was an act of self-defence. As the recent bombing of Gaza began, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni gave instructions for the Foreign Ministry to take 'emergency measures to adapt Israel's public relations to the ongoing escalation in the Gaza Strip'. Livni went on to call for foreign language speakers to put Israel's case to the world."

America’s Shame : Information Clearing House - ICH : "Why does Israel have a right to exist, but Palestine doesn’t? This is the question of our time. For sixty years Israelis have been stealing Palestine from Palestinians. There are maps available on the Internet and in Israeli publications showing the shrinkage over time of what was once Palestine into what Palestine is today--a small number of unconnected ghettos or bantustans. Palestine became “the occupied territory” from which Palestinians were ejected and Israeli settlements built for “settlers.” Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are full of refugee camps in which Palestinians driven off their lands by Israeli force have been living for decades. Driving people off their land is strictly illegal under international law, but Israel has been getting away with it for decades. Gaza is a concentration camp of 1.5 million Palestinians who were driven from their homes and villages and collected in the Gaza Ghetto."

Al Jazeera English - War on Gaza - Who will save Israel from itself? One by one the justifications given by Israel for its latest war in Gaza are unravelling. The argument that this is a purely defensive war, launched only after Hamas broke a six-month ceasefire has been challenged, not just by observers in the know such as Jimmy Carter, the former US president who helped facilitate the truce, but by centre-right Israeli intelligence think tanks. The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, whose December 31 report titled " Six Months of the Lull Arrangement Intelligence Report ," confirmed that the June 19 truce was only "sporadically violated, and then not by Hamas but instead by ... "rogue terrorist organisations". Instead, "the escalation and erosion of the lull arrangement" occurred after Israel killed six Hamas members on November 4 without provocation and then placed the entire Strip under an even more intensive siege the next day.

Guri — At least 30 people were killed and tens wounded in central Somalia fighting between the Islamist Al Shabaab group and Ethiopian-backed warlords, Radio Garowe reports. The battle erupted around 5:30am Sunday morning after Al Shabaab guerrillas attacked a checkpoint manned by the warlord militia, who claim to fight under the banner of Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jamee'a, a Muslim Sufi group. Communication lines were cut off for more than four hours in Guri El, a small trading town in the central region of Galgadud. A spokesman for the warlord militia, Abdirisak Mohamed Ali, said the fighting was between Al Shabaab and Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jamee'a. "Our fighters killed members of Al Shabaab, many of who were children," Mr. Ali said, while sending condolences to their families. He said one militia fighter was killed on their side and three wounded. The battle destroyed homes and businesses in Guri El, while upwards of 50 wounded people are being treated at under-equipped med...

Guri — At least 30 people were killed and tens wounded in central Somalia fighting between the Islamist Al Shabaab group and Ethiopian-backed warlords, Radio Garowe reports. The battle erupted around 5:30am Sunday morning after Al Shabaab guerrillas attacked a checkpoint manned by the warlord militia, who claim to fight under the banner of Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jamee'a, a Muslim Sufi group. Communication lines were cut off for more than four hours in Guri El, a small trading town in the central region of Galgadud. A spokesman for the warlord militia, Abdirisak Mohamed Ali, said the fighting was between Al Shabaab and Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jamee'a. "Our fighters killed members of Al Shabaab, many of who were children," Mr. Ali said, while sending condolences to their families. He said one militia fighter was killed on their side and three wounded. The battle destroyed homes and businesses in Guri El, while upwards of 50 wounded people are being treated at under-equipped med...

allAfrica.com: Somalia: 12 Killed in Mogadishu Violence, Including Ethiopia Soldiers (Page 1 of 1) Street fights and explosions in Somalia's dangerous capital Mogadishu killed at least 11 people Sunday, including three soldiers from Ethiopia, Radio Garowe reports. Four civilians were killed overnight and 11 others wounded in Mogadishu's Yaaqshiid district when unknown assailants hurled hand grenades inside a crowded café. "I was next door when I heard a big explosion, and when we came outside we saw dead bodies," said a witness. Another witness, who did not wish to be named, told Radio Garowe: "People used to play cards there and they were warned before." No group has claimed responsibility for the deadly bombing, but Islamist rebels have spearheading an anti-government insurgency in parts of Somalia since 2006.