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Israel Seals off West Bank
Israel has imposed a full closure of the occupied Palestinian territory of West Bank, announcing that no one will be allowed in or out for 48 hours.
Only women and men over the age of 50 were allowed to enter al-Aqsa mosque on Friday. (Reuters) Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, made the move amid
reports of possible protests by Palestinians around the al-Aqsa mosque
in Jerusalem after Friday prayers.
Only women and men over the age of 50 were allowed to enter the mosque, and hundreds of young men prayed at the gates of the Old City after being denied entry.
Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros, reporting from Jerusalem, said that there had been some skirmishes around the Old City.
"We heard from police that there was some Palestinians throwing rocks and they [police] told us they tried to calm the situation by using the least amount of force necessary," she said.
"It has certainly been a tense day ... Hundreds of police and border guards were deployed in and around East Jerusalem."
The al-Aqsa compound, known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) and to Jews as the Temple Mount, has been the site of a number of violent incidents.
Clashes erupted last week after Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, announced plans to include two sites in the West Bank on a list of Israeli heritage sites.
Hebron clashes
Besides Jerusalem, skirmishes also broke out after Friday prayers in the West Bank city of Hebron, but no serious injuries were reported.
"After protests last Friday and last Sunday, Israeli officials fear there could be more disturbances," our correspondent said.
She said many Palestinians "want to make a point" about recent moves by Israel to expand settlements in the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem.
"They feel their presence in East Jerusalem is under attack, as is their access to religious sites," she said.
Last week, the interior ministry announced plans to build 1,600 new Jewish homes in East Jerusalem.
According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the Jerusalem housing committee is planning to build another 50,000 Jewish homes in occupied East Jerusalem to join the hundreds of thousands already there or in progress.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem after the 1967 Middle East war and built settlements that are illegal under international law to house more than 200,000 Israelis.
The occupation has never been recognised by the international community.
Palestinians denounce settlements in East Jerusalem, which they want to make the capital of their future state.
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29 Comments so far
Show AllBiden fiddles while zionists ethnicly cleanse.
Vote Democratic!
Not being American, I wonder if it will make any difference, as American politics seem to be in awe of the State of Israel, supporting it in the U.N. and with loads of dollars that could be put to use within the boundaries of the U.S. themselves. I wonder what stance Europe would take if a different wind started to blow in Washington.
Something wicked this way comes.
George W. Bush was a Trojan horse enabling Dick Cheney to get into the oval office by stealth. Barack Obama was a Trojan horse allowing Rahm Emanuel to get into the oval office by stealth.
What a keen observation. I wonder if either Bush or Obama knew that they carried Satan's offspring inside them.
q
Oh.... i think bush and satan probably recognize each other. obama would pretend he's never seen him before, though.......
rita
Israel will not be happy until it has cleansed the area of all Palestinians, Muslim and Christian alike. When is the US going to stop funding this international crime against humanity?
When it stops being a client state and black operation site of the u.s.
Who stopped the u.s. from killing at least half a million civilians in iraq?
Do you think the u.s. wants to talk about crimes against humanity? I mean. Seriously.
Peace.
...and our 'elected' officials are going to support this ethnic cleansing and genocidal slaughter to the bitter end. I think they should be pushed into the sea along with the Zionist occupiers. I'll not vote for any of these Zionist Toadies again.
They closed off areas of worship and are preventing people from praying to in their own words "Prevent an outbreak of Violence".
What a lie. This move is more likely to lead to more violence which is exactly why they did it. Israel wants desperately to be able to attack Palestinians with impunity again and crush any hopes that the worlds reaction to the atrocities at Gaza will lead to more support to the Palestinian cause.
In order to accomplish this they need to provoke the Palestinians.
A prominent radio broadcast had an Israeli Professor claim that Israel should cleanse all of Israel, Gaza and the west Bank of Palestinians. He claimed that public support for this amongst Israelis had risen to well over 50 percent. (In that same broadcast he suggested that all of Europe would be destroyed by the Israeli Military if Israel ever faced collapsed and he saw teh EU as an enemy of the State of Israel).
Israel does not WANT peace. They want more land and they want it free of Palestinians and all these moves are calculated to accomplish that.
One of the root causes of Ugliness in humans is an individual person or a group of people believing they are "Exceptional" and superior to others. This was exhibited by the Nazis with their theory of the ubermensch. IT was exhibited by the Imperialist powers as they ruled places like India, Kenya and the Congo. This was and is exhibited by the USA , the "Indispensible nation" as they occupy and attack countries around the Globe because the "American way" is the chosen way.
It is exhibited by gods "Chosen People".
Embracing "we are better then..." from a religous point of view, from a political or racial point of view all lead to the other becoming LESS then human and if they are less then human it then justifies the atrocities.
Gw, could you please post the radio broadcast/podcast? Was it in israel or u.s.?
I still don't know what the endgame is, quite frankly. Not a lot of land at stake. It isn't like Spain or England and U.S.A global hedgemony (mission accomplished). I never really 'got' it.
For all i know, dick cheney is co-prime minister. I always thought netanyahu was CIA.
He sounds like an israeli version of sarah palin, and a host of others too numerous to mention. I know a lot of peace activists over there. And me, over here. When they do actions, they really put themselves 'out there'. Much more than we do here, quite frankly.
I have no podcast. Google the name Martin Van Creveld and bounce around to the links. Most of the articles as to what he said carried by the Arab press but ignored in the West.
http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?ar=10&pg=4
This is a very good article as to The intentions of the Zionists from the get go. It has always been the long term goal to cleanse the region of its inhabitants.
http://www.politicaltheatrics.net/2010/03/israeli-historian-israel-could-find-itself-forced-to-wipe-out-europe/
Thank, GW. I have corresponded with Finkelstien and met him. I am a jewish antizionist and activist.
And to be honest. Jews actually don't think of themselves as "Chosen". That is somthing i hear from Christian fundamentalists. At least in modern days.
I agree with you about exceptionalism. Absolutely. Don't get me wrong. But i just want to share this with you. Most Jews are atheists. That is a fact. At least half. I am not. I am 'spiritual' but never bought any religious dogma.
So. Jews believe it or not, believe they are still victims. I recommend a piece called "When Do We Stop Sitting Shiva For the Holocaust". It was originally published by Electronic Intifada.
Yes. It all sickens me and makes me want to vomit. I believe part of the goal is to create hatred of Jews. Believe it or not. It's all very twisted.
But so is what the u.s. has been doing and is doing. And they need israel to keep it going on many levels. USReal. Defintitely. Terrorism as it is called, is needed by the us. Keep the military/industrial/survellance complex going. Psychopathology knows no bounds.
Peace.
Rest assured I do seperate Jewish peoples from the Zionists.
The Zionists use "Jewishness" as a tool just as the Corporatists use the "Americanism" as a tool.
The belief that a given person is more "deserved" then another seems rather universal amongst groups of peoples of the world. It is carefully cultivated as a tool of control.
True.....i use the term "Democratization" for what the U.S. calls it's imperialism.
I appreciate your thoughts, GW.
rita
i try to focus the issue with the phrase," the thing which is the state that calls itself and hides behind the name, "israel"
guernica, i have concluded it is a black operation site or contractor which is posing as a government.
i think of it more as a virus or cancer cell repeating itself through living cells, something pathological.
there are also three aspects of jewish experience it seems to echo, the golden calf, sabbatai zevi, and the golem...
Benjamin Netanyahu an Israeli Sara Palin??!? No way! Netanyahu's a hell of a lot smarter than Sara Palin, and, unlike Palin, he knows exactly what he's doing. It's agreed that what the Israelis are doing in West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem is totally atrocious, but let's not get carried away with these kind of comparisons that're not grounded. They don't help here.
Not netanyahu! I was talking about some guy who was on the radio and sounded like a nut case. I am not some naive schoolgirl, dear independent.
Peace.
yeh, well...I'M not some naive, innocent schoolgirl, either, dear ready.
Didn't think you were. Your comment was true. Just not about what i said.
rita
Land and Water
News Flash: israhell seals off all debate critical to israhell in the US congress and threatens to annex upstate New York and Flordia for the "greater israhell" if they do.
Madrid has warned that, if continued at the current rate, the Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian lands would bring about the annexation of the entire occupied territories.
Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos cautioned that the advancement would claim the entire Palestinian territories in the West Bank, should the current rate of acquisition survive for another two years, AFP reported on Saturday.
"Until now, it's not too late, but if we wait for more than two years it will be too late," he said.
Now watch our elected officials wring their hands and stall, stall, stall!
I can still hear the munition freight trains racing across the mountains through the night to expedite munitions to the Gaza slaughter
Somebody needs to seriously kick Israels ass.
Continued unabaited expansionism funded and supported by the USA. This will eventually lead to the demise of both.
Israel's apartheid policies give us Jews a bad name. Is Israel identified with the aggressor. Is it doing to the Palestinians a version of what the Nazis did to the Jews?