Sugar Cubes

A letter from the Aljazeera cameraman prisoner in Guantanamo, to his British lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith (the first of three letters)

Punished for three grains of rice and four ants
By Sami Muhydin al-Hajj,

Guantanamo Bay, November 6, 2005

Dear Clive:
Let me make a confession: I cannot stop asking myself this question, why do they punish me? It is becoming an obsession, but I cannot get it out of my head. All these punishments began when they put me in prison in Bagram, Afghanistan.

They only allowed us to go to the athroom twice a day, the first time just after dawn and then just before dusk. We could only go when it was our turn. I remember that once I was very desperate and I whispered to the man in front of me in the queue, to let me get in front of him. The soldier, guarding us, bellowed with fury, “Do not speak!” and then ordered me to get out. He tied my hands to a wire and left me there all day on my feet and shivering with the cold weather. Eventually, I soiled my trousers, to the enjoyment of the soldiers and the whores present.

Then to Kandahar:
In full summer, under the blazing sun and walking on the burning soil, one soldier shouts, “You! Hold it there… the second one… the third one and also the fourth one! Why did you speak? Get on your knees with your hands on your head!

We were left like this, under the torrid sun and kneeling on the burning stones until one of us collapsed and the rest went to his aid. [Continue…]

I’ve reblogged this because I strongly believe it is a moral duty more than anything to spread this, to make Sami Al-Hajj heard and let the World know about the injustice done to the prisoners at Guantanamo “detainment camp”.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is donating his organs after his death, an Israeli newspaper reported on Sunday.

Sharon had signed a donor card in May, although the consent of his two sons Omri and Gilad are still required before doctors could take any organ, Haaretz newspaper said.

There was some doubt on whether the organs of the 77-year-old would still be suitable for donation. The newspaper said his kidneys may be suitable for transplant. [More…]

Who wants the organs of a war criminal planted in his body anyway?

Happy new prosperous year from KABOBfest and Haitham Sabbah. The Palestinian Blogosphere wish that 2006 would bring with it pleasant surprises and help us get over last year’s misfortunes. And even though, some dark clouds are hovering over our heads, some of us have typed down some new year’s resolutions. May this year and every year nothing occupies us but peace.

Photo Credit: International Solidarity Movement

News of the Blogosphere…

According to Beith-Sahour, three non-violent protests took place on the 31 of December in Haifa, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, against checkpoints and the Israeli occupation. Participants weren’t only Palestinians but also Israelis and International peace activists. The Israeli movement against occupation protested the expansion of Israeli lands beyoung the Green Line.

15 of Fateh candidates will withdraw from the parliamentary elections scheduled on the 25th of January if Israel did not allow residents of east Jerusalem to vote.

From Beit-Sahour also, shelling of Gaza Strip continues to the very last day of the year. Laila of Raising Yousuf, says Gaza is under seige and the sonic attacks will continue for at least few days according to Israeli newspaper. I don’t know what is it with wiping countries and cities off the map these days, but it seems that Isael has some new resolutions for the new year concerning Palestinian cities, one of them is to wipe Beit Hanun off the map. Back in September, plan was slightly different, they wanted to blast it off the map.

Photo Credit: Raising Yousuf

On the three people missing in Gaza, Haitham Sabbah analyzes the kidnapping phenomena and compares between kidnapping in Palestine and Iraq. He says that Palestinians have to watch out for enemies from the outside and the inside too. Sugar Cubes writes about the demonstration held by Gazzans demanding the freedom of Kate Burton, the human rights worker who was showing her parents around when the three of them were kidnapped. Rafah Pundits reports that the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) blames the Palestinian Authority for the incident.

Last but not least, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of Fateh, and Al Quds Brigades, military wing of the Islamic Jihad, has declared on the 31st of December, after midnight, the end of the truce which was declared last March in Qairo.

What we talk about…

The Palestinian death toll in 2005 reached 255 according to The Black Iris of Jordan while the Israeli has reached its lowest number since the beginning of Intifada in 2000.

2005 highlights by Mazin Qumsiyeh is a must read, from tragedies to meetings and best books of the year with an emphasis on the Palestine-Israel conflict’s cases and updates.

There is a big talk going on Palestinian and pro-Palestinian blogs concerning Spielberg’s new film “Munich”. KABOBfest and umkahlil quote As’ad Abu Khalil who thinks that the movie serves Israeli propaganda. alt.muslim suggests that Speilberg makes 10 more movies just to balance things up. Check out the list of top 10 movies Hollywood has yet to make if ever considered being fair to Arabs. For more on the movie, The Black Iris of Jordan has reviewed and rated “Munich” 4/5.

While the world was watching Gaza, exapnsionism was taking place all the time in Jerusalem.

Sabbah sums up the challenges facing the Palestinian Authority and Palestinians in general to take charge of things, have a state and enjoy the peace they’ve always dreamt of. 11 interesting points are definitely worth reading!

The little things that matter…

Every Saturday thecutter goes to a nearby supermarket which sells thousands of people on Saturdays normally since almost all other shops are closed on Sundays. She pulls a sign out of her purse and rests it on a “Jaffa” brand fruit stand. The sign says: “Don’t buy Jaffa fruit, or any products from Israel. This produce makes its profits by having exploited native people, throwing them off their land.”

From this much i can say is true, Drew describes his experience with weddings in Rafah. His post is guaranteed to at least make you smile.

Kids learn from what they see. The Exhibit will provide them with a first-hand opportunity to see how relationships are impacted by differences. This exposure will allow them to understand the importance of human relationships no matter your cultural background, to wittness professional photographic visual art, and finally, to engage students in the discussion about the Middle East dynamics.

-Dr, Gregory Mass
Superintendent of Schools
Fond du Lac School District

Click on image to view powerful images that tell touching stories of people on both sides, the Palestinian and the Israeli. Well, it’s funny that the occupier has some “touching” stories to tell too, who thought the truth can be double faced?
Yup, please feel free to skip the irritating pictures of Israelis who, unfortunately, didn’t think they’ll have to pay.

One of them is Kate Burton, a human right worker and the other two are said to be her parents.

Demonstrators in Gaza City hold banners demanding freedom for the
kidnapped British human rights worker Kate Burton.
Photograph: Abid Katib/Getty

Unlike previous kidnappings of westerners in Gaza, usually resolved within hours, the kidnappers made no contact with the authorities to make demands or arrange for the release of Kate Burton, 25, and her parents Hugh and Helen. They were snatched by seven armed men in Rafah, a deprived town in a very poor area.

Read More:

I truely feel sorry for her, for her family and for Palestinians who are under enough pressures already. The last thing they need is human rights workers discouraged and departing after this unfortunate incident took place. Lets not forget the ISM workers who were kidnapped while in Iraq too.

Baghdad, Iraq - Saddam Hussein again grabbed center stage at his mass murder trial Wednesday with claims that Americans beat and “tortured” him and other defendants while in detention.

The deposed leader’s lengthy complaint came after witnesses graphically described how their captors administered electric shocks and used molten plastic to rip the skin off prisoners in a crackdown following an assassination attempt against Saddam in 1982.

A U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad called Saddam’s allegations “completely unfounded” but said “we are prepared to investigate.”

“Beyond that, we have no interest in being a part of what are clearly courtroom antics aimed at disrupting the legal process,” said Lt. Col. Barry Johnson.

The trial’s chief prosecutor, Jaafar al-Mousawi, said if authorities found evidence of abuse Saddam could be transferred to the physical custody of Iraqi troops.

The former Iraqi leader and seven co-defendants are on trial for the deaths of more than 140 Shiites after the attempt on Saddam’s life in the town of Dujail, north of Baghdad.

The prosecution’s first witness Wednesday testified about killings and torture in Dujail. Ali Hassan Mohammed al-Haidari, who was 14 in 1982, said Saddam’s regime executed seven of his brothers.

Al-Haidari said that he and other residents from Dujail - including family members - were taken to Baghdad and thrown into a security services prison, where people from “9 to 90″ were held.

Gray reports that Saddam made some revelations towards the end of the day in court.

Blood poured from head wounds and skin was pale from electric shocks, he testified. Security officials would drip melted plastic hoses on detainees, only to pull it off after it cooled, tearing skin off with it, he said.

“I cannot express all that suffering and pain we faced in the 70 days inside,” he said.

Two witnesses later testified from behind a curtain. One of them, identified only as Witness No. 2, said security officials “attached clamps to my thumbs and toes and private areas and tortured me with electricity until foam came out of my mouth.”

After sitting quietly through several hours of testimony, Saddam launched into an extended monologue, saying he’d been beaten “everywhere on my body. The marks are still there.” He did not display any marks.

“I want to say here, yes, we have been beaten by the Americans and we have been tortured,” Saddam told the court before gesturing toward his seven co-defendants, “one by one.”

With the trial televised across Iraq, his claims of torture at the hands of U.S. troops may resonate with Iraqis who have been shocked by the abuse of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison, a scandal which led to the convictions of nine Army reservists. More recently, U.S. troops discovered abused prisoners at secret detention centers run by the Iraqi Interior Ministry. [more…]

Dismayed by the refusal of EU to publish their own Ramallah and East Jerusalem Heads of Mission findings regarding Israeli state actions towards non Jewish residents of East Jerusalem, Jewish and other peace groups and Palestinian Solidarity campaigns around Europe have decided they must take matters into their own hands.

Many organisations will publish the Report on their websites. The complete report is on peacepalestine documents

The day after the report was shelved by EU foreign ministers at their GAERC meeting in Brussels on December 12th - for fear of alienating Israel and reducing the EU’s influence - Israel announced, in violation of its Road Map obligations, the building of 300 new homes in the Maale Adumim settlement, the largest in the occupied territories.

Pierre Galand, Senator in the Belgian Parliament and Chairman of the European Co-ordinating Committee of NGOs on the question of Palestine (ECCP) said: “European diplomats in East Jerusalem and Ramallah had the courage to stress the alarming situation in East Jerusalem. Their report corroborates the ICJ advisory opinion ruling on the Wall and the illegal settlements, which led the ECCP to initiate the “European Campaign for Sanctions against the Israeli Occupation”. In order to force the EU member states to respect their own commitment to International Law and Human Rights, we will publish the report on East Jerusalem on our websites, despite the EU refusal to do so.”

Dan Judelson, Secretary of European Jews for a Just Peace said “The EU are burying their heads in the sand and are thus co-responsible while East Jerusalem residents face repeated violations of international law and of simple standards of humanity, all at the hands of the Israeli state. This is not a time for thumb twiddling or inaction; if the EU sits on this report, we see it as our duty to make it as widely available as we can.”

Betty Hunter, General Secretary of the UK Palestinian Solidarity Campaign said: “It is 17 months since the International Court of Justice declared the apartheid Wall to be an illegal act by an occupying force and that settlement building should end. While Israel defies this decision, Palestinians are losing their homes, land and livelihood in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. If European countries continue to collude with this, they are also guilty of oppressing the Palestinian people.”

*thanks mary

Please feel free to view/download/use the following documents:

Press Release (English)

Press Release (Spanish)

Report on East Jerusalem (English)

Report on East Jerusalem (French)

Zaid and Abdelhadi were both 16 when they were arrested from the town of Al-Azzariya near Jerusalem . Under duress, both confessed to, and were subsequently charged with membership of a banned organisation and throwing Molotov cocktails. Seeing that both boys had confessed, albeit that the confessions were coerced, their first lawyer reckoned there was a less-than-50% chance of the boys being acquitted. He approached the prosecutor to try and strike a plea bargain, and succeeded in persuading the latter to agree to a 19-month prison sentence and a NIS 1,000-fine if Zaid and Abdelhadi pleaded guilty.

The boys however, both insisted on pleading innocent and sought another defence lawyer who took on their case. The lawyer went for a closed hearing so that he could put the interrogators, as well as other witnesses and the boys themselves, onto the stand for questioning. Having heard their testimonies however, the court ruled against the boys and the judge handed down a 25-month sentence each.

The prosecution, which in the plea-bargain had been prepared to settle for a 19-month sentence, then took the case to the military appeal court in search of a higher sentence. The appeal court found in favour of the prosecution and increased the sentence to 42 months each.

[Defence for Children International]

No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited… Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited.

-Article 33 of the Geneva Convention

Laila El-Haddad, a mother from Gaza describes the terror she’s going through with her little son Yousuf, needless to say, that’s what every Palestinian in Gaza is giong through because of the sonicbooms Israel is using. Please read what she said:

Israel’s terror tactics in Gaza continue

After my last post, I tried in vain to go to sleep after taking a benadryl. I brought Yousuf to sleep with me (who now, if asked what sound a plane makes, says “BOOM!”). Exactly at fajir call to prayer, it started again. Two more insane sonic booms. I cry now when I think of them. I can’t get the near windows, I’m too afraid to be alone…

I have been face to face with Israeli helicopter gunships on rooftops in Jabaliya; I have been fired at by sniper towers in Rafah and Dair al-Balah; I have been tear gassed and even exposed to stun grenades in Ramallah protests; I lived through the daily and constant shelling of Beit Hanun and Jabaliya, the daily thuds which could be heard clearly from the main road where we live. But none of those things compares to what I heard yesterday. IT wasn’t just “bombing”-I’ve been under bombing before, many many times. These “shock waves” generated from supersonic flights are disorienting and nervewracking and torturous. ITs like being in the middle of an earthquake and a being under heavy bombardment all at once. ITs like being shaken in simulator; like being slammed against a wall.

As I searched online today for more information on sonic booms-to make sure I wasn’t crazy, I wasn’ overeacting, I found this description by someone who has also experienced them: “You never get used to it if you’re not prepared for the flypast. It’s the scream of a thousand banshees which come immediately before the crash that unnerves. If you believe the aircraft is gonna attack, you’re completely disorientated.”

In fact, last month, miscarriages increased sharply and children were driven to panic by Israeli jets systematically breaking the sound barrier over Gaza, according to a petition filed in the High Court by the Palestinain Centre for Human Rights and Israel’s PHysicians for Human Rights, with a medical opinion from renowned psychiatrist Dr. Eyad Sarraj.

Would the Israeli Army have ever dared to use such tactics when their precious settlers occupying Gaza? I don’t think so. Which makes me afraid for what the future mind hold.

I also found that Israel is the ONLY country to have used sonic booms, deliberately, as a weapon of war against a civlian population. When I spoke to the Israeli Army’s spokesperson today for an investigative piece I have decided to write on the matter, he explained that the intent is to harm the Palestinain population in Gaza, so they may put pressure on the fighters to stop firing rockets. Asked whether this wasn’t collecive punishment, he bluntly said “we don’t consider it so.”

They discipline Hamas, who has all the right in the world to defend the land, or what is left of it, by torturing a whole city! and they have the nerve to deny practicing collective punishment, which was-apprantly- part of the plan and most probably the reason they’ve evacuated the area in the first place.