MaanImages

A Ramadan TV series that became notorious for its criticism of Palestinian Authority officials has been discontinued on the PA-run Palestine TV, Attorney General Ahmad Al-Mughni said Tuesday evening.

Al-Mughni told Ma’an that the decision had been made to stop broadcasts of Watan Ala Watar [Homeland on a Thread] after Tuesday’s episode because “it is full of mistakes, is meaningless and is a waste of time for people to watch.”

The serial, aired during the holy month of Ramadan when broadcasters compete for captive audiences with soap operas and special series, had been praised the year earlier as an emblem of PA’s ability to tolerate self-criticism.

Al-Mughni said Tuesday that the series is “harmful to Palestinian society.”

“It mocks leaders terribly, and has a poor scenario,” he said, adding that episodes had crossed “red lines.”

“There are people and personalities that can’t be imitated in any way,” the Attorney General said.

The series had targeted the beleaguered Palestinian Authority health ministry, public sector workers union head Bassam Zakarneh and teachers union in recent weeks, and officials are reported to have complained to the Attorney General about the send-up.

Palestine TV is operated by the Palestine Broadcast Cooperation, and supervised by the Ramallah-based Ministry of Information.

Watan Ala Watar gained a huge following for its uncompromising look at themes of politics, corruption, nepotism, religion and morality.

It’s great to see the PA taking responsibility for keeping its people in line. No decent society should have to tolerate freedom of expression, especially when it involves criticizing leaders, and has a poor scenario. Heck, who doesn’t hate a poor scenario?

The pro palestinian left, who allegedly value human rights and civil liberties so much, must be beaming with pride right now.

Art curators hang a Picasso painting titled "Buste de Femme" on the wall in a gallery, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Monday, June 20 2011. A Pablo Picasso painting worth 7 million dollars has finally completed its journey to an arts academy in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The small art school put in the loan request in early 2010. Normally, such inter-museum exchanges are routine and take about six months to coordinate but because of complications such as finding reliable transport and clearing Israeli checkpoints, the process has taken over a year. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

With regards to those checkpoints the AP decided to mention, perhaps they need to be reminded the last time something was hung in Ramallah, it was no Picasso.

Incidentally, Buste de Femme is French for ”female bust.” When I first saw that painting, I thought it was of a veiled Muslim woman holding a midget.

Especially when it is intended for their own eyes.

Case in point: In this piece, anti-Israel freelance reporter Kieron Monks explains the proliferation of “human rights activists” and NGOs in the palestinian-controlled territories (hat tip: Anne). 

Ala’adin from Al-Bireh used to greet new foreign arrivals to Palestine with a cheerful, “So you’re here to save my country too?” He was fond of mocking good intentions.

Still it’s fair to say that most international visitors to Palestine, particularly those in relief or activism campaigns, do so at least partly out of conscience. In Britain, and I daresay most of Europe, Palestinian liberation is widely seen as a “good” cause. While many Palestinians feel abandoned by the international community, surely Egypt has taught us not to confuse a nation’s rulers with its population.

In London, where I grew up, this conflict was a “red-line” topic. If you took the wrong position on Palestine-Israel, it was as bad as supporting the death penalty, or liking Margaret Thatcher, and you would be considered the devil incarnate. As I overheard at a Kensington dinner party: “You cannot be a good person if you think the Occupation is okay.”

Coming to Palestine from a relatively carefree background abroad often leads to a kind of awakening. Any preconceived ideas tend to fade at the first checkpoint. For the first time we, with our privileges and passports, become cattle, barked at and processed with disdain. I had never been treated this way before.

There are more terrible crimes being perpetrated in the world today. Massacres in Sudan continue, and the Chinese Muslim population was almost wiped out last year. What makes the human rights abuses here so shocking, apart from their duration, is that they are so flagrant, so routine and there for all the world to see. Such obvious injustice is a provocation to any witness with a conscience. It says, in the best tradition of bar-brawl rhetoric, “What are you going to do about it?”

Fortunately for Israel, President Obama has not dared to address the question or the thugs behind it. Instead answers are coming from the growing community of expatriates living in Palestine. A short walk down Rukab Street in Ramallah tells you all you need to know about the city’s cosmopolitan makeup, and many visitors who come for weeks stay for years. Education, relief efforts, and media are swelling as a result, making obvious injustice more obvious, taking away the fig-leaf excuse of “it’s complicated,” and pressuring international leaders to acknowledge what they already know.

While the vast majority of ex-pats living here genuinely believe in the cause of liberation, it is far from the only reason for our mass invasion. Since the International Solidarity Movement was established in 2001, over 200 NGOs have sprung up in the West Bank and Gaza. Their presence is proof of how favourable Palestinian conditions have become.

“Palestine is the best-kept secret in the aid industry,” I am told by Emily Williams, an American project manager at a medical NGO. “People need field experience and Palestine sounds cool and dangerous because it can be described as a war zone, but in reality it’s quite safe and has all the comforts that internationals want. Quality of life here is so much higher than somewhere like Afghanistan, but we don’t tell anyone so that we are not replaced or reassigned.”

That quality of life is becoming rapidly more apparent in the “A” areas. In cities like Ramallah and Nablus, expensive restaurants and high-powered financial institutions are common now. Nightlife and entertainment is expanding to cater for international tastes.

At times these tastes sit uneasily with local values. More than once I’ve heard the fear voiced that our influence will damage the traditions of Palestinian society. Most internationals at least attempt to be culturally sensitive, but our differences can be striking. I can only imagine how West Bankers feel to see us breezing over to Jerusalem or even Tel Aviv, but these trips have an allure to visitors from the West, who can be somewhere more like home just half an hour away. In my experience, these guilty pleasures are also popular among young Palestinians with the necessary ID.

It is no coincidence that a rise in the number of international visitors here coincides with economic downturn in the West and a shrinking jobs market. With the proliferation of NGOs, the degrees that were just paper back home entitle us to prominent positions in growth industries.

For media professionals, there is a wealth of material to be uncovered here, along with the experience of working on such a major issue. Palestine has been a reliable source of news stories since the conflict began, and it receives forensic, albeit often misguided, analysis across the world. For Western students, Arabic language skills are becoming increasingly desirable and many English universities now arrange placements in exchange for volunteer work. Throw in a warmer climate, Palestine’s natural wonders and holy sites, lower crime rates, and a preposterously welcoming host population, and it’s little wonder that Bi’lin resembles a model United Nations on a Friday morning.

Yes it’s easy to be cynical about Western influence in Palestine, but no one should doubt the strength of feeling that exists around the world for this threatened land. That’s why the last flotilla to Gaza carried representatives of 40 states. It’s why Viva Palestina has bases in Malaysia, Turkey, Italy, Canada, the United States, and Britain. It’s why hundreds of thousands marched for Gaza in Copenhagen, Istanbul, and London, and why the boycott movement has grown powerful enough to shame and discourage collaboration with Israel. All these are grassroots campaigns with no state support.

Campaigners such as Rachel Corrie, Furkan Dogan, Tom Hurndall, and others have died taking action when their governments would not. Many more have taken their place.

Injustice can be inspirational when it appeals to conscience and drives people to prove their belief in liberty, equality, and basic human rights. Outside of parliament buildings, there is a huge, growing, and global coalition of ordinary people who believe in liberation for Palestine, and until it happens, you’ll just have to get used to us.

In other words, the palestinian-controlled territories are a destination of choice for “activists”, not so much due to idealism as to the fulfilment of their desire to 1) Be seen to be risking their lives, while actually enjoying relative safety and way more creature comforts than are available in the world’s real danger zones  2) Give meaning and monetary value to their otherwise useless degrees.

It is no wonder these people are so vehemently anti-Israel. It makes them look cool and pays them so well, all while they enjoy what the palestinian-controlled territories and Israel have to offer! 

This breathtaking hypocrisy is illustrated by the author of the article himself. Despite Kieron Monks’ admissions in this article – admissions no doubt meant exclusively for the anti-Israel crowd – he plays up the palestinian poverty angle in this next piece meant for more mainstream consumption.

Palestine is one of the world’s largest beneficiaries of foreign aid, receiving over $3bn (£1.9bn) annually (not including the budget of UNRWA itself). Yet a quarter of the West Bank population remains food-insecure and half of all Palestinians live below the poverty line.

In any event, thanks for this latest article, Kieron Monks. With this blog post, I hope it reaches more people than you had intended.

And in case you get any ideas, I have saved a screenshot for posterity.

A Palestinian protester throws a tear gas canister back towards Israeli troops, not seen, during a weekly demonstration against Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin near Ramallah, Friday, May 6 , 2011. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

[source]

Honorable mention: The Caped Crusader Dumbass

A Palestinian protester untangles his sling shot from barb wire during a weekly protest against the controversial Israeli barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin near Ramallah May 6, 2011. REUTERS/Darren Whiteside

[source]

The end results for the patience-impaired: Of 180 people:

• 53% helped the Arab
• 42% did nothing
• 5% supported the racist seller

I wonder if they’ll ever do a similar experiment in Gaza or Ramallah. Oh wait, Jews don’t live there.

Ok, Hebron then (hat tip: Eric)

We have just returned from a week in Israel and Palestine. We organize a chamber music festival in Southwest France and are interested in bringing Israeli and Palestinian students to our master classes.

We had no trouble reaching Ramallah from Jerusalem by public transportation. But we had problems on our return trip. We reached the Kalandia checkpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem on Friday, March 11, at 9:30 in the morning. We chose to get off the bus with everyone else, even though as foreigners we could have stayed on.

We were stunned by what we saw: dwarfing cement structures, barbed wire, cameras. As we lined up we could see an Israeli woman soldier inside a multifaceted concrete blockhouse, peering out at us. Ahead of us there was a tunnel of bars just wide enough for one person. At its end a turnstile was blocked electronically from somewhere.

As we entered this narrow space I looked at the barbed wire further on. We are Jewish, and began to weep. How was it possible that our own people, who have gone through such suffering, can inflict this ordeal, intended to humiliate and intimidate another people?

And then we were seized by fear. If there had been a surge of panic or a fire, we would all have been trampled, for there was no escape. The stories of women giving birth here, some losing their babies, came painfully to mind.

After that narrow corridor we stepped into a small area, again in front of a metal turnstile. Many of us were wet, as it had rained in the morning, and it was cold. There were not that many people waiting but only one or two people were let through every 10 minutes or so.

There was no bench in this space, nowhere for old people or children to rest. One child started to cry, another complained of her feet being frozen because her boots were wet. Old women started to plead with the men to let them go through first, but the men refused. They wanted to keep their place in line in order to be in time for prayer at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

We began to talk in English with the people around us. We did not hide that we are Jewish. A couple with a child showed us their appointment slip for a hospital consultation at noon, an unlikely target now, even though they had arrived at 9:30, as we had. As noon approached a few men turned back; it was too late for prayers.

At 12:10 it was finally our turn. We could see the people controlling the turnstile. There were several young Israeli soldiers inside. They seemed to be having a very good time, laughing, horsing around, like all youths. We want to believe that they had no clue as to the moral and physical suffering they were inflicting with their very slow control process. Do they have orders to slow everything down on Friday mornings in order to discourage the men who come to pray? Or perhaps to reduce the numbers of people who want to spend the weekend with their families?

One can easily imagine the feelings of resentment that are born from this experience. This treatment is unwarranted from the perspective of legitimate security imperatives; it is degrading and inhumane and not understandable coming from a nation that wants to be perceived as democratic, a nation among nations.

Alain Salomon is a former associate professor of architecture at Columbia University and president of a chamber music festival in Southwest France.Katia Salomon heads the association that runs the libraries in the Fleury-Mérogis Prison in France, Europe’s largest.

This piece is nothing short of dishonest.

For a start, there is no mention of why this checkpoint is there to begin with. And the reason is not “to humiliate and intimidate” palestinians.

Here’s a few reasons.

An explosive device detonated at a border guard roadblock : On August 11, 2004, fifteen kilograms ( 33 lbs ) of explosives were detonated at the Qalandia roadblock north of Jerusalem , killing six border police and two civilians. Two Palestinians were also killed and six were wounded. After the attacks, operatives from Jenin were detained. Under interrogation they revealed that their plan had been to infiltrate a suicide bomber for an attack in Haifa , but there were instructions that he was to attack any city in Israel if he could not reach the target. The terrorist came by taxi from the village of Arabeh in the Jenin district . In a second taxi driving behind them there was an explosive device hidden under a crate of vegetables. The two vehicles drove in tandem towards Tulkarm and from there to Ramallah until they reached A-Ram , to the northeast of Jerusalem . In A-Ram the operatives bought a baby carriage to hide the device in until they reached Haifa . When the operatives realized they would not be able to reach there original target, they detonated the device at a Border Guard roadblock .

Military sources said they believed the suicide bomber intended to travel via the Qalandia crossing to the Tel Aviv area, where he was to set off the 10 kilograms of explosives he was carrying, probably at one of the many Hanukkah shows scheduled for Thursday.

“This attack was intended for inside Israel proper and against Israelis celebrating the Hanukkah festival,” David Baker, an official in the Prime Minister’s Office, said.

IDF officials hailed the actions of the soldiers at the checkpoint, saying that the bomber might have caused dozens of deaths had he had blown himself up in a closed crowded hall.

PA representatives condemned the attack, which took place at an army checkpoint in the West Bank, in conversations with IDF officers, saying it harms Palestinian interests.

When dealing with people like this, is there a choice?

Certainly explains those inhumane “cameras.”

“Unwarranted from the perspective of legitimate security imperatives”? I think not. Given this reality, I am really glad people are made to go slowly through the checkpoint, monitored and checked closely while doing so.

Another point: even though there is an obvious need for the checkpoint, Israel is not trying to make palestinians needlessly suffer.

A more recent AP article, Checkpoint misery epitomizes a Mideast divide, (February 21, 2010) examined the major Qalandia checkpoint between the northern West Bank and Jerusalem and seemed like more of the same, invoking the familiar “daily humiliation” language.

But to gauge just how humiliating the transit supposedly is, Ben Hubbard, the AP reporter, spent a week at the terminal interviewing Palestinians, and timing their passage through the checkpoint. And even though it’s almost certainly unintentional, Hubbard’s report actually casts doubt on just how much misery and waiting Palestinians experience at these checkpoints.

In fact, judging by Hubbard’s data, Palestinians get through the Qalandia checkpoint more quickly than travelers get through security checkpoints at some major US airports.

Here’s a summary of Hubbard’s report, followed by data from US airports.

• On the first day the Palestinian worker followed by Hubbard takes all of 22 minutes to get through. And this is during the early morning rush – Hubbard admits that “outside of rush hour, crossings can take mere minutes.”
• Day two: also during the early morning rush the wait is again only 22 minutes.
• Day three: progress is a bit slower, perhaps because the day before a would-be Palestinian attacker was stopped at the checkpoint, armed with a “pistol and four knives.” The Palestinian followed on this day by the AP takes 54 minutes to pass though the checkpoint.
• Day four: despite a fight among Palestinians in the line, passage takes only 33 minutes.
• Day five: the wait is down to 25 minutes.

These are not exactly the humiliating, hours-long delays that some media reports have portrayed. 

How do these waits compare to what travelers face at, for example, John F. Kennedy Airport in New York? The Transportation Security Administration has suspended its tally of security wait times, but past data is still available at many travel web sites. On Fox World Travel, for example, we find the following information for JFK on a Monday morning during what is apparently the busiest time of the day (8 AM to 9 AM) at the busiest terminals:

Passengers at Terminal 6 – JetBlue had to endure an average wait of 38 minutes and a maximum wait of 45 minutes to get through security, while passengers at Terminal 6 B had to wait almost as long, about 30 minutes, with the wait extending to 35 minutes from 9 AM to 10 AM.

Other aggregated current data from United Airlines indicates that the average peak wait on peak days at JFK is more than 40 minutes, with the situation even worse at other airports. Unlucky travelers at Albuquerque International Airport, for example, faced a peak wait of 40 to 50 minutes.

So, on average, Palestinians get through the major Qalandia checkpoint faster than some travelers at JFK and other airports get through US checkpoints. Considering the extreme and daily terror threat faced by Israel, the fact that people traverse Israeli checkpoints as quickly as they do is a testament to the country’s efforts to balance the demands of security and human rights.

And lo and behold – a water fountain – hardly something you would install if you wanted people to suffer.

The only insulting treatment I am seeing here is the op-ed itself.

I was happily surprised at how well the Palestinian nurses and doctors treated me here, in fact I feel pampered,” new mother Nisreen, a Jewish citizen of Israel, told Ma’an Wednesday night after delivering her first child in a Ramallah hospital.

She had been out shopping with her husband, a Palestinian from the village of Sakhnain in Israel, when she felt intense labor pains. Rather than make the hours long trip back to Haifa through notorious checkpoints, Nisreen’s husband suggested they go to hospital in the West Bank.

Pale but smiling, Nisreen recalled how friends helped her into a car and took her to the Ramallah Hospital. “I hope my child can have a Palestinian id card,” she mused.

Hours after the birth of a healthy 2.3 kg boy, the new mom received a bouquet of roses from President Mahmoud Abbas, who congratulated her on the delivery, and wished her and her son the best of health.

PA Minister of Health Fathi Abu Moghli said the woman was admitted to hospital with severe pain, adding that the labor had come on quickly. She gave birth within hours of arriving.

Officials reported to Israeli liaison officers that the woman had been admitted. Procedure appeared to dictate that Nisreen be taken and transferred to an Israeli hospital, but on her insistence she was permitted to stay.

“Nisreen is the first Jewish woman to be treated at Ramallah Hospital,” Abu Moghli said, recalling the Hippocratic Oath obliging doctors to treat every patient regardless of their religion, political beliefs or race.

As an added bonus, he said Nisreen would not be asked to pay hospital fees, and would be treated as any Palestinian would be.

Of course, as we have come to expect from Ma’an and other palestinian news sources, they are missing an important fact.

An Israeli woman has given birth in a Palestinian hospital – an extremely rare occurrence that won her flowers from the Palestinian president.

Nisreen Chayedri, who grew up Jewish but converted to Islam, says she was shopping in the West Bank town of Ramallah Wednesday when she went into labour. Her husband rushed her to the nearest hospital, where she delivered a baby boy.

While Jewish Israelis are barred from visiting Palestinian areas because of security concerns, Israeli-Arab citizens can, though not many do. Few would use the Palestinian medical system, which is far less developed than the Israeli one.

Nisreen Chayedri says she received VIP treatment. The hospital found a Hebrew-speaking doctor to translate, and she got a visit from Ramallah’s mayor and a bouquet from President Mahmoud Abbas.

So what was initially presented as a story of palestinian benevolence towards a Jew is really the story of palestinians not recognizing a Jewish convert to Islam as Muslim.

Which is a heck of a long way from the nearest trailer park.

Palestinian, Israeli and foreign peaces activists take part in a protest in Nabi Saleh, near Ramallah, on July 9, 2010 against the expropriation of Palestinian land to expand the nearby Jewish settlement of Halmish in the occupied West Bank.

A State Department spokesman said Tuesday night that the United States expects an official response from Israel soon. He said Clinton and Netanyahu may speak by phone as early as Wednesday. Netanyahu is expected to deliver Israel’s official response to Clinton during that conversation.

Israel’s response had been set to be the main focus of a meeting Wednesday of the forum of seven senior cabinet members, though that meeting will now not take place.

Meanwhile, the palestinians – who initiated violent riots yesterday because Israel rededicated a synagogue previously destroyed by the Arab Legion – need not do anything but sit back, relax and enjoy the show.

Oh, and thank their lucky stars for Barack Obama.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

7:00PM: Hillary has softened her rhetoric against Israel.

6:50PM: To quote Gene Wilder in The Frisco Kid, “Would somebody please show this poor asshole the way out of town?”

After visiting the grave of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Ramallah on Wednesday, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the security barrier must come down.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Da Silva added that Brazil would continue to support the Palestinians so that their dream of establishing an independent, secure state will come true.

Earlier, the Brazilian president placed a wreath on Arafat’s tomb, despite criticism from Israel.

The Brazilian leader has said he would like to play a bigger role in Mideast diplomacy. He is visiting Israel and the Palestinian territories this week.

On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said he boycotted meetings with Da Silva because the Brazilian leader did not visit the grave of Zionism’s founder Theodor Herzl.

6:28PM: Jordanian King Abdullah “Beaver” II is being a responsible peace partner and trying to calm the situation down.

Yeah, right.

The international community should not stand by and watch as Israel attempts to rid Jerusalem of its Arab residents, Jordanian King Abdullah II said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Jerusalem is a red line and the world should not be silent about Israel’s attempts to get rid of Jerusalem’s Arabs residents, Muslims or Christians,” the Dubai daily Khaleej Times quoted the king as saying to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in Amman.

And we all know Abdullah knows all about getting rid of palestinians.

2:38PM: Quote of the day:

“Now, however, we see the Obama Administration has decided to escalate, make unilateral demands of Israel, and threaten the very foundation of the US-Israel relationship. This is quickly leading to the worst crisis in US-Israel relations in decades, and yet this did not have to happen.”

—-

“Once again, the Obama Administration is missing the boat on a very, very important issue. They need to go back to the basics and acknowledge Palestinian leaders have not progressed any peace process since President Obama was elected. As Israel makes concessions (and is still criticized by the Obama Administration), Arab leaders are just sitting back waiting for the White House to further pressure Israel. The Obama Administration needs to open its eyes and recognize that it is only Iran and her terrorist allies that benefit from this manufactured Israeli controversy.”

- Sarah Palin (on her Facebook page)

11:46AM: Ha’aretz reports on the Simpsons’ upcoming Israel episode.

The first images from the upcoming episode of The Simpsons, in which the animated family visits Israel, were released this week after six months of buzz over the special show to be aired in the United States on March 28.

The episode, titled “The Greatest Story Ever D’ohed,” includes scenes of Homer and Bart at the Western Wall with their Israeli tour guide, who will be voiced by British comedian Sascha Baron Cohen, of Borat and Bruno fame.

In the episode, Homer gets “Jerusalem Syndrome” and believes that he is the Messiah. Also, the tour guide bickers and exchanges political barbs with Marge.

“This is an episode that people from all three religions will be equally offended by,” said Simpsons producer Al Jean.

The show has featured many Jewish jokes and characters during its 21 seasons on air, most prominently Krusty the Clown (whose Jewish name is Herschel Shmoikel Pinchas Yerucham Krustofski).

7:35AM: The PA has named a street in Ramallah after terror enabler Rachel Corrie.

Which is quite appropriate, when you think about it.

7:26AM: Introducing our latest weapon: Zionist Death Doob.^TM

A student from Israel's Ben-Gurion University of the Negev shows his creation as he takes part in a competition to roll the most original looking joint in the southern city of Beersheba March 16, 2010. The student-organised event, which featured legal tobacco as the filling rather than marijuana, drew around 20 contestants wanting to win the 800 Shekels prize (around $200). REUTERS/Amir Cohen

5:58AM: Charles Krauthammer explains what the real insult is in this latest US-Israel crisis.

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Want to learn how to shoot with top Israeli anti-terror experts? Click here for more details.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to alleviate new tensions with the United States on Tuesday, after an announcement that Israel will build 1,600 new homes in an ultra-Orthodox East Jerusalem neighborhood drew strong condemnation from the White House, and visiting U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.

The prime minister reportedly promised Biden “No one was seeking to embarrass you or undermine your visit – on the contrary, you are a true friend to Israel.”

Biden arrived in Israel on Monday in an attempt to kick-start long-stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, which had been expected to resume in the coming days, but looked in danger Tuesday after a furious response from the Palestinians to the construction plan.

Netanyahu told Biden during their meeting in Jerusalem earlier in the day that he had had no prior knowledge of the decision to authorize the additional construction, and added that the program had been drafted three years ago and only received initial authorization that day. It could take several months, Netanyahu assured him, before the program is granted final approval.

Netanyahu told his guest that the regional councils are not under the political leadership’s direct authority, and that his administration tries not to interfere with their work.

A high-ranking official in Jerusalem, however, said Netanyahu has “no problem” with construction in Jerusalem and has no intention of apologizing for building there. The official acknowledged, however, that the announcement’s timing was harmful to Israel’s diplomatic interests.

“We didn’t want to humiliate Biden or sow division while he is in Israel,” the official said.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

11:40PM: Oh, this should be good:

Caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad will open the first international conference on the theology of peace, justice and reconciliation in a Palestinain context, hosted by the Bethlehem Bible College and Holly Land Trust, organizers said.

The conference, titled Christ at the Checkpoint: Theology in the Service of Peace and Justice, is set to run 12-17 March, and “aims to equip the global church to understand Scripture as it relates to the Palestinian context,” a news brief about the conference said.

Perhaps a good starting point would be to look at references to the palestinians in scripture.

Yes, exactly.

8:00PM: Biased caption of the day:

Palestinian women supporters of the Islamic Jihad movement march during a rally against Israel’s decision to include two West Bank shrines on a list of national heritage sites, in the Jebaliya refugee camp, north of Gaza City, Wednesday, March 10, 2010. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Forgetting a minor detail there, Mr caption writer?

5:52PM: With Joe Biden in Israel, the PA ordered the cancellation of a ceremony to honor terrorist Dalal al-Mughrabi by naming a traffic circle near Ramallah after her and unveiling a memorial plaque.

Or should that be postponement.

4:50PM: Ynet reports:

US Vice President Joe Biden has told the Palestinians that they deserve a “viable” independent state with contiguous territory.

—-

At a news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, Biden reiterated his condemnation of Israel’s plan and urged both sides to refrain from actions that could “inflame” tensions.

The American VP said Israel’s plan was undermining Palestinian faith in new peace negotiations.

“It is incumbent on both parties to build an atmosphere of support for negotiations and not to complicate them,” Biden told reporters.

“Yesterday the decision by the Israeli government to advance planning for new housing units in east Jerusalem undermines that very trust, the trust that we need right now in order to begin … profitable negotiations,” he said.

Abbas, for his part, urged Israel to commit to the peace process. “The Palestinians remain committed to peace as a strategic choice,” he said.

If I am not mistaken, Biden made this comments while standing under a banner of arch terrorist and father of the airline hijacking, Yasser Arafat, which serves as a reminder as to how the palestinians do not deserve a “viable” independent state with contiguous territory, and are not committed to peace as a strategic choice.

U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden, talks during a press conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, not pictured, as he is backdropped by a banner of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Wednesday, March 10, 2010. Israel’s new plan to build 1,600 homes for Jews in Palestinian-claimed east Jerusalem overshadowed Biden’s visit to the West Bank on Wednesday.

3:10PM:  The Corrie circus is in town.

A court today began hearing a civil suit brought against the Israeli government over the death of Rachel Corrie, the US activist who was killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza seven years ago.

The case, brought before a Haifa court by Corrie’s family, challenges the official Israeli version of events in which the military said its troops were not to blame. The family hopes the hearing will be a chance to put on public record the events that led to their daughter’s death in March 2003. If the Israeli state is found responsible, the family will press for at least $300,000 (£201,000) in damages.

Before the hearing began, Craig Corrie, Rachel’s father, said the family had been on a “seven-year search for justice in Rachel’s name”.

“I think when the truth comes out about Rachel, the truth will not wound Israel, the truth is the start of making us heal,” he said.

Cindy Corrie, Rachel’s mother, said the family was still waiting for the credible, transparent investigation Israel first promised into her daughter’s death.

“I just want to say to Rachel that our family is here today trying to just do right by her and I hope that she will be very proud of the effort we are making,” she said.

The family’s lawyer, Hussein Abu Hussein, will argue that witness evidence shows the soldiers saw Corrie at the scene, with other activists, well before the incident and could have arrested her or removed her from the area before there was any risk of her being killed.

He will argue her death was either due to gross negligence by the Israeli authorities or was intentional.

Four key witnesses – three Britons and an American – who were at the scene in Rafah when Corrie was killed are to give evidence.

The first witness to give evidence was Richard Purssell, a Briton who was an ISM volunteer along with Corrie. He described how he had gone to Gaza to see the situation for himself and to prevent the Israeli military from demolishing Palestinian houses.

He said the ISM told him it was a strictly non-violent organisation. “Our role was to support Palestinian non-violent resistance.”

He briefly described the moment Corrie was killed. “Rachel disappeared inside the earth and the bulldozer continued for 4 metres and then reversed,” he told the court.

Corrie, who was born in Olympia, Washington, travelled to Gaza to act as a human shield at a moment of intense conflict between the Israeli military and the Palestinians.

On the day she died, when she was just 23, she was dressed in a fluorescent orange vest and was trying to stop the demolition of a Palestinian home in Rafah. She was crushed under a military Caterpillar D9R bulldozer and died shortly afterwards.

A month after her death the Israeli military said an investigation had determined its troops were not to blame and said the driver of the bulldozer had not seen her and did not intentionally run her over.

Instead, it accused her and the group she was with, the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), of behaviour that was “illegal, irresponsible and dangerous.”

The army report, obtained by the Guardian in April 2003, said she “was struck as she stood behind a mound of earth that was created by an engineering vehicle operating in the area and she was hidden from the view of the vehicle’s operator who continued with his work. Corrie was struck by dirt and a slab of concrete resulting in her death.”

But several witnesses offered a different version of events, saying the driver had seen her but continued anyway, hitting her with the bulldozer blade. She was severely injured and died shortly afterwards in an ambulance.

While Corrie was in the Palestinian territories, she wrote vividly about her experiences. Her diaries were later turned into a play, My Name is Rachel Corrie, which has toured internationally, including in Israel and the West Bank.

I have to chuckle. The ISM is constantly complaining when Israel arrests its “activists” (i.e. terror enablers) who are obstructing IDF operations designed to bring security to Israeli civilians. Yet now Corrie’s lawyer is arguing Israel could have arrested her.

Meanwhile, if you want to know more about what happened to Rachel Corrie, I suggest you start here:

The Upcoming Rachel Corrie Trial: Go After Her Real Killers

The Myth of Rachel Corrie

Rachel Corrie’s Dreams

Myths and Facts

11:52AM: Old and busted: settlement freeze.

New hotness: Illegal palestinian worker freeze.

Despite the hot weather, an ice cream truck investigated in Netanya on Tuesday was not transporting ice cream to bathers on the beach, but Palestinians illegally present in Israel.

Netanya police carried out routine checks in the city’s southern neighborhoods. “We got to Ramat Poleg beach, where we saw an ice cream truck parked near the restaurant on the beach,” Community Officer Avinoam Shoshan said. “I know this beach well, and know there isn’t an ice cream truck there usually. We observed the truck, and saw people going into the vehicle.”

The vehicle and the activity around it raised the suspicions of the police. “We decided to check it out from close up,” Shoshan said

“We knocked on the vehicle, but nobody opened it. We continued until finally the door was opened and people began to exit – not one or two, but 14, one after the other. Upon investigation, we saw that the vehicle’s storage area had been turned into a big bedroom, for 14 people.”

Further checks revealed that all 14 are Palestinians who are in Israel illegally. Some of them have a criminal past, some are not permitted to enter at all.

6:18AM: Interview with a Syrian political analyst regarding Syria’s claim that Israel dropped uranium particles in an attempt to justify bombing a desert site.

Noteworthy: Syrian political analyst’s “didn’t hear your question” when faced with a tough one, followed by lame answer (from 1:40 onwards).

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