Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By simmons on August 30, 2015

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Press Release

Date: Thursday November 29, 2012 To: All International and Kenyan Media Houses From: The Kenya Diaspora Alliance, Global Headquarters

Kenyans in the diaspora have expressed dismay and disbelief after the revelation by Hon. Eugene Wamalwa, Kenyas Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs that the Cabinet of President Mwai Kibakis and Prime Minister Raila Odingas Ruling Coalition has expressly decided that eligible voters outside of Kenya will not be able to vote in the General Election slated for March 2013.

In their response at a hastily convened emergency teleconference immediately following the Tuesday November 27, 2012 Cabinet announcement, leaders of the Kenya Diaspora Alliance (KDA), a transnational Federation comprising 28 Kenya Diaspora organizations, overwhelmingly condemned the decision terming it unilateral and unacceptable.

In an unprecedented show of commitment, the alliance members passed a raft of resolutions challenging the authorities to reverse the decision and ensure Diaspora Kenyans are not denied their right to vote. Said the session chairman, Mr. Robinson Gichuhi. Citizens right to choose leaders is an inalienable right. This right is enshrined in Kenyas new constitution under Article 83, sub-section 3. Diaspora Kenyans are within their right to demand for their full participation in the historic March 2013 elections, Mr. Gichuhi added.

The leaders dismissed the allegation by the cabinet that the Independent Electoral Commission (IEBC) lacked preparedness to handle the massive exercise of the registration of voters abroad. We have been trying to work hand-in-hand with the IEBC for over 3 years and even offered financial and technical support; but the IEBC, through its chairman, rejected our offer at a Kenya Embassy in Washington DC organized meeting in early 2012. Hence the citation by the government that it lacked logistical and financial resources was really an excuse to disenfranchise Kenyans abroad because they know the impact their participation will have on the outcome of the elections, said Mr. Hebron Mosomi.

We even offered and proceeded to build an online system that is secure, tested and elaborate enough to ensure that any Kenyan living outside of Kenya would be able to exercise their constitutional right per Section 83 Sub-section (3) of the Kenya Constitution, said Ms. Mkawasi Mcharo, one of the participants. . The site, https://www.kenyansabroadvote.com/ allows eligible Diaspora voters to sign-up via the Internet (and extensible to accept secure SMS), should IEBC accept to use online registration and voting for Diaspora. KDA aims to have 1 million eligible, potential Diaspora voters to sign-up by close of registration date.

The leaders could not come to terms with the statement from the Minister that it is not practical for the them to take part now. The leaders at the meeting were not impressed by the total lack of order demonstrated by the Cabinets statement and felt that it was an indication that there are forces within the Kenyan political system that are bent on stopping the Diaspora from becoming full participants in Kenyas political development, said Dr. Githua Kariuki, Mr. Alex Momanyi, Ms. Annette Ruah and Mr. Symon Ogeto. However, the alliance vowed to continue to fight for the Diasporas rightful place in Kenyas national affairs.

The leaders joined Kenyans in the Diaspora in condemning this decision overwhelmingly as an unwarranted retraction of a right entrenched in the new Kenyan constitution. They consider the grounds for the cabinet decision injudicious, frivolous and, without foundation in law and in fact, said Dr. William Yimbo. Indeed, the action seemed to confirm their fear that an invisible hand could have been behind the shocking, retrogressive ruling against a court petition KDA had filed to facilitate Diaspora voting and representation. It only fortified their resolve to proceed to expeditiously appeal and vigorously contest the court decision in the Appeal Court, added Dr. Shem Ochuodho while in the meeting via global link.

Shifting Goal Posts

The leaders at the meeting were of the opinion that authorities in Kenya are using conjecture, innuendo and subterfuge to hoodwink and disenfranchise them. For example, the shifting of goal posts by using controvertible rationalizations of their actions such as logistics, the un-researched numbers of Kenyans living overseas, and, resources, among others. It goes to show that the authorities are desperate for an excuse to deny the Diaspora their rights, said Mr. Benson Metho and Mr. Isaac Newton Kinity.

Legal Question

The legality of the Cabinet to make such a move came into question during this leaders meeting. It appears that the Cabinet has over-stepped its bounds for obvious reasons, The leaders declared that the Kenyan Cabinet does not have the authority to stop the Diaspora from voting. They felt that the announcement sounded like some decrees announced in some banana republics and had ill-intentions. The leaders asserted that the decision has no merit and no standing. The Cabinet ignored the legal and due process and in a meeting that was not publicized at all, they made a decision that they will stand to regret. came forth a general consensus among the attendees. What the Cabinet purported to do was illegal and unconstitutional. It usurped the authority of IEBC (which is the body constitutionally mandated to conduct elections) and issued a legally untenable decree, said one of KDAs legal counsel, Mr HenryOngeri.

Polling Stations & Online Voting

In the case of the United States, 3 polling stations as recommended by the IEBC was seen as impractical and not in line with a true effort to have full participation of Kenyans in the region.

To date, the diaspora is aware that some funds had already been allocated to voter registration and the voting process. This, the leaders said, was a step in the right direction. For an adverse statement, however, to come from a source that was not directly involved in the implementation of the constitution, demonstrates a total lack of political sensitivity and was seen as an affront to Kenyans abroad. The diaspora has been pushing for an elaborate system of voting that would not require travel to any polling station. KDA research associates indicate that several countries around the world, have effectively and successfully used online voting. . The research associates and computer experts within the diaspora are prepared to hand over and fine-tune the bank-standard secure system they have created that would reduce costs and make the work of IEBC easier.

Demonstrations

In light of the outrage within the Kenya Community, leaders at the meeting also endorsed a potential use of demonstrations around the world if the Kenyan Cabinet fails to rescind this decision including the adverse adjudication of the lawsuit that KDA filed in mid-2012. Kenyans are ready to bring attention to this disenfranchisement. We are not taking this lightly, Mr. Peter Keere said.

There are credible reports that Kenyans around the world are already planning demonstrations even prior to our press release. This shows the anger and aggravation that statements coming from Nairobi are producing.

On the Diaspora Voter Set-up

1. The Kenyan cabinet overstepped its authority in the announcement made to parliament Tuesday. The Diaspora, including legal experts, feel that the matter lies squarely within the realm of IEBC responsibility;

2. An elaborate online system should be sought and implemented to solve the issue of polling stations. IEBC should stop pretending that the Internet does not exist and take advantage of major security advancement to ensure a free and fair election. If it has to be a physical voting exercise, then there are no known or written parameters on the number of voters required to establish a voter registration center. BVR kits should be deployed or set up at polling stations recommended by a recent report that had been submitted by the Diaspora to Kenyas Ministry of Foreign Affairs. There are numerous voter registration/polling centers with less than 1000 eligible voters that have been readily supplied with BVR kits, staff and other logistics back in Kenya.

3. Proper diaspora headcount is being coordinated by several groups, businesses and individuals in the United States and in other parts of the world, and can be concluded with IEBC or GoK cooperation before mid-December. Figuring ranging from 26,000 to 150,000 Kenyans abroad is another example of attempts to bar the Diaspora from effective participation in a free and fair election.

4. The Kenyan Diaspora has been ready and still willing to use its technical knowhow and expertise to make the next general election a model exercise free of flaw and dispute. Failure to include Diaspora in the vote will be a sure recipe for protracted post-election law suits challenging validity of the vote, a situation that can be avoided NOW.

KDA Resolutions

In this extra-ordinary meeting within the Kenyan diaspora, the leaders discussed and ratified various resolutions and made pronouncements to counter the announcement from Nairobi. Resolutions were centered on the following:

The meeting was attended by the following: Mr. Robinson Gichuhi (DMK), Ms. Mkawasi Mcharo (KCA), Mr. Ben Metho (KDDF), Mr. Hebron Mosomi (K4C), Mr. Peter Keere (Atktive)., Ms. Annette Ruah (KIC), Dr. Githua Kariuki (IADDS), Mr. Isaac Newton Kinity (KIKIMO), Mr. Alex Momanyi (KINC), Dr. William Yimbo (KDDF), Mr. Henry Ongeri (KDA Legal Counsel) and Mr. Symon Ogeto (CKO), Dr. Shem Ochuodho (NVK), Mr. Anthony Lenaiyara (China), Mr. Anthony Mwaura (Finland), Mr. Thomas Musau (UK), Apologies from: Mr. Ngethe Mbiyu (KDMJ), Ms. Sharon Opuge (Iceland), Mr.Johvine.Wanyingo (Nigeria), Mr Francis Opondo, ), Mr. Shem Okore (Zimbabwe), Mr. Oscar OLawrence (KUDIMA, Dubai) and also other leaders worldwide who could not attend due to time difference.

PRESS CONTACT:

For more information and further details, please contact the Kenya Diaspora Alliance at press@kenyadiasporaalliance.org

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Kenya Diaspora Alliance (KDA) | The New Kenya Has Arrived

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Posted By admin on August 28, 2015

The Rich Jews Indict a State! The Whole South Traduced. In the Matter of Leo Frank.

by Thomas E. Watson, Watsons Magazine, Volume 21 Number 6, October 1915

Abnormal conditions prevail in this country, and the situation grows more complicated, year by year. We have carried the asylum idea to such extravagant liberality, that the sewage of the whole world is pouring upon us. The human race was never known to do, before, what it is doing now, to America. History presents no parallel case. From the Great Lakes to the Gulf, and from Cape Hatteras to the Golden Gate, we see the same ominous, portentous phenomena, of peoples distinct from our peopledistinct in language, in manners, in standards, in customs, in National observances.

Huge sections of our over-grown cities are as foreign to us, as any territory that lies beyond seas. Our laws are powerless in these unassimilated settlements. Little Italy, in New York, is, to all practical intents and purposes, a section of Naples transported to our shores.

Chinatowns in America are miniature Cantons. The industrial colonies of West Virginia, Colorado, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, are just that many small Hungarys, Polands, Germanys and Italys. As for the Jews, they have found our asylum a paradise; and from the uttermost ends of the earth, they are rushing through our ports. The Zionist Societies, financed by the Hirsch endowment of $45,000,000, are planning to bring 3,000,000 European Jews here, at the close of the present war.

So wide open have been the doors of our asylum that the native stock which made the Republic, is already in the minority. Its relative strength grows less with every shipload of immigrants.

Under these torrents of foreign peoples, whole States have lost their original character.

Massachusetts is not what she was before the Civil War, nor is Colorado.

Puritan New England has been submerged. The hordes from abroad are in possession; they fill the shops, the quarries, the factories, the mills, and the offices.

An Ambassador of a foreign nation coolly proposes to his government to tie up the munitions plants of this country, and leave us without means of self-defense!

How? By bribing the subjects of Austria-Hungary to quit work.

An Ambassador of a foreign Nation coolly informs Germans in this country, that they will be punished for treason under German law, if they accept employment from manufacturers who are selling arms to Germanys foes.

It is an open secret that our Government hasnt on hand enough ammunition to supply an army four months, and the Ambassadors of Germany and Austria have demonstrated their ability to lock our wheels, so completely, that we couldnt get, for ourselves from our own plants, the wherewith to defend ourselves from German attack!

If such recent events do not startle our Statesmen into new views of the immigration question, our future will be tragic, indeed.

Where so many elements enter into National life, unusual combinations take place. Strange conditions make strange bedfellows. We have seen the Irish-American Catholics unite with the German-American Protestants against the English.

We have seen the Irish-American Catholic embrace the opulent Jew, against the Protestant.

The Tageblatt (Jewish Daily News) of Chicago, is published in the Yiddish language. Its editor wrote to the Pope, sending the letter through the Papal ambassador at Washington. Bonzano transmitted the communication to his government, the Italian Papal establishment, and in due course, the Secretary of State for Bonzanos government sent the Popes reply to the Jews, through the Papal Ambassador!

Thus an American citizen, a Jew, placed himself in the position of a government dealing independently with a foreign potentate.

The transaction is so unprecedented that I present the correspondence, as it appears in the Tageblatt of August 25th, 1915:

The Jewish Daily News is in receipt of a striking communication from Pope Benedict XV, in reply to a request made by us for an expression of opinion on the Jewish question.

The Jewish Daily News Letter to the Pope

June twenty-third, Nineteen Fifteen. His Holiness, the Pope, Benedict XV. The Vatican, Rome, Italy.

Your Holiness:

The denial of justice, aye the deprivation of the very elementary rights inalienable to the welfare of all human beings, has characterized the attitude of the world towards the Jews since the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. Your heart has been stirred to its very depths by the outrages and excesses committed upon Jewish men, women and children, and we are most sincerely grateful for this expression of horror on the part of your holiness.

Encouraged by the sympathy of the Head of the Church of Christ, we humbly appeal to you to arouse Christendom to a realization of the sufferings of millions of human beingsthe Jewsso that they may be accordedwherever they now lack thesefull equal rights and treatment.

Such a call, coming from Your Holiness, will be heeded throughout the world and will meet with the recognition desired.

The Jewish Daily News, the oldest and leading Jewish paper in America, speaking in behalf of the three million Jews in the United States of America, and voicing not only their innermost sentiments, but the views of the Jews the world over, prays that Your Holiness may send through its columns the message that will awaken the conscience of mankind.

Most respectfully and humbly yours,

(signed) S. MASON, Managing Editor.

This letter was sent to Monsignor Giovanni Bonzano, the Apostolic Delegate at Washington, with the request that it be forwarded to the Vatican.

Monsignor Bonzano has now received a reply, which he has transmitted to us.

Monsignor Giovanni Bonzano,

Delegate Apostolico,

Washington,

TRANSLATION.

The Vatican,

22, July, 1915.

Sir:I hasten to present to the Holy Father the letter transmitted to me by you No. 18051 D, of the 25th of June, in which Mr. S. Mason, Editor of the New York Jewish Daily News, asked the aid of His Holiness in favor of the Jews who are persecuted and still deprived, in some nations, of full civil rights.

The August Pontiff has graciously taken note of this document and has desired me to request you to write to Mr. Mason that the Holy See, as it has always in the past acted according to the dictates of justice in favor of the Jews, intends now also to follow the same path on every propitious occasion that may present itself.

Yours, etc., etc.,

P. CARD. GASPARRI.

Monsignor Giovanni Bonzano,

Apostolical Delegate,

Washington.

What view will Congress and the President and Secretary Lansing take of the flagrant breach of propriety? What would be thought of a German Societythe Central Verein, for exampleif it should open a correspondence through Ambassador Bernsdorff, directly with the German Emperor? What better cloak for a system of espionage and secret treason could be devised, than private correspondence carried on by Austrian and German and Jewish spies, through the Papal Ambassador?

As everybody knows, the President himself would not have written to the Pope, except through Secretary Lansing. But the Jewish organization, which publishes its purpose to carve out a Jewish State in this Union, and its intention to submit certain propositions to our Government, has already anticipated its independent existence, by ignoring our diplomatic representatives. It goes over their heads, and deals directly with the Pope, through the Papal Ambassador, just as though the Jewish organization at Chicago were an independent State!

These Jews might be pardoned, for their outrageous breach of loyalty and decorum, on the ground that they do not know any betterbut what about Bonzano, the Papal secretary, and the Pope?

They knew better; and they knew they were insulting the Government and people of the United States, when they set the precedent of dealing directly with citizens of this Republic. NO SUCH THING WAS EVER DONE BEFORE!

These insolent Jews take it upon themselves to acknowledge the Italian Pope as the true and only Head of the Church of Christ.

All Protestant churches are mentally obliterated. There are no Christians save the Romanists. Waldensians, Greek Catholics, and Armeniansall more ancient than Romanistsare left with the heathen. Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Adventists, etc., are mere trashephemeral and negligiblein the eyes of the leaders of the three million Jews. The Pope is the earthly embodiment of Christ, the Head of the Church, the one potentate empowered to arouse Christendom in behalf of the poor, down-trodden Rothschilds, Belmonts, Guggenheims, Warburgs, Strauses, Ochses, Pulitzers, Abells, Schiffs, Kuhns, Loebs, Montags, Seligs, Dannenbergs, Waxelbaums, and Haases.

With a fine display of scorn for our President and Secretary of State the Three Million Jews slap the face of Diplomatic Etiquette; and with a noble exhibition of contempt for non-Catholic churches, they spit upon the creed of Christianity.

Two years ago, I thought that there were evidences of a league between American priests and the rich Jews of our large cities, and our readers may remember my comments.

There is no longer any doubt that the Roman priests and the opulent Jews are allies.

The Holy See, as it has always in the past acted according to the dictates of justice, IN FAVOR OF THE JEWS, intends now to follow the same path.

What marvelous liars these priests are! How boldly they presume upon short memories, selfish opportunism, and ignorance of history! They can rely upon the Catholic to believe everything they say, for they know that the Catholic will not read after a heretic. They are not much afraid of the heretic, for they know that his readers are indifferent, his churches decadent, his daily papers choked with gold, and his political leaders afraid of the Catholic vote.

Therefore James Church, the Pope, never bats an eye, when he tells the Jews that he means to follow in that path of justice to the Jews, which his predecessors have always trod.

Well be learning next, that Nero was a great friend to the Christians, that the Duke of Alva protected the Dutch, that Claverhouse cherished an ardent affection for Scotch Presbyterians, that Catherine de Medici flung her queenly mantle over the Huguenots, and that the Hapsburgs of Austria were indomitable defenders of the Reformation.

The Holy See has always acted according to the dictates of justice, in favor of the Jews!

Well, well, WELL!

So it is not a Papal Poland that grinds the Israelites to the ground.

It was not a Papal England that outlawed the Jew, nor a Protestant England that enfranchised him!

It was not a Papal France, that degraded the Jew, nor a Revolutionary and Napoleonic France which rehabilitated him!

How long has it been since Pope Pius IX kidnapped the son of the Mortaras to make a priest out of him? All Europe rang with the scandal, and the Emperor of the French implored the Holy Father to restore the boy to his distracted parents. But the Pope was unrelenting, and those Jews never saw their son, again.

How long has it been since modern liberalism compelled the Popes to discontinue their annual custom, at Rome, of publicly cursing the Jews?

How long has it been since the 29th canon of the Aurelian Council was rigidly enforcedthe Papal law which made it death for a Jew to even speak to a Catholic during Holy Week? (See Roba di Roma, by W.W. Story, page 423.)

Who was it that destroyed Jewish libraries, forced Jews to wear badges, forbade them to eat and drink with Catholics, closed all the professions to them, and taxed faithful Jews, to support Jews who consented to change their religion?

Pope Eugenius IV did it.

Who expelled the Jews from all Italy, except Rome and Ancona?

Pope Pius V did it.

Who sent the murderous, devilish Inquisition into Portugal, to first torture and then burn, the Jews?

Pope Clement VII did it.

Who ordered the general destruction of the Talmud, and sanctioned the wholesale massacres of Jews in France?

Pope John XXII did it.

Who ordered the punishment of Jewish physicians for entering Catholic houses, and denied Christian burial to Catholics who employed Jewish physicians?

Pope Gregory XIII did it.

Who controlled Europe during the dismal ages when Jews were hounded like wild beasts, denied human rights, and grudgingly permitted to dwell in pestilential ghettos?

The Popes did.

Who ruled the nations and directed the consciences of monarchs and ministers, during the fearful centuries when a Jew could not own a home, could not hold an office, could not hold up his head among men, and was forced to eke out a squalid existence, on such ignominious terms, and amid such dwarfing conditions, that the Jewish race, even now, shows the physical and moral effects of that long night of slavery?

The Popes did.

Who liberated the Jews from these horrible conditions?

Modern democracy did it.

When Great Britain, less than 100 years ago, removed the Civil Disabilities of the Jews, it was Protestant statesmanship repealing Catholic laws.

Who was the Papal theologian who taught, that Jews are slaves?

It was Saint Thomas Aquinas, the chiefest of all Roman Catholic theologians.

For hundreds of years the legislation of Europe was based upon this infernal teachingthe teaching of a theologian who was such a favorite of the recent Popes, Leo XIII, and Pius X, that they ordered all Catholic teachers to again instruct their students in the Papal theology which forfeits the life of the heretic, and imposes serfdom on the Jew. (See Barnard Lazares Anti-Semitism, page 125.)

But how could you expect these historical facts to be known to a Chicago editor, who informs the Pope and the world, that the Jews lost their rightsthe natural rights of manwhen Titus stormed Jerusalem?

According to the Tageblatt, the Jews have been the pariahs of the human race, ever since the year 70, after Christ! Mason, of the Tageblatt, ought to at least consult some simple authority on Roman history, Merivaless book, for example. It wont take him but a few minutes to learn what an ass he made of himself, when he told the Pope that the Jews had never had a square deal in the world, after Jerusalem fell. If the Tageblatt Solomon will study the subject, he will discover that the real persecution of the Jews began after Constantine the Great had made his famous alliance with the Christian bishops. Solomon may also learn that when the Emperor Julian, the Apostate, undertook to re-establish paganism, he emancipated the Jews, and attempted to rebuild their temple at Jerusalem. Solomon will learn that so long as Popery was supreme, the Jew was the vassal of the bishops and the kings, and that it was the Reformation which brightened the skies for the outlawed race.

Bernard Lazare, the scholarly Jew, says in his Anti-Semitism, page 131:

But new times were approaching; the storm foreseen by everybody broke over the church. Luther issued his 95 theses * * * For a moment the theologians forgot the Jews; they even forgot that the spreading movement took its roots in Hebrew sources * * * *

THE JEWISH SPIRIT TRIUMPHED WITH PROTESTANTISM. In certain respects, the Reformation was a return to the ancient Ebionism of the evangelic ages.

Lazare proceeds to prove that although Luther was provoked into violent language against the Jews, because they refused to become his converts, the Protestants of Germany never ill-treated the Jews. (See page 133.)

In the United States, the priest and the Jew have need of each other and the Pope has blessed the alliance.

That the Hearst papers are leagued with this queer combination of Jew financier and Roman priest, is an interesting detail; whether important as well as interesting, remains to be seen.

In the case of the Russian Jews, the new combination worked so well that our Congress, in 1913, abrogated a time-honored treaty, as a protest against Russias alleged mistreatment of her own subjects.

Descending to particulars, the new combination was able to save the Russian Jew, Beiliss, who was accused of taking all the blood out of a Gentile boy, through forty-odd incisions in his veins.

In the Leo Frank case, the new combination almost won, but not quite. And, of course, the unexpected defeat it sustained, profoundly enraged the new combination.

The Roman Catholic papers are as bitter against the State of Georgia, as are the papers of Hearst and the Jews.

The same Romanist journals that condoned and defended the deliberate assassination of the Protestant lecturer, William Black, by the Knights of Columbus, at Marshall, Texas, are unmeasured in their denunciation of the State wherein a convicted and thrice-sentenced Jew was hanged by the Vigilantes.

These Romanist papers indecently exulted in the military murder of Francisco Ferrer, whose crime consisted of teaching progressive ideas in a modern school, but they are rabidly attacking a People who were determined that one of Leo Franks lawyers should not annihilate our judicial system.

The same Romanist papers that gloried in the burning of eight Mexican heretics in 1895, at Texacapa, by the fanatical Catholic priests, can find no words too severe to condemn the legal conviction of as vile a sodomite as ever awoke the wrath of God.

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Rape Murder of Mary Phagan & Lynching of Leo Frank

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Posted By simmons on August 28, 2015

Human face ... A woman and her child walk in front of rabbles in the neighbourhood of Beit Hanoun. Picture: Ella Pellegrini Source: Supplied

The Israeli Defence Force has deployed its Iron Dome missile batteries to its southern border with Gaza with threats from Islamic militants on the one-year anniversary of the conflict on the Palestinian strip.

Today marks one year since the ceasefire of an intense seven-week conflict between the Hamas and IDF that left more than 2000 mostly Palestinian civilians killed, 11,000 injured and more than 100,000 people displaced with rocket fire levelling their homes.

As a precaution, the IDF has deployed Iron Dome defence systems on its borders to intercept any missiles should there be any attack on the anniversary or from the death of a Palestinian prisoner who has been on a hunger strike and on life support in Israeli detention for the past two months.

Destruction ... a woman looks out of a dilapidated house in the town of Beit Hanoun. Picture: Ella Pellegrini Source: Supplied

Both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad Movements military arm al-Quds Brigades have threatened an attack on Israel.

It comes amid conflicting reports that Hamas has begun long-term truce talks, via mediator and former British PM Tony Blair, with the Israelis in a bid to lift a land, sea and air blockade over Gaza and its 1.8 million population.

Israel has denied there have been any talks with the militant movement but exiled Palestinian Hamas head Khaled Meshaal said there has been positive contact. We cannot say today that we have something in our hand, there are only discussions, Meshaal is reported as saying.

The continuing blockade of Gaza has hampered reconstruction of some 17,000 homes destroyed during the conflict on the Strip.

Innocent face ... A child watches on in his heavy-shelled neighbourhood in north Gaza. Picture: Ella Pellegrini Source: Supplied

Save the Children Australia CEO Paul Ronalds has appealed to the Federal Government to pressure Israel to lift the blockade.

The charity group has a longstanding presence in Gaza and Australian donations has recently led to water tanks being procured and installed in worst affected areas.

Humanitarian effort ... With Australian funds, Save the Children was able to install water tanks to households. Picture: Ella Pellegrini Source: Supplied

Mr Ronalds said the Australian Government had given $15 million in aid last year toward the humanitarian crisis but has now cut aid to Palestinian territories.

The situation for children and families in Gaza is still dire, and it is critical that sufficient funding levels be maintained.

A sign at the entry to Gaza city. Picture: Ella Pellegrini Source: Supplied

Save the Children is urging Australia and other nations to use their diplomatic influence to promote the lifting of the blockade to allow the entry of essential humanitarian aid and enable the rebuilding of homes and schools, and support a return to some level of normality for the many distressed children in Gaza.

About 455,000 tons of rubble from the conflict has been cleared but still 1.5 million tons remains rendering many families to simply live in the rubble that was their homes.

We need a new solution, one local, who asked not to be named, told News Ltd.

One year on ... The Hamas side at the Erez crossing between Israel and Gaza. Picture: Ella Pellegrini Source: Supplied

Many people have lost faith and trust in the (Hamas) political administration. They are not doing anything for us and we have nothing, not even a vote since there are no elections here like in your country or Britain and America.

Read more about the embattled Gaza strip one year on from the devastating conflict in News Corp Australia publications on Saturday.

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Life on the Gaza strip with NGO Save the Children on one ...

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Posted By simmons on August 28, 2015

Published August 24, 2015

Palestinian United Nations workers hold up a banner as they demonstrate against measures the organization has taken to overcome an acute financial crisis, in Gaza City, Monday, Aug. 24, 2015. The protest today outside the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Gaza headquarter was the largest in a series of demonstrations in recent weeks, called up by the agencys Local Staff Union. The protesters say they want the UNRWAs Commissioner-General Pierre Krhenbhl to cancel amendments that allow him to impose a one-year unpaid leave on staff when needed and increase the number of students in classrooms. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra)(The Associated Press)

Thousands of Palestinian United Nations workers demonstrate against measures the organization has taken to overcome an acute financial crisis in Gaza City, Monday, Aug. 24, 2015. The protest today outside the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Gaza headquarter was the largest in a series of demonstrations in recent weeks, called up by the agencys Local Staff Union. The protesters say they want the UNRWAs Commissioner-General Pierre Krhenbhl to cancel amendments that allow him to impose a one-year unpaid leave on staff when needed and increase the number of students in classrooms. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra)(The Associated Press)

A Palestinian woman holds up a sign as thousands of United Nations workers demonstrate against measures the organization has taken to overcome an acute financial crisis in Gaza City, Monday, Aug. 24, 2015. The protest today outside the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Gaza headquarter was the largest in a series of demonstrations in recent weeks, called up by the agencys Local Staff Union. The protesters say they want the UNRWAs Commissioner-General Pierre Krhenbhl to cancel amendments that allow him to impose a one-year unpaid leave on staff when needed and increase the number of students in classrooms. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra)(The Associated Press)

Thousands of Palestinian United Nations workers demonstrate against measures the organization has taken to overcome an acute financial crisis in Gaza City, Monday, Aug. 24, 2015. The protest today outside the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Gaza headquarter was the largest in a series of demonstrations in recent weeks, called up by the agencys Local Staff Union. The protesters say they want the UNRWAs Commissioner-General Pierre Krhenbhl to cancel amendments that allow him to impose a one-year unpaid leave on staff when needed and increase the number of students in classrooms. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra)(The Associated Press)

Thousands of Palestinian United Nations workers demonstrate against measures the organization has taken to overcome an acute financial crisis in Gaza City, Monday, Aug. 24, 2015. The protest today outside the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Gaza headquarter was the largest in a series of demonstrations in recent weeks, called up by the agencys Local Staff Union. The protesters say they want the UNRWAs Commissioner-General Pierre Krhenbhl to cancel amendments that allow him to impose a one-year unpaid leave on staff when needed and increase the number of students in classrooms. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra)(The Associated Press)

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Thousands of employees of the United Nations' Palestinian refugee agency in the Gaza Strip are striking against cost-cutting measures the agency is imposing to overcome a financial crisis.

The protesters say they want the commissioner-general of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency to cancel measures that would allow the agency to impose one-year unpaid leave on staff and increase the number of students in U.N.-run classrooms.

Some 13,000 teachers, health workers and other employees are on strike. A demonstration Monday outside the agency's Gaza headquarters was the largest of a series of demonstrations in recent weeks.

Hamas-run schools in the Palestinian territory began the school year, but U.N.-run schools remain closed because of the strike.

UNRWA spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna said the unpaid leave measure has been frozen.

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Posted By admin on August 28, 2015

Amid rumors of backchannel talks between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist organization has reportedly summoned other Palestinian factions to Beirut where the details of a long-term truce with Israel will be discussed.

According to the London-based Arab language newspaper Rai-al-youm, Moussa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas figure, had already met with some of the factions in the Lebanese capital regarding the possibility of a ten-year truce with Israel.

Brokered by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and agreed to by Khaled Mashaal, the terms of the truce would include the freeing of Palestinian militants re-arrested after being released in the Gilad Schalit deal, the construction of a floating port linked to Turkish Cyprus as well as a significant easing of restrictions on Gaza's entry points.

The skepticism surrounding the possibility of a truce or even the taking place of such talks has come from both camps, with some Hamas figures, including Ismail Haniyeh, denying that Israel has been part of recent negotiations. More militant elements in Hamas, including the military wing of the organization, outright rejected the possibility of a truce, asserting that "our battle with the enemy continues and will increase in ferocity and intensity."

Among other issues meant to be discussed in the Beirut meeting is the plight of Palestinian in Syria's Yarmouk refugee camp. Seeking to consolidate a Palestinian fighting force to roll back the advance of the Islamic State in the area, mediators have supposedly struck an agreement between between Palestinian factions and militants in the Yarmouk camp. The initiative, which would allow the transfer of militants and fighters to affected areas, alleged won the backing of the UN and has the blessing of the Syrian regime whose own four-year fight against rebels has seen its sphere of control shrink dramatically.

Last week the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied claims that it had engaged in any talks with Hamas, neither directly, through third countries, nor through mediators.

The Palestinian Authority has also expressed concern regarding any sort of agreement reached between Hamas and Israel, independently from itself. Fatah spokesman Ahmed Assaf said that, "since Hamas is turning a blind eye to the Palestinians national rights and principles," such an accord would mean consolidating the split between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Hamas has chosen its narrow interests and winning Israeli recognition at the expense of the higher interests of the Palestinians, the Fatah spokesman declared.Hamass goal is to rid itself of its crisis without caring about the Israeli scheme to liquidate the Palestinian cause and indefinitely delay the discussion over core issues such as Jerusalem, refugees and settlements.

Assaf urged Palestinians to thwart the Hamas-Blair conspiracy to slice off the Gaza Strip and eliminate Palestinian rights.

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Posted By admin on August 28, 2015

A Palestinian boy plays in the rubble of houses destroyed during the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas militants in the summer of 2014, in the village of Khuzaa, east of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip on July 7, 2015. AFP PHOTO / SAID KHATIB (Photo credit should read SAID KHATIB/AFP/Getty Images) | SAID KHATIB via Getty Images

One year into the cease-fire agreement that ended last summer's 50-day war in the Gaza Strip, Israel and Hamas appear to be advancing toward a series of understandings -- an agreement, even -- that would practically end the siege on the Gaza Strip and bring long-term quiet to the area. The agreement talks are being mediated by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who three months ago stepped down as the longtime envoy of the international Quartet. Since then, Blair has already met with the leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, twice in recent weeks.

The influential, London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat reported recently that Palestinian sources say that Israel has agreed to set up a sea passage between the Gaza Strip and Cyprus in exchange for a cease-fire of seven to 10 years. The following day, Hamas convened several factions for an update on the still-forming agreement, following which one Palestinian source remarked that "something serious is on the horizon." Meshaal described the current diplomatic efforts as "positive," but stressed that "we have not reached an agreement so far."

The agreement currently being hammered out would include, among other things, the opening of all commercial crossings between Israel and the Gaza Strip, a move long supported by Israel's military establishment, which has been quietly pushing for a significant relaxation of the siege and openly views Hamas as the only realistic alternative in Gaza.

Hamas, whose ideology is centered on armed resistance to Israel, has for some time now been preparing its supporters for the possibility of a long-term truce with "the Israeli occupation." Last summer's hostilities had been well underway when a prominent Hamas columnist called for a ten-year truce in exchange for a seaport, "according to an agreed work plan." A written agreement to that effect, he argued in the Hamas-run daily Filastin, would benefit both parties and "pave the way to a mutual agreement on all the other issues."

A month later, senior Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook stated that the movement might be forced to negotiate directly with Israel. Direct negotiations, he told Hamas's Al-Quds TV, have "almost become a popular demand." More recently, hardline Hamas writer Mustafa al-Sawwaf flat-out made the case for direct negotiations with Israel. Writing in the Hamas-run weekly Al-Risalah, he noted that as long as Hamas was not forced to formally recognize Israel or abandon the right of return, there should not be any concerns about "negotiating with the Israeli occupation, even directly."

In recent days, pro-Hamas writers struck positive notes on the idea of a long-term cease-fire. The editor-in-chief of Al-Risalah said that Gazans desperately need "to catch their breath and receive a citizen's respite." The editor of a pro-Hamas news site argued last week that "those who are capable of war are also capable of quiet, and those who were prepared to fight are the ones most capable of the realistic political choices that come afterwards." A third writer lashed out at Fatah for criticizing Hamas's efforts to achieve a cease-fire, and a fourth one called on all Palestinian political parties to rally behind Hamas. All parties, he argued, must be "real partners and shoulder full responsibility," as "there will not be an agreement unless all Palestinians agree to it."

While neither party formally recognizes the other, both Israel and Hamas are well versed in indirect talks and tacit coordination. Their previous confrontation in November 2012 produced an open-ended written agreement that stipulated that the parties would turn to Cairo with any disputes. That informal dispute-resolution mechanism proved itself quite well: on several occasions, Hamas was quick to communicate reassuring messages to the IDF following cases in which rockets were fired into Israel by rival factions. Other attacks were preempted by the 600-strong security force Hamas had established for the sole purpose of securing Israel's border. Hamas even acted on intelligence data relayed to it by Israel through the Egyptian backchannel and had dozens of rival activists jailed for cease-fire violations.

However, these patterns of behavior began to unravel following the July 2013 ouster of former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi by the Egyptian army, and the latter's onslaught on the Muslim Brotherhood. Identifying itself as "one of the wings of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine," Hamas was deemed a threat to Egyptian national security. Before too long, the Egyptian army directly took on Hamas's economic lifeline -- a vast network of underground tunnels linking the Gaza Strip and northern Sinai. Determined to cripple Hamas, a Cairo court banned the movement's activities in the country in March 2014 and proceeded to label Hamas a terrorist organization.

Egypt's sharp policy shift was to reshape Hamas's strategic calculus and provide part of the backdrop to last year's war. Israel and Hamas were to lose their most effective mediator. Prominent Hamas figure Ahmed Yousef told me last month that while Hamas remains open to Egyptian mediation, it does not consider this a realistic option in the present climate.

In other words, the current international effort remains the only game in town. Will Israel play along? Prime Minister Netanyahu's office denied holding any direct or indirect negotiations with Hamas, but Israel is nonetheless following Blair's efforts, which one Israeli source described as a "feasibility check."

A practical end to the siege would put Hamas in a better position to deal with the challenge posed by local armed groups, including ISIS, to increase the movement's dependence on the international community and to decrease the likelihood of Hamas gravitating back into the orbit of a sanctions-free Iran.

Still, long-term understandings, let alone an agreement on core strategic issues in the relations between Israel and the Gaza Strip, will require both adversaries to pursue a risky political balancing act. When Abu Marzook spoke of the prospect of direct negotiations, he added, "The issues that were sort of taboo policies become on the agenda." In that respect, Israel will demand that Hamas cease military build-up, primarily its underground assault tunnels. Either way, both parties will have to live with the prospect that the adversary's relative gains from a long-term truce could be higher.

All of this might prove to be beyond Israel and Hamas's political capacity, which is why both are more likely to opt for a gradually implemented informal "accommodation" or "arrangement," than to an actual binding "agreement." But the matter involves more than semantics: a seaport -- even if closely supervised by Israel or some other international mechanism -- would gradually solidify Hamas's grip on the Gaza Strip and ultimately undermine the PLO's credibility as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. This would further cement the political division in the Palestinian arena. Under certain circumstances, an excessively glaring achievement for Hamas in Gaza could even destabilize the West Bank.

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Palestinian children play in the rubble of houses in the village of Khuzaa, Gaza, on July 7, 2015.

Palestinians enjoy a summer day on the beach of Gaza City on June 16, 2015.

A Palestinian woman walks amid the rubble in Khuzaa, Gaza, on June 1, 2015.

Mohammed al-Selek shows the site where he was injured in an Israeli mortar strike in Gaza City, Gaza.

A Palestinian child sits in front of the rubble in Khuzaa, Gaza, on June 15, 2015.

A Palestinian man dressed as a clown rests in front of destroyed houses in Gaza City, Gaza, on July 8, 2015.

A Palestinian girl stands on the side while her father paints the door of his house in the old Gaza City on June 21, 2015 photo.

A Palestinian boy rides his bike next to his family's temporary housing in Khuzaa, Gaza, on July 7, 2015.

Palestinian children play at the rubble of buildings.

Palestinian trucks unload near the Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip on June 23, 2015.

A Palestinian girl displays her hair in Gaza City, Gaza, on July 7, 2015.

A Palestinian boy plays in the rubble in Khuzaa, Gaza, on July 7, 2015.

Palestinian boys sit atop the rubble in Khuzaa, Gaza, on July 7, 2015.

Palestinian women protest against the 50-day war amidst the rubble in Khuzaa, Gaza, on July 7, 2015.

Palestinian boys play by their temporary housing in Khuzaa, Gaza, on July 7, 2015.

A Palestinian boy rides his bicycle amidst the rubble in Khuzaa, Gaza, on June 15, 2015.

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Posted By simmons on August 27, 2015

"Can you live as we do?" Sayeed asked me.

We were standing on the rooftop of his family home in Hebron, the largest city in the West Bank. The house, in the Old City, is several stories of lovely stone, its narrow rooms tucked away up spiral staircases. Less picturesque is the watchtower installed by the Israel Defense Forces on an adjoining section of roof.

The army does not permit the 25-year-old to lock his doors, and when soldiers use the watchtower during the day, they lock Sayeed's family in their rooms. His home, like many others in the area, is subject to frequent night raids in the name of securityin other words, investigation accusations of rock-throwing or other terroristic actions. (Throwing a stone at a moving vehicle is now punishable by up to 20 years in prison thanks to a new law that has been derided by its critics as racist against Palestinians.) Sayeed told me he'd been arrested many times; he lifted up his pant leg to show me scars he said came form beatings at the hands of the authorities.

Then there are the settlers, Jews who have moved onto land in the West BankPalestinian land, land that Israel does not have a recognized right to. These settlers have been consistently supported by the Israeli government, despite condemnations from other nations, and despite the settlers frequently committing acts of violence against the Palestinians whose land they occupy. Some settlers are drawn by the lower tax rates and government subsidies enjoyed by those living outside of Israel's 1967 borders. But others, like many of those in Hebron, subscribe to a belief that God granted all of Eretz Israela geographic area including the West Bankto the Jews.

The Israelis who have encamped in the Old City have gone so far to build atop existing structures, so that the modern architecture crushes the past. In Sayeed's case, settlers built a new wing fused onto his home. According to Sayeed, they cross over the adjoined rooftop and sometimes throw trash in his water tanks. In 2007, he claimed, they broke into one of his rooms and threw in a Molotov cocktail, an apparent attempt to drive the family from their home. Sayeed's kid brother took me down to the room, where the floor and walls were still scorched black.

On the roof I paused, considering Sayeed's question. "No," I answered, honestly.

I visited Hebron in early June, two months before yet another alleged arson attack by settlers burned alive an 18-month-old infant named Ali Dawabsheh in the West Bank village of Duma. Days later, Ali's father Saad succumbed to the burns that covered 80 percent of his body.

Following Ali's murder, Israeli politicians, like Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu, have scrambled to separate the extraordinary violence committed by settlers from the daily violence of the occupation. But the distinction is impossible to make. Settlers are an intrinsic, state-supported part of Israel's occupation. In their attacks, settlers serve as the occupation's shock troops. Their security serves as its excuse.

Nowhere is this more visually apparent than in Hebron's Old City.

The Oslo Accords divides Hebron into two zonesH2, run by the Israeli military, and H1, run by the Palestinian Authority (PA). Old Hebron lies in H2, which is home to 30,000 Palestinians and approximately 500 Israeli settlers.

Old Hebron is honey-stoned and blue-dooredthe sort of charming Mediterranean labyrinth that, in another universe, would be full of obnoxious tour groups. But thanks to the occupation, it's scarred by gates, concrete barriers, barbed wire, and checkpoints. A souk where gold was once sold lies empty, the doors of its many shops welded shut by the IDF, its merchandise still inside.

In Hebron, apartheid is imposed upon the architecture. Palestinians navigate a maze of barriers, fences, and settler-only roads, trapped in discursive loops that can take them kilometers out of their way. Soldiers, most of them bored Mizrahi teenagers, often leave Palestinians languishing at Hebron's checkpoints for hours. Long waits are the least of the problems created by this network of restrictionsevery interaction between soldier and Palestinian civilian can lead to a beating, an arrest, or even a shooting at the hands of the army.

Of course, no such restrictions on movement apply to settlers.

The former main drag, Shuhada Street, is as silent as a corpse. Most Palestinian families have been driven out of Shuhada, either by the settlers or the army. Obscene graffiti joins the stars of David settlers have scrawled across its abandoned storefront.

Checkpoints on either end warn in misspelled Arabic that this road is pedestrian-onlyfor Palestinians, who can only walk until the last 600 feet. Israelis are welcome to drive.

Settlers have moved into apartments overlooking the shop-lined streets of Hebron's Old City. From their windows, they habitually throw down rocks, glass, piss, and dirty diapers at the Palestinian merchants beneath them. Merchants have hung nets to catch some of the refuse, but liquids still get through. One vendor showed me his shawls, which have been ruined by rotten eggs. Business is slow here, but shopkeepers persist, out of stubbornness, or pride, or just a desire for something to do.

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Many stores are bolted shut. Others are without doors, filled with trash, hidden and closed behind barricades. A playground for Arab kids has been turned into a settlers-only parking lot. According to a 2013 report the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 1,000 Palestinian homes adjacent to settlements have been abandoned, and 512 Palestinian businesses have been closed on Israeli military orders. An additional 1,100 businesses have have shut down due to restricted access for customers and suppliers.

Israel rationalizes its policy of separating Palestinians and settlers as a way to keep the peace between the two groups. However, the policy penalizes Palestinians alone, displacing them and restricting their freedom of movement in the name of counteracting "terrorism."

"We are not the terrorists that they are calling us. We just want nobody to kill us, and to live like anyone else," Ghassan Jabari, 19, told me.

A year ago Ghassan opened a small pottery shop across from the Ibrahimi Mosque. Despite the tour buses, business is slow. Ghassan, who has no allegiance to any political faction, told me that many Israeli tour operators warn their charges against shopping with him, claiming the money goes to Hamas.

The authorities also harass him. One YouTube video from November 2014 shows soldiers stopping Ghassan at a checkpoint just outside his shop. He did not have his ID, which was inside the shop. Rather than letting his retrieve it, the soldiers detained him, shoving him and twisting his arm behind his back. Another time, Ghassan said, four soldiers entered his shop and began throwing merchandise into the street. They handcuffed and blindfolded him, took his ID, and warned him to say goodbye to his shop, only releasing him when his family paid a 1,500-shekel (almost $400) fine. According to Ghassan, the soldiers dislike him having a shop in such a viable location. But these instances were also power trips, the mundane and humiliating fabric of life under military occupation.

About 650,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements, including 300,000 who live in East Jerusalem. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, they attacked Palestinians and their property 399 times in 2013. Hebron settlers account for a disproportionate amount of violence. In one week in February 2015, settlers in Hebron governorate committed four out of five of the assaults logged by the UNbeating a ten-year-old boy with an iron bar, cutting down 40 olive trees, uprooting 550 saplings, and beating a 55-year-old shepherd while he was grazing his sheep.

The violence might be traced to the the man behind Hebron's settlement. A believer in the divine right of Jews to rule "Greater Israel," Rabbi Moshe Levinger rented rooms at a Hebron hotel under false pretenses in 1968. He and his followers then refused to leave. The Israeli army eventually moved the squatters to the base of Kiryat Arba, overlooking Hebron, where they established a settlement. In 1979, Levinger's wife Miriam led the illegal takeover of a Shuhada Street building she renamed Beit Hadassah. It is still occupied by Levinger's followers today, and its wall bears a plaque commemorating the 1929 massacre of 69 Jews in Hebron by Arabs from surrounding villages. The plaque also claims, falsely, that no Jews are allowed to enter the Arab part of Hebron.

Over the years, Levinger has been accused multiple times of committing violence against the Palestinians he lives alongside. In 1988, angry that his car had been stoned, he randomly fired bullets into a crowded marketplace, killing a Palestinian shopkeeper, an act for which he served 92 days in jail.

In 1994, American-born settler Baruch Goldstein opened fire in Hebron's Ibrahimi Mosque, killing 29 Palestinians before survivors were able to beat him to death. Al Jazeera reported that, according to locals, the IDF killed an additional Palestinians protesting the massacre outside the mosque.

The settlers turned Goldstein's grave into a shrine. Though Palestinians were the victims, the Israeli army responded by issuing a 30-day curfew (that did not apply to settlers), partitioning the Ibrahimi Mosque, and closing Shuhada Street to Palestinian traffic. Later, during the Second Intifada, the army welded shut the doors of shops and homes.

The street remains closed today. Some families can only enter their homes by crossing over rooftops. Grates cover windows, to guard against tear gas canisters and rocks.

Under the occupation, an Arab can be arrested for carrying a knife. Israeli settlers, including teenagers, swagger around with assault rifles.

Outside Ghassan's shop, local kids slouch around, trading quips and selling the occasional Palestine flag bracelet to foreigners. One boy, a 14-year-old with a scarred face, told me about attacks by both IDF soldiers and gangs of settler teens; often, Palestinian kids are arrested on accusations of of rock-throwing. Soldiers then threaten to keep them locked up for months if they don't sign confessions. According to multiple Palestinians I spoke to in Hebron, to secure their children's release parents must pay 2,000 shekels (about $500) in fines, even though their children had never been brought before a judge.

Palestinians in the West Bank are usually tried in military court, where, according to human rights NGO B'Tselem, they are "as good as convicted"; settlers, meanwhile, are tried in civilian courts inside Israel. According to a report by human rights organization Yesh Din, only 7.4 percent of felony complaints from Palestinians against Israelis turn into indictmentsand in nearly a quarter of those cases, the Israeli defendant is not convicted of any crime despite being found guilty.

I only witnessed the aftermath of one incidence of stone-throwing in Hebron. Every Friday, settlers, under heavy military escort, visit Ibrahimi Mosque (which Jews call the Cave of the Patriarchs) to pray. When I left the Old City, I saw settlers gathered, preparing to enter. Rows of identically dressed young Orthodox men stood behind Israeli soldiers, who were weighted with body armor and assault rifles. Meanwhile, Palestinians vendors manned stalls selling fruit. Kids ran back and forth. Volunteers from different violence-prevention NGOs stood around, some taking photos, others making notes, others just serving as physical barriers between the settlers and the Palestinians.

By the time I came upon the crowd, it was electric with tension. The settlers, behind their military guard, pointed at the Palestinians, shouting angrily in Hebrew. A man wearing a T-shirt bearing the logo of the faith-based organization Christian Peacemaker Team gestured me over and showed me his camera. On the viewer, he pointed to a picture of one his colleagues holding his bleeding head and being loaded into an ambulance.

In English, the man told me that the photo had been taken moments ago. As for the wound, that was courtesy of a stone hurled by a settler at his colleague's head.

Though rock-throwing is often treated as a serious crime when done by Palestinians, no settlers had been arrested. The soldiers stood idly by until, jostling the crowd aside, they cleared the settlers' path into the Old City.

The closed streets, the abandoned homes, the cut-up citythis is all for the safety of 600 settlers who live there in defiance of international law.

That moment shows how impossible it is to untangle the violence committed by settlers from the mechanisms of the state: The settler throws a rock; the army protects him. The closed streets, the abandoned homes, the cut-up citythis is all for the safety of 600 settlers who live there in defiance of international law. So it is that Sayeed's house has been taken over by both the settlers and the IDF; so it is that Ghassan's shop struggles, that Ali Dawabsheh burned to death.

The most extreme expressions of this system make headlines, but it permeates every moment of existence in the West Bank. Near the end of my stay in Hebron, I had to go to the government press office in Jerusalem's Malha neighborhood, to get the accreditation that would let me visit Gaza. A Palestinian friend offered to get me on the right bus. We walked down the Palestinian side of one of Hebron's divided streets, a downhill scramble made sharp by rocks (the Jewish side, of course, was neatly paved). In the distance hills shone green, topped by Rabbi Levinger's settlement of Kiryat Arba.

We walked farther downhill, beneath Beit Shalom, a cultural center for settlers with banners touting its warm welcome of the IDF. "We call that the terrorist house," smirked my friend.

He pointed out my bus, on the schedule at the Jewish-only bus stop. But he had stood too close. The soldiers manning a nearby checkpoint came over, shouted at us, and took his ID. We waited, sweating in the sun. They called him over to tell him he was a terrorist, waiting for his terrorist friends. Then they called me.

"What are you doing here?" one demanded.

"You took my friend's ID for no reason. Give it back," I said. "I'm a journalist."

As soon as he heard this, one solider began to justify his actions. He grinned, falsely, and told me that he treated all people equally. That he said hello to my friend every day. That he didn't start trouble. That he never wanted this. His partner snickered. The settlers laughed at us from the shade of their bus stop. I demanded my friend's ID again.

He finally handed it back. I gave it to my friend, who looked at me with the sort of pure anger that conceals a deep humiliation.

"Why did he give it to you?" he demanded. "Why did you take it?"

"I'm so sorry," I told him, not knowing what I had done wrong.

It was only later, on the luxurious, empty, Isreali-only bus back to Jerusalem that I realized the source of his shame and rage. I had been in Hebron for two days, yet as an American journalist, I could get his ID back in five minutes. I'd underscored how helpless he was in the city where he was born.

Update: An earlier version of this article referred to Israel's 1987 borders rather than its 1967 borders.

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Posted By simmons on August 27, 2015

Israeli security services issued restraining orders to at least seven right-wing Jewish activists overnight Saturday, bringing the total number of alleged extremists temporarily banned from entering the West Bank or Jerusalem in recent days to 10.

The wave of restraining orders came as authorities attempted to crack down on Jewish extremists in the wake of the July killing of Saad Dawabsha and his 18-month-old son, Ali, in a firebombing attack on their home in the Palestinian village of Duma in the West Bank. The attack, coupled with a fatal stabbing spree by an extremist Jew at Jerusalems gay pride parade a day earlier, sparked an international and domestic outcry over Israels failure to come to grips with violence by Jewish terrorists and extremists.

In a statement, the Shin Bet said the measures were taken against individuals in the agencys uncompromising effort to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure that carried out the attacks, and prevent additional activity that endangers public security.

Shin Bet and police early Sunday morning issued restraining orders to two students enrolled at the Od Yosef Chai yeshiva in the hardline West Bank settlement of Yitzhar. The students were banned from the West Bank for six months and ordered to remain under house arrest at night. In addition, one of the students was banned from Jerusalem and was told to refrain from making contact with a number of his friends.

Police also issued issued restraining orders barring two minors from entering Jerusalem for a six-month period. Both teens, one from Maale Adumim and one from central Israel, were ordered to remain under house arrest at night. A third minor from the settlement of Amona, north of Jerusalem, was sentenced to full house arrest for the next six months.

Similar orders were distributed by police to right-wing activists in the Hebron-area settlement of Kiryat Arba, as well the northern West Bank outposts of Givat Habaladim and Geulat Zion.

The Shin Bet statement described the illegal outpost of Givat Habaladim as a hotbed of extremist activity, and said a number of known attackers had fled there in the past.

Right-wing activist and attorney Itamar Ben Gvir, who is representing a number of the detained, said his clients intend to appeal the orders.

The defense minister is behaving like a bull in a china shop. His actions send the message to young people that there is no democratic process and encourages them to break the law since no indictment was given or due process was followed, Ben Gvir said, according to the Hebrew-language news site NRG.

Meir Ettinger, the head of a Jewish extremist group, stands at the Israeli justice court in Nazareth Illit on August 4, 2015, a day after his arrest (AFP PHOTO / JACK GUEZ)

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon approved the use of detention without charges known as administrative detention and other means in an effort to track down the killers of the Dawabshas earlier this month.

Meir Ettinger, the 23-year-old grandson of assassinated extremist rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the outlawed anti-Arab Kach organization, was arrested earlier this month in connection with alleged extremist activity. Yaalon approved the order authorizing for Ettinger to be held in administrative detention.

Yaalon said the use of administrative detention for a number of Jewish terror suspects has proved effective in preventing additional violence against Arabs by hardline Jews.

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Posted By simmons on August 27, 2015

Ochsner Medical Center on the West Bank is a 180-bed general medical and surgical acute care facility, located on the mighty Mississippi River.

The Medical Center offers comprehensive medical services provided by a multi-disciplinary team including more than 500 board-certified or board-eligible physicians, a highly-trained nursing staff and other skilled allied-health professionals.

Since becoming a member of the Ochsner family in October 2006, the Medical Center has made great strides in bringing more comprehensive and technologically-advanced services to the community. A robust electronic Medical record was implemented, which can follow a patient anywhere in the Ochsner System. It also gives the patient access to their own records at their leisure. A six-bed outpatient chemotherapy administration area was likewise outfitted to meet the needs of West Bank residents requiring chemotherapy, blood transfusions, injections and other cancer-related drug therapy. Advanced Wound Care services with a multi-discplinary approach to healing is a unique service for the West Bank.

Additionally, several established services such as the Family Unit, NICU, Bariatrics and Emergency Department are continuing to grow, becoming leaders for the West Bank.

Each day, Ochsner Medical Center's West Bank campus is opening doors to new West Bank residents and others from the wider region. We are a community resource for the West Bank and beyond, promoting health and wellness for all of our citizens.

As a nationally recognized top 100 hospital through U.S. News and World Report, Ochsner Medical Center is working to improve patient care, patient outcomes and safety in ways that can be documented and adopted as daily practice. As the metropolitan area continues to feel the impact from the shortage of acute care hospital beds, we are proud to be able to offer the advanced care so many seek.

Whether you come to Ochsner Medical Center on the West Bank to receive emergency care, deliver a baby, take an outpatient test or attend a seminar, rest assured that health care with peace of mind can be yours.

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