Solidarity with the oppressed
June 30, 2010
Solidarity with the oppressed
Dr. Omar Saïd, was – like the Israeli-Palestinian human right activist Ameer Makhoul – false accused by the Israeli authoriities and is locked in prison.
You can write him: Gilbou Jail, To Dr. Omar Said, Department 4, Room 3, 10900 Gilbou, Israel
You can send also a letter for Dr. Omar Saïd or a copy of your letter to Lola Taha, who is a member of the family: tahalayla@hotmail.com (if his mailbox is not blocked)
http://www.facebook.com/lola.taha
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=119694878050988
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=115095168526586
http://prisoners-action-group.skynetblogs.be/
prisons of shame 
June 30, 2010 at 3:34 pm
OMAR SAID, PRACTITIONER OF ARAB TRADITIONAL MEDICINE: WHY IS THE SHIN BET AFRAID OF THIS MAN?
Lately, I have written extensively about Ameer Makhoul, whose arrest by the Shin Bet was placed under seal and broken by Israeli and American bloggers and journalists (including me). But I haven’t written at all about Makhoul’s colleague, Omar Said, who was also arrested. I just discovered a moving statement of appreciation circulated by Dr. Stephen Fulder, an Oxford-educated Anglo-Israeli Buddhist peace activist, biochemist, and practitioner of herbal and folk medicine. Fulder has published many academic papers with Said in this field and they are close friends and colleagues:
Dr. Omar Said, my long time friend, co-worker, peace and ecological activist, and fellow academic, was arrested and accused of spying for Hizbollah. The newspapers have given him all kinds of damaging and untrue labels. I want to correct these impressions.
1. Dr. Omar Said is an important international intellectual figure, a scientist, pharmacologist and one of the world’s top experts on traditional Arabic medicine, medical history and medicinal plants. He has written many scientific papers, some of which I have written with him. He is the author of a forthcoming academic text which will be the most authoritative text on Arabic medicine in the world. He is the founder and director of the largest botanical garden of medicinal plants in the Middle East. This subject is his passion and his main activity in life. Many years ago he was active politically, and he has been the deputy head of his village of Kfar Kanna in the Galilee. Now his passion is his professional subject, and his social activity is mostly within an NGO in education, ecology and co-existence.
2. Dr. Said has never shown, in the 15 years I have worked closely with him both as a co-worker and as a close friend, any hate or tendency to conflict. He is a peace worker who longs for peaceful co-existence. He has taken many actions in his life to bring healing to his community and to the relationships between Jews and Arabs. He works with and is close to both Jews and Arabs in daily life, in work and in the intellectual community. The herbal projects he is involved with are examples of peace projects in which both Jews and Arabs participate. For example he has invited and given classes to many thousands of Arab and Jewish children at the botanical garden, bringing them together to study something of interest to all communities. All those who have worked with him on a daily basis and know him, including many Jewish colleagues, know him to be a friend, a warm partner, a lover of peace and a great man with a big heart.
3. Dr. Said is constantly travelling throughout the world, in particular Jordan, where he buys herbs, carries out research, and meets experts from Arab countries. It is shameful that this activity is the reason for the suspicion of the Israeli security apparatus. I am completely convinced that a great mistake and a serious injustice is happening right now. Omar is still in prison on remand.
What becomes clear from Fulder’s statement is that the Shin Bet has labeled a man, whose most dangerous activity was collecting plants in the hills of the West Bank for preparation of his herbal remedies, as a Hezbollah spy seeking the destruction of the State of Israel. Oh, and yes, it’s true, Said is a leader of the Arab nationalist political party, Balad. Last I checked, membership in Balad was entirely legal. So what precisely has he done wrong and when will the Shin Bet stop the shell game and reveal its charges?
Yesterday, I revealed that the alleged ‘Hezbollah agent’ with whom Makhoul and Said met is none other than the founder of a Jordanian NGO whose mission is to repair the environmental damage caused to Lebanon and Gaza by Israel’s wars there. I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop. Rechavia Berman jokes that he half expects the security services to trot out Nasrallah’s cousin who, like the Hamas Green Prince agent, will attest to the crimes committed by the pair on Hezbollah’s behalf. Barring that, this case is a disgrace and makes both the Shin Bet and Israel (or whoever in the government thought this prosecution was a crackerjack idea) into a laughingstock among nations.
Dr. Stephen Fulder, Anglo-Israeli folk medicine practitioner, colleague of Omar Said (R. Hertzberg)
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2010/05/14/omar-said-practitioner-of-arab-traditional-medicine-why-is-the-shin-bet-afraid-of-this-man/
June 30, 2010 at 3:40 pm
Village backs spy suspect
Espionage charges against Omar Said constitute political persecution, his wife says
Hagai Einav
Residents of the Arab-Israeli community of Kfar Kanna say they are furious over and puzzled by the arrest of village resident Dr. Omar Said on espionage charges.
Said, a longtime activist in the Balad Party, was detained along with writer Ameer Makhoul on suspicions of espionage and contacts with a foreign agent. His wife, Ina’am, and his five children spent the day in their living room, surrounded by dozens of supportive relatives and family friends.
“This is clearly political persecution,” Said’s wife said. “My husband is a good man who engages in alternative medicine alongside legal political activity. On April 24th, several people arrived home with him and presented an arrest warrant; they didn’t allow me to talk to him.”
“I didn’t understand what they wanted, but I felt humiliated by the despicable behavior towards me and towards him,” she said.
“Omer is a successful and intelligent guy, and this apparently bothers many people,” the angry wife said. “The entire village, the party, and many citizens support him and the family – and I believe that his innocence will be proven soon.”
Ina’am said she had been married to Said for 18 years, and that he was persecuted 20 years ago already.
“They threatened him and placed him under house and administrative arrests, yet they found nothing against him,” she said. “I’m proud of the children who are holding up in this difficult situation, because they too know that their father didn’t do what they’re trying to attribute to him.
‘A media spin’
Said’s preservatives said that Omar was en route to Jordan when he was detained near the Sheikh Hussein crossing point. Investigators seized computers and discs at his home that included, among other things, school materials belonging to his daughter, the relatives said.
Said has not been allowed to meet his children since he was arrested, they added.
Meanwhile, orange posters hung around the village, alongside Said’s photo, read: “The Balad Party seeks to release leader Said.” Notably, Said was among the party’s founders 15 years ago, yet at the same time has been active for dozens of years in far Left movement Bnei Hakfar.
Village residents dismissed the charges against Said and expressed their confidence that he will not be found guilty.
“To my regret, there is an effort to tie him to offences which I believe will never be proven, because there is no substance in them,” relative Hisham Said said.
Omar’s brother, Abdul Salame Said, summed up the prevalent sentiments in Kfar Kanna: “This is more than persecution. He’s been marked many years ago. This time too, it’s a media spin that will end with a small headline – starting with a bang and ending with a whimper”
http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3887772,00.html
June 30, 2010 at 3:50 pm
CURRICULUM VITAE – May. 2006
OMAR SAID
CEO – Antaki Center For Herbal Medicine Ltd.
P.O. Box 2205
Kafr Kanna 16930
Israel
Tel: (972) 4 641 2712
Fax: (972) 4 641 2713
Mobile: (972) 54 444 3367
Email: omar@al-antaki.com
Director-Al-Maissam -The Medicinal Plant Center for Research & Education
P.O. Box 2201
Kafr Kanna 16930
Israel
Tel: (972) 4 641 9272
Fax: (972) 4 641 9868
Mobile: (972) 54 444 3367
Email: osaid@gal-soc.org
Date of Birth:
18 February 1960
Place of Birth:
Kafr Kanna, Israel
Family Status:
married + 5 children
EDUCATION
1993
Doctor of Science (D.Sc.), Technion – Israel Institute of Techology,
Haifa, Israel
1989
Master of Science in Medical Sciences (M.Sc.), Technion – Israel
Institute of Techology, Haifa, Israel
1985
Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.), Ben-Gurion University, Beer Sheva,
Israel
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2002 – Present
Director of Al-Maissam at Kafr Kanna, a site of the Galilee Society
R&D Regional Center – promoting preservation and propagation of
endemic plant species used by folk healers and/or Classical Arabic
Medicine. One of his first projects was an extensive ethno-botanical
survey carried out among Arab Folk-Healers in Israel and Palestine.
Al-Miassam center has educational programs for students ranging in
age from pre-school to pre-college, Dr. Said directs and plans the
educational programs and their delivery.
1995 – Present
Senior Researcher of the Galilee Society R&D Center
1994 – 1995
Manager, Local Authority, Kfar Kanna Regional Council
1992 – 1994
Deputy Mayor, Kfar Kanna Regional Council
1982 – 1987
Freelance journalist
SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS
Theses
1. Doctor of Science Thesis, The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology,
Haifa, Israel, Effect of Bile Acids on the Activity of – Adrenergic
Receptors in Vascular Smooth Muscle.
Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
Master of Science in Medical Sciences Dissertation, Technion – Israel
2.
Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel, Effect of Obstructive Jaundice
on the Accumulation of Norepinephrine in the Femoral Artery
and Portal Vein. Supervisor: Dr. A. Bomzon, Bruce Rappaport Faculty of
Medicine, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
Original Papers
1. Jacob,
G.,
Said,
O.,
Finberg,
J.,
neuroeffector mechanisms in experimental cholestasis. American
journal of Physiology 265:G579 – G586, 1993.
2. Said, O. & Bomzon, A., The effect of duct manipulation and
pair-feeding on peripheral vascular neuroeffector mechanisms:
in vitro studies. Journal of Pharmacological Methods and
Toxicology, 33:205 – 212, 1995.
3. Dabagh K, Said O, Lebrec D, Bomzon A., Down-regulation of
vascular a1-adrenoceptors does not account for the loss of
vascular responsiveness to catecholamines in experimental
cholestasis. Liver 19: 193 – 198, 1999.
4. Predrag Ljubuncic, Omar Said, Yaron Erlich, Jon B. Meddings, Eldon A.
Shaffer, Arieh Bomzon, A., On the in vitro vasoactivity of bile
acids. British Journal of Pharmacology 131: 387 – 398, 2000.
5. Azaizeh, H., Galina, G., Said, O., and Barash, I. (2002) Biological Control
of the Wester Flower Thrips Frankliniella occidentalis in Cucumber Using
the Entomopathogenic Fungus Metarhizium anisopliae. Phytoparasitica 30
(1): 18-24.
6. Said, O., Azaizeh, H., K. Khalil and Fulder, S., Ethnobotanical survey
of medicinal herbs in Israel, the Golan Heights and the West
Bank region. Ethnopharmacology, 83, 251 – 265, 2002.
7. Azaizeh, H., Fulder, S., Khalil, K., and Said, O. (2003) Ethnobotanical
Survey of Local Practitioners of the Middle Eastern region: the Status of
Traditional Arabic Medicine. Fitoterapia 74:98-108.
8. Mansour, F., Azaizeh, H., Saad, B., Tadmor, Y., Abo-Moch, F., and Said, O.
(2004) The Potential of Middle Eastern Flora as a Source of New Safe Bio-
Acaricides to control Tetranychus cinnabarinus – the carmine spider mite.
Phytoparasitica 32:66-72.
9. Azaizeh, H., Predrag Ljubuncic, Irina Portnaya, Omar Said, Uri Cogan,
Arieh Bomzon. 2005. Fertilization-induced changes in growth parameters
and antioxidant activity of medicinal plants used in traditional Arab
medicine. Journal of evidence of Complementary Alternative Medicine
2(4):549-556.
10.
Predrag Ljubuncic, Uri Cogan, Irina Portnaya, Hassan Azaizeh, Omar
Said, Khalid Abu Saleh and Arieh Bomzon. 2005. Antioxidant Activity and
Cytotoxicity of Eight Plants used in Traditional Arab Medicine in Israel.
Journal of Ethnopharmacology 99:43-47.
11. Saad B, Dakwar S, Said O, Abu-Hijleh G, and Aziazeh H (2006)
Evaluation of medicinal plants biosafety using co-cultures of hepatocytes
and monocytes: Evidence-based Comp. and Alt. Medicine ” eCAM” 2006
3(1):93-98;.
12. Saad, B., Azaizeh, H., and O. Said. 2005. Tradition and Perspectives of
Arab Herbal Medicine: A Review. Journal of evidence of Complementary
Alternative Medicine 2(4):475-479.
13. Azaizeh, H., Saad, B., Khalil, KH., and Said O. 2006. The status of
traditional Arab medicine and medicinal herbs of the Middle Eastern region.
Plant Genetic Resource, Journal of evidence of Complementary Alternative
Medicine; A Review. 3(2) 229-235
14. Saad, B., Azaizeh, H., Abu Hijleh, G., and O. Said. 2006. Safety of
Traditional Arab Herbal Medicine: A Review. Journal of evidence of
Complementary Alternative Medicine; (Accepted for publication).
15. Azaizeh, H., M. Kobaisy, S. Dakwar, B. Saad, I. Shaqir and O. Said .
2005. Botanical Pesticides as a Source of Safe Bio-Acaricides for the control
of Tetranychus cinnabarinus mites. Fitoterapia (in review).
16. Kassis, E., Fulder, S., Khalil, Kh., Nahhas, F., Saad, B., and Said, O.,
Masculine is a proprietary extract of Ferula assa-foetida L. to enhance male
sexual functioning in animals and man (in review).
17. Kassis, E., Fulder, S., Khalil, Kh., Nahhas, F., Saad, B., and Said, O.,
Feminine is a proprietary combination of Ferula assa-foetida L. and
Capparis spinosa L. to enhance sexual functioning in women (in review).
18. Said, O., Fulder, S., Khalil, Kh., Azaizeh, H., Saad, B., and Kassis, E.,
Efficacy, safety and tolerability of a proprietary combination of lady’s
mantle, olive leaf, wild mint and cumin – Weighlevel – in regulating body
weight. Experimental- controlled animal- and quasi-interventional-clinical
studies (in review).
19. Said, O., Fulder, S., Khalil, Kh., Azaizeh, H., Saad, B., and Kassis, E.,
Efficacy, safety and tolerability of a proprietary combination of walnut,
nettle, olive leaf and salt bush – Glucolevel – in maintaining a healthy
carbohydrate balance in the blood. Experimental- controlled animal- and
quasi-interventional-clinical studies (in review).
20. Khalil, Kh., Kassis, E., Fulder, S., Saad, B., and Said, O., Efficacy,
safety and tolerability of a proprietary combination of loquat and olive
leaves – Cholevel, in maintaining a healthy fat level in the blood.
Conference Proceedings (Abstracts)
1. Helzenart, N., Said, O., Youdim, M.B.H. & Bomzon, A., Abnormal contractile
responses of the portal vein to norepinephrine and serotonin in jaundice are due to altered
uptake of the amines. Blood Vessels 24:208, 1987.
2. Jacob, G., Said, O., Nassar, N., Finberg, J., Better, O.S. & Bomzon, A.,
Does obstructive jaundice alter sympathetic responsiveness in
the cardiovascular system? European Journal of Pharmacology
183:1483, 1990.
3. Jacob, G., Said, O., Nassar, N., Finberg, J., Better, O. S. & Bomzon, A.,
Cardiovascular sympathetic neuroeffector responsiveness
obstructive jaundice. Blood Vessels 27:40, 1990.
4. Jacob, G., Said, O., Nassar, N., Finberg, J., Better, O. S. & Bomzon, A.,
Does obstructive jaundice alter sympathetic responsiveness in
the cardiovascular system? Journal of Hepatology 13:supplement
2:S37, 1991.
Bile acids and the
5. Said, O., Shaffer,
E.
A.
&
Bomzon,
A.,
cardiovascular complications of liver disease. Journal of Hepatology
13: supplement 2:S67, 1991.
6. Jacob, G., Said, O., Nassar, N., Finberg, J., Better, O. S. & Bomzon, A.,
Cardiovascular sympathetic neuroeffector responsiveness in
obstructive jaundice. Hepatology 14:282A,1991
7. Said, O., Shaffer, E. A. & Bomzon, A., Bile acids and the
cardiovascular complications of liver disease. Hepatology 14:241A,
1991
8. Said, O., Ljubuncic, P., Ehrlich, Y., Zuk, R., Tanne, Z., Bomzon, A., Bile
acids (BA) and vasorelaxation. Canadian Journal of Physiology and
Pharmacology 72: supplement 4:50, 1994
9. Said, O., Ljubuncic, P. Zuk, R., Tanne, Z., Bomzon, A., Lipid
peroxidation, vasorelaxation and bile acids. Canadian Journal of
Physiology and Pharmacology 72: supplement 1:592, 1994.
10. Ljubuncic, P., Said, O., Ehrlich, Y., Zuk, R., Tanne, Z., Bomzon, A., Lipid
peroxidation as a consequence of the toxic effects of
hydrophobic bile acids in rat aortic smooth muscle subcellular
fractions: Possible explanation for vasodilatation in cholestatic
liver disease. Archives of Toxicology, Kinetics and Xenobiotic Metabolism
2:555-556, 1994.
11. Azaizeh H, O. Said, and B. Saad (2003) The potential of local medicinal
herbs used in traditional Arabic medicine to treat skin, liver and cancer
diseases. 3rd International Symposium on natural Drugs, Naples, Italy
October 2003.
12. Said, O., Azaizeh, H., “Efficacy of Palestinian medicinal herbs used by
traditional Arab herbalists for treating different human diseases”. The talk
presented by Dr. Omar Said and Dr. Hassan Azaizeh,. The Second
International Colloquium of on Natural products in Sfax, Tunisia. May 2006.
MEMBERSHIP IN SOCIETIES
Respected member of many Regional Arab committees on health, policy and
•
social issues.
•
Regional Councils member on the subject of nature preservation.
Member of Regional Council, Kafr Kanna.
•
Member of El-Ahale – NGO dealing with the development of the Arab sector and
•
encouraging culture and local agriculture.
OTHER
Lecturer on development of plant medicine
•
•
Writing & Publishing articles on traditional Arab plant Medicines
Entrepreneur, founder and partner in several companies developing consumer
•
products from medicinal plants.
EDUCATIONAL WORK EXPERIENCE
1989-1990
Tutor / Assistant Professor, College of Medicine, The Technion, Haifa,
Israel; Subject: Science of Medications.
1992
Co-supervised a dissertation for M.D. degree, College of Medicine, The
Technion, Haifa, Israel; Thesis subject: Effect of bile acids on the α1-
Adrenoceptors activity in Aortic artery.
1993
Co-supervised a dissertation for M.D. degree, College of Medicine, The
Technion, Haifa, Israel; Thesis subject: Vascular responsiveness to
catecholamines in experimental cholestatsis.
1995
Co-supervised a final thesis with Dr. Muhammad Eshtayyeh for a Master
degree in science, Al-Najjah University, Nablus; Subject: Bio-Acracides
against Tetranychus Cinnabrarinus.
1996-2003
As tutor, supervised forty two final projects of engineering and practical
engineering students in a variety of research related topics.
1998-2003
As tutor, supervised sixty eight final projects of high-school students in a
variety of research related topics.
2001-2003
Managed the “Young Researchers” program in the Arabic sector through the
support of the Ministry of Science. This program encourages involvement of
the youth in science and scientific research and application, with the
emphasis on exposing the pupils to opportunities in bio-technology. The
number of participants was 483 pupils.
2001-2003
Managed the “Science Blossoms” program in the Arabic sector through the
support of the Ministry of Education. This is a similar program to the “Young
Researchers” program and it targets younger pupils. The number of
participants was 157 pupils.
AWARDS AND SCIENTIFIC PROJECTS
following topics lasted three years:
1995
Received a grant from the Israeli Ministry of Health to research: Ethno-
botanical Survey among Arab practitioners in Israel and the Palestinian
Areas.
1996
Received a grant from the Israeli Ministry of Science to research: Local
Medicinal Plants for Treating Cirrhosis.
1997
Received a grants from both Ministry of Science and Agriculture to research:
Isolation of Botanical Pesticides from Local Plants.
1998
Received a grant from the Ministry of Agriculture to setup a botanical garden
for the Galilee Society specializing in indigenous medicinal plants, Kafr-
Kanna, Israel.
1999
Obtained support from the ministry of Science to explore:
screening of most important medicinal plants in the Middle East for
antioxidant, anti-cancer and anti-diabetes activities.
BUSINESS ACTIVITY:
1998
Founded the Al-Antaki Company Ltd.. This company was first of its kind in
the Arab community of Israel, developing products for treatment with
derivatives of medicinal plants based on the traditional Arabic heritage of
healing. Al-Antaki has a spectrum of over thirty products, with eleven
marketed in Israel and overseas.
1998
Co-founded Attarex Ltd.; a startup company in a technological incubator,
developing a treatment for Psoriasis.
2002
Co-founded D-Herb Ltd.; yet another startup company developing winning
solutions for fighting diabetes.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY INTEREST IN:
Developing natural ingredients for treatment of Psoriasis – patents pending.
•
Developing natural ingredients for reducing blood sugar levels – under
•
development.
•
Developing natural ingredients for preventing division of cancerous cells – under
development.
Developing natural ingredients for treatment of heartburn (GERD) – patents
•
pending.
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:SSlgCth8AYIJ:www.al-antaki.com/pdf/omar_said_cv.pdf+Omar+Saïd&hl=fr&gl=be&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgIe1zOqfoK5hvFc78ZZAJidh6s1sOxM-ztY7ErPnFmCSJhnreTU-FZsT2cba2fteKEfwhDx3gOTbF6jzuP26KShax7eCYPizN5gckLaI6FxJnkeE0mIkgc8qWOvFbtmqu1Uxc-&sig=AHIEtbTmhAlwD2ak9bl3RhLlxSDLijoBTw
http://www.al-antaki.com/pdf/omar_said_cv.pdf
June 30, 2010 at 3:55 pm
Omar Said charged with contacting foreign agent
According to indictment, Israeli-Arab who was arrested along with suspected spy Ammer Makhoul gave Hezbollah operative names of two potential spies. Wife: Political persecution
Sharon Roffe-Ofir
Published: 05.27.10, 13:06 / Israel News
Arab-Israeli Omar Said (50) of Kfar Kana, an activist for the Balad Arab political party, was charged Thursday with maintaining contact with an enemy agent and transferring information that could be used by the enemy.
According to the indictment, filed by the Haifa District Prosecution, while on vacation in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt in 2008 Said was approached by a man claiming to be Lebanese. The two spoke for an hour, after which the man asked Said to meet him at a local coffee shop the following day.
The indictment said the man who approached Said was a Hezbollah operative sent by Hassan Jaja to recruit the Arab-Israeli to the Shiite group.
Jaja, Lebanese businessman who lives in Jordan, was reportedly in close contact with the defendant.
During the meeting at the coffee shop, Said and the Hezbollah operative discussed the relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel, the way Israeli Arabs view Hezbollah and what they think of the 2006 Second Lebanon War.
During the meeting the Hezbollah operative said the group was fighting for the Palestinian people and Israel’s Arabs. The operative asked Said to photograph Israeli military, economic and industrial facilities as well as gather information on military sites in Israel.
Said told the operative that he was not the man for the job because of his age and the fact that he is a father of five.
Said also told the operative he was concerned that he may get caught. The operative said he had nothing to worry about and showed him the specially-designed computer encryption system that would allow him to send the photos without being detected. However, Said told the operative he feared the disc with the encryption system on it would be discovered during a search of his belongings at the Israeli border.
At this point, according to the indictment, the operative asked Said to transfer names and details of additional men and women in Israel who he believed could also serve as Hizbullah agents. Said gave the operative the names of two people he claimed had nationalistic attitudes. The operative then handed Said a note and asked Said to send additional names of potential spies to the email address written on it.
Said eventually tore up the note for fear of being caught with it. He never contacted the operative again.
Said’s wife told Ynet following the hearing, “It is all a lie, and it will be proven that this is political persecution.”
The court extended Said’s remand.
Arab-Israeli political activist Ameer Makhoul, the other suspect in the case who was arrested along with Said, was charged with serious espionage, assisting an enemy at a time of war and maintaining contact with an enemy agent.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3895057,00.html
June 30, 2010 at 4:00 pm
Israeli Writer Michal Peleg Calls Out Her Government for Arrest of Dr. Omar Said
May 14th, 2010 | by TheOnlyDemocracy | Add a Comment
by Michal Peleg
Dr. Omar Said from Kafr Kana, Israel, was arrested on April 24, at a border crossing between Israel and Jordan, and is held since in prison for investigation, without trial.
Dr. Said is a pharmacologist, an expert of academic and international fame in the medical use of herbs. He specializes in innovations in traditional Middle East medicine based on local flora. His research requires frequent travels to collect herbs native to the region including, naturally, Jordan. In 2007 he was also among the organizers of an international academic convention on Traditional Arabic and Islamic medicine in Amman. Naturally, again, he travels on a regular basis to Europe, especially to Denmark and France, either in the interests of the laboratory and pharmacologist firm, in which he is a partner, or to give lectures and participate in academic conventions. But then – naturally, one should add once again – Dr. Said meets a lot of people on his travels; many of those are Arabs; some are even citizens of countries hostile to Israel.
Here, finally, we arrive at the unnatural conclusion of Dr. Said’s natural activity. He is accused – but not formally, not under any specific indictment –of meeting with “Enemy Agents”, by the Israeli secret services.
Now, among the many Arab scholars and friends Dr. Said is in contact with abroad, or among their numerous family and friends, there would be – of necessity – members of various political parties; perhaps even military men, and, who knows? even adherents to radical groups. On this vague basis: meeting people, who in their turn meet other people – each and every one of us would be found guilty ad hoc.
Yet there’s a very specific reason for Dr. Said’s arrest. He is, and has been since youth, a political activist struggling for Palestinian rights. His studies in Israel’s renowned Institute of Technology, up to the completion of his PhD, were prolonged way beyond their natural course, for he was held during months and years in administrative detention, that is: without trial. He was never tried nor ever indicted for any violent action, solicitation to such, or any another clause within the vast “security” arsenal of Israeli law. Dr. Omar Said was detained, and is now again detained, because of his political opinions, and moreover, because he insists on his right to express them.
So far, in Israel – “the only democracy in the Middle East”, remember – detention of academics who have opinions and insist on expressing them has been limited to Arabs. Jewish academics are free to indulge their political whims and continue to travel abroad and meet people, even Arab people. So far.
I believe it is essential to demand the immediate release of Dr. Omar Said until he is served a bill of indictment, or else that the state supplies sufficient grounds for belief that he is dangerous to the state and to society, as is the norm in a proper democratic society. A democracy, that is, not exclusively restricted to Jews.
Michal Peleg is an Israeli writer whose latest publication was Nadir, in Am Oved, a novel. She lives in Tel Aviv.
Related posts:
Muli Peleg on Israeli Democracy
Palestinian expert on Israeli settlements and cartography barred from travel
Beit Sahour Professor Faces Arrest by Israeli Military for Nonviolent Protest
http://theonlydemocracy.org/2010/05/israeli-writer-calls-out-her-government-for-arrest-of-dr-omar-said/
June 30, 2010 at 4:54 pm
The European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=136174356394182
June 30, 2010 at 4:57 pm
30-06-2010
STOP THE APARTHEID !
http://self-declaring-terrorist-hunter.skynetblogs.be/
June 30, 2010 at 5:38 pm
Avigdor Lieberman’s ‘charme-offensive’….
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001239073729&v=wall&story_fbid=103860306330960&cmntid=106318759418448
June 30, 2010 at 5:39 pm
Israel State hello,
i’m one of Israel’s ministry of foreign affairs, who got the task to talk with people all over the world in order to explain better the viewpoint of israel in the latest events specipicaly, and in the all arab-israeli conflict generally.
I hope you confirm my invitation in order that we would be able to talk and understand better each other.
in the name of israel.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001239073729&v=wall&story_fbid=103860306330960&cmntid=106318759418448
June 30, 2010 at 7:17 pm
Avigdor Lieberman, the bouncer at nightclubs who is responsible for the detentions
Avigdor Lieberman is the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs. He emigrated to Israel in 1978 from the Soviet Republic of Moldavia. There, he jobbed as a bouncer at nightclubs, studied politics, eventually joined the right- wing Likud movement, ultimately serving as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s top aid. In 1999, Lieberman founded the Israeli Russian immigrants’ party Israeli Beitenu (Israel is our Home). Following the 2006 Knesset election, his party became the strongest fraction in the opposition camp. And after last summer’s war against Lebanon, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert invited the 48-year hardliner to join his government.
June 30, 2010 at 7:18 pm
Some racist ideas of Avigdor Lieberman, the former bouncer at nightclubs who became Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs:
SPIEGEL: Your suggested resolution to the Palestinian conflict is to make Israel Arab free. Do you really want to remove one-fifth of the Israeli society, i.e. cleanse Israel ethnically?
Lieberman: On the contrary. What is the core of the conflict? Wherever in the world there are two languages, two religions, two people, there are tensions and conflicts: in Québec in Canada, in the former Yugoslavia, in the Russian Caucasus or in Northern Ireland where the confessions have fought each other for many years. It is crystal clear: The more homogeneous a country is, the better it develops.
SPIEGEL: So you do believe there should be a separation of the ethnic groups.
Lieberman: When Ariel Sharon developed his disengagement plan for the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, I argued: On the one hand you are establishing a monolithic Palestinian state without a single Jew, while Israel maintains an Arab population of 20 percent. It cannot be that there are one and a half states for one people and only half a state for the other. The connection between the Arabs in Israel and those in a Palestinian state will destroy us for sure.
SPIEGEL: Jewish and Arab settlements lie next to each other like a patchwork quilt. How do you intend to create a homogeneous map?
Lieberman: First of all one has to agree on the basic principle. My plan is an exchange of territories and population. All people stay where they currently live. We will hand over territorries like the Wadi Ara triangle where mostly Arabs live to the Palestinian jurisdiction; territories with a large Jewish population will be transferred to us.
SPIEGEL: The chances for success are close to zero: What Israeli Arab wants to become part of Palestine?
Lieberman: Of course they do not want this. On the one hand they want to enjoy all the advantages of the modern Israel, but on the other hand they want to destroy us from the inside. During the last war in Lebanon, Arab Knesset members went to Beirut and Damascus to show their solidarity with Syria and the Hezbollah — that is absurd. Can you imagine an American Congressman traveling to Afghanistan in order to meet with and publicly support Osama bin Laden?
SPIEGEL: You responded by demanding that Israeli-Arab members of parliament who are in contact with Hezbollah and Hamas should be executed like “Nazi collaborators”?
Lieberman: I meant Hezbollah henchmen in our country. They have to be put to trial like the Nazis in Nuremberg. When the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, kills two Arab children with his rockets in Nazareth and the father declares his children to be martyrs and Nasrallah to be his brother; when the same father says Israel is guilty and then receives financial support from our National Insurance Institute, this is absurd.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,465769,00.html
June 30, 2010 at 7:25 pm
Lola Taha: He didnt see his lawyer 17 days. And his family more than a month …I will send you more info about him … but I can say that he is wonderful person, very kind and a GREAT dad.
Jan Boeykens: OK. Thanks.
We need information about all the prisoners in Israel.
They are (false) accused of…
They (don’t) have the right to see their lawyer.
They were (not) tortured or isolated.
Their family have (not) the right to visit them.
They have (not) the right to write and to receive letters.
They have (no) rights and they have (not) the right to complain.
They can (not) phone….
June 30, 2010 at 10:34 pm
Les us fight, side by side, with the Palestinian people.
Let us boycott Israel. Let us block their ships in our ports.
Videos from Jérusalem القدس Support: Visit Palestine – By Caoimhe Butterly [HQ]
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1307796544334&oid=118719891500541
June 30, 2010 at 10:54 pm
Boycott Israel Campaign
by Teampalestina Bradford
June 30, 2010 at 11:08 pm
Hazim Bitar FYI, every post you make with word israel shows up on this page without your permission and in violation of your privacy. the same may apply to other keywords that we still don’t know of.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Israel/108099562543414
June 30, 2010 at 11:24 pm
FACEBOOK:
Every post you make with word israel shows up on the page ISRAEL without your permission and in violation of your privacy.
—
ISRAEL
Our goal is to make this Community Page the best collection of shared knowledge on this topic. If you have a passion for Israel, sign up and we’ll let you know when we’re ready for your help. You can also get us started by suggesting the Official Facebook Page.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
View on Wikipedia · Edit
This is the latest accepted revision, accepted on 29 June 2010.
Israel (Hebrew: יִשְׂרָאֵל, Yisrā’el; Arabic: إِسْرَائِيلُ, Isrā’īl), officially the State of Israel (Hebrew: מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל (help·info), Medīnat Yisrā’el; Arabic: دَوْلَةُ إِسْرَائِيلَ, Dawlat Isrā’īl), is a country in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan and the West Bank in the east, the Gaza Strip and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area.[7][8] Israel is the world’s only predominantly Jewish state,[9] with a population of 7.5 million people, of whom 5.7 million are Jewish.[10][11] Arab citizens of Israel form the country’s second-largest ethnic group, which includes Muslims, Christians, Druze, and Samaritans.
The modern State of Israel has its historical and religious roots in the Biblical Land of Israel, also known as Zion, a concept central to Judaism since ancient times.[12][13][14] Political Zionism took shape in the late-19th century and the Balfour Declaration of 1917 formalized British policy preferring the establishment of a Jewish state. Following World War I, the League of Nations granted Great Britain the Mandate for Palestine and the responsibility for establishing “the Jewish national home” within it.[15]
In November 1947, the United Nations voted in favor of the partition of Palestine, proposing the creation of a Jewish state, an Arab state, and a UN-administered Jerusalem.[16] Partition was accepted by Zionist leaders but rejected by Arab leaders, leading to civil war. Israel declared independence on 14 May 1948 and neighboring Arab states attacked the next day. Since then, Israel has fought a series of wars with neighboring Arab states,[17] and in consequence occupies territories, including the West Bank and Gaza Strip, beyond those delineated in the 1949 Armistice Agreements. Israel has signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, but efforts to resolve conflict with the Palestinians have so far only met with limited success and some of Israel’s international borders remain in dispute.
Israel is a developed country and a representative democracy with a parliamentary system and universal suffrage.[18][19] The Prime Minister serves as head of government and the Knesset serves as Israel’s legislative body. The economy, based on the nominal gross domestic product, was the 41st-largest in the world in 2008.[20] Israel ranks highest among Middle Eastern countries on the UN Human Development Index,[21] and has one of the highest life expectancies in the world.[22] Jerusalem is the country’s capital, although it is not recognized internationally as such,[a] while Israel’s main financial center is Tel Aviv. In 2010, Israel was accepted as member to the OECD.[23]
Etymology
Over the past three thousand years, the name “Israel” (meaning “Struggled with God”) has meant, in common and religious usage, both the Land of Israel and the entire Jewish nation.[24] According to the Bible, Jacob is renamed Israel after successfully wrestling with an angel of God.[25]
The earliest archaeological artifact to mention “Israel” is the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt (dated to the late 13th century BCE), which refers to a people of that name located in Canaan.[26] The modern country was named Medinat Yisrael, or the State of Israel, after other proposed names, including Eretz Israel (“the Land of Israel”), Zion, and Judea, were rejected.[27] In the early weeks of independence, the government chose the term “Israeli” to denote a citizen of Israel, with the formal announcement made by Minister of Foreign Affairs Moshe Sharett.[28]
History
Main article: History of Israel
Antiquity
Further information: History of ancient Israel and Judah
Masada in the Judean Desert, a national symbol
The Land of Israel, known in Hebrew as Eretz Yisrael, has been sacred to the Jewish people since Biblical times. According to the Torah, God promised the Land of Israel to the three Patriarchs of the Jewish people;[29][30] scholars have placed this period in the early 2nd millennium BCE.[31] Based on the Bible, around the 11th century BCE, the first of a series of Israelite kingdoms and states, the Kingdom of Israel, established rule over the region. Other Israelite kingdoms and states ruled intermittently for the following one thousand years, and are known from various extra-biblical sources.[32][33][34][35]
Between the time of the Israelite kingdoms and the 7th-century Muslim conquests, the Land of Israel fell under Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman, Sassanian, and Byzantine rule.[12][36] Jewish presence in the region dwindled after the failure of the Bar Kokhba revolt against the Roman Empire in 132 CE.[37] Nevertheless, a continuous Jewish presence in the Land of Israel remained, with the Jewish religious center moving to the Galilee.[38][39] The Mishnah and part of the Talmud, central Jewish texts, were composed during the 2nd to 4th centuries CE in Tiberias and Jerusalem.[40] Following years of persecution at the hands of Byzantine rulers, the Jews revolted in 610 CE, allying themselves with the Persian invaders; capturing Jerusalem, the Persians and Jews killed many thousands of Christians and destroyed many churches.[41] Recapturing Jerusalem in 628/9 CE, Byzantine Emperor Heraclius conducted a massacre and expulsion of the Jews.[42][43] The Land of Israel was then captured from the Byzantine Empire around 635 CE during the initial Muslim conquests.[44] Control of the region transferred between the Umayyads,[44] Abbasids,[44] and Crusaders over the next six centuries,[44] before falling in the hands of the Mamluk Sultanate, in 1260.[45] In 1516, the Land of Israel was conquered by the Ottoman Empire, which ruled the region until the 20th century.[45]
Zionism and the British Mandate
Further information: History of Zionism
Jews living in the Diaspora have long aspired to return to Zion and the Land of Israel,[46] though the amount of human effort that should be spent towards such aim is a matter of dispute in Judaism.[47][48] That hope and yearning was articulated in the Bible,[49] and is an important theme of the Jewish belief system.[47] After the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, some communities settled in Palestine.[50] During the 16th century, communities struck roots in the Four Holy Cities—Jerusalem, Tiberias, Hebron, and Safed—and in 1697, Rabbi Yehuda Hachasid led a group of 1,500 Jews to Jerusalem.[51] In the second half of the 18th century, Eastern European opponents of Hasidism, known as the Perushim, settled in Palestine.[52][53][54]
Theodor Herzl, visionary of the Jewish State, in 1901
The first large wave of “modern” immigration, known as the First Aliyah, began in 1881, as Jews fled pogroms in Eastern Europe.[55] Although the Zionist movement already existed in theory, Austro-Hungarian journalist Theodor Herzl is credited with founding political Zionism,[56] a movement which sought to establish a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, by elevating the Jewish Question to the international plane.[57] In 1896, Herzl published Der Judenstaat (The State of the Jews), offering his vision of a future state; the following year he presided over the first World Zionist Congress.[58]
The Second Aliyah (1904–1914), began after the Kishinev pogrom; some 40,000 Jews settled in Palestine, but nearly half of them left.[55] Both the first and second waves of migrants were mainly Orthodox Jews,[59] but those in the Second Aliyah included socialist pioneers who established the kibbutz movement.[60] During World War I, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour issued what became known as the Balfour Declaration, which “view[ed] with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”. At the request of Edwin Samuel Montagu and Lord Curzon, a line was also inserted stating “it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country”.[61]
The Jewish Legion, a group of battalions composed primarily of Zionist volunteers, assisted in the British conquest of Palestine. Arab opposition to the plan led to the 1920 Palestine riots and the formation of the Jewish organization known as the Haganah (meaning “The Defense” in Hebrew), from which the Irgun and Lehi paramilitary groups split off.[62] In 1922, the League of Nations granted the United Kingdom a mandate over Palestine under terms similar to the Balfour Declaration.[63] The population of the area at that time was predominantly Arab and Muslim, with Jews accounting for about 11% of the population.[64]
The Third (1919–1923) and Fourth Aliyahs (1924–1929) brought an additional 100,000 Jews to Palestine.[55] Finally, the rise of Nazism in the 1930s led to the Fifth Aliyah, with an influx of a quarter of a million Jews. This caused the Arab revolt of 1936–1939 and led the British to cap immigration with the White Paper of 1939. With countries around the world turning away Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust, a clandestine movement known as Aliyah Bet was organized to bring Jews to Palestine.[55] By the end of World War II, the Jewish population of Palestine had increased to 33% of the total population.[65]
Independence and first years
Main article: 1948 Palestine war
After 1945, Britain found itself in fierce conflict with the Jewish community, as the Haganah joined Irgun and Lehi in armed struggle against British rule.[66] At the same time, thousands of Jewish refugees from Europe sought shelter in Palestine and were turned away or rounded up and placed in detention camps by the British. In 1947, the British government withdrew from the Mandate of Palestine, stating it was unable to arrive at a solution acceptable to both Arabs and Jews.[67] The newly created United Nations approved the Partition Plan for Palestine (United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181) on November 29, 1947, which sought to divide the country into two states—one Arab and one Jewish. Jerusalem was to be designated an international city—a corpus separatum—administered by the UN.[68]
The Jewish community accepted the plan,[69] but the Arab League and Arab Higher Committee rejected it.[70] On December 1, 1947, the Arab Higher Committee proclaimed a three-day strike, and Arab bands began attacking Jewish targets.[71] Jews were initially on the defensive as civil war broke out, but they gradually moved onto the offensive.[72] The Palestinian Arab economy collapsed and 250,000 Palestinian-Arabs fled or were expelled.[73]
David Ben-Gurion proclaiming Israeli independence on May 14, 1948, below a portrait of Theodor Herzl
On May 14, 1948, the day before the expiration of the British Mandate, the Jewish Agency proclaimed independence, naming the country Israel.[74] The following day, the armies of five Arab countries—Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq—attacked Israel, launching the 1948 Arab–Israeli War; [75][76] Saudi Arabia sent a military contingent to operate under Egyptian command; Yemen declared war but did not take military action.[77] After a year of fighting, a ceasefire was declared and temporary borders, known as the Green Line, were established.[78] Jordan annexed what became known as the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and Egypt took control of the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Israel was accepted as a member of the United Nations by majority vote on May 11, 1949.[79] According to UN estimates, 711,000 Arabs, or about 80% of the initial Arab population of the area that became Israel, were expelled or fled the country during the conflict.[80] The fate of these Palestinian refugees remains a major point of contention in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.[81][82]
In the early years of the state, the Labor Zionist movement led by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion dominated Israeli politics.[83][84] These years were marked by an influx of Holocaust survivors and Jews from Arab lands, many of whom faced persecution in their original countries.[85] Consequently, the population of Israel rose from 800,000 to two million between 1948 and 1958.[86] Most arrived as refugees with no possessions and were housed in temporary camps known as ma’abarot; by 1952, over 200,000 immigrants were living in these tent cities.[87] The need to solve the crisis led Ben-Gurion to sign a reparations agreement with West Germany that triggered mass protests by Jews angered at the idea of Israel accepting financial compensation from Germany for the Holocaust.[88]
In the 1950s, Israel was frequently attacked by Palestinian fedayeen, mainly from the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip.[89] In 1956, Israel joined a secret alliance with Great Britain and France aimed at regaining control of the Suez Canal, which the Egyptians had nationalized (see the Suez Crisis). Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula but was pressured to withdraw by the United States and the Soviet Union in return for guarantees of Israeli shipping rights in the Red Sea and the Canal.[90][91]
In the early 1960s, Israel captured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, an architect of the Final Solution, in Argentina and brought him to trial.[92] The trial had a major impact on public awareness of the Holocaust,[93] and Eichmann remains the only person ever to be executed by order of an Israeli court.[94]
Conflicts and peace treaties
Further information: Arab–Israeli conflict, Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and Positions on Jerusalem
See also: List of United Nations resolutions concerning Israel
Menachem Begin, Carter and Sadat at Camp David, at the signing of the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt
Arab nationalists led by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser refused to recognize Israel, calling for its destruction.[17][95] By 1966, Israeli-Arab relations had deteriorated to the point of actual battles taking place between official Israeli and Arab forces.[96] In 1967, Egypt expelled UN peacekeepers, stationed in the Sinai Peninsula since 1957, and announced a partial blockade of Israel’s access to the Red Sea.[97] Israel saw these actions as a casus belli for a pre-emptive strike that launched the Six-Day War, in which Israel achieved a decisive victory and captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights.[98] Jerusalem’s boundaries were enlarged, incorporating East Jerusalem, and the 1949 Green Line became the administrative boundary between Israel and the occupied territories.
The failure of the Arab states in the 1967 war led Arab non-state actors to have a more central role in the conflict. Most important among them is the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), established in 1964, which initially committed itself to “armed struggle as the only way to liberate the homeland”.[99][100] In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Palestinian groups launched a wave of attacks[101][102] against Israeli targets around the world,[103] including a massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.
On October 6, 1973, as Jews were observing Yom Kippur, the Egyptian and Syrian armies launched a surprise attack against Israel. The war ended on October 26 with Israel successfully repelling Egyptian and Syrian forces but suffering great losses.[104] An internal inquiry exonerated the government of responsibility for failures before and during the war, but public anger forced Prime Minister Golda Meir to resign.[105]
The 1977 Knesset elections marked a major turning point in Israeli political history as Menachem Begin’s Likud party took control from the Labor Party.[106] Later that year, Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat made a trip to Israel and spoke before the Knesset in what was the first recognition of Israel by an Arab head of state.[107] In the two years that followed, Sadat and Menachem Begin signed the Camp David Accords and the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty.[108] Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula and agreed to enter negotiations over an autonomy for Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.[109] Begin’s government encouraged Israelis to settle in the West Bank, leading to friction with the Palestinians in that area.[110]
The Jerusalem Law, passed in 1980, reaffirmed Israel’s annexation of Jerusalem and reignited international controversy over the status of the city. The position of the majority of UN member states is reflected in numerous resolutions declaring that actions taken by Israel to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the whole of Jerusalem are illegal and have no validity.[111]
In 1982, Israel intervened in the Lebanese Civil War to destroy the bases from which the PLO launched attacks and missiles at northern Israel; that move developed into the First Lebanon War.[112] Israel withdrew from most of Lebanon in 1986, but maintained a borderland buffer zone until 2000. The First Intifada, a Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule,[113] broke out in 1987 with waves of violence occurring in the occupied territories. Over the following six years, more than a thousand people were killed in the ensuing violence, much of which was internal Palestinian violence.[114] During the 1991 Gulf War, the PLO and many Palestinians supported Saddam Hussein and Iraqi missile attacks against Israel, though Israel did not participate in that war.[115][116]
In 1992, Yitzhak Rabin became Prime Minister following an election in which his party promoted compromise with Israel’s neighbors.[117][118] The following year, Shimon Peres and Mahmoud Abbas, on behalf of Israel and the PLO, signed the Oslo Accords, which gave the Palestinian National Authority the right to self-govern parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.[119] The PLO also recognized Israel’s right to exist and pledged an end to terrorism.[120] In 1994, the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace was signed, making Jordan the second Arab country to normalize relations with Israel.[121] Arab public support for the Accords was damaged by the continuation of Israeli settlements[122] and checkpoints, and the deterioration of economic conditions.[123] Israeli public support for the Accords waned as Israel was struck by Palestinian suicide attacks.[124] Finally, while leaving a peace rally in November 1995, Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a far-right-wing Jew who opposed the Accords.[125]
At the end of the 1990s, Israel, under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu, withdrew from Hebron,[126] and signed the Wye River Memorandum, giving greater control to the Palestinian National Authority.[127] Ehud Barak, elected Prime Minister in 1999, began the new millennium by withdrawing forces from Southern Lebanon and conducting negotiations with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and U.S. President Bill Clinton at the 2000 Camp David Summit. During the summit, Barak offered a plan for the establishment of a Palestinian state, but Yasser Arafat rejected it.[128] After the collapse of the talks and a controversial visit by Likud leader Ariel Sharon to the Temple Mount, the Second Intifada began. Sharon became prime minister in a 2001 special election. During his tenure, Sharon carried out his plan to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip and also spearheaded the construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier.[129]
In July 2006, a Hezbollah artillery assault on Israel’s northern border communities and a cross-border abduction of two Israeli soldiers sparked the month-long Second Lebanon War.[130][131] Two years later, in May 2008, Israel confirmed it had been discussing a peace treaty with Syria for a year, with Turkey as a go-between.[132] However, at the end of the year, Israel entered another conflict as a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel collapsed. The Gaza War lasted three weeks and ended after Israel announced a unilateral ceasefire.[133][134] Hamas announced its own ceasefire, with its own conditions of complete withdrawal and opening of border crossings. Despite neither the rocket launchings nor Israeli retaliatory strikes having completely stopped, the fragile ceasefire remained in order.[135]
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Israel/108099562543414#!/pages/Israel/108099562543414?v=wiki%23content
Menachem Begin, Carter and Sadat at Camp David, at the signing of the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt
July 1, 2010 at 12:13 am
http://www.jewsconfrontapartheid.org/
The 2010 US Social Forum comes at a time when there is great urgency to build on recent successes of the Palestine solidarity movement, as United States corporations and the government continue to commit grave injustices in Palestine- not to mention in our own communities. Organized anti-Zionist Jews in the United States can play a critical role in movements with anti-racism and anti-imperialism at the center, and building stronger international solidarity.
Come together with other anti-Zionist Jewish activists committed to challenging racism, colonialism and imperialism- first and foremost by contributing to efforts to overcome Zionism and decolonize Palestine.
Build a shared direction and shared strategies for anti-Zionist Jewish organizing in the US, and build relationships across locations for our organizing efforts Advance the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, including: campaigns against the Jewish National Fund; citywide to statewide divestment and boycott campaigns; labor divestment from Israeli bonds and the Histadrut, Israel’s founding labor Zionist organizationDevelop anti-Zionist Jewish political perspectives and analysis, art, culture, and spiritual practice against Zionism’s attempt to erase or co-opt our multiple social, cultural and political histories We welcome all who are interested in supporting the organizing of anti-Zionist Jews as part of the broader Palestine solidarity movement and anti-racist, anti-imperialist organizing in the United States. However, the Assembly is oriented toward Jews confronting Zionism.
This event is being organized by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network and the Middle East Children’s Alliance
More information regarding economic, physical and language accessibility, childcare, and more is forthcoming; if you have questions, please contact us at 2010 Assembly@JewsConfrontApartheid.org
July 1, 2010 at 12:26 am
Mystery on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001239073729&v=wall&story_fbid=103860306330960
ISRAEL
Birthday:
May 14, 1948
Friends
64 friends
—-
ISRAEL
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Israel/108099562543414
1 Friend Likes This
FouadraidenRaiden
18,951 People Like This
July 1, 2010 at 12:42 am
FACEBOOK ‘ISRAEL’
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Israel/108099562543414
Government and politics
Israel operates under a parliamentary system as a democratic republic with universal suffrage.[1] The President of Israel is the head of state, but his duties are limited and largely ceremonial.[149] A Parliament Member supported by a majority in parliament becomes the Prime Minister, usually the chairman of the largest party. The Prime Minister is the head of government and head of the Cabinet.[149][150] Israel is governed by a 120-member parliament, known as the Knesset. Membership of the Knesset is based on proportional representation of political parties,[151] with a 2% electoral threshold, which commonly results in coalition governments.
Parliamentary elections are scheduled every four years, but unstable coalitions or a no-confidence vote by the Knesset often dissolves governments earlier. “The average life span of an Israeli government is 22 months. The peace process, the role of religion in the state, and political scandals have caused coalitions to break apart or produced early elections.”[152] The Basic Laws of Israel function as an unwritten constitution. In 2003, the Knesset began to draft an official constitution based on these laws.[1][153] Israel has a three-tier court system. At the lowest level are magistrate courts, situated in most cities across the country. Above them are district courts, serving both as appellate courts and courts of first instance; they are situated in five of Israel’s six districts. The third and highest tier in Israel is the Supreme Court, seated in Jerusalem. It serves a dual role as the highest court of appeals and the High Court of Justice. In the latter role, the Supreme Court rules as a court of first instance, allowing individuals, both citizens and non-citizens, to petition against decisions of state authorities.[154][155] Although Israel supports the goals of the International Criminal Court, it has not ratified the Rome Statute, citing concerns about the ability of the court to remain free from political impartiality.[156]
Israel’s legal system combines English common law, civil law, and Jewish law.[1] It is based on the principle of stare decisis (precedent) and is an adversarial system, where the parties in the suit bring evidence before the court. Court cases are decided by professional judges rather than juries.[154] Marriage and divorce are under the jurisdiction of the religious courts: Jewish, Muslim, Druze, and Christian. A committee of Knesset members, Supreme Court justices, and Israeli Bar members carries out the election of judges.[157] Israel’s Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty seeks to defend human rights and liberties in Israel. Israel is the only country in the region ranked “Free” by Freedom House based on the level of civil liberties and political rights; the “Israeli Occupied Territories/Palestinian Authority” was ranked “Not Free.”[158][159] However, in 2009 Reporters Without Borders rated Israel 93 out of 175 countries in terms of freedom of the press, lagging behind countries such as Kuwait (60th), Lebanon (61st) and United Arab Emirates (86th).[160][161] Groups such as Amnesty International[162] and Human Rights Watch[163] have often disapproved of Israel’s human rights record in regards to the Arab–Israeli conflict. Israel’s civil liberties also allow for self-criticism, from groups such as B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization.[164]…
July 1, 2010 at 12:45 am
FACEBOOK
Jan Boeykens
I tried to publish a message (see below) on my wall but that was not possible.
I found my message back on the Facebook page ‘ISRAEL’ that is making publicity for the Israeli Government.
It happened without my permission.
It is not the first and it will certainly not the latest problem with Facebook that is owned by the 26 year-old boyscout Mark Zuckerberg who visited the English Prime Minister some days ago and removed the Boycott BP fan page, which had almost 800,000 members.
—
Hereby the message which I was not able to publish on my wall and which was published without my permission on the page ‘ISRAEL’ that is made for everybody ‘who have a passion for Israel’…
Let us fight, side by side, with the Palestinian people.
Let us boycott Israel. Let us block their ships in our ports.
Videos from Jérusalem القدس Support: Visit Palestine – By Caoimhe Butterly [HQ]http://w
ww.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1307796544334&oid=118719891500541