A video grab shows the last frame of Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana before he was fatally wounded by an Israeli shell whilst working in the Gaza Strip April 16, 2008. Shana, a 23-year-old Palestinian, died after he stepped from his vehicle, apparently to film Israeli forces positioned several hundred metres (yards) away. Soundman, Wafa Abu […]

When your dream house becomes an Israeli military post. The sad thing about this is that there are people who will still justify it, and I think you really need to view Palestinians, or Arabs in general, as truly less than human to be able to justify it; even to yourself.

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The man who stabbed the German tourist a few weeks back has been charged by a military court with committing a “terrorist act”, after earlier being passed off as a mentally deranged person with no terrorist intentions by the Interior Minister. The charge has to be approved by the attorney general and it probably will […]

AMMAN (Reuters) - Jordanian authorities on Wednesday released Jordanian Sheikh Abu Mohammad al-Maqdisi, a leading al-Qaeda mentor, after several years imprisonment without trial, security sources said. They said Maqdisi, who was regarded as the spiritual mentor of slain al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had been in solitary confinement since he was rearrested […]

While everyone waits with bated breath the results of today’s deadly primaries in the US, here are a few del.icio.us pickings I’ve been reading these past couple of days:
- A Rose By Any Other Name: An Iranian court has ordered a man to give his wife the 124,000 roses that he promised in her dowry, […]

Probably in response to Abbas’ decision to break off contact with Israel, but I found this incredibly ironic, but you be the judge…
“Absence of negotiations would lead to a ‘Gazaization’ of the West Bank, and anyone who can’t see this is lying to himself,” - Prime Minister Olmert. March 3, 2008. [source]

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Going to work on a Saturday, especially when most of the employees that don’t “have” to work are absent, just throws the whole week off. Saturdays become Sundays, and Sundays become Mondays, but by the time Thursday comes around, your mind is already sleeping in on a Friday morning, except it’s really only Thursday. So […]

“The more Qassam fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves,” - Israel’s deputy defence minister, Matan Vilnai, refering to the current military operation in Gaza, stating that Palestinians would bring on themselves a “bigger shoah,” […]

The United Nations’ top human rights official said Friday that waterboarding — a tactic used by the U.S. in its battle against terror — qualifies as torture. The Bush administration acknowledged for the first time this week that it waterboarded al-Qaida detainees. Vice President Dick Cheney said it was “a good thing” that the prisoners […]

So far, some 37 Palestinians have been killed in four days (i.e. since Bush’s visit to Israel), in an Israeli attempt to end the launching of rockets into its territory. Over 200 rockets have been launched since the seige began. Two Israeli injuries were reported. These homemade rockets have in fact killed 12 Israelis, in […]

This was an interesting article in today’s Jordan Times outlining the Jordan-Iraqi border check procedures that include radiation scans:
The most common products containing radioactive elements that enter the border are agricultural goods, as years of warfare have contaminated Iraqi soil. Border officials had to deny entry to Iraqi trucks carrying dates, as their radiation levels […]

An article in Time Magazine describes a cool anti-Guantánamo detention center, where would-be Saudi terrorists enter a type of theological-rehab program. The idea is to get them to abandon their extremist ways in a facility that offers everything from video games, ping pong and art therapy to reformed religious classes. Here’s the part I thought […]

The Israeli military has said a tank fired at three Palestinian children who were killed in Gaza on Tuesday because troops mistook them for militants.
The three cousins - two boys aged 10 and 12, and a 12-year-old girl - were playing near rocket launchers outside Beit Hanun, a military statement said.
An internal army investigation found […]

Support for suicide bombings against civilians has fallen sharply across the Muslim world since 2002, a major survey has suggested…In Lebanon, Bangladesh, Jordan, Pakistan and Indonesia, the proportion of Muslims who support suicide bombing has declined by half or more since 2002. But in areas of conflict, the results are different - 70% of Palestinians […]

“I decided to murder an Arab.” - 26-year-old Tel Aviv resident Julian Soufir, confessing to police after slitting the throat of an Arab taxi driver.
Two Israeli brothers have been detained in connection with the stabbing to death of a Palestinian taxi driver in an apparent hate crime, police said. Julian Soufir, 25, has been ordered […]

A reader of the Black Iris shifted my attention towards an article in yesterday’s Al-Ghad about a Palestinian in east Gaza whose Internet cafe was targeted recently by an extremist group calling itself the “swords of justice” or “swords of righteousness”, or whatever latest creative names these goons have come up with. The cafe is […]