Lebanon asks UN to record “Israeli” violations…(1)

Lebanon asked its representative in the United Nations to hand in to Secretary-General Kofi Annan a report on “Israeli” violations of the Lebanese border line, airspace, and regional waters.

The report indicated that “Israeli” warplanes violated Lebanese airspace during the month of October, and also flew over Lebanese territory four times on November 1 and 2. Lebanon maintained in its report that such activities are clear violations of UN resolution 425.

Jewish state’s troops fire warning shots to warn stone-throwers away from frontier…(2)

“Israeli” soldiers fired three warning shots into the air on Sunday to disperse supporters of Hizbullah who were throwing stones at the soldiers from Fatima Gate in Kfar Kila.
No casualties were reported, and the nearly 60 youths dispersed after chanting anti-”Israeli” slogans, waving Hizbullah banners, and shouting pro-Palestinian slogans for almost an hour.
The crowd also burned US and “Israeli” flags.
The demonstrators went to the border demonstration in a ceremony during which MP and Hizbullah official Mohammed Raad announced that the Kfar Kila-Aadeisseh road along the border would be renamed for Abdullah Atwi. Atwi launched a martyrdom operation in front of a group of “Israeli” soldiers at the fortified gate in 1988.
The stone-throwing, which has occurred since “Israel’s” May 24 withdrawal from the South, has prompted “Israeli” soldiers to fire at protesting crowds on several occasions. Since October, three Palestinians have been killed and 16 others wounded by “Israeli” gunfire.
Mohammed Sobhi, the renowned Egyptian comedy actor and director, was among those at Fatima Gate who threw stones at the “Israeli” soldiers on Sunday.
Sobhi, who is visiting Lebanon to participate in the International Book Fair, said the resistance’s achievements should teach Arabs that “what was taken by struggle should be recovered by struggle.”
Sobhi added that solidarity with the Palestinians was felt among the Palestinian and the Egyptian publics and should exist with their governments.
He said he had honored Hizbullah for three years with his 2000 Road to Peace play, which was performed in Cairo and revolves around the resistance’s struggle.
“Each night after “Israel’s” pullout from the South, I gave a special salute to Hizbullah on stage,” Sobhi said.
He added that the audience would warmly applaud the special salute to Hizbullah, expressing their solidarity with the resistance.

“Israelis” spark rumors with new border gate…(3)

The “Israeli” Army has installed a swing gate in the new wall and fence under construction on the summit of Sheikh Abbad hill.
The gate, wide enough for armored vehicles and trucks, is just north of the disputed tomb and has raised eyebrows among visitors to the hill-top site.
Quipped one visitor: “Is it there to allow “Israeli” troops back into Lebanon or for Hizbullah to cross into “Israel”?”

Golan settlements prepare for possible Hizbullah attacks…(4)

 Security procedures at northern Golan Heights settlements have been beefed up in response to the kidnapping by Hizbullah of three “Israeli” soldiers at Har Dov and to reports about the intentions of the Shi'ite organization to continue its hostile activities along the northern border.
Exemplifying the trend, a security team of residents of Moshav Neveh Ativ has been re-assembled, two years after it was dismantled; in addition, bomb shelters in the settlement are staying open and are being kept well stocked in accordance with orders issued by the Northern Command of the “Israeli” Army.
More stringent security procedures on the Golan have included the shutting down of the Mount Hermon site, although the Northern Command has promised to reconsider this policy as the winter progresses and the ski season begins.
In addition, Golan settlements have been asked to take various steps in the name of added protection. Some have balked; residents of the Nimrod settlement, for example, refused to allow soldiers to stand guard at the entrance to the community.
Ha'aretz has learned that the Northern Command has ordered the residents team at Neveh Ativ to prepare itself along the lines of the emergency squads in communities in the Upper Galilee, along the Lebanon border.
Some 10 residents of Neveh Ativ, most of them newly-discharged from the Army, volunteered to join the squad and will receive M-16 rifles and other types of defense equipment.
Two weeks ago, the members of the squad trained at a firing range and were briefed by “Israeli” officers.
The four families which live in Nimrod, formerly an “Israeli” Army outpost that became a civilian settlement two years ago, opposed recommendations for the deployment of guards and the implementation of other stepped-up security procedures.
Since the Har Dov kidnapping, the residents of Nimrod said yesterday, "the army has been on the go. There are more soldiers in the region now."
None of the residents of Nimrod volunteered to be issued with rifles. The IDF has stated that if the need arises, soldiers would be quickly dispatched to provide defense for the small settlement.

Cyberwar expands to claim first US victim…(5)

Arab hackers have targeted the website of a US company that conducts business with “Israel” ­  the first such attack since the Arab-”Israeli” cyberwar began three weeks ago.
The US company, Lucent Technologies, was attacked on Thursday by thousands of hackers at the same time. Although the company confirmed it was targeted, it said company security workers were able to fend off the attack before it brought the site down.
The attack came only a few days after an FBI warning that the Arab-”Israeli” cyberwar could “spill over” to the United States.
The Lucent website was listed among 13 sites posted on the UNITY website, a site encouraging Arabs to target “Israeli” sites.
Over the weekend at least six “Israeli” sites were hacked, among them a commercial firm for strategic consulting, project planning, and website design; a commercial medical company; an “Israeli” student association; a college; and a religious high school.
The hackers attacking the “Israeli” sites identified themselves as “Gforce Pakistan,” which is most probably the same group that hacked an American pro-”Israeli” lobby group, Aipac, last week.
The attack on the American-”Israeli” Public Affairs Committee was the first cyberwar case to be comprehensively reported by major US media outlets.
Meanwhile, the “Israeli” site, www.wizel.com, that initiated the cyberwar three weeks ago by listing Hizbullah and Palestinian sites, has been removed. However, a group calling itself ““Israel” Hackers” launched a website on Sunday that has similar functions as www.wizel.com.
Entitled “Hackers of “Israel” Unite,” the site encourages “the army of “Israeli” soldiers on the net” to “search and destroy all of the Arab sites on the net.”
The site, which had received 214 visitors by early Sunday evening, tells “Israeli” supporters that all they need is “a computer, a shell, and revenge.”
The sites listed to be targeted include the Palestinian Authority site; Hizbullah’s Al-Manar Television site; a Palestinian information site, www.sis.gov.ps; Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency site; and a Jordanian portal site, www.albawaba.com.
The “Israeli” site’s front page posts a picture of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat holding sticks of dynamite. Below is a picture of Palestinian children holding guns with Unicef’s logo on top. Another animated picture shows Arafat repeatedly ducking target attacks aimed at him.
The site, www.israelhackers. cjb.net, is trying to coordinate attacks based on ICQ channels.
The “Israeli” Army website was again downed for at least five days, despite seeking AT&T to host it after it was downed by Arab hackers.
“Israeli” site administrators are kept busy protecting sites from Arab hackers.
The “Israeli” Army site, for example, keeps going on and off, indicating that it is being attacked and then reloaded by site administrators.
The “Israeli” sites that were down on Sunday afternoon included the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Religious Affairs, and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
“We’re expecting the battle to heat up from our side in the next few days,” a UNITY staffer told The Daily Star.
“Our cyberwar won’t stop until all the anti-Zionist sites attacked are restored,” he said.
New UNITY attack sites include the following: http://unity.globalredirect.com and http://www.explode.to/unity.

Palestinian clerics: open borders for struggle…(6)

Qassem: “Israeli” occupation is the reason behine current tragedies

The Palestinian Ulama Union in Lebanon has urged Arab countries bordering “Israel” to open their borders and let Arabs fight in support of the Palestinians.
Following a meeting of more than 50 religious figures at the Hussein Mosque in Sidon on Saturday, the group issued a statement saying Arab governments should endorse struggle for the Palestinians by opening their borders.
It also advised Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to end his political career in an “honorable fashion” by retracting his decisions to negotiate with the Jewish state and imprison “mujahedeen fighters.”
During the meeting, Hizbullah’s deputy secretary-general, Naim Qassem, said the recent events in Palestine opened up the possibility of alternatives, including force, to be used.
He said the “Israelis” were mistaken if they thought that security agreements meant the conflict with the Arabs was over.
“Zionism and “Israeli” occupation of Arab land are the reasons behind the current tragedies, and as long as there is occupation, this means that file isn’t closed,” Qassem said.
He argued that “Israeli” moves to file complaints against Lebanon would fail to yield any results. “Israel” has filed complaints with the United Nations about cross-border stone-throwing incidents and other problems at the Lebanese border.
“We won’t surrender to their allegations, even if Annan himself wrote the (UNIFIL) report in order to please “Israel” and the United States. We tell him to save the ink because his bias toward “Israel” made him lose his credibility in the eyes of Lebanon and Palestine,” Qassem said.
Sidon religious judge Ahmad Zein said the union wanted to produce “practical solutions” to support the Palestinian people instead of just talking about the clashes with “Israeli” troops.
The union promoted continuing the intifada and maintained that any bid to abort it was an act of treason. It requested that Islamist ulama play a role in the intifada, and that Arabs boycott American products and organize protests in support of Palestine.

Two Palestinians are shot dead despite the ceasefire…(7)

Despite a wobbly truce, and “Israel’s” frequently repeated claim that it is not to blame for the violence in the occupied territories, its troops shot another two Palestinians yesterday.

Palestinian doctors said that one of the victims was a 28-year-old man who died after being shot through the heart, while the other was a 16-year-old schoolboy shot in the head during unrest at a refugee camp near the “Israeli” border.

The latest deaths, both in the Gaza Strip, mean that a dozen people have died – 10 Palestinians, and two Jewish “Israelis” killed by a bomb in Al-Quds – since the ceasefire was agreed early last Thursday by the former “Israeli” prime minister Shimon Peres and the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat. According to Palestinian sources, these include a 14-year-old girl who was shot in the head while walking home from school on Saturday and a three-month baby who was suffocated by tear gas in Hebron.

The truce has produced a significant dip in the bloodshed, and “Israeli” officials now acknowledge that Mr Arafat has ordered an end to the shooting on his side. But scattered fighting, including the occasional use of tanks and heavy machine-guns, continues.

Palestinian gunmen fired on “Israeli” soldiers several times yesterday. The “Israeli” army has also continued to kill protesters – part of a larger tactic of steadily pressurising the Palestinian population into abandoning its uprising.

The death toll – believed to be 173 – is so large, and the shooting of young Arab protesters so regular, that public opinion and the media have generally grown immune to the impact, though human rights groups say they could amount to war crimes.

Hamas denies news on cohabitation with the Occupation…(8)

The cease-fire agreement did not stop Palestinians from going on with their uprising against the “Israeli” occupation.Clashes broke out again on Saturday, and eighty-three Palestinian civilians were injured by “Israeli” bullets, three of which are seriously wounded.  A number of the injured are children, as it has been the case since the beginning of the intifadah on September 28.Ramallah hospital announced that Rami Ahmed Abd al-Fattah Matawiyyah,a 15 year old boy died from his wounds.

Hundreds of Palestinians who participated in funerals of their martyrs vowed to revenge their dead and wounded.

Founder of Hamas Movement, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, denied what some news media reported him saying that Hamas may establish peace with "“Israel”" if it withdraws from the territories it occupied in 1967.Sheikh Yassin made clear, in a statement, that what has been reported is incorrect, and a distortion of his stand. He affirmed Hamas' unchangeable position, saying that the movement will never give up a parcel of Palestinian occupied land, under any condition, "may it be land occupied since 1948 or 1967".Hamas considers that the “Israeli” occupation and settlements are present on all the land of Palestine.

Eygpt names street where the “Israeli” embassy is located"Mohammed Al-Dorra'…(9)

Egyptian authorities decided to change the name of the street where the “Israeli” Embassy lies to become Mohammed al-Dorra. The Egyptian newspaper "al-Akhbar"- The News- mentioned today that the local public council for Giza province aimed by this decision to honor the Palestinian child whose martyrdom shook the wolrd's conscience.The child, who was shot by the “Israelis” while in his father laps, has become a symbol of the Palestinian uprising.

Saudi Daily Okaz calls for more martyrdom operations in Palestine…(10)

The Saudi daily "Okaz" called for more martyrdom operations against the “Israelis” - this being a natural response to the “Israeli” tyranny and land confiscation policy. The newspaper referred to what took place in western Al-Quds as a new reality- the Palestinian people who has lost thousands is ready now more than ever to lose a thousand more.

"Bilad", another Saudi newspaper, mentioned that the bombing in Al-Quds made clear that the Palestinians are able to render the “Israelis” sleepless, hit and hurt them until they can't bear it any more.

A family with more martyrs in waiting

As the el-Louh family mourns their third relation to die recently in “Israel”, the wall of their home bears a bleak message…(11)

Aisha el-Louh believes that Oslo died with Rabin. For Samir el-Louh, Oslo expired at Camp David. Dib el-Louh insists that Oslo was doomed from the moment Ariel Sharon turned up at the Haram al-Sharif, the Temple Mount. But all were agreed that Oslo killed Nahed el-Louh stone dead a few hours earlier. Just as it had cut down Ayman el-Louh a month ago and, two weeks later, young Mirvat el-Louh, a schoolgirl, just 18 when she choked to death on tear-gas.

The family home in Gaza was not, you might think, an appropriate place to discuss the corpse of the Oslo agreement yesterday, certainly not when the “Israelis” were delaying the return of Nahed's body for burial from the West Bank town of Tulkarem. But politics runs like blood through the slums of Gaza; mourners mix grief with argument, anger with history.

As Nahed el-Louh's cousin Jawad said, the Oslo agreement was part of the "New World Order" in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. "Oslo was not of our choosing. But the PLO was pressured to go to the Madrid conference in 1991 and then, when Oslo followed, we hoped the most sensitive issues – Al-Quds, refugees, Jewish settlements – would be resolved. But they were left to the end and that was when something went wrong with Oslo. The “Israelis” did not intend to stop the settlements on our land and they would not give us east Al-Quds as a capital."

In the concrete hut behind him, other members of the el-Louh family were on the telephone to Tulkarem. Nahed el-Louh's mother, Salwa, had phoned her husband, Fathi, on Friday. "The boy's gone to throw stones," he told her. Which is how Nahed – who was just 20 – received an “Israeli” bullet in the brain.

The eldest of eight children, he had left school at 14 to help his father as a construction labourer, travelling up to Tulkarem for work three months ago. Yesterday, the family arranged an ambulance to bring his body to the Erez crossing into Gaza, for transfer to a second ambulance which would take him to the family home. The “Israelis”, the family said, had refused this arrangement. An ambulance would now have to drive from Gaza, across “Israel”, and bring the body all the way back. The father would not be allowed to return for the burial.

It would be difficult to find a more effective way of enraging a grief-stricken family. Samir el-Louh's anger broke through his political explanations. "“Israel” had a plan to push what it wanted at Camp David, to give a little bit on the holy places in return for keeping Al-Quds Jewish, to make us give big things for little things," he said. "But the Palestinian leadership had their own red lines. And when the “Israelis” couldn't push through what they wanted by peaceful means at Camp David, they decided to do so by force. So Sharon went to the Haram al-Sharif."

Nahed's death was scarcely a surprise. Aisha, his 49-year-old cousin, is a female Palestinian police officer who was a member of the Tanzim militia 30 years ago, jailed by the “Israelis” on 15 March 1970, after being caught carrying weapons in Gaza. She spent six months in the Gaza Central Prison.

Amid the sea of mourners – the men are always separated from the women, their voices louder in grief as they are in politics – there were no more believers in Oslo. There were only believers in UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338; in an “Israeli” withdrawal from the land conquered in 1967, from all of Gaza, all of the West Bank, all of east Al-Quds. No more settlements, they kept saying.

Dib el-Louh – the father of Nahed's cousin Ayman who was killed last month – was unshaven, tearful, re-living at Nahed's funeral the death of his own son. "We want peace, of course," he said. "All the Palestinians want peace. You must not think that we like fighting. But Oslo was a peace of lies. The “Israelis” did not want a real peace. Sharon's visit to the mosques showed this. I knew Oslo was finished even before Ayman's death."

On the wall of the el-Louh family home amid the Gaza hovels of Daraj, there is now a grim and powerful message. "Nahed Fathi el-Louh was martyred for the Al-Aqsa Intifada," it says in blue paint. "Ayman el-Louh was martyred for the Intifada. Mirvat el-Louh was martyred for the Intifada. A lot of the el-Louh family are still waiting to be martyred."

Footnotes:

1-     Manar TV, 4-11-2000.

2-     The Daily Star, 6-11-2000.

3-     Same source.

4-     Haaretz, 6-11-2000.

5-     The Daily Star, 6-11-2000.

6-     Same source.

7-     Independent, 6-11-2000.

8-     Manar TV, 4-11-2000.

9-     Same source.

10-  Same source.

11-  Independent, 5-11-2000.