Imam Khamenei: "Iran will always support the Palestinian people"…(1)

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei declared that aiding the Palestinian people is a religious obligation. He asserted that Iran will maintain its support to the Palestinians whenever it can.

Sayyed Khamenei pointed that acting in accordance with Islamic provisions is an object of pride to the Iranian government, president, parliament and judiciary authority.

His reverence said "By the virtue of the Islamic teachings calling for unity and harmony and by the virtue of the people's enlightenment, the enemy failed in achieving its ominous ends."

The Iranian President Sayyed Mohammed Khatami, on his part, called Islamic countries to unite in the coming Islamic Summit to defend the legal rights of the Palestinian people. He maintained that defending the oppressed Palestinian people is among the major principles of the Islamic Republic in Iran.

“Israeli” jets shake Beirut with supersonic booms…(2)

“ “Israeli” warplanes broke the sound barrier Tuesday over Beirut for the second consecutive day and flew at low altitude over a southern Lebanese city, AFP correspondents said.

The fighter-bombers provoked two loud supersonic booms over the capital, they said.

The jets had earlier swooped at very low altitude over the southern port city of Tyre, causing panic among residents, they said.

Tension has prevailed in the area since Monday when two “Israeli” helicopters landed briefly in a village in mysterious circumstances while other gunships overflew 10 other villages.

Lebanon complained to the United Nations over such landing, “Israel’s” first military presence on the country's soil since it ended a 22-year occupation of south Lebanon in May.

On Monday, “Israeli” jets staged mock raids over Tyre and broke the sound barrier over many regions in Lebanon, including the capital during a visit there by Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustapha Miro.

“Israel” had almost completely stopped flying over Lebanon after its May pullout.

Beirut filed a complaint last week to the United Nations over repeated “Israeli” violations of its airspace.

An “Israeli” military spokesman reached by AFP in Al-Quds denied that any “Israeli” warplanes flew over Lebanon on Monday.

The spokesman earlier had seemed to confirm the flights, saying: "“Israeli” planes fly over all sectors it is necessary to fly over to assure the security of “Israel” and its nationals, particularly in light of the kidnapping of three of its soldiers."

Protesters remember detainees
Demonstration makes way to UN House as activists mark Detained Teachers Day…(3)

Campaigners for the release of Lebanese detainees in “Israeli” prisons marked Detained Teachers Day on Tuesday, highlighting the educational opportunities lost by hundreds of former and current detainees.
Held every Nov. 7, the day is one of six dedicated annually to detainees in “Israeli” prisons.
According to Mohammed Safa, director of the Follow-Up Committee for Lebanese Detainees in “Israeli” Prisons, the event commemorates not only teachers detained by “Israel” at one time or another, but also those still held by the Jewish state.
This year’s celebration was held at the all-female Omar Faroukh Secondary School in Cola. In addition to students, the crowd included Education Minister Abdel-Rahim Mrad, Minister of State Beshara Merhej and representatives of educational bodies.
In their midst was 19-year old Houda Hamade who, in 1997, was wrenched from her home in the southern village of Maroun al-Ras. Only 16 at the time, Hamade was later taken to the Khiam detention center, where she remained for more than a year. Though prison may have put her formal schooling on hold, it also taught her “struggle and patience,” and did nothing to discouraging her from going back to school once her home was liberated.
Now an 11th grader at Omar Faroukh, she said: “When I was a detainee, every time I remembered that people outside were dedicating a day like this one to us, I became happy. We shouldn’t forget the people who are still imprisoned because I’m sure days like these make them happy, too.”
According to Safa, who was himself a teacher before being captured and imprisoned for 100 days during the 1982 “Israeli” invasion, “60 percent of former Khiam detainees were either teachers or students before their detention.”
In Bint Jbeil on Tuesday, former Khiam detainee Nawal Beydoun explained to her students the significance of Detained Teachers Day. She reminded them of the importance of fighting “Israel” at all costs, something for which she was imprisoned between 1988 and 1992.
Until her captivity she had been a law student and an Arabic teacher.
“It may have been a big sacrifice to give up teaching and studying to carry out a military operation,” she said, “but liberating my land was a priority for me and I have no regrets.”
Wasting no time after her release, Beydoun immediately picked up where she had left off and “carried on the struggle with words and education.” She went back to teaching and is now in her third year of law school.
Qantar, serving a 542-year sentence, managed to continue his studies behind bars, and eventually obtained a degree in political science.
Demonstrators proceeded to Riad Solh Square, where about 100 students demonstrated in front of UN House. They were joined by Western Bekaa MP Robert Ghanem and Nejib Freiji, who heads the UN’s information center. A dozen helium balloons were released into the sky, each one bearing the name and photo of a Lebanese detainee.

IDB earmarks 16.5 million dollars for south Lebanon reconstruction…(4)

“ The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has earmarked 16.46 million dollars for reconstruction and development projects in south Lebanon, its president said here Tuesday.

Ahmad Mohammad Ali, speaking at the opening of the bank's 25th annual meeting, said the IDB had also approved eight million dollars for upgrading equipment at Al-Quds's al-Makassed hospital, as well as one million dollars in medical aid for Palestinians injured in the past six weeks of violence.

Speaking at the same meeting, Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri called on the IDB to increase its aid to Lebanon, "a country that has paid a heavy tribute to the cause of the Arab and Islamic peoples."

The IDB is based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and is financed by contributions from 45 Islamic countries.

A new martyrdom operation in Palestine…(5)

An “Israeli” military source said that it is more likely that a Palestinian bomber executed Monday evening the attack which targeted an “Israeli” warboat off Gaza strip shore. The source claimed that a fishing boat carrying explosives blew up close to the “Israeli” warboat without causing any injuries.

In addition, the “Israeli” Radio said that a planted bomb exploded while an “Israeli” military patrol was passing in al-Khalil town.  An “Israeli” military source also reported that a military patrol was gunfired Tuesday morning close to Kalkilya village, north West Bank. The source clarified that the “Israeli” patrol stopped traffic for some time on the road leading to Ayal settlement close to Kalkilya and combed the area.

During Tuesday's clashes in Beit Laham Abdallah Khaled Amarimah (24 years) was shot dead by “Israeli” bullets. Clashes also broke out at the Eretz crossing point in Gaza Strip where Palestinians hurled Molotov and stones at the occupation soldiers.

Moreover, various confrontations took place Monday evening in West Bank and Gaza strip. A Palestinian was seriously injured by a bullet in his chest close to al-Fawwar camp near al-Khalil city.  Palestinian fighters also hit “Israeli” settlements near Jenine, Ramallah, and mount-al-Khalil, as well as, “Israeli” military outposts.

Arab architects’ design to pressure “Israel” to halt ‘Judaization’ of Al-Quds…(6)

No city in the world has been at the heart of religious and political tug-of-war as much as Al-Quds. Holy to the followers of three religions ­ Judaism, Christianity and Islam ­ and found in an area of the world where religion and politics are separated only by an invisible line, the city is viewed as crucial for both Palestinian statehood and the survival of “Israel”.
Shortly before the new intifada erupted, the Organization of Arab Architects (OAA) published the minutes of a conference in Beirut last year on the theme: Al-Quds Today, City and People, Continuing Challenges.
“The OAA organized the conference to study the conditions of the city in a historical and urban framework and to warn against the dangers and mutilations facing the city’s Arab Islamic history and human and organizational structure since it came under “Israel’s” occupation in 1967,” says OAA president Assem Salam.
““Israel’s” plans to Judaize Al-Quds are visible in “Israel’s” restrictions on the city’s Arab population, its creation of (Jewish) settlements inside the city, and its expansion of the city’s municipal limits,” Salam, a former president of Lebanon’s Order of Engineers, writes in his introduction to the book.
Adopting the same name as the conference, the book includes all the lectures delivered during the November 1999 event at Unesco Palace. However, it bypasses the exhibition of pictures held on the sidelines of the conference. Not a single photograph has been included.
But the Arabic and English lectures, varying from historical to political and touching on Christian and Islamic religious heritage, enlighten readers who missed the conference and serve as a good reference for all.
Tarif Khalidy, a Al-Quds-born history professor who now teaches at Cambridge University, focuses on Al-Quds’s historiography, a less visible struggle that is still developing.
He accuses Zionist Orientalism of questioning early Arab sources, especially narratives of the conquests of Al-Quds, to deny the city’s significance to Muslims. He warns that “this Zionist mindset, which finds it convenient to seize other’s territory, may very well find this easier to do if such territory is swamped with legend.”
Hammam Abdel-Rahim Said, an Islamic studies scholar and Jordanian MP, outlines the Islamic history of Al-Quds’s Holy Sanctuary, which includes the Dome of the Rock, Al-Aqsa Mosque, and several smaller mosques and religious schools. He urges Arabs to draft and fund plans to preserve the Arab Islamic architectural character of the Holy City.
Mount Lebanon’s Orthodox bishop, George Khodr, argues that “Al-Quds has created Palestine, historically and culturally, not the other way round.”
He calls for “reconciliation” and “equality” between peoples living in Al-Quds and urges the Holy City’s Muslims and Christians to “share a common view of Al-Quds in order to keep it a living example of tolerance and a meeting place for the three heavenly religions.”
Arguing for the implementation of international agreements, Paul de Waart, a professor of international law at the Vrije Univeraiteit in Amsterdam, says that “in spite of the unilateral and de-facto nature of “Israel’s” measures … legal texts of international agreements and resolutions provide a strong basis for a just and final solution.” He then lists agreements and resolutions that he says are capable, if enforced, of reversing “Israel’s” measures to Judaize the city.
There is also a discussion of the pure architectural aspects of the Dome of the Rock by Oleg Grabar, a professor of Islamic architecture at Harvard. “Being set separately from its surroundings, having a colorful surface contrasting with its surroundings, and being geometrically almost perfect, the Dome of the Rock dominates the city,” he says before exploring the tourist implications of the structure.
And there’s more: the geo-strategic implications of Jewish settlement in Al-Quds; “Israel’s” master plan for “Greater Al-Quds;” the declining Arab role of the city; the expansion of the city; Muslim and Christian endowments in Al-Quds; how old buildings in the city can be adapted to modern uses; housing problems; and the declining Arab population in the city.
The book conclude with several recommendations, including a call on Arab countries to lobby the world community to pressure “Israel” to implement international resolutions dealing with Al-Quds. It also calls on Arabs to stop all normalization processes with “Israel” until the Al-Quds question has been settled.

Footnotes:

1- Manar TV, 7-11-2000.

2- AFP, 7-11-2000.

3- The Daily Star, 8-11-2000.

4- Manar TV, 7-11-2000.

5- Same source.

6- The Daily Star, 8-11-2000.