http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=18743
10-year-old girl, shot on Tuesday by Israeli border police, dies after taken off life support
Date: 19 / 01 / 2007 Time: 12:34


Abir Aramin died Friday

Jerusalem - Ma'an - A ten-year-old girl from a village north of Jerusalem, who was critically injured by Israeli Border Police on Tuesday, has died after being taken off her life support machine.

Abir Bassam Aramin, from the As Salam neighbourhood of Anata, situated close to Israel's illegal separation wall north of Jerusalem, died in Jerusalem's Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital. She had been kept on life support machine since Tuesday, when she was shot in the head by Israeli forces with a stun grenade close to her school. Since Tuesday, she lay in a coma.

In a press release from the International Solidarity Movement, who had taken part in a demonstration on Thursday against this fatal attack, Hassan, a sixteen-year old student who witnessed Abir's injury and carried her back to the girls' school stated, "The students of the girls' school and the boys' school had both just come out of an examination. A border police jeep approached the gathering of girls. The girls were afraid and started running away. The border police jeep followed them in the direction in which they were retreating. Abir was afraid and stood against one of the shops at the side of the road, I was standing near her. The border policeman shot through a special hole in the window of the jeep that was standing very close to us. Abir fell to the ground. I picked her up and took her to the girls' school. I saw that she was bleeding from the head."

The Israeli military claim that the Palestinian children were protesting against the separation wall. The Israeli army claims that the child was amongst other students who were protesting by throwing stones and rocks at the Israeli patrols, and that the soldiers shot tear gas and sonic bombs at the children for dispersal only.

Bassam Aramin, the girl's father, is a member of Combatants for Peace, an Israeli-Palestinian peace organisation comprised of former Israeli combat soldiers and Palestinians who were previously involved in acts of violence in the name of Palestinian liberation. He has denied the army's story saying that she was with her sister at the time of the attack.

He told the Israeli daily 'Haaretz': "Border Policemen see our children as targets, terrorists. They think if they shoot a 10-year-old girl they are serving the country's security."

"I don't know how a policeman is threatened by a 10-year-old girl who went to buy candy," said Aramin. "Maybe they will say it was a psycho who shot, or they will say that sometimes [Palestinians] lie and say a Palestinian family was killed on the sand at the beach, or that in Beit Hanun 20 Palestinians were killed by Qassams. But this story won't work with me, this policeman and his commanders must be punished."

The school principal has also denied the army's story.

ISM also states that, according to Avichai Sharon of Combatants for Peace and a friend of the family, "The Israeli border police have been entering Anata frequently when students go and return from school for the last year and eight months. This began with the construction of the Wall near Anata, supposedly in order to protect the construction workers from the students, but construction of the wall was completed over a month and a half ago." According to Wael Salameh, a close friend of the family and a member of Combatants for Peace, "This week border police would invade the village twice a day when the students were going and returning from school."

The Israeli military, however, said in a statement published in the Israeli daily 'Haaretz', "During a Border Police operation in Anata [on Tuesday], a riot developed that including the throwing of stones at the force… The troops were forced to respond with methods for dispersing protestors. As of yet, no complaint has been received ... regarding injuries."

Haaretz also says that, at around 9am on Tuesday, the children from the sixth grade went into the yard for a break. At that time, confrontations broke out outside the school.

On Thursday morning, Israeli and international supporters gathered at the girls' school in Anata to express their solidarity with the family and school, and to attempt to protect the traumatised students from the ongoing threat of the Israeli border police.

http://www.imemc.org/article/46606
10 year old in terminal condition this morning after Israeli Army gas bomb attack on Tuesday
Thursday January 18, 2007 03:13 by Palestine News Network

Abeer was carrying a book, a notebook and some pens in her 10 year old hands. She was yet to participate in a demonstration or a march protesting occupation, but that did not stop Israeli soldiers hitting her with a gas bomb on Tuesday morning.

Abeer Aramin was injured by the gas bomb that was shot at the back of her head. She had just stepped out of the Anata School for Girls for a break after taking a test when the incident occured and she was knocked to the ground.

Israeli forces in Jerusalem had penetrated the town and began indiscriminately opening fire while detonating gas and sound bombs. Some young people responded with stones.

Abeer was a victim of the 'war game' that the Israeli soldiers play on a daily basis when they enter the town during school hours and begin shooting near the Anata schools.

Abeer's father, Bassam Aramin, said, “I contacted the school administration while I was on my way to work and they told me that my daughter had been knocked to the ground and suffered a head injury. I thought it was just something simple. I contacted her mother and asked if she could go to the school and check it.

But over the telephone I learned that the soldiers had done it and that Abeer had been rushed to Makassed Hospital. During her first examination we learned that her skull had been fractured and that she had bleeding in her brain. She was initially treated and then we rushed her to Hadassah Hospital, Ein Karim Branch, in order to follow up the situation which was described in both hospitals as serious".

Abeer was lying in intensive care and was in a critical condition. She underwent brain surgery at 9:00 pm on Tuesday as her health deteriorated. Despite attempts to revive her Abeer was declared clinically dead yesterday, and is currently on respiratory equipment. IMEMC sources in Jerusalem reported that her parents intend to turn off all machinery within the next few hours to give their daughter a peaceful death.

Abeer's father works for the Jerusalem Society for Democracy and Dialogue and said, “I work in peace organizations and want to appeal to the entire world that what we want is a just and honorable peace.

Bassam Aramin had some words for the Israeli government. “The victims among the Palestinian people are no less important than Israeli people. We are all human beings.”

He called on Israeli mothers to not be “tools of the occupation by sending their children to the battlefield without reason.” Aramin explained, “My daughter is a victim of a systematic oppressive policy and the Israelis must end the occupation and say yes to peace.”

The Director of the Anata School for Girls said on Wednesday that she regrets what happened to Abeer Aramin. “What happened yesterday is a deliberate and provocative exercise that has been practiced by border guards since the beginning of exams at the end of the first quarter, and is targeted at students in all of the Anata Secondary schools.” She added, “The border guards are present daily at the doors of the Anata School for Boys and that for girls, and around Saladin Street where they know the kids must pass to reach buses or to walk home".

She added,"they provoke the students by throwing grenades at them". The school director appealed for international protection for Palestinian school students.

Israel : How U.S. Tax Dollars Fund Occupation :
2 Minute Video
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article16182.htm

Christian Zionism is the direct product of this unusual and recent Western form of Protestant theology. Found primarily in North America and England, it is now exported around the globe via satellite television, the internet, best-selling novels such as the Left Behind series, films and a new breed of missionaries.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4959.htm

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A Basic History of Zionism and its Relation to Judaism:

For many years Zionism remained a minority movement of mainly Eastern European Jews, excluding the whole religious establishment, most central and western European Jews and, last but not least, all non-European Jews who, unbeknown to Herzl and his co-founders, form the majority of us.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4549.htm

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Burning Conscience: Israeli Soldiers Speak Out: Video -

A searing interview with Avichai Sharon and Noam Chayut, both veterans of the Israeli Defense Forces. After thorough introspection, these young men have chosen to speak out about their experiences as self-described "brutal occupiers of a disputed land." Producer: Sat Gwin
http://www.alternatefocus.org/

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Israeli Arabs 'racially profiled' :

A new report alleges that Israeli security officials are being given a free hand by airports around the world to use racial profiling against Arab passengers, in violation of international law and the host countries' domestic legislation.
http://tinyurl.com/yhrxng

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Rafsanjani calls for vigilance vis-a-vis United States:

Expediency Council Chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said that given the US failure to achieve its goals in the region, it is seeking to embark on a new adventure to cover up its defeat and urged the need for vigilance.
http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-203/0701158741153520.htm

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Iran seeks Saudi help to ease tensions with U.S.:

Iran asked Saudi Arabia to help ease tensions between the Islamic Republic and the United States as Washington held out the possibility of "engagement" with Tehran if it changed tack in Iraq.
http://tinyurl.com/yn8qce

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Russian Admiral Says U.S. Navy Prepares Missile Strike on Iran:

U.S. Navy nuclear submarines maintaining vigil off the coast of Iran indicate that the Pentagon’s military plans include not only control over navigation in the Persian Gulf but also strikes against Iranian targets, a former commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Eduard Baltin has told the Interfax news agency.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article16186.htm

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Rice: UN sanctions on Iran 'not enough':

Talk of a military strike against Iran shows how serious it would be for the Iranians to continue down the path of nuclear development, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview with Channel 10 Sunday evening.
http://tinyurl.com/yhh4lo

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Hersh: US, Israel support PKK's Iran wing:

Israel and the United States have been “working together in support of a Kurdish resistance group known as the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan,” wrote Hersh
http://www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=41943

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Military Is Expanding Its Intelligence Role in U.S.
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and MARK MAZZETTI

The Pentagon has been using a little-known power to obtain banking and credit records of hundreds of Americans and others suspected of terrorism or espionage inside the United States, part of an aggressive expansion by the military into domestic intelligence gathering.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article16178.htm

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=18691
France considers construction of Israeli settlement to indicate a lack of will for dialogue on Israel's part
Date: 17 / 01 / 2007 Time: 13:24


A general view of the Israeli settlement
of Ma'ale Adummim (MaanImages)
Jerusalem - Ma'an - France considered the invitation for tenders, as issued by the Israeli government on Monday, to build 44 homes in the Ma'ale Adummim settlement, east of Jerusalem, to further complicate prospects for a final solution to the situation in the Palestinian territories.

A spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry announced, "This decision is a very negative indication of the will for dialogue and the restoration of confidence between the parties."

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=18693
Israeli government continues to judaise Jerusalem and destroy ancient Arab buildings and land
Date: 17 / 01 / 2007 Time: 14:39


Palestinian worshippers attend Friday prayers at Al-
Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem's Old City (MaanImages)
Jerusalem - Ma'an - The Al-Aqsa Institution for the Reconstruction of the Islamic Sanctities has announced that the Israeli government has carried out a wide excavation campaign in the furthest western side of the 'Al-Buraq' yard, on the outer perimeter of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem. The Israeli goverrnment also carried out excavations on a vast surrounding area, which entailed the demolition of ancient Arab and Islamic buildings and the removal of hundreds of cubic metres of earth by bulldozers.

They were digging for weeks in the area, which was considered until 1967 a major part of Al-Magharbeh neighborhood of the Old City of Jerusalem and included at that time dozens of historic and valuable buildings from various Islamic eras.

The Al-Aqsa Institution for the Reconstruction of the Islamic Sanctities stated that the Israeli institution seeks, with its continuous excavations, to falsify history and erase the Arab and Islamic landmarks of the Old City of Jerusalem and to judaise Jerusalem.