Forest-saving project presented at Copenhagen talks

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) was to present a forest-saving project in Copenhagen on Wednesday.

The three-year project, which is to be launched in 2010 through financing from Brazil's Amazon Fund, was designed to legalize farms of 18 million hectares in Mato Grosso and Para states so as to control deforestation.

Figures from the Brazilian National Committee show that the total agricultural area in the country is about 50 million hectares with a potential to cultivate another 60 million hectares which can be used for rain-fed agriculture.

TNC will receive 16 million reais (9.1 million U.S. dollars) from the Amazon Fund and will invest an additional 3 million reais (1.7 million dollars) to work in the central western and northern states which suffered the highest deforestation rates in the Amazon region.

In Brazil, farms must have a legal reserve, a rule that may date back to the 1930s. However, few farms in the country are observing it.

Things have changed today as the Brazilian government has ordered farm owners to delimit their legal reserves in three years.

"Nowadays, it is clear that preservation is part of development," said Ana Cristina Barros, a TNC representative in Brazil, in an interview with Xinhua.

Farmers who do not settle their situation until 2011 will be punished with daily fines of up to 500 reais (285 dollars) per hectare for illegal deforestation, Barros said.

Last week, the Brazilian Development Bank announced a release of 40 million dollars for the first five environment-related projects to be financed with resources from the Amazon Fund.

Created in 2008, the fund received 110 million dollars from Norway, which will deliver a billion dollars by 2016, while Germany has pledged 18 million euros until March 2010.

The initiatives include actions to reduce deforestation, support for land regularization and land reclamation.

Japanese girls want to marry Chinese

December 11, 2009

Nowadays, there is a popular saying among Japanese girls that goes "What we want is Chinese food and men, not French lovers or American houses." This means Japanese girls have lost their interest in French and American men.

In Japan, men from China are becoming more popular with Japanese girls. More than 1,500 Japanese girls married with Chinese men last year, an increase of 30 percent, which is the highest in history.

A representative from Japan's China information research institute told the reporter that the quick development of China's economy and Chinese people getting richer are the most important reasons for Japanese girls changing their appetites. Also because Japan has more women than men and Japanese men compared to Chinese men are generally less capable when it comes to being both a considerate family man and a breadwinner.

Today's Japanese men feel much more inferior compared with men from China because they found what they are lacking is not little.

China drawn with hosts Turkey in 2010 FIBA WC

China were drawn with the hosts Turkey in Group C on Tuesday at the 2010 FIBA Men's Basketball World Championships.

The draw, which was held at the Ciragan Palace Kempinski Hotel, Istanbul, launched the official count-down to the tournament, which is slated from August 28-September 12.

24 teams were divided into four groups with top four teams from each group progressing to the next round.

Germany, Lebanon, Lithuania and Russia were awarded the wild cards by FIBA's Central Board on Saturday to complete the line-up.

Following are the draw of the tournament:

Group A:

Argentina, Serbia, Australia, Germany, Angola, Jordan

Group B:

United States, Slovenia, Brazil, Croatia, Iran, Tunisia

Group C:

Greece, Turkey, Puerto Rico, Russia, China, Cote d'Ivoire

Group D:

Spain, France, Canada, Lithuania, New Zealand, Lebanon.

List of Golden Globes nominations

Following is a complete list of Golden Globe nominations announced on Tuesday in Beverly Hills of Los Angeles.

Best Motion Picture, Drama

-- "Avatar"

-- "The Hurt Locker"

-- "Inglourious Basterds"

-- "Precious"

-- "Up in the Air" Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical

-- "(500) Days of Summer"

-- "The Hangover"

-- "It's Complicated"

-- "Julie & Julia"

-- "Nine"

Best Director in a Motion Picture

-- Kathryn Bigelow, "The Hurt Locker"

-- James Cameron, "Avatar"

-- Clint Eastwood, "Invictus"

-- Jason Reitman, "Up in the Air"

-- Quentin Tarantino, "Inglourious Basterds"

Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama

-- Jeff Bridges, "Crazy Heart"

-- George Clooney, "Up in the Air"

-- Colin Firth, "A Single Man"

-- Morgan Freeman, "Invictus"

-- Tobey Maguire, "Brothers"

Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama

-- Emily Blunt, "The Young Victoria"

-- Sandra Bullock, "The Blind Side"

-- Helen Mirren, "The Last Station"

-- Carey Mulligan, "An Education"

-- Gabourey Sidibe, "Precious"

Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture

-- Matt Damon, "Invictus"

-- Woody Harrelson, "The Messenger"

-- Christopher Plummer, "The Last Station"

-- Stanley Tucci, "The Lovely Bones"

-- Christoph Waltz, "Inglourious Basterds"

Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture

-- Penelope Cruz, "Nine"

-- Vera Farmiga, "Up in the Air"

-- Anna Kendrick, "Up in the Air"

-- Mo'Nique, "Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire"

-- Julianne Moore, "A Single Man"

Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Comedy

-- Matt Damon, "The Informant!"

-- Daniel Day-Lewis, "Nine"

-- Robert Downey Jr., "Sherlock Holmes"

-- Joseph Gordon-Levitt, "(500) Days of Summer"

-- Michael Stuhlbarg, "A Serious Man"

Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Comedy

-- Sandra Bullock, "The Proposal"

-- Marion Cotillard, "Nine"

-- Julia Roberts, "Duplicity"

-- Meryl Streep, "It's Complicated"

-- Meryl Streep, "Julie and Julia"

Best Screenplay - Motion Picture

-- "The Hurt Locker," Mark Boal

-- "District 9," Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell

-- "Inglourious Basterds," Quentin Tarantino

-- "It's Complicated," Nancy Meyers

-- "Up in the Air," Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner

Best Animated Feature Film

-- "Coraline"

-- "Fantastic Mr. Fox"

-- "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs"

-- "The Princess and the Frog"

-- "Up"

Best Foreign Language Film

-- "A Prophet"

-- "The White Ribbon"

-- "The Maid"

-- "Baaria"

Best Original Score - Motion Picture

-- Michael Giacchino, "Up"

-- Marvin Hamlisch, "The Informant!"

-- James Horner, "Avatar"

-- Abel Korzeniowski, "A Single Man"

-- Karen O, Carter Burwell, "Where the Wild Things Are"

Best Original Song - Motion Picture

-- "Cinema Italiano" from "Nine," music and lyrics by Maury Yeston

-- "I Want to Come Home" from "Everybody's Fine," music and lyrics by Paul McCartney

-- "I Will See You" from "Avatar," music by James Horner and Simon Franglen; lyrics by James Horner, Simon Franglen and Kuk Harrell

-- "The Weary Kind Theme from Crazy Heart" from "Crazy Heart," music and lyrics by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

-- "Winter" from "Brothers," music by U2; lyrics by Bono

Best Television Series, Drama

-- "Big Love"

-- "Dexter"

-- "House"

-- "Mad Men"

-- "True Blood"

Best Television Series, Comedy or Musical

-- "30 Rock"

-- "Entourage"

-- "Glee"

-- "Modern Family"

-- "The Office"

Best Actor in a Television Series, Drama

-- Simon Baker, "The Mentalist"

-- Michael C. Hall, "Dexter"

-- Jon Hamm, "Mad Men"

-- Hugh Laurie, "House"

-- Bill Paxton, "Big Love"

Best Actress in a Television Series, Drama

-- Julianna Margulies, "The Good Wife"

-- Glenn Close, "Damages"

-- January Jones, "Mad Men"

-- Anna Paquin, "True Blood"

-- Kyra Sedgwick, "The Closer"

Best Actor in a Television Series, Comedy or Musical

-- Alec Baldwin, "30 Rock"

-- Steve Carell, "The Office"

-- Thomas Jane, "Hung"

-- David Duchovny, "Californication"

-- Matthew Morrison, "Glee"

Best Actress in a Television Series, Comedy or Musical

-- Toni Collette, "United States of Tara"

-- Courteney Cox, "Cougar Town"

-- Tina Fey, "30 Rock"

-- Edie Falco, "Nurse Jackie"

-- Lea Michele, "Glee"

Best Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television

-- "Grey Gardens"

-- "Into the Storm"

-- "Little Dorrit"

-- "Taking Chance"

-- "Georgia O'Keeffe"

Best Actor in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television

-- Kevin Bacon, "Taking Chance"

-- Kenneth Branagh, "Wallander: One Step Behind"

-- Chiwetel Ejiofor, "Endgame"

-- Brendan Gleeson, "Into the Storm"

-- Jeremy Irons, "Georgia O'Keeffe"

Best Actress in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television

-- Joan Allen, "Georgia O'Keeffe"

-- Drew Barrymore, "Grey Gardens"

-- Jessica Lange, "Grey Gardens"

-- Anna Paquin, "The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler"

-- Sigourney Weaver, "Prayers for Bobby"

Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television

-- Neil Patrick Harris, "How I Met Your Mother"

-- Michael Emerson, "Lost"

-- Jeremy Piven, "Entourage"

-- William Hurt, "Damages"

-- John Lithgow, "Dexter"

Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television

-- Jane Adams, "Hung"

-- Rose Byrne, "Damages"

-- Jane Lynch, "Glee"

-- Janet McTeer, "Into the Storm"

-- Chloe Sevigny, "Big Love"

The Golden Globe Awards will be presented Jan. 17 in Los Angeles.

China to push forward urbanization: vice premier

Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang urged the nation to "actively" and "firmly" push forward urbanization as an important way to deal with the international financial crisis, boost domestic consumption, and restructure the economy.

He made the remarks during his inspection trip to the country's economically-developed southern Guangdong Province from Monday to Wednesday, in purpose of conducting researches on the promotion of urbanization.

He stressed urbanization would provide the country with new space for relatively fast and stable economic growth in the long-term.

Accompanied by local government officials, Li visited cities including Zhuhai, Zhongshan, Foshan, as well as towns and companies.

He praised the Guangdong-based home appliances manufacturer Galanz for its employment of more than 10,000 people, about 90 percent of whom were workers from rural areas.

"By tapping into new markets and expanding the business, companies can absorb rural workforce substantially. This will help create conditions for deeper urbanization."

"Urbanization in return can boost consumption and drive up the economy." he said.

He was also concerned about employment and housing issues of people from rural areas in cities, saying the country's economic achievements should benefit both the urbanites and rural residents by improving their living, access to health care and children's education.

He said the country would increase supply of smaller houses at medium-and-low price levels and expand construction of housing projects for low-income families.

This was in line with a meeting by the State Council on Monday calling for the healthy development of the country's real estate sector as housing prices in some cities were rising too fast.

To further urbanization, pragmatism based on national conditions, scientific planning and efficient use of land were needed, he said.

China, Poland seek to further military ties

Senior Chinese and Polish military officials held talks here Wednesday afternoon on bolstering military ties.

China would work with Poland to promote in-depth development of bilateral military relations, said Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie when having talks with visiting Polish Defense Minister Bogdan Klich.

China-Poland relations have developed smoothly since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1949, said Liang, citing fruitful cooperation in various areas.

Liang said, with frequent high-level visits as well as productive military exchanges and cooperation, the relations of the two armed forces have deepened gradually.

Liang also introduced China's national defense policies and the progress of its military building and exchanged views with Klich on the security situation of the Asia-Pacific region and other issues of common concern.

Klich said, Poland speaks highly of China's rapid economic and social development and its increasingly important role in safeguarding the regional and world peace and stability.

He hoped that, through this visit, Poland and China could consolidate their traditional friendship as well as the sound relations of their armed forces and enhance military exchanges and cooperation in different fields.

China protests Copenhagen chair's draft texts

China on Wednesday protested the proposed draft texts of the Copenhagen climate change conference the Danish chair put forward without consulting the parties to the conference.

"This is a party-driven process, you can't just put forward a text from the sky," China's chief negotiator Su Wei said at the morning session of the conference after an announcement on such draft texts by the Danish chair.

It has been agreed before this meeting that the only legitimate basis for discussion will be the outcome of the two major working groups of the conference, Su said.

Chinese President to attend 10th anniversary of Macao's return

Chinese President Hu Jintao will attend the ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of Macao's return to the motherland, which falls on Dec. 20, said the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee General Office on Wednesday.

Hu, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, will stay in Macao on Dec. 19-20, according to a statement issued by the office.

The ceremony will also see the inauguration of the new Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) government.

Jeddah- Policeman surprises woman by returning fortune lost in water

(MENAFN - Arab News) It can be argued that floods and other calamities can bring out the worst in men, due to the looting that often occurs in the aftermath of such disasters. Fatima Al-Ghamdi, however, has a different story to tell.

On that fateful day when the flashfloods wreaked havoc in Quwaizah neighborhood, Fatima, a woman approaching her 60s, ventured out into the heavy downpour holding her sick husband's hands looking for a safe place.

She had put all her cash and jewels worth more than SR500,000 in a small suitcase, which she carried in her left hand. The water was rising and it was becoming increasingly difficult for her husband to walk steadily against the current.

"If I did not hold him firmly with both my hands he would fall and the floodwaters would wash him away. I had no time to think. I just dropped the suitcase and looked the other way to avoid watching all my valuables disappear in the flood. My husband was dearer to me than anything else in the world," Fatima told Al-Madinah newspaper.

She said she was happy they could reach a safe place without any incident. They were provided with a temporary apartment in another part of the city.

"But we were left penniless. At times I thought about the lost jewelry but I suppressed them as my husband was more valuable to me," she said.

However, 11 days after the flood her husband received a call from a stranger. The man said he had come across a suitcase that had a paper with Fatima's name on it and he wanted to return it.

"I did not believe in my wildest dreams that the valuables carried away by the flood would be returned to me. I thought that the man might have stumbled upon a battered suitcase and all its contents might have scattered in the flood or anyone who might have discovered it would have stolen them," she said.

But the jewelry box was returned to her and none of its contents was missing.

Aun Al-Ghamdi, a policeman, was the man who found the suitcase. He apologized to them for the delay in returning the box. He said he had tried for 10 days to get their address. He said the suitcase flowed into his car, which was submerged on a road three kilometers from the Quwaizah neighborhood.

"I was on my way to Makkah on Nov. 25 when I ran into the flashflood. In fact, I rescued some people. But as the water was very high, I could not go ahead anymore. I also took the suitcase with me," he said.

He said he opened the box out of curiosity and was dazzled by its glittering contents. When he found the bank paper with Fatima's name on it he contacted the bank. The manager refused to give any information for data protection purposes. After 10 days he finally relented and gave Al-Ghamdi Fatima's telephone number.

Overcome by gratitude, the couple presented him with a check for a large sum of money, but he refused to take it, saying he preferred a reward from the Almighty.

Source: Middle East North Africa Financial Times (MENAFN).
Link: http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.asp?StoryId=1093288963&src=MOEN.

GCC opposes attack on Iran

(MENAFN - Arab News) GCC leaders attending an annual summit here have opposed any military action by Western countries against Iran over its nuclear program, Kuwait's Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al-Sabah said on Tuesday. "We do not accept any military action against Iran," he told reporters.

As the Gulf leaders ended the two-day talks, a GCC monetary union pact took effect on Tuesday, a major achievement of the summit that would bring the Gulf Cooperation Council states closer toward launching a single GCC currency.

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah led the Saudi delegation to the summit.

"The Gulf monetary union pact has come into effect," Kuwaiti Finance Minister Mustafa Al-Shamali was quoted as saying by KUNA news agency. "Accordingly, GCC central bank governors will work out a timetable for the establishment of the Gulf central bank to ultimately launch the single currency," said Al-Shamali. Under the pact, a Gulf monetary council to be established early next year would develop into a central bank which would then take the required measures to issue a single currency. Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have signed and ratified the pact while the other two members - Oman and the United Arab Emirates - have opted out of the union.

The UAE, the second largest economy in the GCC, withdrew from the union over objections to selecting Riyadh as the base for the future Gulf central bank. Oman said it couldn't meet the union's prerequisites. Al-Shamali expressed hope, however, that the two countries would join the monetary union "in the near future."

The summit leaders said they welcome "international efforts to resolve the Iranian nuclear crisis through peaceful means."

"We urge Iran to comply with what is required from it by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and deal positively with international legal resolutions," said Al-Shamali. The communique called for the implementation of IAEA regulations on all countries of the region without exception, including Israel.

The Gulf leaders have reaffirmed their support to Saudi Arabia against any attempt to undermine its security and sovereignty. "We are fully behind Saudi Arabia against the cross-border assaults launched by armed infiltrators against the Saudi territories," the communique said. They also extended full backing to the unity, security and stability of Yemen. Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah opened the summit on Monday voicing full support for Saudi Arabia in its fight against Yemeni infiltrators. "We renew our strong condemnation of these aggressions (against Saudi Arabia) and declare full support for whatever actions Saudi Arabia takes to defend its territory," the emir said in his opening speech.

The GCC countries also agreed to create a joint force for quick intervention to address security threats posed to any of the GCC member states. "The force would intervene in situations similar to an incursion into Saudi Arabia by the Yemeni infiltrators," said GCC Secretary-General Abdul Rahman Al-Attiyah.

Al-Attiyah said GCC leaders have unanimously approved the appointment of Muhammad Al-Mutawa, a former information and Cabinet affairs minister in Bahrain, as the new GCC secretary-general from March 2011. The summit said the GCC states do not feel threatened by Iraq's massive plans to expand its oil production. Iraq has awarded a number of contracts to international oil companies with the aim of boosting its crude production from the current 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd) to above 10 million bpd during the next several years.

By Ghazanfar Ali Khan

Source: Middle East North Africa Financial Times (MENAFN).
Link: http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.asp?StoryId=1093288936&src=MOEN.

Abbas sticks by terms for talks, rules out violence

Tom Perry

Reuters

RAMALLAH, Occupied West Bank: President Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday Palestinians would only resume peace talks if Israel fully halted illegal settlement building in the occupied West Bank, but ruled out any return to violence. Addressing a meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) central council, which is expected to extend his term as president, Abbas dismissed Israel’s partial settlement freeze and said the Israelis did not want negotiations.

Abbas, who is under pressure from the United States and the European Union to resume talks that have been frozen for the past year, said he was not setting terms but simply reiterating Israel’s obligations under the “road map” agreement for talks.

“When Israel stops settlement activity for a specific period and when it recognizes the borders we are calling for, and these are the legal borders, there would be nothing to prevent us from going to negotiations,” Abbas told the PLO meeting in occupied Ramallah.

Expressing frustration over what he said was Israel’s failure to carry out its obligations, Abbas said: “Where do they want to take us? What is required of us? There is one thing I will not accept: a return to violence.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused the Palestinians of delaying talks. Abbas, who replaced the late Yasser Arafat as Palestinian leader in 2004, said Israel was simply deflecting the blame.

“It does not want negotiations,” he said.

The 10-month moratorium on illegal occupied West Bank settlement building announced by Israel last month does not include public buildings or some 3,000 already approved houses.

It does not apply to occupied East Jerusalem and areas in the West Bank which the Jewish state claims to have annexed in a move not recognized internationally. The Palestinians want occupied East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.

Israeli settlers have denounced orders to halt settlement expansion. An Israeli border policewoman was wounded on Tuesday in clashes with Jewish settlers protesting the moratorium on new building permits for settlers.

About 44 percent of the West Bank is effectively off-limits to Palestinian construction, with much of that area reserved for the Israeli military and settlers, a UN agency said on Tuesday.

This “directly contributes to the poor living conditions confronting many Palestinian residents of the West Bank,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a report.

“Palestinian construction is effectively prohibited in some 70 percent of Area C, or approximately 44 percent of the West Bank, in areas that have been largely designated for the use of Israeli settlements or the Israeli military,” OCHA said.

Unable to obtain permits, tens of thousands of Palestinians build illegally and, as a result, face the risk of demolition and displacement, it said.

Just another ploy to cling to power

Monday, December 14, 2009

The “soccer war” that recently pitted Egypt against Algeria may be slowly phasing out of the media spotlight as fans redirect their attention to the next match, but the spat’s disastrous effects leaves the Arab world with the task of seriously pondering on the shady circumstances that led a sporting event to wreak havoc between countries sharing an otherwise rich history of strong relations.

Soccer and politics are, under normal circumstances, two very different worlds that rarely overlap. But, at times, the sport has offered the perfect battlefield to safely bring together rivals who could not bear each other were it not for the pretext of kicking a ball across a well-trimmed pitch.

The so-called “soccer diplomacy” that recently encouraged former arch-foes Turkey and Armenia to establish ties in the aftermath of a World Cup qualifying game exemplifies the sport’s most noble values.

But the recent explosion of violence in Egypt and Algeria over rival support for the countries’ soccer clubs shows a strong counter example. So what went wrong?

Soccer, it turns out, may not be to blame as much as the two countries’ respective leaders, who clearly instrumentalized the supporter’s zeal to gather support for their own regimes.

Egypt and Algeria are both characterized by political systems in which strongmen have muzzled their respective oppositions. In one corner of the political arena, the privileged and friends of the political class are fed by a well-established system of nepotism. In the other, a complex web of restriction is designed to keep the dissenters from speaking too loud.

Limitations to rights of assembly and other restrictions of civil freedoms are the usual instruments of choice, but they expose these regimes to the criticisms of human rights defenders worldwide.

In that sense, the sudden outbursts of nationalism that stemmed from the soccer faceoff united people on both sides of the political divide. Leaders whose popularity had been waning of late suddenly found a new source of political support, which they were more than happy to capitalize upon.

The cost of this scheme? With relations between the two countries seriously strained over the spat, commentators now suggest that the rivals may soon extend their diplomatic war to more serious issues. Algeria, they say, is already quietly pursuing efforts to undermine Egypt’s leadership in the Arab world.

In a region already overly weakened by divisions, it is the fruits of 60 years of deep-seated friendly relations between the two countries – think of Egypt’s fantastic support of Algeria’s independence, and of the scores of Algerians that sided with their Egyptian counterparts during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war – that may have been permanently damaged over a soccer match.

Thieves steal former Cypriot president's body

Saturday, December 12, 2009

NICOSIA: Thieves opened the grave of former Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos during the night and stole his corpse in a crime that shocked the Mediterranean island on Friday.

State television interrupted its normal programming through the morning to bring live reports and reaction to the desecration.

The official Cyprus News Agency said the open grave had been discovered by a member of Papadopoulos’s guard, who lights a vigil candle in the cemetery in Deftera, just outside the capital, every morning.

On hearing the news, Papadopoulos’s family went to the cemetery, which has been cordoned off by police.

Police chief Michalis Papageorgiou, assistant police chief Andreas Iatropoulos and Nicosia police director Kypros Michaelides were all at the grave to oversee the investigation.

The crime came the day before a memorial service was held to mark the first anniversary of Papadopoulos’s death.

Sources cited by CNA said the service at the church of Saint Nicholas in Deftera was still expected to go ahead.

The current leader of Papadopoulos’s center-right DIKO party, Marios Garoyan, condemned what he called a “heinous crime.”

Gadhafi Foundation slams Libya's human-rights record

Saturday, December 12, 2009

TRIPOLI: A foundation run by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s son Seif al-Islam catalogued an array of cases of torture, wrongful imprisonment and other abuses in a report for 2009 published on Thursday.

The Gadhafi Foundation’s report also sharply criticized the continuing domination of the print and broadcast media by the state. The few non-state media are all controlled by a publishing company run by the younger Gadhafi.

The report recorded “several flagrant violations” of human rights in Libya during the year, including “cases of torture and ill-treatment” as well as a number of “blatant and premeditated breaches of the law.”

The report, distributed to the press, condemned “all forms of torture” and called for the lifting of the “immunity granted by laws of exception to employees of various state agencies.”

It also called for a full liberalization of the media in Libya.

“Even though the current law on publications allows for the launch of privately owned titles, the restrictions and obstacles to obtaining a publishing license remain in place,” it complained.

It called for the repeal or amendment of laws restricting the setting up of non-governmental organizations.

The publication of the Gadhafi Foundation’s human rights report, its first since it was set up in 1999, came just two days before watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) is due to bring out its own report on Libya.

For the first time, the HRW report is being issued from Libya itself.

In recent years, Seif al-Islam Gadhafi has been a prominent voice for reform in Libya, advocating a freer press, a mixed economy and greater cultural rights for the country’s Berber minority.

He has also been a leading figure in Libya’s slow rapprochement with the West.

The Gadhafi Foundation called for a “transparent, just and fair” probe into the 1996 massacre at Abu Slim prison in Tripoli where at least 1,200 prisoners were gunned down, according to human-rights groups. It said a dialogue was under way with the victims’ families aimed at sealing a “national reconciliation.”

The Foundation urged the release of all prisoners who have been found innocent or who have served out their terms, accusing the authorities of not respecting court decisions.

But it said the rights’ situation was improving in Libya, where the Foundation has in recent months secured the release of dozens of jailed Islamists and the return of exiled dissidents.

Hariri heads for Saudi Arabia as Cabinet congratulations pour in

Sleiman travels to Washington for Talks with Obama
By Elias Sakr
Daily Star staff
Saturday, December 12, 2009

BEIRUT: Prime Minister Saad Hariri left on an official visit to Saudi Arabia Friday night for meetings with top Saudi officials. President Michel Sleiman leaves for Washington on Saturday, for discussions with US President Barack Obama.

The Lebanese head of state and his premier’s foreign visits come after the Cabinet received a record number of confidence votes on Thursday, despite the controversial issues of Hizbullah’s arms and the abolition of political sectarianism.

Prior to his departure to Saudi Arabia, Hariri held talks with Sleiman at Baabda Palace but made no statement following the meeting.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner congratulated the Cabinet and Hariri for receiving the vote of confidence, adding that it would allow the government to work seriously to strengthen the state institutions, as well as Lebanon’s stability and security.

The French minister voiced France’s full support for Hariri as well as its commitment to defend Lebanon’s unity, stability, sovereignty and independence.

Kouchner also stressed the need to continue the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1701, which helped end the 2006 war.

Similarly, Iranian Vice President Mohammad Riza Rahimi congratulated Hariri for the formation of the new Cabinet, inviting him to visit Tehran, and stressing that Lebanon deserved stability and security.

Rahimi also praised the Lebanese for their victories against Israel.

A possible trip by Hariri to Syria following his stop in Saudi Arabia and prior to his participation in the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit remained unclear as of Friday.

A recent rapprochement between the two regional powerbrokers Syria and Saudi Arabia facilitated breaking the political deadlock in Lebanon and the formation of the new national unity Cabinet.

During his visit to the US, Sleiman will be accompanied by Deputy Premier and Defense Minister Elias Murr, Foreign Minister Ali Shami and State Minister Wael Abu Faour.

Sleiman is expected to tackle with Obama a potential increase in Washington’s level of military aid to Beirut, the issue of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, and the Middle East peace process.

A statement issued by Baabda Palace on Friday said Sleiman would also hold talks at Congress with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and hold separate meetings with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Transportation Secretary Ray Lahoud.

Meanwhile, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said Friday he supported a visit by Hariri to Syria, provided it involves an agenda of talks that cover disputed issues between both countries.

Following his visit to Hariri at his residence in Downtown Beirut, Geagea said the timing of summoning warrants from the Syrian judiciary prior to Hariri’s trek to Damascus indicated that Syrian officials did not want the visit to happen.

Politicians from the March 14 Forces camp have said the warrants, in connection with the murder of former Premier Rafik Hariri, aimed to undermine Hariri’s position ahead of his Damascus visit.

“Every time the Lebanese show a will to improve relations with Syria, developments take place showing that there is no will for good ties,” said Geagea.

Commenting on the visit to Damascus by Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun on Wednesday, Geagea called the trip a message to Sleiman and Lebanese Christians.

“Syria’s message is whoever gets closer to us, we’ll lay down the red carpet for him, fix matters for him, stay behind him and bring him support,” Geagea added.

As for criticism by the minority of Sleiman’s visit to the US, Geagea said March 14 parties should be the ones blaming the president for his stances on Independence eve and Army Day, particularly with regard to the resistance.

“I don’t know what resistance we are discussing, since a resistance should embrace all the Lebanese people, so we should be the ones blaming the president for listening to the Americans while on the contrary his stances are leaning toward the [minority],” Geagea said.

Separately, Akkar MP Hadi Hobeish said the resistance couldn’t be legitimate unless this was specified in legislation. He said the phenomenon of the resistance contradicted the Constitution, which gives the executive branch sole authority over the possession of weapons.

Hobeish called for the Lebanese state to be granted authority over Hizbullah’s arms in the framework of a national defense strategy to be agreed upon among the Lebanese.

The Future Movement MP added that the Syrian summoning warrants were not positive signs ahead of Hariri’s expected visit to Damascus.

Earlier in the day, Hariri inaugurated the Beirut Arab and International Book Fair on Friday, where he stressed that the aspects of social and economic growth would unite with that of stability and security in the upcoming period in the country, while underlining the importance of national coexistence among the Lebanese.

Israeli minister Moshe Ya'alon turned down UK visit over arrest fears

Vice-prime minister pulled out of fundraising event after being warned he could be held on suspicion of war crimes
James Meikle

December 14, 2009

Moshe Ya'alon, the Israeli deputy prime minister and strategic affairs minister, turned down an invitation to appear at a London fundraising event last month after he was warned he might face arrest on suspicion of war crimes.

His decision, reported in October, came a week after lawyers for 16 Palestinians failed to persuade a British court to issue an arrest warrant for Ehud Barak, the Israeli defense and deputy prime minister, over Israel's war in Gaza this January. Barak, whose visit included addressing a fringe meeting at the Labor party conference in Brighton, was regarded as having diplomatic immunity.

Ya'alon had been invited by the Jewish National Fund. He had canceled at least one previous planned trip to the UK. He was advised not to travel over an incident dating back to July 2002 when he was chief of staff of the Israeli military. An Israeli jet bombed a house in Gaza, killing Salah Shehadeh, then leader of Hamas' military wing, and 14 civilians, including Shehadeh's wife and several children.

In June a Spanish court shelved an investigation into that attack. The suspects also included the former defense minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer. He has attacked the "legal circus" in Spain and the UK.

In December 2007 Avi Dichter, then public security minister and head of the Shin Bet internal security agency at the time of the Shehadeh incident, canceled a trip to Britain the following month for a security conference at King's College London.

In September 2005 detectives were waiting at Heathrow airport to arrest the retired Israeli general Doron Almog on war crimes allegations relating to house demolitions and assassinations in Gaza, also in 2002. But he remained on the El Al plane for two hours before flying off. The Guardian revealed last year that Scotland Yard allowed him to escape partly because officers feared an attempt to stop him would lead to a gun battle.

Taliban stalls key hydroelectric turbine project in Afghanistan

Taliban stalls key hydroelectric turbine project in Afghanistan
Convoy diverted British troops from front but generator may never be used
Jon Boone in Kabul

December 13, 2009

An enormous hydroelectric turbine dragged at huge cost by British troops through Taliban heartlands last year may never be installed because Nato has been unable to secure a 30-mile stretch of road leading to an isolated dam in northern Helmand.

The daring mission to deliver 220 tonnes of equipment to the Kajaki dam in Afghanistan in September 2008 was hailed as one of the biggest success stories of the British Army's three-year deployment in Helmand.

Two thousand British troops took part in the five-day convoy through enemy territory, which was launched because the main road leading to the dam was too vulnerable to Taliban attacks.

Senior British officers privately say the enormous diversion of scarce military resources for the operation allowed the Taliban to make major gains in other critical areas of the province, including Nad Ali, which subsequently saw some of the most intense fighting between British forces and insurgents.

Within a couple of months of the Kajaki operation, areas close to the British base in Lashkar Gah had deteriorated so badly that troops had to be resupplied by air drop.

The dam continues to be besieged by Taliban fighters and, 15 months after the mission by the UK troops, the turbine's components remain unassembled because huge amounts of cement that are required to install the equipment cannot be delivered safely.

Now the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the wing of the United States government which has so far pumped $47m (£29m) into the project, intended to electrify much of southern Afghanistan, says it is packing the turbine parts away and looking for other energy projects to invest in across Afghanistan.

"Our message is that until we have a secure road we cannot continue with the installation of turbine two," said John Smith-Sreen, head of energy and water projects for USAID in Kabul.

"When the turbine was moved in by British and American forces it was a huge effort and it was done in a point of time. But we can't move in the large quantity of cement and aggregate that we need in a point of time, we need a sustained effort," he said.

The road would need to be secured for about half a year.

While the cement required could probably be transported in around half that time, civilian contractors would need to see the road had been secured for about three months to attract them to the project, Smith-Sreen said.

He added that CMIC, a Chinese company contracted to install the turbine, "left due to security concerns overnight" when it was clear that the road would not be secured. The agency has not been able to find another subcontractor prepared to do the work.

USAID says about 30 miles of road is affected, but at a time when General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, is pursuing a strategy of concentrating effort on protecting large towns and cities from Taliban influence, securing a stretch of road in a sparsely populated area of northern Helmand is unlikely to be a priority.

A spokesman for Task Force Helmand said there are no plans to change the current security operations at Kajaki, where British soldiers are responsible for an ongoing effort to provide a security "bubble" around the plant.

While insurgents have been unable to get close to the dam and its turbine hall, heavy fighting around the perimeter of the area of British control is an almost daily occurrence.

Smith-Sreen said USAID was currently "deciding what to do" with the turbine, but that the process of mothballing it had already begun in the run up to the contract expiring in April.

"Unless we are told otherwise we are going to continue the process of inventorying the parts and storing them away securely," he said. He said the agency had other areas where it was considering investing resources, including smaller electricity projects across country.

The problem of Kajaki highlights an dilemma for Nato forces trying to use development to win hearts and minds in an area where construction work is impossible or hugely expensive.

When the dam was built by US engineers in the 1950s as part of the cold war gamesmanship with the Soviet Union two turbines were installed, but a third bay was constructed and left empty. The intention had been to put the turbine in that slot when it was delivered last year.

Smith-Sreen said USAID was satisfied with the work it has been able to do to rehabilitate the two existing turbines, which since October have been transmitting around 33 megawatts to the southern provinces – "more power than either Kandahar or Helmand has seen for 30 years".

However, the same fighting that has made the road leading to the dam insecure has also led to frequent blackouts for Kandahar city and Lashkar Gah, with the power transmission lines from the remote generating plant regularly cut.

"We've had to slice the line back together many times," he said.

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=61049&s2=14.

Elderly refugee to join Gaza march

December 14, 2009

Bethelehm - Ma'an - Palestinian refugee Yusif Barakat will return to Palestine with 1,000 international delegates of the Gaza Freedom March set for 31 December, the event's organizers said on Monday.

Yusif Barakat, 74, was born in Haifa, Palestine under the British Mandate. Barakat’s family was compelled to leave their home when Jewish immigrants were settled in Palestine after World War II.

In August 1947, as a 12-year-old shepherd boy, he landed at Ellis Island in the US with his family, not speaking a word of English. Four years later, his father died, leaving Barakat to take care of his mother and three sisters.

"He has been taking care of the needy ever since," the statement said. Now a retired psychotherapist, Barakat has devoted himself to working with the juvenile justice system, helping the youth develop trust and relationships through his treatment and rehabilitation program.

He also has deep emotional ties to his native Palestine and is deeply saddened that the US government is facilitating the suffering of Palestinians, the march's organizers wrote.

"I am appalled at the billions of US tax dollars that have gone to the Israeli government, which continues a 60-year-long occupation of Palestinian homelands. And when I saw all the death and destruction from the invasion of Gaza, I knew I had to do something. That’s why I’m joining the Gaza Freedom March."

Departing for Egypt, Barakat and 1,000 other international activists will caravan into Gaza to witness the still remaining devastation of last year's attacks and on 31 December, will join local Palestinians in a nonviolent march from northern Gaza to the Erez border crossing into Israel. On the Israeli side of the Erez border Palestinians and Israelis will also call on the Israeli government to open the border.

Following Hamas' takeover in 2007, Israel closed off the Erez border crossing to the majority of Palestinians living in Gaza, which was used by Palestinians to enter Israel for work, study and medical treatment. Now only a handful of Palestinians with the required permits are allowed to transit via this crossing.

The statement added that other participants include Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker, leading Syrian comedian Duraid Lahham, South African anti-apartheid leader Ronnie Kasrils, French Senator Alima Boumediene–Thiery, author and Filipino Parliament member Walden Bello, former European Parliamentarian Luisa Morgantini from Italy, President of the US Center for Constitutional Rights attorney Michael Ratner, Japanese former Ambassador to Lebanon Naoto Amaki, French hip-hop artists Ministere des Affaires Populaires, among many others.

Families of three generations, doctors, lawyers, diplomats, 70 students, an interfaith group that includes rabbis, priests and imams, a women's delegation, a Jewish contingent, a veterans group and Palestinians born overseas who have never seen their families in Gaza will also join the march.

It is expected that 50,000 Palestinians will also participate in the event, spanning all segments of society and work, including NGOs, professors and students, and women's rights groups.

The march, set to take place in Gaza on 31 December, is described by the organizers as "an historic initiative to break the siege that has imprisoned the 1.5 million Palestinians who live there. Conceived in the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and nonviolent resistance to injustice worldwide, the march will gather people from all over the world to demand that the Israeli government open the borders."

In addition to the march, many events will take place, including performances by Palestinian rappers, hip-hop bands and Dabkeh dancers.

Puppet Regime Foreign Ministry Spokesman Complains of the Invaders Arrogance

Afghan resistance statement
Puppet Regime Foreign Ministry Spokesman Complains of the Invaders Arrogance.
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

December 14, 2009

According to www.afghanpaper.com, officials of foreign countries enter Afghanistan without giving prior information to the Foreign Ministry of the puppet regime in Kabul. Ahmad Zahir Faqiri, Foreign Ministry Spokesman says, foreigners violate all diplomatic and international norms and principles by not observing the laws of Afghanistan. He says, many of these high-ranking of foreign countries enter Afghanistan and visit their military bases without the knowledge of the central government in Kabul.

British Defense Ministry came to Kabul after visiting British troops in Helmand province while German foreign minister is still in Kunduz province, calling on German troops in the province. He is said to be discussing issue of compensation for the 142 victims of the American blind bombardment on September 4, this year which was requested by a German commander. The civilian causalities brought great infamy to the German government and some high-ranking officials resigned as a result.

According to the report of an investigation team constituted by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the Americans had used phosphorus in the attack which had burnt to ashes the miserable Afghans villagers.

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=61075&s2=15.

Israeli gov't approves national priority map of WB settlements

December 14, 2009

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC) -- The Israeli government on Sunday endorsed the national priority map that would be considered as of that date areas of national priority and would receive hefty financial backing.

Ma'ariv website said that 21 cabinet ministers voted for the decision while only 5 rejected it, noting that they were all labor ministers.

The decision is trying to win the satisfaction of settlement leaders who opposed the ten-month settlement freeze announced by the government recently.

The website said that the map would include around 110,000 settlers in the West Bank.

Finance minister Yuval Steinitz said Sunday that including isolated settlements in the now cabinet-approved national priority map was meant as a favorable message to their residents.

The move, he said, was meant to clarify that the government still supports settlers despite the settlement freeze.

Shas party spiritual leader on Muslims: “Their religion is as ugly as they are.”

by Yaniv Reich

December 14, 2009

An outrageously large number of Israeli politicians express violently racist sentiments in public. What must they say in private?

Today’s case study in Israeli racism toward Arabs/Palestinians/Persians/Muslims (aren’t they all the same anyway?) comes from Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who is the spiritual leader of Shas, a right-wing, religious party in Israeli with 11 Knesset seats (out of 120). It is the fifth largest political block at the moment and sits in PM Netanyahu’s coalition government. Its party members currently hold four cabinet posts, including Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior. In other words, Shas is not some fringe group of outpost settlers (although settlers are, of course, duly supported by them), but rather an integral part of Israeli government and society.

This is what their spiritual leader had to say about Muslims:

"They’re stupid. Their religion is as ugly as they are."

US Wants to Expand Drone Strikes Into Major Pakistani City

Officials: 'Real Discussion' of Attacking Quetta
by Jason Ditz

December 14, 2009

Top US officials say there is a "real discussion" going on right now about launching drone attacks against the Balochistan capital city of Quetta. The comments are the latest in a series of threats against the city, one of Pakistan’s largest.

Though the Pakistani government has looked the other way and even provided behind the scenes support for the various US drone attacks against Pakistan’s tribal areas, officials say a strike on Quetta would be a deal-breaker.

"We are not a banana republic," one official declared, adding that a US attack on Quetta "might be the end of the road." Pakistan’s military has likewise repeatedly warned against attacks on the city.

The US threats are ostensibly designed to counter the Quetta Shura, a group of Afghan exiles supposedly running much of the insurgency from the city. Pakistan has repeatedly denied that the Shura even exists, though on Friday Defense Minister Ahmad Mukhtar insisted that security forces had degraded them to the point they no longer pose a real threat.

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=61058&s2=15.

Papua separatist rebel leader killed in police raid

Jakarta - Indonesian authorities have shot and killed a leader of a separatist rebel group during a raid in the country's easternmost province of Papua, police and media reports said Wednesday. Kelly Kwalik, the commander of the Free Papua Movement (OPM), was shot in a raid by an anti-terror squad early Wednesday at one of his hideouts in Papua's Timika city, the state-run Antara news agency reported.

Papua police spokesman Agus Rianto was quoted as saying that Kwalik was shot in his left leg when he was trying to escape. Kwalik was also carrying a gun, he said.

Rianto said Kwalik died in Timika's Kuala Kencana hospital.

Police also arrested six other people in the house, including a woman and a child, Rianto told MetroTV, an Indonesian private television channel.

Kwalik was the most wanted separatist leader in Papua and accused of being behind a series of armed attacks against police and military forces in the province for years.

Authorities in Papua say Kwalik was responsible for attacks this year targeting US-based gold and copper mining operation PT Freeport Indonesia.

Last month, human rights group Amnesty International urged authorities to investigate allegations of police killings and human rights abuses in Papua.

In an open letter to Papua police chief Bekto Suprapto, the London-based organization alleged that police officers killed two men and beat dozens of demonstrators in custody since late last year.

The OPM, a small group of separatist rebels, has been waging a low-key rebellion in Papua since the early 1960s.

Papua, a predominantly ethnic Melanesian and Christian province, is a former Dutch colony that became an Indonesian province in 1964 after a vote involving tribal leaders many regarded as a sham.

Vietnam to create elephant hospital

Hanoi - Vietnam plans to build an elephant hospital as part of a new reservation for the animals in the country's central highlands, a government official said Wednesday. Y Rit Buon Ya, deputy director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in the province of Dak Lak, said the project would be developed between 2010-14.

"We have not had doctors with enough knowledge and experience to take care of elephants when they are hurt. So when they are hurt, people don't know what to do," Ya said. "That is why we want to build a hospital for elephants."

Ya estimated the initial cost of the elephant reserve at about 320,000 dollars, to be provided by the government and foreign donors. Veterinarians would need to be trained in countries with expertise in treating elephants.

Thailand and Sri Lanka have had elephant treatment clinics for years, but the clinic in Dak Lak would be the first in Vietnam.

At a workshop on elephant preservation held Tuesday, experts said there were 80 to 110 wild elephants, and 61 captive ones, surviving in Dak Lak. They are endangered by illegal hunting and deforestation.

Vietnamese media has reported several cases of elephants attacking humans in recent years. Elephants become more aggressive when their habitat shrinks.

In January, 10 elephants charged villagers in Ha Tinh province, without causing injuries. In July 2008, a herd of 40 elephants destroyed several houses in Dak Lak.

In August 2007, a forest warden was left paralyzed after his neck was broken in an elephant attack.

Scientists at the workshop said if elephants' territory could be protected from human encroachment and poachers, the population would likely recover naturally.

Furore in Indian Parliament over price rises

New Delhi - Opposition lawmakers mounted protests and disrupted proceedings in India's Parliament Wednesday over rising food prices and inflation. India's inflation rate soared to 4.8 per cent in November, its highest level in 10 months, driven by a sharp increase in the prices of essential food items.

Prices of essential food items climbed by nearly 17 per cent in November compared to a year earlier because of drought and floods in India and global price rises.

There were protests in both houses of Parliament soon after proceedings began Wednesday morning.

Lawmakers from communist parties, the Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) as well as regional parties gathered near Lok Sabha [lower house] Speaker Meira Kumar's podium shouting slogans including "Contain inflation" and "The government should be changed."

Despite Kumar's requests, the protests continued, leading her to adjourn the house twice before finally adjourning until Thursday.

"We will continue our struggle till the government amends its wrong policies and controls inflation," Brinda Karat, from the Communist Party of India-Marxist, said.

"We will take the issue to the streets. The government has to change its policies, or else we will change this anti-people government," Mulayam Singh, chief of the Samajwadi Party, told reporters.

Over the past few days, the opposition has criticized the government for the price rises and accused it of economic mismanagement.

The BJP has blamed the government for not taking any steps to help 4 million people in India who lost their jobs due to the global recession.

"Prices are a major area of concern. We shall have to address it and we are doing it," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said.

Pakistani fighter crashes, pilot safe

Islamabad - A Mirage fighter jet crashed in eastern Pakistan on Wednesday, but the pilot ejected safely, the Air Force said. The aircraft was on a routine operational training mission when it went down near a lake on the outskirts of Kalar Kahar, a small town located 135 kilometers south of Pakistan's capital Islamabad.

"The pilot parachuted to safety and there was no damage on the ground," a Pakistan Air Force spokesman said.

A board of inquiry was investigating the cause of the accident.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/299563,pakistani-fighter-crashes-pilot-safe.html.

Report: UAE to introduce new bankruptcy laws

Abu Dhabi - The United Arab Emirates will introduce a bankruptcy law, likely within the coming months, that will enable companies under financial stress and insolvency to rework their debt, according to a newspaper report Wednesday. "The government is working on issuing a comprehensive bankruptcy-insolvency law that will protect businesses under financial stress and help them move forward," Hamad Bu Amim, director-general of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, was quoted as saying by Gulf News.

He said the law was being drafted and "could come anytime soon."

For foreign business operating in the UAE, the new laws would introduce an alternative to simply fleeing the country and leaving mountains of debt behind when business turns sour.

On Monday, Dubai introduced new rules to allow for companies like the state-owned Dubai World to file for bankruptcy. The laws are set to allow businesses to rework debt through restructuring mechanisms locally, with tribunals to which creditors can bring claims.

This would also reduce the reliance of the companies on sovereign aid.

This week, Abu Dhabi extended a 10 billion dollar bailout to Dubai, on top of previous loans, to help shore up Dubai World, which on November 25 said it would need a freeze on repaying its debt obligations.

The first money from the oil-rich emirate appears to have gone directly to repaying some 4.1 billion dollars owed by Nakheel, the development wing of Dubai World, which had an Islamic bond (sukuk) which came due on Monday.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/299565,report-uae-to-introduce-new-bankruptcy-laws.html.

Lebanon to discuss Israeli plans for border town pullout

Beirut - UN and Lebanese military representatives were due to meet Wednesday to discuss Israeli plans for a troop pullout from the northern part of a divided border village. Lebanon fears the planned withdrawal from Ghajar could seal the division of the village into a southern, Israeli-controlled part and a northern part under joint Lebanon-UN supervision.

Security sources said Wednesday's talks were expected to discuss water and electricity supplies. Ghajar obtains its water from Lebanon and gets electricity by power lines from Israel.

The sources said Lebanon had not yet received "formal word" from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) whether Israel was making an imminent withdrawal.

Israeli troops have been in northern Ghajar since the end of the Israeli invasion in 2006 but are obliged to withdraw under the terms of a UN resolution.

In 2006, Lebanon rejected Israeli plans to to build a security wall between the two parts of the village.

The Israeli soldiers have also set up a security fence at the entrance to Ghajar to curb possible infiltration by Hezbollah militants.

Ghajar, located at the foot of Mount Hermon, was annexed by Israel in 1981 along with the Syrian Golan Heights, which have been occupied by the Israeli forces since 1967.

German parliament begins probe into Kunduz airstrike

Berlin - The controversial Kunduz airstrike - which has already claimed the jobs of the German defense minister and military chief of staff - will become the subject of a parliamentary probe in Berlin on Wednesday. The air attack in September on two tankers commandeered by the Taliban but which also killed many civilians caused a major political row in Germany, eventually claiming the jobs of then-minister of defense, Franz Josef Jung, and former military Chief of Staff General Wolfgang Schneiderhan.

Now a 34-member permanent defense committee is to set up a special panel to establish the circumstances of the September 4 airstrike, in which a German officer ordered an attack on two hijacked fuel tankers in the northern Afghan province.

The head of the investigation committee, Social Democrat Susanne Kastner, said Wednesday that the committee would conduct most of its business in public, except for when military evidence was being handled.

In an interview with weekly Zeit newspaper published Wednesday, Schneiderhan accused current Minister of Defense Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg of "telling untruths" in relation to his sacking.

The new minister of defense had accused the general of withholding evidence about civilian casualties in the airstrike.

Guttenberg has already rejected calls for his resignation over his handling of the affair.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/299575,german-parliament-begins-probe-into-kunduz-airstrike.html.

Flourishing Palestinian Sex Trade Exposed In New Report

by Amira Hass - Haaretz

December 12, 2009

Young Palestinian women are being forced to into prostitution in brothels, escort services, and private apartments in Ramallah and Jerusalem, including areas inhabited by Jews, according to a report released Wednesday.

The Palestinian organization SAWA (All Women Together Today and Tomorrow) published the paper, the first of its kind, urging Palestinian society to break its silence over its sex industry.

The report was compiled with support by UNIFEM, the United Nations Development Fund for Women, which allotted resources for research on the subject. SAWA conducted research and interviews for the study in the beginning of 2008, but for a variety of reasons has only now been published.

The report, which is titled "Trafficking and Forced Prostitution of Palestinian Women and Girls: Forms of Modern Day Slavery," was released in conjunction with the "Global 16-day Campaign to Combat Violence Against Women."

The report claims that women are trafficked from different areas of the West Bank, in particular urban areas, as well as from the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem. Women from Eastern Europe who are sold into the sex trade in Israel are also occasionally brought to the West Bank, where they work in designated apartments.

There are a number of legally registered hotels and cleaning companies that offer "double services," which include sexual services for men.

Researchers only spoke with a small number of people for the study, among them several women, cab drivers, lawyers, hotel owners, and Palestinian police investigators, and came away with the impression that trafficking in the Palestinian territories is not run by a sophisticated network.

Researchers also spoke with Palestinian women pimps in their 40s and 50s, who themselves are former prostitutes. One of these pimps had a Jerusalem identity card and owned four apartments.

She allowed the women working for her to go out freely, but used intimidation to ensure that they would return. She also supplied them with customers from cities inside Israel.

The report notes that like in other places around the world, women are forced into prostitution due to economic hardship, the Palestinian cases brought to their attention mainly stemmed from incidents of sexual violence, and occasionally forced marriage at a young age.

Some of the women mentioned in the report are students at institutions of higher education in the West Bank, and some are high school students.

In a number of cases that came to the authors' attention via the press, fathers sold their daughters through "back door" marriages, in which an announcement of marriage is made without the involvement of a religious official.

When one girl is seen to be married repeatedly in the same way, it is clear that it is a cover for sex trafficking.

While the authors of the report stress that the prostitutes' clients range from "rich businessmen to young people," they do not give any further details as to their identities and backgrounds.

The report urges the Palestinian authorities and Palestinian society to acknowledge the existence of the problem. It calls on Palestinian non-governmental organizations to propose a bill that would treat prostitution as sexual violence and to work for the enactment of this law.

The report also encourages the rejection of the stance that prostitution is a "choice;" and proposes the training of law enforcement authorities to treat the women with respect and fairness. The report also calls for the creation of shelters, as well as more support for existing shelters, where women forced into prostitution can find refuge.

Sawa was founded in 1998, and provides services, including an emergency hotline for women and children. It provides teaching and training in schools and with the police on the issue of violence against women.

Taliban bring order, say Afghans

The Australian

December 13, 2009

Taliban insurgents in Kabul are nailing night letters to the front doors of police, soldiers and government officials, warning them to leave their jobs or face punishment.

The militants are being welcomed in the Afghan capital's poorer areas by people who are angry over corruption and give them food, cash and weapons.

Safe houses and bomb-making workshops have begun to appear in poor districts close to the city center as the militants increase their presence and plot attacks on prominent targets.

"They know who we are, where we live and what we do," said Ehsan Anwari, who used to work as an Afghan army medico and now runs a clinic in Company district, where Highway One, the main road from Kandahar, enters the capital.

"Whenever we hear shooting, we think the Taliban are taking over the district," Dr Anwari said. "We are afraid."

Described by one police officer as a den of vice, Company district is a maze of tightly packed single-storey houses and muddy narrow streets.

The Taliban tried last month to blow up the house of Dr Anwari's brother, a police officer, after pouring petrol through his front gate.

The policeman grabbed his gun and opened fire. His attackers fled, but he found mortar rounds, explosives and ammunition by the gate.

"We reported it but the police are too afraid to come into these streets at night because of the Taliban," Dr Anwari said.

Earlier this year, the Taliban assassinated two army colonels as they walked through Company district. After the killings, many government officials left the area in fear of their lives.

Local people said they supported the Taliban because the police never tackled the criminal gangs smuggling drugs, running prostitutes and kidnapping local businessmen.

In Wardak, a Taliban-controlled province south of the capital, the insurgents last month seized four men involved in kidnapping the son of a wealthy Kabul tea merchant.

The kidnappers told their victim to pretend he was their nephew if they met anyone on the way to their safe house in a remote area. But Taliban soldiers at a checkpoint noticed his expensive shoes, jeans and leather jacket, and arrested the gang.

Four bodies were then left swinging from a tree in Maidan Shah, the provincial capital. A note pinned to one read: "The same fate awaits others who choose to kidnap for a living."

The Taliban caught the kidnappers, tortured them and executed them in public. The tea merchant donated $US200,000 ($219,000) to the Taliban as a gift for his son's release.

The story quickly spread through the districts around Highway One.

"It proves the Taliban have no problem with ordinary Afghans - they only have a problem with those Afghans who work in high government positions, who run crime in this city," said Karimullah, 40, who owns a shop selling flour, oil and rice.

As he spoke, two officials from the Kabul municipality pulled up in Toyota Land Cruisers. Karimullah watched with contempt as they entered the shops and took money from the owners. "You see," he shouted. "They take our money and don't give a receipt. It's not tax, it's for their pockets."

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=61027&s2=14.

SADDAM HUSSEIN'S GREATEST LEGACY: DECEMBER 2003 TO DECEMBER 2006

SADDAM HUSSEIN'S GREATEST LEGACY: DECEMBER 2003 TO DECEMBER 2006
Part One
Malcom Lagauche

December 13, 2009

As we approach the third anniversary of the assassination of Saddam Hussein at the hands of agents from the U.S. and Iran, we must remember the legacy Saddam left after he was kidnapped. His steadfastness and integrity equaled these same traits he possessed while he was the president of the country. This is part one of a three-part series. It is an excerpt from my book The Mother of All Battles: The Endless U.S.-Iraq War.

Saddam Hussein was Iraq’s leader from 1973 (officially becoming Iraq’s president in 1979) to April 2003. His legacy is two-fold. On the one hand, he and the Ba’ath Party were the impetus behind turning Iraq from an Arab nation indistinguishable from its Arab neighbors to the most advanced Arab country in history. From 1973 to 1990, the literacy rate in Iraq rose from 35% to over 90%. Thousands of miles of roads were built and the country was completely electrified. Excellent universal health care and education from primary school to university were available at no cost. Foreign scholars and writers were invited to visit Iraq and write about the country, as well as the Arab world. The Iraqi government gave them housing and paid their salaries so they could gain and disseminate information. In 1987, the New York Times called Baghdad "The Paris of the Middle East."

On the other hand, after the U.S. attack on Iraq in 1991 that destroyed much of the country, and a 12-year devastating embargo, Saddam Hussein’s critics blamed him for the demise of the country that once was the jewel of the Arab world: the country his leadership produced.

Saddam Hussein’s name was used by mainstream Western media to depict a barbaric and sadistic person. The scribes conveniently forgot, or did not take the time to learn about, the years in which Iraq was the premier Arab state that offered more human rights to its public than other Arab nations, especially in the area of freedom of religion and the liberation of women.

This section is not a history of his regime, but a view of him and his steadfastness after April 9, 2003, the date to which many people refer as "The Fall of Baghdad."

On April 9, 2003, Saddam Hussein made his last public appearance. He was surrounded by tens of thousands of supporters in Baghdad who raised him up to the roof of his car so he could wave to them all. Then, the car sped away.

Speculation was rampant for the next few months. Was Saddam alive or dead? Was he involved with the quickly-growing resistance? Nobody seemed to know.

Then, in December 2003, we all saw the photos of a disheveled Saddam Hussein after he was pulled out of a "spider hole" in a town near Tikrit. The administration laughed and the U.S. public made jokes about him and his hiding place.

The room was dirty. There was an empty can of Spam. The story was that he was holed up there and was totally irrelevant to Iraq. His day was done and he was now in the hands of Iraq’s liberators. What you saw wasn’t real. Nothing of this scenario was true.

On March 8, 2005, United Press International (UPI) ran a short press release titled "Public Version of Saddam Capture Fiction." It received little publicity in the U.S., but some foreign news agencies did run the story

The UPI press release consisted of quotes from an ex-U.S. Marine of Lebanese descent, Nadim Rabeh. In addition to the U.S. version of the capture date being off by two days, during an interview in Lebanon, Rabeh stated:

I was among the 20-man unit, including eight of Arab descent, who searched for Saddam for three days in the area of Dour near Tikrit, and we found him in a modest home in a small village and not in a hole as announced. We captured him after fierce resistance during which a Marine of Sudanese origin was killed.

Rabeh recounted how Saddam fired at them with a gun from the window of a room on the second floor. Then, the Marines shouted at him in Arabic, "You have to surrender. There is no point in resisting."

How did we come to see the pictures of the hole and a scruffy-looking Saddam Hussein? According to Rabeh, "Later on, a military production team fabricated the film of Saddam’s capture in a hole, which was in fact a deserted well."

The former Marine’s account mixes with the rendition Saddam Hussein gave his lawyer when they had their first meeting. Saddam told him that he was captured in a friend’s house and that he was drugged and tortured for two days, hence the pictures of Saddam looking bedraggled.

All the major news networks and publications showed pictures of the hole and a beleaguered Saddam: Time Magazine, CNN News, magazines, daily newspapers, etc. You name it and they published it. But, they were all wrong. Not one publication took the time to research the story. They ran the pictures supplied by the U.S. military and parroted the lines they were given.

This was not the first time something similar has occurred. After the 1989 invasion of Panama, the U.S. allowed the press to enter Manuel Noriega’s office. He was portrayed as a sexual pervert. In the office were pictures of young boys, a picture of Hitler, red underpants and pornographic magazines.

A few months later, the first Marine to enter Noriega’s office was released from the Corps. He eventually talked to a reporter and gave his story of the encounter. He maintained that the contents of the office included only a desk, a telephone, a chair, and a typewriter.

With Saddam, the props were changed. They were made to make Saddam look like a caged animal on the run who only had the basic elements to survive. No one asked questions of what should have been obvious. For instance, how did Saddam Hussein come into possession of a can of Spam? There was absolutely no place in Iraq where Spam was sold. It contains pork, a food forbidden from a Moslem’s diet.

A few months after his capture, a picture was widely distributed that gained much publicity. It showed a bunch of U.S. soldiers standing next to an Iraqi building on which a painted illustration depicted the blowing up of the World Trade Center. The inference was that Iraqis took glee in the acts of the destruction of the World Trade Center on 9-11-2001.

If one looked close, it was evident that the soldiers were standing on the base path of a disused baseball field. There were no baseball fields in Iraq. Upon closer scrutinizing, the trees were typical southeastern U.S. types that are not indigenous to Iraq.

The photo was bogus. It was filmed in the U.S., but, the harm had been done. Many news agencies had distributed the picture. Its contents inflamed U.S. citizens even more about the Iraqi people.

When Saddam was captured, U.S. authorities said he was a spent force and he had no say in the ever-growing resistance. This was another propaganda exercise because subsequent information shows he was heading the resistance and called many shots. For instance, on Paul Wolfowitz’ first visit to Baghdad, he stayed at the Hotel al-Rashid. A rocket fired at the building killed a U.S. colonel on the floor just above Wolfowitz, who was visibly shaken by the incident. Saddam Hussein personally ordered that strike.

Many Iraqis challenged the scenario of Saddam’s capture. The U.S. administration thought that by humiliating him, the Iraqi public would discount his presence. Just the opposite occurred. On the evening of the announcement of Saddam’s capture, pro-Saddam Hussein rallies sprung up. His supporters, who, instead of looking at him as a humiliated ex-leader, showed their admiration for him because they knew the U.S. story of his capture was fabricated. Students in schools brought pictures of Saddam to class. In one instance, U.S. military personnel surrounded a Baghdad school and apprehended a few dozen 14-year-old students, whom they tortured for a few hours.

The image of a cowardly Saddam giving up without a fight did not set well with Iraqis. A retired colonel in the Iraqi army sent me the following responses to the capture:

* Saddam’s inside wear was very clean, which gives the impression he was not in a hole.
* At the time they said the captured him, no dates were available, but the trees they showed in the films had fresh dates on the palm trees and this was not possible.
* My house is in the Adhamiya and I can say that I saw Saddam after they announced the fall of Baghdad. I saw him myself. He was standing on the bonnet of a car. He was giving smiles to the people around him who were encouraging him by their loyalty, which they always had.
* As I know, Saddam was on top of the battle at the airport.
* What I heard was that he was on top of many assaults against the Americans.

Iraq Screen published an article shortly before Saddam Hussein’s assassination. The author interviewed an Iraqi officer of the Republican Guard who participated in the battle for the airport in Baghdad in April 2003. The officer recalled:

While I was busy shooting with my colleagues, all of a sudden, we found Saddam Hussein with a number of his assistants inside the airport, we were really surprised because we did not expect such a thing, but Saddam went forward and took an RPG and put it on his shoulder and began to shoot by himself. We gathered around him and begged him to stay aside and leave us fighting because if we would be killed, we are common officers, but if he is killed, we would lose our leader. Saddam turned to us and said, "Look, I am no better than any one of you and this is the high time to defend our great Iraq and it would be a great honor to be killed as a martyr for the sake of Iraq."

From various sources, we now have a totally different story from the one force-fed to us by the U.S. administration. Instead of Saddam Hussein being a coward who fled and was caught in a hole in the ground, he was now the president, who, under siege, met publicly with his people on April 9, 2003 (video of this was shown on U.S. television) after personally being involved with several battles against the invaders, and who created a network of resistance while tens of thousands of U.S. military people were looking for him.

Shortly before his hanging, Saddam spoke of his days on the run with his lawyers. For nine months, he openly conducted the resistance, many times right under the noses of his would-be captors. He told of swimming in the Tigris River or using a small boat if he needed to maneuver in the area.

Most 66-year-old men would be contemplating retirement. But, Saddam Hussein lived off his wits, the land, and with comrades for nine months, all the time coordinating a resistance against illegal invaders of his country. Most men half his age would not be able to withstand the physical challenges of such a routine. It is hard to conceive how a man of his age endured more than a lifetime of hardship, torture and personal bereavement in just three-and-a –half years without losing his mental faculties or selling out to his opponents.

Unfortunately, the U.S. government is in possession of all of Iraq’s records prior to April 2003. Not one word will be mentioned that will contradict the U.S. rewriting of Iraq’s history. At best, we will have to rely on anecdotal accounts and eye witnesses. It is neither the best nor the most accurate form of history, but it’s all we have now.

On November 5, 2006, Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by hanging. The verdict came after what could possibly be called the worst travesty of justice ever seen in a courtroom.

For his first few months in captivity, he was not allowed to see a lawyer. In that time, he was tortured and questioned. He also was offered deals by the U.S. that would have obtained him a "get out of jail free" pass if he cooperated and gave the captors information about the resistance. He never capitulated.

Saddam Hussein was not allowed to see his family. Most of his correspondence to them was either not delivered, or highly censored. By now, most human beings would be willing to say anything their kidnappers desired.

In 2004, Frank Morrow, producer of one of the finest political shows ever seen on U.S. TV screens, Alternative Views, was asked about Saddam’s plight in comparison to that of another president kidnapped by the U.S., Manuel Noriega. He discussed how Noriega collapsed after a few days of U.S. incarceration. Morrow then stated, "Saddam is made of sterner stuff."

On his first day in court, Saddam was a few minutes late. The judge asked him why he was not on time and Saddam told him that the elevators of the building were not working. The judge then said he would ask the Americans to try to fix the faulty lifts. Saddam looked the judge in the eye and said, "Don’t ask them. You tell them. You are an Iraqi." The judge was silent. The accused gave him a lesson in citizenship.

This was Saddam Hussein’s first court appearance and it was televised. The U.S.-appointed collaborators thought televising the trial would humiliate Saddam in the eyes of the Iraqi public. The ploy backfired. Saddam’s chastising of the judge intrigued the viewers. In future sessions, the sound of the broadcasts were cut if the judge did not want the public to hear what Saddam had to say. The first judge must be given credit for fairness. It appeared that he was giving both sides time to present their cases. Then, he resigned. He publicly stated that the Iraqi government had pressured him and given him instructions not to be fair with Saddam. The next judge was a travesty and he made it be known from his first day that there would not be a fair trial for Saddam Hussein.

We have read page-after-page of the illegality of Saddam’s trial in various media. The anomalies are for too many to address here. However, with each preposterous turn, Saddam kept his ground and never capitulated to the court.

For months, every conceivable scenario emerged: Saddam was dragged out of court; his lawyers were kicked out of court; defense witnesses were tortured by the court; the judge destroyed a videotape that clearly showed the head prosecutor was lying; and Saddam and a few of his comrades went on hunger strikes.

Still, he showed up in court with the wit and physical appearance of a man decades younger. All the atrocities committed against him never made him appear to be desperate and he never showed signs of caving in.

Several times, Saddam was approached by U.S. officials to make a deal. The Iraqi resistance had grown to a formidable foe and the U.S. knew that Saddam still held enough power to persuade a major portion of the resistance to lay down its weapons. Instead of accepting an offer for his freedom on some small island in the Pacific, Saddam retained his dignity. Other Ba’ath Party members who were imprisoned were given chances to be freed and made wealthy if they testified against Saddam. They refused to sell out.

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=61034&s2=14.

A moment of truth: A word of faith, hope and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering

Full text: 'A moment of truth'
A moment of truth: A word of faith, hope and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering
Various undersigned

December 13, 2009

Introduction
We, a group of Christian Palestinians, after prayer, reflection and an exchange of opinion, cry out from within the suffering in our country, under the Israeli occupation, with a cry of hope in the absence of all hope, a cry full of prayer and faith in a God ever vigilant, in God’s divine providence for all the inhabitants of this land. Inspired by the mystery of God's love for all, the mystery of God’s divine presence in the history of all peoples and, in a particular way, in the history of our country, we proclaim our word based on our Christian faith and our sense of Palestinian belonging – a word of faith, hope and love.

Why now? Because today we have reached a dead end in the tragedy of the Palestinian people. The decision-makers content themselves with managing the crisis rather than committing themselves to the serious task of finding a way to resolve it. The hearts of the faithful are filled with pain and with questioning: What is the international community doing? What are the political leaders in Palestine, in Israel and in the Arab world doing? What is the Church doing? The problem is not just a political one. It is a policy in which human beings are destroyed, and this must be of concern to the Church.

We address ourselves to our brothers and sisters, members of our Churches in this land. We call out as Christians and as Palestinians to our religious and political leaders, to our Palestinian society and to the Israeli society, to the international community, and to our Christian brothers and sisters in the Churches around the world.

1. The reality on the ground

1.1 "They say: 'Peace, peace' when there is no peace" (Jer. 6:14). These days, everyone is speaking about peace in the Middle East and the peace process. So far, however, these are simply words; the reality is one of Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, deprivation of our freedom and all that results from this situation:

1.1.1 The separation wall erected on Palestinian territory, a large part of which has been confiscated for this purpose, has turned our towns and villages into prisons, separating them from one another, making them dispersed and divided cantons. Gaza, especially after the cruel war Israel launched against it during December 2008 and January 2009, continues to live in inhuman conditions, under permanent blockade and cut off from the other Palestinian territories.

1.1.2 Israeli settlements ravage our land in the name of God and in the name of force, controlling our natural resources, including water and agricultural land, thus depriving hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, and constituting an obstacle to any political solution.

1.1.3 Reality is the daily humiliation to which we are subjected at the military checkpoints, as we make our way to jobs, schools or hospitals.

1.1.4 Reality is the separation between members of the same family, making family life impossible for thousands of Palestinians, especially where one of the spouses does not have an Israeli identity card.

1.1.5 Religious liberty is severely restricted; the freedom of access to the holy places is denied under the pretext of security. Jerusalem and its holy places are out of bounds for many Christians and Muslims from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Even Jerusalemites face restrictions during the religious feasts. Some of our Arab clergy are regularly barred from entering Jerusalem.

1.1.6 Refugees are also part of our reality. Most of them are still living in camps under difficult circumstances. They have been waiting for their right of return, generation after generation. What will be their fate?

1.1.7 And the prisoners? The thousands of prisoners languishing in Israeli prisons are part of our reality. The Israelis move heaven and earth to gain the release of one prisoner, and those thousands of Palestinian prisoners, when will they have their freedom?

1.1.8 Jerusalem is the heart of our reality. It is, at the same time, symbol of peace and sign of conflict. While the separation wall divides Palestinian neighbourhoods, Jerusalem continues to be emptied of its Palestinian citizens, Christians and Muslims. Their identity cards are confiscated, which means the loss of their right to reside in Jerusalem. Their homes are demolished or expropriated. Jerusalem, city of reconciliation, has become a city of discrimination and exclusion, a source of struggle rather than peace.

1.2 Also part of this reality is the Israeli disregard of international law and international resolutions, as well as the paralysis of the Arab world and the international community in the face of this contempt. Human rights are violated and despite the various reports of local and international human rights' organizations, the injustice continues.

1.2.1 Palestinians within the State of Israel, who have also suffered a historical injustice, although they are citizens and have the rights and obligations of citizenship, still suffer from discriminatory policies. They too are waiting to enjoy full rights and equality like all other citizens in the state.

1.3 Emigration is another element in our reality. The absence of any vision or spark of hope for peace and freedom pushes young people, both Muslim and Christian, to emigrate. Thus the land is deprived of its most important and richest resource – educated youth. The shrinking number of Christians, particularly in Palestine, is one of the dangerous consequences, both of this conflict, and of the local and international paralysis and failure to find a comprehensive solution to the problem.

1.4 In the face of this reality, Israel justifies its actions as self-defence, including occupation, collective punishment and all other forms of reprisals against the Palestinians. In our opinion, this vision is a reversal of reality. Yes, there is Palestinian resistance to the occupation. However, if there were no occupation, there would be no resistance, no fear and no insecurity. This is our understanding of the situation. Therefore, we call on the Israelis to end the occupation. Then they will see a new world in which there is no fear, no threat but rather security, justice and peace.

1.5 The Palestinian response to this reality was diverse. Some responded through negotiations: that was the official position of the Palestinian Authority, but it did not advance the peace process. Some political parties followed the way of armed resistance. Israel used this as a pretext to accuse the Palestinians of being terrorists and was able to distort the real nature of the conflict, presenting it as an Israeli war against terror, rather than an Israeli occupation faced by Palestinian legal resistance aiming at ending it.

1.5.1 The tragedy worsened with the internal conflict among Palestinians themselves, and with the separation of Gaza from the rest of the Palestinian territory. It is noteworthy that, even though the division is among Palestinians themselves, the international community bears an important responsibility for it since it refused to deal positively with the will of the Palestinian people expressed in the outcome of democratic and legal elections in 2006.

Again, we repeat and proclaim that our Christian word in the midst of all this, in the midst of our catastrophe, is a word of faith, hope and love.

2. A word of faith
We believe in one God, a good and just God

2.1 We believe in God, one God, Creator of the universe and of humanity. We believe in a good and just God, who loves each one of his creatures. We believe that every human being is created in God’s image and likeness and that every one's dignity is derived from the dignity of the Almighty One. We believe that this dignity is one and the same in each and all of us. This means for us, here and now, in this land in particular, that God created us not so that we might engage in strife and conflict but rather that we might come and know and love one another, and together build up the land in love and mutual respect.

2.1.1 We also believe in God's eternal Word, His only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, whom God sent as the Saviour of the world.

2.1.2 We believe in the Holy Spirit, who accompanies the Church and all humanity on its journey. It is the Spirit that helps us to understand Holy Scripture, both Old and New Testaments, showing their unity, here and now. The Spirit makes manifest the revelation of God to humanity, past, present and future.

How do we understand the word of God?

2.2 We believe that God has spoken to humanity, here in our country: "Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days God has spoken to us by a Son, whom God appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds" (Heb. 1:1-2).

2.2.1 We, Christian Palestinians, believe, like all Christians throughout the world, that Jesus Christ came in order to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, and in his light and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we read the Holy Scriptures. We meditate upon and interpret Scripture just as Jesus Christ did with the two disciples on their way to Emmaus. As it is written in the Gospel according to Saint Luke: "Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures" (Lk 24:27).

2.2.2 Our Lord Jesus Christ came, proclaiming that the Kingdom of God was near. He provoked a revolution in the life and faith of all humanity. He came with "a new teaching" (Mk 1:27), casting a new light on the Old Testament, on the themes that relate to our Christian faith and our daily lives, themes such as the promises, the election, the people of God and the land. We believe that the Word of God is a living Word, casting a particular light on each period of history, manifesting to Christian believers what God is saying to us here and now. For this reason, it is unacceptable to transform the Word of God into letters of stone that pervert the love of God and His providence in the life of both peoples and individuals. This is precisely the error in fundamentalist Biblical interpretation that brings us death and destruction when the word of God is petrified and transmitted from generation to generation as a dead letter. This dead letter is used as a weapon in our present history in order to deprive us of our rights in our own land.

Our land has a universal mission

2.3 We believe that our land has a universal mission. In this universality, the meaning of the promises, of the land, of the election, of the people of God open up to include all of humanity, starting from all the peoples of this land. In light of the teachings of the Holy Bible, the promise of the land has never been a political programme, but rather the prelude to complete universal salvation. It was the initiation of the fulfilment of the Kingdom of God on earth.

2.3.1 God sent the patriarchs, the prophets and the apostles to this land so that they might carry forth a universal mission to the world. Today we constitute three religions in this land, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Our land is God’s land, as is the case with all countries in the world. It is holy inasmuch as God is present in it, for God alone is holy and sanctifier. It is the duty of those of us who live here, to respect the will of God for this land. It is our duty to liberate it from the evil of injustice and war. It is God's land and therefore it must be a land of reconciliation, peace and love. This is indeed possible. God has put us here as two peoples, and God gives us the capacity, if we have the will, to live together and establish in it justice and peace, making it in reality God's land: "The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it" (Ps. 24:1).

2.3.2 Our presence in this land, as Christian and Muslim Palestinians, is not accidental but rather deeply rooted in the history and geography of this land, resonant with the connectedness of any other people to the land it lives in. It was an injustice when we were driven out. The West sought to make amends for what Jews had endured in the countries of Europe, but it made amends on our account and in our land. They tried to correct an injustice and the result was a new injustice.

2.3.3 Furthermore, we know that certain theologians in the West try to attach a biblical and theological legitimacy to the infringement of our rights. Thus, the promises, according to their interpretation, have become a menace to our very existence. The "good news" in the Gospel itself has become "a harbinger of death" for us. We call on these theologians to deepen their reflection on the Word of God and to rectify their interpretations so that they might see in the Word of God a source of life for all peoples.

2.3.4 Our connectedness to this land is a natural right. It is not an ideological or a theological question only. It is a matter of life and death. There are those who do not agree with us, even defining us as enemies only because we declare that we want to live as free people in our land. We suffer from the occupation of our land because we are Palestinians. And as Christian Palestinians we suffer from the wrong interpretation of some theologians. Faced with this, our task is to safeguard the Word of God as a source of life and not of death, so that "the good news" remains what it is, "good news" for us and for all. In face of those who use the Bible to threaten our existence as Christian and Muslim Palestinians, we renew our faith in God because we know that the word of God can not be the source of our destruction.

2.4 Therefore, we declare that any use of the Bible to legitimize or support political options and positions that are based upon injustice, imposed by one person on another, or by one people on another, transform religion into human ideology and strip the Word of God of its holiness, its universality and truth.

2.5 We also declare that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land is a sin against God and humanity because it deprives the Palestinians of their basic human rights, bestowed by God. It distorts the image of God in the Israeli who has become an occupier just as it distorts this image in the Palestinian living under occupation. We declare that any theology, seemingly based on the Bible or on faith or on history, that legitimizes the occupation, is far from Christian teachings, because it calls for violence and holy war in the name of God Almighty, subordinating God to temporary human interests, and distorting the divine image in the human beings living under both political and theological injustice.

3. Hope

3.1 Despite the lack of even a glimmer of positive expectation, our hope remains strong. The present situation does not promise any quick solution or the end of the occupation that is imposed on us. Yes, the initiatives, the conferences, visits and negotiations have multiplied, but they have not been followed up by any change in our situation and suffering. Even the new US position that has been announced by President Obama, with a manifest desire to put an end to the tragedy, has not been able to make a change in our reality. The clear Israeli response, refusing any solution, leaves no room for positive expectation. Despite this, our hope remains strong, because it is from God. God alone is good, almighty and loving and His goodness will one day be victorious over the evil in which we find ourselves. As Saint Paul said: "If God is for us, who is against us? (…) Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all day long" (…) For I am convinced that (nothing) in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God" (Rom. 8:31, 35, 36, 39).

What is the meaning of hope?

3.2 Hope within us means first and foremost our faith in God and secondly our expectation, despite everything, for a better future. Thirdly, it means not chasing after illusions – we realize that release is not close at hand. Hope is the capacity to see God in the midst of trouble, and to be co-workers with the Holy Spirit who is dwelling in us. From this vision derives the strength to be steadfast, remain firm and work to change the reality in which we find ourselves. Hope means not giving in to evil but rather standing up to it and continuing to resist it. We see nothing in the present or future except ruin and destruction. We see the upper hand of the strong, the growing orientation towards racist separation and the imposition of laws that deny our existence and our dignity. We see confusion and division in the Palestinian position. If, despite all this, we do resist this reality today and work hard, perhaps the destruction that looms on the horizon may not come upon us.

Signs of hope

3.3 The Church in our land, her leaders and her faithful, despite her weakness and her divisions, does show certain signs of hope. Our parish communities are vibrant and most of our young people are active apostles for justice and peace. In addition to the individual commitment, our various Church institutions make our faith active and present in service, love and prayer.

3.3.1 Among the signs of hope are the local centres of theology, with a religious and social character. They are numerous in our different Churches. The ecumenical spirit, even if still hesitant, shows itself more and more in the meetings of our different Church families.

3.3.2 We can add to this the numerous meetings for inter-religious dialogue, Christian–Muslim dialogue, which includes the religious leaders and a part of the people. Admittedly, dialogue is a long process and is perfected through a daily effort as we undergo the same sufferings and have the same expectations. There is also dialogue among the three religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, as well as different dialogue meetings on the academic or social level. They all try to breach the walls imposed by the occupation and oppose the distorted perception of human beings in the heart of their brothers or sisters.

3.3.3 One of the most important signs of hope is the steadfastness of the generations, the belief in the justice of their cause and the continuity of memory, which does not forget the "Nakba" (catastrophe) and its significance. Likewise significant is the developing awareness among many Churches throughout the world and their desire to know the truth about what is going on here.

3.3.4 In addition to that, we see a determination among many to overcome the resentments of the past and to be ready for reconciliation once justice has been restored. Public awareness of the need to restore political rights to the Palestinians is increasing, and Jewish and Israeli voices, advocating peace and justice, are raised in support of this with the approval of the international community. True, these forces for justice and reconciliation have not yet been able to transform the situation of injustice, but they have their influence and may shorten the time of suffering and hasten the time of reconciliation.

The mission of the Church

3.4 Our Church is a Church of people who pray and serve. This prayer and service is prophetic, bearing the voice of God in the present and future. Everything that happens in our land, everyone who lives there, all the pains and hopes, all the injustice and all the efforts to stop this injustice, are part and parcel of the prayer of our Church and the service of all her institutions. Thanks be to God that our Church raises her voice against injustice despite the fact that some desire her to remain silent, closed in her religious devotions.

3.4.1 The mission of the Church is prophetic, to speak the Word of God courageously, honestly and lovingly in the local context and in the midst of daily events. If she does take sides, it is with the oppressed, to stand alongside them, just as Christ our Lord stood by the side of each poor person and each sinner, calling them to repentance, life, and the restoration of the dignity bestowed on them by God and that no one has the right to strip away.

3.4.2 The mission of the Church is to proclaim the Kingdom of God, a kingdom of justice, peace and dignity. Our vocation as a living Church is to bear witness to the goodness of God and the dignity of human beings. We are called to pray and to make our voice heard when we announce a new society where human beings believe in their own dignity and the dignity of their adversaries.

3.4.3 Our Church points to the Kingdom, which cannot be tied to any earthly kingdom. Jesus said before Pilate that he was indeed a king but "my kingdom is not from this world" (Jn 18:36). Saint Paul says: "The Kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 14:17). Therefore, religion cannot favour or support any unjust political regime, but must rather promote justice, truth and human dignity. It must exert every effort to purify regimes where human beings suffer injustice and human dignity is violated. The Kingdom of God on earth is not dependent on any political orientation, for it is greater and more inclusive than any particular political system.

3.4.4 Jesus Christ said: "The Kingdom of God is among you" (Luke 17:21). This Kingdom that is present among us and in us is the extension of the mystery of salvation. It is the presence of God among us and our sense of that presence in everything we do and say. It is in this divine presence that we shall do what we can until justice is achieved in this land.

3.4.5 The cruel circumstances in which the Palestinian Church has lived and continues to live have required the Church to clarify her faith and to identify her vocation better. We have studied our vocation and have come to know it better in the midst of suffering and pain: today, we bear the strength of love rather than that of revenge, a culture of life rather than a culture of death. This is a source of hope for us, for the Church and for the world.

3.5 The Resurrection is the source of our hope. Just as Christ rose in victory over death and evil, so too we are able, as each inhabitant of this land is able, to vanquish the evil of war. We will remain a witnessing, steadfast and active Church in the land of the Resurrection.

4. Love
The commandment of love

4.1 Christ our Lord said: "Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another" (Jn 13:34). He has already showed us how to love and how to treat our enemies. He said: "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous (…) Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt. 5:45-47).

Saint Paul also said: "Do not repay anyone evil for evil" (Rom. 12:17). And Saint Peter said: "Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse; but on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called" (1 Pet. 3:9).

Resistance

4.2 This word is clear. Love is the commandment of Christ our Lord to us and it includes both friends and enemies. This must be clear when we find ourselves in circumstances where we must resist evil of whatever kind.

4.2.1 Love is seeing the face of God in every human being. Every person is my brother or my sister. However, seeing the face of God in everyone does not mean accepting evil or aggression on their part. Rather, this love seeks to correct the evil and stop the aggression.

The aggression against the Palestinian people which is the Israeli occupation, is an evil that must be resisted. It is an evil and a sin that must be resisted and removed. Primary responsibility for this rests with the Palestinians themselves suffering occupation. Christian love invites us to resist it. However, love puts an end to evil by walking in the ways of justice. Responsibility lies also with the international community, because international law regulates relations between peoples today.

Finally responsibility lies with the perpetrators of the injustice; they must liberate themselves from the evil that is in them and the injustice they have imposed on others.

4.2.2 When we review the history of the nations, we see many wars and much resistance to war by war, to violence by violence. The Palestinian people has gone the way of the peoples, particularly in the first stages of its struggle with the Israeli occupation. However, it also engaged in peaceful struggle, especially during the first Intifada. We recognize that all peoples must find a new way in their relations with each other and the resolution of their conflicts. The ways of force must give way to the ways of justice. This applies above all to the peoples that are militarily strong, mighty enough to impose their injustice on the weaker.

4.2.3 We say that our option as Christians in the face of the Israeli occupation is to resist. Resistance is a right and a duty for the Christian. But it is resistance with love as its logic. It is thus a creative resistance for it must find human ways that engage the humanity of the enemy. Seeing the image of God in the face of the enemy means taking up positions in the light of this vision of active resistance to stop the injustice and oblige the perpetrator to end his aggression and thus achieve the desired goal, which is getting back the land, freedom, dignity and independence.

4.2.4 Christ our Lord has left us an example we must imitate. We must resist evil but he taught us that we cannot resist evil with evil. This is a difficult commandment, particularly when the enemy is determined to impose himself and deny our right to remain here in our land. It is a difficult commandment yet it alone can stand firm in the face of the clear declarations of the occupation authorities that refuse our existence and the many excuses these authorities use to continue imposing occupation upon us.

4.2.5 Resistance to the evil of occupation is integrated, then, within this Christian love that refuses evil and corrects it. It resists evil in all its forms with methods that enter into the logic of love and draw on all energies to make peace. We can resist through civil disobedience. We do not resist with death but rather through respect of life. We respect and have a high esteem for all those who have given their life for our nation. And we affirm that every citizen must be ready to defend his or her life, freedom and land.

4.2.6 Palestinian civil organizations, as well as international organizations, NGOs and certain religious institutions call on individuals, companies and states to engage in divestment and in an economic and commercial boycott of everything produced by the occupation. We understand this to integrate the logic of peaceful resistance. These advocacy campaigns must be carried out with courage, openly sincerely proclaiming that their object is not revenge but rather to put an end to the existing evil, liberating both the perpetrators and the victims of injustice. The aim is to free both peoples from extremist positions of the different Israeli governments, bringing both to justice and reconciliation. In this spirit and with this dedication we will eventually reach the longed-for resolution to our problems, as indeed happened in South Africa and with many other liberation movements in the world.

4.3 Through our love, we will overcome injustices and establish foundations for a new society both for us and for our opponents. Our future and their future are one. Either the cycle of violence that destroys both of us or peace that will benefit both. We call on Israel to give up its injustice towards us, not to twist the truth of reality of the occupation by pretending that it is a battle against terrorism. The roots of "terrorism" are in the human injustice committed and in the evil of the occupation. These must be removed if there be a sincere intention to remove "terrorism". We call on the people of Israel to be our partners in peace and not in the cycle of interminable violence. Let us resist evil together, the evil of occupation and the infernal cycle of violence.

5. Our word to our brothers and sisters

5.1 We all face, today, a way that is blocked and a future that promises only woe. Our word to all our Christian brothers and sisters is a word of hope, patience, steadfastness and new action for a better future. Our word is that we, as Christians we carry a message, and we will continue to carry it despite the thorns, despite blood and daily difficulties. We place our hope in God, who will grant us relief in His own time. At the same time, we continue to act in concord with God and God’s will, building, resisting evil and bringing closer the day of justice and peace.

5.2 We say to our Christian brothers and sisters: This is a time for repentance. Repentance brings us back into the communion of love with everyone who suffers, the prisoners, the wounded, those afflicted with temporary or permanent handicaps, the children who cannot live their childhood and each one who mourns a dear one. The communion of love says to every believer in spirit and in truth: if my brother is a prisoner I am a prisoner; if his home is destroyed, my home is destroyed; when my brother is killed, then I too am killed. We face the same challenges and share in all that has happened and will happen. Perhaps, as individuals or as heads of Churches, we were silent when we should have raised our voices to condemn the injustice and share in the suffering. This is a time of repentance for our silence, indifference, lack of communion, either because we did not persevere in our mission in this land and abandoned it, or because we did not think and do enough to reach a new and integrated vision and remained divided, contradicting our witness and weakening our word. Repentance for our concern with our institutions, sometimes at the expense of our mission, thus silencing the prophetic voice given by the Spirit to the Churches.

5.3 We call on Christians to remain steadfast in this time of trial, just as we have throughout the centuries, through the changing succession of states and governments. Be patient, steadfast and full of hope so that you might fill the heart of every one of your brothers or sisters who shares in this same trial with hope. "Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you" (1 Pet. 3:15). Be active and, provided this conforms to love, participate in any sacrifice that resistance asks of you to overcome our present travail.

5.4 Our numbers are few but our message is great and important. Our land is in urgent need of love. Our love is a message to the Muslim and to the Jew, as well as to the world.

5.4.1 Our message to the Muslims is a message of love and of living together and a call to reject fanaticism and extremism. It is also a message to the world that Muslims are neither to be stereotyped as the enemy nor caricatured as terrorists but rather to be lived with in peace and engaged with in dialogue.

5.4.2 Our message to the Jews tells them: Even though we have fought one another in the recent past and still struggle today, we are able to love and live together. We can organize our political life, with all its complexity, according to the logic of this love and its power, after ending the occupation and establishing justice.

5.4.3 The word of faith says to anyone engaged in political activity: human beings were not made for hatred. It is not permitted to hate, neither is it permitted to kill or to be killed. The culture of love is the culture of accepting the other. Through it we perfect ourselves and the foundations of society are established.

6. Our word to the Churches of the world

6.1 Our word to the Churches of the world is firstly a word of gratitude for the solidarity you have shown toward us in word, deed and presence among us. It is a word of praise for the many Churches and Christians who support the right of the Palestinian people for self determination. It is a message of solidarity with those Christians and Churches who have suffered because of their advocacy for law and justice.

However, it is also a call to repentance; to revisit fundamentalist theological positions that support certain unjust political options with regard to the Palestinian people. It is a call to stand alongside the oppressed and preserve the word of God as good news for all rather than to turn it into a weapon with which to slay the oppressed. The word of God is a word of love for all His creation. God is not the ally of one against the other, nor the opponent of one in the face of the other. God is the Lord of all and loves all, demanding justice from all and issuing to all of us the same commandments. We ask our sister Churches not to offer a theological cover-up for the injustice we suffer, for the sin of the occupation imposed upon us. Our question to our brothers and sisters in the Churches today is: Are you able to help us get our freedom back, for this is the only way you can help the two peoples attain justice, peace, security and love?

6.2 In order to understand our reality, we say to the Churches: Come and see. We will fulfil our role to make known to you the truth of our reality, receiving you as pilgrims coming to us to pray, carrying a message of peace, love and reconciliation. You will know the facts and the people of this land, Palestinians and Israelis alike.

6.3 We condemn all forms of racism, whether religious or ethnic, including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, and we call on you to condemn it and oppose it in all its manifestations. At the same time we call on you to say a word of truth and to take a position of truth with regard to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land. As we have already said, we see boycott and disinvestment as tools of non violence for justice, peace and security for all.

7. Our word to the international community

7. Our word to the international community is to stop the principle of "double standards" and insist on the international resolutions regarding the Palestinian problem with regard to all parties. Selective application of international law threatens to leave us vulnerable to a law of the jungle. It legitimizes the claims by certain armed groups and states that the international community only understands the logic of force.
Therefore, we call for a response to what the civil and religious institutions have proposed, as mentioned earlier: the beginning of a system of economic sanctions and boycott to be applied against Israel. We repeat once again that this is not revenge but rather a serious action in order to reach a just and definitive peace that will put an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian and other Arab territories and will guarantee security and peace for all.

8. Jewish and Muslim religious leaders

8. Finally, we address an appeal to the religious and spiritual leaders, Jewish and Muslim, with whom we share the same vision that every human being is created by God and has been given equal dignity. Hence the obligation for each of us to defend the oppressed and the dignity God has bestowed on them. Let us together try to rise up above the political positions that have failed so far and continue to lead us on the path of failure and suffering.

9. A call to our Palestinian people and to the Israelis

9.1 This is a call to see the face of God in each one of God’s creatures and overcome the barriers of fear or race in order to establish a constructive dialogue and not remain within the cycle of never-ending manoeuvres that aim to keep the situation as it is. Our appeal is to reach a common vision, built on equality and sharing, not on superiority, negation of the other or aggression, using the pretext of fear and security. We say that love is possible and mutual trust is possible. Thus, peace is possible and definitive reconciliation also. Thus, justice and security will be attained for all.

9.2 Education is important. Educational programs must help us to get to know the other as he or she is rather than through the prism of conflict, hostility or religious fanaticism. The educational programs in place today are infected with this hostility. The time has come to begin a new education that allows one to see the face of God in the other and declares that we are capable of loving each other and building our future together in peace and security.

9.3 Trying to make the state a religious state, Jewish or Islamic, suffocates the state, confines it within narrow limits, and transforms it into a state that practices discrimination and exclusion, preferring one citizen over another. We appeal to both religious Jews and Muslims: let the state be a state for all its citizens, with a vision constructed on respect for religion but also equality, justice, liberty and respect for pluralism and not on domination by a religion or a numerical majority.

9.4 To the leaders of Palestine we say that current divisions weaken all of us and cause more sufferings. Nothing can justify these divisions. For the good of the people, which must outweigh that of the political parties, an end must be put to division. We appeal to the international community to lend its support towards this union and to respect the will of the Palestinian people as expressed freely.

9.5 Jerusalem is the foundation of our vision and our entire life. She is the city to which God gave a particular importance in the history of humanity. She is the city towards which all people are in movement – and where they will meet in friendship and love in the presence of the One Unique God, according to the vision of the prophet Isaiah: "In days to come the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it (…) He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" (Is. 2: 2-5). Today, the city is inhabited by two peoples of three religions; and it is on this prophetic vision and on the international resolutions concerning the totality of Jerusalem that any political solution must be based. This is the first issue that should be negotiated because the recognition of Jerusalem's sanctity and its message will be a source of inspiration towards finding a solution to the entire problem, which is largely a problem of mutual trust and ability to set in place a new land in this land of God.

10. Hope and faith in God

10. In the absence of all hope, we cry out our cry of hope. We believe in God, good and just. We believe that God’s goodness will finally triumph over the evil of hate and of death that still persist in our land. We will see here "a new land" and "a new human being", capable of rising up in the spirit to love each one of his or her brothers and sisters.

* His Beatitude Patriarch Michel Sabbah
* His Grace Bishop Dr. Munib Younan
* His Eminence Archbishop Atallah Hanna
* Rev. Dr. Jamal Khader
* Rev. Dr. Rafiq Khoury
* Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb
* Rev. Dr. Naim Ateek
* Rev. Dr. Yohana Katanacho
* Rev. Fadi Diab
* Dr. Jiries Khoury
* Ms. Cedar Duaybis
* Ms. Nora Kort
* Ms. Lucy Thaljieh
* Mr. Nidal Abu El Zuluf
* Mr. Yusef Daher
* Mr. Rifat Kassis - Coordinator


Organizations adopting the document up until 11 December 2009:

* Near East Council of Churches – Gaza
* YMCA
* Laity Committee in the Holy Land
* Council for Orthodox Organizations
* YWCA
* International Centre of Bethlehem
* Department of Service to Palestine Refugees
* Siraj Center
* International Christian Assembly
* Arab Orthodox Charitable Society
* Arab Orthodox Club Union-Jerusalem
* Arab Orthodox Club-Beit Sahour
* Arab Orthodox Club-Bethlehem
* Arab Orthodox Club-Beit Jala
* Orthodox Housing Society
* Alternative Tourism Group
* National Christian Assembly
* WI'AM –The Palestinian Conflict Resolution Center
* National Christian Alliance
* St. Yves