Category Archives: Gazania
Ghost Cities
Steyn Online:
In a dispute between Hamas and Fatah, it’s tempting to take the old Kissinger line re the Iran–Iraq War: It’s a shame they can’t both lose. But, in fact, only one side wins: In Gaza, al-Aqsa University has just announced that female students will be required to attend in proper Muslim garb from head to toe — i.e., the full body bag. At present, some still wear headscarf, trousers, and a long coat, but that’s too revealing for the new Gaza, so time to get fitted for your burka, niqab, or abaya. Al-Aqsa University is funded by the Palestinian Authority — i.e., Yasser Arafat’s old Fatah — but it’s controlled by Hamas. The higher-education minister, Ali Jarbawi, fumed impotently from Ramallah that the new dress code is illegal and must not be implemented, but the hard men on the ground in the Gaza Strip regard him as just another irrelevant member of a shriveling personality cult for a dead kleptocrat with a taste for Aryan rent boys.
SDAMATT expose on BBC outright lies on Gaza-Israel conflict, media bias and false accusations
Islam is neither a religion, nor a political ideology…
It is a psychosis. Possibly brought on by rabies.
H/T Magic Martin
clashes break out between Israeli security forces and Palestinian protesters just outside the al-Aqsa Mosque
H/T Magic Martin
UK – Yahoo News:
After Friday prayers in Jerusalem clashes broke out between Israeli security forces and Palestinian protesters just outside the al-Aqsa Mosque. Police fired stun grenades at worshippers who threw rocks and firebombs. Dozens of officers in riot gear entered the politically sensitive area, to break up the protest. Around 35 Palestinians were reported hurt along with a number of police.
There has been a recent surge in violence in the West Bank and in Jerusalem in the weeks leading up to a visit by US President Barack Obama at the end of this month. Although the talks are to focus on the wider Middle East region including concerns about Syria and Iran, Palestinian peace talks could be on the agenda. However Gaza’s Hamas leadership has called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to put Palestinian unity above talks with Israel
Palestinian students chase British diplomat out of university: “His country is the cause of our pain”
France24:
The Consul-General’s car (centre) as it hastily left the university.
Earlier this week, the British Consul-General in the Palestinian territories was due to deliver a speech at a West Bank university to discuss, among other issues, relations between Palestine and Great Britain. A group of Palestinian students called this a “provocation” and confronted the diplomat with hostile slogans, forcing him to make a hasty getaway.
According to a consular official, Sir Vincent Fean had been invited by officials from the University of Bir Zeit, a small town 25 kilometres north of Jerusalem, to speak to students on Tuesday about British foreign policy in the region and the possibility of peace with Israel.
UN agency cancels Gaza marathon over ban on women
Ynet News:
A UN aid agency has canceled the marathon in Gaza following a ban on women runners imposed by the territory’s militant Islamic Hamas rulers.
Egyptian court orders destruction of Gaza tunnels
H/T Magic Martin
CNN
From Adam Makary, Hamdi Alkhshali and Catherine E. Shoichet. CNN
February 27, 2013 — Updated 1514 GMT (2314 HKT)
Palestinian workers in Gaza hoist goods out of a tunnel from the Egyptian side of the border last year
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Egyptian authorities have been cracking down on Gaza smuggling tunnels
- An administrative court in Cairo orders them closed and demolished
- Egyptian security forces have flooded tunnels with sewage in a new campaign
- There are hundreds of underground tunnels in the vast Sinai Desert area
Read a version of this story in Arabic.
(CNN) — An Egyptian court ordered authorities Tuesday to destroy tunnels between the country and Gaza — the latest sign of a crackdown on underground smuggling networks.
It’s unclear what Egyptian authorities will do to comply with the court’s decision, but it appears to fall in line with a recent push to put a stop to the tunnels.
Egyptian security forces began sending sewage through the tunnels earlier this month as part of a new campaign to flood them, two senior intelligence sources said.
Palestinians Plan Violence to Force the US to Extract Concessions from Israel
Gatestone Inst:
by Khaled Abu Toameh • February 22, 2013 at 5:00 am
The Palestinian leadership is hoping that anti-US demonstrations and uprisings will scare Obama and force him to exert even more pressure on Israel.
There are many signs that the Palestinian Authority is seeking to escalate tensions in the West Bank ahead of US President Barack Obama’s visit to the region next month.
Although the Palestinian Authority probably does not want an all-out confrontation between Palestinians and Israelis at this stage, some Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah believe that a “mini-intifada” would serve the Palestinians’ interests, especially on the eve of Obama’s visit.
The officials hope that scenes of daily clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians in the West Bank will prompt Obama to exert pressure on the Israeli government to make far-reaching concessions to the Palestinian Authority.
This is why the Palestinian Authority leadership has been encouraging its constituents lately to wage a “popular intifada” against Israel, each time finding another excuse to initiate confrontations between Palestinians and Israel.
Women should wear hijab, not move around much or spread disease.
The only surprising thing about this article is that these people believe in pathogens at all.
H/T Oz-Rita
MEMRI
Following a recent outbreak of swine flu in the West Bank, which later spread to Gaza as well, ‘Issam Shawer, a columnist in the Hamas daily Falastin, wrote that women are the worst transmitters of diseases because they tend to gather in groups and to move from place to place. He advised them to wear a niqab, saying it protects them from infection, and called to limit their movement in the next few months in order to curb the spread of germs.
The following are excerpts from his article:[1]
“The swine flu virus, H1N1, is spreading through the West Bank towns, especially the northern ones. Four people have died so far and dozens are sick, and the numbers are increasing, [though] we hope they will stop.
“I believe that women are the most numerous and fastest transmitters of viral diseases and epidemics such as swine flu, and I am not making baseless accusations when I describe them as such. This is especially [true] in Arab societies like ours, which follow customs that are positive and pleasant, but are also deadly in [certain] unusual circumstances. [For example, when there is need] to make a condolence call, women emerge from every corner and flock from every direction, even from afar, and then congregate in one place. They comfort [the family] and also trade stories – this is very important to them – and spread news and rumors, but also viruses that waft through the stuffy air. Then they disperse, and many go on to perform some other duty at some other home or function hall. This is why I think women are the fastest transmitters of epidemics.
Arabic Rapper Says U.S. and Israel to Blame for Palestinians Not Sending Man to the Moon
You know, in a way they may be on to something. After all, from all accounts, the only thing taught in Palestinian schools and universities is the making and launching of rockets.
H/T Proud Kafir
The Blaze:
Hip hop group DAM, with Tamer Nafar in center (Facebook photo)
A Palestinian musician is blaming the U.S. and Israel for the fact that the Palestinians have not yet been able to send a man to the moon.
Tamer Nafar of the Arabic hip hop band DAM says the group’s latest album was inspired by the contrast between NASA’s space exploration and the digging of smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Egypt. He tells the pro-Palestinian website Electronic Intifada that the “occupation” and the U.S. are to blame for hindering Palestinian space exploration ambitions. He does not mention that Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005 and that Hamas – defined by the State Department as a terrorist organization – now controls Gaza, not an Israeli “occupation.”
In the interview, Nafar describes the inspiration for DAM’s new album Dabke on the Moon. Dabke or Debka is a traditional Arab line dance (Emphasis added):
Well, once I read an article about some NASA experiment on the moon, or in space, I don’t know, but they created some kind of a spaceship that goes to outer space to do something. And on the same day, I read an article about the people in Gaza digging tunnels. I didn’t feel comfortable with these two opposites. They are exploring the galaxies outside of Earth, and the Palestinians are digging tunnels — it’s the opposite direction.
Of course we want to go to the moon, but we cannot do it with the occupation. And who’s responsible for the occupation as well? America, the USA. They are sponsoring billions of dollars every year to make us dig under tunnels. I didn’t like it, and it was a sad song at the beginning. How come we are digging tunnels and they are reaching outer space?
Nafar also blames Arab dictators for restraining the purported Palestinian moonwalking dreams:
Click to continue:
Michael Coren explains why he is a proud zionist
This is quite good.
Egypt says it seized US-made missiles near Gaza
H/T Taffy in Canada
FOX:
Published January 04, 2013
Associated Press
EL-ARISH, Egypt – Egyptian security officials say they have seized six U.S.-made missiles before they could be smuggled into the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
The officials say the anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, with a range of up to one mile, were seized just outside the northern Sinai city of el-Arish.
Officials say local Bedouins led them to the six missiles that were hidden in a hole in the desert. They say the missiles may have come from Libya…
Click to continue:
Pat Condell: Time to end Western racism
At last. Someone has the courage to call it what it is. The racism of lower expectations.
No More Tax Funds from Israel to PA
Israel National News:
Israel has decided to withhold taxes collected for the Palestinian Authority that were to be transferred later in the month.
By Chana Ya’ar
First Publish: 12/2/2012, 12:03 PM
Yuval Steinitz
Israel news photo: Flash 90
Israel has decided to withhold taxes collected for the Palestinian Authority that were to be transferred later in the month. Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz made the announcement Sunday morning at the weekly government Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.
The move is being made in response to the United Nations vote to approve a new status for the PA as a nonmember observer state — in effect, recognizing the PA as a de facto sovereign state. It allows the PA access to numerous U.N. agencies, and to the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
“This was a Palestinian provocation and an attempt to advance their state without recognizing Israel,” Steinitz said. “We said it would not pass quietly,” he reminded.
Steinitz said the funds would be used instead “to offset the PA’s electricity debts.” Gaza derives at least 40 percent of its power from the Israeli electricity grid; the PA-controlled areas of Judea and Samaria derive 100 percent of their electricity from Israel.