Monday, April 30, 2007
Facing the Enemy (article taken from Israel Today www.israeltoday.co.il)

 

Two artists from abroad, a French photographer and a North African technology consultant, think they've come up with a solution for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

In 2005, JR and Marco—both of whom declined to use their last names because their project is technically illegal—decided to travel across the Land to "figure out why Palestinians and Israelis couldn't find a way to get along together," according to their website.

What they found were two peoples who looked to them like brothers and whose languages sound similar. The two were perplexed that Palestinians and Israelis couldn't see that for themselves and figured they'd help them out.

"We must put them face to face and they will realize this," they wrote.

So JR and Marco decided to present faces of Israelis and Palestinians in a humorous light to counter the stereotypical way both sides are usually presented by the media. The results of their work, a project called Face2Face, were 41 black and white photos of Israelis and Palestinians in comical poses which have been enlarged and attached to the security barrier separating the two sides.

Source: http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=132&view=item&idx=1349

Monday, July 30, 2007 by Staff Writer

Sudan's defense minister told a leading Saudi Arabian newspaper last week that a group of 24 Jewish organizations are directly responsible for the conflict in his nation's Darfur region, and for exaggerating the issue into a global humanitarian crisis.

"The Darfur issue is being fuelled by 24 Jewish organizations, who are making the largest amount of noise over the issue, and using the Holocaust in their campaigning," Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein said in an interview with Saudi Arabia's Orkuz daily newspaper. He was apparently referring to the 20 American Jewish organizations that have joined the "Save Darfur Coalition," an umbrella group attempting to raise awareness of the plight of the Darfur victims.

Hussein went on to claim that the Jews were using their alleged control of the international media and financial markets to directly aid rebel elements inside Darfur. He also insisted in quotes translated by Israel's Ynet news portal that only 9,000 people had died as a result of the conflict, and not 200,000 as estimated by the United Nations.

In addition to those killed, more than two million ethnic Africans have reportedly been driven from their homes by a government-supported Arab militia that stands accused of committing grave atrocities. Many of those refugees have made their way to Egypt, and then on to Israel after being mistreated by the Egyptians.

Source: http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=13608

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I found this article on Israel Today (israeltoday.co.il) and I don't know what to believe now. First 400 000 deaths, 1 million displaced, then 200 000 death and now 9000 deaths 2 million displaced ??
Could someone please tell me what's right and what's wrong?  Maybe someone from Darfur?

From: ~ Jerusalem Awaits ~
Date: 29 Jul 2007, 21:51


BAGHDAD — A well-deserved victory against three-time champions Saudi Arabia and snatching the prestigious Asian Cup for the first time on Sunday, July 29, brought a rare smile to a country that has been saddened by killings and destruction for years.
"Now it is our right to enjoy this victory that our heroic team has brought to us," jubilant Haidar Mustafa, a Baghdad student, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"They have brought us joy that we never experienced in the past, when we suffered greatly."

Around him in a downtown coffee shop, dozens of fans leapt and sang with joy after seeing skipper Younis Mahmoud's powerful header seal a first Asian Cup victory for his mixed team of Sunni Arabs, Shiite Arabs and Kurds.

He rammed home the 71st-minute header off a Hawar Mohammed corner for the only goal in the fiercely-contested all-Arab final in a seething Gelora Bung Karno Stadium.

The huge roar inside the stadium was matched by celebrating supporters back in war-ravaged Iraq where people risked death to rejoice the unifying triumph.

Thousands, including members of the security forces, defied a strict government ceasefire order to welcome the victory with an intense barrage of gunfire.

Soldiers, police and civilians loosed off long volleys of automatic fire skywards and into the waters of the Tigris within seconds of the final whistle in Jakarta, beamed live to cafes and homes across the country.

Earlier, Baghdad security authorities had imposed an overnight vehicle curfew in order to prevent car bomb attacks and ordered police to arrest anyone who took part in the traditional celebratory gunfire.

Nevertheless, troops and cops were among the first to start pumping out rounds from their AK-47 assault rifles and Glock pistols at checkpoints and barracks in the center of the war-torn capital.

Armed citizens and private security guards shot from the roofs of buildings in the downtown Karkh and Rusafa districts, where river bridges were eerily empty as Iraqis obeyed the curfew and watched the match at home or in cafes.

Iraqis traditionally celebrate sporting victories by firing guns into the air.

United

   
Jubilant Iraqis cried and danced in the streets, waving their shirts in the air and hugging. (Reuters)

The Iraqi victory against the three-time Asian Cup champions in the crackling decider to the three-week continental tournament was a precious moment of shared national joy in a country beset by sectarian tensions.

From the southern Shiite port city of Basra, to the northern Sunni town of Tikrit, hometown of executed president Saddam Hussein to Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region, flag-waving crowds celebrated.

Fans cried and danced in the streets, waving their shirts in the air and hugging.

"This occasion will banish all of our grief," said Haidar Ahmed, 22.

Since US-led forces invaded Iraqi in March 2003, the country has slipped into a chaotic turf war between rival armed factions, with extremists driving a wedge between Sunnis and Shiites, Arabs and Kurds.

Vendors across Iraq reported bumper sales of t-shirts, team shirts and pictures of the team, as well as Iraqi flags.

With the Shiite-led coalition government plagued by internal rivalries, the national football team carries the rare honor of commanding support from across the country's fractured society.

"The way the Iraqi team has played makes us very happy. They succeeded in unifying the Iraqi people, which the politicians failed to do," Baqir Mohsin, a businessman in Basra, told Reuters.

Television presenters, draped in the red, white and black Iraqi flag, dissolved into tears and CNN broke into its normal programming to announce the win.

Goal hero Mahmoud said his team had no alternative but to win the Asian Cup after a mother dedicated her slain son as a sacrifice to the national team.

In a poignant post-script to Iraq's emotional 1-0 win, the skipper revealed the tragic story of a mother who lost her 12-year-old son in a car bomb attack last week.

The child was one of 50 people murdered after Iraq's semi-final victory against South Korea last week, when celebrations were shattered by two car bomb attacks in Baghdad.

"This occurred in Mansour in Baghdad and one of the victims was a 12-year-old and when the child was laid in front of the mother she didn't weep," Mahmoud recalled.

"But she said 'I present my son as a sacrifice for the Iraqi national team'... so we had to win."

The Iraqi players wore black armbands on Sunday as a mark of respect for the people who died in the attacks.


http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1184649371642&pagename=Zone-English-News/NWELayout

Article 6.5 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) declares:
"Sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years of age".
Article 37(a) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) provides that:
"Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age".
As a signatory state, the Iranian government is under international obligation to comply with both articles. However, Amnesty International has documented 21 executions of child offenders in Iran since 1990. In many cases, these minors have been imprisoned until the age of 18 and then executed.

In January 2005, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which monitors states' compliance with the CRC, urged Iran to immediately stay all executions of child offenders and to abolish the use of the death penalty in such cases. In the summer of 2006, the Iranian Parliament reportedly passed a bill establishing special courts for children and adolescents. However, it has not yet been approved by the Council of Guardians, which supervises Iran's legislation to ensure conformity with Islamic principles. During the past four years, the Iranian authorities have reportedly been considering legislation to ban the death penalty for child offenders. Recent comments by a judiciary spokesperson indicates that the proposed law would only prohibit the death penalty for certain crimes, and not all crimes committed by children.

In spite of these efforts, the number of child offenders executed in Iran has risen during the past two years. As of March 2007 at least 25 child offenders remain on death row in Iran. Their names and ages (where known) at the times of their alleged crimes are as follows:

Delara Darabi 17, Beniamin Rasouli 17, Hossein Toranj 17, Hossein Haghi 17, Morteza Feizi 16, Sa'eed Jazee 17, Ali Mahin Torabi 16, Milad Bakhtiari 16, Farshad Sa'eedi 17, Hossein Gharabaghloo 16, Shahram Pourmansouri 17, Hedayat Niroumand 15, Mohammad Mousavi, Mostafa 16, Mahmoud 17, Hamid 17, Sajjad 17, Farzad 15, Asghar 16,  Iman 17, Ne'mat 15, Hamzeh S 17, Saber, Reza Alinejad 17, Sina Paymand 17

Source: www.stopchildexecutions.com

If you agree with me that this has to stop please sign this petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/sce/petition-sign.html

I know I am a bit late, but when the G8 finished i had lots of tests at school...
So what has changed after the meeting?

First point: the politicians talked and talked and talked and didn't agree with universal solutions. For example, in the global warming question where Merkel asked for a plan every country must sign, the G8 only said, there must be done something to protect the nature, no plan, no ideas,... But one goal was scored, Bush for the first time agreed that global warming is a fact.
oh yes and the famous presse conference of Sarko (drunk or not) of which you can find several versions on youtube

Second point: the security mesures which cost 100 million euros disappeared, in some way wasted when you compare with the solutions found while this meeting.

Third point: the courts in Germany had to deal with a lot of charges against the police from protesters and inhabitans of Heiligendamm.
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Sorry dass dieser Blog etwas spät kommt aber der G8 Gipfel endete während der Prüfungszeit.

Erster Punkt: Die Politiker haben geredet, geredet, geredet und konnten sich nicht auf gemeinsame Pläne/Lösungen einigen. Zum Beispiel dient die von Merkel geforderten Massnahmen für den Klimaschutz, die jedes Teilnehmerland unterschreiben und einhalten soll. Keine Einigungen, keine Pläne, nur Bush der zum ersten mal die globale Erwärmung nicht verleumdete.
oh ja, nicht zu vergessen, Sarkos (betrunken oder nicht) witzigest Interview, das ununterbrochen auf Youtbe zu sehen ist.

Zweiter Punkt: Man muss sich fragen ob 100 Millionen Euro an Sicherheitskosten im Vergleich zu den Lösungen gerechtfertigt waren.

Letzter Punkt: Die deutschen Gerichten mussten sich Anklagen und Beschwerden von Protestern und Anwohnern gegen die Polizei annehmen. Das Stimme-gegen-Armut Konzert lief aber gut, 80 000 Zuschauer, 5 000 weniger als bei Rock am Ring! Danke Herbert und allen andern die hieran teilgenommen haben!!

In the last years 2 million of Iraqis flee the war in their homecountry and this number is rising every day, 1.5 million of them no live in Jordan, the other 500 000 found a shelter in Syria or in Egypt. Only a few found the way into the Eu and the Us. This high number of refugees now causes financiel problems to Jordan.
After a meeting of Jordan, Syria and Egypt, these countries asked now the Eu and the Us for financial help.
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In den letzten 2 Jahren sind 2 millionen Iraker wegen des Krieges geflohen, auch heute noch steigt die Zahl der Flüchtlinge täglich. 1,5 Mio leben in Jordanien, die andern 500 000 fanden Untershlupf in Syrien und Ägypten. Nur wenige Flüchtlinge fanden den Weg nach Europa oder den USA.
Diese hohen Zahlen an Flüchtlichen bereit besonders Jordanien finanzielle Probleme. Nach einem Treffen von Jordanien, Syrien und Ägypten, baten die Vertretter der Regierungen nun um Hilfsgelder aus den Usa und der Eu.

Italia, Greece, Croatia, Romania, France,... nearly all the countries in the south and east of Europe know lots of bush burns, the worst once seem to be in Italia, many tourists have been evacuated. The number of burns in Greece augmented to 200, and it's not getting better....

Big parts of the United Kingdom know a flood after lots of rain, many villages have no electricity or clean water. UK soldiers already shared 5 million botles of water in these regions. Estimations say that if it's not raining again, the flood will last between 10 and 14 days, but the meteorologist can't help with sun, the rain's coming back.
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Italien, Griechenland, Kroatien, Rumänien, Frankreich,... beinahe alle Länderim Süden und im Osten Europas brennen. Am schlimmsten scheint es in italien zu ein wo man Touriste evakuieren musste, aber auch in Kroatien sehen die Ferien nicht besser aus. Die Zahl der Feuer in Griechenland stieg auf 200.

Währenddessen herrscht in grossen Teilen Britaniens das Wasser, Überschwemmungen durch zu viel Regen haben ortsweise, die Strom- und Wasserversorgung lahmgelegt. Die Armee hat bereits 5 millionen Flaschen Trinkwasser in den betroffenen Gebieten verteilt. Schätzungen zufolge könnte das Hochwasser noch 10 bis 14 Tage andauern, wenn es nicht mehr regnet. Die Meteorologen konnten aber leider nicht mit dieser Vorraussage aushelfen.

All the other blogs of the situation in Gaza were strikly limited to Gaza itself and Israeli Politics. Til someone (an american-jewish person) mailed me of the complexity of this theme. That evening the news on tv told for the first time the realation Egypt - Gaza. And a lot of other countries and governments are related to Gaza. So let's tell the story:

Gaza is composed of 2 parties: Hamas (extremists) and Fatah (accepting the existence of Israel). Fatah controlles the  Westbank while Hamas took control of the Gaza strip. After this, a lot of people, former Fatah support tried to flee, but the borders were closed.
Border One: Israel: All the passpoints are closed, to protect Israel from suicide bombers. After the wave of refugees at the border, they opened it for sick people who needed hospitalisation; the others still wait, in misrable conditions.
Israel gets military aid from the US, they sponsore weapons and donate money to help Israel to protect against Hamasattacs.
While the United States sponsores Israel, the European Union donates money for human aid in the Gaza strip and to pay public fonctionars, like the police and food for the poor people.
Another governements are "helping" the Gaza strip, the Iran and Syria. The extremist organisations in this 2 countries beliver weapons to the Hamas.
Border Two: Egypt: The only open checkpiont is located on the Gaza-Eygptian border. But it is not really open, only a few people are allowed to flee into Egypt, because the government is fearing a big wave of refugees, and the following financial, social and economical problems.

Fortunatly, the Israeli Goverment talks with the Fatah, controlling the West-Bank, and already got some agreements, like freeing some Palestinans (Fatah supporters) from Israeli prisons. Other discussions between this to governments will follow.
Hamas is now only in the Gaza-strip, which should make it easier to control weapon ways for the US or the EU.
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All die andern Blogs zur Situation im Gazastreifen waren bis jetzt nur auf Gaza und die israelische Politik, bis jemand mich auf die Komplexität aufmerksam machte. Am selben Abend kam in den Nachrichten die Rolle Ägyptens. Auch andere Staaten und Regirungen weissen Verbindungen mit Gaza auf. Also lasst uns aufzählen:

Gazas Politik wird von 2 Gruppen dominiert: Hamas (extremistens) und Fatah (die das Existencerecht Israels acceptieren). Fatah kontroliert die Westjordanien während die Hamas den Gazastreifen kontroliert. Nach der Machtübername, flüchteten viele Fatahunterstützer, aber die Grenzübergänge sind geschlossen.
Grenze 1: Israel: Alle Grenzübergänge von Gaza nach Israel sind gesperrt wegen der gefahr vor Selbstmordattentätern. Selbst nach einem Flüchtlingsstrom wurde die Grenz nur für Kranke geöffnet die unbedingt in ein Krankenhaus müssen, der Rest muss noch warten, in nicht grad den besten Umständen.
Israel bekommt militärische und finanzielle Unterstützung aus den USA, die Waffen und Geld zur Verteidigung gegen die Hamas beisteuern.
Während die Staaten Israel helfen, hilft die EU den Palestinänster, durch Hilflieferungen und Geld um zum Beispiel öffentlich Arbeiter zu bezahlen.
Die Liste der „Helfer" in diesem Konflict ist noch nicht komplet, denn exxtremistische Gruppen aus Iran und Syrien liefern der Hamas Waffen und teilweise sogar Krieger.
Grenz 2: Ägypten: Der einzige „öffene" Grenzübergang befindet sich an der Grenze zu Ägypten. Die Regierung lässt aber nur sehr wenige Leute passieren, denn sie hat Angst vor einem zu grossem Flüchtlingsstrom, der Ägypten Probleme bereiten könnte.

Goot-sei-Dank gibt es Gespräche zwisch Israel und der Fatah, die das West-Jordanland kontrolliert. Erste Erfolge sind chon zu verbuchen, Israel lies bereits einige Palästinänser (Fatah Unterstützer) frei. Weitere Gespräche scheinen noch zu kommen.

Da sich die Hamas jetzt „nur" noch im Gazastreifen befindet, wäre es für die USA und die EU einleichtes die Waffenwege zu kontrollieren.

On the 07/07/07, following the example of Live 8, a row of Concerts was given in 10 cities all over the world (Sydney, Hamburg, London, Randburg, Rio de Janeiro, Chiba, Shanghai, Kyoto, East Rutherford, Washington). Organised by Al Gore, well-known Artists like Shakira, Snoop dog and Linkin Park followed his call and roched, sang and rapped against Global Warming. Live Earth became the biggest charity concert in history, even bigger than Live 8.
With the help of the media (Live Earth Specials, televising of the concert, Al Gore's famous film, etc) even the people have noticed this event.

Thanks Al Gore

P.S: Yesterday I read something interesting: 1 Kilo meat of cows is a dangerous for the climat as driving 250 kilometers with your car, because of the methan and other gases. So bon appetit!
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Nach dem Vorbild von Live 8, fanden am 07/07/07 weltweit in 10 Städten (Sydney, Hamburg, London, Randburg, Rio de Janeiro, Chiba, Shanghai, Kyoto, East Rutherford, Washington) Live Earth Konzerte statt. Organisiert von Al Gore, kamen Künstler aus aller Welt und mit ordentlich viel Berühmtheit, wie Shakira, Snoop Dog und Linkin Park um auf die Erderwärmung hinzuweisen.
Es wurde zum grössten Benefizkonzert der Welt und hat sogar Live 8 überholt. Durch kräftige Medienhilfe (Fernsehübertragung, Live Earth specials, und Al Gores Film eine unbequeme Wahrheit) wurden auch nicht Konzertbesucher angesprochen.

Danke Al Gore

P.S: Gestern hab ich noch etwas sehr interresantes gelesen: 1 Kilo Rindfleisch ist genau so schädlich wie 250 Kilometer Auto fahren, wegen dem Methanausstoss etc. Na dann guten Appetit!