The sale of Palestinian land to Israelis is punishable by death, a Palestinian Authority court ruled on Sunday, in what Palestinian officials are saying is a necessary measure to ensure the founding of a future state.

Judge Ta'et At-Twil, according to a report by the Palestinian news agency Ma'an, ruled that selling, or attempting to sell, land to a foreign country was a criminal offense which could result in the death penalty.

In a statement released following the ruling, the Palestine General Prosecution said the move represented "a consolidation of the previous legal principle," adding that the "ruling aimed to protect the Palestinian national project to establish an independent Palestinian state."

Last year, a Palestinian military court sentenced a man to death by hanging for selling land to an Israeli company, with then prosecutor Issa Amer saying that the defendant had sold land that didn't belong to him in the village of Beit Ummar using forged documents.

Land sales are considered treason by the Palestinians because of their long-running dispute with the Israelis, however the sentence is unlikely to be implemented.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas routinely withholds the required approval for executions. Several others are on death row as suspected informants for Israel.

Image via Wikipedia. Hamas' flag with Shahada.This happened three days ago:

Two phosphorous mortars were fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip, The Jerusalem Post reported Wednesday. "These weapons have been banned by the Geneva convention. They cause burns among victims and they kill," said Haim Yalin, head of the Eshkol Regional Council. Hamas-the Iranian-backed terrorist group that rules Gaza-has increased its attacks on the Jewish state since Israel and the Palestinian Authority resumed direct negotiations earlier this month. "So long as this autonomous Iranian entity in Gaza continues to exist, we will be fired on," Yalin said. "There are 50,000 residents who live in this area who are thirsty for peace and a normal life. And we face a Hamas entity that is unwilling to recognize Israel. We are civilians, farmers, students, all being fired on indiscriminately."

When Israel used them, there was an international uproar against its use. When Hamas uses it, it barely gets to front pages. Another example of double standards. What happens: Israeli lives are worth less than Palestinian ones?

Image via Wikipedia

Wednesday in Geneva during the current session of the U.N. Human Rights Council, the Obama administration became a willing participant in the U.N.’s imposition of an apartheid-style ban on representatives of the state of Israel. Despite the promises made by the administration that by joining the Council the United States would not become part of the problem, U.S. Ambassador to the Council Eileen Donahoe chose to attend and fully participate in a meeting that deliberately excluded anyone representing the Jewish state.

...While Israelis are left standing in the hall during the Council’s regional group meetings, this week for the first time Libya took its seat as a full-fledged Council member. Other full voting members of the U.N.’s lead human rights body include such model citizens as Saudi Arabia, China, Cuba, Russia and Kyrgyzstan.

I don't normally copy entire articles but in this case I'm making an exception. Ynet News:

A few weeks back, the well-known author Alfonso Ussia wrote in Spain’s La Razón about a young Catalan woman picked up by Israeli police in Ramallah. Ussia relates that she was presumably campaigning against the Jewish state while holding an expired entry visa on her Spanish passport. Had she been in an Arab state doing something similar, writes Ussia, she would be - most probably - stoned to death in the public square. Instead, Ariadna Jové Martí was sent in good health back to Spain, with an airplane ticket – probably paid for by the State of Israel.
How was all this viewed in Spain? The Foreign Relations Office expressed outrage to Israel’s diplomats over the affair, while the press got busy lambasting the Jewish state. All this, as Ussia rightly points out, while ignoring or justifying every ignominy of any other country around the globe.
Are Israelis aware of the Israel-bashing and demonizing carried out in the Iberian press?
Do they know, for example, the case of Madrid’s El País? With 430,000 daily copies and an Internet readership of over two million, El País is considered the “leader of the mainstream press in Spain.” And alongside every single article about Israel on the website of this pre-eminent newspaper is a profile of Israel that lists Tel Aviv as the country’s capital.
In its section “Corresponsales” (reporters), El País explains that reporter Juan Miguel Muñoz reports from “Jerusalem, Near East.” No other reporter is identified like this as based in a geographic area; they are all in a named country (except those who report on the EU from Brussels).
ReVista de Medio Oriente, a Spanish media watchdog organization, asked El País’ editors why this different treatment of Israel. About their placement of Israel’s capital in the “Near East,” they said that Muñoz “reports from Jerusalem on Lebanon and Syria too” - hardly a convincing answer on the face of it, and even less so because the reporter almost never writes about those countries but writes practically daily on Israel. About Tel Aviv as the capital of Israel, the editors told ReVista that the “directive to maintain this designation the way it is comes from the paper’s directors and can’t be changed.”
Analysis of Muñoz’s biased reporting has been published at ReVista for two years and recently, a further, in-depth review examined all his articles in El País during an arbitrarily-selected three week period in January and February of 2010. The study showed that Muñoz mainly picked up material from the “local press” (as he calls the Israeli press) and re-wrote it in Spanish. He selectively chose topics that cast Israel in a negative light and presented them without context, creating an image of a nation populated by lunatics and killers.
In this vein, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is portrayed continuously as cynically posing for the press, and his concerns about Iran are all cast as politically motivated rather than justified on security grounds.
In two such articles (February 7th and 10th) Muñoz includes not even one sentence on Iran’s threats to world order. Although many nations in the West and Middle East are increasingly alarmed at the peril posed by a nuclear Iran, to read and believe Muñoz is to conclude only Netanyahu has problems with Iran (and they are actually just political posturing). “Benjamin Netanyahu has a fixation: To stop Iran’s nuclear program”, Muñoz writes. “Possessing atomic weapons, and not a signer of the Non Proliferation Treaty, Israel will not accept losing the monopoly in the Middle East.”

Relentlessly derogatory 

In the Muñoz rendition, Israel is overbearing and unreasonable and Iran doesn’t seem to deserve sanctions or isolation. The only mention of Iran’s policies is: “In any case, it doesn’t seem to be sufficient for Israel that President Mahmud Ahmadinejad agrees to have the uranium enriched in Russia and France”.
Another Muñoz story on February 7th lashes out at Netanyahu’s family with familiar interjection of editorial comment; his 15-year-old son, described as a “know-it-all”, is ridiculed for winning a Bible contest; and his wife Sara is judged as guilty of being a tyrant with her house help. “On the stage (of the child’s contest) the image was perfect: flag, religion and army, since, for the idyllic picture to be complete, his brother Yair showed up dressed in khakis.” Muñoz’s stereotype of the Likud leader’s family is crudely signaled as nationalistic, religious and militaristic.
Two more articles (on the 1st and 2nd of February) deal with white phosphorus allegedly used “profusely” in the Gaza war, and two officers being “disciplined” for that, according to the “local press.” Although the army denied that the officers were disciplined about white phosphorus use, and although the report sent to the UN doesn’t mention white phosphorus in this regard, Muñoz repeated a Ha’aretz article by Anshel Pfeffer to serve his purpose of vilifying Israel as much as possible, regardless of the accuracy of the information he repeated.
To complete the lineup, Muñoz reports on a fashion model who refused to serve in the army, only saying that army leaders attacked her mercilessly and publicly for her action but never producing any context to explain the army’s point of view, which is that all citizens are required to serve.
All in all, like Ms. Jové Martí, Muñoz enjoys Israel’s hospitality while indulging consistently in biased reporting in his native language unbeknownst to his naïve hosts. His reporting on Israel is relentlessly derogatory, typified by omissions of key information, lack of context and informational errors. In his rendition, Israel is violent, irresponsible, or plain ridiculous. In contrast, his treatment of Hamas is always respectful and understanding. 

As Mr. Ussia writes about the Jové Martí story, perhaps Israel should encourage Muñoz to live permanently in one of the other Near East countries he covers, whose oppressive policies he almost totally ignores. At least then he wouldn’t be able to enjoy living in Israel while making any “insignificant thing something big against Israel” as Ussia writes.
Perhaps when El País reports on Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and Muñoz gets his facts straight on the Middle East as a whole, Israel could consider welcoming Muñoz back.  

Background:
Dor Chabab hosts event about Spanish Jews at the Center for Jewish history (theblogmocracy.com).
Spanish Amnesty International's campaign for Judeophobia in schools.
A New Judeophobia has replaced the old one.
Judeophobia in Spanish MSM: El Mundo' interview with David Irving.
Judeophobia supported by Spanish Govt.

The Hamas Minister for Religious Endowments has again spoken against the Jews and the Zionists, though this time he also adds the Crusaders, US and Europe to his hated enemies. He also says that he wants to prepare a martyrdom operation within Tel Aviv with "Ramallah authorities".

The beauty of the speaker is at the same level as ever. Really ugly this guy, hein?



Tx to An Egyptian.

Related: "Jews are Bacteria, May He Anihilate all this people".

For the first time since pre-State days when Zion and Palestine were synonymous terms, a “Palestinian Zionist Organization” has been established – by Arabs.

The latest Arab to show his public support for Israel is Elias Issa, who describes himself as a “European West-Bank Palestinian.” He writes that he chose a unique approach by which to celebrate Israel’s 62nd birthday – namely, by launching the Palestinian Zionist Organization. He says his goal is “to show the world why it must support the Jewish people and to [distance itself] from the terrorist Palestinian government.”

Statements on the new website include warnings that a new PA state, if it were to arise, would “become the most terrorist state in the world… The Palestinians don't believe in a two-state solution; they only believe in a one-state solution - a land called Palestine [which] does not involve any Jewishness."

Issa, who now lives in the United States, explains that the international community is blind “to what's truly going on in this Middle East conflict. [I hope] to make a difference by shining a different kind of light on the Palestinian-Israeli situation.”

The website notes that “more and more Palestinians” are going public in their support for Israel.

Those are good news, but it's interesting that this hasn't had a lot of publicity.

Why isn't this denounced by any international organization?

This is yet another proof of the brainwashing Palestinian MSM are doing to children. Wouldn't this be a crime?

Ibrahim Za'ir, columnist for the Syrian government daily Al-Thawra, stated

that the U.S. had carried out the attacks with the aim of forcing Russia into making concessions to help resolve the crisis with Iran, and also to push Russia into signing the arms reduction treaty: "Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov declared that regional and international elements may have been behind the criminal operation that caused... the killing of 40 innocent civilians...

"Like the innocent victims of terror operations in Moscow, Dagestan, and other places in the world, the perpetrators of these operations also did not know the political goals of the operations [that they carried out]. [These perpetrators are] young men or women, in the full flower of their youth, who have been brainwashed with hatred and whose minds have been filled with elements of religious and ideological consciousness removed from the textual context of the books [holy to] the monotheistic religions – particularly [those] of the religion of Islam [i.e. the Koran] that bans the killing of innocents.

"But the planners of the terror operations know full well how to exploit the religion to accomplish their unique goals. It is they who are the most distant from Islam and its commandments... [The fact is that] the leader of the terror operations in the Caucasus, who was killed by Russian intelligence about a month before the recent Moscow operations, was... Sa'id Buryatsky, a Russian whose real name is Alexander Tikhomirov, who was connected to several foreign intelligence networks, particularly the American CIA.

"The U.S.'s condemnation of this does not mislead us. Many terror organizations have weapons and explosives... manufactured by the U.S. and Israel, sent to them via Georgia and other countries close to the U.S.

"Against this backdrop, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's trip to Venezuela to sign 30 agreements with President Hugo Chavez can be understood. Several U.S. and Western newspapers [saw these agreements] as Russia's response to Washington, and as an indirect accusation against it, vis-à-vis the two Moscow subway bombings... [Washington had] hoped that this terror operation would pressure the Russian leadership to make many concessions in all things regarding the signing of the Strategic Missile Arms Limitation Treaty – SALT II [sic][1] with Russia not demanding that the U.S. stop its missile defense project in Eastern Europe and change its position towards Iran, and [forcing] Russia to impose harsh sanctions on Iran [in accordance with Washington's wishes]...

Syria, that country which is a dictatorship and which is giving Scud missiles to Hizbullah.

The Palestinian Authority, run by Al-Fatah*, is the only regulator for financial institutions and charitable institutions in the West Bank and Gaza. So in that context it declared Hamas-linked Islamic National Bank of Gaza illegal because it hadn't applied for the necessary license to "engage in banking activities" in the area.

US Treasury Department also designated the Bank as being controlled by Hamas, preventing any US national or US companies to have any link with it.The explanation was given by US Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey:

"Consistent with our commitment to a well-regulated and transparent financial system in the Palestinian territories, Treasury will continue to exposeHamas's efforts to create institutions with the trappings of legitimacy that are in fact controlled by and used to support a terrorist organization."

 The PMA continued with enforcing the regulation and froze the assets of another Hamas-linked organization, called "Friends of the Sick Association", because the believed the charity was serving as a front for the terrorist organization.


Hamas' response was to broke in the Gaza Strip branch of the Bank of Palestine and steal the frozen account's money: $400,000.

Via.

Actually both Hamas and Al-Fatah are descendants of the same group (the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood), but despite that fact they continue waging war at one another. Make no mistake: Al-Fatah is no better than Hamas, but the latter is much more truthful, because they don't hide their goals. Both of them want to destroy Israel as a state, so any agreement with them that saveguards Israel's existence is not going to be very welcomed, whatever the rest of the terms.

Has Ban Ki-Moon something to say about this? Is it going to investigate this or investigations are only made when Israelis are involved?

Syria has transferred long-range Scud missiles to the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, Israeli and U.S. officials alleged, in a move that threatens to alter the Middle East's military balance and sets back a major diplomatic outreach effort to Damascus by the Obama administration.
Israeli President Shimon Peres on Tuesday publicly charged President Bashar Assad's government with transferring Scud missiles to Hezbollah's forces inside Lebanon. Syria and Hezbollah both denied the charges. But the allegations already are affecting U.S. foreign policy: Republicans pressed on Capitol Hill to block the appointment of a new American ambassador to Damascus, according to congressional officials. The White House said it was pressing ahead.
The Scuds are believed to have a range of more than 435 miles—placing Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Israel's nuclear installations all within range of Hezbollah's military forces. During a monthlong war with Israel in 2006, Hezbollah used rockets with ranges of 20 to 60 miles.

The Scuds could be made with North Korean or Russian technology. Anyway, in 2005, Hizbullah was using already Russian missiles sold to Syria, although till now they weren't long-range ones.

Hizbullah's terrorists are trying to infiltrate themselves in several other countries, specially from South America and in the US.

Federal authorities have identified Hizbullah-aligned cells in several cities in the United States. In February 2010, four Florida men were charged in a plot to relay millions of dollars to Hizbullah through a shopping center in Paraguay. The suspects were said to have been working with Mohammed Yusef Abdullah, identified as Hizbullah's main liasion in South America.

 Europe drug trade is funding Hizbullah, while on the other hand it is rumoured that Russian FSB (ex-KGB) helped Hizbullah busting Israeli spy rings.

According to the Globe and Mail readers, 39% consider both of them are responsible, 33% "Palestinian militants linked to Hamas" and 28% the state of Israel.

Tip BCF.

The report from AI actually accuses Israel of using children as human shields, instead of accusing Palestinians who boast normally of doing so.

The report, as with the United Nations' inquiry that is currently gathering evidence on the conflict, sought to dispel the myths and rumors that have added to already high tensions in the region, particularly the assertion that Hamas used Palestinian civilians as human shields (a claim the report said had no basis in fact). Instead, the report said Israeli soldiers effectively turned Palestinians into human shields by forcing them to stay in the homes that soldiers used as makeshift military bases.

 They must have not seen these videos:


Anyway, there is no word from AI about this:

A survey conducted by the Arab World for Research and Development among 1,200 Arab residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza, found that many felt Jerusalem should not be shared with Jews and Christians.

About the many, in fact, are 80%:

When asked to what extent they agreed with a statement made by United States President Barack Obama that Jerusalem should be “a secure and lasting home for Jews and Christians and Muslims,” less than 17 percent said they agree, while 20 percent said they “somewhat agree.” More than 42 percent said they disagree with the statement, while 17 percent “somewhat disagree.”

Gaza has just converted a main traffic artery into an "Arab-only" road.

So, are we insane? How on earth Israelis are going to be joyful upon the perspective of the two-State solution? Blame on both sides? Really?

to the disgrace of the rest of the world...

According to Israeli estimates, Hizbullah today has somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 rockets of various ranges that could reach from Kiryat Shmona in the North to Dimona in the South and the sensitive nuclear reactor nearby. 
(...) The IDF was surprised by Hizbullah's possession of the Chinese-made radar-guided C-802 that hit the Hanit missile ship in the beginning of the war, killing four sailors, so the current assessment in Military Intelligence is that "whatever Iran and Syria have, Hizbullah could have." 

 Well, what a fairly perspective...