By DPA, Ha’aretz, 31 December 2009
#GFM marchers hang Palestine flag from pyramid
During the rally, Israeli Arab MK Jamal Zahalka directed harsh criticism at Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who he said enjoys “classical music and killing children in Gaza.”
*Photo link / Audio: how we got the Palestine flag on the pyramids
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain played down a report on Thursday that Iran masterminded the kidnapping in Iraq of a British man held hostage for more than 2-1/2 years, saying there was no firm evidence of direct Iranian involvement.
The Guardian newspaper said computer expert Peter Moore and his four bodyguards were snatched in an operation led by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps.
The newspaper said its year-long investigation also found that Moore, who was released on Wednesday, and his guards were taken to Iran within a day of being kidnapped by militants in Baghdad in May 2007.
Rawhiyya was trying to lead women and children to safety
Mazin Qumsiyeh
31 December 2009
A year ago, in the midst of the savage attack on Gaza, we in the Palestinain Center for Rapprochement between People in Beit Sahour issued a call for action composed of 25 things that ordinary people can do (list below). Today we are gathering in Bethlehem (Nativity Square 4-6 PM) in the last day of the year. Bethlehemite Children will read the names of close to 400 children murdered in Gaza a year ago and to pledge that in 2010 we will intensify our efforts including with boycotts, divestments and sanctions. The event in the square of the church of nativity.
It is fitting that attendance at this event will be higher than expected before because many of the people who were supposed to go to Gaza and were prevented by the puppet government in Egypt (acting on behalf of Israel) have instead come to join us here. For news and details about the travails of the Gaza Freedom March, see http://www.gazafreedommarch.org/ Seven of them who are staying in my house (plus an eighth who also was supposed to go to Gaza but decided it is not going to work out) attended our planning meeting and stayed up last night with me and my wife making hangings for the tree. Each hanging/”decoration” has the name and age of one of the children from Gaza on one side and on the other side is the sticker carrying the words Freedom, Equality, Return and a call to boycott Israel. Each will be appropriately hung by a child from Bethlehem remembering a child from Gaza.
On this last day of the year as we reflect on the last year in Palestine where it was filled with hope, began with Children and ending with children (and youth and young at heart from around the world). We reflect on the hundreds of new people we met, on the excellent and productive year of activism, on finishing my book, and most of all on the blessings of activism, the best and most sure recipe for happiness. With your help, may the new year bring us all peace with justice.
Action call from the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People:
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Demonstrators being forcibly ejected from street in Cairo
Video by Kayvan Farchadi with Sam Husseini
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