Viva Palestina
29 December 2009

Advisory from George Galloway MP
Re: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

I have had several calls from the media about a meeting at which I am alleged to have spoken, organised by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, apparently a former president of the Islamic Society at UCL London.

There is no truth in this. It seems to be based on a YouTube video trailing a series of meetings entitled War on Terror at UCL in which excerpts from my Sky interview with Anna Botting were cut in. This canard was first raised yesterday by an alleged stringer from the New York Times who at first claimed this meeting occurred on January 29, 2007 and then, after a series of emails, said that he had made a ‘typo’ and that the real date was 2008.

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husseini’s posterous:

Egyptian security chief states that US embassy ordered US citizens be prevented from going to embassy.

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Our Solidarity Only a Small Taste of the Palestinian Experience

By Joshua Brollier
28 December 2009

Cairo — About one week before the December 31st march was scheduled to take place in Gaza, the Egyptian authorities announced that the 1300 international delegates were not welcome to cross into Gaza from Egypt. The delegates intended to cross into Gaza from the Rafah border with Egypt, delivering humanitarian aid and marching in solidarity with Palestinians suffering from the Israeli government’s siege and occupation.

As scores of marchers began to arrive in Cairo on December 27 they have encountered massive interference from the Egyptian Government. This interference for the internationals has been just a small taste of the daily Egyptian and Palestinian experience. Restriction of movement and assembly, unwarranted detentions and arrests, combined with bureaucratic harassment has marked the first two days of the delegation. The marchers were scheduled to travel to El Arish today and proceed from there to the Rafah border crossing into Gaza. All this has been made impossible. The Egyptian government has revoked all permits for gathering, refused to allow public and private buses to take delegates to El Arish. They have followed, detained and arrested any members of the March who attempted to try crossing the border on their own.

[Read the report]

Just Foreign Policy
28 December 2009

JFP’s Robert Naiman is in Egypt this week participating in the International Gaza Freedom March. But the Egyptian government has blocked the marchers from even approaching the Egyptian border with Gaza. Egypt is also blocking an aid convoy that has the support of the Turkish government from entering Egypt at Nuwieba.

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Song: Al-Quds: Reem Kelani, with Gilad Atzmon and the Orient House Ensemble.

peacepalestine: Beauty as a Political Weapon

According to the notes included in the album, the second song, “Al-Quds”, is an Israeli tune very popular among Jews during the Six Day War, although there is a trick on it: its Hebrew lyrics have been changed to an Arabic poem which expresses the Palestinian longing for their lost homeland. The political intention cannot be more explicit: all deprived peoples harbour equal sentiments and during the last 60 years Palestinians are living exactly the same torment that Jews suffered along two millennia.