Mission & Justice

Bruce Loudon; 29/11/08

Relations between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan were under severe strain last night as a terrorist from the co-ordinated attacks on Mumbai confessed he was Pakistani, saying the onslaught was carried out by the al-Qa’ida-linked Lashkar-e-Toiba, which has links to Pakistan’s premier spy agency, the ISI. The confession — made under interrogation by Indian intelligence agencies - came as Indian forces ended the siege of the Oberoi hotel and a Jewish centre, leaving only a sole wounded gunman holding out in the Taj Mahal hotel. However Israeli diplomats said the bodies of five hostages had been recovered from the Jewish centre. Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said last night elements in Pakistan were responsible for the attacks on the country’s financial capital, as two Pakistani merchant ships were apprehended off the coast of Gujarat state north of Mumbai.

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Jonathan Lis; 27/12/08

Kadima Party chairwoman and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni discovered last week that her portrait had been expunged from dozens of Kadima’s campaign billboards in Jerusalem. The reason for this, her advisers explained to her, was the fact that the billboard company with rights for Jerusalem, Maximedia, forbids displaying pictures of women in the city for fear of offending ultra-Orthodox sensibilities. Livni refused to toe the municipal line, and ordered her adviser, Reuven Adler, to replace the signs at once with signs that include her picture. Wherever placing her picture should prove impossible, Livni ordered that her signs be removed altogether. Livni is not the only one to have her picture censored in recent months from billboards in the capital. Pictures of women who ran for a spot on the city council, election slogans that were considered too blunt, and even photographs of children who are not wearing skullcaps failed to get approved for billboards.

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Uri Blau; 27/12/08; (5 Items)

Brigadier General Avichai Mendelblit, Chief Military Advocate General, reacted to Haaretz’s report Wednesday that the Israel Defense Forces have assassinated Palestinians in apparent defiance of High Court of Justice guidelines for such operations by saying the article - which will appear in full in Haaretz’s weekend supplement - was “annoying and misleading.” Human rights activists are considering filing a motion accusing the army of contempt of court following the report. Yoav Leff, spokesperson for the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, said he intends to contact the Attorney General and request that he looks into the report. In a conversation with Brigadier General Yair Naveh, who was the GOC Central Command at the time, he told Haaretz: “Never mind the court’s instruction, I don’t know when the court issued them.”

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Jason Koutsoukis; 27/11/08

The Israel Defence Forces have assassinated wanted Palestinians in defiance of guidelines laid down by the Israeli High Court. According to operational briefings obtained by the newspaper Haaretz, the IDF has also approved assassinations in the West Bank when it could have arrested the men instead. “Top-ranking army officers authorised the killings in advance, in writing, even if innocent bystanders would be killed as well,” Haaretz reported. Israeli law allows some assassinations in circumstances where the IDF believes the target poses an immediate security threat to Israel or Israeli citizens. But the newspaper has discovered that contrary to what officials had told the High Court, “assassinations were subject to only minimal restrictions prior to the court’s ruling”.

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Tomer Zarchin and Amos Harel; 26/11/08; (5 Items)

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the state would use force to evacauate settlers illegally inhabiting a house in the West Bank city of Hebron, if the squatters do not vacate the premises voluntarily. A High Court of Justice ruling issued last week gave the settlers three days to evacuate, but a loophole was found allowing them to remain for a full 30 days before any force could to be taken. Barak said the the High Court decision nevertheless stipulates that the house must be evacuated, if not voluntarily then by force. He said the police would attempt the first round of evacuation, and the Israel Defense Forces would be summoned in if reinforcement was needed.

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Jason Koutsoukis; 25/11/08

Hundreds of combative Jewish settlers, who were ordered to leave a house in Hebron that police say they occupied with forged documents, now face eviction within 30 days. According to a High Court ruling issued last week, the 150 settlers who have taken over the four-storey building had until last week to leave pending a district court decision to determine the building’s ownership. Fearing a violent confrontation with the settlers, Minister for Internal Security Avi Dichter said every effort would be made to secure a peaceful eviction. “The IDF and the Israel Police have no intention of deviating from the High Court of Justice’s ruling,” Mr Dichter said.

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25/11/08

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have claimed to have arrested the members of a spy network linked to Israeli intelligence who tried to gather information on Iranian nuclear and military programs. Revolutionary Guards chief Mohammad Ali Jafari said on state radio last night that its intelligence bureau had recently discovered the spy network, linked with Israel’s Mossad. “This network sought to gather important information from the Guards’ military section, the country’s nuclear centres and some security officials,” Mr Jafari said. “Very good information as well as equipment that this network were supplied with have been discovered and people will be informed of the evidence in the near future.”

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Ofri Ilani; 23/11/08; http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1040202.html

The Appointments Committee of the Higher Education Council on Sunday bestowed the title of professor on Haula Abu-Bakar, a teacher and lecturer at Jezreel Valley College, making her the first ever female Israeli-Arab professor in Israel. Dr. Abu Bakar, 53, a resident of Acre, is seen as a trailblazing figure in the study of mental health in the Arab sector, focusing on how the issues of gender, mental health and sexual violence affect the community. Abu Bakar also authored the book “On an unpaved path”, dealing with the female Arab political leaders, and “The Upright Generation”, which dealt with the lives of Palestinian youths in Israel.

Taylor Luck; 21/11/08; (3 Items)

Long a refuge for those fleeing conflicts, Jordan hosts thousands of children who are still traumatised by the aftereffects of war, experts say. The trauma is not only constant and long-term among refugee populations, but is actually passed down, according to UNRWA official Reem Abu Kishek. “Even after six decades, it doesn’t mean that the trauma is over; it can easily be triggered and passed on to future generations,” Abu Kishek said at the “Children Have No Place in War” conference on Wednesday. She noted that inter-generational trauma is having negative affects on UNRWA-registered refugee children. War-affected children experience two types of trauma, the first stems from a single event, while the second is in the form of a chronic progression, which those living in refugee camps often exhibit, according to Abu Kishek.

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Mohammed Mari’i; 21/11/08; (2 Items)

West Bank: Jewish settlers angry at an Israeli court order for their eviction from a house in Hebron desecrated a mosque and tombs in the flash point West Bank City before dawn yesterday, witnesses said.The settlers scrawled extremely derogatory words against Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and “Death to the Arabs” on the front of a mosque. They also drew the Israeli emblem, the Star of David, on several gravestones in a Muslim graveyard, the witnesses said.

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