By Mel Frykberg
"JERSUSALEM, Mar 14, 2010 (IPS) - Israeli riot police and soldiers have, since Friday, sealed off the Al Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third holiest shrine, restricting entry to women and Palestinian men over 50. Outside the walled Old City, where the Al Aqsa mosque is situated, and in several West Bank villages, clashes were reported between Palestinian protestors, their Israeli and international supporters, and the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), leaving at least 20 Palestinians wounded.
Following a security assessment Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak ordered security forces to stop tens of thousands of Palestinians from entering Jerusalem......
The Israeli government’s collective reasoning appears to be that the only issue at hand is the forthrightness and timing of the settlement building announcement. The continued Judaisation of East Jerusalem, the expulsion of Palestinians, the demolition of their homes and expropriation of their land are apparently insignificant.....
Gabay was commenting on Israel’s ramped up Hasbara, or public diplomacy, efforts to counter the growing international criticism. The Israeli information and diaspora ministry recently launched a new website called Masbirim which encourages Israelis travelling abroad to defend Israel.
However, one of its advertisements ridicules the significant foreign press corps based in the country by portraying them as naïve and incompetent in their coverage of the conflict - A move hardly bound to win over an increasingly sceptical foreign media.
The foreign media, too, has been covering the civil trial of the unlawful killing of Rachel Corrie....
Additionally, last week the parents of Tristan Anderson launched an appeal on an Israeli decision to close the investigation into the IDF shooting of their 38-year-old son. Anderson remains in an Israeli hospital with serious brain damage after he was shot in the head with a high-velocity tear gas canister by Israeli soldiers while attending a protest against the separation barrier in the Palestinian village of Nilin near Ramallah on Mar. 13, 2009.....
Meanwhile, to add to Israel’s public relations nightmare the European Parliament on Wednesday passed a resolution supporting a report by U.N. -appointed Justice Richard Goldstone which calls for further investigations into war crimes committed....."
"JERSUSALEM, Mar 14, 2010 (IPS) - Israeli riot police and soldiers have, since Friday, sealed off the Al Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third holiest shrine, restricting entry to women and Palestinian men over 50. Outside the walled Old City, where the Al Aqsa mosque is situated, and in several West Bank villages, clashes were reported between Palestinian protestors, their Israeli and international supporters, and the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), leaving at least 20 Palestinians wounded.
Following a security assessment Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak ordered security forces to stop tens of thousands of Palestinians from entering Jerusalem......
The Israeli government’s collective reasoning appears to be that the only issue at hand is the forthrightness and timing of the settlement building announcement. The continued Judaisation of East Jerusalem, the expulsion of Palestinians, the demolition of their homes and expropriation of their land are apparently insignificant.....
Gabay was commenting on Israel’s ramped up Hasbara, or public diplomacy, efforts to counter the growing international criticism. The Israeli information and diaspora ministry recently launched a new website called Masbirim which encourages Israelis travelling abroad to defend Israel.
However, one of its advertisements ridicules the significant foreign press corps based in the country by portraying them as naïve and incompetent in their coverage of the conflict - A move hardly bound to win over an increasingly sceptical foreign media.
The foreign media, too, has been covering the civil trial of the unlawful killing of Rachel Corrie....
Additionally, last week the parents of Tristan Anderson launched an appeal on an Israeli decision to close the investigation into the IDF shooting of their 38-year-old son. Anderson remains in an Israeli hospital with serious brain damage after he was shot in the head with a high-velocity tear gas canister by Israeli soldiers while attending a protest against the separation barrier in the Palestinian village of Nilin near Ramallah on Mar. 13, 2009.....
Meanwhile, to add to Israel’s public relations nightmare the European Parliament on Wednesday passed a resolution supporting a report by U.N. -appointed Justice Richard Goldstone which calls for further investigations into war crimes committed....."
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