| Moderate Jordan: Youth charged with "Undermining Royal Dignity" Posted: 20 Jan 2012 11:47 AM PST From Human Rights Watch: 'Uday Abu 'Isa, an 18-year-old activist from Madaba, 40 kilometers south of Amman, and a member of the Youth Movement for Reform, ignited a large banner showing King Abdullah II that was hanging on the municipal building in Madaba, witnesses told Human Rights Watch. Such images adorn nearly every official building and office in Jordan. Security forces immediately arrested Abu 'Isa, who is already on trial on similar charges for shouting slogans in December. The prosecutor also charged him with burning property.
"Burning a royal's image as a political statement should not be criminally prosecuted," said Christoph Wilcke, senior Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch. "To prosecute this act would send a chilling message that criticizing the king is off limits."
Abu 'Isa's father and fellow activists said on January 12 that they did not know his whereabouts, but media reports later that day said the military prosecutor at the State Security Court had charged Abu 'Isa with "undermining his majesty's dignity." The charge is among several acts of lèse majesté, or insulting the king, for which article 195 of Jordan's penal code imposes sentences of between one and three years in prison.
Abu 'Isa's father visited his son in Muwaqqar 1 prison on January 13 and 17, and told Human Rights Watch that he saw marks on his body Abu 'Isa said were the result of a beating by police at Madaba's Public Security Directorate on January 11. 
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| "The Ongoing Palestinian Holocaust" - incitement clothed as research Posted: 20 Jan 2012 10:41 AM PST From The National (UAE): It took the distinguished Palestinian scholar, Nawaf Al Zaru, 15 years to finish his latest book, The Ongoing Palestinian Holocaust, an encyclopaedia-size opus that just came out in the Jordanian capital Amman, according to the London-based newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi.
In his review of the new release, Rashad Abu Shawar wrote: "Because the Palestinian holocaust targets not only human beings but also land, trees, heritage and civilisation, the author gave it a subtitle: The fabrication of 'Israel' and ethnic cleansing policies.
"And because the Palestinian holocaust did not end with the 1948 war, or the 1967 war, and because the Zionist genocide scheme … and displacement policies are still very much in effect - and will stay that way until the Palestinians are completely and definitively uprooted from the land of their ancestors - the Palestinian holocaust could only be described as 'ongoing'."
The 1040-page book is arranged in 14 sections, with several chapters under each section, complete with "irrefutable facts and figures," the reviewer said, in addition to photographs documenting the massacres perpetrated against the Palestinian people since the beginning of the conflict.
"It is Al Zaru's ambition to give the idea of the 'Palestinian Holocaust' the status of a universal truth," the reviewer said, "but one that is not limited to the murder of thousands upon thousands of Palestinians, rather one that includes such aspects as the altering and falsification of the identity of a people's land: Palestine."
Under the world's watch, he went on, and with complete immunity, Israel has been disfiguring the city of Jerusalem, which contains holy sites for both Muslims and Christians.
In this scholarly enterprise, Al Zaru was helped a great deal by his "close familiarity with the Zionist discourse," the reviewer said, as he speaks perfect Hebrew, which he picked up during his 11 years in Israeli prisons. After he got out in 1979, he worked as a journalist and developed his research skills until he became a reference on the Palestinian-Israeli issue. This synopsis does not capture the feelings of the Al Quds reviewer, who was enraptured by the book. He got good and angry looking at the many gory photos, naturally. Which is of course the entire purpose of the book - not to inform but to get readers to be angry at Israeli Jews. It is incitement clothed in the mantle of "reference." I'd love to see the "irrefutable facts." To give you an idea of how objective this book is, here is the cover of an earlier edition: 
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| Jenny Tonge and her Hamas idol Posted: 20 Jan 2012 09:47 AM PST Remember Jenny Tonge, the British baroness who accused Israeli doctors of stealing the organs of disaster victims in Haiti? Yesterday she spoke at an event in the British Parliament for the "Palestinian Return Centre". At one point she picked up a magazine (apparently part of the Independent) that had a four page story on Hamas terror leader Ismail Haniyeh, talking about how wonderful that was.
You can see her entire speech, along with plenty of other hateful speakers, at Richard Millett's blog. Truly amazing.
Here's that heroic photo of Haniyeh from the Independent:
The interview is here. While part of it is fawning, there is at least a little skepticism there: [T]here have also been allegations – by Amnesty International, among others – of the repression of political dissidents, detentions, and beatings meted out without even the pretence of a trial. Similar accusations have been levelled at the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of these charges; what I did witness in Gaza, however, was something of the atmosphere of fear and intimidation that one would expect in such an environment. One evening, I had dinner with a selection of local artists, musicians and private citizens. After we had finished eating, a figure in a loose-hanging black leather jacket appeared and took a selection of them to one side to demand their names and details of why we had been meeting. Sounds like a place that Baroness Tonge would feel right at home. (h/t Simply Jews) 
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| Latest Latma Posted: 20 Jan 2012 07:50 AM PST |
| Iran's latest nemesis: Barbie Posted: 20 Jan 2012 06:43 AM PST From Reuters: Iran's morality police are cracking down on the sale of Barbie dolls to protect the public from what they see as pernicious western culture eroding Islamic values, shopkeepers said on Monday.
As the West imposes the toughest ever sanctions on Iran and tensions rise over its nuclear program, inside the country the Barbie ban is part of what the government calls a "soft war" against decadent cultural influences.
"About three weeks ago the morality police came to our shop, asking us to remove all the Barbies," said a shopkeeper in a toy store in northern Tehran.
Iran's religious rulers first declared Barbie, made by U.S. company Mattel, un-Islamic in 1996, citing its "destructive cultural and social consequences."
Despite the ban, the doll has until recently been openly on sale in Tehran shops. The new order, issued about three weeks ago, forced shopkeepers to hide the leggy, busty blonde behind other toys as a way of meeting popular demand for the dolls while avoiding being closed down by the police.
 | | Sara and Dara, ugly and fat |
A range of officially approved dolls launched in 2002 to counter demand for Barbie have not proven successful, merchants told Reuters.
The dolls named Sara, a female, and Dara, a male, arrived in shops wearing a variety of traditional dress, with Sara fully respecting the rule that all women in Iran must obey in public, of covering their hair and wearing loose-fitting clothes.
"My daughter prefers Barbies. She says Sara and Dara are ugly and fat," said Farnaz, a 38-year-old mother, adding that she could not find Barbie cartoon DVDs because she was told they were also banned from public sale. Well, they can always just dress Barbie in appropriate clothing:
Hours of fun, especially playing dress-up! 
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| Fatah nervous about elections Posted: 20 Jan 2012 05:40 AM PST From AP: Fatah, the mainstream Palestinian national movement whose survival is key to hopes for a peace deal with Israel, appears ill-prepared for a promised electoral showdown with the Islamic militant Hamas.
The movement's leaders, blaming Fatah's loss to Hamas in 2006 parliament elections on lack of organization, say this time they've come up with a detailed plan to mobilize supporters and field attractive candidates. But skeptics note the party, known for epic infighting, hasn't even begun looking for a presidential candidate to replace leader Mahmoud Abbas, 76, who says he is retiring.
Some say the movement that once cast itself as a band of swashbuckling revolutionaries needs "rebranding" ─ its star dimmed after two decades of corruption-tainted rule in the Palestinian autonomy zones and the failure of negotiations with Israel meant to produce an independent state.
In the West Bank's largest city of Hebron, district party leader Kifah Iwaiwi said he spent much of the past four years on the job apologizing for the past misbehavior of Fatah members. Relying largely on volunteers and donations in the campaign, Iwaiwi said one of Fatah's biggest assets, at least locally, is the ability to solve voters' personal problems because of its ties to the Palestinian Authority.
Fatah and Hamas ─ after several years of running rival governments in the West Bank and Gaza ─ agreed in principle to "reconcile" and hold presidential and parliamentary elections by May 2012. Since then, Islamists have emerged victorious in parliamentary elections in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco, feeding a fear that the Palestinian territories ─ if elections indeed are held ─ could be next.
A political takeover of the West Bank as well by an unreformed, globally shunned Hamas would isolate the Palestinians, crushing any hopes for peace and a negotiated path to Palestinian independence. It could also mean the end to hundreds of millions of dollars worth of annual foreign aid from the West, which regards Hamas as a terror group.
"Everyone feels that if Fatah falls down again, it's the end," said Iwaiwi. Hebron overwhelmingly voted for the Islamists last time.
The election date is linked to progress in slow-moving reconciliation talks, and Abbas' initial election date of May 4 already seems out of reach.
Central Elections Commission director Hisham Kheil said he still awaits Hamas permission to update voter records in Gaza, a process of some six weeks. Elections would be held about three months after preparations are completed, with the date set in a presidential degree by Abbas.
The delay has raised questions about whether Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal are genuinely committed to elections. They announced again last month that they are ready to end the split, but the goodwill gestures promised at the time, such as releasing political detainees and lifting travel bans, have not been carried out. They plan to meet again in Cairo in early February.
Abbas has told Fatah's 22-member decision-making Central Committee repeatedly that he is serious about retiring and moving forward with elections, and that the party had better find a presidential candidate.
But polls show that only Abbas could defeat a Hamas candidate, and that his lieutenants ─ except senior Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, imprisoned by Israel ─ would win minimal voter support. 
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| Egyptian cleric: "These Jews are a cancer in the body of planet Earth" Posted: 20 Jan 2012 04:32 AM PST From MEMRI: Following are excerpts from an address by Egyptian cleric Hazem Shuman, which aired on Al-Rahma TV on September 9, 2011.
Hazem Shuman: What was our response when six Egyptians were killed by Jews on the border? Was the Jewish ambassador summoned? No. Was he expelled from Egypt? No. Was the Egyptian ambassador recalled from Israel? No. So what was the response? Brothers, this is about the honor of the people. I am talking to the Jews in the name of 85 million Egyptians, who hate them from the bottom of their hearts.
[...]
I saw footage of a young Egyptian fighting a lion. He did this for the sake of the thrill. He went into the lion's cage holding a spear, and they filmed him fighting the lion. He got out of the cage after overcoming the lion. I said: By God, young Egyptians who fight lions cannot fight the Jews? Can't they devour the Jews? How many millions of our young men are ready to fight lions... I mean, Jews. [...]
I address them on behalf of 85 million Egyptians, whose hearts beat with hatred for the Jews, and with the knowledge of what the Jews did to us and of how Allah warned us about them...
I tell them that the battle is bound to come, Allah be praised. The Prophet Muhammad, whose words are divinely inspired, said: "Judgment Day will come when the Muslims fight the Jews." That means that the Muslims will be the ones who engage [in fighting]. It's not just any battle. He said: "The Muslims will fight the Jews, and the stones and the trees will say: Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him." Even the stones and the trees hate them. The battle is bound to come.
[...]
Jews will be Jews, guys. The Jews of today are the Jews of Khaybar, who tried to poison the Prophet Muhammad. They are the Jews of Banu Nadhir, who tried to kill the Prophet Muhammad. They are the Jews of Banu Qaynuqa', who tried to lift up a Muslim woman's dress. Jews will be Jews. We know what you are like, you Jews, and we know your hatred toward the religion of Allah, toward the servants of Allah, and toward the Muslims worldwide.
You will be vanquished, Allah willing, but it will not be us who will vanquish you. It will be Allah. Just like He used wind to vanquish you in the War of the Ahzab, and like He used fear to vanquish you in the Battle of Khaybar, Allah will vanquish you again.
Today, 92% of the world's film industry is in your hands, 90% of the world's famous actors are Jews, and 90% of the giant news networks, like CNN, are in Jewish hands.
[...]
Oh nation of Muhammad, Allah says to you: If you fear war with the Jews, brace yourselves for war with Allah. It is either a war with the Jews or a war with Allah. Allah says that the entire nation could be replaced if it is not prepared to sacrifice its blood for the sake of Palestine.
[...]
My message to all the Jews is that the battle is bound to come and you will be vanquished. Allah has promised that you will be vanquished and that we will prevail. I tell you that our Prophet Muhammad, whose every word we believe and whose light we follow - the moment he signed the Hudaybiyya Treaty with Mecca, the first thing he did after the battle with the Quraysh tribe, only 20 days after signing the Hudaybiyya Treaty, he took his army and attacked Khaybar.
Why, oh Messenger of Allah? Because these Jews are a cancer. These Jews are a catastrophe. There is not a catastrophe in the world that is not the handiwork of the Jews. These Jews are a cancer in the body of planet Earth, and if permitted, it will spread and infect the entire body. Getting rid of these Jews is a must. I think he really meant to say "Zionists." All this is just a slip of the tongue. 
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| Hamas says it will investigate attack on human rights activist. Sure. Posted: 20 Jan 2012 02:51 AM PST Ma'an reports: The Gaza government on Thursday vowed to find the perpetrators of an attack on a human rights activist who was stabbed in Gaza City.
Mahmoud Abu Rahma was attacked by masked men and stabbed multiple times while walking back from his brother's house on Friday night, he told Ma'an.
"There were three masked men following me, I ran quickly toward the house but I tripped on the stairs and fell over. They began attacking me, stabbing me in my right thigh, three times above my right knee, my back and left shoulder, and cutting off part of my hand," Abu Rahma told MADA, the Palestinian center for media freedoms.
He had received death threats shortly after authoring an op-ed calling for legal redress for victims of misfiring and other operational mistakes by resistance groups as well as violations by Palestinian governments.
The Hamas-led government in Gaza condemned the attack, which it said violated religion, law and customs in a statement Thursday.
The Interior Ministry will investigate the incident and find the perpetrators, the statement said, adding that the government had received a complaint from the Al-Mezan human rights group which employs Abu Rahma. The main focus of Abu Rahma's article in Gaza was Hamas itself. It is highly likely that he was attacked by one of those masked Hamas "security forces" that show up quite often in Gaza. Hamas also has a history of attacking NGOs in Gaza, of arresting critics of its policies, and for shutting down any activity that it doesn't explicitly approve. This should be a fun "investigation." 
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