First night

Muslims perform Ramadhan night prayers, or Tarawih, at a mosque still under construction in Serpong, Tangerang, Banten, on Wednesday. It was the first Tarawih marking the start of the holy fasting month in Indonesia. (JP/Berto R. Wedhatama)

Back from holidays... what's next??

Coming back to Brussels from home in Italy is always very difficult… this time maybe even more than usual due to the (professional) decision I’ll have to make in the next couple of days… Anyway, holidays were great, and helped me a lot in realising what I really want, despite of all the mess that has happened! I think I’ll have to follow the signs, and it looks like they're pointing to this …

Will post pics from this last few days in paradise very soon!!

UN conference of Civil Society - Israel/Palestine

The UN Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People decided to hold its annual UN International Conference of Civil society in support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace at the European Parliament in Brussels on 30 and 31 August 2007 so as to invite MEPs to take part in it. The theme of the conference is “Civil society and parliamentarians working together for peace in the Middle East”.

The UN International Conference of Civil society in support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace aims at supporting a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. At stake is the revival of the prospect of a just and sustainable peace based on the coexistence of two States, Israel and Palestine. It calls for a multicultural conference to make possible a resumption of negotiations between the conflicting sides, with the active backing of the European Union.

Among the speakers are Nurit Peled Elhannan, Michel Warschawski, Amira Hass, Raji Sourani, Jamal Jumaa (Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign), Mohammed Khatib (Popular Committee of Bil'in Coordinator), David Shearer (OCHA), Andreas Van Agt (former Prime Minister of the Netherlands)...

Israel has protested against the committee's event to be held on the premises of the European Parliament, arguing that its debates were in the past strongly one-sided and its activities not contributing to the international efforts for peace in the Middle East. Moreover, Jerusalem views the panel as such as a legacy of the 1975 UN Assembly resolution which likened Zionism with racism. Loads of crap… Israel should once and for all recognize that it is not a one side event and that at the end it’s all about respecting international law, UN resolutions, the 4th Geneva convention…

Some Polish MEPs have also argued against the gathering, urging the President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Poettering, to call it off… Polish MEPs… why did we let Poland enter the EU???

But the parliament's spokesman said the event will take place as planned. He said Mr Poettering had replied to Israel's EU envoy and Knesset officials that "the conference is not patronized or supported by the European Parliament, which will only provide the space”.

Vive la Belgique!

Dessin de Bertrams

Deux mois après les élections, les partis flamands et francophones demeurent incapables de former un nouveau gouvernement en Belgique. Le roi Albert II a suspendu, la semaine dernière, des pourparlers au bord de la rupture, qui se poursuivent toutefois en coulisses.

Mais Yves Leterme, le plus populaire des hommes politiques flamands, chargé de former une coalition de centre droit, a démissionné le 23 août après cinq semaines de négociations. Il n'a pas réussi à rassembler Flamands et Francophones, non plus que libéraux et chrétiens, autour de son projet de réforme de l'Etat. C'est "le terminus" pour Yves Leterme, titre La Libre Belgique. Le roi devrait à présent confier la formation du gouvernement belge à une autre personnalité politique. Il pourrait s'agir d'un francophone, indique le quotidien.

Israel turns away Darfur refugees

(From BBC news)

Israel will in future turn away all illegal entrants from Sudan's war-torn region of Darfur, a top official says.

The policy applies to new arrivals only, while some 500 people from Darfur already in Israel will be permitted to stay for "humanitarian reasons".

Israel is struggling to stem the flow of Africans entering the country via its southern border with Egypt.

Overnight, Israel handed 48 Sudanese people back to Egypt, according to Egyptian security officials.

Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Egypt accepted the refugees for "very pressing humanitarian reasons" but such a move "would not be repeated again".

At least 200,000 people are believed to have died and more than two million displaced in Darfur since fighting broke out in 2003 between rebels and pro-government militias.

Prospects of work

Israeli spokesman David Baker said on Sunday: "The policy of returning back anyone who enters Israel illegally will pertain to everyone, including those from Darfur."

Last month, Israel's interior ministry said a limited number of Darfuris would be allowed to remain in Israel as it was "clear that they have suffered the most".

As many as 50 asylum seekers arrive in Israel each day, lured by the prospect of employment, according to UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimates.

Israel estimates that 2,800 people have entered the country illegally in recent years - nearly all were from Africa, including 1,160 from Sudan.

However, some critics have said that Israel, which was created after the Nazi persecution of the Jews during WWII, is morally obliged to offer sanctuary to people fleeing persecution.

Diritti umani e civili in Cina

Non solo sport. A Pechino 2008 gli atleti non saranno gli unici protagonisti. Manifestazioni di protesta già si diffondono da Hong Kong a Losanna, da Nuova Delhi ad Atene. In gioco la difesa dei diritti umani e civili.

(da http://espresso.repubblica.it/)

L'articolo di Moises Naim

La bellezza malgrado tutto

foto: AFP

Una giovane donna sudanese, rifugiata in un campo profughi nel sud dell'Israele, si guarda in uno specchio infranto. Israele ha detto che limiterà nei prossimi giorni il flusso di rifugiati dal Sudan, in fuga dalla martoriata regione del Darfur. (preso dal corriere)

Bush’s international “meeting”

The Bitterlemons weekly edition is on the Bush/Rice Middle East conference that will be held in Washington next fall. The article below is quite interesting. But I also recommend the interview with Khalida Jarrar, member of the PLC (www.bitterlemons.org).

AN ISRAELI VIEW - The consequences of failure
by Yossi Alpher

For several weeks now I have been writing in these virtual pages that the Bush/Rice initiative to convene an international "meeting" in Washington in the fall to confirm some sort of new Israeli-Palestinian agreement has little chance of succeeding. I added that, nevertheless, I wish it success as long as its failure doesn't make it more difficult for Israelis and Arabs to make peace in the future.

Let us assume for a moment that it does indeed fail. The reasons would be fairly obvious. The principals, Messrs. Olmert, Abbas and Bush, are failed leaders grasping at straws. The Syrians and Hamas, neither of whom is invited, will seek to sabotage any chance of success. Israeli-Palestinian agreement even on a virtual declaration of principles will not be achieved because the right of return and Jerusalem issues will continue to elude consensus formulations and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas cannot afford simply to ignore or postpone these issues. The Saudis, even if they participate, will have done little or nothing to advance their own Arab-Israel peace initiative. And of course heavier Middle East crises in Iraq, Iran and possibly Lebanon will cast a long shadow over the proceedings.

It is time to ask how, indeed, such a near certain failure will impact future efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Here it is instructive to compare Bush's "meeting" to the most recent Israeli-Palestinian peace conference on record, the abortive Camp David II talks of July 2000. Then, the leadership situation was better. Unlike President George W. Bush, President Bill Clinton had been deeply involved in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process for years and had the support of the Arab world; Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was infinitely more authoritative than Abbas. Only Israeli PM Ehud Barak was in a comparable situation to current PM Ehud Olmert in that his government was tottering and his leadership qualities were called into question. The overall Middle East atmosphere was also infinitely more peaceful and optimistic than today.

Despite having been held in overall better circumstances than those that await Bush and Rice's fall meeting, Camp David II failed. The result was the second intifada and a near collapse, especially in Israel, of faith in a negotiated peace agreement with the PLO. This led to an attempt to withdraw unilaterally from Palestinian territories that produced equally problematic results.

Now, after all these tragedies and setbacks, the leaders of Israel and Palestine are finally back in a negotiating mode with the backing of an American president. For a variety of reasons, virtually none of which directly concern Israeli-Palestinian peace, all three leaders desperately need the political achievement of a successful conference: Abbas, to justify his refusal to deal with Hamas in Gaza; Olmert, to hang onto power when the Winograd commission's next report condemns his handling of last summer's war; Bush, to recruit Arab good will despite his failed endeavor in Iraq, his counter-productive democratization program and his empowering of Iran and al-Qaeda in the region.

But these are the wrong reasons. The meeting that Bush and Rice project for the fall cannot succeed with such weak leadership and poor strategic thinking. A Middle East peace process that ignores the Syria-Israel track, deals with only half the Palestinian leadership, fails to deeply involve the Arab moderates and is guided by a US administration whose Middle East strategy has patently failed is destined also to fail. And when it does, the consequences could be as bad for Israel, its neighbors and the US as those that followed the failure at Camp David in July 2000.

A failed Washington peace "meeting" could ensure the rise of Hamas to power in the West Bank, leading to a new round of Palestinian-Israeli violence and ending any chance of genuine peace for years. Ignoring Syria could well generate more conflict on Israel's northern front. Extremist Sunnis (al-Qaeda) and Shi'ites (Iran, Hizballah) would benefit from the failure, to the detriment of American interests and the moderate Sunni Arab states. In Israel, Olmert's government would fall and the moderate peace camp would again be discredited.

Some will argue that these dire predictions are precisely the reason to encourage Olmert and Abbas to reach preliminary agreement and enshrine it in an international conference, thereby giving new hope to the region. I would counter that, considering the odds, we would all be better off encouraging Olmert and Abbas, with international support, to engage in more modest but promising pursuits. They should continue implementing confidence-building measures and building Palestinian security and other institutions, with an eye to renewing partial territorial withdrawals once security progress enables such a move.

Anything more ambitious at this time and under current circumstances is liable to be counter-productive and destructive to all our interests.

Published 20/8/2007 © www.bitterlemons.org

Yossi Alpher is the Israeli coeditor of the bitterlemons family of internet publications. He is former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University and a former special adviser to PM Ehud Barak.

TERREMOTO EN PERÚ - PAYASO ALEGRA NIÑOS AFECTADOS DE PISCO

En el comercio hoy se leia que 96% de las habitaciones en Pisco son inabitables.

Dean

Questo e' Dean...

Foto: AFP

E questo e' cio' che ha provocato in Giamaica, Dominica e Martinica...

Foto: AP

Foto: Reuters

Qui sotto, il Messico si prepara.

Foto: AP

Dean ha dei venti di 256 km/orari; ha raggiunto la categoria 5, "potenzialmente catastrofico". Dai registri sugli uragani compilati dal 1886, solo 28 uragani atlantici hanno raggiunto categoria 5. Fino ad ora 4 persone sono morte nei caraibi, ed i danni materiali sono gia` enormi. Nel momento in cui sto scrivendo, Dean sta arrivando sulle coste dello yucatan.

Vicino casa...

Questo e' "l'artista-filosofo" del mio quartiere! A Chacun son truc...

Fin de semana relax con Grace

Bruxelles?? c'est sympa apres tout....

Surtout quand il y a du soleil...

Una seccion de la Panamericana

Hoy día, se cuentan 510 muertos, 85.000 damnificados y casi 17.000 casas destruidas…
Estoy muy triste...

Terremoto en Peru

Terremoto fuertísimo en Perú (7.9 escala Richter…), que duró una eternidad… el ultimo boletín del Comercio daba 115 muertos, y mas de 1300 heridos.

Mapa: www.reliefweb.int

Hacker nel sito delle Nazioni Unite

(Da www.repubblica.it) Hackers sono riusciti ad entrare nel sito ufficiale delle Nazioni Unite e a inserire un messaggio di protesta contro la politica Usa e israeliana in Medio Oriente.

10 Agosto: Un giorno di pace a Gerusalemme in ricordo di Angelo

Un’anno fa’ moriva Angelo Frammartino a Gerusalemme… Angelo, stiamo continuando a "fare l’amore con la non-violenza per partorire la pace dal grembo della società".

Angelo a Gerusalemme l'anno scorso con uno dei ragazzi della Torre del Fenicottero.

Foto presa da: http://www.angeloframmartino.org

Mange du kebab

Chiniux... este es pa' ti!! Recordando nuestros Kebabs parisinos...

Floods

© AFP

Exceptionally heavy monsoon rains have caused South Asia`s worst floods in living memory. Particularly affected are the states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Assam in India as well as the neighbouring countries Nepal and Bangladesh. Bihar State Government Officials estimate that in Bihar alone 11 million people are affected. The total number of flood affected persons in the region is assumed to be over 30 million. People are suffering from starvation because all food reserves have been destroyed. Medical aid is also urgently needed. Hundreds of people have already died from infectious diseases.
This picture above shows food distribution in Bangladesh.

Rodney in Palestine

Rodney Bickerstaffe, our great vice-president!! It’s a privilege to work with him, and I’m so grateful for his support to my work.