Saturday, April 11, 2009

EASTER IN ISRAEL Haaretz: "Police prevented hundreds of Armenian worshipers from taking part in a sacred pre-Easter ceremony at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher Saturday. Armenian church officials said the police behaved rudely to church members and senior clergy and arrested four Armenians near the Old City police station, releasing them only after the Armenians stopped the festive procession to the church in protest." Alawsat: "Dozens of Israelis from a Jewish settlement where a Palestinian killed a youth last week rampaged on Wednesday through a West Bank Arab village, smashing car windows and damaging homes, residents and medics said. Some 12 Palestinians were wounded in violence that included confrontations between stone-throwing villagers and Israeli soldiers who arrived at the scene after the settlers, from Bat Ayin, entered neighbouring Safa." Kristallnacht the Israeli way. Greenstein: "Israel continues to experience the fall-out from their genocidal attack on Gaza. The only thing that Zionism and its representatives understand is the language they employ in respect of the Gazan population, who have been subjected to a forcible boycott for over 3 years. BOYCOTT WORKS!!!" NYTimes: "Chilling testimony by Israeli soldiers substantiates charges that Israel's Gaza Strip assault entailed grave violations of international law. The emergence of a predominantly right-wing, nationalist government in Israel suggests that there may be more violations to come. While Israel disputes some of the soldiers' accounts, the evidence suggests that Israel committed the following six offenses: - Violating its duty to protect the civilian population of the Gaza Strip. Despite Israel's 2005 'disengagement' from Gaza, the territory remains occupied. Israel unleashed military firepower against a people it is legally bound to protect. - Imposing collective punishment in the form of a blockade, in violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. In June 2007, after Hamas took power in the Gaza Strip, Israel imposed suffocating restrictions on trade and movement. The blockade - an act of war in customary international law - has helped plunge families into poverty, children into malnutrition, and patients denied access to medical treatment into their graves. People in Gaza thus faced Israel's winter onslaught in particularly weakened conditions. - Deliberately attacking civilian targets. The laws of war permit attacking a civilian object only when it is making an effective contribution to military action and a definite military advantage is gained by its destruction. Israeli fire destroyed or damaged mosques, hospitals, factories, schools, a key sewage plant, institutions like the parliament, the main ministries, the central prison and police stations, and thousands of houses. - Willfully killing civilians without military justification. When civilian institutions are struck, civilians - persons who are not members of the armed forces of a warring party, and are not taking direct part in hostilities - are killed. Of 1,434 Palestinians killed in the Gaza invasion, 960 were civilians, including 121 women and 288 children, according to a United Nations special rapporteur, Richard Falk. Israeli military lawyers instructed army commanders that Palestinians who remained in a targeted building after having been warned to leave were 'voluntary human shields', and thus combatants. - Deliberately employing disproportionate force. - Illegal use of weapons, including white phosphorus. Israel was finally forced to admit, after initial denials, that it employed white phosphorous in the Gaza Strip, though Israel defended its use as legal. White phosphorous may be legally used as an obscurant, not as a weapon, as it burns deeply and is extremely difficult to extinguish." 3:47:58 PM

APPLE COOKIES Apple's iLife is really a treat. iPhoto now recognizes the cookies you baked and will ask you to give them a name. The sky is the limit. What about your chocolate easter bunnies? When your kids are fighting over which one is theirs, just give them a name in iPhoto and peace will reign for ever and ever. Hallelujah! This is a good one too. And don't forget to patent and copyright your cookies. AppleInsider: "The World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C, has notified members that Apple believes the new W3C Widgets standard might use technology in a US patent it owns for automatic software updates. According to the Cupertino, Calif.-based electronics maker, the Widgets standard's approach of checking for new versions and then updating over the web mimics a similar technique in its own 1998 filing. As a result, Apple believes that it's owed royalties for implementations that include the update feature. It's here, however, that the dispute arises. Under the W3C's membership policies, those within the standards group - including Apple - are required to offer their patents royalty-free, which the company has so far refused to do, according to the report." 3:27:37 PM

SHOW TIME IS SPONG TIME HollywoodReporter: "A Dutch TV jury has found Osama bin Laden not guilty of the Sept. 11 attacks. In the conclusion Wednesday night to the show 'Devil's Advocate' on Dutch public broadcaster Nederland 2, the jury of two men and three women, along with the studio audience, ruled there was no proof bin Laden was the mastermind behind the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001. The Netherlands, home to 'Big Brother' creator Endemol, is known for being on the cutting edge of format-based television. But even for Dutch standards, 'Devil's Advocate', from Amsterdam production house AVRO, pushes the envelope. The show features star defense attorney Gerard Spong standing up for some of the world's worst criminals. In the latest show, Spong was able to convince the jury that bin Laden's connection to Sept. 11 was a product of 'Western propaganda'. The jury also ruled there was insufficient evidence to prove bin Laden was the real head of terrorist network al-Qaida. However, the jury did rule that bin Laden is a 'terrorist who has misused Islam'." Well, Spong is a showman and this is a show; this programme has no informational or educational value whatsoever. Spong enjoys the limelight and will do anything to earn money with whatever proposition that suits his purpose. It's simply the blurring of justice and show. Spong is creating amusement and showing his contempt for real justice. He is the living proof of the degradation of the machinery of justice. So long as he can create a scandal he is earning good money. He should be ashamed of himself and his arrogance. 3:17:07 PM

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