This Week in Palestinian Blogs: After the Last Sky · Global Voices
Shaden Abdulrahman

News of the blogosphere…
In sad breaking news from A STAND FOR JUSTICE, an Israeli sniper killed a 15-year-old Palestinian during a raid on West Bank:
Amer Bassyouni, 15, was shot in the neck and died from his wounds as Israeli forces searched for militants in the Alamin refugee camp in the West Bank city of Nablus.
Palestinian security srouces said:
the youth had been seen next to his house as Israeli forces raided the area.
The Black Iris of Jordan, reports that three Israelis attacked Basilica of Annunciation, one of the holiest Christian places located in Al-Nasserah (Nazareth) wounding several congregants. Naseem condemns the attack saying:
Attack on holy sites, be they Islamic or Christian, are nothing new really. But I wonder if the world will pay more attention now after a major church is attacked?
I wonder if all the Israeli attackers are mentally ill?
More on the horrific incident and the Main Stream Media bias in coverage, Haitham Sabbah says:
I went digging for more details in the MSM, unfortunately I could not find much worth mentioning. However, I noticed what we call biased story coverage.
From Raising Yousuf, the final part of the separating Israeli wall will be finished in few days declaring the holy Christian city of Bethlehem officially a closed ghetto:
The wall…will not only sever the connection between the region’s most holy Christian sites ,but will also herald the creation of a new ‘fact on the ground’ – an illegal Jewish settlement which will be home to some of Israel’s most extremist religious groups.
Paradise Now under fire-still according to al-falasteenyia. By means of Sugar Cubes, Ari Lives in Israel provides a Jewish perspective on the film and the petition created by supporters of Israel in which they ask to get it off the Oscars. On the other hand, another petition was created in solidarity with the Palestinians.
In KABOBfest, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas prays for divine intervention to stop the US from sending its advocates around the World in an attempt to spread the Israeli's stance about the PA (Palestinian Authority) and Palestinians. Abbas is, in parallel, seeking to secure financial backing for the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority.
What we talk about…
Bethlehem Bloggers says they are starting a Jewish settlement in Bethlehem and that in the last three weeks the Main Stream Media failed to report the arrest of sixty three Palestinians of which twenty one are children.
From Raising Yousuf, the ongoing closure of al-Mintar (Karni) crossing has resutled with $10.5 million loss and the depletion of Gaza's main food staples according to a report by the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humantarian Affairs (OCHA).
In a counting game, Laila el-Haddad  of Raising Yousuf, kept track of the shelling on Gaza where she lives. From 6:14 PM to 6:18 PM thirteen shells, and she lost count after that. Yousuf, her little son succeeded in distracting her. Laila says:
He'll only get as scared as you do, sometimes. And sometimes no amount of re-assurance can convince him that this loud and recurrent thud he hears every day is innocuous (so far).
She adds:
I sometimes think of Rafah's children, and how their lives must have been during those night under constant Israeli seige; how their lives will continue now
umkahlil had some interesting comments on her blog related to Laila's post.
al-falasteenyia talks about her zionist ordeal. She has watched a documentary followed by a debate during which Jewish blamed Palestinians for everything, including the holocaust.
umkahlil sheds some light on the Aliyah and how the blogosphere is reacting.
On the issue of US port operations being taken over by Dubai World Ports, Senator Lautenberg said: “We have to stand here together to fight against this occupation that could take place if we don't do something about it.” He continued, “We wouldn't transfer the title to the Devil; we're not going to transfer it to Dubai.”
“In case Apartheid wall-climbing becomes an official sport” says KABOBfest, Palestinians are training for the Olympics and al-falasteeniya predicts: green is the new pink.
On everything else…
Haitham Sabbah wrote about Islam being accused of encouraging violence in the light of the infamous Danish cartoons and what followed. Haitham thinks we all boil at different degrees :
please allow me to take some snapshots on other religions – Christianity and Judaism-, and see how they look at other religions and ethnicities. Then let’s compare that with present and see where all this leads to. Specially that all the present propaganda’s are suggesting that it is only Islam a religion of violence…
Earlier, Sabbah says an article in the Sunday Telegraph calls for Qur’an ban, and a Danish organization wants Islam outlawed. Commenting on the article, he says:
It is important to note that this article represents a new and more sinister development. Previously it was on Prophet Mohamed, this attack is on the revelation itself, and thus indicates a new and more dangerous front opened in the war on Islam and Muslims.
And while the Danish newspapers practice what they call freedom of speech against Islam and the Prophet, Haitham asks the Jews of this world not to be offended when they read this:
You have to admit Germany its clear right to rid itself of its Jews. But one must insist that it happens in a decent manner
On the Danish cartoons incident also, KABOBfest thinks that there's something rotten in Denmark:
Denmark's politicians claimed to worship the freedom of expression when “cartoonists” provoked worldwide unrest with hateful, poorly drawn caricatures of Islam's prophet…
Yet, a tee-shirt company selling clothes with leftist groups insignias is criminal activity?!?
On blogging, Haitham Sabbah writes about the war Main Stream Media has declared on blogging:
…I think it’s simply maturing a littleAnd this is what makes blogging more powerful, to an extant that the MSM is now trying to fightback. Not because they are the goodguys and we are the badguys, but because blogging is not good for their existence in the long run.
Naseem Tarawnah of The Black Iris of Jordan blogs has an article about what Palestinian women think of their future under Hamas leadership. Quoting one a political visionary in the female party's ranks:
There are traditions here that say that a woman should take a secondary role – that she should be at the back. But that is not Islam. Hamas will scrap many of these traditions. You will find women going out and participating
Eman of AquaCool, has been harassed through email, attacked and offended for being a Muslim. She responds by explaining what does the word Islam mean.
LULU of CafeLuLu, saw an Arab in her bathroom mirror. She expresses her frustration and shock as some Americans refer to Arabs as the devil:
Today, at this moment, I feel unwelcome. I feel unwanted and even hated, because of what I represent. It has officially happened; we have reached a time and place in history where Arabs and Muslims (and anyone who has the unfortunate luck of looking Arab and/or Muslim) can no longer be differentiated and seen in a separate light from terrorists and murderers. Our business dealings are viewed as suspicious, as our human, social, and even educational achievements are overlooked and dismissed.
Today it does not pay to be a Good Arab, today it pays to be a Dead Arab.
On the same issue, KABOBfest asks is it xenophobia, racism or zionism?
Sugar Cubes blogs a story by Democracy Now which says the US is expanding a secretive prison in Afghanistan. The secret prison is said to be worse than Guantanamo. Some detainees have been prisoned for three years but have not been charged with any crime.
From Arabesque Rhapsody, the son of Abu Hamza Al Masri, the jailed radical Islamist and imam is embracing rap music to praise Hizbuallah and Hamas.
The little things that matter…
Here's Tomorrow, an ongoing documentary which seeks to capture the reality of living in Baqa’a Refugee Camp, will be shown on Fri 3rd March, 7:30 PM at The McAusland Lounge, Liverpool Guild of Students as part of “Students Under Occupation” conference. The event is organised by the Liverpool University Friends of Palestine. Email: livfop@gmail.com for more details.