Education Min.: I won’t force Arab students to sing national anthem

Responding to angry statements made on Monday by Arab educators threatening civil disobedience if Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar carries through with recently-announced plans to drop the word “Nakba” from Arab textbooks and to introduce classes on Jewish culture and history, Sa’ar sounded a conciliatory tone while visiting schools in the north on Tuesday.

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Some Israeli Arabs refuse to sing the anthem, Hatikva (“The Hope”), which contains the lines: “As long as deep in the heart a Jewish soul beats,” and “our 2,000-year-old hope of being a free nation in our land.”

For full article, visit http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1111643.html

Israeli Arab charged in Hezbollah plot to kill IDF chief

Gabi Ashkenazi

Rawi Fuad Sultani, 23, admitted he met a Hezbollah activist in a summer camp in Morocco one year ago and told him he had information on Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi, who worked out at the same gym as he did in the town of Kfar Saba.

For full article, visit http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/08/31/83491.html

According to the charge sheet, Sultani first made contact with Hezbollah agents at a multi-national Arab summer camp in Morocco organized by the Israeli Arab political party Balad. Lebanese Hezbollah agent Salman Harev, who also took part in the camp, spent much of the summer lecturing the Israeli Arab participants on his group’s struggle.

For full article, visit http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1111344.html

Rawi Sultani

Sultani’s father, Attorney Fuad Sultani, said that his son was exploited and that he is innocent. “My son was maliciously exploited by these agents. The accusations are apparently politically-based,” said the senior Sultani, who is representing his son.

For full artic le, visit http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3769627,00.html

The National Democratic Party or Balad, which represents Israel’s Arab minority and is named in charges against Sultani as having funded his trip to Morocco, reacted angrily to news of the arrest.

“This experience shows us how the police and security services exaggerate this type of incident and make mountains out of molehills. We maintain that Sultani has the right to be presumed innocent,” the party said in a statement.

For full article, visit http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090831/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictlebanontrial_20090831122055

Correspondents say the allegations raise further questions about Lt Gen Ashkenazi’s security, two weeks after it was disclosed that his credit card details and a gun in his office had been stolen by a soldier.

For full article, visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8230726.stm

Israeli FM wants to restrict access to foreign service

Israeli ultra-nationalist Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Monday that he wanted to impose restrictions on those wishing to become career diplomats, a move that would bar most Israeli Arabs.

“All those who wish to join the foreign ministry’s diplomatic training programme must serve in the army or perform the equivalent civil service,” a senior official quoted Lieberman as saying during a meeting at the ministry.

For full article, visit http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090824/wl_mideast_afp/mideastisraelarabdiplomacy

Galilee communities: We’re not racist, we just don’t want Arabs

Although few people will say so, the panic that spurred the submission of the controversial proposals are related to the High Court of Justice’s ruling two years ago that upheld the right of Ahmed and Fahina Zubeidat, an Israeli Arab couple, to buy a house in the exclusively Jewish community of Rakefet notwithstanding the local admissions committee’s objection. Since then, some residents of Jewish communal settlements in the Galilee fear that the region’s substantial Arab population might seek to buy property in their communities, where the standard of living is far higher, causing Jews to move out. In some areas of the Galilee this has already taken place: Portions of the once-exclusively Jewish town of Upper Nazareth are now populated by newcomers from the nearby Arab city of Nazareth.

For full article, visit http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1090527.html

Palestinian citizens of Israel riot as military invades village with demolition orders

Hundreds rallied against Israeli forces as they entered the village of Kfar Qassem intending to demolish a greenhouse owned by Palestinian citizens of Israel Wednesday night.

For full article, visit http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37313

“They came like thieves in the night, but we were prepared. What’s their problem with the floor? There are plenty of illegal outdoor event venues that are not being razed, but they mind this floor?”

For full article, visit http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3705421,00.html

Arab professor ‘kicked out of eatery over bartender’s racist T-shirt’

“It hurts my feelings and the feelings of Arab customers,” said Suleiman. “I’m not willing to accept such shirts. It’s like the reaction of Jews who see people wearing shirts with a cross.” The bartender at the Haifa restaurant was wearing a shirt with a drawing of a rifle sight and the words, in Hebrew, “Institution for special-ed children.”

Suleiman demanded the bartender change his shirt, saying it advocated killing Palestinian children – similar to T-shirts printed for Israel Defense Forces soldiers that depict violence against Palestinians, as Haaretz reported last month.

For full article, visit http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1076663.html

Lieberman, Avigdor — Israeli politician and deputy prime minister

Avigdor Lieberman, chair of the far-right Yisrael Beitenu (Israel Our Home) party, joined Ehud Olmert’s government as deputy prime minister and Minister of Strategic Threats in October 2006. As a cabinet member, Lieberman is an integral part of all strategic discussions. Lieberman, who is known for his advocacy of “transfer,” or ethnic cleansing, of Palestinian citizens in Israel, as well as his declaration that Palestinian members of the Knesset who meet with Palestinian leaders from the West Bank and Gaza should be executed as traitors, immigrated to Israel from Moldova at the age of 20.

For full article, visit http://electronicintifada.net/bytopic/people/658.shtml

Arab leaders on Land Day: We’re not afraid of Right

On March 30, 1976, six young Palestinians were killed and dozens injured in mass demonstrations that took place in many towns and villages.  Twenty-eight years before, Palestinians lost 78% of their land to the Zionists during the months before and after Israel declared itself a State in 1948.   Not until 1966 did Palestinians, who remained in what became Israel, receive citizenship, living under military rule in the 20 year interim, much like Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza live today.  These years were marked by continued land theft and the activation of Israel’s policy of “Judeazation” of the Galilee, and other areas where indigenous Palestinians remained on their lands.

Palestinians mark Land Day

For full article, visit http://www.alternativenews.org/content/view/1668/110/

Thousands of Israeli Arabs marched in commemoration of the 33rd Land Day. MKs warned against Israel’s Judaization of Galilee, Negev and vow to propose bill to acknowledge day as national holiday for Arab public. Two youths arrested for throwing stones during Kfar Kanna rally.

For full article, visit http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3694675,00.html

“But what makes Land Day resonate with Palestinians everywhere is that it was the first time Palestinians inside Israel stood together and successfully resisted Israel’s goal of confiscating their land.”

For full article, visit http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14962