Purveyor
Purveyor's JournalOlive Trees Destroyed By Settlers In South Hebron Hills
Ta’ayush activists found 10 mature olive trees mangled on Saturday in an olive grove belonging to Palestinians from the village of at-Tuwani, in the South Hebron Hills. The settlers are from the illegal outpost of Havat Maon, a place known for settler violence and harassment.
This 3-minute video taken by an Israeli Ta’ayush activist speaks for itself. It surveys the devastation caused to an entire grove of olive trees, which constitutes the livelihood of the Palestinian residents of the area. Such an act is not only an intentional blow to their income and basic welfare, but a total lack of respect for the land and the life that grows on the land – the land that Jewish settlers and the state claim is so important and holy to them. Anyone familiar with Palestinian culture knows that destroying an olive tree is like destroying a human life.
According to a Ta’ayush activist who is regularly in the area and is involved in the legal cases against settlers, since the beginning of 2012, over 100 olive trees have been destroyed, just in the area of Havat Maon.
Over the years there have been countless cases of attacks by Havat Maon settlers on Palestinians, Israeli activists and Palestinian property, such as olive trees and sheep. I have seen children with my own eyes, no older than 8 or 9, who spend their Saturdays cursing at Palestinian children who pass by and even throw rocks, as their parents stand around and look on. This is the area where in 2004, IDF soldiers were instructed to escort Palestinian children on their way to school because of repeated settler attacks resulting in serious injuries.
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http://972mag.com/watch-olive-trees-destroyed-by-settlers-in-south-hebron-hills/52400/
Jewish Group Asks Romney To Apologize To The Palestinians
By Julian Pecquet - 08/06/12 01:46 PM ET
A liberal Jewish organization is set to deliver 17,000 signatures to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's headquarters Monday afternoon urging him to apologize for remarks many have deemed insulting to the Palestinians.
Jewish Voice for Peace has called Romney's comments at a Jerusalem fundraiser last Monday “racist and ignorant.” Romney says he did not mean to denigrate Palestinians when he credited “the power of at least culture” and the “hand of providence” for Israel's superior economy.
The petition, addressed to “Governor Mitt Romney,” urges him to apologize.
“Your statements in Jerusalem regarding the growth of the Palestinian and Israeli economies were inaccurate and misleading,” the petition states. ”Israel's Occupation of Palestinian land makes it impossible for the Palestinian economy to succeed, not 'cultural differences'.
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http://thehill.com/blogs/global-affairs/middle-east-north-africa/242379-jewish-group-petitions-romney-for-apology-on-palestinian-comments
U.S Nuclear Bomb Facility Shut After Security Breach
Source: REUTERS
By Mark Hosenball
WASHINGTON | Thu Aug 2, 2012 4:16pm EDT
(Reuters) - The U.S. government's only facility for handling, processing and storing weapons-grade uranium was temporarily shut this week after anti-nuclear activists, including an 82-year-old nun, breached security fences, government officials said on Thursday.
WSI Oak Ridge, the contractor responsible for protecting the facility at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, is owned by the international security firm G4S, which was at the center of a dispute over security at the London Olympic Games.
Officials said that the facility was shut down on Wednesday at least until next week after three activists cut through perimeter fences to reach the outer wall of a building where highly-enriched uranium, a key nuclear bomb component, is stored.
The activists painted slogans and threw what they said was human blood on the wall of the facility, one of numerous buildings in the facility known by the code name Y-12 that it was given during World War II, officials said.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/02/us-usa-securtity-nuclear-idUSBRE8711LG20120802
Syrian Rebels Risk Losing Moral High Ground To Assad As Video Shows Summary Executions
Source: Associated Press
By Associated Press, Updated: Thursday, August 2, 4:11 PM
BEIRUT — The unsteady, hand-held video shows several bloodied prisoners, one in boxer shorts, being led into a noisy outdoor crowd and placed against a wall. The prisoners crouch and seem to avert their eyes as men carrying assault rifles shout slogans and take aim. The gunfire lasts for more than 30 seconds.
The international community has accused Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces of war crimes, but the gunmen in this gruesome video were rebels. Their slogans: “Free Syrian Army Forever!” and “God is Great!”
The video, which surfaced online this week, is fueling concerns that opposition fighters are capable of brutality that matches that of the regime they are seeking to topple — a charge that could badly damage the rebellion’s ability to claim the moral high ground in the Syrian civil war.
As rebels gain more territory and a multitude of militias, jihadists and criminals join the fight against Assad, reports of serious human rights abuses committed by armed opposition elements are on the rise.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/syrian-rebels-risk-losing-moral-high-ground-to-assad-as-video-shows-summary-executions/2012/08/02/gJQAkYDTSX_story.html
Israel: Millions Don’t Have Access To Bomb Shelters, Gas Masks, Army Warns
A quarter of the population does not have easy access to a bomb shelter or safe room, even as fears mount of a military engagement with Syria or Iran.
The Israel Defense Forces Home Front Command said many regional authorities are still not prepared to deal with a regional war and millions of people are still without gas masks, Haaretz reported Wednesday.
According to the Home Front Command, only 53 percent of the population has gas masks and only 30% of households have a reinforced safety room. A quarter of the population does not have a bomb shelter in their building or even close by.
The inclusion of a reinforced safe room to provide protection against missile and bomb attacks has been a requirement in all new residential buildings since the 1990s. This replaces the former arrangement of installing bomb shelters beneath buildings or in communal locations.
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http://www.timesofisrael.com/home-front-command-mulls-inadequate-civilian-readiness-for-war/
Israeli PM Says Time Running Out To Stop Iran's Nuclear Programm
Time is running out for the international community to halt Iran's nuclear programme by peaceful means, the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, told US defence secretary Leon Panetta in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
Sanctions, diplomacy and declarations of a willingness to take military action as a last resort had not yet convinced the Iranians to stop their programme, he said. "However forceful our statements, they have not convinced Iran that we are serious about stopping them. Right now the Iranian regime believes that the international community does not have the will to stop its nuclear programme."
Netanyahu said earlier that although sanctions were hurting the Iranian economy, such measures had "yet to move its nuclear programme even a millimetre backwards".
Panetta is the fourth senior US administration official to visit Israel in recent weeks as concern has mounted in Washington that Netanyahu is preparing the ground for a military strike in the coming months.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/01/israeli-pm-iran-nuclear-programme?newsfeed=true
Manufacturing Shrinks for Second Month as Economic Mainstay Struggles
By Lorraine Woellert - Aug 1, 2012 10:56 AM ET
Manufacturing in the U.S. unexpectedly contracted for a second month in July, showing a mainstay of the economy was struggling to improve as global economies weakened.
The Institute for Supply Management’s factory index was 49.8 last month, close to the three-year low of 49.7 reached in June. Fifty marks the dividing line between expansion and contraction. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News projected a reading of 50.2, according to the median estimate.
Cutbacks in household purchases, unemployment exceeding 8 percent, Europe’s debt crisis and slower global growth threaten to further restrain an industry that’s been a source of strength for the economy. Factories may also temper production as companies curb spending out of concern that lawmakers will fail to prevent automatic government spending cuts and higher taxes from going into effect next year.
“It really reconfirms the challenges the global economy is facing,” said Sam Bullard, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in Charlotte, North Carolina. “We’ve seen slower growth in emerging markets, the recession in Europe -- all of that is still ever-present. Firms are holding pat right now.”
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-01/manufacturing-in-u-s-unexpectedly-contracts-for-second-month.html
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