Compiled, edited with comment by Carolyn Bennett
The Electronic Intifada reports
April 29, 2010
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES
Walled
ActiveStills photographer Anne Paq witnessed Volvo equipment being used to destroy a home in the nearby village of al-Khader. She had taken pictures two days before of Volvo and Caterpillar equipment working between the road and the fence of Har Gilo settlement, a few meters away from Palestinian houses in al-Walaja. There was an Israeli police car parked next to the works. When Paq asked what they were building, they refused to answer.
The Electronic Intifada first reported in 2008 the use of Volvo equipment in Israel’s violations of international law in the occupied West Bank. So far, the company has taken no action to investigate the use of its equipment in Israeli violations of Palestinian rights.
Volvo Group’s vice president of media relations and corporate news, Marten Wikforss, responded to The Electronic Intifada’s report, “‘We do not have any control over the use of our products, other than to affirm in our business activities a Code of Conduct that decries unethical behavior.’”
While the villagers of al-Walaja steadfastly continue to protest construction of the wall, the confiscation of their land and the destruction of their property, Israeli forces increase the oppression. Some houses have been rebuilt three or four times. Nidal Abu Zuluf, director of the Joint Advocacy Initiative of the East Jerusalem YMCA and YWCA, said, “‘Israel’s current repressive policies aim to prevent acts of popular resistance. They don’t want the media and internationals to be around.’
“Perhaps neither does Volvo, as its equipment continues to be photographed destroying Palestinian homes and violating Palestinian rights.”
April 29, 2010
Murder in occupied Territories
A 19-year-old Palestinian died from gunshots to the abdomen when Israeli soldiers opened fire “during a protest against a buffer zone being built between the eastern Gaza Strip and Israel.”
An Israeli army representative called the buffer area “a ‘war zone’ used by armed groups to carry out attacks against Israel.” Palestinians said their “peaceful protests” aim “to prevent the establishment of the zone which … is resulting in large areas of farmland being confiscated and farmers being prevented from reaching their fields.”
Since the 2008-2009 war on Gaza that left at least 1,400 Palestinians dead, “both Israel and Hamas have largely observed an unwritten truce, but in recent weeks fatal incidents in the area have increased, sparking some fears among observers that they may build up to a new cycle of violence.”
Al Jazeera reports
U.S.-Occupied Afghanistan – Kandahar
Killing
U.S. forces are massing on the outskirts of Kandahar. Top military officers are announcing that Afghan residents in the coming months can expect “an upsurge in violence.” The U.S. build-up around Kandahar is part U.S. President Barack Obama’s 30,000 increase in deployment in an invasion and occupation that is in its ninth year. By August an estimated 100,000 U.S. troops will have been deployed in Afghanistan, “more than three times” the number there when the Obama administration took office; however, since the middle of last year, thousands of additional U.S. troops had already entered rural districts of Kandahar. Nevertheless, several areas remain under Taliban control.
May 1, 2010
U.S. - Occupied PAKISTAN
Killing
An estimated two civilians died and ten suffered wounds when a suicide bomb exploded in a busy market in Pakistan’s Swat valley. In recent weeks, there has been a rise in killings of tribal elders, “raising fears that Taliban fighters are reasserting their control over the region less than a year after the army claimed victory in an offensive to push them out of the area.”
Agence France Presse/Yahoo Singapore reports
April 30-May 1, 2010
U.S.-threatened IRAN, UN autonomy
U.S. lawmakers on Friday denounced Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s plans to attend a UN nuclear conference in New York City. The U.S. secretary of state and 14 Republican members of the U.S. Senate are reported calling Ahmadinejad’s planned visit “preposterous” and that allowing the visit would “make a mockery of the effort to stop the spread of nuclear weapons to rogue states and terrorist groups.” These officials went on to state that there was “no compelling reason” for Iran’s president “to be allowed to enter the United States;” and that the government of the United States “has the legal authority to deny [Iran’s president’s] request and bar his entry.”
Earlier in April at an international nuclear disarmament conference hosted by Tehran, Ahmadinejad had lashed out at the current Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) structure, calling on “‘independent countries’ to review the NPT. He charged that “the presence of those possessing weapons, especially the U.S., prevents the drawing up of a fair treaty.’”
Responding Saturday to Washington’s alleged attempt to bar Iran’s president from attending the conference at New York, Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters, “The issuing of visas to the delegation and officials of any country coming to participate at the UN in the United States is obligatory on the part of American officials. The U.S. government has no right to use the issuance of visas as a tool against other countries. The U.S. government... should not take the UN and the UNSC [UN Security Council] hostage.”
U.S.-occupied HORN OF AFRICA
An estimated 25 people died today. Scores suffered injuries when a bomb exploded in the crowded Bakara market area, an Islamist stronghold, near a mosque in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. People had just finished midday prayers. This incident is reported to be “the deadliest blast in five months, the worst since a suicide bombing in a hotel in December killed 57 people among them government ministers.” These latest explosions, occurring in an Islamist stronghold, the reports said, “are unlikely to be the result of explosive devices planted by insurgents.”
May 1, 2010
U.S.-neglected Americas
Avoidable Gulf of Mexico/U.S. States’ emergency ─ disastrous as coalmining and landmines, nuclear power and levees ─ U.S. government officials saw coming, feigned shock at yet another manmade “natural” catastrophe.
An estimated 200,000 and more gallons of oil are spilling daily from the site of the sunken Deepwater Horizon oilrig.
Birds are coated in oil. Wildlife groups expect to receive rising numbers of fowl and animal casualties. Fears are rising that the Gulf of Mexico catastrophe will parallel the 1989 ecological disaster left by the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska.
Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Louisiana officials lacking prior U.S. regulation and protections have declared states of emergency. Having failed to regulate industry and protect the welfare of people, land and waters, and the environment generally, U.S. officials now wring their hands, blame and lament British Petroleum’s “ability to deal with the leak and the environmental damage it will [surely] cause.”
British Petroleum’s officials say they do not know how the “accident” happened. This assertion is as believable as snake oil or a homeless man offering to sell the Golden Gate Bridge.
Casualty sites reporting
May 1, 2010 (accurate totals unknown, usual reporting not updated)
• Anti-war dot com casualties in Iraq starting March 19, 2003: Since January 20, 2009 inauguration: 166 dead; 31,790-100,000 wounded; 320,000 U.S. veterans with brain injuries; 18 suicides a day [April 28 update], http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/Sources
• Iraq Body Count: documented civilian deaths from violence 96,005 – 104,722, http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
• ICasualties IRAQ: 4,394 U.S, 4,712 Coalition; AFGHANISTAN: 1,053 U.S., 1,740 Coalition http://icasualties.org/oif/
“Volvo equipment: Israel's weapons to destroy al-Walaja homes” (Adri Nieuwhof, The Electronic Intifada), April 29, 2010, http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11236.shtml
Adri Nieuwhof is a consultant and human rights advocate based in Switzerland.
“Israeli troops kill Gaza protester,” April 29, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/2010428184658638631.html
“Kandahar violence ‘to get worse,’” May 1, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/05/2010511515216888.html
“Suicide blast rocks Palestine market,” May 1, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/05/20105112137357587.html
“Iran warns U.S. against taking UN ‘hostage,’” AFP/Yahoo Singapore,, May 1, 2010, http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20100501/twl-un-nuclear-npt-us-diplomacy-iran-7e07afd.html
“25 killed in blasts in Mogadishu mosque: officials,” AFP/Yahoo Singapore May 1, 2010,
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20100501/twl-somalia-unrest-shebab-4bdc673.html
“Pressure rises on BP over oil spill,” May 1, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/05/201051124754529712.html
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