All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Hard to believe Israel wants peace… Israel ‘plans 20,000 new settler homes in West Bank’ | Maan News Agency

Israel plans to build 20,000 new settler homes in the West Bank, settlement watchdog Peace Now said on Tuesday, the biggest batch of tenders since peace talks restarted.

\”The housing ministry announced tenders for the planning of 20,000 settler homes,\” Peace Now director Yariv Oppenheimer told Israeli public radio.

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\’s office stressed he had opposed some 1,200 of the homes slated for construction in the highly contentious area of the West Bank known as E1.

via Israel ‘plans 20,000 new settler homes in West Bank’ | Maan News Agency.

My Mom, The Woman Who Beat Cancer

Woohoo – big good news!

A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

There are a lot of things that one could wish in the days leading up to their birthday. Mine is tomorrow. People tell you the best thing you could ask for is health. I got the best early birthday gift today.

My mom, Jinane, is officially cancer free.

It was a long and winding road that I saw her take. And she has reached the finish line. It was one tough year.

I saw people talk around the disease like an entity whose name shouldn’t be mentioned. And I saw her hurting every time they did.
I saw people look at her with pity and I saw how it killed her every time they did.
I saw her lose her hair and still fight.
I saw her become bed-ridden after chemo.
I saw her become one of those people you see in movies with a scarf around their heads.
I…

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Clashes in Jerusalem after Israeli forces stop Arafat commemoration | Maan News Agency

Living under occupation

“After I was notified that on Nov. 11, 2013, the Palestinian Authority was sponsoring a celebration at Silwan club commemorating Yasser Arafat’s anniversary, without a license or a written permission, I hereby ban the activity in the club or any other location in Jerusalem,” the order read.

Fatah\’s secretary-general in Jerusalem Omar Shalabi denounced the ban and highlighted that Israeli soldiers handed summons to Maamoon Abbasi, Anas Abbasi, Muhammad Abu Swayy and Ghadyan Qemary.

Clashes broke near the club between Israeli forces and young Palestinian men. The Israelis fired stun grenades at the commemorators and as a result a motorcyclist, who was driving nearby, was injured by shrapnel.

via Clashes in Jerusalem after Israeli forces stop Arafat commemoration | Maan News Agency.

Polio virus strain in Syria confirmed as being from Pakistan: WHO | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR

Extremists in Northwest Pakistan have been killing those trying to vaccinate children in that area for the last two years. The same in Nigeria – to some fundamentalists – absolutely everything is political – including science – witness tea-baggers in US and UK denying climate change.

 

Islamist fighters from countries including Pakistan are among groups battling to oust President Bashar al-Assad, leading to speculation that they brought the virus into the country.

via Polio virus strain in Syria confirmed as being from Pakistan: WHO | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR.

Jerusalem family forced to remove caravans on debris of ruined home | Maan News Agency

Living under occupation is like living in an ever evolving Kafka novel – it should not be this way!

A Palestinian family on Monday disassembled and removed their mobile homes in Beit Hanina neighborhood of Jerusalem upon orders by the Israeli municipality, a family member said.

Afif Castero told Ma’an that municipality inspectors arrived Monday morning and took photos of two caravans and a room made of bricks before they ordered his family to remove them immediately.

The inspectors, he explained, told the family the tin houses must be removed before Tuesday morning “otherwise municipality teams will remove them and the family will have to pay the bill.”

The pretext was construction without license.

Castero highlighted that his family moved to live in caravans after Israeli bulldozers demolished the family’s two-story building in February because it was built without license from the municipality.

via Jerusalem family forced to remove caravans on debris of ruined home | Maan News Agency.

Attacks on Roma spark calls for action in Southeast Europe (SETimes.com)

In the Serbian city of Novi Sad, a group of skinheads tried to take away a 2-year-old child from his Roma parents due to the colour of their skin, and accused the child\’s father, Stefan Nikolić, of stealing the boy from his biological parents.

Nikolić, who is a Roma, said he and his wife Jovanka had been out walking with their son, when a man who looked about 25 years old started shouting, \”How did you get that white child, you must have stolen it!\”

\”I was so frightened I didn\’t know what to do, he was pointing at my 2-year-old son Čeda,\” Nikolić told Blic.

via Attacks on Roma spark calls for action in Southeast Europe (SETimes.com).

More than 50 dead from dengue outbreak in Central America | Vaccine News Daily

More than 50 people died from a severe strain of dengue fever in Central America, with more than 4,900 cases of the disease in Nicaragua alone, Food for the Hungry said on Tuesday.

Food for the Hungry, an organization that provides emergency relief and long-term development programs, is mobilizing workers to battle the disease in Nicaragua after the country’s government declared a red alert to contain the epidemic on October 25. FH will send workers to Somotillo, Nueva Segovia and Chinandega to provide medical equipment, insecticide-treated bednets, cleaning materials and fuel for mosquito fumigation.

“The dengue situation is getting worse,” Ervin Laiva, the director of FH in Nicaragua, said. “Hospitals are full. The strain is very, very strong. Adolescents are standing or moving around, and then suddenly go into shock.”

via More than 50 dead from dengue outbreak in Central America | Vaccine News Daily.

Avian Flu Diary: WHO Declares Grade 3 Emergency In The Philippines

The Government estimates that some 4.5 million people have been affected in the Central Philippines. WHO is mobilizing supplies to assist the government in providing a coordinated, effective and rapid response:

An initial shipment of four emergency kits with medicines and supplies to cover basic health needs of 120 000 persons during one month and supplies to perform 400 surgical interventions are being deployed. Four diarrhoeal disease kits with medicines and supplies to treat 3000 cases of acute diarrhoea are also being sent.

WHO is also supporting the Department of Health (DoH) in strengthening its early warning alert and response network (EWARN) to rapidly detect disease outbreaks and other public health threats related to food and environmental hazards.

The Government is receiving international assistance such as field hospitals and medical teams, and WHO is working closely with the Government to ensure those supplies and teams go where they are needed most.

Medical storage spaces have also been damaged, and  WHO is working to re-establish logistics bases for new supplies that are arriving.

via Avian Flu Diary: WHO Declares Grade 3 Emergency In The Philippines.