Below are news items largely going unreported by US media, which are consistently Israeli-centric in their coverage. The main bureaus for CNN, AP, Time, etc. are located in Israel and are often staffed by Israelis. Many US journalists have ties to Israel: the son of the NY Times bureau chief is in the Israeli army; "pundit" Jeffrey Goldberg served in the Israeli military; Wolf Blitzer worked for the Israel Lobby. For more information on media coverage see our Media Bias section.
Ma'an - A Jerusalem monastery, built on the spot where tradition holds the tree from which Jesus's cross was made, was defaced with graffiti bearing the hallmarks of Jewish extremists, police said on Tuesday.
Israeli settlers frequently attack Palestinian villeage children while they are walking to school. Below are two videos by the Christian Peacemaker Teams who try to protect the children. An article about such an incident that explains more about the situation can be read here. The third video is by the BBC.
IMEMC – The recent talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have reached a standstill, with the Israeli negotiators refusing to present borders between Israel and a future Palestinian state. With the deadline set for Thursday January 26 by Palestinian negotiators, and no progress having been made, the talks have been declared a failure.
The Guardian, Harriet Sherwood - The room is barely wider than the thin, dirty mattress that covers the floor. Behind a low concrete wall is a squat toilet, the stench from which has no escape in the windowless room. The rough concrete walls deter idle leaning; the constant overhead light inhibits sleep. The delivery of food through a low slit in the door is the only way of marking time, dividing day from night. video
Haaretz - The leading French newspaper Le Figaro reported on Wednesday that Israeli Mossad agents are recruiting and training Iranian dissidents from Iraq’s Kurdish region to work against the regime in Tehran.
Haaretz - A nuclear-armed Iran wouldn't necessarily constitute a threat to Israel's continued existence, Mossad chief Tamir Pardo reportedly hinted earlier this week.
Mondoweiss - This week Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat announced plans tostrip IDs from 70,000 Palestinian residents of Jerusalem , and transfer them to the West Bank civil administration. Though not a physical transfer, this stripping of IDs will mark the largest en masse stripping of citizenship rights, since 1967, the Palestinian naksa, or "setback." Palestinians who were forced into exile as refugees, or were traveling abroad in 1967 were stripped of their Palestinians IDdocuments.
UNITED NATIONS Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairsoccupied Palestinian territory The Monthly Humanitarian Monitor | November 2011 This month, more than 90% of 40 demolitions by Israeli authorities targeted Bedouin communities in JV and surrounding Jerusalem. In Gaza, 4 truckloads of strawberries exported to European markets. 90% decline in sardine catch compared to 2008 in Gaza. The Israeli authorities approved 15 new building projects to be implemented by international organizations in Gaza, and allowed entry of limited materials for private-sector factories. Following the October 2011 prisoner exchange, reports by media and HR groups indicate that released prisoners face harassment by Israeli soldiers and death threats from settlers. CAP funded at only 55% in 2011.
Officials Insist Europe 'Irrelevant' After Condemning Settlements Antiwar - Officials within the Israeli Foreign Ministry expressed official outrage today at the United Nations Security Council for its effort to criticize the “price tag” attacks launched by Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians.
Eyewitnesses in occupied East Jerusalem reported Thursday that a group of extremist Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian child in al-Wad neighborhood, in the Old City, leading to clashes between the residents and the settlers. Injuries and arrests were reported. The eyewitnesses stated that Israeli soldiers sided with the settlers and fired a number of live rounds into the air before attacking the residents with clubs and batons leading to a number of injuries.
Palestinian medical sources reported Wednesday that a Palestinian worker, aged just 19 years old, was shot and wounded by the Israeli armyin the northern part of the Gaza Strip. The sources stated that the worker was shot in his left leg while he was working north of the Bedouin village in Beit Lahia.
IMEMC – A number of Israeli military vehicles invaded the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem and the nearby refugee camps on Tuesday afternoon. Local youth began throwing stones at the jeeps and armored vehicles, and soldiers responded with tear gas and live ammunition. No injuries were reported. According to local sources, at least five Israeli military vehicles were seen in both the city of Tulkarem and in the refugee camps around the town, with the clashes occurring in the eastern part of the city of Tulkarem.
IMEMC – In a letter issued Tuesday, the four European member states of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), Britain, France, Germany and Portugal, condemned the recent Israeli announcement that the Israeli government had approved the construction of 1,000 new settlement units in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. In addition, South Africa, India and Brazil condemned the expansion.
IMEMC – Israeli bulldozers destroyed on Tuesday industrial stalls in Ath-Thoury neighborhood, in Silwan, south of the Al Aqsa Mosque, in occupied East Jerusalem, as part of the destruction that is ongoing to a playground that belongs to the Ibrahimi College, a few meters away from the Jerusalem Wall.
IMEMC – In the fourth Israeli settler attack on mosques in the past two weeks, Israeli settlers defaced a Palestinian mosque near the southern West Bank city of Hebron Monday, and in a separate incident set fire to five Palestinian cars near Ramallah.
IMEMC – Israeli soldiers kidnapped, on Tuesday at dawn, three Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp, in Jenin city, in the northern part of the West Bank, and took them to an unknown destination. Soldiers also invaded a number of nearby towns.
IMEMC – The Permanent Palestinian Observer at the United Nations, in New York – USA, Riyad Mansour, stated that 182 countries at the General Assembly voted Monday for the Palestinian right to self-determination. Seven countries, headed by the Unites States and Israel, voted against the resolution. Three countries, including the new South Sudan state, abstained.
IMEMC – The Ad-Dameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association denounced the Israeli Army for the daily kidnappings of children and youth at the Shu’fat refugee camp, in occupied East Jerusalem, adding that the army kidnapped more than 21 youths, including 11 children in the last 15 days.
IMEMC – The Israeli government decided on Sunday to build an additional 1,000 units in a number of Jewish-only settlements in the occupied West Bank, including in illegally annexed East Jerusalem. The approval is part of a larger plan that aims at building 6,000 units in 44 settlements in different parts of the West Bank, including Jerusalem.
IMEMCK, Alaa Ashkar - 25 Palestinians were injured on Sunday at the Ofer Military Prison as Israeli soldiers fired tear gas bombs and rubber bullets at the families of Palestinian prisoners, freed on the second Shalit-swap deal, the Maan News Agency reported Sunday afternoon.
IMEMC, Saed Bannoura – Hundreds of Palestinians with Israeli citizenship protested against a proposed ban on mosque loudspeakers in a number of cities on Saturday, including Nazareth, Jaffa and Umm al-Fahm. [This is the equivalent of banning church bells for Americans.]
IMEMC (December 17, 2011) – Israeli soldiers shot and killed, on Saturday at dawn, a Palestinian man in Al Boreij Refugee camp, in central Gaza, medical sources reported. Archive - Palestinian Killed In Gaza - Palestine-Info The sources stated that Majed An-Nabaheen, 35, died of his wounds at the Al Aqsa Hospital, in Dir Al Balah, after succumbing to serious injuries.
We believe that Americans should receive all the news about the region, not just that deemed reportable by those with Israeli connections. Accordingly, we are providing "The Missing Headlines," daily incidents and analysis largely missing from US media. Visit this site daily to see the missing half of the story: