By Bianca Capazorio

Claims that OR Tambo International Airport was used as an escape route for Mossad assassins could reignite old tensions between the South African security establishment and Israeli airline El Al, which has close links to the Israeli government.

The airline had already missed a February 28 deadline to clean up its act at South African airports when it became known that at least two of the alleged killers of a Palestinian arms smuggler in Dubai last month had left the Arab emirate on a flight for Joburg. Once there, they caught an El Al aircraft for Tel Aviv.

All 26 suspects left Dubai within 12 hours of the killing of Mahmoud Mabhouh on January 20. Mabhouh, believed to be running guns into Gaza for Hamas, was found dead in the five-star Al Bustan Rotana Hotel. It is believed that he was stunned before being suffocated.

These are the conclusions of the Jury pertaining to the Barcelona session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine. However, the contents are subject to the normal processes of editing and corrections before a definitive edition is made public.

1.    Meeting in Barclona from 1 to 3 March 2010, the Russell Tribunal on Palestine (hereinafter “the RTP”), composed of the following members:

•    Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Nobel Peace laureate 1976, Northern Ireland
•    Gisèle Halimi, lawyer, former Ambassador to UNESCO, France
•    Ronald Kasrils writer and activist, South Africa
•    Michael Mansfield, barrister, President of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, United Kingdom
•    José Antonio Martin Pallin, emeritus judge, Chamber II, Supreme Court, Spain
•    Cynthia McKinney, former member of the US Congress and 2008 presidential candidate, Green Party, USA
•    Alberto San Juan, actor, Spain
•    Aminata Traoré, author and former Minister of Culture of Mali
adopted these conclusions, which cover the following points:

-    Establishment of the Tribunal (I.)
-    Mandate of the RTP (II.)
-    Procedure (III.)
-    Admissibility (IV.)
-    Merits (V.)
-    Continuation of the proceedings (VI.)

 (source: Palestine Return Centre)

UK members of the parliamentary delegation to Gaza , organised by the European Campaign and the Palestinian Return Centre presented ‘Eyewitness Gaza’ in Westminster on Monday evening.

 In a packed Select Committee Room, British Parliamentarians, including Sir Gerald Kaufman, Bob Marshall Andrews, Baroness Jenny Tonge, Lord Nazir Ahmed, Martin Linton, Jeremy Corbyn, and Richard Howitt MEP spoke about what they had seen when they broke the siege on Gaza in January.

Joining the esteemed panellists were Lord Steel, who is going to Gaza this week, Majed Al Zeer Director of the Palestinian Return Centre and Arafat Shoukri, chair of the European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza .

Troops martyr 23 innocent Kashmiris in February 

(source: Kashmir Media Service)

In occupied Kashmir , complete shutdown was observed, today, against the reckless destruction by Indian troops during their five-day siege and search operations in Sopore town. Call for the strike had been given by the forum patronized by veteran Kashmiri Hurriyet leader, Syed Ali Gilani to draw world attention towards the state terrorism unleashed by India in the occupied territory.

Forceful anti-India demonstrations, marked with clashes between the troops and demonstrators, were held in Sopore town while the occupation authorities had sealed the downtown areas of Srinagar .

By Deepak Tripathi

(source: Palestine Chronicle)

In the foreword to Ramzy Baroud’s book, Palestinian scholar Salman Abu Sitta refers to a bold assertion by David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, in June 1948 – soon after the declaration of the state of Israel and in the midst of large-scale cleansing of Palestinians from their homeland. “Not one refugee will return,” proclaimed Ben Gurion, “The old will die. The young will forget.”

To some living at the time, it would have sounded like a hasty prediction. Not only has the Palestinian tragedy lasted six decades and more, its consequences today go beyond Palestine, the Arab world, even the Middle East. It lies at the heart of a much wider and far more serious crisis facing the world. How wrong Ben Gurion was. There cannot be another conclusion.

The seeds of the Palestinian tragedy had been sown while the Ottoman Empire was collapsing under British and French pressure almost a century ago. In a covert pact stitched in 1916, known as the Sykes-Picot Agreement, Britain and France, with the assent of Imperial Russia, determined the fate of Palestine as a largely internationalized territory.