Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, March 07, 2010

The Mufti, the hotel and the cemetery

Tom Segev and Haim Watzman in their book "One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate," tell an incredible story about the infamous Mufti Husseini of Jerusalem and his hotel.

According to the book, the Mufti didn't knowingly build the Palace Hotel on top of the Mamilla Cemetery. At least, not at first. He built the hotel across the street - but the workers did find human remains.

The Mufti's reaction? Don't tell anybody about it and move the bones elsewhere.

Later, when Husseini's archrival Mayor Nashabishi of Jerusalem refused to connect the Palace Hotel to the sewer system, Husseini agreed to lay pipes to send the hotel's (partially treated) sewage - to the cemetery itself.

This excerpt from the book (pp 278-279) is fascinating, and exposes yet again the hypocrisy of Arab Muslims concerning the supposed sanctity of Muslim graves in Jerusalem (click to enlarge):

Disco Dubai open thread (translated)

Translation, courtesy Annie:

Nobody told me there's going to be a party
If I'd have only known, I'd also have come along
From one minute to the next it all becomes clearer
Everyone was there besides me, it seems.

You thought you could keep it from me, a big secret
But "naive" Dahi has a big mouth and he's got cameras
All the world and his wife saw how you flew off without me
To the crazy costume party in Dubai.

Cheese... cheese... cheese

Only me they didn't invite to El Mabhouh's party
Wow, if I'd have been there I'd have sat him on a low chair
Also naive Dahi was there, found some bullets
And since then, from morning till night he's eating movies.

From one press conference to another he rattles on
From all that smoke he can't see the fire.
"I'm on to you, you killed Mabhouh"
DJ Dahi is in his groove, and whoever isn't jumping is suspect.

Cheese... cheese... cheese.

Straighten up your glasses, your wig's a little crooked
Straighten your mustache and smile at the camera
Put on the tennis cap and call the elevator
Because Mabhouh is coming in a minute and we'll put a pillow on him.

Golan Hen - lyrics, melody and coffee
Avihai Porat - vocals, sound and beer.

Open thread time!

Fake "Palestinian" culture gets a boost from the Netherlands

From Ma'an:

A 5,000 year old city is the focus of a UNESCO, Nablus and Dutch government initiative seeking to boost the Palestinian Department of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage's resources and technical experience, a statement said.

A 300,000 euro donation from the Netherlands to UNESCO will support continued excavations and preservation at the Tell Balata Archaeological Site. Under the initiative, students from the University of Leiden will participate to provide technical expertise, officials said at the signing ceremony on Monday.

The Tell Balata site is listed by UNESCO in the Inventory of Cultural and Natural Heritage Sites of Potential Outstanding Universal Value in Palestine, and is located in the city of Nablus. According to experts, the area includes towers and buildings from the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age dating back 5,000 years.

There is nothing objectionable about archaeological research, of course. What is curious is the reason given by the Dutch for doing this:

Dutch representative to Palestine Jack Twiss Quarles van Ufford called the initiative a step in support of caretaker Prime Minster Salam Fayyad's plan to build state institutions ahead of the declaration of a Palestinian state in 2011. "The creation of institutions can only be sustainable if it goes hand in hand with the strengthening of the cultural identity of the Palestinian people," Twiss said in a statement.

Hold on...if the "Palestinians" have been a unique people living on their land for thousands of years, why do they need outside help to strengthen their cultural identity? Do the Chinese or Greeks or Egyptians need help from Europeans to remember who they are and where they came from?

Not only that, but it Twiss seriously thinking that the residents of the region in Chalcolithic times have any cultural or historic ties to the Palestinian Arabs of today?

Deep down, Twiss and his ilk knows that "Palestinian" culture is a recent and mostly artificial phenomenon driven more by politics than anything else. But since they want another Arab state to exist so badly, they are willing to throw Dutch government money at an initiative that is apparently meant not so much to do serious scientific research but to create a fake history and culture where virtually none exists.

(And, yes, I have looked for years for examples of this ancient Palestinian Arab culture. The closest I have found have been some unique clothing styles and crafts that more reflect normal local and tribal custom than anything that could be remotely called "Palestinian." Palestinian Arab art, music and literature was virtually non-existent a century ago.)

Riot at Bethlehem University

From Ma'an:

Bethlehem University’s student senate accused the university's guards of assaulting 17 students on campus on Friday, following a brawl.

Anan Jawabra, president of the student senate, told Ma'an that the attack followed an attempt to allow a visitor on campus. The senate president said BU's vice president, Mussa Darwish, refused to permit the visitor entry and university guards took the guest to a room and began beating him.

Students were then attacked by guards wielding batons during a 40 minute brawl, Jawabra said, with two students left bleeding for two hours before being transferred to hospital.

The student senate further accused the university guards of brining knives and fire extinguishers to the fight, and calling on friends to assist them in the brawl. The senate says the incident was re-instigated at 2:30pm, despite the campus being cleared of students.

Call the Human Rights organizations!

Oh, that's right - they don't get involved when Israel can't be blamed.

Fatal car accident? Blame Israel!

A tragic accident near Ramallah:

Five [now six - EoZ] Palestinians were killed on Friday evening and two others were injured when their vehicle accidentally slammed into a military hummer at the Silwad Bridge, by the entrance of Ofer near the central West Bank city of Ramallah.

The Public Affairs Department at the Palestinian Police in Ramallah said that all of the deceased residents are family members; a husband, his wife and their children.

Israeli sources reported that four Israeli soldiers, who were in the military hummer, were lightly wounded and were airlifted to an Israeli hospital.

The Israeli police said that the Palestinian vehicle was speeding, and that one of its tires exploded leading the vehicle to slide into the opposite direction of the street to slam into the military vehicle.

But that's just what you would expect the lying, genocidal Zionists to say, isn't it? In fact, this is a new chapter of Zio ethnic cleansing via car accidents.

At least, that's what a spokesman for the "moderate" Fatah movement says in Firas Press:

Fatah spokesman Osama al-Qawasmi condemned the killing of six Palestinians from the same family in a collision with an IDF vehicle, saying that the incident was deliberate.

Qawasmi said that Israel's ruling authorities have been trying to push the region into violence, pointing out that a resolution annexing the Ibrahimi Mosque and the vicinity of Bilal Ben Rabah mosque and the walls of Jerusalem to the list of so-called list of Israeli heritage sites, as well as deliberate shooting on the Shalaldeh family in the Bethlehem area and the continuing incursions of the holy places, particularly in Jerusalem, and other unilateral actions are in creating new facts on the ground.

You see how insidious the so-called "Israelis" are? To support their claim on "heritage sites" in the West Bank, they target and murder entire Palestinian Arab families by forcing them into car accidents!

Someone compliments Israel. PalArabs freak.

From Jerusalem Dispatch:

“I will always support Israel, guardian of the world’s capital, Jerusalem,” Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli told President Shimon Peres during a welcoming ceremony on Tuesday at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem.

In his opening remarks, President Martinelli said he “preferred to speak from the heart. As a citizen of Panama I say with great honor and joy: I will always support Israel, guardian of the world’s capital, Jerusalem.” He added that “Panama is a country of immigrants, which includes our thriving and active Jewish community. I am proud that three of the ministers in my government are Jewish, and that there are several Jews in other important positions in our government.”

Naturally, the fact that a tiny country supports Israel amid a sea of anti-semitism is too much for Palestinian Arab leaders to bear.

Fatah Central Committee Member Nabil Sha'ath sharply condemned on Saturday President of Panama Ricardo Martinelli's remarks in which he referred to Israel as the "guardian" of the holy city of Jerusalem.

"Martinelli’s comments did not only insult the Palestinian people, the Arab, Islamic, and Christian world, but also insulted international law," Sha’ath said in a statement.

To people like Sha'ath, being the "guardian" of Jerusalem means to guard against any Jews visiting or living there.

Hamas attacked Red Crescent - confirmed

Early Friday morning I reported that Hamas attacked a Red Crescent headquarters in Gaza, expelled staff and doctors, and stole files. I predicted that Ma'an wouldn't cover the story until some official commented on it, because they fear Hamas reprisals when they actually do any real reporting from Gaza that makes Hamas look bad.

And that is exactly what happened.

Human rights organizations have yet to comment, however.

Latest from the Dubai police circus

From The National (UAE):

The chief of police yesterday gave the 26 people whose identities are alleged to have been stolen by the killers of Mahmoud al Mabhouh one month to file legal actions over identity fraud.

If they do not, they will be considered by the Dubai police to have collaborated with the alleged assassination, Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim said.

“Those who claim that their identities have been stolen by the squad who murdered al Mabhouh, have to file a law suit against the perpetrators to their respective countries or arrest warrants will be issued against them,” he said.

“If their claims are correct then they should report the offense, otherwise in our eyes they are collaborators with the squad and thus they will be wanted for the authorities,” said Lt Gen Tamim. “We will give them one month to file lawsuits after which we will put them on the wanted list.”

Dubai police have said the innocence of these people should not be taken for granted on the basis of that claim alone.

Who, exactly, must the victims file their lawsuits against?

As if we needed any more proof that the Dubai police have no clue.

In other Dubai police news, their previously most sensational murder case, that of Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim, has suffered a setback. The people they accused of the murder are getting a retrial, possibly because the evidence provided by the Dubai police was inconsistent and incomplete.

We get results!

From JPost:

A Human Rights Watch spokeswoman told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday night that its embattled senior military analyst Marc Garlasco resigned nearly three weeks ago....

HRW suspended Garlasco with pay in September, “pending an investigation,” after allegations surfaced that he was an avid collector of Nazi memorabilia.

...As for the “pending investigation,” Daly repeated that Garlasco had resigned and said, “We are not commenting on it any further.”

Garlasco’s collection was initially revealed by Omri Ceren on his blog “Mere Rhetoric” in September, when he wrote that Garlasco was “obsessed with the color and pageantry of Nazism, has published a detailed 430-page book on Nazi war paraphernalia, and participates in forums for Nazi souvenir collectors.”

The subsequent media coverage sparked controversy and condemnations from groups such as NGO Monitor, which released a statement saying that Garlasco’s background, “when combined with his central role in the condemnations of Israel under false banners of ‘human rights’ violations and ‘war crimes,’ show that he is entirely inappropriate as a human rights reporter.”

One of my readers had tipped me off to Garlasco's hobby,and I emailed Omri and other bloggers about it, letting him run with the story. (I also found the Garlasco quote "The leather SS jacket makes my blood go cold it is so COOL", which I also told a number of other bloggers about and they posted it before I did.)

During the days afterwards I was involved in exposing both Garlasco's picture with his daughter while wearing an Iron Cross sweatshirt as well as the fact the HRW sent out sockpuppets to various blogs to defend Garlasco.

The problems with HRW are not limited to Garlasco, of course, but this was one of the increasing number of cases where we mere bloggers manage to break news as well as any reporter.

Latest from Latma

Another episode from an Israeli satirical review. Most of it is great, with the bonus that many of the stories I covered this week are also mentioned:

h/t Mohammed the Teddy Bear

Freedom for women increases in Arab world, decreases in PA territories

From Freedom House:

Despite continuing resistance from religious and cultural elites, women in the Middle East and North Africa have made modest progress in achieving certain rights over the past five years. While women in the region suffer from greater inequality than do women elsewhere, they now enjoy more economic opportunity, fewer barriers to education, and expanded ability to participate in the political process than they did five years ago. These are the conclusions of Women’s Rights in the Middle East and North Africa: Progress Amid Resistance, a new study released today by Freedom House.

“These findings remind us of the complexities of women’s status in the Middle East,” said Jennifer Windsor, executive director of Freedom House. “There are more women entrepreneurs, more women doctors, more women Ph.Ds, and more women in universities, than ever before. However, substantial roadblocks remain for women pursuing careers. For instance, women in Saudi Arabia are allowed to earn law degrees, but not to appear in court on behalf of their clients.” She continued, “and these same women are still subject to abuse at home, lack child guardianship rights, and are legally compelled to be ‘obedient’ to their husbands.”

According to the study, 15 out of the 18 countries in the region recorded some gains in women’s rights over the past five years. Kuwait, Algeria and Jordan saw the most significant progress while Iraq, Yemen and the Palestinian Territories—countries enduring internal conflict and the rise of religious extremism—are the only countries to record overall decline.

The Palestinian Arab author of the Palestinian Territories report, of course, blames Israel for much of the decline in the scores since 2004. Some of her "facts" about Israel are complete fiction. For example:

The increased number of checkpoints over the last five years and the construction of a West Bank separation wall,[4] which is over 50 percent complete, have worsened social and economic conditions for all Palestinians. In particular, women now experience further separation from their families, farmlands, water resources, schools, and hospitals. When the wall is completed, it will stand eight to nine meters tall and stretch more than 700 kilometers, adversely affecting the lives of an estimated one-third of the Palestinian population in the West Bank.[5]

I don't have specific numbers (and neither does she), but I would wager that the number of checkpoints has decreased in the past five years, not increased.

There is no doubt that the economic conditions of West Bank Palestinian Arabs have become much better in the past five years, so she is lying there.

Her "source" for the claim that the wall will be 8 to 9 meters high across all 700 kilometers, B'tselem, says no such thing, and in fact most of the barrier is a fence, not a wall. Indeed, B'Tselem calls it a "separation barrier," not a wall.

Even worse, her quote from B'Tselem that one-third of the PalArabs are adversely affected by the barrier is an outright lie. Her link shows that B'Tselem generously counts about 11% of the PalArabs as being affected, not 33%, and up to half of them are questionable (counting communities that are "partially surrounded" by the fence, where it is unclear that it affects their lives at all.)

She does blame Hamas for much of the decrease in women's freedom in the territories, however, and also mentions honor killings and the legal protection for those crimes.

Work accident!

Ma'an reports:

[The] Al-Qassam Brigades announced the death of a fighter during a what a statement called a "jihad mission" near Deir Al-Balah overnight.

The young man, identified as Nabhan Kamal Abu M’eiliq, 22, was killed while on a mission for the brigades. The statement provided no details as to the nature of his death or the purpose of the mission.

Hamas' website notes the death, asking Allah to embrace him in Paradise. Somehow, I don't think Allah will be taking Hamas up on that request.

This is at least the eighth internal terrorist death this year, and there is evidence that some of them might not have been accidents, but the results of infighting.

Report: Hamas invades Red Crescent hospital

Palestine Press Agency reports that Gaza government forces broke into the headquarters of the Palestine Red Crescent Hospital and expelled its staff and doctors. The Hamas forces also took hospital files.

Even though that news outlet is very anti-Hamas, most of its stories end up checking out. Since stories like these are not reported by the Gaza-based press due to fear of Hamas, the only place to read about egregious Hamas abuses like this is the Palestine Press Agency. (Ma'an will only cover it when PCHR or some other organization publicly complains about Hamas abuses; they then have cover to publish the story in the context of the third party accusation. )

Hamas losing control in Gaza?

The anti-Hamas Palestinian Press Agency is reproducing a letter, allegedly from al-Qassam Brigades leader Ahmed Jabari to Khaled Meshal, Hamas' "political" leader in Damascus. The letter details the security chaos in the Gaza Strip and indicates that Hamas may be losing its grip on power. The implication is that some of the recent "work accidents" might have actually been murders of Hamas members.

I cannot auto-translate the letter itself because it is not in text format; if anyone out there knows Arabic and wants to give it a shot, please do so. Page 2 does seem to list specific events that would prove the point, though.

Hamas' newest law: No male hairdressers for women

Palestine Today reports that Hamas is now preventing men from working as hairdressers for women in Gaza.

Police confirmed that the decision, posted on its website, was made "in accordance with the instructions of the Minister of Interior and National Security (in the Gaza government) Fathi Hammad.

The police stressed that it "will pursue anyone who violates this resolution and expose himself to accountability and legal accountability."

Several women's hairdressing salons in the Gaza Strip have been subjected to bombings in recent months.

Remember the good old days when Hamas was recently elected and its leaders strenuously denied that they would force Islamic rule on everyone in Gaza?

A mysterious assassination in Dubai - and no one cared

From the New York Times last April:

Sulim B. Yamadayev was a former general in Chechnya and foe of the republic's Kremlin-backed president. He was killed in the Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai on March 30, 2009, in what appeared to be an assassination, the police said. He was 36.

The attack evoked others on Chechens, in Russia and abroad, who ran afoul of President Ramzan A. Kadyrov. The Kremlin has invested Mr. Kadyrov with almost unchecked authority in a bid to return stability to Chechnya after nearly a decade of bloody war and political turmoil. With Moscow's blessing, Mr. Kadyrov has created a personality cult and imposed his own interpretation of Islamic morality in Chechnya, whose population is predominately Muslim.

AFP adds:

The killer fired three bullets from a gold-plated gun at the victim's chest as Sulim Yamadayev climbed from his car in the private car park beneath his luxury residence in Dubai.
Yamadayev was the decorated commander of a famed Chechen battalion, loyal to Moscow. His brother had been gunned down in Moscow just months earlier. And the Yamadayev clan were sworn foes of Chechnya's strongman leader.
The March 28 murder was the latest apparent contract-killing in an extraordinary trail of blood leading from Chechnya that already stretched to Istanbul, Moscow and Vienna. And now the bustling emirate.
Yamadayev was the fifth person to be murdered in recent months seen as an opponent of Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-appointed president of Chechnya, a mainly Muslim region of Russia's southern fringe that fought two wars with Moscow.

So an outside non-Arab power, known for assassinations, was suspected of carrying out a brutal assassination of a pretty famous public figure in Dubai. Yet there were no political repercussions, no public calls for sanctions, no daily circuses of press conferences, no talk about how the killers entered the country and if they used faked passports - nothing.

Wonder why?

(h/t LBS)

Al-Arabiya Sports leaves out a small fact

Al Arabiya mentions that the Egyptian football (soccer) team will be playing "Palestine"'s Olympic team in a friendly match at the end of the month, in the Faisal Al husseini Stadium in Ram, near Jerusalem.

The Egyptians are stressing that they are not going to go through Israel to get to the match and are not getting any Israeli visas. They want to help the morale of the Palestinian Arabs and make them feel less isolated.

The article mentions that this is the first meeting between the two teams since a match in Jerusalem in 1934, in a World Cup qualifying match, where Egypt beat Palestine 4-1.

Here is the Palestine Post account of that game. It seems that it wasn't in Jerusalem, but in Tel Aviv, at the stadium used by the Hapoel Zionist team. Could it be that the players in that earlier game were - gasp - Jewish?

In fact, it appears that there were other games between the Egyptians and the Zionists in the 1930s. In this game later that year, the Alexandria team lost to Hapoel (note the names of the players at the end of the article, click to enlarge:)

And Hapoel met the Egyptian team in 1935 as well, as this article says that Egyptian football is what gave the impetus for Zionist teams to grow and compete. This article seems to imply that it these are the same teams that played in 1934:

There was even an earlier game, in 1933:

So, indeed, Egypt did play Palestine before in football. But the Palestine that they played has nothing to do with the "Palestine" team that they plan to meet later this month.

Now, why would Al Arabiya try to imply that Egypt played an Arab Palestinian team in 1934?

Dubai police chief: "We could infiltrate the Mossad"

The latest interview with the clown known as Lt. Gen Dahi Khalfan (Tamim) muddies the waters even more, as he attempts to portray an illusion of competence. Even so, he seems to disprove some of the rumors that have been bandied about by Arabs about the case:

Dubai police did not know in the beginning the identity of the victim as his identity papers did not include his last name and he was not one of Hamas's publically known faces, the police chief said.

Arab sources had earlier indicated that Mabhouh traveled to Dubai with a passport under his own name, and implied that this was how the (presumed) Mossad knew where he was.

"Had we known who he was, we would not have allowed him in to Dubai," he told Al Arabiya. "We do allow officials from Hamas’ political office, but not members involved in secretive work."

This is too funny.

Regarding how the details of the crime were unraveled, Khalfan denied reports that the perpetrators left evidence that made it easy to do so and that they intended to deliver a certain message through leaving traces.

"On the contrary, the murderers tried their best to mislead us. They left the hotel room neat and tidy to give the impression that it was a natural death."

In fact, he added, the Dubai police was about to declare it a natural death as the identity of the victim had not been known yet and there was no criminal suspicion.

"Things started to change when a Palestinian man who knows Mabhouh tried contacting him in Dubai several times and failed. After learning of his death, he called his family in Gaza and told them that he was murdered."

It was then that officials from Hamas contacted the Dubai police and informed them that the victim was a leader in the Islamic resistance organization.

"Revealing the victim's identity gave the case a whole new turn and an autopsy was immediately made."

The autopsy, Khalfan explained, revealed the Mabhouh was strangled after being injected with a drug that causes paralysis.

"Israeli media said he was subjected to electric shocks and this is not true."

Actually, it was Mabhouh's brother that made that claim.

"If Hamas has information, then let them look for the man who leaked information to Israel about Mabhouh's movements."

Mabhouh was betrayed from within, stressed Khalfan.

"Someone from inside Hamas and who was close to him leaked information about his whereabouts to the Israel."

As for a Palestinian man detained in Dubai for alleged links to the case, Khalfan refused to give information about his political affiliation.

"I personally do not care whether he is from Hamas or Fatah, but the U.A.E. is not a battlefield for warring factions."

Here's another example where Khalfan, basking in his newfound fame, is making stuff up so he can confidently claim that the case is closed.

But the person who ranted against Jews in Arabic leaves his best whopper for last:

Khalfan stressed that the Dubai Police possesses an "astounding" data base and that they have the ability to infiltrate of the office of the Mossad director, if necessary.

If the Dubai police are so good at espionage, maybe we should be pointing an accusing finger at them! Maybe Khalfan is responsible for the hit himself!

I just don't understand how such a world-class detective organization wouldn't notice a Hamas leader in their midst.

How Israel-bashers win at York U.

From the National Post (h/t Callie):

Next week, York University will once again open its halls and classrooms to "Israel Apartheid Week," so-called. This year as every year, militants and activists will use the taxpayer-funded facilities of York to vilify the Jewish state.

Well, that's free speech, isn't? Everybody gets to express his or her point of view, no matter how obnoxious, right?

No, not right. Not at York. At York, speech is free -- better than free, subsidized-- for anti-Israel haters. But for those who would defend Israel, York sets very different rules.

In advance of York's annual hate-Israel week, the campus group Christians United for Israel applied to use university space to host a program of pro-Israel speakers.

The university replied that this program could only proceed on certain conditions.

It insisted on heavy security, including both campus and Toronto police -- all of those costs to be paid by the program organizers. The organizers would also have to provide an advance list of all program attendees and advance summaries of all the speeches. No advertising for the program would be permitted -- not on the York campus, not on any of the other campuses participating by remote video.

These are radically different and much harsher terms than anything required from the hate-Israel program. The hate-Israel program is not required to pay for its own security. It is free to advertise. Its speakers are not pre-screened by the university.

The pro-Israel event, scheduled for this past Monday, Feb. 22, was cancelled when the organizers declined to comply with the terms. A university spokesman told the Jewish Tribune that it insisted on the more stringent requirements on pro-Israel groups "due to the participation of individuals who they claim invite the animus of anti-Israel campus agitators."

The logic is impressively brazen: Since the anti-Israel people might use violence, the speech of the pro-Israel people must be limited. On the other hand, since the pro-Israel people do not use violence, the speech of the anti-Israel people can proceed without restraint.

Read the whole thing.

Gaza "mud houses" and UNRWA bias

UNRWA is doing something useful in Gaza, but it can't resist politicizing it.

Hassan al-Err is the head of a family of seven who are preparing to move into a mud house built by UNRWA in the Gaza Strip. UNRWA has resorted to building with mud because other building materials are not available.

The two-bedroom house in Jabalia, north of Gaza City, is an improvement on the tent in which the 67-year-old Hassan had been living with his family - next to the rubble of their former home. The family’s home was one of 4,036 houses in Gaza which were totally destroyed or damaged beyond repair last year in Israel’s 23-day military operation.

Since then, rebuilding has been almost impossible because Israel does not allow construction materials such as cement and steel into the Strip, saying they could be used for military purposes.

“I can’t forget how hard the past year has been for me and my family living in a tent in the cold winter and the hot summer,” Hassan explains. “Of course a mud house is much better than a tent, although it’s not a real solution because I can’t build another flat on top of it for my two married sons who live in a rented house in Jabalia town.”

UNRWA hopes to build around 120 mud brick houses for dozens of homeless families in the next few months in the Strip. Each house costs about US$10,000 and takes three months to build.

While not a long-term solution for homeless families, the mud houses offer better conditions than tents or partially destroyed buildings. They also provide employment for people UNRWA is training to make mud bricks and homes.

International donors pledged US$4.5 billion in aid for the Palestinian Authority, much of it specifically for Gaza, at a conference in Egypt in March 2009, but little has made its way to the Strip because of the continuing blockade and bitter Palestinian divisions between political parties Hamas and Fatah.

First of all, the last paragraph is an out-and-out lie. The majority of the PA budget is spent in Gaza, and Hamas' budget is considerable as well.

However, when reading this article, do you get the impression that these "mud houses" are miserable, temporary shelters that will disintegrate inthe first rainstorm and only marginally better than tents?

Check out what they look like, from the IRIN website:

The caption says that the houses can be used for more than 100 years with minimal maintenance! Why would UNRWA write that they are not a long-term solution?

The fact that one cannot build a two or three-story house out of mud bricks does not mean that the houses are not usable - in fact, they appear to be more durable than most houses constructed in the US, which are often made out of wood.

UNRWA, which is to be commended for this program, still can't resist reporting it with an anti-Israel spin. The house in the photo looks more than just utilitarian - it is a beautiful house, and many Westerners would love to live in such a building.