From: "hatem abunimeh" <habunimeh@...>
Subject: [FP] A post for God.Hurray for e-mail


> Why the rumpus for God's sake
> FreePalestine gave us voice to relate and tell
> All that is between (FreePalestine) Heaven and Hell
> All the foibles and grand old plans
> Of Toyotas and tickets on hand
> Of leaders gone and simple folk dismissed
> Of moral dilemmas and diversity so they insist
> To announce to others a scam or scheme
> Or a theatre production of "Midsummer Night's Dream."
>
> Many a verbal rumble there has been
> many an ego deflated
> and many a time, have been elated
> At an anecdote or tale told
> By the brilliant and the bold
> Who dare take a stand
> and say
> "Free expression all the way"
> Otherwise for the stuffed shirts, I say, without
> conceit,
> You have the God-given power to delete!!!  :)
>
>
>
> A post for God?  Hurray for e-mail

BBC web service
Friday, 1 September, 2000, 13:50 GMT 14:50 UK
By Caroline Hawley in Cairo

A new privately-run telephone service has been set up in Egypt to give
24-hour religious advice for any problem raised by callers.

Answers are given the next day by one of four sheikhs, all trained at
al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's highest religious authority.

Calling 09000-700 costs around 50 US cents per minute.

And since it was set up exactly a week ago, the founders of the
"Islamic
Line" say it has received on average 500 calls a day.

'Dial-a-Fatwa'

The line, which has already been dubbed "Dial-a-Fatwa," comes hard on
the heels of telephone services offering recipes and horoscopes.

Nearly 80% of the questions so far have either been about masturbation
or the veil - when to wear it and how important it is as a religious
obligation.

Sheikh Khalid el-Guindi is one of the founders of the new service.

He says the advantage is that it can all be done at the touch of a
button, answering modern demands for fast information and using
technology in the service of Islam.

Mr Khalid says the new telephone line also means Egyptians can get
religious advice anonymously on issues they would be embarrassed to
raise face-to-face with a sheikh at their local mosque.

Some may be uncomfortable about the commercialisation of religion, but
the new service has clearly found a market.

Egypt biggest opposition party elects new leader

CAIRO, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Egypt's main opposition Wafd party has elected a
new leader a month ahead of parliamentary elections, the party's newspaper
al-Wafd said on Saturday.

Lawyer Noeman Gomaa, formerly deputy leader, was elected by 78.25 percent of
voters in a four-way ballot held on Thursday, the paper said.

The election followed the death at 90 last month of Fouad Serag el-Din, who
revived the party in 1978 after the late President Anwar Sadat reestablished
limited parliamentary democracy.

The government has said parliamentary elections will be held in three stages
from mid-October to early November.

The Wafd, Egypt's traditional party of power before a 1952 military coup, won
six seats in the last vote in 1995.

Observers said the poll was heavily rigged in favour of President Hosni
Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party, which holds 94 percent of
parliaments 444 elected seats.

ACTION TO DEFEND THE PALESTINIAN RIGHT TO RETURN

WHAT:  Mass march and rally in Washington, DC in liaison and solidarity with similar events in London, Palestine and Lebanon.

WHEN:  11 AM Saturday 16 September 2000WHERE:  Gather at Freedom Plaza, 13th St. and Pennsylvania Av., Federal Triangle metro. March along Pennsylvania Avenue to Lafayette Park located in front of the White House.  Rally at Lafayette Park from noon to 3:00 PM.

WHY:     -- To demand an end to five decades of Palestinian exile!   -- To demand recognition and
implementation of the inalienable right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and lands!     -- To mark the 18th anniversary of the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacres!  -- To celebrate the resilience and resistance of the Palestinian people!    -- To begin the march Home!

SPEAKERS:  The rally will include remarks by Palestinian refugees, survivors of the Sabra and Shatila massacre, two speakers from the Ibdaa' Center in Dheishe Refugee Camp in Palestine, grassroots activists, and noted supporters of Palestinian rights. There will also be Palestinian cultural performances including one by internationally renowned composer and musician Simon Shaheen (also Marcel Khalife - pending confirmation).

TRAVEL:  To connect with a group traveling from your area, send a message to PRRC@....
 Also, visit http://al-awda.org/committees.htm  and follow the instructions to join an Al-Awda action committee  that is planning group transportation and accommodation for  individuals in your area.

ACCOMMODATION: For information on available special rate accommodation in the DC area, visit http://al-awda.org/housing.htm.  Should you wish to reserve accommodation where other participants and delegations will be staying, send requests to:   <PRRC@...>
or   <rallyaccommodations@...>

T-SHIRTS: To order rally T-shirts, send a message to: al-awda-shirt@egroups.com including your order, name and shipping address. The shirts are  white 100% cotton Haynes T-shirts of great quality in various sizes XL, L, M, or S.  The price is $8 per shirt for sizes (plus shipping charge if
mailed to you).  T-shirts may also be obtained through several local Al-Awda action committees.  For further information on the shirts,  visit http://al-awda.org/tshirt.htm.

BANNERS: Please bring your own banners. Some banner suggestions for the  march and rally may be found at: http://al-awda.org/slogans.htm.   Local action committees and individuals may wish to indicate their city or state of current residence on banners.

MEDIA CONTACT:    Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh, Tel: 203-785-6317, Fax: 717-832-1123,

email: prrc-media@....

ADVERTISE: Please forward this message to your contacts.  Make a link from your website to http://al-awda.org. To receive a copy of the  march and rally flyer and PRRC/Al-Awda brochure in PDF format,  send a request to zahi@....

SPONSORS:  The march and rally is organized by the Palestine Right to Return Coalition (PRRC), known by the Arabic name Al-Awda (meaning the return), and is co-sponsored/endorsed by over 80 human rights, civic and religious organizations including Amnesty International  USA. 
For a complete listing of organizational  sponsors/endorsers, please visit:

 http://al-awda.org/sponsors.htm.

PRRC/Al-Awda is a broad-based, non-partisan, democratic association ofgrassroots activists and organizational representatives concerned witheducating the international community to fulfill its legal and moralobligations vis-a-vis Palestinian refugees based on The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Law and through the implementation of United Nations Resolutions upholding the inalienable right of Palestinians to return to their homeland and to restitution ofall their
confiscated and destroyed property.

DONATIONS: To help defray costs associated with the march and rally,  please send your check to: PRRC, P.O. Box 401,  Hummelstown, Pa 17036.E-mail:    PRRC@...,
Fax: 717.832.1123, Web: http://al-awda.org.--------------                           

No Return = No Peace 

Everyone Has The Right To Leave Any Country,
Including His Own,  And To Return To His Country. 

 --Article 13, Universal Declaration Of Human Rights  The United Nations "Resolves That The Refugees Wishing To Return  To Their Homes And Live At Peace With Their Neighbors Should
Be  Permitted To Do So At The Earliest Practicable Date"  --United Nations Resolution 194 On Palestine    ------
    ----------------------------------------    Date: Sun, 03 Sep 2000 12:55:26

-0400    From: musa al-hindi <malhindi@...>

From: "Mazin Qumsiyeh" <mazin.qumsiyeh@...>
Subject: [FP] Palestinians Have A Right To Go Home


> Published on Sunday, September 3, 2000 in the Baltimore Sun
>
> Palestinians Have A Right To Go Home
>
> by Phyllis Bennis
>
> IN THE CROWDED, squalid Deheisha refugee camp near Bethlehem on the
> occupied West Bank, more than 11,000 Palestinians live in about one-half
> a square  kilometer. Hundreds of Deheisha's children flock each day to
> the Ibda'a Cultural Center, where they exchange e-mail with children in
> other refugee camps, study art and music and play computer games, join a
> world-renowned dance troupe, and find intensive tutoring for their high
> school comprehensive exams. Ibda'a means "something from nothing" in
> Arabic. The children also learn their history, including how their
> grandparents lost their homes in what is now Israel more than 50 years
> ago.
>
> About two weeks ago, arsonists struck Ibda'a, destroying the computer
> center and the children's library. No one knows who is responsible. But
> Ibda'a's  role in the new political mobilization among Palestinian
> refugees for their right of return was likely a big part of the
> attackers' motivation.
>
> No one ever said that resolving the fate of Palestinian refugees would
> be easy. Israel comes to the negotiations with a strong hand: It holds
> the land of the 500 or so villages that were  demolished during and
> after the 1948 war, and from which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians
> were expelled. Palestinian representatives, on the other hand, come to
> the table backed only by their 5 million exiles, most of them stateless
> refugees.
>
> The United Nations welcomed Israel as its newest member with  Resolution
> 273, passed on May 11, 1949. The membership resolution stated
> specifically that  entry to the world body was based on Israel's
> statements regarding its ability and willingness to implement the
> earlier Resolution 194 of December 1948, and the rights it granted to
> the Palestinians.
>
> Those were the right to return home and compensation for their losses
> during the war. Palestinians today make up one of every four refugees in
> the world.  Their right to return to their homes, despite more than a
> 52-year delay in realizing that right, is no less compelling than the
> right to return home of any other refugees from any other war.
> International law is  very clear: It doesn't matter which side wins or
> which side loses, after a war, refugees have the right to go home. The
> United Nations passed Resolution 194 (which the U.S. and every other
> U.N. member state except Israel voted to reaffirm each year from 1949
> till 1994) specifically to make sure that those made refugees by the
> creation of  Israel would be protected. And yet Israel specifically
> rejects that right of return because of concern that allowing the
> Palestinian refugees to come home would change the demographic balance
> of the Jewish state.
>
> After the 1948 war, what Israelis call "the War of Independence" and
> Palestinians call al-Nakba, or "the Catastrophe," the families who lost
> their homes clung tightly to their memories. Many held on to their house
> keys in the expectation of a quick return. Their children grew up on an
> idealized vision of Palestine as a paradise where every family was rich,
> everything was beautiful, everyone was happy.  That second refugee
> generation created the intifada, or uprising, 40 years later, aimed at
> achieving  an independent Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank,
> Gaza and East Jerusalem. The unlikely possibility of actually returning
> to their parents' romantic vision of a Palestine now lost inside the
> 1967 borders of Israel was not at the top of their agenda. But now a
> third generation is growing up in the fetid refugee camps of the
> still-occupied West Bank, Gaza, and surrounding Arab countries. And this
> new generation is growing up shaped by the failures of the Oslo peace
> process. These young refugees, now in their teens and early twenties,
> are bringing renewed passion but at the same time a new realism to claim
> their right of return.
> In a July visit, teen-agers from the Ibda'a Center traveled to the
> villages their families had left behind in 1947 or 1948. The villages
> -Zakariyah, Beit Jamal, Jerash, Deir Hawa ? were demolished by Israeli
> forces during and after the war. Most of the villages were completely
> destroyed, with fast-growing pine trees planted over the foundations,
> and only the straight rows of cactus that once marked property lines
> still visible. A few damaged walls and minarets were left standing.
> Mostly, only the ancient olive trees remain.
>
> As part of an extraordinary oral history project, the Deheisha children
> have interviewed their grandparents who were expelled in 1948 and have
> studied the culture, architecture, and history of the villages, and
> where their residents ended up. Now, traveling to the remains of the
> villages, the children explain to visitors where the school was, where
> the mosque stood, how the residents made their living, where their own
> grandparents' houses were located. This third generation of Palestinian
> refugees is preparing for a real, not romantic or  idealized, return.
> They discuss what kind of houses they will build, how they will get
> water,where the electricity will come from. Two young girls, surveying
> the land from a precarious  perch atop a ruined minaret, debate whether
> and how they can live with the Israeli families who have built new
> houses on and around some of their land.
>
> Is compromise possible? Absolutely. But only if it is based on
> recognition of the right of return as a real, fundamental right - not if
> it is based on Israel's superior power. Israel's proposal during the
> recent Camp David summit for a "humanitarian" family reunification
> program that would benefit only a few tens of thousands, out of the
> millions of stateless Palestinians, is one compromise that will surely
> not work. Another sure-to-fail compromise is the proposal being quietly
> bandied  about in Washington and a variety of Middle Eastern capitals.
> This plan envisions a quid pro quo in which
> Baghdad would resettle many of the Palestinians (with or without their
> consent) from refugee camps in Lebanon to Kurdish areas of Iraq (from
> which equally unconsenting Kurds are already being expelled), in
> exchange for lifting the crippling economic sanctions against Iraq.
> Publicly denied by the relevant governments, the plan has in fact been
> discussed with Iraqi officials by the representative of at least one
> member of the U.S. Congress, and a number of Arab leaders are known to
> privately support the idea. This is a non-starter too.
>
> Real compromise is possible in determining how, not whether, the right
> of return will be realized. The Palestinians' return could be
> implemented in ways that minimize, rather than exacerbate, the
> disruption for Israelis living in the areas. Refugees might agree to
> return to their lands and villages but leave negotiable exactly which
> properties will be reclaimed. Certainly not all Palestinian refugees
> will ultimately opt to return.  But the right to return is absolute, and
> cannot be compromised away. The question of who makes the decisions is
> fundamental. Palestinian refugees must be allowed to accept or reject
> their own compromises. Refugee camp residents must be fully
> represented among the official Palestinian negotiators. The starting
> point of any agreement must be Israel's acknowledgment of the binding
> legal commitment it made to the United Nations 51 years ago to implement
> Resolution 194 and to recognize the absolute right of Palestinian
> return.
>
> In the destroyed village of Zakhariyah, as the Ibda'a children picked
> lemons from the trees
> scattered across what was once their families' land, one of the adult
> coordinators who was born in the Deheisha camp said quietly, almost to
> himself, "I can close my eyes and see it, see the people coming to the
> mosque, to the market. They cannot play with this history."
>
> Phyllis Bennis is a Fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies. She
> traveled in the West Bank and Israel in June and July.

From: "Nizar Sakhnini" <nsakhnini@...>
Subject: [FP] Forwarding excerpts from the Hebrew media - 3 September 2000


CLINTON AND BARAK ARE SENDING A PUBLIC WARNING TO ARAFAT

SURRENDER or BEAR RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE CONSEQUENCES

Bill Clinton would make a last minute effort to pressure Arafat into
accepting Barak's dictated terms, which had been adopted by the U.S. and
presented in a take-it-or-leave it offer. What is more humiliating is the
rude, arrogant and undiplomatic public threats and warnings both Barak and
Clinton are making to pressure the Palestinians into accepting the
Imperialist-Zionist diktat. Not only the Zionists had stolen the land and
driven its people out of their homes at gunpoint, they want to get away with
their crime with the support of the Imperialist powers led by the U.S. They
had the audacity to challenge the international law, the human rights
conventions, and UN resolutions. They now want their victims to sign an
agreement that the conflict is over and to accept to live in a
Bantustans-like state under Zionist hegemony and control and forget about
their right to return to their stolen lands and homes and forget sovereignty
over their holy places in Al-Quds.

The following report, published in Ma'ariv this morning, sheds light on the
latest "peace efforts" and positions taken by Clinton and his strategic ally
in the Middle East:


THE MOMENT OF TRUTH IS NEAR
"The moment of truth is near. The Palestinians can't be forced to make
peace. This week we will know if we have real peace partners," said Prime
Minister Ehud Barak during an appearance before peace activists in Tel Aviv
on Friday, in anticipation of his departure for the U.S.


Barak noted that he does not know whether an agreement on Jerusalem will be
signed during his expected meeting with Clinton and Arafat in New York, but
that "if there is an agreement it will leave Jerusalem stronger and broader
than ever before, with a Jewish majority, a Jerusalem that will enjoy
recognition by the entire world as Israel's capital. If that happens, there
won't be a struggle more stimulating to campaign for on the streets and
junctions.".


"It is possible to reach a deal that safeguards the State of Israel's vital
interests and ends the conflict. And if not, the people will know how to
stand united against the situations liable to come up if we find ourselves
at a dead end.".


But the assessment in Jerusalem is that there is a slim chance of reaching a
breakthrough during the Millennium Summit. This, after U.S. special envoy
Dennis Ross failed in his attempt to seal in writing what was agreed between
the sides at the Camp David summit. The Israelis and Palestinians are
distancing themselves from some of the concessions mooted at Camp David.
However, a senior diplomatic source said yesterday that at the summit Israel
gave up on direct sovereignty over the Mount of Olives (including the
graveyards), the City of David, Yad Avshalom, Zedekiah's Cave, and many
other Jewish holy sites. The Prime Minister's Bureau issued a sweeping
denial in response to this report.


In New York it is expected that, should a three-way Barak-Clinton-Arafat
meeting take place, it will be on Thursday. Before then, Clinton will meet
separately with each leader. In recent days the U.S. passed an unequivocal
message to Arafat making it clear that he is expected to come to the Clinton
meeting with good news on Palestinian willingness to be more flexible
vis-a-vis Jerusalem. "There is a reasonable chance," said a senior
diplomatic source at week's end, "that if Arafat does not display
flexibility, the president will announce his withdrawal from further
negotiations." (Ma'ariv, p. 8, by Ron Levin, Eli Kamir, and Ben Caspit)

Zionist arrogance did not stop there. Rudy Giuliani, hits again calling
Arafat and Castro "murderers" who are unwanted in New York as reported by
Yediot Aharonot in the following story:

"ARAFAT IS A MURDERER AND NOT WANTED HERE"
The mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, called Yasser Arafat and Fidel Castro
"murderers" and announced that they are not wanted in his city.


191 heads of state are expected to arrive starting from tomorrow in New York
in order to participate in the Millennium Summit at the UN. "Fidel Castro is
a murderer, and is not wanted in New York. But we will not take away from
him the protection that every head of state will receive here," said
Giuliani on Friday, after Cuba announced that Castro will be at the head of
its delegation. "I can say the same thing about Yasser Arafat. I am very
opposed to both of them," he added. (Yediot Aharonot, p. 11, by Eitan Amit)

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE "ISLAMIC TERROR" MYTH

The following intriguing report belies the American and Israeli warnings and
propaganda exaggerating the threat of "Islamic Terror", which is used as a
pretext to fight national movements struggling for justice and freedom from
occupation, oppression, and imperialist hegemony:

DR. NO HE'S NOT
A week ago, the General Security Service trumpeted via the daily headlines
that the State of Israel had a new zealous enemy -- "international
terrorist" Osama bin Laden. The Israeli papers vied to find new superlatives
to describe the "million-dollar terrorist" and the new woe to come upon us.
Detailed and colorful diagrams were drawn up of the "octopus-like" structure
of his organization, "Global Jihad", from Britain to Yemen, from the U.S. to
Russia. Defense reporters and terrorism experts, whose area of expertise has
shrunk recently, dealt intensively, and, to a degree, uniformly, with the
bin Laden story.


The quiet security situation in recent months is not coincidental, as the
defense establishment would describe it, but rather the product of a new
approach within the Islamic organizations themselves, and the Palestinian
Authority's determined policy. (Hizbullah, which for so many years was used
to hearing that its real objective was Jerusalem, all of a sudden
disappeared from out lives with the IDF withdrawal from Lebanon; Hamas is
mostly foregoing violent action in favor of social and political activities;
the Palestinian Islamic Jihad is no longer active. It is a long time since
the PLO was a terror organization, and security and intelligence cooperation
with the PA is blooming, as Palestinian security head Mohammed Dahlan
attested.)


But the Israeli public, schooled by terror attacks, was rightly upset by the
ominous headlines. It is not aware of the distinctions between this or that
terror group. Which begs the question of what is the truth about Osama bin
Laden and his organization. Is he indeed such a formidable threat to Israel
that the public should be worried about? The answer is no.


It is doubtful a bin Laden group even exists, and this is probably just
another romantic intelligence-world myth, or the sort common in the 1970s
about the terrorist Carlos and his ilk. To be sure, bin Laden activists
likely were behind the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania,
but there's a long way from that to the attempt to paint them as an
organized international coalition of fanatical Islamic warriors.


Bin Laden is not a terror group. At the most this is a collective name for a
few dozen mercenaries with no clear ideology, frustrated with inaction, and
ready to give their services to the highest bidder. Bin Laden is a
collective name for the violent bitterness felt by those who think
themselves disenfranchised within Arab society, and are ready to enlist in
these terrorist groups. Ben Laden is a psychological state, the default
option of Islamic terror cells that wander the world with very little common
ground.


It is therefore easy to attribute to "bin Laden's people" every terrorist
action to have taken place in recent years, in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan,
Afghanistan, black Africa, and the territories. No one can debunk nor
confirm this.


At no time have these bin Laden activists invested especial interest in the
struggle against Israel. Certainly, in the rhetoric of every violent Islamic
movement mention is made of fighting the Zionist entity, but in the case of
bin Laden there has been no special assignment of manpower to this end, no
funding budgeted nor specific ideology outlines. Bin Laden's activists are
distanced both in terms of geography and interest from here, though
self-respecting mercenaries would be willing to act against Israeli targets,
if someone were to pay them.


In this state of affairs, it is unlikely Israel faces a serious threat from
the activities of bin Laden. Vigilance against any terror activity must be
our reality always, but the presentation of bin Laden as the new Dr. No,
casting his shadow over the whole world and especially Israel, has no basis
in reality. (Yediot Aharonot, p. B5, by Guy Bechor)

ZIONIST DECEIT GOES ON

Israel, as an "Exclusive Jewish State" was implanted in Palestine as an
outpost for the Imperialists in the much-coveted strategic area of the
Middle East that was always at the crossroads of the world since the
beginning of known history. The strategic value of the Middle East was
enhanced with the discovery of the large quantities of oil reserves.

Even at a time when the Zionist-Imperialist strategic alliance pretends to
be involved in a "peace process", they continue to create imaginary enemies
and threats to justify their stockpiling of all kinds of high tech and
nuclear weapons to serve their never-ending greed for control and hegemony.

The irony is that the following report, about the Zionist-Imperialist myth
of an everlasting "Islamic Terror" and "Jihad", is published on the same day
in the same Israeli paper. The following report reveals the real Zionist
intentions with respect to the kind of peace they have in mind. They want
total control and hegemony. Any resistance to their hegemony and any calls
for restoration for stolen lands and usurped rights are labeled "Islamic
Terror" and "Jihad" that had to be destroyed by all the high-tech and
military might of the Imperialists and their local strategic allies:

RELIGION AND THE ART OF CONFLICT RESOLUTION: WHERE REASON ENDS
Shimon Peres is right to maintain that the dispute over sovereignty on the
Temple Mount is religious, and that thus no compromise is possible in the
matter. He made this point in his cutting criticism of Prime Minister Ehud
Barak, whom he blames for the failure of the peace talks: "A focus in the
negotiations on the question of sovereignty on the Temple Mount, which
ultimately caused the Camp David summit to fail, is a recipe for collapse
and deadlock, because compromise is possible in politics, but in matters of
religion and sanctity reason ends."


Peres is right, which begs the question, is the religious conflict between
us and the Arabs only to be found in the question of sovereignty on the
Temple Mount? After all, the basic Arab demand is for all the lands in
Israel held by the Zionists, and for the wiping out of the Zionist State.
This, according to the charter of Arafat's PLO.


This extreme and uncompromising attitude is rooted in the Moslem world-view,
which sees the liberation of lands conquered by the "infidels" and the
institution of Islam as a religious imperative -- the duty known as jihad.
What is true regarding any territory held by "infidels" is all the more
pertinent to Palestine, and certainly Jerusalem.


The state of war for land on which jihad is predicated by definition cannot
end -- as far as Islam and its adherents are concerned -- with a peace
accord, only with a final victory for Islam.


It follows, therefore, that any state of peace between a Moslem state and
another, even if formalized with a signed and sealed accord, is by its
nature a temporary situation, subordinate to the future capability of the
Moslem state, under changing circumstances, to bring about victory over the
infidels.


Arafat himself has confirmed more than once -- including in public
announcements -- that any accord that is signed with Israel will go the way
of the Al-Hudibiya accord between the prophet Mohammed and the infidels, and
will be violable at the earliest opportunity in order to liberate all of
Palestine.


And therefore, Mr. Peres, if you reached the right conclusion that no
compromises are possible in the religious dispute, and if there are any
territories in Israel you are not willing to give up on, you must take
another step and reach the only conclusion possible: It is not only on the
Temple Mount that compromise with the Arabs cannot be achieved. It is
impossible anyway in Israel, as the whole land is subject to the jihad
imperative. (Yediot Aharonot, p. B5, by Eliav Shochtman)

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service:

A French company is reported to have signed a 450 million dollars contract
with Egypt to keep the city of Alexandria clean.

For the next fifteen years, the company, Onyx, will handle an estimated one
million tonnes of rubbish produced every year by the city's three-million
strong population. In addition to collecting household, business, medical
and non-toxic industrial waste, the company will clean urban areas and
beaches and  build an incinerator. Onyx is a subsidiary of the French
conglomerate, Vivendi, which is involved in environment activities in the
Middle East.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

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> From: mmchehab <mmchehab@e...>
> Subject: [arab_nationalist] So that we do not forget Sabra and Chatila
>
>
> So that we do not forget Sabra and Chatila
>
> Sept 14th, 1982 is not just a date.  Sept 1982 was a date where the
> link to the Israelization of Lebanon was broke.  That date is well
> know for the assassination of Basheer Jemayyel, the president elect of
> Lebanon at the time.  He was elected in the army barracks in Hazmieh
> in Lebanon which was surrounded by the Israeli tanks.  Of course
> his election was great cause for celebration by the Lebanese
> Christians in general, and the phalangists (Lebanese forces) in
> particular.   Basheer was the SOUL and MIRACLE of the neo-Lebanese
> Christians who dreamed of establishing a Christian nation of
> their own, to be a bridge for the Christian crusaders from the west
> into the Middle East.  Their bridge was going to be a bigger bridge
> than that of Israel, and was going to be one built with extreme
> hatred of the Arab people of the Middle East and its main religion,
> Islam.  This was the "CASE" as they called it and Basheer was
> the "human miracle/prophet" of that CASE.
>
> Robert Hatem clearly stated that in his newly released book "From
> Israel to Damascus".  The assassination of Basheer simply stopped the
> first phase of creating a Lebanon who would not be an Arab Lebanon.
> Israel of course had ideas to create a Lebanon who would be another
> racist state for the Maronites, to justify the creation of their
> Jewish state and would set the pretext to create more mini states
> around the Middle East to include a Chaldean state in Iraq, an
> Assyrian and Alawite mini states in Syria, a Coptic state in Egypt, a
> Druze state in Lebanon and Syria, etc...  Israel was to be the God
> Father and protector of these mini states of the various minorities
> of the Middle East.
>
> Sept 14th, 1982, was also the date Israel began its invasion of
> Beirut, the second capital in the Arab world after the capital of
> Palestine, Jerusalem. The Israelis of course used the assassination of
> Basheer Jemayyel as a pretext for their invasion of Beirut "to stop
> any further deterioration in the Lebanese civil war and the killings
> between Christians and Moslems".
>
> So they came in to make sure no killing would take place between the
> warring factions in Lebanon (????).  Of course, they had been
> welcomed all along and were helped openly by the Christian
> Phalangists through out their 1982 campaign.  The real reasons for
> their invasion of Beirut were in the internal politics in Israel, and
> in Israel's plans for the further amputation of Lebanon and the
> fragmentation of Middle East.
>
> Tuesday Sept 14th, 1982, 10:45 pm, my oldest Son, Ali, was born that
> night at the American University Hospital (AUH) in Beirut, to my
> American wife who stayed with me in the shelters and bunkers of
> Beirut throughout the invasion.
>
> Israel of course also claimed that there were more "Terrorists" left
> in Beirut, in particular the "Murabitoon" fighters, who were Beirutis
> fighting against the Israeli invasion against their city and country
> and Arab cause.
>
> Israel wanted to expel these fighters from their city.  Sounds
> familiar of course.  The Russian and Polish and New Jersey Jews from
> Israel deciding who can live in Beirut and Palestine and who doesn't.
>
> The Israeli Army began mobilization Tuesday night and Wednesday
> morning began their invasion into Beirut from the main southern,
> northern and Eastern main roads into Beirut.  Beirut of course was
> still trying to dig out of the fiercest bombardment of any city in
> modern history.  People were coming back to their destroyed homes,
> and the whole city's population was simply in great disarray.
>
> Wednesday, the Israeli tanks were advancing in Ras Beirut and the
> northern Ein Mreyseh area, and the Mazraa district, shelling ever
> thing which moved in front of them.  The snipers where also every
> where shooting  at any thing which moved on the streets or any one
> who was involved in the actual fighting against the advancing tanks.
> I saw dead bodies of both civilians and fighters on the streets
> leading to the AUH.  The snipers managed to shoot two people who were
> within AUH.  The tanks shot a cannon shell at an old man who was
> walking in the little street behind the hospital.  I saw that old man
> a few seconds before, and what was left of him a few seconds after.
> I am an eye witness to their crimes.
>
> When I brought my wife back home the next day on Wednesday, we saw
> many Palestinian women and their young fleeing the camps going
> towards the Hamra district.  There was panic in the air.  A friend of
> mine came by the next morning and was sickened to the bones, and was
> clearly in panic.  He was house keeping in Beer Hassan which is just
> southwest of the camps area.
>
> He said the area of Bir Hassan was filled with Phalangists and South
> Lebanese Army soldiers and Israeli soldiers.  They were all joking
> loudly about what they were going to do to the people in the camps,
> and how they were going to kill and maim.  This was no secret.  He
> simply sat still until he could get out the next morning.  The night
> was filled with light bombs.  There was no mistake about what was
> happening in the camps.  Of course only the people who were in the
> camps knew that.  No one else around the city had any idea.
> The Israeli army was surrounding the camps, and no one from the
> Tareek el Jedeedeh district was out on the street that night with the
> great uncertainty in the air.  It was the first night of the Israeli
> army in Beirut, and it was going to be the last night they controlled
> Beirut at night.
>
> The Israelis has been dealing with the phalangists for years and had
> been training their fighters since 1976.  They knew how much the
> Christian Phalangists hated the Arabs and especially the
> Palestinians.  There was no lost love there what so ever.  The
> Phalangists had already committed massacres against the Palestinians
> in the Karantina and Tal El Zaatar camps.
>
> Israel knew that very well.  They knew who committed those killings
> and sent them again into Sabra and Chatila.  The same people who lead
> the killings in the previous camps on previous occasions in previous
> years lead this attack on the camps the night of Sept 15th into Sept
> 16th, 1982.  The documented name of the leader of that attack was
> Elie Hobeika, also known as H.K.  He later became a minister of the
> Lebanese government after striking a friendship with Syria and
> becoming a born again "Rafeeq" from a cold killer and "traitor"
> before that. Ariel Sharon had sent him to mop up the camps. Ariel
> Sharon knew full well how bloody was the brigade which went into the
> camps.  Among them were members of the brigade 24 which was trained
> in Israel and were battle hardened.  They were core killers and core
> haters of the Palestinians.  Couple that with the boiling blood after
> the assassination of Basheer Jemayyel and the call for vengeance by
> these close battle comrades who fought along side Basheer on many
> occasions before that.   Ariel Sharon knew that very very well.  He
> wanted to create a massacre which will once and for all break Lebanon
> into two states.  A Christian State and another Druze state and
> possibly yet another small and insignificant fragment state.
> Israel would contain all these states militarily and in every other
> aspect of their survival.  The Middle East would start breaking up
> into pieces and falling apart.  This was their plan, and the
> Palestinians would pay the price again.  This time the Palestinian
> blood would be shed by another faction would deepen the hatred
> among the people of the Middle East and put blood on more hands to
> justify what was to follow.
>
> Of course Sharon claimed innocence.  The New York courts acquitted him.
> The Israeli government of Natenyahu gave him various portfolios.
> King Hussein met him and legitimized him.  Yasser Arafat was in the
> same room with him, and is said to have extended his arm, but Sharon
> refuses to recognize Arafat and will not even look at him in any of
> the conventions and conferences and talks they participated in.  This
> is the same butcher of Beirut, Ariel Sharon.  He is now the head of
> the Likud, which might some how bring him into power.
>
> Instead of sending him to a trial against humanity by some
> revolutionary court which would declare him criminal, he is still
> affecting the future of the Middle East and is spewing his venom...
>
> We should never forget Sabra and Chatila.  We should never forget
> Ariel Sharon.
>
> Mohammad Chehab

From: <thawra48@...>
Subject: [FP] Right of Return Demonstration--NY (Sept. 6th)



>                 <Demonstration at Millenium Summit-United Nations. NY,NY>
>
>                         NO RETURN=NO PEACE
>
> WHAT:
>
> To demand an end to five decades of exile;
> To demand that Palestinian refugees return to their homes & lands;
> To demand recognition and implementation of the inalienable right of
> Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and lands!
>
>
> WHEN:
> Wednesday,  September 6, 2000.      5 PM
>
> WHERE:  43rd and 2nd ave.  Manhattan (UN Plaza)
>
> For more information contact: Palestine Right of Return Coalition NY/NJ
> chapter
> Tel: 212.529.6934 or 973.594.9617
> e-mail <PRRC-NY-NJ@...> or www.al-awda.org

Please remove me from this list.
Thank you,
A.S.A.
_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at
http://profiles.msn.com.

Nouveau Qarun  (a short poem)
========================
[Background: The Qur'anic "Qarun" ([28:76-82], [29:39],
and [40:24]), is identified by exegetes with the biblical
Korah (Num. XVI, 1-35), an Egyptian Levite.]
==================================

For all his riches, covet not his plight;
the new Qarun whose creed is greed and spite.
He rides the tiger -- ride him well he might --,
but little knows whom next the beast may bite.

The monstrous tiger mixes left with right,
inoculating each growth-seed with blight,
so learn the lessons of Qarun before
you self-attach to him with dreams of flight:

Riding the beast, you'd be an errant-knight,
and though my metaphor be old and trite,
'tis true that once you mount the tiger you
may not dismount, no matter how contrite.

Mahmoud.
 

To: <Lobna@...>
Subject: [FP] Investigative News Report about Israel's Torture of American
Citizens.


> On Sunday evening, September 10, 2000 from 9pm to 10pm, Cable News Network
> (CNN and Time Magazine program) will do a nation-wide TV broadcast that
will
> include a 15-20 minute investigative news report about Israel's torture of
> American citizens.  The program will include interviews of the American
> citizens who have been tortured by Israeli authorities and eventually
> released.  These Americans of courage will be traveling to Washington DC
for
> the following events and meetings:
>
>         Monday morning, September 11, 2000
>         Speaking to, followed by News Conference at,
> THE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB
>
>         Monday afternoon & evening, September 11
>         Meet with Congressional Representatives, Senators, and Staff
>         CAPITOL BUILDING and CAPITOL HILL
>
>         Tuesday, September 12
>         Meet with Congressional Representatives, Senators, and Staff
>         CAPITOL BUILDING and CAPITOL HILL
>
> Please contact your Representative and ask them to do the following:
>
> 1)  Please watch the 9pm CNN & TIME TV program on 9/10 and ask some-
>     one on their staff to please videotape it for their future reference.
>
> 2)  Please attend or ask someone on their staff to please attend the 9/11
>     morning briefing and news conference at The National Press Club.
>
> 3)  Please schedule a time on 9/11 or 9/12 for them to meet with one or
more
>     of the American citizens who were recent victims of torture at the
hands
> of
> Israeli authorities.  Doing so will provide them with greater insight and
> first-hand information.  If possible, please feel free to invite any of
their
> Congressional Representative colleagues to join in meeting with the
victims;
> this will allow them to meet with more Congressmen during their limited
visit
> to Washington.
> To arrange a time to meet with the victims on 9/11 or 9/12, please
CONTACT:
>     Gene or Jerri Bird
>     Partners For Peace, and
>     Council for the National Interest
> (founded by former Congressmen Pete McCloskey & Paul Findley)
> (202)  863-2951 or (800) 296-6958 / FAX (202) 863-2952
>
> 4)  Please inform Congressmen who might be willing to take action on this
> issue.
>
> ______________________________
> Lobna Hewedi
> Arab American Institute
> Field Coordinator, Southern California
> 1506 Corte Santana
> Upland, Ca 91786
> 909-529-0069
> 909-449-0934
> 909-985-9522(FAX)
> lobna@...

In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

-----

AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 9/5/2000

HEADLINES

* STATE DEPARTMENT ISSUES REPORT ON INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
* DESCENDANTS OF AFRICAN PRINCE TRACK GENEALOGY TO NATCHEZ

-----

STATE DEPARTMENT ISSUES REPORT ON INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

US warning over scourge of religious persecution
Agence France-Presse, 9/5/2000

NEW YORK, Sept 5 (AFP) - The United States warned Tuesday that state-
driven religious persecution was rampant across swaths of Asia and the
Middle East and censured several European nations for branding
influential spiritual groups as cults.

The annual report on International Religious Freedom, unveiled by
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on the sidelines of the United
Nations millennium summit here, surveyed the state of religious
tolerance in 194 countries...

To view the entire report, go to:
http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/irf/irf_rpt/irf_toc.html

-----

DESCENDANTS OF AFRICAN PRINCE TRACK GENEALOGY TO NATCHEZ
By APRIL WORTHAM, Associated Press Newswires, 9/5/2000

NATCHEZ, Miss. (AP) - Centuries of slavery, two civil wars, the
providence of God and the spirit of African ancestors brought two young
men in search of their past to Natchez this August.

By digging through the city's historic archives and talking with local
historians, Liberian cousins Youjay Innis and Artemus Gaye found the
answers to many of their questions about their princely ancestor,
Ibrahima.

According to family records and local folklore, Ibrahima was an African
prince captured by slave traders in the 18th century and brought to
Natchez, a hub of the slave trade at that time.

The men learned that Ibrahima, who they know as Abdul, was sold into
slavery on Aug. 18, 1788 - 212 years before their discovery, to the
day...

...Records show Abdul was a slave to Thomas Foster in the late 1700s.

Abdul's claims to royalty went unheeded by Foster who valued his slave
as an accountant, said Shirley Wheatley of the NAPAC museum. On a visit
to Natchez, an Irish surgeon recognized Abdul as the son of an African
king who had saved his life while in Africa.

Gaye and Innis repeat the same story in more detail. While peddling
sweet potatoes one day, Abdul recognized the surgeon by his eye patch.
Approaching the surgeon, the slave asked if he would like to buy his
ware, at which point the Irishman realized the Natchez slave was the
prince, Gaye said.

After convincing Foster to free Abdul, the surgeon helped him raise
money to return to Africa through speaking tours, Wheatley said.

Forty years later, Abdul finally made it to the African coast, but died
before reaching his homeland...

-----

CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787
Fax: 202-488-0833
Page: 202-490-5653
E-mail: cair1@...
URL: http://www.cair-net.org

-----

TO SUBSCRIBE:

Join CAIR-NET by sending the message "subscribe cair-net" (without the
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the quotation marks) to majordomo@....

>Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2000 14:22:58 +0000
>From: Yvette Isaac <yvettefi@...>
>Subject: Prof. Saad Eddin Ibrahim: How I spent my summer
>To: allauc@...
>X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 (Macintosh; I; PPC)
>X-Accept-Language: en
>
>
>
>
>The American University in Cairo
>School of Humanities and Social Sciences
>
>
>Cordially invites you to a Presentation
>
>
>  by
>
>
>Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim
>
>Professor of Political Sociology,
>Department of Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology, and Egyptology
>
>
>
>Entitled
>
>
>
>How I spent my summer:
>Diary of a prisoner of conscience
>
>
>on
>
>
>Wednesday, September 13, 2000
>4:00 p.m. to  6:00 p.m.
>in the Blue Room
>
>
>
>Refreshments will be served






-------
Khalid A. Reda
Software Engineer & Web Developer
mailto:KREDA@...
http://hosting.menanet.net/~web61/web61/
"There are no unsolvable problems, only well-hidden answers." ~ Dave Weinbaum

Hi!

I don't understand this letter. Would you please explain? I may not have
everything appearing.

On Wed, 6 Sep 2000, Khalid Reda wrote:

>
>
>
> >Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2000 14:22:58 +0000
> >From: Yvette Isaac <yvettefi@...>
> >Subject: Prof. Saad Eddin Ibrahim: How I spent my summer
> >To: allauc@...
> >X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 (Macintosh; I; PPC)
> >X-Accept-Language: en
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >The American University in Cairo
> >School of Humanities and Social Sciences
> >
> >
> >Cordially invites you to a Presentation
> >
> >
> >  by
> >
> >
> >Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim
> >
> >Professor of Political Sociology,
> >Department of Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology, and Egyptology
> >
> >
> >
> >Entitled
> >
> >
> >
> >How I spent my summer:
> >Diary of a prisoner of conscience
> >
> >
> >on
> >
> >
> >Wednesday, September 13, 2000
> >4:00 p.m. to  6:00 p.m.
> >in the Blue Room
> >
> >
> >
> >Refreshments will be served
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -------
> Khalid A. Reda
> Software Engineer & Web Developer
> mailto:KREDA@...
> http://hosting.menanet.net/~web61/web61/
> "There are no unsolvable problems, only well-hidden answers." ~ Dave Weinbaum
>
>
>
>
> Thanks for contributing to Egypt-Net.
>





Best Regards,
Anna
The proud Canadian-multicultural Egyptian!
May God bless us with peace around the world.

The American University in Cairo
School of Humanities and Social Sciences


Cordially invites you to a Presentation


   by


Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim

Professor of Political Sociology,
Department of Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology, and Egyptology



Entitled



How I spent my summer:
Diary of a prisoner of conscience


on


Wednesday, September 13, 2000
4:00 p.m. to  6:00 p.m.
in the Blue Room



Refreshments will be served





-------
Khalid A. Reda
Software Engineer & Web Developer
mailto:KREDA@...
http://hosting.menanet.net/~web61/web61/
"There are no unsolvable problems, only well-hidden answers." ~ Dave Weinbaum

In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

-----

AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 9/6/2000

HEADLINES:

* CNN/TIME REPORT: AMERICAN TORTURED IN ISRAEL
* PARTNERS FOR PEACE RELEASES AFFIDAVITS OF AMERICANS IN ISRAELI PRISONS
* WASHINGTON-DC RALLY FOR PALESTINIAN RIGHT OF RETURN

-----

CNN NEWS RELEASE:

CNN&TIME REPORTS ON AN AMERICAN'S CLAIM THAT HE WAS ABANDONED BY HIS
GOVERNMENT WHILE IMPRISONED AND TORTURED IN ISRAEL

CNN&TIME will examine the ordeal of Orlando, Fla. resident Anwar
Mohammed, who was imprisoned in Israel for 40 days in 1998 without ever
being charged with a crime. Correspondent Charles Glass will report on
"An American in Israel," which will air Sunday, Sept. 10, at 9 p.m.
(ET/PT) on CNN/U.S. Mohammed said the U.S. State Department did little
to help free him, though he claimed he was being tortured by his Israeli
captors.

Mohammed, who was in Israel visiting his Palestinian relatives, said he
felt betrayed by his own government and accuses U.S. Consulate officials
of not providing several of the services required in the State
Department's own Foreign Service Manual. Mohammed described his
harrowing ordeal to Glass. "They came in and threw me in a cell-just a
concrete box," he said. Mohammed said he was left isolated until an
investigator came and questioned him about his life in the United
States, including where he worked. "I told him everything so they would
let me go," Mohammed said. But they didn't, and he believes they wanted
him to confess to membership in a terrorist group. The Israelis also
refused to accept his passport. Mohammed said the investigator told him,
"Your American passport doesn't mean anything to us. You're gonna die in
here..."

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/cnntime/

SEE ALSO:

SHIN BET STILL TORTURES, BUT LESS
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/htmls/kat25_9.asp

-----

PARTNERS FOR PEACE RELEASES AFFIDAVITS OF AMERICANS IN ISRAELI PRISONS

On Monday, September 11, Partners for Peace will release three
additional affidavits recently obtained by an Israeli lawyer who visited
American citizens currently detained in Israeli prisons.

WHEN/WHERE: 9 a.m., National Press Club, Washington, D.C.

CONTACT:

Jerri Bird
TEL: 202-863-2951
CELL: 202-215-9057
E-MAIL: pfp@...
URL: http://www.partnersforpeace.org/

-----

WASHINGTON-DC RALLY FOR PALESTINIAN RIGHT OF RETURN

On Saturday, September 16, thousands of people from around the country
will rally to demand that Palestinian refugees be allowed to return to
the homes and lands from which they were expelled. The rally is
organized by The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, known by the
Arabic name Al-Awda, or "the return."

For details on the rally, go to: http://al-awda.org/

The Palestine Right to Return Coalition is a broad-based grassroots
coalition sponsored by more than 70 Arab, Muslim and solidarity
organizations.

CONTACT:

Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh
Palestine Right To Return Coalition
TEL: 203-785-6317
FAX: 717-832-1123
E-MAIL: prrc@...
URL: http://al-awda.org/

-----

CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787
Fax: 202-488-0833
Page: 202-490-5653
E-mail: cair1@...
URL: http://www.cair-net.org

-----

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the quotation marks) to majordomo@....

Fat'het Kheir

By- Sayounara Tamoum, Community Times, Cairo - August 2000

The message said: "we are now packing 1000 meals instead of 500,
so we need your help more than before"!

This is a summary of a message passed on the Internet inviting volunteers to
participate in a not-for-profit project of providing Meals On Wheels to the
needy.  Intrigued to know more about this project, I called Ehaab Abdou, one
of the founding volunteers, who invited me to live assembly line of Egyptian
youths devoting their time and effort to pack and distribute meals for the
less fortunate Inhabitants of Cairo.  Their vision is to have an on-going
process of "Mae'det El-Rahman" all year round for all needy Egyptians: Rural
and Urban, Muslims and Christians, Men and Women, Children and Adults.

"It all started back in April 1999 with our first Fat'het Kheir project",
Abdou says.  Ten young volunteers (in their early 20's) started a
development project of giving micro loans ranging from 200LE to 500LE to the
victims of the October'92 earthquake living in El-Hadaba El-Wosta in
Moqattam in homes supplied by the government. The loans are mostly to
support women, widowers and divorcees, to start their own Income Generating
Activities. The volunteers also provide the loan recipients with some
management advise building a human relationship of trust and love with those
families. Being uprooted, some have lost their jobs and others have lost the
breadwinner in the family.  Having organizations like Fat'het Kheir helping
them, is a great salvation!

"You would be surprised that 98 percent of those poor people, mostly women,
refund the money on the agreed dates", says Abdou. "It is important to them
that their neighbors know they are honest people, they feel their reputation
is their only asset in life".

The two-months-old project "Meals on Wheels" springs from the Middle Eastern
historical concept of "El Tekeyya" and more recently the Soup Kitchen
concept applied in North America.  The vision the group has is that no
Egyptian should spend a night deprived of one good meal at least. These
meals are distributed among families of the Earthquake victims in El-Hadaba
El-Wosta, to the Cairo's traffic policemen, and street sweepers.  Each
person receives a plastic bag (donated by El Qanater El Khayreyya Plastic
Co.) containing 2 loaves of bread (donated by Rich Bake Co.- Mr. Amr
Helaly), two pieces of cheese (donated by President Cheese Co.- Mr. Mohamed
Halawa), a bar of Halawa (donated by El-Rashidy El-Mizan Co.- Mr. Ahmed El
Rasheedy), an Asaleeka Molasses bar (donated by Mr. Hatem Zaazou), a piece
of fruit, and a cucumber. The volunteers divide themselves into teams of two
during distribution, one to handle the food and the other to drive.

The project started with packing 500 meals but has expanded, with the help
of supporters and food companies, to 1,000 lunch boxes.  Usually, volunteers
meet at the house of Ms. Yasmina Abou Youssef, a founding volunteer of the
project, who generously hosts them along with the huge piles of donated
food. They divide themselves into groups; a group for unpacking the bulk
food, A group assigned to wash and clean the fruit and vegetables, and an
assembly line to pack the items in clean plastic bags.

Ms. Amira El Borolossy coordinates the Meals on Wheels project by faxing the
companies with the needed quantities and delivery details.  "We certainly
need more companies to donate products. One of the problems we are facing is
that some sponsoring companies take their offer and commitment back after a
while", Ms. El Borolossy says.  "We are in real need for a permanent place
with a central location where we can regularly meet, in addition to a small
van for distributing the food", she adds.

"There are more than 60 volunteers involved in the Meals on Wheels project,
and still everyone is invited to contribute to the welfare of this ambitious
voluntary national project", Abdou states. He concludes that Fat'het Kheir
is in the process of being registered with the Ministry of Social Affairs as
an NGO, and his long-term vision includes providing soup kitchen centers in
churches and mosques, for the poor and the street people.

For more information on how you can help, email the Fat'het-Kheir group:
fat7et_kheir@..., Call Ehaab Abdou 012-326-1582 or Amira El
Borolossy 010-133-4550

In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

-----

AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 9/7/2000

HEADLINES:

* EDITORIAL ON DETENTION OF MAZEN AL-NAJJAR
* US HUMAN-RIGHTS ACTIVIST FEARED KILLED IN INDONESIA
* MUSLIM MEDIA COMPANY INSTILLS FAITH WITH VIDEOS, MUSIC AND MORE

-----

COURT OF CONTEMPT
By: John Sugg, Editor
Weekly Planet Newspaper (Fla.), 9/6-13/2000
E-Mail: johnsugg@...
http://msanews.mynet.net/MSANEWS/200009/20000906.11.html

The first words I heard in a small, steamy Bradenton courtroom last week
were from a lawyer who referred to himself as "the government."

After three days of watching injustice after injustice unfold, I
wondered: Exactly which government did he claim to represent?

Certainly, it wasn't the government whose Constitution proudly trumpets:
"The accused shall enjoy the right...to be informed of the nature and
the cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against
him" -- and that no one should "be deprived of life, liberty, or
property, without due process of law."

In fact, at this hearing, the Constitution was being politically gang-
raped by the judge and prosecutor. This was, after all, a political
trial, where guilt is assumed, and the state merely rubberstamps its way
through a few rituals.

In May, Miami federal Judge Joan Lenard had ruled that Tampa academic
Mazen Al-Najjar had been denied fundamental rights by being jailed for
what is now 1,200 days, based on secret evidence federal investigators
claim shows an association with terrorists. Ordered deported for
overstaying a visa, Al-Najjar is locked up because the Immigration and
Naturalization Service denied him bond while he appeals. Lenard demanded
that the INS hold last week's bond hearing.

"The government" last week conceded it had no proof of wrongdoing -- or,
at least, proof it would reveal. It had no witnesses who could say,
"Here is something Al-Najjar did that was illegal." It simply didn't
like what the man on trial thought. Or might think, since there was no
evidence he had strong opinions about any subject. This courtroom
belonged in Joe Stalin's Russia or in Mississippi during the 1960s...

For background on this issue, go to:
http://www.sptimes.com/
Search using the term "Mazen Al-Najjar."

Also see past CAIR alerts on secret evidence.
http://www.cair-net.org/aa.asp?alert=252
http://www.cair-net.org/aa.asp?alert=251

-----

US HUMAN-RIGHTS MAN FEARED KILLED IN ACEH
Lindsay Murdoch, Indonesia Correspondent, The Age, 9/7/2000
http://www.theage.com.au/news/20000907/A50419-2000Sep6.html

JAKARTA -- Jafar Siddiq Hamzah, a prominent 36-year-old American human
rights activist, knew the danger he was facing. But, as his friends
said, he is a "sincere Muslim man of conscience," deeply committed to
ending bloodshed in Aceh, the troubled Indonesian province at the
northern tip of Sumatra.

One month ago on August 5, Mr. Hamzah, who was born in Aceh, stopped
calling his family at agreed two-hour intervals. A tireless campaigner
against Indonesian military violence, Mr. Hamzah had told friends he had
received threats and been followed since he arrived in Indonesia in late
July to set up his Support Committee of Human Rights for Aceh
organization.

He planned to stay in the country a year. But Mr. Hamzah has not been
seen since the calls stopped on August 5 and he failed to show up for an
appointment in Medan, the bustling capital of North Sumatra and
Indonesia's third largest city. There are grave fears he has been
murdered or is being held captive by Indonesia's armed forces...

-----

MUSLIM MEDIA COMPANY INSTILLS FAITH WITH VIDEOS, MUSIC AND MORE
By SUSAN HOGAN/ALBACH, Associated Press, 9/6/2000

CHICAGO - The kid with the orange hair, bulging eyes and big glasses is
Adam. He has a new baby sister who's driving him crazy, at the moment
for taking his last lollipop.

"I'm tired of putting up with her," Adam whines to his mom. "Can't we
give her away at a garage sale or something?"

Adam is the Kufi-wearing puppet star of the Adam's World children's
video series. He is to Muslims what Mickey Mouse is to Disney and Larry
the Cucumber is to evangelical Christians.

But Adam is only part of the arsenal Abdul Malik Mujahid is using to
help Muslims keep the faith. His multimedia company, Sound Vision, is a
bit of Disney, PBS, Microsoft and Oprah all rolled into one...

See http://www.soundvision.com/

-----

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In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CAIR SUPPORTS PALESTINIAN RIGHT OF RETURN RALLY IN WASHINGTON, D.C.
Islamic advocacy group urges Muslims to attend rallies in U.S. and
around the world

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 9/7/2000) - The Council on American-Islamic Relations
(CAIR) today urged American Muslims to attend a September 16th rally in
support of the Palestinian right of return to homes and lands from which
they were expelled by Israel. The Washington-based Islamic advocacy
group said ethnic cleansing of the kind experienced by Palestinian
refugees violates international law and universal concepts of justice.
(There are up to 5 million Palestinian refugees.)

The Washington, D.C., rally and others like it in Italy, the United
Kingdom, Jordan, and Lebanon, are sponsored by the Palestine Right to
Return Coalition, comprised of more than 70 organizations.
(http://al-awda.org/) CAIR is a part of this coalition.

"The ethnic cleansing that Palestinians have experienced, and continue
to experience, is an affront to people of conscience worldwide," said
CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad, who is scheduled to speak at the
rally. "There can be no peace or stability in the Middle East unless
this decades-long problem is addressed by the international community,"
said Awad. Awad added that in a recent CAIR survey of Muslim opinion,
the issue of Islamic rights in Jerusalem was mentioned most often as a
top foreign policy concern.

NOTE: Article 13 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms
the right of every person to leave and return to his or her country. The
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 12,
states: "No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his
own country." United Nations Resolution 194 affirms the right of
refugees to return to their homes and lands.

There are an estimated six million Muslims in America and 1.2 billion
worldwide. Islam is one of the fastest growing religions in North
America.

					 - END -

CONTACT:  CAIR- Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-489-5108
E-Mail: cair1@...
Palestine Right to Return Coalition, Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh,
203-785-6317
E-MAIL: prrc@...

-----

CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787
Fax: 202-488-0833
Page: 202-490-5653
E-mail: cair1@...
URL: http://www.cair-net.org

-----

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the quotation marks) to majordomo@....

To: MASR-ELDOUNIA <MASR-ELDOUNIA@egroups.com>
From: Summer <summer@...>
Mailing-List: list MASR-ELDOUNIA@egroups.com; contact MASR-ELDOUNIA-owner@egroups.com
Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2000 05:47:00 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [MASR-ELDOUNIA] Arab Fest in D.C.


    ARAB FEST SEPT. 10

   Its all day! Its got a DJ! Its got Sheesha! and its a great way to

network with other

   Arab-Americans and Arabs our age in the Washington DC area!



           THE UNION OF ARAB STUDENT ASSOCIATIONS (UASA)



                            presents



                    The 1st Annual ARAB FEST





                             SUNDAY

                      September 10, 2000

                           10am - 7pm



                 Bull Run Special Events Center

                       Bull Run Park

                      Centreville, VA



The picnic is being held to bring the families of the Arab community

together along with uniting the ASAs in the MD, DC, VA area as a union and

becoming acquainted with one another.



The picnic will include:



FREE ADMISSION

ó       International DJ from Diva

ó       Many restaurants selling food

  ó       Raffle and prizes

ó       Cotton Candy

  ó       University Debkah Contest

  ó       Volleyball/Soccer Tournaments

ó       Sheesha

ó       Face painting for kids

  ó       Organization representatives

ó       AND MUCH MOR€



Please bring blankets and/or chairs, as picnic tables are limited.



For more information or directions please email us at  uasa@... or

Call  (202) 256-6061.



Sponsored by:



Arab American Institue      Arabia.com        Planetarabia.com

www.aaiusa.org           www.arabia.com   www.planetarabia.com



                              ADC

                          www.adc.org

In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

-----

AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 9/8/2000

HEADLINES:

* REPORT AMERICAN MUSLIM VOTER REGISTRATION DAY ACTIVITIES
* MUSLIM COMMUNITY GROWS TO OVERFLOWING IN SEATTLE AREA
* PALESTINIANS HAVE AN ORIGINAL RIGHT TO JERUSALEM - REPLY TO PIPES

-----

REPORT AMERICAN MUSLIM VOTER REGISTRATION DAY ACTIVITIES

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15TH has been designated AMERICAN MUSLIM VOTER
REGISTRATION DAY. Registration drives will be held in mosques nationwide
on that day. To support local registration efforts, CAIR distributed
thousands of American Muslim Voter Registration Guides to Muslim
activists and leaders. These guides offer step-by-step instructions for
increasing Muslim political participation.

See "CAIR Launches Muslim Voter Registration Drive," at:
http://www.cair-net.org/aa.asp?alert=262

Fill out the form below to report voter registration activities in your
community or to order a copy of the guide. PLEASE RETURN THE FORM AS
SOON AS POSSIBLE so that CAIR may inform local and national media of
Muslim voter registration efforts.

___ Yes, we will have a voter registration effort in our community. See
details below.
___ We have not yet received a copy of the voter registration guide.
Please send it to the address below.

Date of Activity:
Type of Activity: (registration table, lecture, khutbah, etc.)

Organization:
Contact Person:
Address:
City:
State:
Zip:

Tel:
Fax:
Cell:
Pager:
E-Mail:

-----

MUSLIM COMMUNITY GROWS TO OVERFLOWING IN SEATTLE AREA
By PHUONG LE, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 9/7/2000
http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/local/mosq07.shtml

The pilgrimage begins just before 1:30 p.m. each Friday.

It starts as a trickle, then grows as more than 100 vehicles cram into
the tiny parking lot of the Islamic Center of South Seattle in SeaTac.

Several worshipers come by taxi - and the drivers as well as passengers
stay for the service. Others come on foot, some with work ID badges
still clipped to their shirts. Others have small children in tow.

Before long, the mosque is so crowded for jumua, or Friday prayer, that
many of the hundreds of Muslims place small mats at the edge of the
gravel driveway to pray in the rain. Some cannot find an open spot on
the mosque's 1-acre grounds...

-----

PALESTINIANS HAVE AN ORIGINAL RIGHT TO JERUSALEM
By Rashid I. Khalidi, Tom Vande Berg, and Lorna Lippes
The Christian Science Monitor, 9/8/2000
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2000/09/08/fp10s3-csm.shtml

Daniel Pipes's misguided rhetoric ("Are the Palestinians acting like
Zionists?" Sept. 6) attempts to discredit Palestinians' claim to
Palestine by suggesting that their resistance to more than 50 years of
displacement, massacres, and occupation by the state of Israel is merely
a whiny territorial battle with Zionism. Although most of his language
and facts are objectionable, his comments on Jerusalem are particularly
offensive.

Mr. Pipes belittles Christian and Muslim attachment to Jerusalem as
though their claims to the holy city had been fabricated in the past
century. He should be reminded that when Palestinian Christians refer to
the Bible in consulting the history of their people, it is because they
are the actual descendants of the first followers of Christ.

They rightfully see themselves as the cumulative effect of 2,000 years
of history in the Holy Land, and they have a stake in its future; it is
an insult to suggest that they are merely copying Zionist tactics...

See "WHO IS DANIEL PIPES?"
http://www.cair-net.org/misc/people/daniel_pipes.html

-----

CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787
Fax: 202-488-0833
Page: 202-490-5653
E-mail: cair1@...
URL: http://www.cair-net.org

-----

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the quotation marks) to majordomo@....

From: "Kathryn Haddad" <hadd0001@...>
Subject: [Arab-Amer] Nader, LaDuke and Michael Moore in MN!


> FYI--
>
> just got this email from a friend.  Please pass the word to anyone
> interested!
>
>
>
>
> Ralph Nader is coming to town on Friday,
> Sept. 22 at 7pm at Target Center(?!). He will be speaking with Winona
> LaDuke, and it looks like Michael Moore (filmmaker - "Roger & Me," "The
> Big One," etc) may be the MC. Target holds 14,000 people, and this will
> be a monumental feat if we can turn out that many people (our last U of
> M event was 1,600 and we were really impressed with ourselves over
> that). Portland recently turned out 10,000 people to see him at the
> Portland Coliseum, and they're helping to advise us on this, but it's
> still going to take a tremendous amount of work. We're selling tickets
> in advance for $7 each.
>
> Please spread the word!!!

From: <Media@...>
Subject: ADC: Sept. 11-15 is National Call-in Week for "Fix96" Law


> ADC Action Alert:
> Sept. 11-15 is National Call-in Week for "Fix96" Law
>
> Monday, Sept. 11- Friday, Sept.15 is a national call-in week for
> immigration reform.  ADC urges its members and supporters to join the
> call-in and ask elected officials to support HR 4966, the Restoration of
> Fairness in Immigration Act, also known as the "Fix96" bill.  The act
> would address many of the worst aspects of the notorious 1996
> Immigration Act, including the denial of bond for immigrants facing
> criminal charges or deportation (as in many secret evidence cases),
> deportation for minor past offenses, and unfair asylum practices among
> other injustices.  You can automatically send email supporting the bill
> to your member of Congress through the contacting Congress section of
> ADC.org at <http://congress.nw.dc.us/adc/>.  (Please cc any emails to
> adc@...).  You can also use that section of the site to find contact
> information for your US Representative's office.  Please call your
> representative and ask them to support immigration reform, especially HR
> 4966.  Also please call the White House switchboard at (202) 456-1414,
> the Gore campaign at (615) 340-2000 and the Bush campaign at (512)
> 637-2000 and ask that the President and presidential candidates support
> this bill.
>
> BACKGROUND ON HR 4966 AND IMMIGRATION REFORM:
>
> The Arab-American community has suffered greatly as a result aspects of
> the 1996 Immigration and Anti-Terrorism acts.  Several of the worst of
> these derogations of civil liberties and immigrants rights are addressed
> in the new bill, HR 4966.  In particular, Title 1 of the proposed
> legislation would reverse the "court-stripping" provisions of the 1996
> Act, which prohibit immigrants facing deportation from seeking relief in
> district courts.  In 1999, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of in
> Reno v. ADC, also known as the "LA 8 case," that, because of the 1996
> Act, immigrants facing deportation cannot seek relief from selective
> enforcement of the law in district courts and that the government should
> never have to reveal its reasons for deporting non-citizens.  The
> ruling, which was based in part on the 1996 Immigration Act, involved
> long-standing government attempts to deport seven Palestinians and a
> Kenyan based solely on their political beliefs in support of Palestinian
> human and national rights.
>
> The Arab-American community has also suffered a rash of "secret
> evidence" prosecutions, in which immigrants are held indefinitely,
> without charge and on the basis of evidence withheld from the
> defendants, their attorneys and the public.  These prosecutions, which
> are in clear violation of Fifth Amendment due process rights, were
> prompted by the 1996 Anti-Terrorism Act.  The denial of bond that has
> accompanied these cases, almost all of which have involved individuals
> of Arab ethnicity or Muslim religious affiliation, is based on the 1996
> Immigration Act, and has led to notorious cases of lengthy
> incarcerations without charge, such as those of Nasser Ahmed, Hany
> Kiareldeen, and Mazen Al-Najjar.  The "Fix 96" Act addresses the denial
> of bond in these cases.  HR 2121, the Secret Evidence Repeal Act, would
> abolish the use of secret evidence in deportation cases and currently
> has over 110 sponsors in the House of Representatives.
>
> ADC also strongly supports provisions in the proposed Act for
> deportations based on minor past offenses, facilitating family
> reunification, promoting fairness in amnesty review, and other elements
> of the bill.
>
>
> SAMPLE LETTER/TAKING POINTS ON HR 4966:
>
> Dear Rep. X,
>
> I am writing to ask you to support the Restoration of Fairness in
> Immigration Act, HR 4966,  recently introduced by Rep. John Conyers
> (D-MI).  This bill, also known as "Fix96" corrects serious flaws in the
> 1996 Immigration Act which have lead to serious injustices and
> distortions of the immigration process.
>
> In particular, Title 1 of the proposed legislation would reverse the
> "court-stripping" provisions of the 1996 Act, which prohibit immigrants
> facing deportation from seeking relief in district courts.  In 1999, the
> Supreme Court ruled in the case of in Reno v. ADC, also known as the "LA
> 8 case," that because of provisions in the 1996 Act immigrants facing
> deportation cannot seek relief from selective enforcement of the law in
> district courts.  It is unacceptable that persons in the United States
> should be denied access to the protection offered by district courts.
>
> The "Fix96" bill also corrects provisions of the 1996 Act that allow for
> the widespread and capricious denial of bond for non-citizens accused of
> even minor offenses, which leads to lengthy and needless incarcerations,
> and the deportation of immigrants for minor past offenses.  These
> practices are offensive to the traditions of fairness that characterize
> our legal system and need to be reversed at once.  The denial of bond in
> secret evidence deportation cases, where the evidence is withheld from
> the defendants, their attorneys and the public, has led to many
> notorious cases of lengthy incarceration without charge.  Moreover,
> almost all of the victims of the combination of secret evidence and bond
> denial have been of Arab ethnicity and Muslim religious affiliation.
>
> The proposed law would also facilitate family reunification and promote
> fairness in amnesty review, among other badly needed measures.  The 1996
> Immigration Act was passed during a period of intense hostility to
> immigrants and did considerable harm to immigrants' rights and the
> integrity of the legal and immigration systems of the United States.  I
> strongly urge you to support the Restoration of Fairness in Immigration
> Act, HR 4966.
>
> Yours,
> X
>
>
>
>            ________   ______  American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
>      /\   |_  ___  \ /  ____| 4201 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Suite 300
>     /  \    | |  \ | | |      Washington, D.C. 20008, U.S.A.
>    / /\ \   | |  | | | |      Tel: (202) 244-2990, Fax: (202) 244-3196
>   / ____ \ _| |_ / | | |____  E-mail: adc@...
>  /_/    \_\________/ \______| Web   : http://www.adc.org
>                               Be Active, Become A Member:
>                               http://www.adc.org/membership.html
>  ========================================================================
>  ADC is the largest Arab-American grassroots organization in the United
>  States. It was founded in 1980 by former Senator James Abourezk. To
>  receive membership information, please send us your name and mailing
>  address or visit our website.
>  To receive or stop receiving ADC's email updates, send a message to
>  <majordomo@...> with the following in the body:
>  to subscribe type "subscribe updates"
>  to unsubscribe type "unsubscribe updates"
>  ========================================================================

Dear Classics,

If you had seen the masterpiece "Dangerous Beauty,"
you'd certainly bethink the Venetian beauty who
thought "Marco" once then wondered:

"I find myself in his eyes;
I long for more myself to know,
He hears, it seems, my silent cries
and makes my heart my reason's foe,

How can this be, to Love so quickly;
Love does not wait us for reply,

What magic sways his touch to treat me;
how can I now my Love deny."

"Veronica Franco" was never a baby of gifted
imagination, but a talented poetess from Renaissance
Venice who actually lived and later had no choice but
to become a courtesan, just like the movie tells.

The site I paste below, I find worth exploring, as it
contains brilliant excerpts of Franco's real heartfelt
poetry, as well as several worth-reading reflections
about her real life.

http://home.infi.net/~ddisse/franco.html

I believe anything "Venice-ian" is worth exploring! :)

I truly hope you enjoy the site as much as I did.


Regards,
Lillie


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail - Free email you can access from anywhere!
http://mail.yahoo.com/

JUST DO EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE ...

From: "AipacUpdate" <update@...>
To: <aipacalert@...>
Subject: House to Vote Next Week on Legislation Opposing Unilateral
Declaration of Palestinian Statehood


> Legislation calling on the president not to recognize a unilaterally
> declared Palestinian state, as Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasir Arafat
> has threatened to do, could be voted on by the House as early as next
> week.   The legislation also would prohibit U.S. assistance from being
> provided to the Palestinians if they unilaterally declare statehood.
>
> Please contact your Representative and Senators TODAY and urge them to
> cosponsor and support H.R. 4976 in the House and S. 2938 in the Senate:
>
> 1.  For those who have already sent letters, call your Member of the House
today at (202) 225-3121 and your Senators at (202) 224-3121 to reinforce
> the importance of cosponsoring and supporting this legislation.
>
> 2. Send an e-mail to your members of Congress by simply clicking on
> http://congress.nw.dc.us/aipac/elecmail.html
>
> 3.  Forward this message to your friends and ask them send an e-mail to
their members of Congress.
>
> 4.  Visit AIPAC's Web site at http://www.aipac.org for more information on
> this and other important legislation affecting the U.S.-Israel
relationship.
>
> TALKING POINTS
>
> ** The Oslo accords and the statement issued at the end of the Camp David
> Summit explicitly state that no side can take unilateral actions on core
> issues, including statehood.
>
> ** The Palestinians made the fundamental commitment that the determination
> of the eventual status of the Palestinian entity -- as well as other final
> status issues -- can be made only through direct negotiations between both
> parties.
>
> ** A unilateral act on statehood -- one of the most fundamental issues in
> the Arab-Israeli conflict -- would inevitably lead to violence and
> threaten the viability of the entire peace process.
>
>
> AIPAC--America's Pro-Israel Lobby
> http://www.aipac.org
>
> To subscribe to this list, send an e-mail to
request-aipacalert@...