Palestinian PM Haniyeh calls for West Bank uprising

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=119319§ionid=351020202


The democratically elected Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has called for uprisings in the occupied West Bank over a controversial Israeli plan to confiscate two holy sites in the territory as "national heritage."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday that the regime is planning to include Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem and the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron in a "national heritage plan".

His remarks drew protests from the Palestinians, the United Nations, Jordan and Egypt.

"The decision requires a real response in the West Bank and for the people to rise up in the face of the Israeli occupation and to break every shackle in confronting it," Haniyeh said Tuesday.

"(The project) aims to erase our identity, alter our Islamic monuments and steal our history," he added.

In Hebron there were sporadic clashes near the Ibrahim Mosque above the Tomb of the Patriarchs but there were no reports of casualties.

Meanwhile, in Bethlehem shops and schools were closed in a day-long general strike, AFP reported.

Auschwitz survivor sees Nazi acts in Israel

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117179§ionid=351020202


A Nazi death camp survivor slams Israel over its occupation of Palestine, drawing an analogy between the Israeli army's indignations and the conduct of Nazi forces during World War II.

"The Israelis tried to dehumanize the Palestinians, just like the Nazis tried to dehumanize me," said Dr Hajo Meyer, 86, who survived 10 months in Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp in Poland.

"Nobody should dehumanize any other and those who try to dehumanize another are not human," he said at the beginning of his lecture in Scotland.

The octogenarian Holocaust survivor, who embarked on a 10-day tour of the UK and Ireland, called Israel "the world champion in pretending to be civilized and cultured."

The comments by Meyer have provoked a fresh outcry of "anti-Semitism" by hardline Jewish lobby groups.

However, Meyer, the Dutch-based author of three books on Judaism, the Holocaust and Zionism, dismissed "anti-Semite" labels hurled against him.

“Formerly an anti-Semite was somebody who hated Jews because they were Jews and had a Jewish soul. But nowadays an anti-Semite is somebody who is hated by Jews,” he stated.

A spokesman for the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, of which Dr. Meyer is a member of, backed the remarks.

“Hajo knows that Israel has a long history of abusing the tragic history of the Holocaust in order to suppress legitimate criticism of its own crimes," said the spokesman.