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Aljazeera
Friday, February 06, 2009
18:33 Mecca time, 15:33 GMT
Turkey probes Gaza 'war crimes'

A Turkish prosecutor has launched an investigation into whether Israel committed genocide and crimes against humanity in its offensive in Gaza, his office has said.

The investigation follows a complaint lodged by the human rights association Mazlum-Der against several top Israeli officials.

The officials against whom allegations have been levelled are Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, Ehud Olmert, the prime minister, Tzipi Livni, the foreign minister, Ehud Barak, the defence minister, and Gabi Ashkenazi, the army chief of staff.

"Every complaint merits an investigation," the spokesman told AFP news agency on Friday when asked whether a probe had been launched into Mazlum-Der's complaint.

Under Turkish law, prosecutors are obliged to look into all complaints to determine whether there are grounds to initiate a full-scale investigation that could lead to formal charges.

If the prosecutor decides the complaint does not merit a case, it will be dismissed.

'Genocide'

In its petition, Mazlum-Der accused Israel of carrying out "direct attacks on civilians with the aim of annihilating them" and employing internationally-banned weapons in the process.

"The suspects, who wanted to wipe out the Palestinian people through systematic attacks, have committed genocide and crimes against humanity," it said, demanding that the suspects be detained if they enter Turkey.

Turkish law allows for the trial of people accused of genocide or crimes against humanity even if the crimes were committed abroad.

Israel's 22-day offensive last month on Hamas-controlled Gaza left more than 1,300 Palestinians dead and injured 5,300 others.

Turkey, one of the few Muslim allies of Israel, strongly criticised the assault on Gaza amid almost daily anti-Israel demonstrations across the country.

Aljazeera
Thursday, February 05, 2009
05:09 Mecca time, 02:09 GMT

Israel: Girls' killing 'reasonable'

The Israeli military has admitted shelling the home of a Palestinian doctor during its Gaza offensive and killing three of his daughters, but said its soldiers' actions were "reasonable" considering the circumstances.

Dr Ezzeldeen Abu al-Aish, a 55-year-old gynaecologist trained in Israeli hospitals, was giving Israel's Channel 10 his daily phone account from inside the war zone in Gaza when three of his daughters were killed in the attack.

The military said on Wednesday that an inquiry into the January 16 incident found that troops fired two shells at the doctor's home after fighters fired from the area.

The report said soldiers came under fire from a building close to Abu
al-Aish's, and then ''suspicious figures were identified in the upper level of Dr Abu al-Aish's house and were thought to be spotters who directed the Hamas sniper and mortar fire".

Abu al-Aish, who has worked for years in Israeli hospitals, has denied there were any fighters at his house.

The report said soldiers stopped firing after hearing screams from the shelled building.

The military expressed sadness at the deaths but did not admit to a mistake in identification.

Instead, it said in the report, ''considering the constraints of the battle scene, the amount of threats that endangered the force, and the intensity of fighting in the area, the forces' action and the decision to fire toward the building were reasonable".[]

Aljazeera
Thursday, February 05, 2009
06:43 Mecca time, 03:43 GMT

Obama to cap US Executive Pay
Barack Obama, the US president, has said his government will impose a salary cap of $500,000 for senior executives at companies receiving federal economic bailout funds.

Obama said the government would also cap "golden parachute" severance payments for executives leaving Wall Street firms receiving government aid.

"For top executives to award themselves these kinds of compensation packages in the midst of this economic crisis isn't only in bad taste – it's bad strategy – and I will not tolerate it as president" Obama said at the White House on Wednesday.

The administration of George Bush, Obama's predecessor, agreed a $700bn bailout of financial firms in October last year and about $350bn of the money has been used.

Al Jazeera's John Terrett reporting from New York said the Bush administration had imposed some rules on how firms spent bailout payments but that they had been considered to be quite lax.

Terrett said Obama's move was about honesty and openness and telling the American people that company executives would no longer be rewarded using taxpayers money.

The move comes on the same day that the US's main oversight committee, the Federal Securities and Exchange Commission, was accused of ignoring a $50bn fraud scheme allegedly committed by finacnier Bernard Madoff.

Harry Markopolos, a former investment manager turned "whistleblower", told politicians on the House Financial Services Subcommittee that he had tried to warn US regulators about Madoff as far back as 2000 but that he had been ignored.

Five senior members of the SEC appeared in front of the committee but angered those on the panel by refusing to answer specific questions on the Madoff scandal, citing the ongoing investigation.

'Taking responsibility'

Obama has repeatedly criticised Wall Street executives over reports that they accepted billions of dollars in bonuses last year as they received government aid during the global financial crisis.

"We all need to take responsibility. And this includes executives at major financial firms who turned to the American people, hat in hand, when they were in trouble, even as they paid themselves their customary lavish bonuses,'' Obama said.

Obama also said that any payments beyond $500,000 to executives would have to be in stock options and could only be made after government aid had been repaid.

The US president also announced that limits would be set on severance packages.

"We're putting a stop to these kinds of massive severance packages we've all read about with disgust - we're taking the air out of golden parachutes," Obama said with Timothy Geithner, the US treasury secretary, at his side.

However, some Wall Street analysts criticised the move, saying it could lead to talented executives leaving to seek better pay elsewhere.

David Kotok, the chief investment officer at the Cumberland financial advice firm, said: "This is pure political grandstanding. If the limit has bite, it will be counterproductive and the unintended consequences will hurt the US as skilled and bright senior managers make choices."

Job loss

The US president also promised a new series of measures to spark economic activity amid what many say is the nation's worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Two reports by private analysts released on Wednesday said thousands of jobs had been lost in the the US in the first month of the year alone.

Non-agricultural private jobs fell by 522,000 in January, according to a report by Automatic Data Processing, a payroll firm.

A separate report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a consultancy firm, said 241,749 planned job cuts were announced in January, the largest monthly total since January 2002, when 248,475 jobs were cut.

The US senate is currently debating a massive economic stimulus plan that could be worth up to $900bn.

The plan is the first major attempt by Obama's administration to tackle the ailing US economy.[]

Aljazeera
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
21:09 Mecca time, 18:09 GMT
Three-week War on Gaza

Israel's three-week war on Gaza caused billions of dollars in damage and left the already-tattered local economy on the verge of collapse.

Some of the world's richest countries - including the US which has promised a $20-million aid package - have pledged monies to rebuild the Gaza Strip.

Al Jazeera's Zeina Awad reports that rivalry between Hamas, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and other Palestinian factions threatens to scuttle efforts to rebuild Gaza and rehabilitate its people.

We came across Tayseer Jneed, a father of four, as he waited in queue outside a post office in Gaza City to cash a cheque Hamas had distributed to many Palestinians who, like him, had lost family and homes during Israel's recent war.

But Jneed was already disappointed.

"I am unhappy because Hamas promised me 6,000 euros but I am getting 4,f000 euros," he told Al Jazeera.

Jneed's home was destroyed during the Israeli offensive in Gaza and he has been forced to live in a tent donated by the UN.

Like many of the makeshift tents housing hundreds of Palestinians who have recently lost their home, there is no water and the family of six are forced to resort to a makeshift toilet constructed by one of their neighbours.

The financial handout is meant to help his family survive until real reconstruction gets under way in Gaza.

"I need more money, I need a home, I need to be able to pay for my children's education, food, and clothes."

Cash-strapped

Others at the post office told us that they also did not get all the cash they had been promised. They took whatever they could from Hamas, because it may be the only money they will be receiving for a while.

The Hamas authorities in Gaza said this was a one-time emergency payment and have no concrete plans beyond that.

Cash has been in short supply in Gaza ever since Israel imposed its siege in 2007, following Hamas wresting control of Gaza from its rival, Fatah, after a unity government collapsed.

However, many Palestinians living in Gaza see the rivalry as posing a serious threat to any reconstruction initiatives the territory so desperately needs today.

Hamas maintains that it was democratically elected and therefore carries the mandate of the people. Hamas officials say they should play a key role in reconstruction efforts.

The Fatah-led PA, however, says it is the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

For their part, international donors say they will not recognise Hamas because the Islamist movement refuses to recognise Israel and does not honour previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements.

They say they will only deal with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and chairman of Fatah.

But Fatah has no authority in Gaza.

All-encompassing damage

The damage from the war is all encompassing and cannot be carried out without the hundreds of millions of dollars pledged by the international community.

Omar Shaban, a Gaza-based independent economist, says: "We are not talking about delivering some assistance here and there. We are talking about building 5,000 flats and rehabilitating another 20,000, rebuilding around 500 institutions, rehabilitating the roads."
"All of this needs a very strong government and close coordination with that government," he said.

A strong government is something the Palestinians do not have. Instead, the Gaza Strip is run by the deposed Hamas government, while the West Bank is under the PA – led by Abbas.

Hamas and the PA have held reconciliation talks on numerous occasions, but instead of uniting, their rivalry has become more entrenched.

"If the division between Fatah and Hamas continues, then I do not know how the reconstruction process can happen," Shaban says.

He told Al Jazeera that reconstruction programmes require close coordination between the local municipalities and land authorities on the one hand and Hamas, the power in Gaza, on the other.

Embargo on material

For its part, Israel refuses to allow glass, cement, and other desperately needed building material into the Gaza Strip as long as Hamas is in control.

For many in Gaza, every day without reconstruction means another day of living in makeshift shacks and tents, without electricity, water, or basic services.

That is the reality of daily life for Jneed and his family.

The 4,000 euros will make life easier for him now but in the long-run he sees no way out.

He blames Israel first and foremost for the carnage in Gaza but acknowledges that he will not get his home back until Palestinian politicians stop bickering and start proper planning.[]