umkahlil

Mahmoud Al Haj, from Bethlehem, 20, disappeared on Tuesday, July 27

Nobodies

I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there’s a pair of us—don’t tell!
They’d banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog! Emily Dickinson

Since 1967, more than 650,000 Palestinians have been detained, representing approximately twenty percent of the current total Palestinian population in the Occupied Territories. MIFTAH

Gaza is sealed by land and by sea, precluding even fishermen from working. PCHR Gaza

Paul Larudee, American passport holder, piano tuner, and peace activist was incarcerated at Lod airport. On June 18, a judge ruled he could not enter the occupied territories based on "secret charges," based on "secret evidence.

"Thousands of Palestinians have been sentenced to renewable periods of "administrative detention" based on secret charges that are, in turn, based on secret evidence."

In e-mails he describes two young Palestinian-American detainees:

Nur, a twenty year old diabetic who doesn't understand why he can't "to his Mom's place in Beit Hanina to eat Maqlouba."

Hassan, who "is having problems with his asthma because he's coming from vacation in China where he was affected by the pollution and some overexertion."

Million Dollar Baby

The European Union called on Monday for the release of the kidnapped IDF soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit. Jerusalem Post

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni met with sixty ambassadors yesterday regarding Gilad Shalit.

The French government is working for his release.

The British Ambassador has called the capture of the soldier a "serious escalation."

"Huge photographs of Shalit - gangling, dark-haired and bespectacled - covered the front pages of Israeli newspapers. Headlines referred to him by his first name only."

The Vatican will work to see that Shalit is released.

Hilary Clinton has chimed in.

"Abu Mazen has ordered a house-to-house search for the Israeli soldier." New York Times
Million Dollar Babies and Nobodies

Meanwhile, Gaza with its 1,428,757 population, median age 15.8 is held hostage for Israel's million dollar baby, Gilad Shalit.