Mon. 14 Feb. 2011 @ 10.58 - Corrections and clarifications column acknowledges pull quote about settlement policy 'cut in a way that may have given a misleading impression.' On the first day of The Guardian's Palestine papers expose, on Monday 24 January, when Palestinian negotiators were attacked as 'weak' and 'craven', a quote from then foreign minister Tzipi Livni appeared in a box, titled, 'What they said...'. It read: However, the newspaper on Saturday acknowledged that the full quote shows that Livni was characterising the Palestinian perception of Israeli policies, and not the policies themselves. Mon. 14 Feb. 2011 @ 12.10 - The Guardian's leader today supports Hamas's rejection of the Palestinian Authority's latest call for new national elections whilst eliding any concerns that the Authority might have about holding them. The Guardian today cites the resignation of Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak and the relatively smooth transition to temporary military rule as a catalyst for further democratic reforms in the Middle East, namely in Palestine. The editors write: 'The first to feel its effects was the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank - for whom the former Egyptian president was a trusted ally in the fight to contain and control Fatah's rival, Hamas. Mahmoud Abbas, whose own term as president has expired and whose legitimacy has been questioned, announced that general elections would be held by September. His aide, Yasser Abed-Rabbo, called upon all parties to participate, a plea that Hamas rejected. With up to 1,000 of their members in Palestinian Authority prisons, it is not difficult to see why. Their ability to contest an election in the West Bank is in doubt and in those circumstances conciliation talks should precede, not follow, an election worth the name.' Fri. 11 Feb. 2011 @ 16.15 - Ramadan's depiction of Muslim Brotherhood founder contradicted by the group itself, as video emerges of the Muslim scholar describing Israel as the 'enemy' of Islam. Writing in the International Herald Tribune, Tariq Ramadan presents a sanitized account of Hassan al-Banna, his grandfather and founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. This contrasts with many recent histories of the group that, while emphasising that the Muslim Brotherhood no longer openly supports violence, nonetheless recognise that key figures such as al-Banna espoused a militaristic ideology. 'The Muslim Brothers began in the 1930s as a legalist, anti-colonialist and nonviolent movement that claimed legitimacy for armed resistance in Palestine against Zionist expansionism during the period before World War II. The writings from between 1930 and 1945 of Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Brotherhood, show that he opposed colonialism and strongly criticized the fascist governments in Germany and Italy. He rejected use of violence in Egypt, even though he considered it legitimate in Palestine, in resistance to the Zionist Stern and Irgun terror gangs.' Mon. 14 Feb. 2011 @ 13.45 - Hamas releases statement banning variety of Israeli-produced goods from entering the Gaza Strip. Gaza's Ministry of National Economy yesterday announced that it would be banning and restricting the importation of a variety of Israel goods. According to the Palestinian Ma'an news agency, the new policy would include a total ban on clothing produced in Israel.
February 14, 2011 The Wire Palestine papers: Guardian acknowledges misconstruing Livni quote
'The Israel policy is to take more and more land day after day and that at the end of the day we'll say that it is impossible, we already have the land and cannot create the state.' Tzipi Livni, then Israeli foreign ministerThe Wire Hamas in Gaza: Guardian leader misleads on Hamas rejection of national elections
The Wire Tariq Ramadan on Hassan al-Banna
Ramadan, who currently teaches at Oxford University, writes:The Wire 
Hamas in Gaza: Restrictions placed on Israeli goods
Monday, 14 February 2011
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