Known as 281 Antinuke, Japan’s version of Banksy, has covered Tokyo streets in images depicting politicians as vampires and children being shielded from radioactive rain to highlight the consequences of a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant after an earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011.
“Perhaps because everyone believes people telling them on television that everything is fine, they don’t seem so worried,” 281 Antinuke told Reuters
“I hope by leaving my art I can remind people that we’re not safe at all ... and that they will do something to protect themselves.”
“The nuclear accident allowed us to realize that Japan had hidden a lot of things,” he said. “I want to make images that express doubts about what’s going on in politics - like a label that says ‘This is happening, pay attention’.”
North Korea has released a video of Merrill Newman reading a letter of apology for his actions during the Korean War. Here's a question what does North Korea really want. Are they seeking concessions for its restarted nuclear program, humanitarian aid for its population or some other unknown reason that they believe will benefit the regime of Kim-Jong un. In the past these types of tactics have worked for North Korea. They would agree to something recieve whatever aid they sought and proceed to violate the terms of the agreement.
North Korean authorities released video showing 85-year-old Merrill Newman, wearing glasses, a blue button-down shirt and tan trousers, reading his alleged apology, which was dated Nov. 9 and couldn't be independently confirmed.
Pyongyang has been accused of previously coercing statements from detainees. There was no way to reach Newman and determine the circumstances of the alleged confession. But it was riddled with stilted English and grammatical errors, such as "I want not punish me."
"I have been guilty of a long list of indelible crimes against DPRK government and Korean people," Newman purportedly wrote in a four-page statement, adding: "Please forgive me."
We ask if the government has gone too far with a law that bans protests not approved by the police.
There is rising anger in Egypt as the interim government continues its crackdown on protesters. The country may be on the verge of a new chapter in its post-Mubarak protest movement.
In cities across the country, Egyptians took to the streets after Friday prayers in defiance of a new law that bans protests that have not been sanctioned by the police.
Protesters have been galvanised by a number of recent harsh jail terms dished out to people, including young girls, involved in demonstrations.
One such woman Sara, 19, is among 21 women and girls who were recently sentenced to 11 years in prison for taking part in demonstrations.
"This verdict was very shocking. It was very tough and unjust. My daughter was telling me today from prison 'Mom I am 19 years old - after 11 years when I get out of prison I will be 30 years old'. You cannot imagine how much hurt hearing those words caused me," says Abeer Youssef, Sara's mother.
Sara was found guilty by courts in Alexandria of a series of charges including thuggery, illegal gathering and damage of property.
TOKYO — The main streets of Shin-Okubo — Tokyo’s Koreatown — are lined with smoky barbecue restaurants and overlit cosmetics emporiums. Staircases lead down to basement music venues and up to hidden drinking holes.
Japanese once thronged the neighborhood, which is home to many ethnic Koreans and known for its fiery food and late nights. But in recent months, the crowds have thinned, replaced by anti-Korean protesters who have turned Shin-Okubo into a rough barometer of deteriorating Japan-Korea relations.
On occasional weekends this year, megaphone-wielding demonstrators have taken to the streets, telling the Koreans to “go home or die.” They’ve threatened to “flatten this neighborhood” and build a gas chamber in its place. The Koreans say that they — and the police — have little recourse against the threats, because Japan is one of the few democracies that don’t restrict hate speech.
Russia warned it might breach Helsinki accord
EU rejects Yanukovich suggestion of tripartite agreement to include Russia
Suzanne Lynch
The European Unionyesterday issued a stark warning to Russia that it was in danger of breaching the Helsinki Accords over its treatment of Ukraine, as the Eastern Partnership summit ended without agreement on the former Soviet republic.
At the end of the two-day summit, which saw Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovichbecome increasingly isolated, European Council head Herman Van Rompuy said any Russian actions that influenced Europe’s so-called eastern partners “could be in breach of the Helsinki principles of the OSCE which commit to respect each other’s right to freely define and conduct as it wishes its relations with other states in accordance with international law”.
Sovereignty The politically binding agreement, signed during the Cold War, outlines a set of principles which guides international relations, including the duty to respect the sovereignty of individual countries and national self-determination.
Bangkok protesters march on telecom firms, vow 'victory day' against Thai PM
Opposition protesters in Thailand have marched on key telecom firms as they try to shore up dwindling support in their campaign against Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. They have declared Sunday a "day of victory."
Around 2,000 demonstrators rallied on Saturday at the offices of the state-owned Telephone Organization of Thailand (TOT) and the Communications Authority of Thailand (CAT), placing padlocks on the doors to block workers from entering.
This comes a day after hundreds forced their way into the army headquarters in central Bangkok, urging military leaders to declare whether they support or oppose prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra. The army has said it will stay neutral during the ongoing dispute. There was no special police presence outside any government offices on Saturday.
The opposition campaign centers around the political influence that protesters say is still wielded by Yingluck's brother, the billionaire exiled former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was overthrown by the military in 2006. Yingluck has been accused of acting as Thaksin's puppet, and abusing her party's parliamentary majority to push through laws that help her brother.
Tuareg separatist group in Mali 'ends ceasefire'
An ethnic Tuareg separatist group in Mali has said it is ending a ceasefire agreed with the government in June.
It comes a day after clashes between Malian troops and Tuareg protesters who prevented a visit by Prime Minister Oumar Tatam Ly to the town of Kidal.
A National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) leader said: "What happened is a declaration of war."
June's ceasefire followed more than 18 months of fighting that prompted an intervention by French troops.
US veterans fill their own void delivering aid to Philippines
Members of Team Rubicon, a disaster relief organization staffed by US veterans, are using their military skills in the Philippines -- and finding the camaraderie they miss in the process.
By Anna Mulrine, Staff writer
MANILA, THE PHILIPPINES
The plastic crate sitting outside a sweltering makeshift military terminal serves as both a seat for Peter Meijer and a container for 150-plus pounds of nails, hammers, and military-style quick-prep meals. Both he and the supplies are about to head out to the region of the Philippines hardest hit by Typhoon Haiyan.
A former US Army medic, Mr. Meijer is a member ofTeam Rubicon, a volunteer organization comprised largely of US veterans doing relief work in disaster-hit places like Tacloban, Philippines, where more than 5,200 died and more than 4 million remain homeless more than two weeks after the storm.
The organization isn’t just lending a crucial role in helping aid the ravaged Tacloban region, harnessing the organizational training and skills learned by service men and women in war zones. It’s also filling a void for many of them who miss the intense bonds and clear mission of the military.
Impress dinner guests with these simple yet dangerous-to-make apple swans
Everything worth doing is worth doing to the extreme, if you ask us. So if you have a nice, juicy granny apple, sure, you could eat it as is, or you could spend 15 to 20 minutes with your fingers in dangerously close proximity to a sharp knife and make this adorable apple swan!
If you follow these instructions, it seems reasonably easy to consistently make these edible dinner decorations, but we hope your hand-eye coordination is up to snuff because the only thing more dangerous to your digits is playing that old saloon game “Five Fingers.”
BIRDS IN A CAGE
When Crown Princess Masako visited quake survivors in Iwate for two days earlier this month, it was the first time in nearly four years she had left the Imperial Palace on an overnight trip.
A landlord in Hyogo was ordered to pay ¥1.44 million in compensation to a man who didn’t know that the previous tenant of an apartment he was renting had committed suicide.
A high-ranking Buddhist monk at a temple in Kagawa is in hot water forbeating a trainee who was having difficulty reading the sutras.
A married couple in Ota-ku who abandoned their infant daughter on a park bench near their home said they “didn’t have enough money to raise a child.”
stats
76Number of vehicles making their world debut at the 43rd Tokyo Motor Show, which runs through December 1
74,000Number of childcare workers needed overcome a nationwide shortfall in daycare staff, according to the labor ministry
1,699Number of disabled people who were abused between March and October, according to the health ministry
Than Other Bullets In Prison? Sue TEPCO Abe Joins The 20th Century In The 21st
Newspapers across Japan blast state secrecy bill in editorials
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Newspapers across Japan took aim at the government's secrecy bill after its passage through the lower house Tuesday, with most saying parliamentary debate was insufficient and slamming the legislation for restricting the right to know and other areas they see as problematic.
"We must say it was a high-handed act by sheer force of numbers," The Kyoto Shimbun said of the ruling coalition's railroading the bill through the House of Representatives' Special Committee on National Security and immediately putting it to a vote at the house's plenary meeting.
China has decided that to follow the 19th century American ideology of manifest destiny which implies that given our superior culture and society we have the right to impose upon the surrounding nations our geopolitical vision. That hubris led to the downfall of European imperialism and the contraction of Americas territorial ambitions.
China says it scrambled fighter jets to monitor US and Japanese planes as they flew in its newly declared air defence zone in the East China Sea on Friday.
The zone covers territory claimed by China, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.
China said last week that all aircraft crossing through the zone must file flight plans and identify themselves or face "defensive emergency measures".
The US, Japan and South Korea say they have since defied the ruling and flown military aircraft in the area.
The air defence identification zone (ADIZ) includes islands known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, which are claimed by Japan, China and Taiwan.
KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai lashed out at his American allies again on Thursday after word came that at least one, and possibly two, NATO drone strikes had killed civilians in southern Afghanistan.
The attacks came at a delicate moment, when talks between Mr. Karzai and the United States over a long-term security agreement hadreached an impasse. The Americans have told Mr. Karzai that unless he signs the agreement promptly, they will begin planning for a total withdrawal of American and NATO forces after the end of next year.
Mr. Karzai vowed this week, at the conclusion of a loya jirga, or grand council, that he would cancel the security agreement completely if there was even one more raid that killed civilians.
Syrian refugee children face 'catastrophic' life in exile, UN says
More than a million Syrian children could miss out on education, and child labour is a big problem, warns refugee agency
Hundreds of thousands of Syrian children already traumatised by war are facing a life of "catastrophe" in exile, without education or normal childhood freedoms, the UN refugee agency has warned.
Child labour is a huge problem across the refugee communities ofJordan and Lebanon, with children as young as seven taking on the role of breadwinner for their fractured families.
More than a million Syrian children are refugees, most of them in neighbouring countries. The report, the Future of Syria: refugee children in crisis, published by the UNHCR on Friday, involved four months of research across Jordan and Lebanon, speaking to children and the international workers supporting them.
Thai protesters storm army headquarters as protests grow against Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra
Protesters in Thailand stormed onto the grounds of the national army headquarters on Friday, breaking into their latest high-profile target in a bid to topple Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
The crowd of about 1,200 people broke the padlocked gate at the Royal Thai Army compound and forced their way inside as they called on the military to join their anti-government campaign, said army spokesman Col. Sansern Kaewkamnerd.
The compound is next to the United Nation's Asia-Pacific headquarters in Bangkok.
"They are now gathering in the courtyard, but they have not entered buildings," Sansern said. "We will make them understand that this is a security area and we will ask them to leave."
EUROPEAN UNION
A frosty meeting in Vilnius after EU snub
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych turned down the European Union at the last minute under Russian pressure. But he has still come to the Vilnius summit - with some hoping for a last-minute change of heart.
The most important project of the Vilnius summit now looks unlikely. The European Union planned to sign an association and partnership agreement with Ukraine at its meeting in the Lithuanian capital. This would have offered the most important country in the EU's Eastern Partnership a path toward membership.
But only a few days before the summit, the Ukrainian government made a U-turn and dropped all its preparations for the agreement. Russia had threatened Ukraine with trade sanctions, letting it know it would pay dearly for any rapprochement with the EU.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych subsequently complained that the EU should have offered his country more. He tried a new tack, suggesting tripartite negotiations with the EU and Russia as a compromise, which the EU rejected. The summit will therefore take place without its planned centerpiece.
World Cup soccer qualifiers may have been fixed, according to reports
World Cup soccer qualifiers as well as matches in Australia may have been fixed by an international gambling syndicate, according to British media reports.
I do Australia, Scotland. Ireland. Europe. World Cup. World Cup qualifier
The National Crime Agency said a seventh person had been arrested following an undercover operation by Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper. He has been released on bail with the four others.
Chann Sankaran, a 33-year-old Singapore national, and Krishna Sanjey Ganeshan, a 43-year-old with dual British and Singaporean nationality, will appear at a magistrates’ court in Cannock, central England, on Friday, the NCA said.
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They have been charged with conspiring to defraud Asian bookmakers ‘‘by influencing the course of football matches and placing bets thereon’’ between November 1-26.
Kenya launches R138 billion China-built railway to boost trade
Sapa-AFP | 28 November, 2013 14:43
Kenya launched construction of a Chinese-funded 13.8 billion dollar flagship railway project Thursday, hoping to dramatically increase trade and boost Kenya's position as a regional economic powerhouse.
The key transport link, to run from the busy port city of Mombasa inland to the highland capital Nairobi, is eventually hoped to extend onwards to Uganda, and then connect with proposed lines to Rwanda and South Sudan.
"What we are doing here today will most definitely transform... not only Kenya but the whole eastern African region", President Uhuru Kenyatta told crowds at the ground breaking ceremony he called a "historic milestone".
"As a result east Africa will become a competitive investment destination... a busy growing east Africa is good for us a country."
In an effort to prove their cojones are larger and more powerful than everyone else's the Chinese government ordered fighter jets and a early warning radar aircraft into its air defense zone to protect China from whom ever it was they perceived to be attacking them. I'm sure it was invisible zombies but I can't be sure. Well, because they're invisible.
China's state news agency Xinhua quoted air force spokesman Col Shen Jinke as saying several fighter jets and an early warning aircraft had been deployed to carry out routine patrols as "a defensive measure and in line with international common practices".
He said the country's air force would remain on high alert and would take measures to deal with all air threats to protect national security.
In Xinhua's Chinese language version of the article, the colonel said the aircraft would "strengthen the monitoring of targets in the air defence zone and do their duty"
Japanese restraint in the face of Chinese efforts to modify the status quo is currently keeping the peace, potentially to the detriment of Japan's claim to the island”James ManicomExpert, China-Japan security issues
China-Japan disputed islands
The archipelago consists of five uninhabited islands and three reefs
Japan, China and Taiwan claim them; they are controlled by Japan and form part of Okinawa prefecture
Japanese businessman Kunioki Kurihara owned three of the islands but sold them to the Japanese state in September 2012
The islands were also the focus of a major diplomatic row between Japan and China in 2010
China says the establishment of the zone was "completely justified and legitimate", but it has been widely condemned.
Ten years after the invasion: Iraq helpless under rain of terror
Saddam Hussein may have gone but, for many poor Iraqis, little has improved. Now a devastating flood has left villagers homeless and there is precious little government support
“A wall of water came at us as if a dam had broken,” lamented Razaq Madloul, as he looked at the ruined houses standing in a muddy swamp where he and dozens of other farmers had lived until a devastating flood last week.
“Even our fathers had not seen such rain,” he said of the four-day downpour that hit southern and central Iraq and northern Saudi Arabia, washing away roads and villages in places that seldom see any rain. Villagers outside Najaf, the Shia holy city 100 miles south-west of Baghdad, stood little chance.
“Government officials came at three in the morning last Friday and told us to get out,” said Sami Abdullah, who worked as a brick-maker in a district dominated by the tall smoke-blackened chimneys of brick factories west of Najaf. He said most of the brick-makers escaped, though a woman and three of her children were drowned as houses, built from poor quality bricks, collapsed under the impact of the water.
Pope criticises ‘throwaway culture’ that discards youth
Pontiff uses interview to link high European unemployment to neglect of older people
Pope Francistook on the issue of high youth unemployment in his first interview aired exclusively in his home country of Argentina yesterday, warning today’s “throwaway culture” had discarded a generation of young Europeans.
A day after issuing an 84-page platform for his eight-month-old papacy that blasted unfettered capitalism as “a new tyranny”, the pontiff used the interview aired on the TN TV channel to link high European unemployment to its twin problem of neglecting older people who are past their earning prime.
“Today we are living in an unjust international system in which ‘King Money’ is at the centre,” he said in the interview.
Land Grab:Foreign Firms Drive Cambodians from Farms
By Andreas Lorenz
Each year, foreign agricultural corporations deprive thousands of Cambodian farmers of their fields -- with the government's help. Human rights groups claim German taxpayer money is used to fund a program that benefits land grabbers.
Everyone in the Cambodian village of Chouk remembers what happened on the morning of May 19, 2006, when bulldozers appeared on National Route 48, which cuts through the town. Men from a Thai company, Khon Kaen Sugar Industry PCL, presented the Cambodian villagers with documents and said: "This land now belongs to us."
Dozens of farmers tried to stop the bulldozers when they began leveling their rice fields. The police arrived at the scene, shots were fired and a female protester was injured. A barbed-wire fence now surrounds the fields, which have since become a sugarcane plantation. Farmer Teng Kao, 53, winds his way through fences, jumps across ditches and finally points to a spot in the distance. "Back there," he says. "That was where my fields were."
Two hundred families from Chouk lost their livelihood that day. "We aren't poor - we're very poor," says farmer Chea Sok. "I can no longer afford three meals a day." Many young people have left Chouk, with some becoming migrant workers in Thailand and Malaysia.
China asserts air rights despite US flight
November 28, 2013 - 7:43AM
Beijing, China:China has insisted it has the ability to enforce its newly-declared air zone over islands disputed with Japan, despite Beijing's reluctance to intervene after American B-52 bombers entered the area.
The flight of the giant long-range US Stratofortress planes was a clear warning that Washington would push back against what it considers an aggressive stance.
While US defence chief Chuck Hagel praised Tokyo's restraint, officials indicated Vice President Joe Biden would personally convey America's "concerns" about the matter during a visit to the Chinese capital next week.
A trip to hell and back, on foot
Stephan Hofstatter | 28 November, 2013 10:22
THE rickety twin prop flown by a wizened pair of Russian pilots shudders past Nyiragongo volcano, over the M23 battlefields, landing on a gravel airstrip at Butembo, a dusty town in the heart of rebel-held territory in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
I spend the night at Hotel Butembo, a phantasmagoric huddle of pokey rooms with statues of reindeer, gorillas and elephants outside, that is owned by a suspected gun runner.
Early on Sunday morning, I set off in an SUV for the rebel headquarters at Bunyatenge village, which lies deep in the bush a six-hour drive away. The roads are atrocious. After an hour we cross the equator. At Alimbungu village, a goat is strung up on a wooden frame, its throat gaping red, dripping blood.
On Monday morning photographer James Oatway joins me and we set off for Musia mine, walking down the dusty main road of Bunyatenge, watched by curious onlookers.
Egyptian women get jail terms over protests
Group of 21 women, including minors, face 11 years in jail for rally, as interim PM defends state response to protests.
A group of women have been jailed for 11 years for a peaceful protest in Alexandria, as Egypt's interim prime minister gave a strong defence of a law further restricting public demonstrations.
The women, supporters of the deposed president Mohamed Morsi, received 11-year jail sentences on Wednesday for forming a human chain and passing out flyers earlier this month. Seven minors among the group were remanded to juvenile detention until they reach legal age. The youngest in the group is 15 years old.
Six men, described by prosecutors as Muslim Brotherhood leaders, were sentenced to 15-year terms, accused of being members of a "terrorist organisation".
In a news conference also on Wednesday, Hazem el-Beblawi, the interim prime minister, defended a new law requires which citizens to apply for permission before marching as a "necessary step".
As thousands rally against the prime minister, we ask if the country is entering a new chapter of political instability.
Thai opposition protesters are intensifying pressure on Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to step down. They have laid siege to government ministries and state buildings in the biggest street demonstrations since 2010 when more than 90 people were killed in a military crackdown. The prime minister is also facing a vote of no confidence from members of parliament.
She is the sister of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who has been living in exile since being convicted of corruption. Protesters argue he is still effectively running the country, and using his sister as a puppet prime minister.
Tens of thousands of protesters have filled the streets of Bangkok and Yingluck Shinawatra has used an emergency law to tighten security in the capital, but says the government will not use force against demonstrators.
She also defended her leadership, saying: "I insist that there is only one cabinet, with me as the prime minister. There are some accusations that I lack independence, and that I lack intelligence, and have to be controlled by pushing a button. I have to say, have I not been independent in the past two years that I administered the country as the head of the government, which all of you may have learned while we went through all those crises.
U.S. may leave Karzai out of Afghanistan security pact
The U.S. considers getting a high official in Afghanistan to sign the security agreement, bypassing President Hamid Karzai.
By David S. Cloud and David Zucchino
U.S. officials seeking to close a deal by year's end on the future of American troops in Afghanistan are exploring ways to bypass the country's mercurial president, Hamid Karzai, who negotiated the agreement but now refuses to sign it.
Frustrated by Karzai's abrupt declaration that he won't ink the deal before Afghan elections in April, the Obama administration has begun pushing for Foreign Minister Zarar Ahmad Osmani or another top official in Kabul to sign the agreement in coming weeks, several U.S. officials said.
Unless the security pact is enacted this year, the White House says, it will plan a full withdrawal of the remaining 47,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan next year. That could leave Afghanistan without sufficient foreign military assistance to fight a still potent Taliban insurgency and hold fragile territorial gains after 12 years of war.
Thailand protests force evacuation of government offices in Bangkok
Opponents of PM Yingluck Shinawatra and ousted brother Thaksin close more ministries in further day of demonstrations
Thousands of Thai demonstrators have marched on a government office complex as part of efforts to cripple the government and oust the prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra.
Having forced the closure of five ministries in the past two days, about 4,000 protesters rallying against Yingluck and her influential brother, the former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, moved to surround the complex in northern Bangkok while smaller groups readied to target six other ministries.
Thailand's department of special investigation was evacuated after at least 1,000 protesters surrounded the building. Thailand's equivalent of the FBI is one of several state targets of demonstrators. Its offices form part of a complex of government departments, including those handling tax, immigration and land.
Pope sets out blueprint for pontificate
Papal teaching should not be expected to be definitive on every issue, pope says
Paddy Agnew
In what is arguably the most significant document of his pontificate to date,Pope Francisyesterday released an apostolic exhortation,Evangelii Gaudium(Joy of the Gospel) which has the hallmarks of a pontifical evangelisation blueprint. This compelling 50,000-word document touches on many of the key issues – poverty, inequality, ecumenism, dialogue with Islam, decentralisation and inculturation (adaptation of the way Church teachings are presented to non-Christian cultures) – that have marked the first eight months of Francis’s pontificate.
The chapter headings are indicative of his style. He moves from No to an Economy of Exclusion to No to the New Idolatry of Money on to No to a Financial System which Rules rather than Serves and to No to the Inequality which Spawns Violence. Much of what the pope has already said is reiterated, forcefully, in this work, an exhortation he alone wrote.
Shanghai starts carbon emissions trading
November 27, 2013 - 8:45AM
The first carbon permits in Shanghai traded at 27 yuan ($4.85) on Tuesday, as the financial hub launched China's second such trading scheme in a bid to cut its fast-growing greenhouse gas emissions.
Three trades for a total of 9,500 permits for 2013 compliance, known as Shanghai Emissions Allowances (SHEAs), went through in the first half-hour after the market opened. A third carbon market will open in Beijing on Thursday.
China is the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions, but it has pledged to reduced its emissions per unit of GDP to 40-45 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.
Egypt draft constitution deflates hopes for change
Sapa-AFP | 27 November, 2013 08:53
Egypt's new constitution is still in the drafting stage but has already disappointed rights groups and activists who had hoped it would curb the military's wide-ranging powers and privileges.
They have particularly objected to a provision which would allow military trials for civilians accused of "harming" the armed forces, which they fear could be interpreted expansively to target protesters, journalists and dissidents.
The passing of the revised constitution through a referendum is the first milestone of a road map to elected rule offered by Egypt's military-installed authorities, who took office after the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Mursi on July 3.
The army toppled Mursi after millions of Egyptians called for his resignation, citing among their chief grievances a 2012 constitutional decree that gave Egypt's first democratically elected leader extraordinary powers, which he later rescinded.
Israeli military drills in Jordan Valley stir Palestinian fears of eviction
The Israeli military regularly evacuates Palestinian villages in the Jordan Valley during military drills. The evacuations are temporary, but Palestinians fear a permanent eviction.
By Ben Lynfield, Correspondent / November 26, 2013
''An officer named Yigal came and told us we would have to leave our home on the holiday because there would be military training here,'' says Ha'il Hussein Turkman, a sheep and cow farmer and father of six. ''Yigal said, 'The army wants to train. You must go. Those who will not leave, I will bring soldiers to force them out'."
The IDF says training in areas like Khirbet Ibziq, where residents were forced to evacuate for 22 hours on Oct. 22 and 23, is ''vital'' because its topography – rocky hills within a valley – resembles the landscape of areas of possible future military operations. But the tent-dwelling herders who live here and Israeli rights groups see temporary forced evacuations as a means of making their claim to the land tenuous.
