[Previous entry: "Bush ignored CIA advice on Iraq, says former spy"] [Next entry: "Europe's cartoon battle lines are drawn in shades of grey, not black and white"]

02/11/2006:

"Moscow invitation to Hamas angers Israel"

Israel has accused Russia of stabbing it in the back after President Vladimir Putin invited Hamas leaders to visit Moscow as the legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people after the Islamic group's election landslide last month.

The Russian government responded by saying that all the big powers would inevitably have to talk to Hamas if they wanted to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict.
guardian.co.uk


Architects threaten to boycott Israel over 'apartheid' barrier
A group including some of Britain's most prominent architects is considering calling for an economic boycott of Israel's construction industry in protest at the building of Israeli settlements and the separation barrier in the Occupied Territories.

Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine, whose members include Richard Rogers and the architectural critic Charles Jenckes, met for the first time last week in secret at the London headquarters of Lord Rogers' practice. He introduced the meeting, and the 60 attendees went on to condemn the illegal annexation of Palestinian land and the construction of the vast fence and concrete separation barrier running through the West Bank and Jerusalem.

The group said that architects, planners and engineers working on Israeli projects in the occupied territories were "complicit in social, political and economic oppression", and "in violation of their professional code of ethics".

It said that: "Planning, architecture and other construction disciplines are being used to promote an apartheid system of environmental control."