from the russian capital twenty four hours a day top stories this hour the international court of justice in the hague rules kosovo's declaration of independence from serbia was legal sparking fears a dangerous precedent is being sent however the ruling is non-binding proclaimed sovereignty in february two thousand and eight a move denounced by russia. ruling against an alleged neo nazi gang in moscow has been put off for the suspects go through psychiatric assessment they're accused of a series of racial hate crimes including murder and if found guilty face life behind bars. and in israel an arab man has been jailed for eighteen months for the so-called rape by deception he persuaded of women to have sex with him by pretending to be jewish. brings up to take the moment with another update and fifteen minutes from now in the meantime marty talks to the journalist and author jonathan cook who says that israel is a regional bully which actually benefits from division.

what i have jonathan cook a freelance journalist and author of three books mr cook thank you very much for joining us here on r.t. you are the only western journalist to be based here in nazareth the largest arab town in israel what kind of different insight does this give you to the conflict as opposed to most foreign journalists who are based in the centers of tel aviv to jerusalem and ramallah at that location in itself. tends to select the focus of your work tends to prejudge what the issues major issues here are in the conflict and i think journalists who are based in the normal cities like jerusalem and tel aviv tend to assume that the conflict began in one thousand nine hundred sixty seven that it's a product of the occupation of the palestinian territories the west bank and gaza whereas my focus has been based being based inside israel in a palestinian or arab community how do you want to describe it is to see that conflict predates nine hundred sixty seven why do you feel that is all should not

be classified as a democracy bearing in mind that the arab community here can vote they can form their own political party it's this idea that just because you have voting rights therefore you live in a democracy so superficially it sounds persuasive but actually it's not very persuasive and one of the ways to highlight that is by looking at the very early years the first twenty years of israel's existence when the palestinians inside israel lived under a military government. they couldn't move outside of their communities without a permit from military government government they lived under martial law but during that period they had full voting rights so where they are living under a democracy the question really is how did israel engineer a situation where it could give voting rights to its palestinian minority and not feel threatened i mean today there are there are several palestinian parties but it's none of them have ever been allowed to serve in the government none of them of held any positions of responsibility what's happened is that you could. only participate in the government if you subscribe to this position which is that the

jews are a privileged population inside the country this isn't just about the parliament to it applies to many other kinds of spheres of life for them for instance there is no the palestinian minority have no control over their schooling curriculum is decided by the jewish majority. it was only revealed a few days ago that for the first time in sixty years sixty years after israel's creation that there would be services running to arab communities in your book blood and religion you've accused israel of a long slow process of ethnic cleansing but do you not think the fact that since nine hundred forty nine the arab israeli population as well as the palestinian population within the west bank and gaza the fact that those populations have quote considerably doesn't that challenge the theory you put forward well it's grown yes but the question is not just about the numbers it's also a question about where they live and of course there's been a lot of ethnic cleansing going on in the last seventy sixty seventy years as we've

seen the population of palestinians being driven further of further away from what israel would want to claim i mean israel hasn't defined its borders so you know the problem is defining israel but this question of where palestinians live of course is crucial to the whole idea of ethnic cleansing and also questions of depending on how you define a genocide there are there on definitions in international law about genocide. and some people would argue that actually what israel is doing qualifies as genocide and whether one wants to adopt that view or not there's very clear issue here about where palestinians are being allowed to live and slowly they've been pushed further and further out of their historic homeland to the very margins of it now outside of it and that's a process of very clear ethnic cleansing now there's a question of what's going on now you know this invasion from gaza created a whole question about whether gaza was. part of the palestinian people for most

israeli jews now they consider gaza to be a separate state that no longer in the occupation even though it's besieged on all sides by israel. and therefore in a sense out of the picture the question is what israel is planning to do with other palestinian groups it's always in the change the earth upon entering the israeli parliament no longer do members of parliament swear allegiance only to the state of israel but also to a jewish democratic state why do you think this happened what is the significance well this is part of a much wider trend to do with loyalty what it would boil to legislation as the government's now calling it mr mr lieberman's party. this far right party i've already mentioned he he he got elected on a plan he's the third largest party in the parliament he was elected on the platform of no loyalty no citizenship and his party has been introducing a series of bills to try and ensure that palestinian citizens have less and less

legitimacy within the political system not all of the bills are being passed but but they're changing the whole discourse in israel now into one in which the assumption is that palestinians are not loyal they have should have no rights they have to prove their loyalty and so this is very much part of that whole search the same kind of move you talk about lack of loyalty but recently an elvis made member of parliament earnings the abbey lost some of her purpose just because she participated in this the target which some israelis felt essentially put her head wall with as well but it's a strange idea that you need to be at war with humanitarian activists to try to bring aid to people of gaza. i think that's a question for all of us we should look at it say what is it legitimate to attack in international waters a boat taking aid to people who are you know what according to all the all the surveys taken by by international bodies like united nations are suffering from malnutrition many other things so but for haneen of course it was a very different situation and she's not only doing that as a concern global. but she's also doing it because it's her people she is

a member of the palestinian people. as various commentators in the media pointed out much more sympathetic ones than that with the new find in most of the parliament for instance but they're suggesting that if if there were jews struggling under the same kind of blockade in the same kind of threats that the people of girls are suffering under the first thing that israel would be doing all the jewish people would be doing it would be organizing fertility flotillas of humanitarian aid and the idea that they should be attacked militarily would outrage the world and i don't think that there's anything any reason to take a different view in the case of the palestinians you've stated that israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu his first term of office was characterized by the deceit of the american president clinton and also attempts to destroy the peace process do you believe that the strategy continues now in his second term of office he's saying to a group of settlers he doesn't think he's being filmed he doesn't realize he's being filmed but he tells the this group of settlers exactly what he did in his first term in the late ninety's during the also process and that what he did was to

deceive bill clinton to give away very small areas of occupied territory in return for agreements that they wouldn't have to give much larger areas of occupied territories and thereby destroy the whole principle of the over all slow process and of course although he doesn't say it that very much explains the palestinian reaction which led to the second intifada course this palestinians were very aware that netanyahu wasn't giving anything away let's be clear it wasn't just netanyahu this this whole process carried on with other prime ministers so the palestinians saw that actually there was no good faith here to the americans were either being deceived or were allowing themselves to be to see that there was no hope of a palestinian state ability what we see netanyahu do this time which is so different we've seen him make minimal concessions to the americans after a huge amount of arm twisting by the americans he's almost destroyed the relationship with washington by recruiting. he's powerful zionist lobby in

washington to his to his course so he showed he's very unwilling to make any kind of serious concessions to the palestinians while following on from what you've said is this reason why you say that israel actually once and benefits from the chaos of the middle east well i've argued that israel is in favor of chaos in the middle east partly because. it's following in a tradition of well known colonial tradition of divide and rule one that that israel has implemented in the occupied territories the lesson israel learned from that is it's a very effective way of stopping any kind of resistance to your plans the palestinians have struggled to counteract israel's initiatives because they've been so divided. it's been a very useful strategy inside israel in the occupied territories and you say that the fact that they start a relatively large jewish community iran makes you skeptical of the threat that iran poses to israel and you've also ridiculed comparisons between ethernet energy

. do you not though think that israel has cause for concern reason to be afraid of a nuclear iran jewish population in tehran of at least twenty thousand maybe thirty thousand people who are living quite it seems quite happy there when they talk about their lives there they seem to be very comfortable they don't seem to be any signs of that they've been persecuted why would iran not start if it wanted to if it had this kind of racial hatred of jews if the iranian regime was really just a kind of symbol of a new hitler regime not nazis why would they not be starting with their own iranian population the reason that israel can't allow iran to have nuclear weapons is because if iran developed its own nuclear arsenal it would totally change the balance of power in the middle east at the moment israel has it's the regional bully it has the nuclear weapons it can pull them out as it has done several times in the past most notably during the night in seventy three. three war where it

threatened the u.s. that it might use those weapons if it wasn't riyadh and that's why the americans had to come in and intervene it has that kind of ability to pressure america and terrorize the rest of the neighborhood if you like because they have nuclear weapons now if iran had nuclear weapons there would be a balance of power there be this mutually assured destruction principle which we may not may not be ideal principle but at least it's something in terms of. counteracting the benefits that israel has as the only nuclear power what is the solution would you support a one state solution i would support anything that brought peace and gave palestinians and israeli jews the right to live happy contented lives. the question is how do you achieve that now some people say you can do it through a two state solution i don't actually think that's even technically possible any longer if it ever was we're talking about very small areas of land that would be left to the palestinians nobody's talking about it being

a militarized state who control the borders i mean there are all sorts of questions that nobody really wants to look at in any kind of depth at the moment because everybody knows the answers would mean that this wouldn't really be a proper state so i don't think it would end the conflict i think it might postpone it very briefly but we would just end up with the same kind of conflict my argument has been that almost certainly to do that in the context of a one state solution doesn't make things simple it's still going to be very difficult but at least you can see that technically it would it would it's possible it could work we're already seeing israeli groups starting to back the idea of one state solution it's interesting that senior members of netanyahu particularly could party the right wing party were actually a forefront of pushing for the idea that palestinians and israeli jews might share the land together realizing that some of them have done a pretty size the whole concept that that's very key to the whole left in israel which is the idea that peace will come through some kind of segregation the the argument that some people are making is once you create these bantu stands in the for. first one is gaza what you actually end up with is is endless war jonathan

cook thank you very much for joining us here on our team. the team that started off the world. under lasted for almost a floozy is the jewel of two superpowers and the brains. the budgets to. judge the spins congress on t.v. . to be soon which brightened. the balance from pundits to pressure these.

stunts on t.v. don't come. so . look for this on our to the international court of justice in the hague rules declaration of independence from serbia it was legal sparking fears a dangerous precedent is being set whoever the ruling is. cristina proclaimed

sovereignty in february two thousand and eight a move denounced by russia. a ruling against and ledge neo nazi gang in moscow has been put off while for the suspects go through psychiatric assessment they're accused of a series of racial hate crimes including murder and be found guilty face life behind bars. and in israel an arab man has been jailed for eighteen months for the so-called rape by deception he persuaded the women to have sex with him by pretending to be jewish. in their stories more in those developments a little later this hour in the meantime it's a sports next we didn't stay with us for that. great to have you with us this is sports today i'm you know neal i'm ves our headlines net gain it's been a disappointing year for spartak moscow so far this season but they did at least

come out the right side of an eight goal thriller on wednesday night. ice capades the constant the hockey league has released its fixture list for the upcoming season with the opening day clinker champions akbar's versus u h c. goals go or a week thirteen in the russian premier league had no shortage of strikes across the country we've got them all very very shortly. it's put side where we began spartak moscow have put a three game losing skid behind them to move up to seventh in the russian premier league the red and white surviving a five three goal fest against struggling sabir in a game which the spike the victory monitor of larry carp and cole the worst in the past for much is. it would have probably given a completely different assessment of his side before the seventeen minute markets are tucked up a stage from brazilian star ari seventeen george and john know. both

players having braces in the game played over from the eleven alexandrian to pain to those he didn't develop the fight his diving had or putting severe on the schoolboy twenty minutes from time sports lead was then high of the moments later check veteran thomas chizik with the free kick. martin during their well he helps your technique gain momentum three minutes later pull number eight then go sit beers with maxine asked yeah of finishing supposedly the five three sports. it would. sting with football were assessed in moscow look to have a bottle on their hands if they want to hold. star striker keisuke honda the japanese now on the radar of a whole host of english clubs after helping his country reach the last sixteen of the world cup finals in south africa british newspaper the daily telegraph reporting that arsenal and liverpool are evening to snap up one day before the

season the twenty four year old's agent confirming the interest but added that c.s. have not received any three offers the army men funded to a four year deal last december peace corps has risen significantly since the however and midfielder school twice in south africa including the winner against cameroon in japan's opening group which. bucked two domestic matters were a week thirteen of thirty in the premier league has now wrapped up the need to still the team to catch leading the way by half a dozen points following their two no win over sabir twenty two goals in all in this role and if you missed any at all catch up now it's goals go away. live .

live . live live . live

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talking i saw where the fixture list for the third consonantal hockey league season have been unveiled there is no waiting around for a must see clash the opening day putting together last year's finalists guarin cup polish bars on the last season's run a shop and a day named united hockey club will meet on the youth of september because i'm not that action then gets underway in february the twenty third all matches in the play all stages will not be best of seven series meaning rest days will be few and far between the leagues expansion continues apace in the form of two new sides from

twenty months east i'm still fucking and i'd fit live. in moscow hasn't always been the most easiest of places to go jogging clogg streets on the luck of running tracks just some of the difficulties keep fit enthusiastic faced over the years but . reports of that could be about to change. different goals different each different call base but what does unite all the speedo is sail off. however be a pace if you hurdles when it comes to jogging you go many people just don't understand what makes it what makes you not why you're running and why the great and the fun why should i do. and all this stuff but. once we move the other one month we can all start to to work with the bar with the runners understand that this is not true that this will just you know some thoughts behind you know to change people's hair if you sports where nike has open ten running clubs and bars

when you after it's going get professional opinion and some boys to the boys. when you're on the field or in the park there is a big risk of getting injured which we can recommend to all around the some special shoes and give a few tips about this technique the spawn dejan is trying to prove running can be easy and exciting for everyone from the very young to olympic medalists. of course i do most of my running into was but i enjoy running in parks as well there's a very special atmosphere and it's easy to green mosco may have some small streets but now there is a better chance to get some fresh air and put your feet to water but it was through our team. finally it may not be the fastest race in the world but for some the steel racing world championships remains a nail biting spectacle welcome to the latest addition to the summer sports silly season one hundred sixty five slimy speedsters entered the competition held in

norfolk and only ten would make it into the final one until a challenging thirty three centimeter force ready steady slope where the q. words with the winner the first reached a circle are falling to sydney this nail his blistering three minute forty one second mark somehow not a global best but it was enough for sydney to claim all the glory the world's fastest snail awarded a trophy stuff full of lettuce for all his hard work. his name sydney and he normally lives in chile has been training since the early spring and has been. and when did. you don't think me now i can forget that. when we first sort of woke up after the winter. time i think yes and how do you know he was that well championship. he just had that look about him. he's a champ in all for now but do you log onto r t dot com forward slash sports for

plenty more i'll see you soon. hungry for the full story we've got it first hand the biggest issues get a human voice ceased to face with the news makers on the. planet . and. the. man laughs. i'm glad. i.

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