to date this is our team could have you with us top stories now 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 set however the ruling is non-binding the plaintiff sovereignty in february two thousand and eight a move denounced by russia. in israel an arab man has been jailed for eighteen months for so-called rape by deception he persuaded the woman to have sex with him by pretending to be jewish. the ruling against an alleged 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 if found guilty face life behind bars. i'll be back in the update for you in about fifteen minutes from now in the meantime we talked to journalist and author jonathan cook who says that israel is a regional bully which actually benefits from division special interview next on r.t. . with

me 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 and jerusalem and ramallah at that location itself. tends to select the focus of your work 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 parties 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 by me today that there are several palestinian parties but 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 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 their 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 bus 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 grown considerably doesn't 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 it 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 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 that 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 the disengagement 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 is what we simply changed the oath 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 to the oil to legislation as the government is now calling it. 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 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 same kind of move you talk about lack of loyalty that we saw the elders maybe member of parliament earnings who are being lost some of her purpose just because she participated in the tele 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 how mean of course it was a very different situation and she's not only doing that is 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 blockades and same kind of threats that the people of gaza 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 dead 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 all slow 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 of oslo 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 are 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 americans he 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 was my 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 falling in a tradition of well known colonial tradition of divide and rule one 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 you say that the fact that they still have relatively large jewish community around 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 and jewish population in tehran of at least twenty thousand maybe thirty thousand people who are living quite it seems quite happily 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're being 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 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'm 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 but 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 you almost certainly need to do that in the context of a one state solution doesn't make things simple it's 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 as party really 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 banta stones in the.

first one is go is that what you actually end up with is endless war thank you very much for joining us here on our team. every month we give you the future we help you understand how we'll get there and want to bring the best in science and technology from across russia and around the world join acknowledging update on our g. .

top stories this hour to the international court of justice in the hay rules declaration of independence from so. small things isn't. dangerous precedent says

the set. up of the religious men bonding christina proclaimed solvent in february two thousand and eight to me denounced by russia. and israel an arab man has been jailed for eighteen months for so-called rape by deception in the story to the woman to have sex but tending to be jewish. and the routing against the legit neo nazi getting in moscow has been put off all four of the suspects goes through psychiatric assessment use of a series of racial hate crime to kill. if the guilty could face life behind bars it's. public but we mourn those news stories in less than fifteen minutes from now in the meantime the town is next with all the sports news. hello welcome to the sports news we'll bring you the latest from russia and the well that here is what's making the headlines this hour on real madrid's most

decorated player ever thirty three year old raul gonzalez is set to leave the club for the going to sleep. young guns while back on the town combine for the only goal of the game as manchester united but philadelphia union. and while the n.h.l. didn't like the new contract so much they decided to reject it. so you'd think pro gonzalez would have retired as a real madrid blab but nothing is written in stone in this world the legendary striker is close to completing a move to shelf in the bundesliga this thirty three year old have been linked with told how much to unite the blackburn and newcastle mashal he seemed to be added have a q and coach fellas magath is confident of securing his services some sources claim or who has already signed a two year deal with the german side last season madrid's all time leading scorer only managed seven goals in thirty nine appearances. meanwhile told them my man

city out two teams maybe just a couple of key players away from topping the premier league off the spasm failed to land joe cole who chose livable and stab both clubs and out chasing another hot commodity team usa star landon donovan. joy they meet with a look at the top and there was no doubt that it made up what he would tell them that. but. what choice if he did it might be. if you have it done on easy. then my could. be because don't listen. meanwhile munster united are also on the us to and last season's runners up obviously far from the best form so far only managing a wame away noble philadelphia union the only gold he's made way through the second

hall sloppy claim it held by the hosts danny welbeck and the saf and plays a perfect need to govern them does the rest which united up. and the frenchman celebrates with a down spare minutes late to the berbatov who came off the bench to have a chance to double the lead but the bulls bought happening from doing that so the red devils had to settle. the tree. stay with the ball webb says gumbel screw that to have a battle on their hands if they want to hold on to style striker honda the japanese now and the raid over 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 also no and liverpool are aiming to snap up poland before the new season of twenty four year old agent confirming that interested but added that haven't received any concrete all far as the man nailed home the to the deal last

september his stock has rise and significant in the sense that however the myth of the scoring twice in south africa including they went against cameroon in japan's opening group match. now went to the n.h.l. rejected a seventeen year eight hundred similar until a contract with the new jersey devils because it circumvents the league's salary cap the years of low salary at the end of the contract essentially wherever for the so purpose of lowering the cap a that while no side believes will play the final year is obvious deal at those times the n.h.l. players association will have five days for him to file a grievance on the mats and if the dolls an arbitrator who is familiar with the collective bargaining agreement will determine whether the league's rejection. of the contract was valid the arbitrator would have forty eight hours to decide whether the league was right to reject the contract if he agrees the contract would

be voided and again would be in under strict and free agent. meanwhile the fixture list for these third kontinental hockey league season has been unveiled and there is no waiting around for a must see question the opening day piecing together loss is finalists get in cup holders are bars and last season's arenas up and be d. or e. named unite that hockey club do not will meet on the eighth of september and no action then gets on the way on the twenty third of february all matches in the playoff stages will now be best of seven series meaning rest days will be few and far between the league's expansion continues at place in the form of two new sides you growl from hunting on seas and slovakian altitude. now it's getting harder in the to the francaise the ninety seventh edition of the race is nearing its end with a big finale on sunday meanwhile thursday and sprinted about the call to do it to win stage seventeen in one of the most exciting finishes of this is to the two

completed the last the one that is almost side by side and way i had of the pallet on with eventually crossing the line a few moments earlier. an epic win for the sox a bank drive although contador has now almost guaranteed himself a second straight overall victory with only three stages left check a straining by eight seconds walking rodrigues as you can see there on your screens came third in this seventeenth stage. now over in stockholm this is open champion lewis who isn't they sharing their lead with the reach of green and dustin johnson after the opening day's action the trio bring their lives aboard of the shooting rounds of five onder sixty seven all season containing his great donald gold that saw him go into the open title last week the south african. started with a birdie adding five further birdies on the back nine including that one at the final hole but the shot of the day belonged to another man at the are going to not

be with a sensational second shot out of a bunker which somehow dropped to the home. that moscow has done has been the easiest of places to go jogging clogged straights and a lack of running tracks just some of the difficult escape that enthusiasts have faced over the years but as was the most provocative course now that could be about to change. different job stiffer and each different base but what does unite all these people is their lawful running however day pace if you hurdles when it comes to jogging in moscow many people just don't understand what makes you what makes you not why you're running and live life and fun why should i join and all this stuff but. once we move the other one month we are now starting to work with the bar with the runners but it's done that this is not true so this will just you know some thoughts behind in order to change people's attitudes sportswear nike has

opened ten running clubs and more schools bars when you athletes can get professional opinion and some wise advice. when you're on an asphalt or in the park there is a big risk of getting injured but we can recommend to all around us some special shoes and give a few tips about thirty kmiec this foundation is trying to prove running can be easy and exciting for everyone from the very young to olympic medalists. of course so do most of my running indoors but i enjoy running in parks as well there's a very special atmosphere there and it's easier to grieve mosco may have some of the world's most chilled streets but now there is a better chance to get some fresh air and put your feet to war but it was through r t. and finally he doesn't have a team for the upcoming football campaign so and f.l. star terrell owens might as well retire for a career on television all together they tito show began its second season on the

beach one last week it focuses on all aspects of life and features these feisty public city perry monied jackson and kita williams. and kita. they. were you know we're working today obviously you're not because you're still in the same spot where from a b. even need to get out you gotta laugh when you're not talking to kerry you fell out with pavlo interesting and you're almost couched in a tennis ball at the wall is not going get it i don't currently reside. in l.a. so when i'm out there i'm either stand a hotel or you know bunk on one point one of their couches or what have you so you know that's what friends are for and so we've been friends for a long time we're comfortable with each other as you see with the chemistry that we show on the show that kind of goes with say what's on my they say what's on their mind and i think this was unique about our show is that it's real it has

a lot of depth in a lot of substance to it. and it's always falls from elba do log on to r.t. dot com slash sports for plenty more coming up right after this is the weather where the mania is at the top of the alice status. hungry for the full story we've got it for. the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers. areas which are made to police children. and their health. illnesses. merson them. to secure itself against.

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in the czech republic and he's available in the gallery hotel assayas central hotel prima vera denise and most of them full stop aida which i am a taste in bosnia and herzegovina available in. me and the children of each hotel cubic. foot you know hotel period to make hotels you have enough cold air a boutique hotel. in serbia multis available in moscow and hyatt regency. the. international court of justice in the hague rules kosovo's declaration of independence from serbia was legal this bomb is a dangerous precedent is being said.