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How war was turned into a brand
Political chaos means Israel is booming like it's 1999 - and the boom is in defence exports field-tested on Palestinians Israel's economy isn't booming despite the political chaos that devours the headlines but because of it. After the dotcom bubble burst in 2000, Israel's economy was devastated, facing its worst year since 1953. Then came 9/11, and suddenly new profit vistas opened up for any company that claimed it could spot terrorists in crowds, seal borders from attack, and extract confessions from closed-mouthed prisoners. Many of the country's most successful entrepreneurs are using Israel's status as a fortressed state, surrounded by furious enemies, as a kind of 24-hour-a-day showroom, a living example of how to enjoy relative safety amid constant war.
Abbas swears in new cabinet, outlaws Hamas fighters
The West Bank and Gaza Strip now have two bitterly divided governments, one secular and the other Islamist, both claiming sole legitimacy to rule the embattled Palestinian people. "The executive force and Hamas militias are declared outside the law for having carried out an armed rebellion against Palestinian legitimacy and its institutions," according to a decree issued by the Western-backed Fateh leader. Hamas, however, swiftly branded the new emergency government "illegitimate". "The only legitimacy it can pride itself on is the acknowledgment of the American administration and the Israeli occupation," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zouhri told AFP.
Fayad sworn in as PM, vows to restore security to Palestinians
"The first piority of our government is security and the security situation," he told reporters. "The mission will be difficult and hard, but not impossible," he said. Fayad is a respected economist and will retain his former position of finance minister and take on the post of foreign minister. Fayad replaced deposed Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas. Hamas, which is not represented in the new cabinet, said it considers Abbas' cabinet illegal. In order to establish the emergency cabinet Abbas issued a special decree on Saturday bypassing parliament approval. Hamas has a majority in the parliament - although the arrests by Israel of nearly half of the Hamas' lawmakers puts that majority in doubt and also makes it hard to reach a quorum. That could enable Abbas to keep the state of emergency in place longer. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said that Abbas "unfortunately is involved in the American-Israeli conspiracy, along with some Arab parties, to bring down the Hamas movement."
Olmert: West Bank residents can expect 'dramatic improvements'
Senior Israeli officials said Olmert and Bush would discuss a series of "gestures" they planned to take, including the release to Abbas of a portion of the Palestinian Authority's tax revenues being withheld by Israel. Israeli officials estimated that $300 million to $400 million in Palestinian tax revenues could be transferred, short of the $700 million sought by Abbas.
Hamas: "Fateh gunmen executed Jamal al Ustah, one of our activists in Nablus"
The sources added that gunmen driving a speeding vehicle fired at Al Ustah after chasing him and seriously injured him. He died later on of his wounds at the Rafidia hospital in the city. Al Ustah, 45, worked as a guard at the Red Crescent Society in the Khallit Al Amoud area in Nablus. Hamas stated that this execution comes only a few days after Fateh gunmen executed Anees Al Sal'ous, one of its members, after abducting him from a mosque in the city. In a separate incident, gunmen burned the house of Hasan Al Teety, Al Jazeera and Reuters reporter and cameraman in Nablus.
Executive Force seizes drugs and weapons in the Gaza Strip
The Hamas-affiliated Executive Force in the Gaza Strip announced on Sunday that they seized a large quantity of drugs and weapons in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis. They said, "That was the largest amount of drugs ever discovered in the Gaza Strip." The Executive Force said that they besieged the drug-dealers for more than five hours before they were able to capture them.
Palestinian UNRWA employees resume work after a two-day stoppage
The media advisor to United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Adnan Abu Hasnah, announced that the Palestinian staff of the UN have resumed operation on Sunday after a two-day cessation of activity. Abu Hasnah told Ma'an via telephone that the foreign employees in the Gaza Strip have not yet resumed work.
Palestinians exit Friday prayers and enter mass detentions
At 1:00pm near the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron three international human rights workers were waiting, with members of Christian Peacemaker Teams, for Palestinains to leave the Mosque following Friday prayers. Palestinians were only allowed to worship inside the Mosque after giving their identity cards to the soldiers. At 1:00-1:15pm, the prayers ended and the Palestinians began to leave the Mosque. About 160-180 young to middle age Palestinian men then began to wait for their huwwiyas to be returned next to the Mosque. . . 60 Palestinians were forced to wait for 2 full hours before the Red Cross, whom internationals had called, managed to get all the Palestinians released except for one 21 year old boy.
Amnesty International: Enduring occupation
Marking the 40th year of Occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. human rights group Amnesty International released a 45 page report citing gross human rights violations, breaches of International law, and breaches of UN resolutions with respect to the rights of Palestinians. The Amnesty report documents the expansionist settlement policies within Palestinian territories, the severe food and economic crises resulting from economic and movement restrictions, the continued policy of illegal Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes, and the systematic enforcement of Apartheid policies against Palestinians in their own Territories. Amnesty calls on Israel to immediately end its Occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, and highlights the urgent need for international monitoring mechanisms.
Hamas denies reports that it signed a comprehensive agreement with Israel
There have been reports in the media that Hamas received a document from Qatar requesting the cessation of rocket attacks on Israeli towns in exchange for direct negotiations with Israel and recognition of the movement's control over the Gaza Strip. Spokesperson of the Hamas movement, Sami Abu Zuhri, on Sunday denied that Hamas received any document from Qatar. He said, "It is Fatah who the occupation recognizes in public not Hamas." Sources close to Fatah alleged that there was a comprehensive political deal negotiated between Israel and Hamas under Qatari patronage.
PFLP radio station in Gaza robbed
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-affiliated Ash Sha'b radio station in Gaza City was burgled on Friday evening. The station's board of directors issued a statement saying that an unidentified mob ransacked the station's headquarters on Jamal Abd An Nasser street in Gaza City and stole the contents of the building, which are estimated to amount to $70,000.
Unnamed prisoner is second Palestinian to die in an Israeli jail in under a fortnight
30-year-old Palestinian prisoner serving his sentence in the Israeli jail of Shatta died late on Saturday night. The Israeli authorities refused to reveal the prisoner's name, or where he was from. They only reported that "a Palestinian prisoner, aged 30, who was ill, died at Affola Hospital, where he was transferred a week ago." Less than two weeks ago another Palestinian prisoner, Mahir Dandan, aged 38, from Balata refugee camp, died in Gilbou' prison in Israel.
Allied Palestinian brigades destroy an Israeli military bulldozer in northern Gaza
Hamas' military wing, the Qassam Brigades, and the An Nasser Brigades of the Popular Resistance Committees, issued a joint statement on Sunday announcing that they destroyed an Israeli military bulldozer belonging to an engineering unit near the northern border of the Gaza Strip. The statement said, "The operation was filmed and it will be published on the media outlets soon."
Gaza faces crisis as Israel closes all crossings
Gaza – Ma'an – The prices of basic goods, including food and cigarettes, soared in the Gaza Strip and bakeries and shops are experiencing high demand as a result of fear among local citizens that Israel may blockade the Strip. The media advisor of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Adnan Abu Hasnah, warned of a humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip if the Israel-imposed siege continues. Hasnah added that UNRWA has food reserves to last for just three weeks in the Gaza Strip. "We don't want to use these food reserves as they are allocated for services to 870,000 ['official'] Gazan refugees," he said.
Israel sends troops into Gaza, cuts off petrol supply
(AFP) Deputy Defence Minister Ephraim Sneh said that the incursion into areas of the Gaza Strip was not part of an offensive. "These are activities of a preventive character," he said. Israel has insisted the petrol company cut supplies at the request of Mr Abbas's Government; Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat retorted that the reverse was the case. A senior official travelling with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on a visit to the US insisted that Israel would ensure the delivery of essential supplies.
'Israel not responsible for Gaza refugees'
Ibrahim Habib, field work coordinator at the Physicians for Human Rights organization, said that "we know of many injured and sick people who are at the crossings. We are talking about some hundreds of people without food and medical treatment. There are many patients who have to undergo complicated surgery, but there is no one to perform the operations." According to him, the hospitals in the Strip are now serving as Hamas bases. According to Israeli security, "Not everyone who wants to flee is really in danger. The people want to escape also for fear of the economic and social situation in Gaza. If we allow masses of people to leave Gaza to the West Bank , it is unclear how this will affect the Judea and Samaria [West Bank] area."
Israeli politicians at odds over Israel's response to Gaza crisis
The state of Israel must not wait for a catastrophe to take place in Gaza, Knesset Member Zahava Gal-On, chairwoman of the Meretz faction, said Sunday. MK Arieh Eldad (National Union-National Religious Party) believes, on the other hand, that the supplies of food, water and electricity to the Strip must be halted immediately. "We must not supply them with even one crumb of food," he said. According to former Knesset member Uri Avnery, "There are no morals and no wisdom here. Years ago we said we would not make peace with Arafat, and then we crushed and destroyed Arafat's rule. Then came Abu Mazen (Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas), who as opposed to Arafat was considered 'the good guy.' He wasn't given a thing and was destroyed. This man did not get the smallest bone during his entire term. And then, when the Palestinian unity government was established, there was an opportunity to negotiate with all the Palestinian people – and instead of taking advantage of it, we destroyed everything." Avnery called on the Israeli government "to lift the blockade on the Palestinian people, open the crossings and give a condition that we will talk in accordance with the conduct of the government in Gaza.
Eight Israeli human rights groups call on Israel to open Gaza crossing
"Hundreds of refugees are locked between the closed Erez crossing and a group of Hamas members who are preventing them from returning to Gaza. "Injured and sick people are locked up inside Gaza. Basic provisions are running out, and the shortage in vital medical equipment is worsening. The State of Israel cannot stand idly by while the basic human rights of Gaza's residents are being violated, and the lives of some of them are threatened." The organizations stressed the urgency of the appeal to open the crossings for passage of people and goods in and out of the Strip.
Report: Barak planning military operation in Gaza within weeks
Britain's Sunday Times quotes an Israeli source as saying that the operation will include 20,000 troops and will be aimed at destroying Hamas' military capabilities in a short period of time. According to the source, the Israel Defense Forces will launch the operation if Hamas continues to fire Qassam rockets into Israel, or if terror attacks against Israel are renewed. A close aide to Barak told the Times that Israel would not allow a "Hamastan," to rise within its borders, and that an attack on Gaza seems inevitable.
West Bank men shave beards to avoid Fatah arrests
The tensions in Gaza were felt all the way in the West Bank city of Qalqiliya where merchants in the local marketplace decided not only to mark down prices but also shave off their beards. "Nowadays a beard is no longer a religious decree, it's a clear and present danger," one of the merchants told Ynet. "Fatah harasses anyone with a beard and beats them, so may Allah forgive us if we remove ours to stay safe. As it is the beard is optional and not mandatory," he said. In Ramallah last weekend three French citizens were badly beaten by Fatah men who suspected them of being affiliated with Hamas due to their facial hair. Hamas meanwhile has accused Fatah of persecuting the religion of Islam and subsequently anyone who looks religious due to his appearance.
Palestinians ask: Who is my prime minister?
(Reuters) Who is my prime minister?" The stark question posed by one despairing Gaza policeman faces all Palestinians in the coastal strip after their president swore in a new premier yesterday and his Hamas rivals still backed the old one. But the Gaza Strip's 1.5 million residents face more than just a political dilemma since whatever choice they make, they could lose their jobs. Tens of thousands of employees have received conflicting orders. Kamal Al-Sheikh, the Abbas loyalist police chief, issued orders from his office in the West Bank town of Ramallah for policemen in Gaza to disobey Hamas and to stay indoors. But a Hamas-appointed Fatah police chief in Gaza ordered men to return to work. Khaled Abu Hilal, a spokesman for the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Interior, called on security personnel "either to attend to jobs or be dismissed."
Olmert: Rockets prove UNIFIL a must in south Lebanon
The prime minister pointedly stopped short of threatening any military response to the two Katyusha strikes. Both UNIFIL - the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon - and the Lebanese army widened their deployment to keep the peace along the Israeli frontier after last year's war between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas. Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said Sunday his country would "spare no effort" in finding those responsible for the attack which was the first strike on northern Israel since the end of the Second Lebanon War last summer. "Two Katyusha rockets landed in Kiryat Shmona, and caused damage to a vehicle and roads. There were no injuries," a police spokesman said. A third rocket struck next to a United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) base in the southern Lebanese village of Houla.
Lebanese army says it prevented additional attack on Israel
The Lebanese army discovered a rocket that was set to be launched Sunday on Israel and prevented it from being fired, shortly after three were launched and two landed in Israel, Lebanon's military said in a statement. The army blamed the attack on "unknown elements", the statement said. Hizbullah denied firing at Israel on Sunday. The IDF believes that the rockets were launched by a Palestinian organization in a bid to bring to an escalation in the situation on the border, either as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians, or as part of the struggle between the Fatah al-Islam organization and the Lebanese army in southern Lebanon
Direct damage to Israeli economy: NIS 8 million a day
The Israeli economy is losing about NIS 8 million a day in direct damages from the closure of the Gaza Strip as a result of the Hamas takeover. Businesses that market to Gaza or rely on production in the strip will be forced to find alternative markets and suppliers in the long run. Palestinian exports to Israel are also expected to be harmed seriously. Today such exports are estimated at NIS 4 million a day. Most of these goods are fruits and vegetables such as tomatoes and cucumbers, and other products such as bamboo furniture and textiles.
U.N. accused of undermining goal of Palestinian state
On the eve of his retirement, and after 25 long years with the world body, Undersecretary-General Alvaro de Soto of Peru blasted the U.N. in a 52-page confidential report to the secretary-general, accusing the world body of undermining the goal of a Palestinian state. According to the report, which was first published in a London newspaper; both Ban Ki-moon and Kofi Annan provided political cover to the United States and the European Union (EU) in their efforts to marginalize Hamas despite its electoral victories in the occupied territories. De Soto has little or no faith in the Middle East Quartet -- a group comprising the United States, EU, the U.N. and Russia-- which is said to provide a political "shield" for the United States and the EU to bankrupt the Palestinian government. "Even-handedness has been pummeled into submission," says de Soto. "This damning report by de Soto should be required reading for all U.S. policy makers because it explains why U.S. policy always boomerangs in the Middle East ," said Nadia Hijab of the Institute for Palestine Studies.
How Hamas turned on Palestine's 'traitors'
The first intimation something was different about the explosion of violence in Gaza between the forces of the government Islamist party Hamas and the Fatah fighters of President Mahmoud Abbas came with a no-show. A week ago, as four senior Fatah officials sat down with Egyptian mediators hoping to negotiate an end to months of spiralling violence, a message arrived from Hamas that it would not be coming. Tired of the endless round of street battles and tit-for-tat assassinations between the two sides, which since the election of Hamas early last year had brought Gaza to the brink of anarchy, the leaders of Hamas had in mind a different solution to Gaza's corrosive security crisis: a definitive attack on the faction inside Fatah it blamed for the escalating violence. . . How did Hamas win? In the eyes of Gaza residents, the fight and subsequent defeat were inevitable because Fatah's forces in Gaza were widely considered nothing more than an undisciplined series of criminal gangs.
EU to keep paying Palestinian government salaries in Hamas-controlled Gaza
A European Union aid program plans to continue making subsistence payments to tens of thousands of Palestinian government workers and pensioners in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, EU officials said on Sunday. The EU payments may be one of the only financial cushions for Gazans after Islamist Hamas seized control of the territory. The EU's Temporary International Mechanism pays monthly "allowances" - approximately $360 each - directly to the Palestinian Authority's non-security work force, bypassing the government. The TIM provides allowances to more than 77,000 government workers and pensioners, 60 percent of them in the West Bank and 40 percent in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian group says there is no deal to free BBC's Johnston
(Reuters) "Freeing this detainee has not been part of any deal with any faction or organisation. What appears on television screens and through the media here and there is untrue," a man identified as a spokesman for the Army of Islam in Gaza told Al Jazeera television. "If they do not meet our demands there will be no release for that detainee and if things become more difficult ... then we would seek God's satisfaction by slaughtering this journalist," said the spokesman, identified as Abu Khatab.
Those who denied poll result were the real coup plotters
The reality is that the only people who are really behind Salam Fayyad are the European and US diplomats who have long sung his praises behind the scenes to any journalist prepared to listen. So yesterday President Bush and the other members of the Quartet got what they wanted. . . So which was the real coup? Hamas's bloody attack on the violent gangsters allied to Fatah who have terrorised Gaza for a year? Or Abbas's unconstitutional moves yesterday with America's backing?
Palestinian split poses a policy quandary for U.S.
The idea is to concentrate Western efforts and money on the occupied West Bank, which Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah faction control, in an effort to make it the shining model of a new Palestine that will somehow bring Gaza, and the radical Islamic group Hamas, to terms. But like all seemingly elegant solutions in this region, this one has many pitfalls. It is entirely unclear whether Hamas would sit still during such an effort, whether Mr. Abbas would be willing to ignore the 1.5 million residents of Gaza or whether the separation strategy would gain the crucial support of the Arab world.
The Gaza Effect - Newsweek
The violent takeover of Gaza by Hamas is not just a death knell for Israeli-Palestinian peace, splitting Bush's dream of a Palestinian state [?] into two armed camps. It is also, along with the quagmire in Iraq, a historic rebuff. The fact remains that those places where Washington has most actively and directly pushed for elections—Iraq, Lebanon , the West Bank and Gaza —are today the most factionalized, chaotic and violent in the region. The next American president will have to grapple with a Middle East that is messier and quite possibly angrier than before 9/11. But also, in a larger sense, he or she will have to confront anew a harsh lesson in the limits of power.
Man held for murder of 'Israeli Arab' cab driver ruled unfit to stand trial
Julian Soufir, accused of murdering taxi driver Taysir Kariki in Tel Aviv in May, has been ruled unfit to stand trial according to a psychiatric evaluation presented to the Tel Aviv regional court on Sunday. The indictment ruled that the murder was carried out for nationalistic and racist motives, and because of the hatred of the accused towards Arabs. In his confession to police, Soufir said that when he stabbed Kariki, he "didn't feel anything, it was like slaughtering an animal. That's all the Arabs are, they have no soul." The attorney for the driver's family said "If this was a case of an Arab murdering a Jew, we would never have seen a ruling like this in regard to the mental or emotional state of the accused."
Clashes break out between Fatah, Hamas in two refugee camps in Lebanon
raising fears that the situation in the Palestinian Territories might spill over into Lebanon's camps. The first incident occurred on Saturday in the northern refugee camp of Beddawi. Hamas officials claim several members of Fatah attacked a Hamas office that was being used to distribute aid for the refugees fleeing from the neighboring Nahr al-Bared camp. No injuries were reported. Another incident was reported in the early hours of Sunday morning in the southern camp of Al-Bass, near Tyre. Hamdan said a clinic belonging to Hamas was attacked and an ambulance was destroyed by several members of Fatah.
Lebanese army tightens noose on Fatah al-Islam
Sporadic fighting continued on Sunday between the Lebanese Army and remaining Fatah al-Islam militants holed up in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in North Lebanon, with reports that the army controls more than "90 percent" of former militant strongholds. The state-run National News Agency reported on Sunday.
13% of Israeli Arabs approve of trying former MK Bishara, vs. 79% of Israeli Jews
Poll: 85 percent of Arabs feel they have no impact on decision making, while 38 percent of Jews feel Arab leaders more radical than public. [more]
The creeping separation between Arab and Israeli media
Many of the Israeli journalists who report on Palestinian affairs come from a security background where they have learned Arabic. Once they become journalists, the "way things work" seems to restrict these reporters to cultivating sources either among security personnel or with average Palestinians - the system and personal views don't appear to allow both at the same time. The result is that even within the media, military rationale and Palestinian voices are rarely juxtaposed against one another. . . In a very real way, as the international Arabic media has expanded, the Palestinian media has grown more meager. The new satellite stations have plucked the best Palestinian reporters and editors for their widely watched programming. Print journalists reporting daily events to international employers easily make two or three times the salary they would writing their own stories in the local press.
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