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Israel expels record number of east Jerusalem Arabs
Israel cancelled the east Jerusalem residence permits of a record number of Palestinians in 2006, effectively expelling them from the city, the human rights groups B'Tselem said on Sunday. A total of 1,363 Palestinians had their residence permits withdrawn last year compared with just 222 in 2005, the watchdog said, basing its figures on interior ministry statistics. The figure exceeded even the 1997 total of 1,067, the previous highest since Israel occupied Arab east Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and then unilaterally annexed it.
Interior Ministry increasingly revoking E. Jerusalem Arabs' residency permits
The number of East Jerusalem residents whose permanent residency status has been revoked has surged by more than six times in one year, according to Interior Ministry data made available to the human rights group B'Tselem. The ministry attributes this in part to "growing efficiency." In 2005 the number of residencies revoked stood at 222, while by 2006 the number rose to 1,363.
Olmert rejects U.S. proposal for final status 'shelf agreement'
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected, during his visit to the United States last week, a proposal by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that Israel negotiate a permanent settlement with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Rice supports talks on a "shelf agreement" that would outline the permanent settlement but not be implemented immediately because of Abbas' weak standing.
Israel, Fatah crack down on Hamas
Abbas on Friday ordered all non-governmental groups, including those allied with Hamas, to get new operating licenses. They now have a week to comply. A senior Palestinian official confirmed Saturday that Hamas-allied groups are the target of the review. Heads of NGOs warned that Abbas' decree may be difficult to enforce since Hamas' social network provides vital services in an increasingly impoverished society, often stepping in where the cash-strapped government fails to deliver.
Israel halts removal of West Bank roadblocks after army objects
PM Olmert will announce a series of steps at the Sharm el-Sheikh summit today to bolster PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and the emergency government headed by Salam Fayad. At this stage the package does not include the lifting of roadblocks and other restrictions on Palestinian movement. In their reports yesterday to a meeting of Olmert, Foreign Ministry Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, most security chiefs opposed lifting the roadblocks and recommended that the travel restrictions remain unchanged until it is possible to better evaluate security conditions in the West Bank. During yesterday's meeting the prime minister showed frustration: "We have a crazy cycle here. If you do not lift the roadblocks, Abbas will head back into the arms of Hamas - and you are told that you did him wrong. On lifting the roadblocks, you [the security chiefs] say to keep the situation frozen. We must find a median path."
Israel will transfer only part of withheld tax revenues to the PA
The cabinet approved on Sunday the partial transfer of the tax revenues, withheld from the Palestinian government since Hamas took power 15 months ago, as part of a series of moves to bolster Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in the wake of the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip. According to sources at the Prime Minister's Office, a timetable for the transfer has not yet been decided, nor has a method for the transfer been devised. They said that "throwing the money all at once would be a wrong move on Israel's part,"
Report: Shalit being held in booby-trapped Gaza building
Shalit was kidnapped by Palestinian gunmen in a cross-border raid into Israel from the Gaza Strip on June 25, 2006. The reports said Shalit was being held near Shaboura refugee camp, close to the town of Rafah. The Israeli Channel 2 television report said Shalit was being cared for by two captors with whom he had formed a "cordial" relationship and he was being treated fairly. Shalit's living quarters were described as a two-room underground store with enough supplies to last two weeks, accessible down a ladder through a 15-meter deep shaft which the report said was lined with explosives.
One killed, three wounded in Israeli air strike on Gaza
Local radio stations said that an Israeli war jet fired one missile at the car as it drove through northern Gaza City. The car was totally destroyed, they added. The dead Palestinian was identified as Hossam Harb, 32, a local leader of the Al-Quds Brigade of the Islamic Jihad.
Video made of BBC journalist 'wearing bomb belt'
Deposed Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniyeh made reference to the videotape in a speech in Gaza in which he denounced the abduction as harming Palestinian interests. The Hamas leader mentioned the footage - which has not been seen in public - showing 45-year-old Mr Johnston wearing an explosive belt of the type used by Palestinian suicide bombers.
Ma'an's editor-in-chief prevented from attending UNESCO conference
On Friday Israeli authorities prevented Ma'an News Agency's editor-in-chief Nasser Lahham from crossing the Allenby/ King Hussein Bridge to Jordan to connect with a flight to Japan in order to take part in a UNESCO conference which he was invited to along with other journalists. Previously, the Israeli authorities had prevented Lahham from travelling to Jordan on June 15th to proceed with preparations related to Ma'an Network's new TV production about the late Palestinian president, Yasser Arafat. Lahham believes that his involvement in this TV series is the only reason he could think of for the Israeli authorities preventing his passage.
Armed factions fire projectiles at Sderot and Kfar Aza
The Al Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, claimed responsibility on Sunday for launching one projectile at the Israeli town of Sderot. Earlier, they claimed responsibility for launching one projectile at Kfar Aza, an Israeli village located east of the northern Gaza Strip. They said that their launching was in retaliation for "the assassinations and arrest operations which the occupation has carried out against the Palestinians," the latest being the assassination of an Islamic Jihad member in the West Bank city of Nablus. Also, a cell within the Al Aqsa Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah, also announced responsibility on Sunday morning for firing two projectiles at Kfar A'za.
Best to refrain from kissing this time
Let's assume that Ehud Olmert arrives tomorrow for the meeting with Mahmoud Abbas, Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah of Jordan with a Cracker Jack box from which he releases Marwan Barghouti. Can we expect Abbas to say thank you and not to also demand the release of the Hamas ministers and members of parliament jailed in Israel? Can the "president of all the Palestinians" compose a list of prisoners that includes only Fatah members and thus become the president of the Villages Association, an entity appointed by Israel? It is worth noting one small thing: The support for Barghouti is for the post of chairman; that is, he would compete against the pleasant-faced Abbas.
Let Gaza live – by Gideon Levy
Here is a success story: Israel and the West imposed a boycott on the Palestinian Authority with the aim of weakening Hamas, and a year and a half later this brilliant policy has yielded its fruits: Hamas has become stronger. If there is a lesson from the fiasco in Gaza, here it is: Starving, drying up and blocking aid do not sear the consciousness and do not weaken political movements. On the contrary. . . There is no alternative to adopting a nearly equal approach to the two new entities that have arisen: We need to help both of them. With or without Hamas, only a prosperous Gaza will change its direction.
Palestinian intelligence fingers Iran in Gaza seizure
"It is known that Hamas has balanced relations with all Arab and Islamic countries," he told AFP. "Hamas is proud that it enjoys this strategic depth in the Arab and Islamic world at a time when Tirawi's friends are vaunting their relations with the (Israeli) occupation and the United States."
Israel to send supplies to Gaza through secondary crossings, not Karni
Israel will use two small border passages to send in basic supplies, officials said on Sunday. They said the decision was based on security concerns. Around 3,000 tons of emergency food and medicine would enter the Gaza Strip during each of five weekdays. They said the government believes this amount would avert a humanitarian crisis in the impoverished coastal strip, even without reopening the major Karni crossing.
Haaretz editorial: Barak and the olive tree test
Settlers from the illegal outpost Adei Ad in Samaria a week ago uprooted some 300 olive trees belonging to Palestinians who live nearby. Uprooting trees is a deplorable and illicit phenomenon that characterizes the way settlers harass their hapless neighbors. It focuses on olive trees, a source of revenue for their owners and a symbol, because of their longevity, of an ancient claim to the land. The new defense minister, Ehud Barak, who gave in to the settlers during his previous tenure at the ministry, has promised he has changed. If this is true, even a little, he now has an opportunity to prove it.
Patrick Seale: Israel seems determined to dig its own grave
To most independent observers it seems plain that Israel's aggressive and expansionist policies have resulted in a steady deterioration in its strategic environment. It has acquired, or rather created, enemies on several fronts. Some other trends should cause Israeli alarm bells to ring. Educated European opinion is increasingly outraged by Israel's behaviour; meanwhile the Arabs are getting better educated, better armed and richer than ever before. If this were not enough, the trend to which Israel should perhaps pay the greatest attention is that its main ally, the US, is bogged down in an unwinnable war. So, is Israel rethinking its strategies? There is no sign of it. As an acute observer remarked to me this week, "The Middle East today is like Europe on the eve of the Great War of 1914-18. It needs only a spark to set the whole region on fire."
Hazem Saghieh, Al-Hayat: The Palestinian Cause and the Cause of Palestinians
Perhaps the gravest thing that happened in Gaza, as many observers noticed, is that the "sacred cause" and the "primary Arab cause" is no longer a concern. This result exceeds the impacts of the 1967 defeat, raising substantial questions about our minds, societies and peoples, and even about our individuals and their daily lives. Since 1948, we have shaded ourselves with that cause; judged the world on the grounds of its stances on it, and judged our regimes and thoughts on its standards. . . Scientific and technical revolutions have blown from behind our heads, and there have been economic shifts to which we paid no attention because we were so preoccupied with the "cause."
Aren't we good doggies, Mr. Bush?
[from the Hebrew edition of Haaretz] Israel is a good and well-trained dog. When the President of the US says: "Drop!" she obeys instantly. When he commands "Give me paw!" you immediately see Ehud Olmert smiling and shaking the President's hand. . . yesterday's visuals from Gaza showed just how far the homilies were disconnected from reality. Take for example that confused father cradling a plastic-wrapped baby's body in his arms. His baby had died, but he could not pass the checkpoint before persuading those in charge that his baby was actually dead. The bleeding wounded lay on the ground. The dissonance between the replete meeting at the White House and the horrible scenes at the Erez Crossing said it all: we are living in an era where everything is fake and the lack of care is colossal.
Israel and Gaza and a summer of war?
[These Israelis'] indifference to the predicament of Palestinians was not accompanied by any empathy with the Jewish settlers. Like most members of Israel's self-styled elite, they regarded both groups as a pain in the neck, an obstacle to the coveted calm (nowadays nobody uses the word 'peace' in earnest) brokered by the US administration. Yet, whenever one becomes involved in conversations here about the fate of the Middle East, an air of dejection descends that is far more pronounced than before. For most well-to-do Israelis, Hamas represents not just another hostile Palestinian group harbouring a profound hatred of the Jewish state; it is a vivid symbol of the threatening Islamic world. A decade of concerted vilification of Muslims has created a sense of collective paranoia in Israel. Talk of nuclear warfare is no longer taboo.
Column from Gaza – Welcome to Hamastan
I can assure the Palestinian president that his house in Gaza is just as he left it. There are a few dishes in the sink but the china is not chipped and it appears the armed Hamas gunmen now arranging the toss cushions have also dusted. Post-revolutionary Gaza is also one of streets swept clean, of repairs underway and Hamas members in glowing vests directing traffic (now called 'Members of the Public Order'). Public order crews supervise high school examinations, deal with urgent civil matters and prevent merchants from raising prices. Hamas wants the world to believe it has made Gaza a better place yet it has no control over its firmly sealed borders, there is no foreign aid, its rulers are rejected by Europe and the West and food supplies are running dangerously low.
Six UN peacekeepers killed in Lebanon bombing
Sunday's deadly explosion was the first time that UNIFIL has come under attack since it was reinforced last summer after the war between Hezbollah guerrillas and Israeli forces in Lebanon. The 12,000-member UN force from 28 countries along with 15,000 Lebanese troops patrols a zone along Lebanese-Israeli border. In a statement on its television station al-Manar, Hezbollah denounced the attack, calling it a suspicious act. The militant has had good relations with UNIFIL since the troops were first deployed in Lebanon in 1978.
12 die as Lebanese army raids militant hideout
Lebanese troops killed seven Islamist militants, most of them foreigners, in a raid on their hideout in the northern city of Tripoli on Sunday, while sporadic battles shook a nearby Palestinian refugee camp. Security sources said one soldier was killed and 14 were wounded during the 10-hour siege of an apartment building. The militants killed a policeman, his two daughters, aged 4 and 8, and his father-in-law after using them as human shields. The dead militants, who included a Lebanese woman, were not members of Fatah al-Islam, which has been fighting an army assault on its stronghold in the Nahr al-Bared camp north of Tripoli for the past five weeks, the security sources said.
Challenge of returning Palestinian refugees to destroyed Lebanese camp
Aid groups are preparing to return Palestinians to the ravaged Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon, though it remains unclear whether a breakthrough in talks between the army and Fatah aI-Islam is imminent. The Palestinian Red Crescent (PRC) is the only humanitarian organisation entering Nahr al-Bared, taking in food, water and medical supplies in ambulances and bringing out Palestinian civilians, despite an upsurge in fighting. Said Hoda Sueibi of UNRWA, "The first stage will be de-mining teams entering and clearing mines, booby traps and UXOs [unexploded ordnance] and securing a safe corridor so we can channel the basics, first aid and food and water to those inside."
AUDIO: The shouting mountain
This documentary recorded and produced by Seth Porcello in July of 2006 (just prior to the war on Lebanon) features audio of the people in the village of Majdal Shams shouting across the minefield (1967 ceasefire line) that separates them from their relatives in Syria. As one hears the Safhia family, who very graciously allowed the recording their conversation, one hears without interpretation what it is to go on living and coping with the reality of never being able to reunite with one's family.
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