Today in Palestine ! Thrusday June 7th -2007

Brought to you by Shadi Fadda

It's not just the occupation – by Ali Abunimah
"Forty years ago today was the last day the citizens of Israel were a free people in their own land," wrote Ha'aretz columnist Akiva Eldar on June 4. "It was the last day we lived here without living other peoples' lives." This sums up the cherished mythology of what is still called the Israeli left and much of the international peace process industry -- that prior to the 1967 war, Israel was pure and on the right path. . . The exclusive focus on the occupation serves increasingly to obscure that the conflict in Palestine is at its core a colonial struggle whose boundaries do not conveniently coincide with the lines of June 4, 1967.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article7012.shtml


PCHR reports casualties in past week
Between May 31 and June 6, Israeli soldiers killed seven residents including two children. Israeli occupation forces carried a total 35 invasions into the West Bank and seven into the Gaza Strip, and kidnapped 49 residents. Six of the kidnapped residents, including a mayor and a deputy mayor, were abducted by the army in roadblocks in the West Bank. Moreover, the Israeli authorities placed two Palestinian ministers, three legislators, four mayors and three members of municipal council under administrative detention. . . two children bled to death in Beit Lahia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, when the army opened fire on Friday June 1 at four children playing with kites near the beach; three were injured and the fourth managed to escape unharmed. But two of the injured children bled to death. A third child died of earlier wounds sustained during a military shelling to the Gaza Strip on Friday June 1.



Meeting between Abbas and Olmert to be held during summit of international Quartet
Palestinian Foreign Minister, Ziad Abu Amr has revealed that a meeting will be held between Palestinian President Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Olmert during the international quartet's summit in Egypt in the middle of this month. He described the forthcoming meeting as "more serious than the bilateral meetings held by the two leaders… These meetings are being manipulated by the Israelis from a media perspective, and for internal purposes only, with nothing accomplished regarding any commitments of the Israeli government."



Israeli security forces admit to 245 kidnappings in Gaza over the past 11 months
The Israeli secret police, Shin Beit, has presented a report to the Law and Justice Committee of the Israeli Knesset, admitting to the kidnapping of 245 Palestinians residents in the Gaza Strip over the past 11 months. In contravention to international law, the report stated that "Shin Beit uses the interim orders which allow them to arrest residents of the Gaza Strip, despite the Israeli withdrawal and the abolition of military rule." [End]



Al-Haq: Willful killing of 72-year-old civilian by Israeli forces in Hebron
Seeing the soldiers attacking his son, Yehia, who was unarmed, attempted to intervene and protect his son. While doing so, he was shot once in the forehead by an Israeli soldier; the bullet exiting the rear of his head. He then fell to the ground, where he lay motionless, presumably having been killed instantly. Immediately afterward, his wife, who was also unarmed, began screaming and attempted to reach Yehia's body. An Israeli soldier, however, opened fire on her, hitting her six times. Fatima, who was hit in numerous parts of her body, including the head and chest, fell to the ground.

Gaza fishermen's livelihoods in jeopardy
Gaza fishermen are now allowed by the Israeli navy to fish up to eight nautical miles off the coast after what the UN described as a "near total ban" on fishing since last June. The best fishing begins at about 18 nautical miles out, Gaza fishermen say. However, they have not been allowed so far out for so long that the coastal waters have been overexploited, resulting in the depletion of breeding grounds. At Gaza City's main seafood market, the concrete floor was almost bare of fish. "Our fishermen are now very poor. If you go to their homes you will see their families don't have good clothes. On the other hand, the sales of what fish we have are very low. Demand for fish in Gaza has fallen thanks to spiralling poverty, according to the World Food Programme. Increasing the range for Gaza fishermen would not improve the industry's long-term chances because fish stocks were declining across the Mediterranean, Israel said.



Sylvia Cattori: Sailing to Gaza
Silvia Cattori: Your mission states," We tried to enter Palestine by ground. We tried to enter by air. Now we are going to go by sea." This is an exceptional attempt. Why Gaza in particular? And why go by boat in one of the most patrolled places in the world? Greta Berlin: Israel says that Gaza is no longer occupied. Well, if that's true, then we have every right to visit. The truth is that Israel controls every entrance into Gaza, and the population is completely isolated from the rest of the world. Internationals can no longer go through the border with Egypt, and, of course, the Eretz border with Israel is closed to almost everyone. So, 50 to 80 of us, men and women, will begin our journey in Cyprus toward the end of this summer. One of the passengers, Hedy Epstein, is a holocaust survivor, and two or three Palestinians are Nakba survivors.



Ismail Haniyeh: Our rights have to be recognized
(also in The Guardian) The first step to change this catastrophic climate is for the west to engage with the Palestinian National Unity government, which envisages the establishment of an independent state on all the Palestinian land occupied by Israel in 1967, the dismantling of all the settlements in the West Bank, the release of all 11,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and the recognition of the right of all Palestinian refugees to return to their homes. If Israel is serious about peace, it has to recognize these basic rights of our people. The 1967 war remains an unfinished chapter. Nothing will stop our struggle for freedom and to have all our children reunited in a fully sovereign state of Palestine, with Jerusalem as its capital.


State told to explain Palestinian travel ban on West Bank road
The High Court of Justice on Thursday ordered the state to explain why Palestinians cannot travel on the section of Route 443 that runs through the West Bank as it connects Jerusalem to Modi'in. The court also demanded that the state explain why it has not removed roadblocks that prevent access to the road from Palestinian villages. From September 2000, the IDF has prohibited the travel of Palestinians on the road, by foot or by car, despite the fact that a official or legal order never existed. The part of the road in question is completely inside the West Bank between Maccabim and Atarot roadblocks and is the only main road in the area. When lands of the six villages were confiscated in the 1980s and the 1990s, it was explained to the inhabitants that widening the road was essential for the needs of the inhabitants of the entire area.



Jordan Valley open to non-resident Palestinians only if they are on foot
The Israel Defense Forces is only partially implementing the directive of Defense Minister Amir Peretz to end the ban on Palestinians' entering the Jordan Valley. The IDF last week began allowing Palestinians who do not live in the Valley to pass through the checkpoints but only on foot. However, sources in the northern Jordan Valley told Haaretz that in the last few days soldiers at the Tayseer checkpoint did not permit pedestrians to pass through [at all], contrary to instructions. A tour last week by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem found that the soldiers at the Ujja checkpoint, north of Jericho, were entirely unaware of the directive and the change to permit pedestrian traffic.


Rafah resident killed by Israeli military fire
The body of Fares Marzouq Abu Bakir, 23, was found near the Sofa Crossing, north-east of Rafah. Abu Marzouq was hit by several rounds of live ammunition fired by Israeli soldiers stationed at the Crossing. The Al Quds brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, issued a press releasing stating the Abu Bakir is one of the Brigades members, and that he was killed last night during clashes with Israeli troops stationed at the Sofa Crossing.



Israeli army resumes razing trees in Bethlehem
The Israeli army and a group of settlers continued their efforts to raze trees in a Palestinian graveyard near the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem on Thursday morning. The graveyard is located near a Jewish holy site known as Rachel's Tomb. The trees were due to be cut down in order to establish a wider security buffer zone around the wall in the area of the site. The Palestinian Ministry of Religious Sites had reached an agreement with the Israeli Supreme Court that any tree pruning should be carried out in coordination with and under the supervision of the ministry. Wednesday morning's action represented a unilateral effort by the army, breaking the recent legal agreement.



France condemns the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements
A statement from the French Foreign Ministry said that it has learned that Israel is planning to expand settlements in the West Bank, a violation of international law and existing United Nations resolutions. "France recalls that it condemns without reservation the expansion of the existing settlements, which are against international law and drain the efforts deployed with a view to restarting the peace process," the statement said.



Radio disruptions at Ben Gurion airport caused by West Bank pirate radio station
Communications Minister, Ariel Attias said the station had been found and closed down on Thursday. Despite this, some further interference was experienced by the control tower. All departing flights were suspended on Wednesday afternoon because pirate radio signals were severely disrupting air-traffic controllers' efforts to communicate with planes. Before IAI director Gabi Ophir grounded all outgoing traffic, flights taking off were being delayed by 10-minute safety intervals imposed between takeoffs. Officials at foreign airlines in Israel were livid on Wednesday at the failure to deal with the problem.



One Palestinian killed in renewed internal clashes in the southern Gaza Strip
A Palestinian man, said to be a Fatah activist, was shot and killed in the coastal city of Rafah on Thursday, after renewed infighting between Hamas and Fatah. clashes between the armed groups of Hamas and Fatah started during the early hours of Thursday morning. According to Hamas, Fatah activists opened fire at a post belonging to the Al Qassam brigades. An activist was killed and several others were injured during the ensuing gunfight. Meanwhile, Fatah sources have reported that one of its activists was killed when a group from the Al Qassam brigades surrounded a house and opened fire. Fatah sources identified the man killed as the activist's brother. In related news, the unidentified body of a Palestinian man has been found in the centre of Rafah, Palestinian security sources have reported.



Senior Fatah officials ask Israel to allow munitions into Gaza
The group says it needs the weapons to counter attacks by Hamas, which has an overwhelming advantage in the Gaza Strip. Israel has not officially responded to the request, which includes dozens of armored cars, hundreds of armor-piercing RPG rockets, thousands of hand grenades and millions of rounds of ammunition for small caliber weapons.

PNN launches a campaign for the release of Alan Johnston
Palestinian News Network (PNN) launched a campaign today on its website: http://www.pnn.ps for the release of BBC journalist Alan Johnston, kidnapped in Gaza some 13 weeks ago. The campaign is considered to be the first one of its kind in Palestine since the abduction.



Palestinians will sue Israel in U.S.if 'Intifada law' re-passed
Palestinian residents intend to sue the State of Israel for damages in U.S. courts and in other countries if the Knesset repasses a law barring suits in Israeli courts over damages incurred in non-warfare incidents. U.S. law permits suits against countries responsible for "humanitarian damages" in situations where the victims have no legal recourse in the offending country. Until now, Israelis were the ones to take advantage of the U.S. law permitting damages suits against state entities where these suits are not allowed. Such proceedings are ongoing against Arab Bank, which operates in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and which the plaintiffs claim bankroll terrorists who cause mass carnage among Israelis.



End of the road – book review by Gideon Levy
"Sof haderekh: mota shel medina" ("The End of the Road: Death of a Country") by Tzur Shizaf, I confess: I am not crazy about nature lovers and I am not a dues-paying member of the Society for the Protection of Nature. I am not a fan of those who care more for the land than for the people who live in it. In a country so bloody, oppressive, brutal and discriminatory, the struggle needs to be shaped by human criteria: Human beings come before nature. . . The author is a resident of Jaffa who lives in an abandoned Arab house. Not everyone would be mentally and morally prepared to live in a building whose legal tenants and owners are rotting in some refugee camp, and at the same time sit there and moan about the destruction of the landscape.


Farewell to our house! The Sakakini journals
Khalil al-Sakakini and his family were among the last families to leave the Katamon quarter of Jerusalem at 6 A.M., on April 30, 1948, a few hours before members of the Haganah and Palmach (pre-state forces [? terrorists] that preceded the Israel Defense Forces) took over the neighborhood. Al-Sakakini, perhaps the most prominent of Palestine's Arab intellectuals during the waning days of the Ottoman Empire and under the British Mandate, was then 70 years old. The Sakakini journals are a fascinating, very readable document, which is in essence the story of the destruction of Arab Jerusalem.



Avraham Burg: Defining Israel as a Jewish state is the key to its end
The former Knesset speaker and former head of the Jewish Agency says "to define the State of Israel as a Jewish state is the key to its end. A Jewish state is explosive. It's dynamite." In an interview in Haaretz Weekend Magazine, he said that he is in favor of abrogating the Law of Return and calls on everyone who can to obtain a foreign passport. Burg, who was interviewed on the occasion of the publication of his book "Defeating Hitler" said "the strategic mistake of Zionism was to annul the alternatives. Israeliness has only body; it doesn't have soul." "Judaism always prepared alternatives," says Burg, who three years after leaving Israeli politics is now a citizen of France and a successful businessman.



Leaving the Zionist ghetto – a conversation with Avraham Burg
What you are saying is that the problem is not just the occupation. In your eyes, Israel as a whole is some sort of horrible mutation. "The occupation is a very small part of it. Israel is a frightened society. To look for the source of the obsession with force and to uproot it, you have to deal with the fears. And the meta-fear, the primal fear is the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust." That is the book's thesis. You are not the first to propose it, but you formulate it very acutely. We are psychic cripples, you claim. We are gripped by dread and fear and make use of force because Hitler caused us deep psychic damage."Yes."



Twilight Zone / No body, no grave, no tombstone – by Gideon Levy
Sami was drafted into the Jordanian army a few days before the start of the Six-Day War and since then, it's as if the earth just swallowed him up.. Sami was born in 1948, a child of refugees. "Sami must have fallen in battle, may God have mercy on him," murmurs his father, and Jackson nods as the tears well up once more. Six others from Jenin went out to that war and never returned, not even in a coffin - enemy casualties from the Six-Day War whose burial place is still unknown. . . During the first few years the family still searched for him. They initially thought he was in an Israeli prison, possibly the one in Atlit. . . But the younger brother is still hopeful: "My father, and my mother, who is almost 80, say: 'May God have mercy on his soul.' What are you going to say? We, the brothers, still talk about him."



Losing Jerusalem – by Sayed Kashua
If the title of his new book, "The Market Square Is Empty: The Rise and Fall of Arab Jerusalem, 1967-2007" doesn't make it clear enough, the first lines written by Dr. Hillel Cohen should remove any doubt. "The Palestinian dream to see East Jerusalem become the capital of Palestine, which in the early 1990s appeared within reach, now appears further than ever from being attained," writes Cohen.



Ban products with a criminal flavor
Businesses and companies operating in the settlements contribute directly to the perpetuation of Israel's colonization. Agriculture demands relatively large tracts of stolen land and are a drain on Palestinian water resources. The organically cultivated fruits and vegetables from the settlements taste fishy, because they are grown on stolen land with stolen water, and the profits fuel the Israeli occupation machinery.



Ronnie Kasrils' speech to the South African parliament on 40th anniversary of occupation
Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, stated in the 1950s: "Why should the Arabs make peace? If I was an Arab leader, I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: We have taken their country. Sure, God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them. Our God is not theirs. We come from Israel, its true, but two thousand years ago, and what is that to them? There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis ... but was that their fault? They only see one thing: we came here and stole their country."



Israel won't try to change UN mandate on Golan
Despite the increasing tensions with Syria, Israel will not ask to widen the mandate of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) on the Golan, which is due to be extended at the end of the month, government sources in Jerusalem said. The sources said that UNDOF's mandate is extended every six months automatically and there are no grounds to change it. The 1974 disengagement established a buffer zone several kilometers wide on Syria's side of the cease-fire line in which UNDOF is deployed and the Syrians may not station troops.


Palestinians deploy in Lebanese refugee camp to stop violence
A Palestinian security force fanned out in two neighborhoods of the Ain el Helweh refugee camp near Sidon in southern Lebanon Wednesday to prevent a renewal of clashes between Islamic militants and Lebanese troops that have so far claimed three lives. The calm that followed Sunday's clashes, in which two soldiers and a militant were killed, continued to hold Wednesday as the combined force of secular and Islamic groups took up positions in the neighborhoods.



PLO Lebanon official calls for Palestinian force in refugee camps
Palestinians in Lebanon should be permitted to set up their own security force in refugee camps there to prevent the formation of armed gangs in the future, the top PLO official in Lebanon said Thursday. Abbas Zaki told a news conference Thursday that the fighting in Nahr el-Bared is in its final stages. He said the Fatah Islam members are asking to be allowed to stay in the camp or to be given asylum in another country. But we say that they should go to court because no one will accept them, and we will not accept them in our refugee camps (in Lebanon), he said. They are not a political organization. They are just gangs. Zaki said the Palestine Liberation Organization is proposing setting up a Palestinian security force of 4,000 to 5,000 members in the refugee camps in Lebanon, to prevent the formation of extremist groups in the future.



Unexploded ordnance hampering aid deliveries to Palestinian refugees in Lebanon
Unexploded ordnance and booby-trapped buildings are hindering an already highly restricted relief effort trying to provide vital food and water and evacuate the injured from the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon. . . The US State Department said on 5 June it would provide US$3.5 million to the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), in response to an appeal for $12.7m to meet the humanitarian needs of over 27,000 Palestinians displaced from Nahr al-Bared. US President George Bush also announced on 6 June that he was partially lifting a US ban on air traffic to Lebanon, in place since the 1985 [!] hijacking of a TWA airliner to Beirut.