Friday, July 20

Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines July 20, 2007 ~

Today in Palestine brought to you by Shadi Fadda

Overcoming the conspiracy against Palestine
"Be certain that Yasser Arafat's final days are numbered, but allow us to finish him off our way, not yours. And be sure as well that ... the promises I made in front of President Bush, I will give my life to keep." --Mohammed Dahlan, in a 13 July 2003 letter to then Israeli defense minister Shaul Mofaz.


PA: Both parents held in Israel, 6 kids left alone
IDF holds Palestinian couple in administrative custody without informing them of charges against them or enabling them to stand trial. Meanwhile, their six children being raised by their grandparents, suffer mental distress.

High Stakes in Texas Muslim Charity Trial
Casual observers of US attempts to shut down Muslim charities might have an image in their head: funds solicited by Muslim charities for basic needs such as food, traded instead in shadowy back alleys for Kalashnikovs. It would be hard to blame them, given efforts by the authorities to paint US Muslim charities as being financiers of terrorism over the years, particularly since 9/11. This week, the trial involving the most high-profile charity, the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation, began, and the stakes for both the US legal fight against terror financing and charitable institutions among US Muslims are high.

'Don't mention the occupation'
The Palestinian political process seems to be going nowhere fast as Israel deigns to throw President Mahmoud Abbas scraps from the negotiating table, writes Khaled Amayreh in East Jerusalem.

Troops invade village near Nablus, demolish one home, kidnap two residents
Palestinian sources in Nablus, in the northern part of the West Bank, reported on Thursday that Israeli troops invaded Zawata village, west of the city, demolished on home and kidnapped two residents.  The sources stated that soldiers surrounded for more than seven hours a house which belongs to Al Natour family, broke into it and kidnapped Jihad As'ad Al Natour, 21, his cousin Fares Mahmoud Al Natour, and took them to an unknown destination.

Israel to annex thousand of Dunams from Arab villages
Several Arab institutions and parties in Israel started preparations to counter a new Israeli plan that aims at annexing thousands of Dunams from Arab villages in the Galilee in order to expand the regional district of Maali Yousef regional council in the Western Galilee.

Palestinian underage Detainees are facing harsh treatment in Benjamin Israeli prison
A report published by the Palestinian Prisoner Society revealed that Israeli soldiers in Benjamin detention facility, and the prison administration, are rejecting to improve the living conditions of the Palestinian underage detainees who are facing daily hardships and attacks.

Ahmadinejad: Iran fully supports Palestinian resistance
Visiting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here on Thursday that Iran is duty-bound to fully support the resistance of the Palestinian people. Ahmadinejad made the remarks while meeting with exiled chief of the Islamic Jihad (Holy War) movement Ramadan Abdullah Shalah, a source close to the Iranian delegation said.

US, Europe Firm on Shunning Hamas
The United States and Europe held firm Thursday to their boycott of the militant Palestinian group Hamas as Tony Blair tiptoed into the minefield of Mideast peacemaking in his new role as envoy.

Yes, you can work with Hamas
These decisions deepened Palestinian suffering. According to the UN, a family of four must earn over $2 per day to stay above the poverty line. Because of the US-led boycott, the number of Gazans living in poverty increased from an already high 65 percent to 80 percent. Among West Bankers, the percentage of poverty-stricken rose from 30 to 55.

Israel releases 256 prisoners
Today's prisoner release is the largest since 2005, when 500 Palestinians were released in February and another 400 freed in June. Those released include six women and 11 minors.

A peek inside Gaza's most infamous clan
Inside his heavily fortified compound, the head of Gaza's most notorious clan offers insight into his sprawling family that until recently was little known outside the unruly territory.

Gaza's economy barely alive
Since Hamas took over the strip, Israel has closed the border. Even as jobs are lost, one merchant gambles on a reopening.

Gaza update: living in limbo
Gaza may be calm at the moment, but months of insecurity have taken their toll on its population and economy. Kirstie Campbell reports. Gaza's streets are quiet. The infighting of past months has now subsided, but life is far from normal. Food security, always a fragile notion in this dry strip of land remains ever precarious.

Ex-Mideast envoy says US thwarted efforts
James Wolfensohn, the former special envoy for the Middle East Quartet, has accused the US administration of thwarting his efforts on the job, according to an interview published in Israel on Friday. "There was never a desire on the part of the Americans to give up control of the negotiations, and I would doubt that in the eyes of... the State Department team, I was ever anything but a nuisance," Haaretz quoted him as saying.


Spokesman: None of Hamas members among released prisoners
Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) said on Friday that none of its members were among 255 Palestinians released by Israel earlier in the day. Spokesman for Hamas Sami Abu Zuhri made the remarks in response to an earlier statement by Fatah that 30 of the freed Palestinians are Hamas members.

Moroccan king nominated for Righteous Among Nations title
Head of Jewish community in Morocco says King Muhammad V saved Jews during World War II by resisting demands of ruling French regime, making him eligible for title.
 
OPT: Camp refugees in Lebanon yearn to return home
They have been stripped of virtually all their belongings -- their houses, their livelihood, their precious jewellery, even their identity papers.  But the Palestinian refugees who fled the fighting at Nahr al-Bared camp in northern Lebanon and who are now crammed into the nearby camp of Beddawi only yearn for one thing: to return to the smouldering ruins of their homes.

Israel's war on intellectual life among untold stories of summer conflict
Piles of books, religious tomes, academic studies and years of effort were among the collateral damage caused by the war in Lebanon last summer. During 34 days of bombardment, Israel targeted more than 20 publishing houses and research institutes in the southern suburbs of Beirut - including warehouses for Dar al-Saqi, the popular London- and Beirut-based publisher of novels and literary nonfiction, and Dar al-Fikr Lubnani, a purveyor of educational guides and children's books. 

 Where to Lebanon?
Last year's war caused the fissures to gape. It also exposed the true attitude of the Lebanese premiere towards Hizbullah. Prime Minister Fouad Siniora could barely mention the word "resistance." In some quarters he was baptised Lebanon's hero, the tears he shed as he delivered his appeal with a quivering voice at the Arab foreign ministers' summit were deemed more precious than the Lebanese blood that was being sacrificed on the battlefield. Arab officialdom had come out on the side of Siniora and it made its sympathies clear through its condemnation of Hizbullah for starting the war and effective exoneration of Israel.
 
Iraq Security Developments
Iraqis reported killed: 54. Iraqis reported wounded: 13; U.S. soldiers reported killed: 1.; British soldiers reported killed: 3.
 
Green Party Release:  Greens support Iraqis in protest of oil law benchmark
Green Party leaders declared their support for the tens of thousands of Iraqis, including labor unions, who are protesting the Iraqi oil law 'benchmark' that the Bush Administration and supporters are seeking to impose as a condition for reconstruction aid.  On July 16, Iraqis took to the streets of Basra in a demonstration organized by the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions against the proposed law, which would place 2/3 of Iraqi oil under foreign control, granting 30-year contracts to US and UK energy corporations for 'development' of Iraq's oil resources.

The Buzz: Daily Kos blog warns Cindy Sheehan
The pro-Democratic blog Daily Kos warns the anti-war Cindy Sheehan that if she does, indeed, challenge House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, it will ban her from promoting her candidacy on the blog. She may have soured their relationship when she attacked Democrats in a Daily Kos diary: "The Democrats are the party of slavery and were the party that started every war in the 20th Century except the other Bush debacle. The Federal Reserve, permanent federal (and unconstitutional) income taxes, Japanese Concentration Camps and, not one, but two atom bombs dropped on the innocent citizens of Japan were brought to us via the Democrats. Don't tell me the Democrats are our 'Saviors' because I am not buying it."

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