From: Shadi Fadda
Today in Palestine!
Sunday, 8 July 2007
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni met Sunday with Palestinian PM Salam Fayad to discuss "improving the lives of the Palestinian people, without compromising Israel's security." The two met for the first time since Fayad took office last month. Livni said after the meeting that she was impressed with the Palestinian government's and Fayad's personal "resolve to change the reality." She said she got the feeling that he is serious and ready to take action.
Arab League plans first Israel mission
The 22-country Arab League will send envoys on a historic first mission to Israel this week to discuss a sweeping Arab peace initiative and how it might prop up embattled Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli and Arab diplomats said Sunday. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said the foreign ministers would lead an Arab League mission to Israel to discuss the Arab peace plan, which would trade full Arab recognition of Israel for an Israeli withdrawal from all lands captured in the 1967 Mideast war and the creation of a Palestinian state.
Stranded Palestinians on hunger strike
EL-ARISH, Egypt — Protesting the closure of their only gateway to homeland, scores of stranded Palestinians staged Friday, July 6, an open-ended hunger strike to demand the reopening of the Rafah crossing as a new report showed that the Israeli closures have left most Gazans live on aid with the economy teetering on the verge of collapse. "Today, we refused the food and started a hunger strike," Mohamed, a spokesman for the striking Palestinians, told Agence France-Presse (AFP). "It will go on until death or until we are authorized to go home." The strikers include many women, children and some Palestinians who have been overseas for medical treatment.
28 Palestinians die in Egypt since June 1 as result of closure of Rafah Crossing
Of the 28 casualties, 5 had died at the crossing. The rest had all died in Egyptian medical facilities. All of the deceased were Palestinians who had travelled to Egypt for medical treatment. Hassanein said that the continued closure of the crossing is extremely dangerous, especially as 20% of waiting Palestinians are suffering from chronic health problems. Among the dead were women, children and the elderly. There are also heavily-pregnant women waiting at the crossing. . . A Palestinian girl, Amal Habib, told Ma'an that she has seventeen family members trapped at Rafah Crossing.
Israeli army denys exit from Tulkarem for anyone under 35 for 5th consecutive day
In order to enforce the curfew, Israeli soldiers erected several barriers, especially around roadblocks in the neighbouring villages of Jbara and Annab, to the south of Tulkarem. A correspondent for Ma'an reported that eyewitnesses said "the Israeli soldiers at the two checkpoints are humiliating the citizens and intend to delay them. They do not care about old or sick people."
Israeli settlers torch Palestinian crops
Israeli settlers from Enav settlement, on Saturday set Palestinian fields ablaze in the village of Ramin , near the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem . According to a representative from the general command of factional coordination, Sadiq Salih, 150 dunams (150,000m², 37.5 acres) were incinerated. The land had been used to cultivate wheat, olives, almonds and figs in the area called Wadi Al-A'raj, west of Ramin.
Detained PLC speaker Aziz Dweik to appear before Israeli military court Sunday, July 8
Dweik is one of some 45 Palestinian Legislative Council members detained in Israeli jails. He was forcibly arrested by the Israeli forces from his home in Ramallah in August 2006.
Gaza farmers face difficulties from closures and incursions
The major trouble is Israel's daily threats against farmers and their crops through military incursions. Sometimes the farmers are aware of a planned incursion; sometimes they are sudden and unannounced. During such incursions, thousands of acres of agricultural land are usually demolished by military bulldozers and tanks. . . Amongst the agricultural crops which Gazan farmers export are flowers, strawberries, vegetables and citrus fruits. These products are very delicate and susceptible to rot if they are not quickly exported. The closure of crossings around the Gaza Strip prevents both imports and exports.
EU to reduce mission at Rafah Crossing
In addition, the EU monitors are monitoring the security conditions at the crossing before agreeing to return. Some 87 EU monitors and supervisors have been overseeing the Rafah crossing with Egypt under an agreement that took effect in November 2005 to help open up Gaza after the Israeli military withdrew from the strip, nearly two years ago. A spokeswoman for the EU mission said the number of monitors based in Israel would be cut back because of the uncertainty about the future of the crossing following Hamas' seizure of the Gaza Strip on June 14. She added that enough of the monitors would remain on standby to reopen the crossing on short notice if the situation allows.
Israeli cabinet approves in principle the release of 250 Palestinian prisoners
[out of 11-12,000] All but seven ministers voted in favour of the release of prisoners who had not been involved in the killing of Israelis. The 250 prisoners will all be affiliated to Palestinian President Abbas' Fatah party, and they are expected to be West Bankers.
Divide and be ruled – by Tariq Shadid
If Abbas insists on dividing, he should realize that in the eyes of those he now considers allies, he is still nothing more but another Palestinian, as disposable as any of his brethren. . . Do we wonder, why the use of the word 'Israeli Arab' has become commonplace all over the world, while this practice conveniently aids the goals of Zionism by reducing their Palestinian identity to a mere dream, as well as reducing the number of people recognized worldwide as Palestinians?
Human Rights Watch reports on 'indiscriminate fire' by both Israelis and Palestinians
The report asserts that "neither defence nor retaliation is justification". The report highlights the sharp rise in casualties from Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip since the Israeli military reduced its "safety zone" between artillery targets and civilians areas. The report indicates that the Israeli army could be hitting civilian areas in the strip as a kind of collective punishment for Palestinians. HRW reported that between September 2005 and May 2007, Palestinian military groups fired 2,700 handmade projectiles towards Israel, killing four Israelis. In the same period, the Israeli army fired more that 14,600 155mm artillery shells into Gaza. Shells fired close to populated areas killed 59 people and wounded 270, "most if not all were civilians", said HRW.
Major British workers' union joins moves to boycott Israeli products
Britain's Transport and General Workers' Union has called upon its 800,000 members to boycott Israeli-made products based on what they term Israel's "criminal policies in Palestinian territories." The TGWU is the second British union to call for a boycott on Israel this year - last month the British public services union UNISON also urged its members to refrain from purchasing Israeli products, basing the call on Israel's "criminal behavior in the territories," and Israel's responsibility for the Second Lebanon War.
Gaza is not Algeria – by Ahmed Yousef
The Abbas leadership has poorly calculated its political strategy, choosing to align itself with the Israeli regime and its Washington patrons in a bid to retain its hold on power. Yet it has compromised its legitimacy in the eyes of a large swath of the Palestinian public, and it has fallen into Israel's Machiavellian trap of sowing discord among Palestinians to avoid dealing with the real issue: ending the occupation, fairly and justly. Voters in the occupied territories are under no illusions about who planted the seeds of the current strife.
An Israeli love story – by Uri Avnery
The "Jordanian Option" gave up its ghost almost twenty years ago. And now, suddenly, it seems to have sprung to life again. It was more than a political concept - it was a love story. For decades, almost all Israeli leaders were enamored of it - from Chaim Weizmann to David Ben-Gurion, from Golda to Peres. Since Zionism was an idealistic movement imbued with profound moral values, it could not bear the thought that it was committing a historical injustice to another people. It was necessary to suppress and deny the feeling of guilt engendered by this fact. The idea of turning the West Bank over to the Hashemite kingdom was built on the illusion that there is no Palestinian people ("They are all Arabs!"), so it could suffer no injustice.
Zvi Bar'el: How can Israel and Abbas keep ignoring Hamas?
The Johnston affair, and the tangled web of organizations and splinter groups involved in it, raises the question: How can Israel and Abbas continue to ignore the only force capable of managing the Gaza Strip? And no less important: Is there still any point in boycotting Hamas or the Israel Defense Forces' operations that result in the liquidation of several wanted men from Hamas and Islamic Jihad and, as usual, several innocent civilians?
Five Qassams hit western Negev; building site damaged
Five Qassam rockets landed in the western Negev on Sunday, two days after Israel Defense Forces completed an operation in Gaza in which 11 militants were killed and eight rockets seized. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the rockets, two of which landed in the Sha'ar Hanegev region damaging a construction site. The other three have yet to be located.
Two killed, three injured in family dispute near Bethlehem
The dispute erupted over a piece of land in Ash Shawawra village, east of Bethlehem. Palestinian medical sources informed Ma'an that Yasser Hamad, aged 27, and Khalil Hamad, 22, were stabbed to death in the confrontations. Three others were injured in the Beit Sahour area, also east of Bethlehem, as part of the same conflict.
Palestinian youths listen to song mocking Fatah and Hamas on their mobiles
Palestinian youths in the West Bank and Gaza Strip can listen to a one-and-a-half minute song on their mobile phones slamming both Fatah and Hamas. The producer of the song refused to reveal his identity for fear of both movements. The new song uses rap music, it demands Palestinian leaders to either solve their problems or leave the Palestinian people alone.
Hamas's Executive Force storms Al-Azhar University in Gaza and seizes chemicals
The force members stormed the storehouses and labs that belonged to the scientific faculties at the university and confiscated large amounts of chemicals which have been used for scientific research for over 6 years. The university demanded the Palestinian officials "open a comprehensive investigation into the issue, which is inappropriate conduct against academic institutions." The university also called for "returning all the confiscated material and the punishment of the perpetrators."
More Palestinians flee Iraq for camp on Iraq-Syria border
The number of refugees in Al-Walid camp has now risen to 1,124. There are 330 more refugees in Tanaf camp, also located on the Syrian border, in addition to 420 refugees in Hasaka refugee camp inside Syria. The number of Palestinian refuges fleeing Iraq is expected to rise even more in light of the latest incursions, arrests and shelling against their residential areas in Iraq.
Enchanting scenery, without Palestinians
In these publications, there is no separation wall, no bypass roads. There are no roadblocks set up next to almost every Palestinian village, limiting the residents' freedom of movement to the point of feeling suffocated. There are no ridges that have been harmed to make way for settlements that look like fortified and alienated suburbs. There are no cave dwellers who have been banished from their homes on Mount Hebron , and no pupils who cannot go to school because their settler neighbors constantly harass them.
Dutch government orders company to stop work on West Bank 'fence'
The Dutch foreign ministry called the Rotterdam company's work on the barrier "undesirable," citing the 2004 ruling by the Hague-based International Court of Justice that the fence was illegal. Last year, the company agreed to halt its involvement following a request by the foreign ministry. However, the issue resurfaced last month after United Civilians for Peace (UCP) an organization promoting peace in the Middle East submitted evidence showing that Riwal was still providing equipment for the wall's contractors.
(Palestinian) History Erased – by Meron RapoportAmid the ruins of ancient Ashkelon stood Mash'had Nabi Hussein, an 11th-century structure where, according to tradition, the head of Hussein Bin Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, was interred; his death in Karbala, Iraq, marked the onset of the rift between Shi'ites and Sunnis. Muslim pilgrims, both Shi'ite and Sunni, would visit the site. But after July 1950, there was nothing left for them to visit: that's when the Israel Defense Forces blew up Mash'had Nabi Hussein. This was not the only Muslim holy place destroyed after Israel's War of Independence.
Twilight Zone / 'Mowing the grass' in Nablus – by Gideon Levy What do you do for 21 hours, trapped in one room - 28 people, including children and babies? How do you pass the time? How do you calm down crying and frightened children? How do you care for an ailing grandmother? You can't turn on the light, or the television, or talk. Armed soldiers guard the doorway and they've confiscated all the cellular phones. You can go out to the bathroom, but only after receiving permission. . . Why was it necessary to imprison six innocent families this way? If the Israel Defense Forces needed their apartment building, why not let them move into the neighbors' homes?
When is a non-Jew an Israeli? Detrimental semantics
"Israelis and Bedouins collaborate in promoting tourism in the Negev," the headline read. This is good news, but would it not have been better to write that "Jews and Bedouins" are collaborating? Did the headline writer want to say that the Bedouins in the Negev are not Israelis? This invalid use of the term "Israeli" is quite prevalent. There was already a newspaper headline that referred to a "romance between a Druze officer and an Israeli [female] soldier." This Druze officer serves in the Israel Defense Forces, not in the Syrian army. Should he be informed that he is not an Israeli?
Operation Eagle: IDF move on Hebron building retrieves rare raptors
The raid carried out by paratroopers of Brigade 202 last week was out of the ordinary. The paratroopers were not searching for participants in any terror actions, but rather for the victim of thievery and illegal commerce: the rare Golden Eagle, which the paratroopers were searching for with the aid of Israel Nature and Parks Authority personnel. . . Most of the birds that are trapped or stolen from nests are taken for sale in the territories or smuggled to the Gulf states, where there is considerable demand for these birds, some of which are trained to hunt.
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