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Shadi Fadda
Radical Palestinian guerrilla leader won't attend PLO meeting in West Bank
Monday - Nayef Hawatmeh, head of the Syria-based Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, has decided not to attend the meeting scheduled in the West Bank city of Ramallah this week, the DFLP said in a statement. The DFLP statement said it "rejects any Israeli conditions" to the visit.
Hawathmeh seeks to stay in West Bank
A top DFLP official told Israel Radio on Sunday that the DFLP leader wished to move back to the West Bank with his family and obtain a Palestinian identity card. Olmert's office said that Hawatmeh will be allowed to stay in the West Bank only for a few days. Construction and Housing Minister Ze'ev Boim, however, opposed Hawatmeh's possible arrival, saying that Israel had a "bloody score to settle with the man responsible for the slaughter in Ma'alot." Israel Beiteinu's Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Saturday, according to Israel Radio, that Israel should let Hawatmeh enter so that he could then be arrested and tried for murder.
U.S. offers $190 million to Abbas government
President George W. Bush offered $190 million in new aid Monday to the Palestinian government of President Mahmoud Abbas, seeking at a crucial juncture to bolster the Fatah-led government and revive peace talks with Israel "so we can move forward on a successful path to a Palestinian state." He also announced a regional summit will be held in the fall.
A new Nakba in Jaffa city
Ajami neighborhood, in the city of Jaffa near Tal Aviv in Israeli, on the compass of Israeli demolitions, and the arrow turns towards five hundred Palestinian houses, the homes of three thousand Palestinians with Israeli citizenship. Within a public scheme that remained of the first Nakba, the Israel government is planning to make the residents of that old Palestinian neighborhood to live a second one.
Settlers in Hebron area cut down Palestinian trees, signal of settlement expansion
Israeli settlers from the illegal West Bank settlement of Otni'el, located south west of Hebron, have been observed cutting down trees belonging to the Palestinian West Bank village of Rabud, Palestinian security sources have reported. Abd Al Hadi Hantash, a Hebron-based Palestinian expert on Israeli settlement, surmised that this action represents the preparatory stage for settlement expansion into Palestinian land. He added that he expects the settlers to now set up tents where Palestinian trees used to grow and to prohibit the Palestinian citizens from reaching their land, in order to take control of the land.
Bush will sponsor new Middle East talks
President Bush announced today that he will sponsor a new international conference this fall aimed at reviving moribund Middle East peace talks and paving the way toward a final settlement that would see a new Palestinian state existing side by side with Israel. Bush called upon Palestinians to reject Hamas, a militant group also known as the Islamic Resistance Movement and supported by Iran and Syria but deemed a terrorist organization by the United States, Europe and Israel. Making that choice, he added, would be the only way to achieve a viable Palestinian state.
U.S. fears Abbas is politically weak
Washington - A flurry of intelligence assessments has warned that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, the man US policymakers hope can help salvage the Middle East peace process, may not be politically strong enough to achieve that goal, according to US officials. The assessments have also cautioned that his opponents in Hamas that is being shunned by Abbas, Israel and the United States - will not be easily marginalised. The "West Bank first" strategy is the White House's biggest and potentially riskiest policy departure in its dealings with the Palestinian National Authority since it was created in 1994.
Haniya: No bowing to siege
GAZA: Hamas's leader in the Gaza Strip has no regrets about seizing control of the enclave last month and is ready to talk to Palestinian rivals and offer Israel a truce in order to bring his people security and prosperity. But Ismail Haniya, who says he is still prime minister and faces the responsibility of feeding 1.5mn Gazans, stressed he would not drop political demands in return for an easing of a blockade that has tightened around them since the Islamists routed Western-backed, secular forces a month ago.
"Today, the siege is tighter. Why this siege on the Gaza Strip? Is it because we want to end chaos and anarchy?" he said on Sunday in an interview at his office in Gaza City .
Olmert tells Abbas he will speed prisoner releases
Olmert told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday Israel would start freeing 250 Palestinian prisoners [out of some 10,000 – see Palestinian Prisoners' Society: http://www.ppsmo.org/english.html ] by the end of the week in a bid to shore up Abbas's new government against Hamas. But sources in Olmert's office said they did not discuss final-status issues such as the fate of Jerusalem, borders and Palestinian refugees.
Fayyad: No point in goodwill gestures without negotiations
Palestinian PM Salam Fayad said Sunday that Israel's removal of roadblocks and the transfer of funds to the PA would not achieve their goal unless there are simultaneous negotiations over a permanent solution to end the occupation. He rejected the option of cutting Gaza off from the West Bank , saying that it was an inseparable part of the Palestinian state. When asked about establishing a federation state between Jordan and the West Bank , Fayad said that such arrangements could be discussed only after the end of the Israeli occupation and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
More than 800 protest Bedouin house demolitions in front of Knesset
After the demonstration, the Bedouin began constructing what they called a "refugee camp" in the Wohl Rose Garden across from the Knesset, which is to house both the Bedouin who have had their homes destroyed and those whose homes are slated for demolition. The Bedouin claim ownership to some 800,000 dunams of land, or 6 percent of the territory of the Negev desert in southern Israel. To this day, Israel refuses to recognize the claims, and an estimated 75,000 Bedouin live in villages unrecognized by the government, which do not enjoy public funding or services.
Israeli settler attacks elderly Palestinian farmer
An Israeli settler on Monday reportedly attacked an elderly Palestinian man, Isma'il Kokash, as he was heading to his fields in Wadi Qana, close to the village of Deir Istiya, located between the Israeli illegal settlement blocs of Ari'el and Immanu'el, in the north of the occupied Palestinian West Bank. Wadi Qana is situated inside the Immanu'el settlement bloc, squeezed between the settlements of Immanu'el and Yaqir. According to a statement issued by Salfit governorate, the Palestinian man was injured in his face, hand and thigh.
Number of West Bank settlers reaches 275,000 [not counting E. Jerusalem]
According to a report issued by the Israeli interior ministry, the number of Israeli settlers living in contravention of international law within the West Bank [not including occupied East Jerusalem where there are about 155,000 more], has reached 275,000, an increase of 5.5% in relation to last year. The total number of Jewish people in Israel has risen by 1.5% overall. The report stated that the number of religious settlers increased the most. 4,000 new settlers came to the settlement of Modi'in Illit, west of Ramallah. Bitar Illit settlement, near Bethlehem, grew by some 400 settlers.
Border Control – Who told them to give birth at night? – by Akiva Eldar
To ensure the security of the residents of Israel and for the sake of the settlers` convenience, the Palestinian village of Azun Athma has been encircled by a fence and has become an enclave closed on all sides. At 10 P.M. the soldiers close the gate and only open it again the next morning at 6 A.M. It is common knowledge that the Palestinians suffer from a serious lack of discipline, which starts in their mother`s womb. There are fetuses that insist on coming into this world right at the time when the Israeli soldiers go to sleep. What is to be done with these babies when Azun Athma only has a clinic providing the most basic services for two hours, twice a week.
Bethlehem family appeals for help for their jailed and allegedly tortured son
They are asking international human rights and medical organizations to intervene to assist a family member who has allegedly suffered 45 days of torture at the hands of the Israeli military while detained in Moskobiya interrogation centre in Jerusalem. Awad Al Tamri, a 36-year-old Palestinian married man with 5 children, has been held in Israeli jail since March 8. Allegedly he suffered physical torture in Moskobiya jail in Jerusalem for 45 days before being transferred to an isolated cell in Ayalon jail.
Palestinian human rights groups call for probe into Hamas over prisoners' deaths
They said at least two Palestinians were illegally detained and tortured by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Hamas promised amnesty for its vanquished Fatah rivals in the Gaza Strip. But since then, at least nine Fatah loyalists have been killed, according to local human rights workers. Hamas denies torturing prisoners and has accused PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' forces of detaining at least 300 Hamas members in the West Bank.
Palestinian Center for Human Rights: Palestinian detained in Hamas-controlled prison dies of torture
According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 23:00 on Sunday, 15 July 2007, the body of Waleed Salman Abu Dalfa, 45, from Gaza City, was brought to the reception department at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City , carried on a litter by members of the Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades. According to initial medical checking conducted by a doctor, there were "bruises on the hands and the legs, hematomas in the legs and signs of stranglehold on the neck." These results were further asserted also by a forensic specialist who checked the body on Monday morning, 16 July 2007, in the presence of a representative of PCHR and a relative of the victim.
Saleh Al-Naami: Hamas vs. Al-Qaeda
Islam Shahwan, police spokesman at the Foreign Ministry, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the attacks on music merchants and Internet cafés are now close to zero, down from about 35 attacks per month in the past. In the six months before Gaza fell into Hamas's hands, an Islamic extremist group calling itself the Islamic Swords of Justice -- a group believed to embrace some of Al-Qaeda's ideas -- was particularly active in Gaza. That group called for the closure of Internet cafés and music shops. . . Father Manuel Musallam, head of the Latin community to which many Gaza Christians belong, said that his congregation feels more secure under Hamas control. The Hamas parliamentary group includes one Christian deputy, Hossam Al-Tawil. . . The Haniyeh government and the Hamas movement go to lengths to distance themselves from Al-Qaeda ideology. In a remarkable move, they clamped down on the Army of Islam, the group that was holding British journalist Allan Johnston hostage. A well-informed source in Hamas said that the movement's action against the Army of Islam was not inspired by a desire to win international sympathy or prove the movement's credentials. Hamas is simply opposed to Al-Qaeda's ideas. So it is hard to take seriously President Mahmoud Abbas's claim that Hamas was trying to establish an "emirate of darkness" in Gaza along the style of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.
Children in Gaza, Zimbabwe urgently need help – U.N.
Children in Gaza and Zimbabwe desperately need help to ensure they have food, clean water and schooling, and international aid is running short, said Dan Toole, director of emergency programmes for the UNICEF children's agency. A shortage of donor cash was having a dramatic effect in the territories, which both face international disapproval because of their leaders' policies. Aid funding for UNICEF programmes in the whole of the Palestinian territories, including the West Bank as well as Gaza, is running at only 36 percent of needs for this year, while for Zimbabwe it is at 29 pct.
ReliefWeb: U.N. says Gaza needs $30 million in aid
The UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA, has issued an urgent call for US$30 million in aid for Gaza, as the borders remain shut for all but humanitarian aid and food supplies. About half of the requested aid is planned for direct-hire job-creation programmes for thousands of workers and the rest for cash assistance to help the neediest families buy food and other basic commodities, and shelter and housing repair projects.
Fatah militants accept Israeli clemency deal
Zakariya Zubeidi, the Al Aqsa leader in the city of Jenin, said he signed reluctantly. "I do not trust the Israelis," he told reporters. "But I am not going to be an obstacle to a political solution." "Guns and negotiations are different forms of resistance," he added. "We have to know how to use each one at the right time." Ala Sanakreh, an Al Aqsa commander in Nablus, signed the pledge even though many of his comrades, including his brother, were not offered clemency. "What will happen if the Israelis come after my brother and kill him?" he asked. "Can I stay quiet?"
Peres vows to pursue peace as President
Nobel peace laureate Shimon Peres was sworn in as Israel's president yesterday and pledged to seize the opportunity to encourage long-delayed efforts to achieve a diplomatic resolution to conflict in the Middle East. A former prime minister and Israel's eldest statesman, Peres, 83, was elected by parliament a month ago to the post. Though the job is largely ceremonial, past presidents have had substantial influence in Israeli politics.
Yossi Alpher: No one will fight Hamas on Israel's behalf
When there are neither obvious military solutions nor easy exit strategies, Israeli security planners and politicians appear to be increasingly ready to risk introducing international forces under less than favorable circumstances. This explains Israel's eagerness to introduce an international force into southern Lebanon last summer, despite the problematic nature of the "cake." Conceivably, a similar sense of exasperation as that during last summer could impel Israel to weigh the introduction of some sort of international state-building force into the West Bank. Without a viable "cake" of agreement with a credible Palestinian partner capable of enforcing its sovereign will, this too would be a very risky enterprise. Meanwhile, in Gaza, we can hardly expect the international community to volunteer to fight Hamas on Israel's behalf.
Osamah Khalil: Toward a Palestinian-led rebuilding
Rebuilding Palestinian institutions will require the full effort and expertise of Palestinians living under occupation and in the Diaspora. More importantly it is dependent on a belief in, and a program of, national unity and self-reliance. This will entail separation from non-governmental organizations and think-tanks associated with or sponsored by the governments of the United States and the European Union. An immediate benefit of this strategy will be a respite for Palestinians from the paternalistic pseudo-experts who have descended upon the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon like CV-building locusts since the Oslo Accords were signed.
80% of Gaza factories have shut down in past month because crossings are closed
The factory closures make Gaza's 1.5 million residents increasingly dependent on humanitarian aid, said Michael Bailey of Oxfam. If the crossings between Gaza and Israel aren't opened soon, "the slide into all-out dependency will be swift and inevitable," he said. Israel said it keeps Gaza's main cargo crossing closed for security reasons and because it cannot coordinate truck shipments with Gaza's Hamas rulers. Israel refuses to talk to Hamas.
Irish Congress of Trade Unions calls for boycott of and divestment from Israel
The ICTU - representing trade unions and trades councils from the whole island of Ireland - have today [9th July] passed two motions on Palestine that are extremely critical of the actions of the Israeli government in its oppression of the Palestinian people. It is highly significant and it should be noted that there was no opposition at all to any of the motions, despite the fact that they represent what must be one of the strongest positions adopted by any trade union congress in the world.
Research deal defuses Israeli academic boycott threat
Israel has circumvented the potential damage of an academic boycott with the signing of a new European Union agreement that allows the nation's scientists to take part in the next six-year research programme. The agreement, worth nearly £34bn, comes amid continued and heated debate over the vote in May by the University and College Union to consider a call from Palestinian trade unions to boycott Israeli universities.
Material for a film; Retracing Wael Zuwaiter
Wael Zuaiter was the first victim in Europe in a series of assassinations of Palestinian artists, intellectuals and diplomats perpetrated by Israeli agents that was already underway in the Middle East. Zuaiter was gunned down by 12 bullets outside his apartment in Piazza Annibaliano, Rome on 16 October 1972 . His companion Janet Venn-Brown told me, "He was a poet. He was completely lost without poetry." Following are two videos and texts which are part of the ongoing work "Material for a film" currently being shown in Venice:
The Qassam struck as the wounded man and his family were in the reinforced area of their home designed to shield them from such an attack. His wife and three children were treated for shock. Two additional rockets were fired at the western Negev on Monday, one striking near a local kibbutz's security fence, and the other causing a fire near Route 34.
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