Thursday, August 2

Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines August 2, 2007 ~

Brought to you by Shadi Fadda
 
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Weekly Report on Israeli human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory 26 Jul - 1 Aug 2007 : Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Escalate Attacks on Palestinian Civilians and Property in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)


OPT: Child cights fact sheet Jun 2007

 
High Court rejects petitions against fence : Supreme Court President Beinish declares 'route is based on security considerations, need to protect the residents of Efrat; military commander is authorized to build a security fence for that purpose'

 
16 Bedouin hurt in clash over demolition of homes in Negev :   Sixteen Bedouin, including two pregnant women, were injured Wednesday in clashes with police over the demolition of two homes in the unrecognized village of Al-Nassra in the Negev.  Residents of the village say that police were unreasonably violent. Police, on the other hand, say that they were attacked by the Bedouin residents.

Settlers break Supreme Court ban on populating Matityahu Mizrah : Last night, hundreds of Israeli settlers occupied buildings illegally erected on land belonging to the Palestinian village of Bil'in, despite an order from the Israeli Supreme Court forbidding them to do so. The takeover came amidst rumors relating to the imminent bankruptcy of real estate giant Heftsiba.
 
Artas and Walaja: Anti Wall and Occupation Demonstration: On Friday the 3rd August Anti-Wall and Anti Occupation demonstrations will be taking place in Artas and Walaja. Both these villages in the South Bethlehem region are subject to having significant amounts of their land confiscated by the illegal construction of the Aparthaid Wall. The construction of the Aparthaid Wall is in direct violation of UN resolutions stating that the construction is illegal under international law. This grotesque land theft serves to economically and culturally impoverish the local communities by destroying their means of income and their historical connection to the land.  

Amnesty International Urgent Action: Palestinian House demolition/forced eviction :   Since the Israeli army's threat to demolish their homes, most of the people living in the village of Hadidiya have moved their tents and shacks a few hundred metres to the hamlet of Humsa. However, on 29 May Israeli forces delivered a written warning to the villagers in Humsa, ordering them to leave the area. They now fear that army bulldozers may return at any time to destroy them.

Israeli army invades home of imprisoned head of women's society: The Israeli army invaded the house of the Nada Al Jayousi, the imprisoned head of the Al Huda Society for women in Ramallah, destroying furniture and taking photographs early on Thursday morning.  Abu Obiedah, the prisoner's husband, reported that the Israeli force refused to speak to him during the invasion. The soldiers damaged furniture and took two computers, personal documents, the husband's identity card and a photo album.

Israeli army implements wide-scale abduction campaign in several areas of West Bank: The Israeli army abducted a number of Palestinians in different areas of the West Bank on Thursday morning.  The first abduction was carried out in Beitunia, west of Ramallah city in the central West Bank, where Israeli forces kidnapped one Palestinian.
 
Report: "33 killed, 300 kidnapped in July": The Foundation of International Solidarity for Human Rights published a report revealing that Israeli troops shot and killed 33 residents during the month of July, and kidnapped 300 residents. One of the killed residents was a child, and nine were extra-judicially assassinated by the army.

Palestinian detainees carry hunger strike in protest to medical neglect:
Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons and detention facilities carried a one-day hunger-strike on Wednesday in protest to the Israeli policies of medical neglect of all detainees. The protest was carried out after detainee Shadi Al Su'edi, 27, from Al Maghazi refugee camp in the Gaza strip died of medical neglect in an Israeli prison on Tuesday.

 
Israeli forces kill Palestinian youth in Ramallah : Israeli troops killed a Palestinian youth in West Bank city of Ramallah on Thursday morning in odd circumstances, Palestinian independent news agency Maan quoted an Israeli army spokesman as reporting. Palestinian police have arrested the youth but he jumped out from the police jeep and ran towards an Israeli checkpoint in Birzeit district, the report said.

Two killed in latest Israeli incursion in Gaza : The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) group said in a statement that one of its fighters, 22-year-old Saad Sabah, was killed. The army said its troops had "hit" two gunmen during "an operation against terror infrastructure in the northern Gaza Strip."
 
Israel pushing Gaza toward starvation - Abbas aide: Israel's siege of the Gaza Strip is pushing Palestinians toward starvation, a close aide of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday. Nabil Shaath, who is visiting Indonesia as a special envoy for Abbas, said Gaza needed humanitarian assistance and appealed to the international community to help end Israel's siege.

 
Haniyeh aide: Any future Israel-PA accord depends on Hamas: Israel and the Palestinian Authority will never succeed in implementing a permanent political agreement, unless Hamas decides to approve it, adviser to former prime minister and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyah Wednesday told Haaretz.

Hamas leader vows to "try" Palestinian PM : A Palestinian Hamas leader has vowed to bring Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and his cabinet members to trial for "breaking Palestinian law".

Report: Amnesty deal between Israel and Fatah falls through: Pan-Arab satellite television network Al-Arabiya reported Thursday that the agreement between Fatah militants and Israel promising amnesty to militants who turn in their weapons has fallen through.

Palestinian Ambassador to United Nations, Riad Mansour, must be "court-martialled or removed from office", says Hamas : The Hamas movement on Thursday claimed they hold Palestinian President Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad responsible for the siege on the Palestinian people, and for ignoring both the United Nations' Security Council decision, which aims to end this siege and the suffering in the Gaza Strip.

OPT: 1,600 Palestinians back in Gaza from Egypt:
Nearly 1,600 Palestinians out of 6,000 stranded in Egypt for weeks have made it back to Gaza since Israel started allowing them passage last week, an Egyptian security source told AFP.

Hamas bans Palestinian TV from Gaza:   The Islamist Hamas movement on Wednesday banned Palestinian public television from making or broadcasting any programmes in Gaza, which has been under Hamas control since mid-June, an official said.

Haneyya's government asks Syria to let in stranded Palestinian refugees:
The PA caretaker government headed by Ismail Haneyya on Wednesday asked Syria to allow the entry into its territory of Palestinian refugees stranded at its borders with Iraq. Hussam Ahmed, the in-charge of the refugees' affairs in the government, said that incessant efforts and intensified contacts were underway to convince the Damascus government to accept the entry of those refugees who have been stuck there for more than 15 months under very harsh living conditions.

Saudis 'Ready to Sit' with Israel : Israel and its US ally have said Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia who do not have ties to Israel should involve themselves in talks with the Jewish state as a goodwill gesture.

PM seeks outline of deal with PA before summit: 
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Wednesday proposed to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that Israel and the Palestinians draft "agreed principles" for establishing a Palestinian state as a basis for the international peace conference that the United States is sponsoring this fall.

Dr. Barghouthi slams Israeli crimes, calls for international intervention: Following an Israeli military invasion on Wednesday morning to Beit Lahia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, and the death of two Palestinians by Israeli military fire during the invasion,  Palestinian Legislator Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, called on the international community to practice pressure on Israel on order to stop its crimes against the Palestinian people.


Political obfuscation and stranded Palestinians in Egypt
: Seven weeks into their displacement from Gaza, up to 700 of 6,000 stranded Palestinians returned home this week via the Egyptian-Israeli-controlled border crossing at al-Oja, north Sinai. Their return via this terminal, traditionally used for the transportation of goods into Israel, is described as a one-time-only solution designed to solve the immediate crisis. The plan was forged by Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), with the approval of the Egyptian government. In total, by the third day of the repatriation process, 1,627 Palestinians had received approval to return home following a registration procedure stipulated by Israel, the PA and Egypt.

From Russia with love: A young Hamas operative met the woman of his dreams via a Russian website. A few years courtship and one Gaza takeover later, she was smuggled into the Strip, where the two finally wed.


Hidden tension between Hamas and the Islamic Jihad: 
The Palestine News Network was informed of a hidden sort of tension between Hamas movement and the Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip. The tension rose due to several activities carried by the Hamas-formed Executive Force, and conducts carried by the Hamas government in Gaza.

An E-mail Sent to Palestinian Representative at the U.N., Mr. Riyadh Mansour: Contact the Palestinian mission and give them a piece of your mind!

Rice arrives in Jerusalem with Saudi pledge: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice began a visit to Israel and the West Bank on Wednesday after securing a public pledge from Saudi Arabia to seriously consider attending a regional meeting called by President Bush to advance Mideast peace efforts.

West Bank youngsters visit bomb victims
: PALESTINIAN youngsters from the war-torn West Bank will meet with families of the Omagh Bomb victims this week as the anniversary of the atrocity approaches. 16 teenagers from the Palestinian village of Zebabdeh are taking part in the Youth Connections for Peace project in conjunction with a Dublin school. The young people will meet privately with many of those bereaved in the Omagh blast of August 15 1998, the single greatest atrocity of the troubles.

Death Squads in Gaza; Licence to Kill: The four men in traditional Arab garb didn't attract the attention of Ahmed Khalil, 27, when he drew near his farm not far from the town of Beit Hanun in northern Gaza. They looked like the vegetable merchants who usually come to buy produce in the early hours of the day. But as soon as they approached, two of them fired at his head with pistols equipped with silencers. He died immediately.

Rice meets with entire Palestinian Cabinet in gesture of support: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice assured Palestinian leaders Thursday that a U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference this fall is aimed at getting them closer to establishing an independent state and that Israel is ready now to discuss the main issues that need to be resolved.
 
Abbas tells Rice he working to improve security : Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at a news conference on Thursday that he was working to improve security in the Palestinian territories.
 
Back to a corrupt occupation : This is not the first time Israel has permitted the transfer of weapons and security equipment to Abbas' forces. The alarming thing about this report is that Abbas and his circles continue to cling to the illusion that the failure in the Gaza Strip was purely military. Equally alarming is Fatah's determination to do what Israel and the United States expect (and which it failed to do in Gaza): Fight Hamas.

The Nakba in Israeli textbooks and official discourse : The contents of school textbooks in Palestine/Israel have often been the cause of controversy, normally when a report is published purporting to reveal "shocking revelations" about the alleged indoctrination of Palestinian schoolchildren. Last week, however, it was Israeli textbooks in the spotlight, as the Ministry of Education approved a new textbook with a difference. As the BBC reported, "for the first time" the "Palestinian denunciation of the creation of Israel in 1948" had been included. This incident afforded a perfect opportunity for seeing how the Nakba -- what Palestinians called their expulsion by Zionist forces from their homes and villages in what is now Israel during 1947-48 -- is viewed by "official" discourse in the West (through the filter of the mainstream media), and within Israel itself.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article7134.shtml

Siniora clarifies his remarks on Palestinians: Sources close to Premier Fouad Siniora dismissed Wednesday media reports that Siniora was worried about the presence of large numbers of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. "The prime minister's stands were misinterpreted. He did not express any animosity against the Palestinian people, he just refused categorically their settlement in Lebanon," the sources said. "The prime minister has long contended that the permanent settlement of Palestinians in Lebanon cannot be tolerated because of Lebanon's demographic makeup and constitutional provisions."

The Poet, the Engineer and the Mufti: My first stop Sunday morning was at the home of Sheikh Abdel Karim al-Kahalout, Gaza City's mufti, an expert in Islamic law. I had come to see him because he has lately been gaining a reputation as one of Gaza's peacemakers, an Islamic scholar whose opinions are respected—at least in word—by both Hamas leaders and by many of their enemies in Fatah. When BBC correspondent Alan Johnston was held hostage by a criminal gang for four months this spring, the mufti issued a fatwa branding Johnston's captivity illegal, and demanding his release. In general, Kahalout preaches nonviolence; when I spoke to him on Sunday he decried the recent fighting, and complained that a recent string of attacks on Internet cafes by some of Gaza's most extreme Islamic militants should be stopped.
 
USAID provides scholarships to 800 students in Jericho: The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) today made tuition payments of $190,000 for nearly 800 students enrolled in three schools in Jericho. Under a banner that read "The Right to Education - Hope for Everyone," USAID West Bank and Gaza Mission Director Dr. Howard Sumka presented checks on behalf of the students to the principals of Terra Sancta, Franciscan Sisters, and the Jericho Benevolent Women's Society schools. The payments are being made under the American Scholarship Fund Program (ASFP), which is funded by USAID and implemented by the education organization, AMIDEAST.   

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