Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines August 27, 2007 ~

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Shadi Fadda

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Action Alert: Al-Hadidiya and Hamsa (Jordan Valley) to be evacuated

  Settlers, state discuss legalizing some outposts, removing others
The Yesha Council of Settlements is negotiating illegal outposts with Defense Minister Ehud Barak's bureau. The main points of the agreement being hammered out are to evacuate outposts to which no legal solution can be found, while legalizing some and moving others.

Peace Now report: Settlers Enjoy Luxury Roads
While the State of Israel invests millions in constructing roads in the West Bank, it neglects infrastructure development within the Green Line, thus contributing to the increase in road accidents in the country, the Peace Now organization claimed Sunday.

Two Palestinians kidnapped near Bethlehem
The Israeli army invaded the village of Artas, south of Bethlehem city in the southern part of the West Bank, and kidnapped one civilian and his father on Monday afternoon.

Israeli settler runs over a Palestinian woman in Hebron
Security Sources reported that an Israeli settler ran over a Palestinian woman in the old city of Hebron in the early hours of Monday morning.

Israeli Soldiers Kill Farmer in Gaza Strip
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed on Monday morning a citizen in the middle of the Gaza Strip, medical sources said. T hey told WAFA that farmer was immediately killed on the spot as he was planting his field when Israeli soldiers opened direct fire on him in east al-Breij refugee camp, middle of the strip. His body was transferred to al-Aqsa hospital, but he has not been identified yet.

Israeli army attacks on Gaza fishermen are destroying their only source of livelihood
Dr. Ossamah Al Farra, the governor of Khan Younis city, located in the southern part of the Gaza strip, has stated that the Israeli army attacks on Gaza fishermen are destroying a vital source of income for Gaza residents.

Leftist Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades members survive an assassination attempt in Beit Hanoun
The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the armed wing of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), reported on Sunday afternoon that one of its groups survived an assassination attempt by the Israeli army in Beit Hanoun, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

PFLP warns Hamas against harming members, leaders
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) on Monday warned the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) against harming any PFLP member in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. "If the black incitement will lead to harm any PFLP supporter or leader, our blood will turn into a volcano of anger and burst in their (Hamas) face," Rabah Mahanna, a PFLP leader, told a gathering in Gaza.

Petition demands Palestinian access to e. Jerusalem hospitals
Physicians for Human Rights petitioned the High Court of Justice on Sunday demanding that the military government make it easier for gravely sick or injured Palestinians to reach east Jerusalem hospitals, which are among the very best in the Palestinian sector.

PCHR Calls for Rescinding the Decision of the Nablus Police Chief for Licensing Peaceful Demonstrations
PCHR strongly condemns the announcement made by the Palestinian Police Commander in Nablus that states, "banning the organization of any assembly, demonstration, or march except after the obtainment of official permission issued by the legal specialized authority according to Palestinian Law." The Centre affirms that this announcement is a flagrant violation of basic human rights and public freedoms, especially the rights of freedom of expression and holding general assemblies, which are rights, protected by Palestinian Law and international human rights standards. The Centre warns against the implications of this announcement, which undermines human rights; and calls for its annulment.

Gaza journalists protest against attempted arrest
A number of Palestinian journalists on Sunday staged a sit-in protest in front of the Journalist's Union in Gaza City after the executive force attempted to arrest a reporter working for Agence France Press.

Al Mezan condemns Israel's denial of ID for 100,000 Palestinians
Over 100,000 Palestinians who live in Gaza and the West Bank, but do not hold ID cards produced by Israel, have been stripped from their civil and political rights. This situation has continued since those returned to the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) after the signing of Oslo Accord and the establishment of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in 1994. Deprivation from their civil-political rights has led to serious violations of their economic, social and cultural ESC rights as well.

Donald Macintyre: The decision to prevent the Palestinian Under-19 team from playing in Britain is a blow
It's an irony that the boys from the Palestinian Under-19 squad are intently watching a recording of last Wednesday's England friendly against Germany at Wembley on the Al-Jazeera Sports channel when we arrive. If they are feeling any sense of Schadenfreude at seeing the home team go down 2-1, team-mates Abdullah Sada, Muhammad al Ashram and Muhammed Asdudi are far too polite to show it. Yet they could be forgiven for uninhibitedly cheering the visitors' victory, given the disappointment they have just suffered at the hands of Her Majesty's Government.

Fundraising and Support for the Up Coming Olive Harvest Needed
Despite the difficult situation in Palestine, your dedication and support have made the 2007 Summer Campaign a success (for some of the highlights of the campaign keep reading!) and have given hope and strength to Palestinian communities living under occupation. We are desperately in need of financial support to enable ISM to prepare for and function during the upcoming upcoming Olive Harvest Campaign.

What do Palestinians really think ?
"Palestinian poll finds support for Fatah government over Hamas." That headline from the International Herald Tribune, one of many similar ones last week, must have warmed the hearts of supporters of the illegal, unelected and Israeli-backed Ramallah "government" of Salam Fayyad. Last June Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and the national unity government he headed, and appointed Fayyad without the legally required endorsement of the Palestinian legislative council. This followed Hamas' rout of the US and Israeli-backed militias of Fatah warlord Mohammed Dahlan in the Gaza Strip.

 From the darkness of Gaza, Saleh Al-Naami monitors the dynamics of the ugly inter-Palestinian conflict
Adnan Abu Ras, 34, owns a small grocery shop in the Al-Rimal quarter of Gaza City. On Monday, he had to cancel further purchases of ice cream from Gaza's central distributor, since a couple of days earlier all the ice cream he had in his shop had melted and spoiled because of power cuts in Gaza. He did not want to compound his losses.

The strangulation continues
The crisis triggered by the 9 June closure of the Rafah crossing into Gaza is deepening, and it has not ended with the return of nearly 6,000 Palestinians stranded on the Egyptian side of the border via the Egyptian-Israeli controlled terminal of Al-Oja.

Israel's phony peace camp
On 17 August, the Guardian published a small article by Colin Shindler, a self-styled Israeli peace activist in which he berated Hamas for not talking to the Israeli "peace camp." Shindler argued that Hamas ought to engage peace-minded Israelis very much like the PLO, which he said assiduously cultivated Zionist and non-Zionist adherents.

Outposts and peace don't mix
Aside from the publication date, it is hard to find any differences between the weekend reports of an emerging agreement on settlement outposts between Defense Minister Ehud Barak and settler representatives and those on the outposts agreement Barak reached with the Yesha Council in 1999 when he was prime minister and defense minister. Once again, talks are reportedly being held on how many outposts the settlers will evacuate voluntarily, in exchange for the state "laundering" other outposts. Judging by the previous round, the outposts slated for laundering will indeed be legalized, the settlers will vacate a few rusty shacks, and most of the outposts will remain in place. The defense minister's office is not embarrassed to say that Barak "is studying the issue and has not yet formulated a position."

Rice to meet Abbas in Ramallah 'on September 16
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in the occupied West Bank on September 16 in her latest visit to the region ahead of an international peace conference, a senior Palestinian official said on Sunday.

A Global Justice Movement -- Why the US and Israel Should Lose Middle East Wars , By BILL CHRISTISON, Former CIA Analyst
George W. Bush has once again thrown down the gauntlet. The Mideast wars of the United States, he announced to the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention on August 22, must end only with a U.S. victory. He has not wavered in this position since September 11, 2001. The unspoken but real purpose of his efforts has been and will be to concentrate increasing power over the Middle East in the hands of the small group of rich and greedy elites who rule the U.S. and Israel today, and perhaps he will achieve this goal. The more important result, however, will be the elimination of any movement toward greater global justice, stability, and peace in the world for decades to come.

Jewish Hebron Market Heir Opposes Settlers
Unlike the Hebron Jews who were forcibly evicted from the marketplace on August 7, retired journalist Haim Hanegbi, 72, does not dream of returning to the city where his family lived for more than 200 years.

Rabbi Yosef: Secular IDF soldiers are killed in war because they aren't observant
Shas party spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a former Sephardi chief rabbi of Israel, told followers in remarks broadcast on Monday that Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed in combat because they did not observe Jewish religious laws.

The ongoing Nakba: Sickness and health among Palestinian refugees in Lebanon
Public health expert Michael Marmot underlines the relation between health and two fundamental human needs: autonomy and full social participation, adding that "deprived of a clean safe neighborhood, meaningful work, freedom from police harassment and arrest, and freedoms from violence and aggression, it is harder to have control over one's life or be a full social participant." [1] The values Marmot describes are ones that camp refugees in Lebanon -- like Palestinians in many other places -- do not have. That such conditions should be allowed to continue by the international community is in clear contravention of the first principle of the 1992 Rio Declaration: "Human beings are at the center of concerns for sustainable development. They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature."

 Meanwhile in Iraq

 

Meanwhile in the U.S.

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