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Left-wing activists, Palestinians cut hole in security fence
Left-wing activists and Palestinians cut a 30-meter hole in the security fence south of Mount Hebron on Saturday in a demonstration against its construction and route, which they said deviates from the Green Line. The activists said it took Israel Defense Forces at least an hour to reach the site of the incident. onathan Pollack, one of the protesters, told Haaretz the group had arrived at the site at around 1:30 PM, and had joined forces with a group of Palestinians from a village near Dahariya. The demonstrators even succeeded in disarming the electronic wiring and posts that reinforce the fence.
Assailant in Jerusalem attack identified as 'Israeli Arab'
The assailant who Friday morning carried out a shooting attack which left ten people wounded in Jerusalem's old city was identified Saturday as 29-year-old Ahmed Mahmoud Khatib - an Israeli Arab from the Galilee region in Israel's north. Three people were moderately wounded and seven lightly wounded in the shooting. The security guard whose weapon Khatib tried to snatch was moderatly wounded when Khatib shot in the shoulder. Khatib was shot and killed by another security guard. The northeen branch of Sheikh Ra'ed Salach's Islamic movement hailed Khatib as a martyr. The attack took place near the Old City 's Ateret Cohanim yeshiva in the Christian Quarter.
Mideast awaits end of Bush's term
That calculus - that the end of the Bush administration is approaching and things will be different afterward - now underpins political thought throughout much of the Middle East. With 17 months to go in Bush's second term, political leaders in the region are anticipating his departure and preparing for change. In Cairo, Baghdad, Tel Aviv and the Gaza Strip, no one rose to the Bush administration's defense,
Nurit Peled-Elhanen: The murder of Abir Aramin, 9 years old
On a Tuesday afternoon, the 16th of January, an Israeli soldier shot nine year old Abir in the head as she was leaving school to go home. The police and the courts have questioned no one except for Abir's sister, who was holding her hand while she was falling. The soldier will not spend an hour in jail. In Israel, soldiers are not imprisoned for killing Arabs. Never. It does not matter whether the Arabs are young or old, real or potential terrorists, peaceful demonstrators or stone throwers . . . That is the biggest success of Israeli education: the distinction between blood and blood, between dead child and dead child, and the inculcation of the firm belief that the murder of Palestinians and their friends is not a crime.
Combatants for Peace holds a meeting in Shoufa village, near Tulkarem
Combatants For Peace identifies itself as "a group of Palestinian and Israeli individuals who were actively involved in the violence in the area". The Israeli members of the groups served as soldiers in the Israeli military and the Palestinians were involved in acts of violence in the name of Palestinian liberation, according to the official statement of the group. The group's statement also states "We all used weapons against one another, and looked at each other only through weapon sights; however today we cooperate and commit ourselves to the following: We no longer believe that the conflict can be resolved through violence. We believe that the bloodshed will not end unless we act together to terminate the occupation and stop all forms of violence. We call for the establishment of a Palestinian State , alongside the State of Israel. The two states can exist in peace and security beside each other. We will use only non-violent means to achieve our goals and call for both societies to end violence.
Palestinian police fight with a Palestinian civilian in Nablus
The fight took place during a police campaign to enforce law and order in the city, Palestinian sources reported. During the short fight witnesses said that police officers fired rounds in the air in order to force bystanders to leave the area. No injuries or arrests were reported.
Saudi Arabia donates student travel grants to Palestinians
Bethlehem – Ma'an – The Saudi committee for Palestinian relief has on Saturday delivered a $731,625 grant, to enable 129 Palestinian students to pursue their study abroad. Dr Sa'id Al-Urabi, the advisor to the Saudi foreign minister emphasized that Saudi Arabia "has always supported the Palestinian people, and will continue to do so, in cooperation with international organizations". [not that the students will be able to use them! I know a young man in the West Bank who has twice received grants to study abroad, but was not allowed to leave the country by the Israelis either time. This is someone who has never been arrested and is not a member of any group.]
Aviva Lori: Something that burns the heart
Abu Jlidan asked for the floor, and delivered a remarkable extemporaneous speech in fluent Hebrew ("No one taught me Hebrew; I learned from life"). The hall fell silent when Abu Jlidan, a very comely woman, her face covered with a veil ("Not because of religion, but because there are men here - that is our custom") and holding a 6-month-old baby on her knees, invited her fellow audience members to visit her home and see for themselves the conditions in which she and her family live . . . About half of the country's 160,000 Bedouin live in 43 unrecognized sites, which are not connected to the infrastructure. Most of them have been served with eviction and demolition notices, on the grounds that they are located on state land. The Bedouin, for their part, maintain that they have lived on these lands for untold generations and that if the state wants to evict them, it must give them alternative farming land
Palestinian Executive Force in Gaza arrests, releases Palestinian cameraman on Saturday
The cameraman, Ra'ed Kafarnah, told IMEMC he had been covering a Fatah supporters' rally organized in Beit Hannon late Friday night; later his footage was aired on several international and local TV stations. On Friday the Hamas-allied Executive Force arrested at least 30 Fatah supporters in different part of the Gaza strip. 15 were arrested at a wedding for firing weapons into the air. Another 12 men said to be Fatah members were arrested by the executive force near the village of 'Abassan located in the southern part of the coastal region.
Twilight Zone/ The terrorist is neutralized – by Gideon Levy
Jihad stood at the dusty taxi stand and waited. He was on his way to the Open University in Bethlehem, to register for the upcoming school year. His father says that he hadn't decided what he wanted to study. Maybe that's what he was thinking about while he stood at the stand, exposed to the burning sun. And what was going through the heads of the soldiers who beat him mercilessly, with a club, with the butt of a rifle and with kicks to his head, so that he died? Is it possible that he tried to attack them with a knife, even though two eyewitnesses didn't see it? . . . And what kind of monstrous behavior is it to handcuff the bereaved father, and then leave him on the ground, in front of the body of his beaten and dying son?
New Israeli highway separates Palestinians
There are two pairs of lanes, one for each tribe, separated by a tall wall of concrete. The Israeli side has various exits. The Palestinian side has few. The point of the road, according to those who planned it under the previous prime minister, Ariel Sharon, is to permit Israel to build more settlements around east Jerusalem, cutting the city off from the West Bank but allowing Palestinians to travel unimpeded north and south through Israeli-held land. The Palestinians, Mr. Tufakji said, "will have no connection with the Israelis, but travel through tunnels and over bridges, while the Israelis will travel through Palestinian land without seeing an Arab."
President Abbas mandates electoral system of proportional representation
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has issued a presidential decree mandating the adoption of a full proportional representation system of "lists" in any forthcoming elections.This presidential decree came in the context of calls for PLO elections, the elections for popular organizations and in the forthcoming elections of the Palestinian National Council.
Fatah forms armed cells to fight Hamas in Gaza Strip
According to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, Fatah has between five and ten armed cells working against Hamas. he newspaper also reported that armed cells affiliated to Fatah have started shooting in Gaza City and in the south of the Gaza Strip against the private security forces of the Hamas movement.
Fateh spokesperson: Fateh armed groups are not operating against Hamas
Ahmad Abdul-Rahman, official spokesperson of Fateh movement, denied Israeli reports that armed cells of Fateh are acting against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Abdul-Rahman stated that there is no decision or intention in Fateh to violently resist Hamas' "coup in the Gaza Strip". Moreover, Abdul-Rahman accused Hamas of abducting Fateh members in the Gaza Strip, and violently attacking protests there.
PA minister: Fatah may take back Gaza by force
PA Minister for Prisoners Affairs Ashraf Ajrami said Thursday night that he did not rule out Fatah forcibly regaining control of Gaza but only in the event of a popular uprising against Hamas rule. During a conference in Ma'aleh Hahamisha, Ajrami also said that if a peace deal is signed between Israel and the Palestinians the Palestinian people will turn against Hamas.
Hamas prisoner at a P.A. prison said to be clinically dead
Hamas stated that one of its members who was imprisoned and tortured at a Palestinian prison was pronounced clinically dead on Thursday after he was transferred to an Israeli hospital. Hamas added that Moayyad Bani Odah, 22, was severely tortured in Jneid prison in the northern West Bank city of Nablus. In a separate incident, a Hamas member, Ala' Hassouna, was shot and injured in Rafidia neighborhood in Nablus. Hamas said that Fateh gunmen are behind the attack. Following the attack, Hamas gunmen took off to the streets, closed main roads, and stores, and fired rounds of live ammunition into the air. It is worth mentioning that Hassouna was repeatedly arrested by Israeli forces, and was deported to Gaza after two years imprisoned in an Israeli detention facility. After the two years he returned to Nablus.
Bani Odeh appears on TV
After days of argument over him Muayyad Bani Odeh, arrested by the Palestinian security services and allegedly tortured to the point of death, appeared Saturday on the Fatah-aligned Palestine TV in a pre-recorded cassette dated 10 August. Muayyad confessed that he had been collaborating with Israeli intelligence, "monitoring and betraying the Palestinian resistance". According to the recorded interview, Bani Odeh joined the Hamas movement in 2001, before being recruited by Israeli intelligence in 2003. He said that he was arrested at a military checkpoint near Jericho, in the eastern West Bank. He was then tricked into having sex with an Israeli girl, filmed by the Shin Bet for blackmail purposes. His family stated, "The Palestinian security had arrested our son for more than twenty days, after he was taken from our home in Tammun." According to the family, their son was severely tortured, and forced to make false confessions. The family declared that the confusion surrounding their son's fate "tarnishes the image of their son and family", and that their son is being "manipulated in the political game." On TV, Bani Odeh said, "I am healthy; I was not tortured but I regret the conduct which I was tricked into doing."
Al Sa'di: Postponing internal negotiations leads to more division among Palestinians
Bassam Al Sa'di, an Islamic Jihad leader serving a five-year sentence in an Israeli jail, called upon Fatah and Hamas leaders and the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to immediately start an internal dialogue that includes all the Palestinian factions. For the Palestinian nation Al Sa'di asked that the Palestinians should force their leaders to go to the negotiation table
Palestinian women in Israeli jails threatened with rape
Director of the Prisoners Center for Studies and Research, Rifat Hamdona, said that the Israeli prisons' officers are threatening to rape women during interrogation in order to force them to confess to crimes.
However, Hamdona said that there have been no documented cases of rape in the prisons and expressed doubt that such cases exist.
Ramzi Choura: Killing for honor – a deadly part of a larger trend
Between settler violence, Israeli military incursions, and mass Israeli arrest campaigns, Palestinian women know that every time they say goodbye to a loved one, it could be their last. But the women of the West Bank and Gaza strip also face more a personal and hidden danger. This danger is physical, sexual and psychological domestic abuse. Women find it difficult to report abuses because there is little or no legal framework in place to protect them - and because the "honor" of their families is considered more important than the crimes committed against them.
Gaza municipality employees go on strike
On Saturday employees announced an open-ended strike because of not receiving their salaries since December 2006. They said that this strike has no political or factional orientation. The 1,000 municipality employees are part of the 64,000 public sector employees that are not paid by the Palestinian government. The strikers say that they have always made the city their first priority, but now most of them can't feed their families.
Health sector in Gaza strikes in protest against 'Hamas activity'
The Palestinian local health unions in Gaza on Saturday called for two hours suspension of work on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday next week in protest against what they described as "Hamas activity in Gaza". The union appealed for an end to all forms of threats, abductions and violence against medical workers. The strike will exclude emergency cases.
Ali Abunimah: Mahmoud Abbas' war against the Palestinian people
while he treats Olmert to delicacies in Jericho, Abbas is doing his best to ensure that Palestinians in Gaza continue to suffer and starve due to the closure of the commercial and civilian crossings and tightened siege imposed by Israel since Hamas fighters routed US- and Israeli-backed Fatah militias in early June. Hamas has continued to react to Abbas' escalating war with equanimity, issuing daily calls for dialogue, reconciliation and a return to a national unity government. Abbas, while literally embracing the occupier and colonizer, has continued to angrily reject any intra-Palestinian dialogue. Y
Regis Debray: Palestine – a policy of deliberate blindness
How the world backed itself into a corner - What is taking shape is not the Palestinian state announced and desired by all: it is an as yet unperceived Israeli territory enclosing three self-governing Palestinian enclaves. All parties have a vested interest in preserving the international pretence. For the Israelis, history is being created under the cover of the pretence. Is this situation tenable to the end of the century? It seems doubtful. Could not at least one European government convey to our Israeli friends that we are not all taken in by the deception, and that those who deceive may not be its first victims - but will certainly be its last?
Saifedean Ammous: European hypocrisy
The tragic aspect of Europe's policy with regard to Palestine today is not just that is practically indistinguishable from the policy of the US, but that it comes bundled with great self-righteousness and an unshakable belief that it is not only the correct policy, but is also vastly morally superior to anything anyone else is doing. The financial aid provided by Europe is the major rationale supporting this smugness. As the Europeans continue to do nothing to stop Israel from destroying the livelihood of the Palestinian people, they take out their checkbooks and assuage their conscience by providing money to the Palestinians.
Beseiged on all sides: Israeli settlers and troops violate Palestinians with impunity
If 75 year old Kamila Ibrahin Aqbaha had been allowed through the checkpoint at Barta'a ash Sharqiya village Monday, she might well still be alive. But Israeli troops refused to allow her to cross the checkpoint on foot and climb into the ambulance waiting for her on the other side. They also prevented the ambulance from crossing over to her side of the checkpoint and taking her to a local hospital. She died at the checkpoint. The official Israeli response to her death - that there was no prior coordination with the military to allow the ambulance through the checkpoint - is preposterous. T
IDF says it's ready to battle Hamas at sea
Hamas' navy is headed by senior Hamas commander Jamil al-Dahashan, who previously served as a Hamas special forces commander in south Gaza City. Although the force does not as yet own any marine vessels, Israel is responding to the matter with the utmost gravity. "The security fence in Gaza serves as a serious barrier against terrorists, so it is only natural that they would try to reach Israel by sea," an IDF official told Ynet.
Hamas Executive Force forms 'Marine Police'
Hamas' Executive Force announced on Saturday that the formation of its new navy, the Marine Police, is completed. The new navy will consist of 150 members, said Khaliefeh. The Marine Police's main functions will include: preventing the smuggling of narcotics into Gaza; protecting Gaza 's fishermen, who regularly come under attack from Israeli gunboats; and maintaining security on the coast for tourists to the area.
Thousands participate in 'Caliphate: the Incoming Force; conference in Ramallah
The Pan-Islamic Sunni party Hizb Ut Tahrir (Party of Liberation), held an inauguration conference for the Palestinian section of the movement in Ramallah on Saturday. The movement said that a caliphate state is the only way to liberate Muslims from racism and degrading policies, and Palestinians from occupation.
The Emir of the party, Ata Bin Khalil Abu Aleresheth, said this is the first conference of its kind in the Palestinian territories. A speech was made during the first lecture which detailed the suffering of Muslims all over the world.
Yigal Sarna: Beyond the concrete wall
Palestinian distress slowly disappearing from view, until next eruption -- And meanwhile, it's as if quiet prevails. As if. Because Friday evening I was stuck with my family at a huge traffic jam, when the entire country was clogged by hundreds of roadblocks, because of fears over two illegal Palestinian aliens who ran away from a checkpoint, as if to remind us of the power of those we are trying to forget beyond the concrete wall.
Palestinian cameraman injured by Israeli gunfire waiting to leave Gaza to get artificial legs
One month after asking Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak to investigate the circumstances in which Israeli soldiers fired on Palestinian cameraman Imad Ghanem on 5th July in the Gaza Strip, Reporters Without Borders today called for the results of the investigation to be published. Ghanem, who lost both legs as a result of the shooting, is meanwhile waiting to be allowed to leave the Gaza Strip and go to Egypt to be fitted with artificial legs. Initially wounded by the blast of a rocket fired from a helicopter, Ghanem was lying on the ground with his camera beside him when Israeli troops fired at him.
Palestinian youth football team encounters barriers to UK trip
The Palestinian under-19s football club was set to visit Britain for a series of matches against British youth sides. However, their tour has been jeopardized by new British visa rules, reported British newspaper, The Independent, on Friday. The Palestinian club includes refugee players currently residing in Syria, as well as players from the West Bank and Gaza . The disparate locations of the team's players means that they are unable to train together. Syrian players are hoping that their refugee status will not prevent them from travelling. Even if their applications are processed in time, the Gaza players would encounter barriers leaving the Strip,
Family appeals for divers' help in locating their son
The Khatib family in 'Arrraba called for experienced divers to help locate their son, Isma'il Mustafa Khatib, 35, who drowned yesterday off Guy Beach in Lake Tiberias (Sea of Galilee). Nahed reported that her husband had worked with an Israeli contractor from Tiberias for three months. The contractor told Ismail and other workers to take a day off and go to the lake in his boat. None of the men had a license to drive the boat and the boat was not supplied with safety equipment. Ismail could not swim. Some reports claim Ismail jumped into the water, others say he slipped, some stories allege that onlookers threw him a rope but could not rescue him. His wife Nahed revealed that some family members rented a boat in an attempt to discover Ismail's body, but they were denied permission by Israel.
Rival Islamist group vie for control of refugee camp
Today, the most immediate security threat to the lives of the Sunni Palestinian refugees in Lebanon comes not from Israel but from Arabs living within their own refugee camps. In Ein al-Hilweh, where several thousand armed militants -- aligned to various groups including Communists, Palestinian nationalists and Islamists pursuing global "jihad" -- vie for control in the tiny 1.5 square kilometers cinder block camp and its lawless boundary, residents fear a catastrophe similar to Nahr al-Bared could soon befall them.
Greg Moses: No light in August for Palestinian refugees in Texas
An infant girl who was nearly born into a Texas immigration prison has been ordered deported to the same occupied Palestinian territories where her older sister suffered gas poisoning during an Israeli assault on the family home in 2000. The baby girl was born to Hanan Ibrahim since the pregnant woman was released from the T. Don Hutto immigration prison in early February. Hanan, her husband Salah, and four of their children – ages 5 to 15 – received global attention when they were impounded for three months in Texas immigration prisons for the crime of not vacating to countries that would not take them. But their re-opened trial in early August has now tossed the family back into the position of having no land to welcome them -- not even the USA where two of the girls have been born. Send letters to editors and to the Chief Immigration Judge complaining about the racist policy of denying asylum to Palestinians simply to avoid embarrassing the Jewish supremacist governments of Israel, the UK , and the US. [address supplied in the article]
Israeli major testifies in American court against Islamic charity, Holy Land Foundation
This is the second time Israeli witnesses have been called to testify in a US trial against defendants accused of connections with Palestinian terror. In early 2007, two Israeli security operatives arrived in Chicago to testify against Muhammad Salah, who was accused of transferring almost $100,000 to Hamas
Report: Israelis fighting guerrillas in Colombia
Colombian paper quotes local defense minister as confirming ex Israeli officers helping government in battle against guerillas, drug lords, while guerrilla group FARC claims Israeli commandos also fighting them in jungles
WILL BE POSTED DAILY : Watch and pass this video to everyone you know. OCCUPATION 101: Israeli historian Ilan Pappe describes the period around the declaration of Israel's independence as one during which the indigenous Palestinian population was ethnically cleansed from the land when they were forced from their homes or fled in terror after hearing news of rapes and massacres at other villages. Today, the situation is not much better for the Palestinians under Israeli rule. "To make things so difficult for the Palestinians so that anyone who wants a normal life will leave."
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8481947913401709466&hl=en
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