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Mustafa Barghouti describes Israeli water theft to Emery Univesity official
The former information minister revealed that Israel has stolen some 800 million cubic metres of water, out of a total of 936 million available in the West Bank. "The maximum that is allowed for use annually by the Palestinian inhabitants is restricted to 50 cubic metres of water, while Israeli inhabitants use 2400 cubic metres annually," revealed Dr Bargouthi.
Hundreds of Palestinians joined a march commemorating the second anniversary of the death of four of the city's 'Arab' residents by an Israeli extremist. On August 4, 2005, Natan Zahda opened unprovoked fire from his automatic machine gun at Arab-Palestinian residents from the city of Shfaram in northern Israel killing four and wounding several others. MK Jamal Zahalka said "the killer Natan Zadah, did not come from Mars, he is a product of the Israeli society, and the increasing racist attitudes and education."
Palestinian with kidney failure dies waiting at Gaza border
Israel had agreed to allow the 27-year-old patient, identified by the medics as Wael Abu Warda, to travel from Gaza to an Israeli hospital near Tel Aviv for treatment. Abu Warda arrived at the Erez crossing between Gaza and Israel but was not allowed through, said Muawiyeh Hassanein, head of the ambulance and emergency department at the health ministry in Gaza. An Israeli army spokeswoman said the request for Abu Warda to travel to an Israeli hospital had been withdrawn by Palestinian officials.
U.N. condemns Israeli raid on Gaza elementary schoolIsraeli soldiers and two tanks entered the compound of the Al Shouka Elementary Coeducational School in Gaza where they held several people for several hours before being moved elsewhere. Two of the guards were arrested in the incident that also left the main gate of the school damaged. UNRWA, which is tasked to aid Palestinian refugees, has asked the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to immediately put an end to any operation that is an imminent threat to the staff and leaves the property damaged.
Israeli air strike kills two militants in Gaza Strip
The Israeli military said the strike, which it described as a joint operation with the Shin Bet internal security service, targeted a truck carrying a shipping container with an explosives-laden vehicle hidden inside. Ambulance crews and residents in the town of Rafah, near Gaza 's border with Egypt, said missiles fired from an Israeli aircraft hit a truck and a car, killing two members of the Islamic Jihad group and wounding 15 other people. Residents reported a string of secondary explosions after the missiles struck the truck, indicating it may have contained explosives.
Gideon Levy: Jenin by night
What do the soldiers in these steel contraptions know about the fear they are sowing nightly, among thousands of people, including children and infants? Young and brainwashed, do they ever think about this? And what do most Israelis know about the terror raids and those living in their shadows? Why does the army have to come here and create all this disturbance? To remind people who the lord of the land is? The whole camp awakens like this, every night. But no one dares peek out the window or turn on a light. No one talks, no one moves. They sit bent over on the stairs, eyes red from lack of sleep. I almost faint from fright.
Brigade commander censured over Dahariya incident
The commanders of the Kfir Brigade and the Lavi Battalion were reprimanded and censured Friday following the incident in which soldiers hijacked a Palestinian taxicab in the village of Dahariya and shot a Palestinian in the village. The company commander is held in custody and is being probed by the Military Police. The five soldiers involved in the incident are under investigation by the Military Police. Central Command chief Gadi Shamni said that "this is an event which contradicts the core values and norms according to which the IDF operates." [he's kidding, right?]
Bassam Abu Sharif said Saturday that former French President Jacques Chirac and three French doctors who treated the late leader are adamant that he was killed and know which poison killed him. He also said that Chirac decided to keep the findings of the French doctors a secret, claiming that it was in the nterests of the Palestinian population. Abu Sharif said that the poison used in both cases prevent the body from producing red blood cells and that the effect of the poison does not appear for a long period after the death, making the assassins difficult to reveal and the crime harder to detect.
Arafat aide calls on Chirac to reveal truth about Arafat's death
Arafat died Nov. 11, 2004, after being treated in a French military hospital. French doctors who treated Arafat said he died of a massive stroke after suffering intestinal inflammation, jaundice and a blood condition known as disseminated intravascular coagulation, or DIC. However, the records were inconclusive about what brought about DIC, which has numerous causes ranging from infections to colitis to liver disease. . . Israel has vehemently denied involvement in Arafat's death.
Akram Abu Siba', secretary of the Detainees Office in Jenin district, stated on Friday that Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons are facing harsh living conditions, abuse and are deprived from their basic rights, while dozens of detainees are placed in solitary confinement for extended periods. He added that dozens of detainees are sick and need medical treatment but the Israeli prison administration is neglecting their rights and depriving them from the needed medical attention.
Salah ad Din Brigades: Israeli intelligence tries to recruit Palestinians forced to use Awja crossing
"to work as agents for the Israelis." One of the Brigades' informants, a 24 year-old man, reported that he was held for three hours by Israeli intelligence, and was prohibited to make the crossing until he agreed to cooperate with them. They allegedly "reminded him that he is a student, and that he 'needs the money', because he is suffering from a bad economic situation." The second informant, a man of 37, stated that he had been in Egypt to get medical treatment for his sick son. He was prohibited from passing for six hours. He said that he was given a telephone card, and was told that he "will benefit a lot if he deals with the Israeli intelligence". In the end, he tacitly agreed, simply wanting to return to his family in the Gaza Strip.
Some 60 Palestinian couples were married in a mass wedding ceremony at their refugee camp in Syria in the first event of its kind to be sponsored by the Islamist Hamas movement. The ceremony late Friday night was attended by 5,000 people. It aimed to help young people deal with the prohibitive costs of marriage, according to Hamas officials at the event. In addition to organizing the event, Hamas provided each couple with $1,500 in a mixture of cash and household appliances, the couples said. While this is the first such mass wedding to be held by Hamas in Syria, the group has sponsored others elsewhere in the region, including one in the Palestinian city of Nablus in 2005 involving 226 couples.
Yossi Wolfson: The loophole
Two recent reports by human-rights organizations open a small window into the torture chambers of Israel. Eight years have passed since the High Court made its historic decision forbidding torture, and now it is clear that the General Security Services (GSS) - aka Shin Bet - have found ways of circumventing the law. The report of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) bears the title 'Ticking Bombs'. From the material in this report, including judicial decisions and GSS memoranda, it appears that the tortures were carried out by means of a loophole in the High Court decision of 1999. The decision enables the Attorney General to refrain from placing torturers on trial, if he finds, in retrospect, that the defense of necessity is available to them. . . The PCATI testimonies are horrifying. The same methods appear repeatedly. [testimony and descriptions of the torture methods follow]
Israeli TV channel alleges that al Qaeda is operating in the Gaza Strip
The TV further commented that the Hamas movement is displeased with this situation, and alleged that tension is building between the groups. The report added that the al Qaeda members only started training recently, having arrived into the Strip via the Sinai Peninsula, staying in the Rafah and Khan Younis areas. While Israeli and Egyptian authorities profess their alarm at this report, some will see it as propaganda designed to manufacture public consent toward another large attack against the Gaza Strip
Hamas denies using Iranian wiretapping devices on Palestinian officials
The London based newspaper Al Hayat reported today that "[a Palestinian security] official, speaking on condition of anonymity, stated that the devices arrived to Hamas before the "coup" in June." He told the paper that that he has confirmed information about the tracking and tapping of the calls of high ranking officials. The Hamas movement, open about support from Iran, responded to the paper, "Iran offers us generous aid, and this is legal. Israel is receiving aid from all the Jewish people in the world, and we are receiving support from Muslims - but about the telephone tapping, this is complete fabrication."
A high-ranking Hamas source stated that intense consultations were being conducted. Among those who met were Ghazi Hamad from Hamas, Jibreel Rajoub from Fatah, Bassam Salihi from the PPP, Abed ar Raheem Mallouh from the PFLP and Mustafa Barghouthi, representing the Palestinian National Initiative, in addition to former minister of education, Nasser Addin Ash Shaer. They arranged to establish a national government of independent figures, to last for 9 months, or one year and a half. The security services will be restructured, and the security HQs will be turned over to President Abbas. . . Commenting on those news reports, Fatah and the Palestinian presidency absolutely denied that they had any ontacts with Hamas or any other party on both formal and personal levels.
Under siege: 'Drug shortage is killing patients in Gaza'
Shifa hospital, the biggest in the Gaza Strip, is running out of drugs. It is performing emergency operations only. The CAT scanner is out of service for want of spare parts. The orthopaedic department no longer has plaster of Paris. Hospital managers appealed yesterday to the international community to lift the siege on Gaza, which imposed after Hamas seized control in June. Dr Juma al-Saqa, a hospital spokesman, told reporters they needed 150 tons of medicines urgently. On Monday, Israel allowed the Red Cross to bring in 50 tons. That was not enough. Dr Moaya Abu Hasnein, the director of accident and emergency, said dozens of cancer and kidney patients were slowly dying because of the boycott.
Gaza airport seized by Israeli troops
Israeli soldiers seized control of Gaza International Airport Friday, shutting down the facility and destroying its runway [again - its sole runway and control tower were demolished by Israeli F-16s in 2001, and were rebuilt in the hope that the airport could someday reopen] The action followed an incursion into the southern and northern areas of Gaza, Alalam Satellite TV reports.
Nativity Church deportees in Gaza appeal to Abbas to address their case
They were exiled to Gaza after the 40-day Israeli siege of the Nativity Church in Bethlehem in 2002, while others were sent to Europe. The deportees said during a press conference in Gaza City that their living conditions have severely deteriorated since the recent domestic clashes between Hamas and Fatah in the strip. They appealed to the Palestinian presidency to address their case immediately. "The crisis of the deportees to Gaza and Europe should be dealt with as a whole," said Gaza deportee Fahmi Kan'an who affirmed that neither Hamas nor any other faction has threatened the deportees in the strip.
Agreement to pardon 'wanted' Palestinians temporarily stopped
Palestinian minister of detainees' affairs in the caretaker government, Ashraf Al-Ajrami on Friday held the Israelis responsible for ceasing to deal with the issue of the "wanted" Palestinians under the pretext that several of them refused to turn over their weapons. The minister told Ma'an that very few of the wanted men refused to turn over their weapons, and that the government will force them to do so. He explained that the only obstacle which impedes the Palestinian security's access to the places of the wanted men is the Israeli military checkpoints.
Olmert and Abbas due to meet on Monday
in the West Bank city of Jericho. The meeting is due to discuss the political framework for the future peace deal in the region. Mr. Nabil Amr stated that the meeting would be held in private in order to discuss the preparations for the international Middle East peace conference.
IDF to probe failure allowing two Gazans to infiltrate Israel
The Palestinians apparently infiltrated Israel in order to seek employment, not to carry out a terrorist attack. Police nonetheless conducted the type of search operation generally reserved for cases of terrorist infiltration. Police declared a high alert, and conducted extensive searches in the area between Gadera and Rehovot, causing severe traffic jams. The two were eventually captured by police in the Israeli Arab town of Tira.
Olive branch – the war that once was
After losing his daughter to a suicide bomber, Amin Hassan decided to devote his life to promoting peace with the Palestinians. In a similar tale of reconciliation, a family feud in Umm el-Fahm has finally come to an end. In Carmiel, too, residents are happy to be dancing once again. Three stories of war and peace in the North.
Leftists fire eggs, vegetable at Gaza to protest gov't helplessness against Qassams
The activists used home-made launchers constructed from recycled materials in order to fire the produce.Last Monday, a Qassam rocket launched from the Gaza Strip and directly hit a house in Kibbutz Karmiah in the western Negev, penetrating through the roof before exploding in an 8-month-old baby girl's bedroom. Three of the family members- the grandmother, the mother, and the baby -were taken to the hospital for medical assistance.
33 'illegal' Palestinians caught in Tel Aviv
Thirty-three Palestinians illegally residing in Israel were caught in a joint Border Guard-Police operation in Tel Aviv. The Palestinians were taken in for questioning. Three were detained, and the rest were returned to the Palestinian territories. A criminal record was also opened against an Israeli who was suspected of transporting the Palestinians. [End]
Palestinian militants botch attack on IDF troops in Gaza Strip
A Golani reconnaissance regiment entered Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip in the middle of the week and occupied several houses. Two armed Hamas men were killed in an exchange of fire with the troops, military sources said. Several hours after the soldiers left on Wednesday, an explosion destroyed a floor of the house they had stayed in. IDF sources said this was probably a botched attack on the Golani troops. The IDF has lately increased its operations in the Gaza Strip, penetrating up to three kilometers in some cases. The Golani Brigade, which has replaced the Givati Brigade, is carrying out the operations.
The walls must be brought down
As a journalist, Abu Ara travels all over the world. He covers sports events in Europe and the Middle East - but he is not able to visit his family in Jerusalem. His is not an unusual story; it's actually run-of-the-mill. The Israeli media no longer pay any attention to such phenomena. The Palestinian media have also stopped reported on them. East Jerusalem is estimated to have roughly 20,000 such cases - of Palestinian families where parents are forced to live apart from one another on opposites sides of the fences and walls that separate the West Bank from Israel.
Dr. Ali Qleibo: Palestinian cave dwellers and holy shrines - the passing of traditional society
Fascinating… The Bedouins did not suddenly burst forth from the Arabian Peninsula, and the peasants are not simply a step in the social evolutionary ladder to urbanization. Rather through time the Palestinians, who are descendants of the ancient civilizations of the Near East, have diversified economic tactics in overlapping ecological zones. Like shooting stars, the various cultures shine for a brief moment before they fade out of official historical and cultural records of Palestine. The people, however, survive. In their customs and manners, fossils of these ancient civilizations survived until modernity - albeit modernity camouflaged under the veneer of Islam and Arabic culture. In the mountains of Hebron, I had my first encounter with social practices that are "fossil" traditions - relics left behind from Nabatean culture.. . . Until the Crimean War neither Moslem nor Christian religious identity was clearly defined. Religion as constitutive of individual identity was relegated to a minor role within Palestinian tribal social structure.
Meron Benvenisti: Deja vu
What has been is not necessarily what will be, and the current "process" will not necessarily end the way its predecessor did, in a new intifada. The defeated side, which has paid the heavy price of the muqawama that failed, might once again adopt the formula of tsumoud (the Palestinian's clinging to his land) [Sumuud 'staying power', 'steadfastness'] from the beginning of the 1980s, abandon violence and concentrate on advancing the economy, welfare, education and demographics as a national strategy. Then, Israel will be facing an even greater challenge than that of the armed uprising: a communal and non-violent struggle.
Prosecutors slowly build case against Muslim charity – the Holy Land Foundation
DALLAS (AP) - Prosecutors have shown a jury evidence that leaders of a local Muslim charity were outraged by Israel's treatment of Palestinians, they sang pro-Hamas songs and had financial dealings with a man whom the U.S. government would later call a terrorist. Whether any of that amounted to a crime seemed uncertain after the first two weeks of a trial in federal district court that could last several months. Authorities say some of the charity's money helped support the families of suicide bombers. The trial is one of the federal government's highest-profile terror-related prosecutions since the attacks of 2001. Holy Land was the largest Muslim charity in the United States when federal agents shut it down in December 2001. President Bush personally announced that its assets had been seized.
Dreaming of Nahr El-Bared
How do we get the media to cover the fact that according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society and Save the Children Sweden there are still 15 minors between the ages of 13-18 years old, 10 people between the ages of 18-35 years old, one 67-year-old man, and 21 women from Fatah al-Islam and 45 of their children trapped inside Nahr al-Bared. How can the situation be rendered more complex so that aiding families inside Nahr al-Bared is not automatically an indication that one supports Fatah al-Islam? One reason why the media is asleep at the wheel when it comes to reporting about Nahr al-Bared is because the army is controlling journalists.
Robert Fisk: Why my landlord is expecting the worst
All of us in Lebanon have a `sense of possibilities` right now - and they are all bad. The Lebanese army - still fighting its way into the Palestinian Nahr el-Bared refugee camp in the north of the country more than a month after the minister of defence announced total victory over the army`s `Fatah al-Islam` opponents - is about the only institution still working in this country. Yesterday morning`s Beirut newspapers carried front-page pictures of Lebanese soldiers aboard an armoured personnel carrier, all making `victory` signs to photographers. Day after day, we`ve been watching the US air force C-130s arriving at Beirut`s Rafiq Hariri International Airport - named after the man whose assassination on 14 February detonated the latest tragedy of Lebanon - with their cargoes of weapons for the Lebanese army. Would that they had arrived a year ago, many Lebanese say, when Israel was destroying much of Lebanon. But of course, a year ago, the American air force C-130s were arriving in Israel with weapons to be used against Lebanon
Hezbollah chief says Washington trying to drown Mideast in wars
Nasrallah was referring to a proposed U.S. plan announced earlier this week to sell advanced weaponry worth at least $20 billion to Persian Gulf nations and provide new 10-year military aid packages to Israel and Egypt . "The United States is bringing billions of dollars worth of arms to ignite wars in this region," Nasrallah said
Kucinich: Executive order on Lebanon undermines Mideast peace process
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) called the Administration's latest Middle East policy reckless and dangerous and said it would further hurt the United States' standing in the region and the world. Yesterday, President Bush issued an Executive Order, announcing the United States faced an 'Unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy' and will freeze the property and interests of people deemed by the Administration to be undermining Lebanon's democratic government."
Mediated Terrorism
Once again, the U.S. is presiding over a major global human rights catastrophe, although one wouldn't know this by following American media or political commentary. As the U.S. announces plans for increasing military aid to despotic allies in the Middle East, media elites have resorted to some of the worst manipulation and misinformation in justifying funding. The aid initiative has been billed in the media as a major effort to stem terrorism, promote stability, and further cement American power in the region. . . Contrary to media propaganda, there is no available evidence suggesting that states like Iran or Syria have plans to attack any American allies in the region.
Jordanian Islamists accuse U.S. of inspiring crackdown against them
Jordan's largest political party, the Islamic Action Front (IAF), on Saturday accused the United States of being behind the Jordanian government's crackdown on the country's Islamic movement, including the "rigging" of Tuesday's municipal elections. The IAF, the political arm of the influential Muslim Brotherhood movement, withdrew its 36 candidates from the municipal elections on Tuesday five hours after the start of the polling process, citing "rigging practices" by the authorities. Islamists charged that the government used army personnel for duplicate voting and said that plain-clothed soldiers were moved from one polling station to another, with the same people casting ballots in more than one centre in favour of government-backed candidates.
The Gypsies of Jerusalem: the forgotten people
In the early 18th century, historians established that the Gypsy people originated as a caste of entertainers in India who called themselves Dom, which meant 'man' in their common language. The Dom of Jerusalem are one of the many communities of Gypsies who have settled throughout the Middle East. As did the Gypsies in other countries, the Jerusalem Dom accepted the language and religion of the places they lived in. They are Muslims and speak Arabic as well as Domari - their native language.
Pork-selling delicatessen set on fire in Netanya
Aviv's Delicatessen which sells pork products was set on fire in Netanya on Saturday, and significantly damaged. One suspect was arrested in the matter. Aviv's Delicatessen opened in central Netanya a few weeks ago and has aroused much resistance from the haredi public in the city. Netanya Council Member Boris Tsirulnik opposed the decision, and said he planed to petition against the bylaw to the High Court of Justice arguing it violated Basic Law: Freedom of Occupation. Tsirulnik called the attack an incident of "Jewish terrorism."
Time to shut down Dimona reactor
Nuclear reactor in Dimona is like a volcano that can erupt at any moment - The old reactor in Dimona is located on the Syrian-African rift. An earthquake similar to the one that hit Japan or the one that hit Turkey eight years ago may crack the reactor and leave Israel and its neighbors shrouded in a nuclear cloud. Then we will be left to die in great suffering along with our neighbors.
The environment, at a crossroads
I discovered a magnificent landscape rich in biological diversity, because it lies at the convergence of Europe, Asia and Africa. From snow-capped mountains and vast deserts to expansive lakes and marine ecosystems, few places on Earth possess this startling array of habitats and species in such a small geographic area. In the Middle East, environmental issues pose the greatest long-term threat to the health and well-being of humans and the natural world.
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