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Scores of colonists take over Palestinian farmland near Bethlehem
Right wing settlers took over lands that belongs to Palestinian farmers from the village of Ertass [=Artas, see next article] on Sunday evening. Witnesses said armed setters arrived on the lands with tents and building supplies and started to build a settlement on the Palestinians farmers' lands, The farmers who own the lands and villagers of Ertass rushed to the area, a scuffle took place between the two groups, no injuries reported. Shortly afterwards massive Israeli troops arrived in the area and forced the villagers to leave after announcing the location as a closed military zone. The villagers, mostly farmers, depend totally on their lands as the only source of income. Khaled Al Azza, the head of the Lands defense committee in Bethlehem city, accused the Israeli army of working with the setters and helping them to take over the villagers lands, Al Azza added that this is the third attempt by the same group of settlers to take those lands in the past week.
Artas village, Bethlehem area: nonviolent demonstration at site of uprooted trees
VIDEO shot by Yisrael Puterman. This village of 4000+ is surrounded by illegal settlements and outposts, built on its land, and now this fertile valley is being taken for the sewerage of these settlements. Bulldozers have destroyed apricot trees, vegetable gardens, etc. which were the livelihood of the Palestinian families. On this same YouTube page are several more videos, showing the actual uprooting of the trees and army brutality against Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals protesting this destruction and land theft.
Palestinian shepherds have water tank, tractor confiscated in northern Jordan Valley
This was the only readily available water source for the approximately 60 members of the Basharat and Bani-Oudeh families and their 1,500 heads of sheep and goats. The Civil Administration is reportedly prepared to return the equipment if its owners agree to leave the area and pay transport costs. The shepherds have been living for decades in the area of Hadidiya, east of Beka'ot, on lands owned by their home villages of Tamun and Tubas. Palestinians have been evacuated from these areas four times, including from privately owned lands.
Palestinian child dies at Rafah Crossing
Palestinian sources said that Abed Al Rahman Lubad, 17, who was in Eygpet for treatments afrer suffering from cancer died on Sunday night while waiting to cross to the Gaza strip. So far 32 Palestinians have died at the Rafah crossing while waiting to cross back to the costal region.
Over half of Palestinians stranded in Egypt are back in Gaza
More than half of the estimated 6,000 Palestinians stranded in Egypt have made it back to Gaza since Israel started allowing them passage a week ago, an Egyptian security source told AFP. On Sunday, 950 Palestinians reached the Al Oja (Nizana) cargo crossing on the Egypt-Israel border, south of the divided town of Rafah, the official said, bringing to around 3,350 the number of Palestinians to have crossed.
Israeli forces erect new checkpoint in Tulkarem
It was erected on Sunday morning, at Baqa al-Sharqyia Illar junction, north of the West Bank city of Tulkarem. Also, local residents said that security procedures at Anabta checkpoint, east of Tulkarem, had become rigorous on Sunday morning. Israeli forces said the military procedures were put in place more than a month ago to protect the area and investigate local citizens. The procedures have led to huge tail-backs of vehicles at the checkpoints.
Report: Some 300 gunmen accept Israel's amnesty deal
Palestinian security official says all but three al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades gunmen surrender weapons, swear off violence as part of deal with Israel. A senior Palestinian security official aid 25 members of the violent Islamic Jihad group in the West Bank town of Jenin also asked for amnesty, but that leaders of the group opposed the idea.
Haniyeh ally: West Bank officals responsible for Israeli blackmailing at Al Awja Crossing
Al Madhoun, head of Haniyeh's office, blamed the West Bank officials for agreements which led to "the blackmailing of citizens in order to cooperate with Israeli intelligence." Al Madhoun continued, "This is what Haniyeh's government warned of and what has happened, it seems that others are disinterested in the events at the crossing." The head of Haniyeh's office also said that what the Palestinians are facing at the crossing is "the responsibility of those who rejected the use of the Rafah Crossing for political reasons and accept the policy of humiliation of citizens. What is happening at Al Awja is attack on the dignity of Palestinians."
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=24536
Palestinian security services detain three students at An-Najah University in Nablus
Hamas said that the three students were arrested after raids on a number of university residences in the area. The detainees are from Tulkarem governorate and were identified as Saadah Ghanim, Abdullah Abu Shams and Shadi Atili. Two weeks ago violence erupted at An Najah University between members of the Fatah bloc and members of the Islamic movement. The clashes led to one death and several injuries among students.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=24543
Soldiers steal life savings, beat women, loot homes during Gaza incursions
Local citizen Abu Suleiman sent a letter to Ma'an which read, "The Israeli soldiers ordered me to open the front door to my home in Al Fukhari. They then beat my wife and stole her gold, before asking me where my money was kept." Head of the council of Al Fukhari, Oda Ammour, said "this is not the first time Israeli soldiers have committed such acts, they behave in this way during every incursion." He added "the Israeli soldiers stole cameras, mobile phones and money from the houses they raided. They steal everything they can get their hands on."
Israel relents on little girl struck down by war
A Palestinian girl paralysed from the neck down when an Israeli missile struck her family's car has won a court victory over the Israeli army. Marya Aman, 5, whose plight moved Sunday Times readers to donate £17,000 earlier this year, has been granted the temporary right to remain in Israel to receive life-saving treatment for her injuries. An interim injunction issued by the Israeli High Court last week blocked plans by Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, to move Marya to the West Bank, depriving her of specialised medical care available only in Israel.
Girl 'raised from dead' after Israeli airstrike
On August 8, 2006, Dalia and her family were hit by an Israeli air strike on the village of Ghaziyeh, north of Tyre, where they had sought refuge from Israel's destructive campaign. Dalia had sustained severe head injuries, and doctors told her mother her chances of survival were one in a hundred. On September 28 she was evacuated by the Italian Red Cross, which paid for the six operations she underwent in the town of Bergamo, Italy , before returning to her home village of Bazuriye . She cannot walk or talk, and doctors have warned her parents she has severe and probably incurable brain damage. Dalia is still conscious, though, and can recognize her parents, sister and brother, twins now aged 13.
Hamas prisoner in PA jail declares water strike
Hamas leader Ahmad Dola, who is imprisoned by the Palestinian Security forces in Nablus, declared that he will not drink water unless he is released. Dola's wife held the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas responsible if her husband is harmed because of the strike. Dola was previously arrested by the PA in early July, and then he was released after he was on hunger strike for 20 days in a row. However, the security forces arrested him again 4 days after his release.
U.K. may seek extradition over British cameraman's Gaza death
Britain may seek the extradition of IDF troops in the shooting death of a British television cameraman in May 2003 in the southern Gaza Strip unless Attorney General Menachem Mazuz reverses his position and carries out a criminal investigation against those suspected of involvement. In a letter to the family of James Miller, a 34-year-old photojournalist shot and killed in Rafah, Lord Peter Goldsmith, Britain's attorney general, says he wrote Mazuz on June 26 and gave him six weeks to respond. The deadline is on Tuesday.
White Elephants – by Uri Avnery
Some days ago, one of our generals revealed on television that under an American-Israeli agreement, the Israeli army is obliged to report to the American military establishment on the effectiveness of all kinds of arms. For example: the accuracy of "smart" bombs and the performance of airplanes, missiles, drones, tanks and all the other instruments of destruction in our wars. Every "targeted killing" in Gaza or use of fragmentation bombs in Lebanon serves also as a test. The leveling of a neighborhood in Beirut, the death of women and children as "collateral damage", the ongoing amputation of limbs by fragmentation bombs in South Lebanon - all these are statistical facts that are important for American arms manufacturers to know, so they can improve their merchandise.
MI: Syria increases military activity for fear of an Israeli attack
The head of the research division of Military Intelligence, Brigadier General Yossi Baidatz, told lawmakers Sunday that Syria believes that Israel is planning to attack, and has therefore increased its military activity.
Baidatz said, however, that the Syrians are reluctant to go to war, and therefore are not expected to initiate it. While the Syrian army has not altered its deployment along the Golan Heights, it has increased its activity in order to prepare for a possible Israeli attack, he added.
Palestinian police in Jenin launch campaign 'against what is against the law'
The Palestinian police and security forces in Jenin have destroyed a number of unregistered or illegal Palestinian vehicles in the area, as part of their campaign 'Against what is Against the Law'. The demolished vehicles included cars and motorbikes. At the same time the police confiscated amounts of fireworks and drugs.
Tajwihi results to be announced Tuesday
The minister of education, Lamees Al-Alami, said that the date of the announcement for the results of the general secondary examination, Tawjihi, will be Tuesday. The release of the results has been delayed due to the ongoing bitter feud between Fatah and Hamas and the resulting problems collecting all results from both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Abbas issues decree promoting officers who defended Gaza from Hamas
He promoted several Palestinian officers and soldiers from various security bodies for their role in the Gaza Strip incidents in which Hamas established control last June. The decree includes 83 Palestinian soldiers and officers killed in Gaza in clashes between Hamas' Executive Force and Fatah.
Huge tree falls on fence of Gaza College in the Al-Rimal district, killing student
According to head of ambulances and emergencies in the Palestinian ministry of health, Dr Muawiya Hassanein, 19-year-old Mohamed Mahmoud Alssodeh was killed and Nabil Alssodeh, aged 38, is injured and receiving treatment in hospital.
Resistance fighters attack Israeli targets in retaliation for assassinations of Palestinians
The An Nasser Salah Addin Brigades of the Popular Resistance Committees said on Sunday that they launched four homemade projectiles at the Israeli town of Ashkelon. The Al Quds Brigades of Islamic Jihad said that they launched a projectile at the Israeli military post near Erez Crossing. The Al Mujahideen Brigades, a military group formerly affiliated to Fatah but currently independent, announced responsibility for launching a homemade projectile at Ashkelon. The military wing of Islamic Jihad the Al Quds Brigades on Sunday calimed responsibility for opening fire at an Israeli vehicle belonging to an engineering unit near Kisufim, east of the Gaza Strip.
'Israeli Arab' group calls on Abbas to renew dialogue with Hamas
In a Ramallah meeting with Abbas, the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee called on Abbas to create the conditions that will bring about the cessation of open hostilities between Palestinian factions. The committee's chairman, Shawki Khatib, and other members expressed the "pain of the Palestinian public in Israel" over the infighting in the Palestinian territories. In response, Abbas reiterated his stance that Hamas must first apologize for its actions in Gaza and restore the status quo that existed in the Strip prior to its takeover.
Israel to resume trial of Ahmad Saadat
Israel is to resume Sunday the trial of the Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Ahmad Saadat. Saadat was arrested March 14 last year after Israeli forces broke into Jericho Prison. He is to stand before a military court in Ramallah. PFLP sources meanwhile told KUNA Israel accuses Saadat of being behind the assassination of extreme Israeli minister Rahbaam Zaefi years ago in Jerusalem.
Eriekat: Abbas-Olmert meeting not confirmed yet
Shabak provisionally says Olmert can enter West Bank for Abbas meeting During the years of Palestinian intifada (uprising), interior intelligence agency, Shabak, advised Israeli prime ministers not to enter West Bank cities, saying that they may be attacked by Palestinians. Israeli sources did not eliminate the possibility that Shabak may alter its position and prevent Olmert from travelling to Jericho for security reasons. If Olmert is permitted to enter the area, it will be his first visit in six years.
Jerusalem lowering expectations over peace talks
PM Ehud Olmert's meeting with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Jericho on Monday is supposed to launch dialogue on the future Palestinian state. Veteran negotiators in the current government are much more skeptical than Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni regarding the chances of renewing the process. Peres is said to believe Gaza is lost to Hamas, and that any arrangement must involve Jordan, too. Barak says Hamas and Fatah both want the same thing, but differ in their methods. Minister Haim Ramon, who has had thousands of hours of negotiations with the Palestinians, stands somewhere in between, with his partial convergence plan and his call to give dialogue a chance.
Yoram Kaniuk: Hadera residents don't want refugees of the Sudanese holocaust in their townToday, a holocaust is taking place in Africa. Israeli residents of Hadera, who think that the holocaust is something that one sings about and defeats by traveling on colorful journeys to ruins of the Jewish people, do not want to save the Sudanese. The government is silent. The Knesset is silent. A few decent and kind-hearted people assist these refugees, but the entire nation is like Hadera. It doesn't want more dark-skinned people, just like the Americans didn't want Jews (during WW II). It's hard to believe we reached this point.
Jonathan Cook: Israel's Jewish problem in Tehran What is the basis for Israel's dire forecasts -- the ideological scaffolding being erected, presumably, to justify an attack on Iran? Helpfully, as George Bush defended his Iraq policies last month, he reminded us yet again of the menace Iran supposedly poses: it is "threatening to wipe Israel off the map". This myth has been endlessly recycled since a translating error was made of a speech Ahmadinejad delivered nearly two years ago. Farsi experts have verified that the Iranian president, far from threatening to destroy Israel, was quoting from an earlier speech by the late Ayatollah Khomeini in which he reassured supporters of the Palestinians that "the Zionist regime in Jerusalem" would "vanish from the page of time".He was not threatening to exterminate Jews or even Israel. He was comparing Israel's occupation of the Palestinians with other illegitimate systems of rule whose time had passed, including the Shahs who once ruled Iran, apartheid South Africa and the Soviet empire.
Poems from Guantanamo
THE JUST-released "Poems from Guantánamo: The Detainees Speak" is a collection of 22 poems by 17 detainees at the US detention center at Guantánamo Bay. Edited by Marc Falkoff, each poem had to be cleared by the Pentagon. The result offers a rare glimpse into the lives of the prisoners. Excerpt:
"To Allah I direct my grievance and my tears.
I am homesick and oppressed.
Mohammad, do not forget me.
Support the cause of your father, a God-fearing man.
I was humiliated in the shackles.
How can I now compose verses? How can I now write?
After the shackles and the nights and the suffering and the tears,
How can I write poetry?"
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