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Report: U.S. will not force Israel's hand in Annapolis
Washington Post reports President Bush unlikely to force Prime Minister Olmert to make difficult decisions during peace talks. White House officials say Bush highly skeptical of Palestinians' ability to deliver.
Hezbollah joins Tehran and Hamas in denouncing Annapolis talks
"He who looks at the preparations for the Annapolis conference finds that it has no gains for the Palestinians. It is a media-political show in favor of Israel," Hezbollah deputy chief Shiekh Naim Kassem told a rally in Beirut. Iran said on Sunday the Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland would result in an erosion of Palestinian rights because Washington had shown in the past that it was not an objective mediator.
PLO excluded from Annapolis conference
As you will see from the list below, it seems the US has invited practically everyone in the world to this fandango -- from Poland to Sweden to Slovenia to Yemen to the World Bank and the IMF... except the PLO -- which is the only body that has the authority and international standing to negotiate on behalf of the Palestinian people! In addition, the elected government of Hamas is also not invited, of course.
Demands of a thief – by Gideon Levy
It is good that initial signs of life in the Israeli public have emerged. It was worth going to Annapolis if only for this reason - but this discourse is baseless and distorted. Israel is not being asked "to give" anything to the Palestinians; it is only being asked to return - to return their stolen land and restore their trampled self-respect, along with their fundamental human rights and humanity. This is the primary core issue, the only one worthy of the title, and no one talks about it anymore. No one is talking about morality anymore. Justice is also an archaic concept, a taboo that has deliberately been erased from all negotiations.
Israel welcomes Syrian participation in Annapolis conference
Israel welcomed Syria 's announcement on Sunday that it would attend a U.S.-hosted peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, but stressed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be the main focus of the meeting. Government sources in Damascus said earlier in the day that Syria would send its deputy foreign minister to the summit this week. Syria had conditioned its participation in the summit on the inclusion of the future of the Golan Heights on the summit's agenda.
Golan Heights shrugs off peace talks
JERUSALEM (AP) - Syria's decision to attend the Annapolis summit on Mideast peace has raised the prospect of negotiations with Israel over the Golan Heights . But Israeli settlers say they are not worried the strategic plateau may return to Syrian control, pointing to a long history of failed attempts to settle the dispute. Syria has said peace would require Israel to return the Golan, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has signaled he is ready to do so. Israeli settlers living in the territory doubt anything will change soon.
Palestinians – Final status should be agreed upon within eight months – by Amira Hass
Haaretz has obtained a November 17 copy of the joint document as discussed by the Israeli and Palestinian official representatives, and a Palestinian source told the paper he believes the gaps between the two sides are still great. The source said the opening stance by the PLO as it appears in the Palestinian proposals in the draft is weak and gives up on demands that were once presented as a counterweight to Israeli demands on the struggle against terror, for example. The section on the road map contains the original draft of the American proposal for the joint document, and consists of five points. But the Palestinian source said the Americans have withdrawn the five points because of Israel's opposition to some of them.
Gaza souvenir shop sells Annapolis mugs
A pragmatic Gaza storeowner hopes to cash in on interest in next week's Mideast peace conference by selling mugs commemorating the event. But aware of the fickle fortunes of peacemaking in this part of the world he is telling customers that should the meeting in Annapolis, Maryland , prove a disappointment they should vent their frustration by smashing the pottery souvenirs, rather than coming to him for a refund.
Israelis, Palestinians doubtful on talks
Mohammed Naji's son was killed by Israeli soldiers. Ron Kehrmann's daughter died at the hands of a Palestinian suicide bomber. Beyond their grief, the two fathers share something else — both are skeptical next week's Mideast summit called by President Bush in Annapolis, Md., will do anything to end decades of conflict between their two peoples.
Reinventing the Mideast wheel – by George Hishmeh
What is missing is an honest commitment, as underlined beautifully and succinctly in an advertisement placed by a Jewish group - Gush Shalom, the Israeli peace bloc - in the Israeli paper Haaretz on November 16. It is titled: "The crucial sentence." It reads: "A week to Annapolis and no sign of the solemn document to be presented there. What is missing? One simple sentence: 'I. Ehud Olmert, commit myself to ending the occupation, in practice - and not in words, in all the territories - and not in some of them, now - and not when the Messiah comes. That's the whole story in a nutshell.":
Amnesty International: Annapolis talks must lead to immediate, concrete action on human rights
In particular, measurable benchmarks should be laid down by the parties to the talks -- to ensure that the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority (PA) comply with their obligations under international law and that the fundamental rights of both Palestinians and Israelis are respected. To this end, and to avoid a repetition of past failures, the parties should agree to the deployment of international human rights monitors in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT)
The Judaization of East Jerusalem – by Alice Rothchild
With the Golden Dome and the ancient walls of the Old City as backdrop, the cascade of Palestinian homes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan is undergoing a dramatic transition. At first it is hard to spot the Israeli flags draped over scattered homes on the hill, but it is soon easily apparent that right-wing Jewish settlers and politically motivated archaeologists are rushing to claim this fragment of the Holy City as the ancient City of David, complete with a visitors center and busloads of young Israeli recruits and tourists, and plaques thanking generous donors for their support.
Jerusalemites pray, rap about future
JERUSALEM (AP)- When Ali Qleibo was born in Jerusalem , his home was under Jordanian control. It was 1953, and not far away stretched the bleak gash of barbed wire, concrete walls and minefields that cut the city into Jewish and Arab halves. Qleibo, a Palestinian lecturer, painter, photographer and ethnographer, was 14 when the walls came down and east Jerusalem was captured and annexed by Israel. Today, Qleibo's Jerusalem includes the whole city, east and west.
American Ron Lauder funding campaign against division of Jerusalem
American businessman Ronald Lauder is among those funding a million-dollar campaign against the [re-] division of Jerusalem, Yedioth Ahronoth reported. One Jerusalem, an organization headed by former minister Natan Sharansky and Yehiel Leiter, is expected to launch the campaign on Sunday ahead of the peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland.
Israel to deploy thousands of troops across West Bank during Annapolis
Israel radio announced that thousands of Israeli troops will be deployed across the West Bank, specifically in the densely populated areas. Border guards will also be deployed in force along the borders with the Palestinian Territories. Israeli police sources told Israeli radio that the Israeli authorities are worried that bombing operations may take place inside Israel in an attempt to derail the US-sponsored conference due to begin on Tuesday. However, the sources said there was no specific intelligence that such attacks were being planned.
Palestinian police boost security in Nablus
Palestinian militants in the Nablus area of the West Bank are in the middle of what seems to be a pincer movement - chased not only by the Israeli military but also by the Palestinian Authority (PA), which, under Acting Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, has taken it upon itself to crack down on the fighters. The Israeli incursions are regular, nearly nightly, residents of the Ein Beit Alma camp say. The new raids, which Israel says are "routine operations", come on the heels of previous, more serious incursions. In November Nablus Municipality repaired the sewage system damaged in September. Residents recently received cash assistance from the UN for damages incurred in a June incursion, but others are still waiting for help to repair their broken windows, walls and doors from September.
ISM: Settlers cause $17,000 worth of damage to Al-Funduq marble factory
The owner, Hani Mohammad Salman, believes the attack was revenge for the killing of an Israeli settler, who was shot in his car on the Nablus road just next to the factory on November 19, but not by anyone from Al-Funduq. [Background: http://www.imemc.org/article/51643 ] Salman points out the broken marble, shattered in hundreds of pieces across the yard. "Even if it's a big economical setback, I have to continue my business. I have ten employees, all with children. How will they be able to support their families without work?
Israeli settlers attack two West Bank towns
Local Palestinian sources told Ma'an that settlers stopped a car in which a family from Silat Al-Thhir was traveling near the evacuated Israeli settlement of Homesh and attacked the car and the occupants. The driver and his three-year-old son were injured by broken glass after the settlers broke the car windows, using clubs and stones. Two other members of the family sustained bruises after the settlers beat them with clubs. More than 200 settlers entered the village of Al-Funduq, firing at Palestinian houses and pelting them with stones. One resident said the settlers even used loudspeakers attached to Israeli military jeeps to verbally abuse the residents, telling them that the lands they live on are Jewish lands and the settlers will attack them frequently until they evacuate the village.
Omelettes into eggs – by Uri Avnery
The moment the Hebrew-Arab war started, the possibility that the two nations would live together in one state expired. Wars change reality. I joined the "Haganah Battalions", the forerunner of the IDF. As a soldier in the special commando unit that was later called "Samson's Foxes", I saw the war as it was - bitter, cruel, inhuman. First we faced the Palestinian fighters, later the fighters of the wider Arab world. I passed through dozens of Arab villages, many abandoned in the storm of battle, many others whose inhabitants were driven out after being occupied. . . . Nowadays, the idea appears here and there of turning the omelette back into the egg, of dismantling the State of Israel and the State-of-Palestine-to-be, and establishing a single state, as we sang at that time: "from the sea to the desert". The dream of living together in one state is dead, and will not come to life again.
Al-Aqsa commander killed in IDF raid in Tulkarm
According to Palestinian officials undercover IDF troops entered the city of Tulkarm in the early afternoon and encircled a local café where a number of wanted men belonging to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades - the military wing of President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah - were currently gathered. A heavy exchange of fire soon ensued between the gunmen and the Israeli forces, now backed by additional infantry troops. The shootout resulted in the death of Mohammed Qusah, who Palestinian officials confirmed was the head of al-Aqsa's Tulkarm cells, as well as the injury of three Palestinian gunmen and the arrest of 15 others. One of the wounded gunmen is Moushir Mansur, a senior member of al-Aqsa who was pardoned as part of the amnesty agreement for Fatah operatives between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Qusah, who also had ties with Hizbullah, had not been included in the agreement.
Israeli forces seize Palestinian in possession of explosive belt
Israeli forces on Sunday closed the Beit Eba military checkpoint, west of Nablus in the northern West Bank , in both directions saying they had seized a Palestinian in possession of an explosive belt. Ma'an's reporter quoted eyewitnesses as saying that a young Palestinian man was taken away by Israeli soldiers.
Authorities cancel terror alert declared in Jerusalem, center
Security forces on Sunday afternoon dropped a terror alert that had been declared following intelligence reports that two Palestinian militants were trying to enter Israel to carry out a terrorist attack. the alert level in Jerusalem would be raised to 'Gimmel', or stage three, while the alert level in the Dan, Yarkon, and Ayalon districts in the center of the country were raised to 'Bet', or level two. [what, no colors?]
Israeli army invades Azzoun again, two boys arrested
At approximately 4pm, Israeli soldiers invaded Azzun, firing live ammunition and sound bombs. An army Jeep drove directly to a car park where local boys were playing football. Soldiers continued shooting, terrifying residents, and proceeded to grab at random a 15-year-old boy, forcing him into the jeep and driving off – all the while threatening distressed family members who watched helplessly. He was released 30 minutes later. Soldiers then returned to the village, and, after threatening to kill the International Human Rights Workers who were questioning at to why the army was invading the village, arrested a 12-year-oldr old boy who happened to be walking past with his father. The boy was driven off in the jeep with no explanation, and was later released
Palestinian man dies of heart attack after being attacked by Israeli soldiers
Medical sources identified the man as Ziyad Al Abed Rasheed, 55. He died of a heart attack in his shop in Beir Zeit, near Ramallah, after the army fired concussion grenades which exploded near him. Unconfirmed sources reported that the man died after being attacked by the soldiers who struck him on his head using their batons and weapons. It is worth mentioning that Rasheed recently recovered from a heart surgery. He was deported by the occupation for several years for his membership and activities with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Detained Palestinian professor hospitalized
Lawyer of the Nafha Society reported on Saturday that Professor Isam Al Ashqar, 50, a Palestinian Physics Scientist imprisoned by Israel since 20 months, was moved to Al Ramala Prison Hospital after his health condition had sharply deteriorated. The wife of Al Ashqar appealed to human rights groups to intervene and save her husband. She added that he was never charged or indicted by any Israeli court. Al Ashqar is a lecturer at Al Najah National University in Nablus city, in the northern part of the West Bank . Al Ashqar received his PhD degree in physics in 1990 from an American university in Ohio.
A gesture to the prisons service – by Amira Hass
The release of another 440 Palestinian prisoners is a nice gesture to the Israel Prisons Service. If these prisoners had been Jews, they would have been released long ago − whether because, as Jews who murdered Palestinians, their sentences would have been commuted by the president (Ami Popper, who murdered seven workers, is the exception among Jewish prisoners who murdered Palestinians; he gets regular furloughs but has not been released), or because they would have been charged with lesser crimes than murder to begin with and would not have been tried in military tribunals.
Israeli prison service delays release of 431 Palestinian prisoners
The Israeli cabinet has decided to delay the release of 431 Palestinian prisoners until after the Annapolis conference, Yaron Zamir, spokesperson of the Israeli prison service, told Israeli radio on Sunday. The Palestinian minister of prisoners' affairs, Ashraf Al-Ajrami, told Ma'an that the revised date for the release of the Palestinian prisoners, which should have been today Sunday, remained unknown after the Israeli decision to delay it. Al-Ajrami also denied the Israeli radio's allegations that the delay came at the request of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Palestinian Authority gets approval for communications satellite orbit
The ruling was made in Geneva during the Radio Communications Conference organized by the International Communications Federation last week. The head of the Palestinian delegation at the conference, Mohamed Diwan, said that 40 Arab countries, non-allied countries, and central American countries had voted in favor of the proposal. He said that this will have a great impact on the Palestinian communication sector, adding that now the Palestinian Authority will coordinate with the Israeli government as was agreed upon in the Oslo peace accords in 1993 to work closely to develop this sector. Last year, the Palestinian Authority managed to develop 256 radio and TV Satellite stations.
Palestinian activists hone advocacy skills
Recently, the U.S. Consulate General invited an experienced U.S. activist to work with local advocacy groups on communicating their message through the media as part of the United States' continuing support for democratic development in the Palestinian Territories. Tarek Rizk, a garrulous American with Egyptian roots, is the associate director of the Global Interdependence Initiative at the Washington-based Aspen Institute. At his workshops in Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah, he discussed ideas with Palestinian [read: PA] activists in choosing the target audience and ensuring their message is noticed.
Palestinian editor for Ma'an News freed after 11 hours
A Palestinian journalist working for the independent Bethlehem-based Ma'an news agency was kidnapped late Saturday night by five masked gunmen and held for 11 hours. According to Nasser Lahham, editor-in-chief of Ma'an, the kidnappers demanded that the journalist publish a number of stories related to security and political affairs in the Palestinian territories. "They wanted us to publish unfounded stories," he explained without elaborating. "They wanted to get us into trouble with other Palestinian factions and the Palestinian Authority security forces." He said Ma'an was facing a "despicable conspiracy" and expressed hope that the PA security forces would manage to capture the culprits.
Proposed 'humanitarian' terminals in West Bank could triple aid costs
AMMAN (IRIN) New Israeli travel restrictions on aid workers in the West Bank could have a profound impact on the UN agency for Palestinian refugees' (UNRWA) humanitarian work and endanger the lives of many Palestinians, said Commissioner-General of UNRWA Karen Koning AbuZayd, urging donor countries to provide badly needed funds for the aid agency. She said UNRWA had been notified of six terminals that will be built in the West Bank through which humanitarian workers and materials will have to pass.
Reports from the West Bank – Huwara Checkpoint
[happened to be 11 Nov, a Saturday, but could be any day at a checkpoint] The male and female soldiers project domination and violence. They take turns making the rounds of peacock-like power display, and what seems to be plain mean fun, pushing people still waiting for others here and there, and then over there, and then over this line, and then beyond the next. The definitions of painted or imaginary lines on the ground change from one soldier to the next. The main point is move on. Away from where you have chosen to stand. Elsewhere. To a spot that is essentially no different from the one you have chosen already, but for the fact that you didn't choose this new one, so get over there.
Medical program brings care to isolated Palestinian elders
[from 14 November – another way in which the Occupation is eroding Palestinian society] Three Palestinian nurses from Dar al-Kalima Wellness Center hefted a brand new mattress into the trunk of a taxi and headed over the back roads to Shwaware, a windblown hamlet east of Bethlehem, the West Bank, where goats graze the barren slopes between the houses. Fatima, an octogenarian afflicted with Alzheimer's disease, lay in her room on a dirty foam rubber mat, staring at the ceiling. The predicament of this great-grandmother is becoming increasingly common in the West Bank, where no social security safety net exists. Dar al-Kalima clinic alone handles 17 different villages, where some 500 elderly women live by themselves. In the West Bank, only about 3 percent of the population is older than 65.
Two Palestinians killed by Israeli army fire in central Gaza
The killed were identified as Yousef Mousa of the Maghazi refugee camp, said to be member of the Saray aL-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, and Ala Alzerai', said to be a member of the Salah Eldin Brigades, the armed wing of the popular resistance committees.Witnesses told IMEMC that a gun battle broke out between Palestinian resistance fighters and an Israeli army undercover special unit, after the latter swept into the east of Magahazi town in central Gaza Strip, just close to the border line with Israel.
Deaths in the second intifada closing in on 6,000 [about 5-1 Palestinians-Israelis]
(AFP) Israeli troops killed two armed Palestinians in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip overnight, an army spokesman and Palestinian medics said on Sunday. The deaths bring to 5,935 the number of people killed in Israeli-Palestinian violence since the start of the second Palestinian uprising in September 2000, the vast majority of them Palestinians, according to an Agence France Presse tally. [Ratio of Palestinian to Israeli deaths is about 5 to 1 (4901 Palestinians to 1029 Israelis, the latter 704 civilians and 325 security forces). See http://www.btselem.org/English/Statistics/Casualties.asp for deaths up to 31 October, bearing in mind that B'Tselem doesn't include deaths resulting from delays in medical care, or deaths of suicide bombers from their own explosives, or some other, smaller categories, including the Ghalia family]
Resistance fighters survive assassination attempt in Gaza
Palestinian sources in the Gaza Strip reported late on Saturday at night that a group of resistance fighters survived an assassination attempt in Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. The sources stated that an Israeli drone fired one missile at fighters who gathered in Jalal Street, in the center of Khan Younis, the fighters managed to escape the attack unharmed while their vehicle was directly hit by the missile.
IDF expands operations along Gaza border with Israel ahead of peace conference
Fearing terror groups will step up efforts to carry out large-scale attack inside Israel on eve of Annapolis summit, IDF widens scope of border security operations while focusing on tunnels being dug from Gaza, a favorite tactic of terrorists trying to smuggle into Israel Over the weekend, the Erez terminal as well as the Karni and Kerem-Shalom terminals were subjected to increased searching and scanning in an attempt to locate subterranean conduits.
Defiant Hamas rules by fear in isolateed Gaza
The nights in Gaza belong to the Izzedine al-Qassam brigades. On potholed streets in the border city of Rafah last week, disciplined rows of fighters bristling with guns and rocket launchers listened to a midnight pep talk from their commander before melting into the darkness. The militia that was once the underground military wing of Hamas, the Islamic extremist organisation, has become a feared unofficial army controlling this isolated strip of Palestinian territory.
Alan Johnston: Home at last, now he longs for the shadows
[Interview] The BBC correspondent is deeply grateful for the support people gave during his kidnap in Gaza. But now he is eager to get out of the spotlight – Alan Johnston is at home. That is a remarkable thing. For 114 days this year the BBC reporter was kept in solitary confinement in Gaza, after being kidnapped.
Teaching on the front line in Gaza and Israel
Palestinian teacher Awwad Abu Marasa often finds himself comforting a grieving child or using classes at his middle school in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza, to counter intolerance in a society riven by fighting -- both internal and with Israel. Many of his former pupils are already dead. On the other side of the border, screeching sirens disrupt Atara Orenbuch's computer science lessons in the Israeli town of Sderot, regularly sending the high school teacher and her pupils dashing for the school's bomb shelter. Few salvoes from Gaza have been deadly, but they spark panic in towns like Sderot.
DON'T FORSAKE THE PEOPLE OF GAZA – what you can do to help
Preventive Security Forces detain two Hamas leaders; Hamas forces detain four Fateh men
Sources stated that Sheikh Faraj Rummana and Hussein Abu Kweik were holding a press conference on the 'dangers of the upcoming Annapolis Conference' slated to be held later this month. Also, Hamas said that a senior security officer informed the two Hamas leaders that their movement is barred from holding any activities in the West Bank, including press conferences. Meanwhile, Fateh sources reported on Saturday that Hamas forces in the Gaza Strip arrested Wa'el Al Sami, an intelligence officer, Ali Abu Al Kheir and three other residents, and took them to an unknown destination.
After 20 years, freedom is sweet - Michel Shehadeh
[19 Nov.] For the last 20 years, the US government has accused me of being a terrorist. Along with six other Palestinians and a Kenyan, we were dubbed the "Los Angeles Eight" by the media. On 30 October the government dropped all charges fabricated against me. Why did the US government spend 20 years trying to ban us from this country? Because we tried to educate Americans about the situation facing millions of Palestinians living in apartheid-like conditions under Israeli military occupation. Because we organized fundraisers to provide Palestinians with humanitarian support. And because we attended demonstrations to urge a shift in US policy away from unconditional financial and diplomatic support of Israel.
Amnesty International: Waiting for the Guards
WARNING: You might find this video disturbing. This film shows a performance artist undergoing, for real, interrogation techniques permitted in the CIA handbook (and it goes without saying - all other dictatorships including the "only democracy" in the ME -Israel). The video launches Unsubscribe Me, a new social campaign from Amnesty International against torture and other brutalities in the name of the war on terror. And we used to call them barbarisms.
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