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OPT: Protection of civilians weekly report, 28 Nov - 04 Dec 2007
Lebanon: Funds dry up for hospital in impoverished camp
A desperately needed hospital in Lebanon's largest and most violent Palestinian refugee camp has been unable to open on time because funds to buy beds and other basic medical equipment have dried up.
Siege that spells slow death for the innocents
Last week WHO reported that out of the 782 Gaza patients to have sought specialist treatment outside the Strip since the siege was tightened in June, 100 have been granted permits by Israel to leave.
Two-and-a-half year old Muhammad a-Shanti and his brother Mustafa, who is sixteen months old, have cystic fibrosis. They live in the Gaza Strip, where the health system is unable to treat their serious illness. As a result, they must go to Hadassah Hospital , in Jerusalem , once a month for treatment. Prior to each visit, their parents have to submit a request for an entry permit for one of them and for the toddlers. Now and in the past, Israel has taken its time in issuing the permits. The delays have severely increased in the past six months.
Just another day in Palestine
Video: Israeli occupation forces man handle Palestinian women.
A key ally of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday that Israel will hold on to all Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem but would have to relinquish Arab neighborhoods in a peace agreement with the Palestinians. The comments by Vice Premier Haim Ramon appeared aimed at defusing U.S. criticism of an Israeli plan to expand one of its Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, the section Palestinians claim as capital of a future state.
Hamas accuses P.A security
forces of arresting 26 members
Hamas media sources stated on Sunday that Palestinian security forces, loyal to Fateh movement, arrested 26 Hamas members and supporters in the West Bank on Saturday, including the manager of the office of the detained Palestinian Legislative Council head, Dr. Aziz Dweik.
Palestinian Authority shuts down
all 92 West Bank Charity Committees
The Preventive Security forces managed by the Palestinian Authority seized Abdul-Qahir Surur, director of the office of the speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Aziz Dweik. Aziz Dweik himself is detained in an Israeli prison since the occupation forces' crack-down on Palestinian lawmakers from the Hamas movement in summer 2006. The Palestinian Authority also shut down all 92 West Bank Charity Committees Zakat, accusing them to be affiliated with Hamas.
Israeli peace activists protest settlement
expansion; rightists build more outposts
Around forty Israeli peace activists held a protest Saturday on a site in the West Bank approved by the Israeli government for settlement expansion. At the same time as the protest was going on, Israeli right-wing settlers were busy setting up three new colonial outposts to claim for Israel more Palestinian land deep in the heart of the West Bank.
Detainees in Al Jalama threaten to hold a hunger strike
Palestinian detainees imprisoned in Al Jalama Israeli detention facility threatened to hold an open-ended hunger strike in protest to the Israeli escalations against them including solitary confinement against several detainees, bad food and medical negligence.
Israeli army storms Nablus and Jenin
Israeli military stormed the northern West Bank cities of Nablus and Jenin early Monday morning. Security sources reported that military vehicles invaded the camp and attacked homes in several neighborhoods, no injuries were reported.
Once again Azzoun is set upon by Israeli forces
After a few days of quiet, Israeli army jeeps re-invaded Azzoun, again enforcing curfew on the village of 11,000. Military and police jeeps, along with a military hummer and a large personnel carrier, overran the village around 3pm—not coincidentally the time when youths are leaving school.
Delegates of Australian Churches meet with Jenin Governor
Delegates of a number of Australian Churches met on Sunday with Jenin governor, Qaddoura Mousa, in his office, and discussed the harsh living conditions the residents are facing due to the Israeli siege to the area and the repeated invasions.
EU to assist 40,000 needy Palestinian families
The European Union distributed 41 million Shekels ( 7.4 million Euro) as part of the sixth installment of aid for Families in extreme financial hardship. At least 40,000 of the neediest families will receive financial assistance of 1,000 NIS each, a raise of 15%.
ICRC calls for immediate resumption
of family visits for Gaza residents to Israeli prisons
The visits have been suspended since 6 June 2007, following a decision by the Israeli authorities. "It is impossible to understand that such a decision is taken solely on security grounds. Family visits to Israeli prisons have been organised for decades and they have always been subject to thorough security checks by the competent authorities, as is currently the case for residents of the West Bank. There is no reason for this six-month suspension of family visits for Gaza residents," says Christoph Harnisch, the ICRC's Head of Delegation in Tel Aviv.
Palestinian official hopes Bush
visit to push Israel to implement roadmap plan
A senior Palestinian official expressed hope on Sunday that an upcoming visit of U.S. President George W. Bush to the Middle East would push Israel to implement the roadmap plan. Palestinian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Information Riyad al-Malki said he hoped Bush's visit to Israel and the West Bank "would contribute in urging Israel to commit itself to implementing the roadmap plan, mainly freezing settlements and removing checkpoints in the West Bank."
Ramon: Cede parts of Jerusalem to avoid conflict with US
While still maintaining that construction should continue in the Israeli settlement of Har Homa, Israeli Vice Premier Haim Ramon said Sunday that Israel should give up some Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem to the Palestinian Authority to avoid a conflict with the U.S.
Settlers march to build new outpost beneath Beitar flag
A large yellow and black flag of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer club waved Sunday over a circle of dancing right-wing activists in the E-1 area between Jerusalem and Ma'aleh Adumim, where they want to establish an outpost called Mevaseret Adumim.
Hamas burns 3 million
dollars worth of illegal drugs in Gaza
Gaza - Police on Sunday in the Gaza Strip burnt about 3 million dollars worth of recently captured illegal drugs, officials with the Hamas-run Interior Ministry said. Ihab al-Ghusein, a spokesman for the ministry, said that large amounts of different kinds of drugs were recently seized in the Gaza Strip, including hashish, marijuana, cocaine and hallucinogenic drugs. He said the step was meant to show that under Hamas, Gaza has not turned into an "enclave of criminals."
Hamas shows off drugs haul, then burns marijuana
Hamas on Sunday showed off dozens of packages of illegal drugs it said it had seized in the Gaza Strip before burning the entire stash -- including marijuana -- in front of a crowd of journalists. "The general authority for combating drugs has arrested 115 people since June 15, including some of the biggest drug dealers" in Gaza, Hamas spokesman Ihad al-Ghussein said at the press conference.
Defense Min.:
Israel now world's fourth largest weapons exporter
Israel has passed Britain to become the world's fourth largest exporter of weapons, Defense Ministry Director-General Pinchas Bucharis said on Sunday. Israel exported a total $4 billion in defense exports in 2007, Bucharis said. The United States, Russia and France lead the world's list of exporters.
Israel no nuclear threat to neighbors, says Gates
The statement was greeted by laughter from a room filled with government officials from Middle Eastern countries.
Omar Barghouti belongs to a new generation of Palestinians who never adhered to the solution of " Two States, Two peoples". They are advocating, instead, a secular, democratic state» solution, where Palestinians and Israelis would share equal rights, after historic injustices are redressed and the refugees are allowed to return.
Shas minister: Americans' attitude to report reminiscent of Auschwitz
Yitzhak Cohen says during cabinet meeting 'US intelligence report was ordered by someone who wants dialogue with Tehran. Minister Eli Yishai: 'We must not play dumb in the face of the report's findings'
Israeli Arab woman demand end to custom that left them homeless
Women from the Galilee village of Deir al-Asad are demanding an end to an age-old Arab custom that has forced them out of their homes, after a member of their clan allegedly killed a member of a rival clan.
Industrialists try to launch Israeli-Palestinian business forum
A group of Israeli and Palestinian industrialists have established the Palestine International Business Forum, in order to promote projects in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The group's board of directors is set to hold its first meeting on Wednesday, in Bethlehem.
Dershowitz jewelry purchase booed by Leviev protesters
Wealthy Madison Avenue holiday shoppers were greeted the afternoon of 8 December 2007 by boisterous music and dancing, as 60 New Yorkers protested in a growing campaign to boycott Israeli diamond magnate Lev Leviev over his settlement construction in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Participants performed a joyous dabke, a traditional Palestinian dance, and chanted to music from the eight-piece Rude Mechanical Orchestra. During the protest, Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz entered LEVIEV New York and emerged to jeers as he displayed a LEVIEV shopping bag to the crowd.
Palestinians make 3 feature films despite no audience, funding
RAMALLAH - In a flip-flop of reality, a surly Palestinian soldier guards a West Bank checkpoint, as a line of haggard Israelis wait to have their ID cards examined. The scene is from a satirical Palestinian film that reverses the roles of occupier and occupied, one of three full-length feature films, along with a few shorts, that were shot in the West Bank this year. It's the most ever made in one year in a place more accustomed to seeing news cameras filming scenes of bloodshed. "Each Palestinian film made is a miracle," said George Khleifi, co-author of a book on the subject.
Towards first-rate university instruction
The Palestinian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research produced a report in August 2002 with financial and technical assistance provided by the World Bank. The paper has two objectives. The first is to provide an analytic rationale for donors wishing to finance higher education in Palestine, and the other, thornier one, is to "build stakeholders consensus on the rationale and mechanism for financing reform." Given the nature of the document, it is taken for granted that the answer to the challenges higher education faces in Palestine is "a compelling financial strategy" and that's what the document provides. Rima Merriman comments.
In pictures: Palestinian Bedouin
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