Monday, December 31

Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines December 31, 2007 ~

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Action Alert! Mass demonstration against the apartheid highway 443 and the apartheid road system in the occupied territories
This Friday, January 4th, Human Rights activists will meet at a mass demonstration against the system of Israeli Apartheid being imposed upon the Palestinian people. They will protest the network of apartheid roads which dissect the West Bank and which Palestinians themselves are blocked from using.

Three Palestinians killed in Gaza violence

At least three Palestinians were killed and 30 others wounded as rival factions exchanged fire in the Gaza Strip on Monday, medical officials said. One Fatah supporter, a teenager, and two Hamas members were shot dead at a demonstration commemorating Fatah's 43rd anniversary in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, the medical workers said.

Palestinians: IDF kills Gazan woman, hurts 4 others en route from hajj
At least one Palestinian was killed and four others were wounded by gunfire while crossing from Israel into the Gaza Strip on Sunday after completing the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, Palestinian medics said. The medical workers said the pilgrims had been hit by Israel Defense Forces gunfire at the Erez crossing on the northern Gaza border. Witnesses said soldiers first fired into the air and then at the crowd of pilgrims.

Gaza Strip and West Bank: Eight Palestinians killed by Israeli fire

Eight Palestinian activists, one of them a senior commander, have been killed and 16 other people wounded in the Gaza Strip in four Israeli raids carried out since late Thursday. In the first raid three men -- two of them from the Islamic Jihad and a third from the armed wing of Hamas -- died in the southern town of Khan Younis. Six people were hurt in this incident.

Palestinian dies in Israeli detention
Palestinian prisoner Fadi Abd al-Latif Abu al-Rob (21) from the town of Qabatia near Jenin died in the Israeli prison of Jalbou' on the evening of 28 December 2007. The prisoner was a member of Islamic Jihad detained on 29 June 2007. According to information gathered by PCHR, Fadi suffered an illness on the morning of the day he died. He was transferred to the prison clinic. However, his condition deteriorated and the Israeli Prisons Authority announced his death in the evening without specifying the cause.

Israeli troops invade a village near Jenin and open fire at civilians

A Palestinian family, from the village of Kufer Dan near Jenin city in the northern part of the West Bank, escaped an almost certain death on Monday morning when Israeli troops invading the village opened fire at them.

Hamas member remains in critical condition after stabbing in Tyre
TYRE: A Hamas member was fighting for his life after he was stabbed in the head on Saturday at the Rashidieh refugee camp in Lebanon in an attack which the Palestinian Islamist group blamed on rivals Fatah. "When Bassel al-Ashkar, 30, returned home, he was attacked by four members of Fatah who stabbed him in the head and back, then opened fire on his house to terrorize him family," said Hamas official Abu Khaled Jihad.

PHCR calls for investigation into shooting and abduction in Gaza
Gaza – Ma'an – A Palestinian man named Samir Al-Halawni was injured and a relative of his was abducted last week by unidentified gunmen east of Gaza city, says the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR).

Youngest Palestinian prisoner released from Israeli detention centre

On Sunday night Israeli forces freed a Palestinian boy named Majed Jaradat from Sa'eer village near the southern West Bank city of Hebron. Jaradat ,13 was considered to be the youngest Palestinian prisoner inside an Israeli detention centre as he was sentenced by the Israeli court for two months in Ofer detention center, near the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Four Palestinians kidnapped in Hebron during Israeli Invasion
Israeli forces kidnapped at least four Palestinians from different areas of the southern West Bank city of Hebron on Monday morning. The ransacking operation affected a countless number of civilian homes.

193 detainees died in Israeli prisons since 1967
Abdul-Nasser Farawna, head of the Census Department at the Palestinian Ministry of Detainees, specialized researcher in the issue of detainees, stated on Saturday that 193 Palestinian detainees died in Israeli prisons and detention facilities since 1967.

B'Tselem: 131 Palestinians civilians killed by Israeli army fire in year 2007
B'Tselem today released its year-end report. According to B'Tselem data, the number of Israelis and Palestinians killed in clashes in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip has dropped.

Palestinian pilgrims stuck in Egypt refuse to be moved to camps
EL-ARISH, Egypt (AFP) - Over 1,000 Palestinian pilgrims stuck in Egypt refused Sunday to be moved into camps until they are given clearance to return to Gaza without going through Israel, a security source said. "They are refusing to get off the buses and the situation is very tense," the source told AFP.

Israel's Olmert issues West Bank housing directive
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has issued a directive requiring his approval for new Israeli housing construction in the West Bank, his spokesman said Sunday, after recent disclosures of building plans sidetracked renewed peace negotiations with the Palestinians and drew criticism from the Bush administration.

Stranded Palestinian refugees at Iraqi borders to resettle in Sudan within days
Khartoum : The Sudanese government has declared that all preparations were finalized on the resettlement of 2,000 Palestinians refugees in the outskirts of the capital, Khartoum, within the few coming days.

ISRAEL-OPT: Aida refugee camp residents say Barrier harming their livelihoods
Source: IRIN Behind a luxurious five-star hotel and close to Bethlehem, yet unknown to most visitors who converged on nearby Manger Square for the recent Christmas mass, residents of Aida refugee camp - home to nearly 5,000 people - say their lives have been adversely affected by the Israeli restrictions on movement, in particular the Barrier built around the city.

Peace talks cannot go on unless settlements stop: Abbas
Revived Middle East peace talks cannot continue unless Israel halts settlement activity in occupied Palestinian territories, president Mahmud Abbas said on Monday. "The continuation of settlements and the construction of the racist separation barrier compromise the creation of a Palestinian state and the two-state vision supported by the international community," he said.

PA foreign minister condemns West Bank terror attack
Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Malki strongly condemned Friday's shooting attack near Hebron which claimed the lives of two Israelis. "The group that carried out the attack seeks to sabotage peace negotiations and the Palestinian Authority's plan to increase security in the Palestinian territories," he was quoted as saying by Israel Radio on Saturday.

Palestinians Arrested in Israeli Deaths
The Palestinian prime minister said Saturday his security forces had arrested a number of suspects in the killings of two off-duty Israeli soldiers in the West Bank and had given Israeli authorities weapons taken from the dead men by their attackers.

Abbas urges Hamas to agree to early elections
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged Hamas Islamists on Monday to agree to early elections and to open a "new page" by ceding control of the Gaza Strip and holding reconciliation talks with his Fatah faction.

Abbas govt says thwarts Hamas suicide attack

Palestinian security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas have arrested Hamas militants who were plotting a suicide bombing, Abbas's foreign and information minister said on Monday.

Gaza journalists warned away from Fatah event
Reporters receive anonymous phone calls advising them to stay away from 43rd anniversary of the Fatah movement. "No one will prevent us from commemorating this anniversary," Fatah leader says.

Stranded Palestinian pilgrims protest in camps in north Sinai
Palestinian pilgrims protested Monday, breaking windows and burning some mattresses and blankets, angered by Egypt's decision to house them in temporary camps until a dispute over how they will return to the Gaza Strip is resolved.

Report: Prisoner swap deal for Shalit to be set in next 2 weeks
A prisoner exchange deal for missing Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit will be resolved over the next two weeks, according to a report on Monday in the Palestinian daily Al-Ayam.

Olmert warns Palestinians on security after attack
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert urged the Palestinians on Sunday to rein in militants after an attack killed two Israelis, calling it a condition for Israel relaxing its grip on the West Bank.

Israeli Premier: no advancement at peace until PA meets its security obligations

Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, said on Sunday that Israel would not advance peace with the Palestinians until the Palestinian Authority meets its security obligations.

We won't win in Gaza
IDF hasn't won a war in 30 years; notion that Gaza reoccupation will lead to victory false. IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi declared recently that should the IDF enter the Gaza Strip in full force, in the framework of an Israeli military operation, he has no doubt that this time around the army and the entire State of Israel will be triumphant. Several commentators were quick to explain that this declaration was an attempt to highlight the great defeat suffered by his predecessor, Dan Halutz, and to promise to the people that under Ashkenazi's leadership the army will not suffer another defeat such as the Second Lebanon War failure.

Knesset war report: IDF failed to eliminate Hizbullah rocket threat
Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee reveals findings of independent probe into Second Lebanon War, but refrains from making personal recommendations, citing 'that's what the Winograd Commission is for'.

Matter of life and death in Gaza
REGARDING the worsening situation in Gaza (International, December 16), Israel has kept Gaza's borders sealed since June, leaving more than 1.5 million people in a 140 square mile 'prison'. The sewage system has collapsed, there's no power to pump sewage out and no chemicals to clean it. Garbage is piling up in the streets and there is no fuel for the trucks to come to haul it away.

Arab pupils lag behind Jewish peers in reading comprehension

Israeli Arab pupils seriously lag behind their Jewish peers in reading competency, according to the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS).

Egypt warns Israel not to undermine Cairo-U.S ties

Egypt's foreign minister warned Israel that Cairo could use its diplomatic influence against Israel which he said was trying to undermine Cairo's ties to Washington, state news agency MENA said.

Lenni Brenner: Rice Compares Israeli Occupation to US Segregation
If a Jewish state is legitimate in principle, how and why did "the only democracy in the Middle East," end up looking like apartheid South Africa and the segregated American south.

Ha'aretz: Twilight Zone / Deer hunters
After a night of rain, the sun broke through the clouds. Two brothers and their brother-in-law decided to go for a hike in the wild, through the spectacular valley of olive trees, west of Ramallah in the West Bank. Around midday they suddenly noticed a herd of deer descending pell-mell into the valley. They stood and watched, certain that in the wake of the frantically fleeing animals, other people would appear. And, in fact, a few minutes later they spotted a group of soldiers slowly making their way into the valley.

Democracy: An existential threat?
As two of the authors of a recent document advocating a one-state solution to the Arab-Israeli colonial conflict we emphatically intended to generate debate. Predictably, Zionists decried the proclamation as yet another proof of the unwavering devotion of Palestinian -- and some radical Israeli -- intellectuals to the "destruction of Israel." Some pro-Palestinian activists accused us of forsaking immediate and critical Palestinian rights in the quest of a "utopian" dream. Ali Abunimah and Omar Barghouti comment.

Nakba is now
Only by understanding the Nakba as a unified continuing strategy can we hope to reverse it, writes Serene Assir. Jamila Moussa was 19 when she and her husband fled Kfur Yassin, her village in Akka, north Palestine. They had just had their first child, Nicolas, who now has children of his own. Fearing for his safety they fled, hoping they would return within a matter of weeks. Since that day, Moussa has witnessed several wars -- though none of them in Palestine. In interview with Al-Ahram Weekly this spring, from her home in Dbayye refugee camp, Lebanon, she recalled that the force of their expulsion was "a violence like I have never seen since, or had witnessed before. The British used to burn homes, yes, but the Jews, they were flattening our houses, so they no longer existed."


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