Tuesday, January 15

Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines January 14, 2008 ~

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Report: Israel planning to

assassinate Haniyeh
I
srael is planning to assassinate exiled
Hamas leader Khalid Mashaal, deposed Palestinian
Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, and former
PA Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar, but is waiting to
give the green light on the operation until after
US President George W. Bush leaves the region,
the London-based newspaper, Al-Hayat
reported on Sunday.

Bil'in protests Wall, Leviev, army shoots
popular committee member in the head

Soldiers let off a barrage of flash bombs when
people got close. Flash bombs are similar to sound
bombs, but they explode much sooner and are
made of metal instead of plastic, so they weigh
a lot more. They are generally used to injure
people, where as normal sounds bombs mostly
disorient people. A few demonstrators were hit
by the flying metal objects, but none seriously
injured. Near the end of the demonstration,
army snipers shot Bil'in Popular Committee
member Abdullah Abu Rahme in the head
with a rubber-coated steel bullet. Abdullah
was also one of the activists hospitalized a
week ago when settlers attacked a group of
Palestinians who were non-violently protesting
the placement of more caravans on their land.
After the soldier shot Abdullah, he dances a bit
and cheers, telling his comrades-in-arms that
he "got one in the head!"

Three Palestinians killed in Israeli
air strike on Gaza
Three Palestinian militants, including the
local head of an armed group, were killed
in an Israeli air strike on a refugee camp
of Gaza City late Sunday, medics and security sources said.

Army attack villages near

Nablus and kidnaps three civilians
Palestinian sources reported that the Israeli army
attacked the villages of Awarta and Houwara
located in the northern West Bank city of
Nablus on Monday morning and kidnapped
three civilians there.

Bush to Olmert: Hit Gaza

Without Hitting Civilians
(IsraelNN.com) U.S. President George W. Bush
gave Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert a green
light to mount a comprehensive ground offensive
against the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza,
according to the London daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat
("The Middle East") which quoted diplomatic
sources in Israel. The sources said that the
two leaders discussed the matter during Bush's
three-day visit to Israel last week.

Israeli forces shut down Huwwara village

in respone to alleged stone throwing
The Israeli military imposed a curfew on the West
Bank village of Huwwara south of Nablus, local
sources said. The head of the village council of Huwwara,
Samir Mir'ib told Ma'an that Israeli soldiers forced all the
business owners to close their shops and banned all
residents from walking the streets. He added that the
Israeli forces claimed that the curfew was imposed
because young men from the village pelted stones
at Israeli settlers' cars on the main road near the village.

The army issue demolishing orders against

water reservoir for Palestinian farmers near
Hebron
On Monday the Israeli army issued demolition orders
against a water reservoir that belongs to Palestinian
farmers from the Bedouin village of Al Hathalen located
near Hebron city in the southern part of the West Bank.

Settlers Have Continued to Occupy
Palestinian Land and Attack Palestinians
While Police and Soldiers Stand By and Watch
Settlers have been occupying the Jabr land near
Kiryat Arba settlement in Hebron. They were supposed
to have left as of tonight, but it is unconfirmed whether
that has actually happened. At least 30 young
settlers have been present on the land these days
and have continued to use large stones to build
paths and structures and to block the road beside
the land. Despite a previous Israeli high court order
affirming this as Palestinian-owned land, Israeli
Border Police and Military stood by and watched.

Photostory: Volvo equipment

used house demolitions
The photographers of the group Activestills
have documented Volvo equipment being used
for the illegal construction of the wall and the
settlements, and the demolition of Palestinian
houses in Israel and occupied Palestine.
Activestills gave special permission to
publish some of the images on The
Electronic Intifada to inform a wider
audience about the systematic use of
Volvo equipment in house demolitions
in East Jerusalem.

An Appeal to end the solitary confinement

of a Palestinian journalist
The family of detainee Waleed Khalid Harb, 38,
the director of Palestine Newspaper, from Iskaka
village near the West Bank city of Salfit, appealed
the International Journalist Union and Reporters
Without Borders to intervene for his release, and
for ending his solitary confinement.

ISRAEL-OPT: Palestinian camp

residents sceptical over Bush visit
Many residents of Qalandia refugee camp,
just outside Ramallah, felt more frustrated
than excited by the recent visit of US President
George W Bush to Israel and the West Bank.
Others were simply apathetic.

Witnessing the siege

It is supposed that one can build factual perception
by reading the statistics and getting all the hard evidence
, but I recently realized that a complete cognitive
process relies first and foremost on visuals --
seeing the picture for oneself. I joined a camera
crew and producer shooting footage for a first-
person interview on the Israeli siege on Gaza.
The interviewee was Dr. Eyad El-Sarraj, head
of the Palestinian International Campaign to
End the Siege on Gaza, a coalition of organizations
and individuals set out to do just that. Safa Joudeh
writes from Gaza.

The Grand Jury and the persecution
of Dr. Abdelhaleem Ashqar
Ever since his sentencing on 21 November,
I have been ruminating on the extreme injustice
perpetrated on Dr. Abdelhaleem Ashqar by the
US government and the federal court in Chicago
culminating in a draconian sentence of 135 months
for nonviolent acts of civil disobedience. Michael E.
Deutsch, who was one of the counsel for Dr.
Ashqar's co-defendant Mohammad Salah,
comments on the punishing of a man motivated
by love for his people and their right to resist an
illegal occupation of their land.

First round of Israeli-Palestinian
talks on final status issues ends fruitlessly
The first round of Israeli-Palestinian talks
on final status issues ended on Monday afternoon
without any announced result, Palestinian sources
close to the negotiations said.

Uri Avnery: George Bush lends Israel

"110 per cent support
" during
Uri Avnery argues that, amid the outpouring
of flatulence by Bush and Olmert during the
US president's recent visit, what Bush is offering
the Palestinians is "much less than Bill Clinton's
2000 'parameters'" and "amounts to 110 per
cent support for the official Israeli
government line".

B'Tselem: Does Diskin view
kids as terrorists?
Shin Bet chief says 1,000 terrorists killed in
Gaza Strip in past two years. Human rights
organization says 816 Palestinians killed in
that period, including children.

Haaretz probe: Half of Gazans killed
by IDF not involved in terror
Israeli security forces killed 810 Palestinians in
the Gaza Strip in 2006 and 2007, Shin Bet security
service chief Yuval Diskin reported yesterday at
the weekly cabinet briefing in Jerusalem. He estimated
that some 200 of those killed were not clearly
linked to terrorist organizations.

Anti-Israel Palestinian groups to

hold Syria conference
DAMASCUS (AFP) - Hamas and other Syria-based
Palestinian groups are to hold a conference later
this month focused on Palestinian refugees and
resistance against Israel, a spokesman said on
Sunday. "The national Palestinian conference
will be held January 23-25 in Damascus under
the banner of Palestinian rights and unity,"
conference spokesman Anwar Raja told AFP.

Nasrallah: Israel to give
crumbs to Palestinians
Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah
said on Friday. "Israel plans to give only
crumbs to the Palestinians during negotiations
and [US] President [George] Bush plans to
force the Palestinians to give up on the right
of return and settle the refugees in Arab
states [instead,]"

Housing minister: We won't
stop building in Jerusalem
Boim speaks out against division of capital,
insists on continuing construction in city despite US objections.

FEATURE-Palestinian police

reclaim West Bank streets
NABLUS, West Bank, Jan 14 (Reuters) -
Palestinian police are slowly starting to
exert control over some West Bank towns,
long the domain of hooded gunmen and
their automatic rifles, with the aid of
Western-backed funding and training.

PLO to isolate Hamas with

separate W. Bank parliament
The PLO Central Council, which met
in Ramallah on Sunday, is expected to
vote to dissolve the current Palestinian
Legislative Council [PLC], which is dominated by
Hamas. The council is also scheduled to call for
early parliamentary elections in the Palestinian territories.

Spokesman: PA won't consult

Hamas on plan of reopening Gaza crossings
A spokesman for Palestinian government
in West Bank said on Sunday the Palestinian
Authority (PA) will not consult with Hamas
on taking control of Gaza crossing points.

Fayyad expects to run in

next Palestinian presidential elections
Salam Fayyad, the Prime Minister
of the caretaker government is thinking
to run in the coming Palestinian Presidential
elections due to be held in January 2009,a
well-informed Palestinian source revealed Monday.

Number of Palestinians crossing into
Jordan from West Bank up 20%
Last year saw a 19.2 percent increase in the
number of Palestinians who crossed from the
West Bank into Jordan through the Allenby
crossing, according to figures obtained by
Haaretz from the Airports Authority.

Netanyahu urges Shas, Yisrael

Beiteinu to quit government
Opposition chairman Benjamin Netanyahu
on Monday urged Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu to
leave the government in wake of the first meeting
between Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Chief
Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qureia over the
core issues.

The reason why I will never

forget the word 'Zaalan'
"Aaaaah, Aaaah…" Abdullah's voice, from behind
the blue-grey curtain, echoed throughout the
first floor of the hospital. The medical staff
was cleaning the wounds in his head – just
another sacrifice people from Bil'in have
made in their struggle for justice and dignity.
It sounded as if he was laughing, and pierced my
heart, tearing it to pieces. "Khalas, khalas, khalas…
(stop, stop…)"

US seen in policy retreat
Recent months have witnessed several notable
political reorientations in the Middle East,
involving Iran, the Gulf states, Egypt and
Lebanon. Several experts say the changes
reflect a shift in Washington's regional strategy
following recent US policy setbacks. "US policies in
the region are either in retreat or undergoing
re-examination," Ayman Abelaziz Salaama, international
law professor at Cairo University told IPS. "Washington's
project for a new Middle East -- launched in 2001 with
the aim of redrawing the region to suit US interests
-- has failed."

Bush warns Gulf Arabs of Iran threat

ABU DHABI (AFP) - US President George W.
Bush warned Gulf Arab allies on Sunday of the
threat from their neighbour Iran and called for
their support of Washington's policy goals
in the Middle East.

A deal for a deal
If G
eorge Bush persuades Israel to stop settlements
and end occupation of the West Bank, what kind of
quid pro quo will Olmert have won on Iran?

US, Israel on 'same page' on Iran
Israel and the US are "on the same page"
regarding the gravity of the Iranian nuclear
threat and their commitment to thwart it,
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman
Mark Regev said Saturday night.

Bush Disowns U.S. Intel
Tells Israelis Iran NIE 'Doesn't Reflect My Own Views'

Is a Palestinian State a Real
Threat To The Israel?

4 Minute Video - Norman Finkelstein & Wolf Blitzer.
Is The Fourth Largest Military In the World - What Does
It Have To Fear From A Palestinian State?

If Jesus Were Alive Today He'd Be An
Arab, Georgie in Jesus Land.

On his first trip to Israel in 1998 Texas governor George W
Bush read his favorite hymn, "Amazing Grace" aloud with
tear-filled eyes, standing at the place where his 'favourite
philosopher' Jesus is believed to have delivered the Sermon
on the Mount. He also toured Jerusalem's Old City, site of
the Via Dolorosa, where Jesus carried his cross toward the site
of his crucifixion, and helicoptered over the Jordan River
with Ariel Sharon, but he didn't visit Palestinian territory at
that time, so didn't manage to tick Bethlehem off his pilgrimage list.

Randa Abu Naeem: The Death of the Stalinist Left in Palestine
Empty rhetoric has turned out to be the weapon not only of "Arab reactionary regimes;" it has been adopted by the Left itself. Stalin would have been happy to see his disciples at work in Palestine.
http://palestinechronicle.com/story-01140834820.htm

Uri Avnery: The Hands of Esau
A visitor from another planet, attending the press conference in Jerusalem, would find it hard not to answer: Olmert is the president of the great power, Bush is his vassal.
http://palestinechronicle.com/story-01140835001.htm

Holocaust Lessons: Interviewing Hedy Epstein
While on the plane, I wrote on every page in the magazines provided by the airline "I am a Holocaust survivor and I will 'never again' return to Israel".
http://palestinechronicle.com/story-011308150334.htm

Court to hear petition against segregation of sexes on buses
The High Court of Justice will hear a petition Monday against sex-segregated public buses known as mehadrin lines, which are meant to serve the ultra-Orthodox community.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=944537&contrassID=1&subContrassID=7
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