Saturday, January 19

Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines January 16, 2008 ~

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Israel air strike kills three
members of Gaza family

Israel killed three members of a Gazan family in a
botched air strike on Wednesday and shot dead a
West Bank militant leader a day after Palestinians
said some of the worst violence since late 2006
could hurt peace moves.

Israeli troops kill W.Bank
militant leader-hospital

Source: Reuters JENIN, West Bank, Jan 16
(Reuters) - Israeli troops shot dead a leader of the
Islamic Jihad militant group in the occupied West Bank
on Wednesday, Palestinian hospital
officials and witnesses said.

Israeli sources: seven Israeli soldiers injured,
one seriously, at an Israeli naval base

from The International Middle East Media Center
- IMEMC News by Ghassan Bannoura
Israeli media sources reported that an artillery shell
exploded onboard an Israel Navy missile ship at the
Haifa naval base on Wednesday morning injuring
seven soldiers, one critically.

Hamas' al-Zahar vows revenge

Senior Hamas figure who lost son in IDF operation
says group will respond to 'Israeli crimes'

Gaza strike hardens Hamas position
In an interview, key Hamas strategist Mahmoud Zahar
discusses how his movement has been preparing
for a potentially imminent Israeli assault on Gaza.
Gaza City, Gaza - Mahmoud Zahar, the Hamas leader
widely seen as the strategic mind behind the
Islamist movement's successful takeover of the
Gaza Strip last summer, struck a defiant tone
when asked in an interview last week how long
he thinks Hamas can maintain control in the face
of an economic blockade and Israeli pressure.

Israeli forces kill 17 Gazans
in less than four hours

On Tuesday morning, 15 January 2008,
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed 17 Palestinians,
including five civilians, and wounded at least 30 others,
five of whom are in a serious condition, during an
incursion into the al-Shojaeya and al-Zaytoun
neighborhoods of east Gaza City. The incursion
continued until noon. Preliminary investigations
conducted by the Palestinian Centre for Human
Rights indicate that most of the victims were killed
by tank shells, and that IOF troops used
excessive lethal force without regard for the lives
of Palestinian civilians living in the affected areas.

In pictures: Gaza City raid

Rocket attack on Sderot injures four,
causes widespread power outage

Bethlehem – Ma'an – Four Israelis were injured,
including an eight-year-old child, in a rocket attack
on the Israeli town of Sderot on Tuesday,
Israeli security sources said.

Army chief: IDF to boost Gaza
operations if needed

Chief of Staff Ashkenazi: Troops engaged in
'real fighting' in Strip, army may boost
operations if necessary.

Killing of Hamas leader's son
may torpedo Shalit exchange

There are concerns among officials in Israel's
defense establishment that yesterday's fighting in the
Gaza Strip, which left at least 19 Palestinians dead,
will impact negatively on the efforts to gain
the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit.

Israeli Arabs may be
freed in Shalit exchange

Israeli Arab officials involved in prisoner affairs
said yesterday they were optimistic about the
chances of Israeli Arab security prisoners being
freed as part of the mooted prisoner swap for the
release of captive Israel Defense
Forces soldier Gilad Shalit.

Hamas investigates Gaza failures

Member of Hamas military wing tells
Ynet series of mistakes led to high
Palestinian death toll.

Bil'in Residents Attcked Whilst
Attending to Their Land

In recent days, the Israeli army have
intensified their harassment of the villagers
of Bil'in, beating and arresting villagers attending
to their land trapped behind the annexation wall.
Problems started on Friday when a villager was
handcuffed, blindfolded, and dragged to the gate
in the wall by soldiers, who threatened to kill him
and told him he couldn't be on the land. This in
violation of Septembers high court decision to
grant Bil'in residents access to their land trapped
behind the wall.

Israeli army kidnaps at least 24 from Nablus
Israeli forces kidnapped at least 24 Palestinians
from different parts of the northern West
Bank city of Nablus and the refugee camps
of Balata and Askar in pre-dawn invasion
on Wednesday.

Israeli Settlers burn a Palestinian house
and the Army up-root trees in Hebron

A group of radical armed settlers attacked a
Palestinian house and set fire to it while the
Israeli Army kidnapped the owners of the
house on Tuesday midday in the southern
West Bank city of Hebron.

Israeli settlers hurl molotov cocktail
into Palestinian house in Hebron

Israeli settlers from the Beit Hadassah outpost
in the centre of the southern West Bank city
of Hebron hurled a molotov cocktail into a
Palestinian home on Tuesday.

Palestinians on strike over Israel's killing of 18
RAMALLAH, West Bank, Jan 16 (Reuters) -
Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and in
the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip observed a
general strike on Wednesday, in a rare show
of unity after Israel killed 18 people in fighting
a day earlier. "The strike shows that we and
Gaza are one people in the face of Israeli
massacres," said Majdi Maraqa, as he stood
near his shop in the West Bank city of Ramallah,
where business came to standstill.


Palestinians yearn for unity
The Israeli onslaught against the Gaza Strip which
has left scores of Palestinians dead has further
underscored the weakness and failure of the
Palestinian leadership to protect its people as
it continues unconditional negotiations
with Israel.

Leading Fatah member urges
reconciliation with Hamas

A leading member of Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement on
Wednesday called for reconciliation with
rival Hamas movement "to protect the
Palestinian cause."

JPost: Lawyer: IDF hid info
on wounded activist

Attorney Shlomo Lecker, who is representing a
former member of the International Solidarity Movement
(ISM) shot and badly wounded in Jenin more
than four years ago, has charged that the testimony
of several soldiers "substantially contradicted
(and that is an understatement) the information
presented to the High Court of Justice in a
brief filed by the Military Advocate-General."

Hezbollah's Nasrallah: Bush's visit
empowered Israel to 'wreak havoc'

Hezbollah's leader said Tuesday that United
States President George W. Bush's visit to
Israel had empowered the Jewish state to
wreak havoc in Palestinian areas, and warned
against a worsening humanitarian situation in
the Gaza Strip.

Ahmed Yousef: Israelis
Hear No Objections

These acts of violence followed a state visit by
U.S. President George Bush; and it is reasonable
to assume that tacit approval was given for the
Israeli leadership to attack Gaza's inhabitants
whenever the opportunity presented itself.

Palestinian gov't blames world
community for Israeli offensive

The Palestinian government led by Salam
Fayyad blamed the international community on
Wednesday for bloodily Israeli raids in the
Palestinian territories. "We can't exempt the
international community from its responsibilities
in any way," said Information Minister
Riyadh al-Maliki.

Palestinian Presidency: Offensive, settlement
prove Israel unserious towards peace

The Palestinian Presidency announced
on Wednesday that the Israeli military
escalation against the Palestinians and the
continuation of settlement activities in the
West Bank proved that the Israeli government
was not serious in peace talks with the Palestinians.

MKs: Gaza ops a nod to keep Lieberman in

The recent escalation in violence with Gaza
is connected to the instability of Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert's coalition, MKs said on Tuesday.
The prime minister was encouraging an escalation
in violence to improve the chances that Israel
Beiteinu remain in the government, said
Hadash Chairman Muhammad Barakei.

Israel destroys 40 dunams of land,
6 wells west of Hebron

Israeli bulldozers destroyed six wells
and razed 40 dunams (40,000 square metres)
of olive groves near Beit Awla west
of the city of Hebron in the West Bank.
Local residents said that the land
belongs to local farmers.

More Jewish families move
to east Jerusalem project

Eleven more Jewish families have moved into
the controversial City of David housing
project in the heart of Arab east Jerusalem,
the organisation overseeing the project said on
Wednesday. "The 11 families have settled in
four houses belonging to us in the Ir David
neighbourhood," an official from the Elad
organisation told AFP, referring to a small
Jewish settlement in the Palestinian
neighbourhood of Silwan.

Israel building new homes
in east Jerusalem settlement

Israel has begun constructing 66 new homes
in an east Jerusalem settlement, according
to an AFP correspondent who visited the area
on Tuesday, in a move likely to anger Palestinians.
The development comes as Israel and the
Palestinians are engaged in the most serious
peace talks in years aimed at solving the
thorniest issues of the Middle East conflict,
including the future status of Jerusalem.

Political storm brewing over Jerusalem settlement
Israel announced the construction of new
apartments in Jabal Abu Ghneim; a decision that
turned into a political fight.

Israel plans to resume its settler-only
road which will surround Jerusalem

Khalil Tafakji, an expert in maps and
settlements, revealed that the Israeli Authorities
revived a project which aims at establishing
a settler-only road around Jerusalem, and will
lead to the annexation of 1250 Dunams of
Palestinian lands, in addition to demolishing
dozens of Palestinian homes near Jerusalem.

Jerusalem approves controversial
Mughrabi bridge project

Jerusalem's district planning and
construction committee has approved a
controversial plan to restore the Mughrabi
bridge leading to one of the entrances to
the Temple Mount, construction that
caused an outcry among Muslims and
generated protest from the Jordanian
and Turkish governments in June.

Israel Evacuates 2 Settler Outposts
Israeli forces evacuated two makeshift
settlement outposts in the West Bank
on Wednesday, a step to remove a major
obstacle to peace talks with Palestinians.
Police and army forces arrived at the first
outpost, Harchivi, near the Palestinian
town of Nablus, and the five Israelis
there fled at the sight of the forces,
police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld
said. No arrests were made.


Ariel residents informed of
West Bank construction freeze

Mayor of West Bank city tells municipal
council that locals are prohibited from building
even basic structures without Defense Ministry's
authorization. 'If such a settlement freeze would
have been imposed on the Arabs, an intifada of
unimaginable proportions would have broken out,'
he says.

A right-wing party quit Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert's government on Wednesday,
condemning his peace talks with the Palestinians
and leaving him even more politically vulnerable.

Rice: Arab nations should reach out

to Israel to nudge Mideast peace
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
said Tuesday that Arab nations must do more
to reach out to Israel, as a way to do their part
to nudge a Mideast peace accord into being.

MKs Tibi, Barakeh: Lieberman

suffers from racial AIDS
Arab MKs attacked by Yisrael Beiteinu chairman for being 'more dangerous than Hamas and Hizbullah leaders', demand that his party be outlawed, boycotted like Haider in Austria.

Arab citizens across country receive letters containing inscriptions against Prophet Muhammad. Israeli-Arab citizens across Israel have been receiving lately letters containing slurs against the Prophet Muhammad. The recipients believe that an employee of the Israel Postal Company is behind the acts.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3494773,00.html

Thousands of non-ID Palestinians
to receive legal status
The Lebanese government and Palestinian leaders have struck a quiet deal that would grant a new legal status to at least 3,000 Palestinians living in Lebanon without any identity documents, The Daily Star has learned. The plan was approved at a meeting last Friday that included representatives from the Interior Ministry.

National Resilience Project:
Justification for Lebanon war waning
Study finds Israelis more reluctant to
justify Second Lebanon War as time goes by,
mistrustful of Supreme Court and
other national institutions.

"It felt like a kind of
resistance to celebrate"
Ahmed and Liliane Hassan lost their home and
wedding dowry to the conflict in Nahr al-Bared,
but have returned to the camp and were at last married.
(Lucy Fielder/IRIN) Ahmed and Liliane Hassan, who are
25 and 17, were supposed to marry in August,
but instead were driven from their homes in Nahr al-Bared camp, along with up to 40,000 other people, by 106 days of fighting between the Lebanese army and militant group Fatah al-Islam.

Israeli Apartheid Week in New York needs your financial support

Citizenship, Zionism and separation of religion from the state
It is customary to say that the Israeli daily Haaretz is a progressive newspaper. However, its progressive character is generally nowhere to be seen when Israel initiates a war against one of its neighbors -- its opposition to the previous two wars came only after the newspaper provided support to the policies of the government and the military -- or abuses against the Palestinian people. However, when dealing with matters of religion, and particularly hatred of the religious, the progressiveness of Haaretz, its editors and community of readers, is endless. Michael Warschawski comments.

Honorary citizenship of the moon
"Daniel Barenboim, the world-renowned Israeli pianist and conductor, has received Palestinian citizenship" and a Palestinian passport, the Haaretz English edition reported on Monday, using a Reuters story. The Ynet version said that the Palestinian Authority had granted Palestinian citizenship to Barenboim, whereas The New York Times reported that the Argentinian-born Israeli pianist and conductor had agreed to accept Palestinian citizenship and an honorary Palestinian passport.

Millions of Israelis are borrowing to splurge
A few months ago Nitzan, a doctoral student at Tel Aviv University, strolled into one of Bank Hapoalim's branches in central Israel ahead of the school year. During the previous year he'd worked as a tutor, but come the summer break, his income vanished. Even before his lips had shaped the word "loan," the clerk had whipped out a table showing interest rates and offered an open loan, for any purpose, at attractive rates. Nitzan wasn't asked for guarantors or an attachment to any savings he might have, nor to drag his mom to the branch. All he had to decide was how much money he wanted to borrow and sign on the dotted line.

US Jewish organizations vs. Ms. Magazine

Feminist publication refuses ad by American Jewish Congress praising Israel for having three women in key roles. AJC claims magazine is anti-Israeli; magazine states no equality in Israel.

Bush departs Mideast with few apparent gains, experts say
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — President Bush wraps up a weeklong tour of the Middle East Wednesday, leaving many Mideast political observers mystified as to the purpose of the visit and doubtful that the president made inroads on his twin campaigns for Arab-Israeli peace and isolation for Iran.
US insists cluster bombs

not bad if used right GENEVA, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Cluster bombs, which nearly 100 countries are seeking to ban, should not be considered bad as long as states involved in conflicts use them responsibly, a senior United States official said on Wednesday.


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