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PCHR Weekly Report: 22 Palestinians
killed, 71 injured by Israeli forces
According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights
(PCHR)'s Weekly Report, during the week of 17 - 23
January 2008, 22 Palestinians were killed and 71
were injured by the Israeli military.
Human Rights Council calls for urgent
international action to end grave Israeli
violations in Occupied Palestinian Territory
Human Rights Council slams
Israel over Gaza; EU abstains
GENEVA -- The UN Human Rights Council criticized
Israel on Thursday for its blockade of Gaza, in a
resolution that EU member states on the council
abstained from voting on, citing a lack of balance.
Israel's blockade poses immediate
threat to the lives of Gaza's sick and
elderly, says Oxfam
The seven-month ongoing Israeli blockade
is taking an ever-more severe toll on the health
system in the Gaza Strip, says aid agency
Oxfam International. The one-off relaxation of
the blockade this week to allow the delivery
of fuel and some other humanitarian supplies,
cannot meet the needs of 1.5 million Gazan
population, especially the sick, injured
and vulnerable.
Hamas uses bulldozer to open
new hole in Egypt border
Hamas militants used a bulldozer to try to
open a new passage through Gaza's breached
border fence with Egypt after Egyptian troops
tried to close off the area.
Hamas vows to keep Gaza border breaches
open until crossings reopened
Hamas vowed Friday to keep breaches in the
Gaza-Egypt border wall open until crossings
into the Strip are reopened, as six Egyptian
police officers were lightly hurt in an attempt
to reseal the border.
Egypt begins closing Gaza
border, fueling tensions
Egypt began closing its breached border with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on Friday, using barbed wire and water cannons to keep Palestinians from crossing into Egypt in defiance of an Israeli blockade.
Gaza Exodus To Egypt: A 'Blessing
in Disguise' for Israel?
As Jerusalem sees it, Egypt now has responsibility
for more than just the Gaza Strip's southern border.
"The opening of the border relieves us of our
responsibility for Gaza," a government official
said, "and if the international community demands
that the Israeli border with Gaza be opened, we will
now point to the Egyptian role."
Egypt moves to seal border with Gaza
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Egyptian soldiers with
dogs and water cannons moved to seal their
nation's border Friday in a bid to bring an end
to a frenetic two-day Palestinian shopping spree.
Violence erupts at Gaza border
The Egyptian government wants to make
it clear that the crossing will soon be closed.
Violence has erupted between Egyptian troops
and Palestinians at the Rafah border crossing
between Gaza and Egypt.
Egypt fires water cannons at
border, warns of closure
Egyptian forces fired water cannons at Palestinians
trying to force their way across the Gaza-Egypt
border on Friday and warned over loudspeakers
the border would close at 3 p.m. (1300 GMT),
witnesses said.
Egypt jittery at Israeli proposal
to disconnect from Gaza
The Gaza border crisis caused another sharp
flap Thursday in Egyptian-Israeli relations, with
Egypt angrily accusing Israel of trying to dump
all responsibility for the troubled Gaza Strip
in its lap.
Voluntary Transfer?
Forget everything you've read about the "Great
Escape" from Gaza. It's all rubbish. The whole farce
was cooked up in an Israeli think tank as way to rid
Palestine of its indigenous people. Here's an excerpt
from the Israeli newspaper Arutz Sheva which explains
the real motive behind the incident: "MK (Israeli
Knesset member) Aryeh Eldad is hailing the Arab
exodus to Egypt as proof that voluntary transfer is
indeed an option." "The Israeli left continues to claim
that there is no such thing as voluntary transfer, and
simply ignores reality," Eldad said. (Arutz Sheva)
Voluntary transfer. Bingo.
Gaza scrambles for supplies
as border forced open
Three kids, their mother and their aunt hurried towards
the Salah al-Din gate in southern Gaza on Wednesday.
The mother, in her early thirties, explained in a rush,
"We are heading to al-Arish [the Egypt border town]
to follow my mom and brother who entered today
after the borders were reopened."
A day at the breach/Hamas
planned blast for months
Hamas operatives had been sawing away the
foundations of the wall between Egyptian and
Palestinian Rafah for a few months to make
it easier to blow it up when the time came, a
source close to the Popular Resistance
Committees (PRC) in Rafah told Haaretz
yesterday. A central Hamas operative partially
confirmed the report, although he told Haaretz it
was PRC operatives who had prepared to breach
the wall, while Hamas policemen did not interfere.
Mashaal: Battle will continue
even if Gaza drowns in fuel
Hamas politburo chief says Palestinians' struggle
must continue 'until the entire siege over the Gaza
Strip is lifted and until the liberation of Palestine
– all of Palestine.'
CNN concern over
"biggest prison break"
No, it's not the humanitarian situation in Gaza
and the reasons behind the "prison break", but CNN anchor
is more interested in the structural integrity of the "prison wall".
As usual, the American media is not concerned about the
Palestinians as human beings, but the "arch demons"
called Hamas and their responsibility for tearing
down the wall.
More Gazans Flood Across Border
Tens of thousands more Palestinians
flooded across the breached border, and
Egyptian merchants greeted them with
even more goods.
Israel considers Palestinian
proposal to open up Gaza
Davos, Switzerland - The Palestinian Authority
Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was offered a glimmer of
hope Thursday that Israel would ease its blockade of
Gaza. He used a discussion at the World Economic
Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to call on Israel to open
up "passages" to the territory which he proposed the
authority should oversee which he said should be
set up within days.
U.S. diplomat calls for order
at Egypt-Gaza border
U.S. Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns
called on Thursday for order to be restored at the
border between Gaza and Egypt and said the United
States was prepared to work with Cairo on the matter.
Burns also told reporters during a trip to Israel that
services should be restored to Gaza's 1.5 million
residents quickly.
IDF closes road along Egyptian border
Army officials playing it safe after Palestinian
masses enter Sinai; borderline communities
on high alert, riots feared in Jerusalem.
Egypt starts to control
crowds from Gaza
RAFAH, Gaza Strip - Egyptian border guards took
measures to control huge crowds of Palestinians
streaming from Gaza to Egypt across a breached
border for a second day Thursday, but they did
not try to halt the flow.
The Biggest Jailbreak in History,
The Siege of Gaza is Broken
The Palestinian people took their destiny in their own
hands and smashed down the wall that divided Gaza
from Egypt. Hundreds of thousands of people left their
prison and walked into Egypt and bought up food,
fuel and everything else in sight. It took great courage to
do what they did. Just one day earlier desperate
Palestinians trying to get to the Egyptian side of
Rafah were met by club wielding Egyptian cops and
water canon. It would not have been beyond the
gangster Olmert-Barak regime to have massacred
the people from the air. Yet when the wall came
down the people came rushing out.
The Gaza 'tea party'
The Arab world is infuriated by the continued blockade
and seizure of Gaza by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
Anti-Americanism is on the rise, even in capitals that
are loyal to the United States, like Amman, Riyadh
and Cairo. "This is the doing of America," most
Arabs believe, in harmony with its "war on terror"
against Hamas, the military group that has been in
control of the Gaza Strip since June 2007.
The Americans have decided to wipe out
Hamas, via Israel, while the Arab world is watching.
That is the feeling in Arab capitals from
Casablanca to Baghdad.
The real Gaza disengagement, Palestinian '
invasion' into Egypt marks Gaza's true
detachment from Israel
Yesterday morning, Israeli officials were still very
angry at Egypt, after the observation posts and the
pilotless drones started to relay surrealistic images
of people pouring into Sinai. Officials here viewed this
as yet another Egyptian slap in the face.
Abbas: I can't predict how crisis will end
Palestinian president losing sleep over Gaza blockade,
situation at Rafah crossing. In meeting with Kadima
MKs in Ramallah he says, 'Closing the crossings in
Gaza is a mistake. It is wrong to starve residents and
prevent them from receiving electricity and food'
Barak says Israel may go back into Gaza
DAVOS, Switzerland - Israel's defense minister
said Thursday his government has not ruled out a
large-scale military operation to counter continuing
rocket attacks from Gaza. He added that Israel
would not rush "to reconquer" the teeming,
impoverished seaside strip.
Analysis: In the wake of Rafah, all
eyes on West Bank separation wall
Hass said that the attack on the Rafah wall was
planned a month ago, which means that the Palestinians
have done better strategic planning than the Israelis.
She added, "If the Israeli leaders always used to mock
the Palestinians and say that Israel played chess
while the Palestinians played ping pong, they have to
realize now that the Palestinians are now playing
chess and much better than the Israelis imagined."
Professor Mishal, who is an expert on Hamas, warned
of the possibility that the Rafah wall experiment could
be repeated in the West Bank. He also affirmed that the
Palestinians are ahead of the Israelis strategically,
which is eventually dangerous because their eyes
are on the separation wall in the West Bank, which
they also consider to be a Berlin Wall.
De-fenceless in Gaza
Thousands of people engaged in transferring foodstuffs,
jerricans of oil, packages of cleaning materials, cigarettes,
flour and sugar, foam rubber to pad the benches of wedding guests
and also fresh goats, to replenish the stock of meat. Vans,
cars and trucks also clustered at the new border crossing to
drive people to the Egyptian city of El Arish, and from there
back to the Gaza Strip, all in a relaxed atmosphere and
without panic. The feeling, at least based on the TV
footage and testimony from civilians there, is that
there is no need to hurry. This reality is not going
to change tomorrow.
Gazans keep shopping as
Egypt debates reclosing border
RAFAH, Egypt — A tide of Palestinians surged
past baton-swinging Egyptian border guards
Thursday as political uncertainty clouded the international
response to the unregulated flow of Gaza Strip residents
into Egypt.
Gazans injured in latest spate of Israeli
violence to be treated in Cairo
Egyptian Health Minister Hatem Al-Jabali announced
on Wednesday that it has been decided to treat some
of the Palestinians who were injured in the recent spate
of Israeli incursions in the Nasser Institute in Egypt.
The minister said in a statement that the treatment
would be free of charge and carried out in coordination
with the Egyptian Foreign Ministry. This latest decision
is part of the ongoing efforts by Egypt to support the
Palestinian people and alleviate their suffering.
Occupation soldiers threaten Jayyous
village with collective punishment
Over the last week, Occupation forces have begun
conducting daily incursions into the village of Jayyous,
shooting at villagers with live ammunition. The village has also been directly threatened with collective punishment, with the stated
intention being to 'teach Jayyous a lesson'.
Settlers attack a Palestinian house ,
international observers in Hebron
Israeli settlers attacked on Thursday the house
of Shadi Nabeel Sidir, in the southern West Bank
city of Hebron, and also attacked members of the
Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH)
when they attempted to stop them.
Israeli air strike kills Hamas commander
An Israeli air strike killed the Hamas military
commander for the Gaza-Egypt border town of Rafah
early on Friday in the latest in a spate of deadly raids
on the Islamist-controlled Gaza Strip. Mohammed
Harb was killed along with one of his lieutenants
when an Israeli missile struck their car, medical
sources said.
Two Palestinians, Israeli
killed in W.Bank incidents
Jewish settlers shot dead two Palestinians
and gunmen killed an Israeli border policeman
in two separate incidents in the occupied West
Bank on Thursday, medical and security
services said.
The Israeli army attacks a non-violent
protest near Bethlehem
On Friday midday the villagers of Al Khader village
located near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem
protested today against the illegal Israeli wall being
built on the villagers lands.
Four Palestinian killed in
Israeli air strikes in Rafah
In two separate Israeli air strike attacks, at least four Palestinians were killed in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, in Rafah city.
One killed and seven injured by
Israeli army fire near Hebron
One Palestinian youth was killed and at least
seven others injured when Israeli troops invaded
the village of Beit Omer near Hebron city in the
southern part of the West Bank on Friday afternoon.
One Israeli policeman, two Palestinians
killed, four Israeli injured in two separate attacks
Israeli military and medical sources reported on
Thursday at night that one Israeli policeman,
member of the Border Guard Units, in addition to
two Palestinian fighters, were killed, and four other
Israelis, including a female soldier, were injured in
two separate Palestinian attacks that took place in
the Jerusalem area.
Head of Bir Zeit student senate
seized by Israeli forces
Israeli forces seized Abdullah Awis, the chairperson
of the Student Senate at Birzeit University, at
Atarah checkpoint north of Ramallah., witnesses
said. Israeli soldiers forced Awis out of his car,
handcuffed him, blindfolded him and abducted him.
Awis became the head of the student union after
the previous chairperson, Fadi Hamad, was arrested
by the Israeli forces in late November.
Hamas says its members
carried out WBank attack
Hamas's armed wing said in a statement on Friday
that its members were responsible for an infiltration
into a West Bank settlement that ended with the
death of the two Palestinian militants. Jewish
settlers overpowered and shot dead the two
Palestinians after they entered the Jewish settlement
of Kfar Etzion near Bethlehem on Thursday night,
the Israeli army said.
What is Mahmoud Abbas waiting for?
It appears clear to all but the Palestinian
president that resistance, not supine collaboration,
is the only strategic option, writes Ghada Karmi.
With the appalling death toll in Gaza, relentless
assaults on the West Bank (in which negotiations
chief Ahmed Qurei's own bodyguard was killed),
and Israel's blatant settlement expansion, one
must wonder what Israeli atrocity, if any, would
make the Palestinian president change course.
True, last week he raised with his colleagues
the possibility of suspending peace talks with
Israel if it persisted in its assaults, but he has
not acted. Why not?
Olmert, Abbas set to meet in Jerusalem,
discuss Gaza crisis Sunday
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas are set to meet
Sunday in Jerusalem to discuss the situation in
the Gaza Strip following a breach in the barrier
separating Gaza from Egypt.
Hamas official: We'll keep
Gilad Shalit alive
Members of Hamas' political bureau says
movement determined to keep kidnapped
IDF soldier alive 'so that he can be
traded for the greatest number of prisoners'.
One and Two State Solutions,
The Myth of International Consensus
Among the panoply of reasons put forth against
advocates of a one-state solution for Palestine-Israel,
perhaps the most disingenuous is the injunction,
repeated by well meaning commentators who believe
they speak in the Palestinians' best interests, that
Palestinians would simply be irritating the international
community by pressing for such a solution, because
the so-called international consensus supports, and
indeed is based upon, a two-state solution. At a
time when the "international consensus" could
not be less interested in securing any Palestinian
rights, particularly in forcing Israel to withdraw from
enough territory to provide for real Palestinian
statehood and genuine freedom from Israeli
domination, this call for compliance with the
wishes of an uncaring international community
is at best an empty argument, at worst a
hypocritical dodge that undermines the Palestinians'
right to struggle for equality and self-determination.
By telling the Palestinians that they cannot even speak
out for one state without antagonizing some mythical
consensus around the world, this line of argument
undermines their right simply to think about an
alternative solution.
WORLD SOCIAL FORUM:
Palestinians in Lebanon
Seek Right of Return
"We know when we start a campaign we work
for an achievable goal," declares Wafa Yassir,
the energetic head of Norwegian People's Aid
(NPA), which runs programmes for Palestinian
refugees in Lebanon.
End the occupation - and
get justice for its victims
This month, President Bush visited the Israeli-occupied
West Bank towns of Bethlehem and Ramallah and
declared that the occupation must end. These were
no doubt welcome words to Palestinians and Israelis
alike. They provide hope for peace; for without occupation,
peace is truly possible. Unfortunately, for many,
including my 10-year-old daughter Abir, it is too late.
Tyranny in tar
How did a road which, according to official
declarations, was paved for the benefit of the
Palestinian population in the West Bank become a
road along which that same population is forbidden
to travel? The case of Route 443 demonstrates the
"logic" of a judicial hypocrisy that has for years
characterized Israel's reign over the territories.
Bush's silence won't make Israel's
brutality any less counter-productive
Washington's refusal to endorse a draft
United Nations Security Council statement
condemning Israel's siege of Gaza effectively
advocated the collective punishment of 1.4 million
Palestinian men, women and children.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.
asp?edition_id=1&article_id=88312&categ_id=17
Italians awaken to
Palestinian pain
Several Italian civil society groups will mark the
World Social Forum's global day of action Saturday
by pledging support for Palestinians. "This decentralized
World Social Forum (WSF) offers to Palestinian
democratic movements the chance of asking
Europe to intervene and stop what Nelson
Mandela has defined 'the new apartheid of our century,'"
said Mustafa Barghouthi, a pro-democracy activist who
was candidate for presidency of the Palestinian
National Authority in 2005. He spoke from
Ramallah during a WSF press conference
in Rome Tuesday.
Palestinians protest in Jerusalem,
call for ending Gaza siege
Dozens of Palestinian residents, and peace
activists, held a protest on Thursday evening
against the ongoing Israeli siege and attacks
against the Palestinian residents in the Gaza
Strip. The protest was organized by the Al Aqsa
Foundation for Rebuilding Muslim Holy Sites.
Thousands protest in Amman
against Gaza blockade
More than 3,000 people held an anti-Israeli and
anti-US protest in the centre of the Jordanian
capital on Friday against Israel's more than
week-long blockade of the Gaza Strip.
Adalah-NY: Film screened in front of Leviev
New York about Palestinian village protesting
Leviev's settlements
New York, NY, Jan 21, 2008 – Twenty-five New York
protesters and dozens of Madison Avenue passers-by
braved sub-freezing temperatures Monday evening to
watch the award winning documentary "Bil'in My Love"
on the sidewalk 20 feet from the Madison Avenue jewelry
store of Israeli diamond magnate Lev Leviev. Leviev's
company Danya Cebus has been building the Israeli
settlement of Mattityahu East on the land of the West
Bank village of Bil'in, threatening the village's survival.
The film, by Israeli director Shai Pollak, documents
the first two years of Bil'in's three year creative,
nonviolent struggle to save its land from Israel's
wall and Leviev's settlements.
The Arab American News: New York
activists take on Israeli settlement builder
A network of pro-Palestinian organizations in New
York is working hard to expose Israeli businessman
Lev Leviev's sponsorship of Israeli settlement construction.
The groups have engaged in creative protests and organized
boycotts and pressured those linked with Leviev.
Their boycott campaign is gaining strong momentum.
Rana Elhindi, a Save the Children worker in
Gaza, continues her diary of the current crisis
for the BBC News website. #3
It's been a busy day in the Save the Children office
as my colleagues and I have been out since early
this morning finalising the purchasing of water and
fuel tankers to transport water supplies to some
of the most vulnerable neighbourhoods in Gaza.
Ali Abunimah discusses US presidential
candidates on Democracy Now!
Audio found here: http://www.democracynow
.org/2008/1/24/where_do_the_presidential_contenders_stand
How Barack Obama
learned to love Israel
Ha'aretz Washington correspondent Shmuel
Rosner concluded that Obama "sounded as strong as
Clinton, as supportive as Bush, as friendly as Giuliani.
At least rhetorically, Obama passed any test anyone
might have wanted him to pass. So, he is pro-Israel.
Period."
McCain is using support for Israel
to court Jews - and Christians
RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE: McCain is not the
only Republican seeking Jewish support in Florida.
Thursday night may prove to have been the last time
five Republican candidates appeared on the same stage.
It was the final debate before the decisive Florida primary
- a chance for John McCain to prove that he is the only
candidate, for Mitt Romney to prove that he is still relevant,
for Rudy Giuliani to finally become a candidate. Florida is
the first state in which Giuliani is seriously competing -
or as a popular joke puts it: "For Giuliani, primaries are
kind of like marriages. The first two or three don't count."
In case you missed it: Hillary Clinton
and the Pro-Israel Lobby
In 2000 the British Broadcasting Corporation reported that
Israel has likely produced enough plutonium to make up to 200 nuclear weapons.
So, it is safe to say that Israel's bomb building technologies are light
years ahead of Iran's budding nuclear program. Yet Israel still won't admit they have capacity to produce such deadly weapons.
http://www.pressaction.com/news
weblog/full_article/frank01212007/
Gaza overlooked by U.S. voters;
economy dominates race
Presidential hopeful Obama backs Israel to UN,
calls for condemnation of Qassams.
Chasing the mirage
Peace, in Israel's eyes, means ridding itself of Arab
Israelis. Just and lasting are no more than a joke.
sat launchNew Delhi
The Palestinian reaction to the UPA government's
decision to launch Israel's spy satellite is one of "deep
dismay and disappointment". The coordinator of Ittijah,
a network of Palestinian non-governmental groups based at
Haifa, Israel, Mr Ameer Makhoul, told this newspaper over
the telephone that the Palestinians "are very very
disappointed from the Indian government that has
launched this satellite of Israel. India used to be
supporting the Palestinians, the victims, and not
Israel, the aggressor. We are very unhappy the
Indian government has forgotten its relations with us.
This scares us."
Prof. Dror: Israel, world Jewry drifting apart
President of Jewish People Policy Planning Institute
points to wearing of relationship between Jews in Diaspora,
Israel; says Jewish state is 'no longer viewed as safe-haven,
source of pride'.
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