Sunday, January 13

Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines Saturday, January 12, 2008 ~

Brought to you by Shadi Fadda
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Bush and the current realities in the Middle East
So Mr Bush realises that "there should be an end to the
occupation that began in 1967" with "mutually agreed
adjustments to ... reflect current realities" and that
Palestinian refugees should be accommodated in a new
state of
Palestine
(Report, January 11). Has anybody looked at the simple
arithmetic of the situation that these pronouncements create?
The area of
Palestine that Israel is now offering for the
creation of a quasi-autonomous Palestinian state is in five
disconnected blocks and amounts to only about 13% of the t
otal area of mandate
Palestine. If Palestinian refugees from
the neighbouring countries are also to be accommodated in
the new state, and if some at least of the Palestinian Arab citizens
of
Israel are forced or choose to live there, then the total Arab
population of that state will be around 8 million. That would
give population densities of 2,300/sq km in
Palestine
and 230/sq km in
Israel.


Mustafa Barghouti: Rate of Israeli attacks on and
killing of Palestinians has doubled since Annapolis

Dr Barghouthi presented data showing that Israeli
military killings of, and attacks against Palestinians
have soared by 100% since
Annapolis, confirming an
intensification of Israeli military violence against the
Palestinian people even after the meeting on
27
November 2007
. He highlighted that the ratio of
Palestinians to Israelis killed in 2007 had risen
to 40:1, up from 30:1 in 2006 and 4:1 from 2000-
2005. "We do not want anyone to die, Israeli or
Palestinian, but this ratio is alarming. It is
unacceptable to justify such large-scale killings
under the pretext of security," Barghouthi said,
adding that five of the Israelis killed in 2007 were
soldiers who died whilst carrying out attacks inside
the
West Bank and the Gaza Strip.


Report on Wall construction, settlement expansion,
and nonviolent resistance in 2007

According to a new report released by the Popular
Campaign Against the Wall, during the past year,
the Israeli government has continued its construction
of the illegal annexation Wall in the occupied
West
Bank
, and confiscated thousands of Dunams in
addition to uprooting hundreds of trees and
demolishing dozens of houses, especially in the

Jerusalem
area. . . . [long report]


Israeli digs in over past
AS CRANES help dig the foundations for new
apartments in the Israeli settlements in the

West Bank
, archaeologists at the City of David
site in annexed
East Jerusalem are also digging
away. In both cases, the earthworks deepen Israel's
hold on territory it captured during the 1967
Middle East war – the same land on which the
Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, hopes
to establish an independent state. The message of the
highly popular tours given at the site is straightforward:
the past here belongs primarily to King David and other
biblical figures, so present dominance in the area should

also belong to Jews . . For the first time, a small group of
Israeli archaeologists is challenging the story as told by
Ms Levinger, the settlers and the state, saying it
misrepresents the past. "There are many layers in this
land," says Yoni Mizrachi, who was an archaeologist in
East Jerusalem for the antiquities authority from 2003
to 2005. "This site was settled before Jews arrived and
also after the second temple was destroyed (AD 70)," he said.


Mofaz calls for an interim PA state before peace accord
Mofaz, a former defense minister and Israel Defense
Forces chief of staff, said that the interim deal should
grant a provisional Palestinian state temporary
borders, and should not include a settlement on
two of the core issues of the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict: the fate of
Jerusalem and the Palestinian
refugees. [and guess what would never be addressed
once this travesty was established]


Israeli army vehicle runs over Palestinian
child near Nablus

Jihan Samara was crossing the street with her
mother when an Israeli army jeep ran her over,
witnesses said. Medical sources said that the girl
sustained fractures to her legs and bruises all over
her body. Witnesses added that the Israeli army jeep
rushed at the child and her mother without any reason,
the soldier did not stop the jeep but rushed away from the
incident area. Bystanders called an ambulance which
arrived and took the child to the hospital in
Nablus city.


Settlers open fire on international human
rights activists near Hebron

a group of international human rights activists were
working near an illegal Jewish settlement outpost called
Ma'on when a group of armed settlers opened fire at them
at
midday on Saturday. According to the sources none of the
international workers were injured or harmed and the armed
settlers fled from the area shortly after the attack.


Power outage near Hebron due to theft of mains cables
Electricity was cut in several areas around Hebron in the
southern
West Bank on Friday as a result of the theft of 800
metres of mains cables that supply the area of Deir Bahha south
of
Hebron. Hebron Mayor Khalid Al-Iseily said that the theft of
electricity cables has occurred several times before in different
areas of
Hebron. He said that local businesses suffered huge
losses as a result of the power cuts. The cables are made of
brass which is sold at 30
NIS (US$8) per gram.


The sword is mightier
It's easy to claim that the pen is mightier than the
sword from the safety of a university lecture hall, or
a middle class soiree in a suburban dining room. However,
in the bandit country that is
Hebron, the adage rings
somewhat hollow, as I found after spending a day out on
patrol with Temporary International Presence in the City of
Hebron (TIPH). What I saw during my six-hour shadowing
of the dedicated yet ultimately toothless members of the TIPH
team made me question the wisdom of their presence in the
troubled city. Established in the wake of Baruch Goldstein's
shooting spree in a local mosque, TIPH's raison d'etre is to
"monitor the situation in
Hebron and record breaches of
international law."


Woman prisoner on hunger strike in Israeli
jail to be released soon

Nora Hashlamon has ended a 27-day hunger strike after
the Israeli authorities promised to release her. Thirty-
seven-year-old Hashlamon is from Taffuh in the district
of Hebron. She began her hunger strike after being held
for two years in administrative detention, which was
frequently renewed without any specific charge. She is
married to Muhammad Hashlamon, who has also been in
administrative detention since 2006. They have six
children aged between three and fourteen.


Bethlehem security services arrested 10 Hamas
members on eve of Bush's arrival

PA security services arrested more than 10 Hamas
members in
Bethlehem on the eve of US President
George W. Bush's visit to the city, security sources
said on Saturday. The sources indicated that the arrestees
were found to have weapons on them.


Family clash in Haris in the northern
West Bank leaves five injured, 22 arrested

Twenty-two Palestinians were arrested after a family
clash in the town of
Haris in the district of Salfit on
Friday, Palestinian police said on Saturday. They said in
a statement that five people were injured in the clash and
several vehicles were damaged. The police headed to the
area and dispersed the fight arresting eight people. Later
on in the evening fighting erupted again and police
arrested a further 14 people.


70th patient dies due to Israeli siege of Gaza
The sources said that Yihiya Al Jamal, 53, had
cancer and had applied three times to leave
Gaza but
the Israeli army refused. Doctors said that Al Jamal was
diagnosed with cancer 9 months ago.


IAF strike kills two militants in southern Gaza
Two Hamas militants were killed and one was
injured when the Israel Air Force struck a Hamas
post in the southern Gaza Strip Saturday, the Islamic
group said. An Israel Defense Force spokesman
confirmed a strike on a post near Khan Yunis in
southern
Gaza, which he said comes in response to
mortar fire from the coastal territory. . . Meanwhile,
at least 10 Qassam rockets were fired from
Gaza
[not by Hamas, though] at settlements in the northern
Negev
, in addition to some 12 mortar rounds. Two Qassams
directly struck houses in the town of
Sderot , damaging
the buildings. One 17-year-old girl was
lightly wounded from shrapnel.


Various brigades groups fire projectiles at Israel
the An-Nasser Brigades and the Fatah-affiliated
Ahmad Abu Ar-Rish Brigades said their fighters
launched two homemade projectiles at the Israeli city
of
Ashkelon north of the Gaza Strip on Friday evening.
Meanwhile, the military wing affiliated to the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Abu
Ali Mustafa Brigades said they clashed with an Israeli
undercover force who attempted to infiltrate east of Khan
Younis in the southern Gaza Strip at
midnight. . . .


Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades launch 10 projectiles at Sderot
The Abu Ali Mustafa brigades, the military wing of the
popular front, claimed responsibility for launching 10
projectiles at the Israeli border town of
Sderot on
Saturday morning. The brigades said the attack was
in response to Israeli crimes.


Hamas: IDF attack carried out because Bush
gave the green light

Sources within Hamas reacted to an IDF attack on a
Hamas post in southern
Gaza by saying: "The attack is
Israeli implementation of the green light that President
(George W.) Bush gave
Israel during his recent visit that
enables the opening of an attack on the Gaza Strip."


Israeli military orders increase in fuel supplies to Gaza
The Israeli Ministry of Defense has decided that it will
allow an increase in the amount of industrial diesel fuel
that will be supplied to
Gaza. Industrial diesel fuel is used
exclusively to operate
Gaza 's main power plant. Last Saturday,
5 January, the Gaza Power Plant cut back electricity
production by 35%, because it had run out of fuel.

The military's announcement was attached to a document
submitted to the Israeli High Court of Justice Thursday
evening, in reply to an urgent request for an injunction
filed by a group of ten Israeli and Palestinian human rights
groups who have petitioned against military-ordered cuts in
fuel -- and proposed electricity cuts -- to
Gaza. It is not clear
how soon this development will impact on the electricity
situation in
Gaza. [full discussion of the situation]


Israeli troops take over local Gaza radio
station, broadcast threats

The Israeli army stormed the studios of a local radio
station in
Gaza City on Friday and broadcast threats
that military operations against the people of the Gaza
Strip will continue as long as Palestinian rockets
continue to be fired at towns in southern
Israel.


Israeli gunboats and Apache aircraft
bomb targets in southern Gaza

Israeli gunboats shelled a Palestinian boat near the
shores of Tel Sultan, south of the Gaza Strip, on Friday.
There were no casualties in the incident, but the bombing
resulted in the total destruction of the boat [and a
fisherman's livelihood, probably]. Apache aircraft also
launched two missiles at an open area in Khan Younis,
in the southern Gaza Strip. No casualties were reported.


Palestinian naval officer found dead in southern Gaza
Palestinian medical sources said on Saturday that
the body of a Palestinian naval officer has been found in
the area of Juhr Ad-Deek in the southern Gaza Strip.
Mu'awiya Hassanein, the director of ambulance and
emergency services in the Palestinian health ministry
said Sha'ban Dughmush died from three gunshots to his head.


Vandals smash, loot American private
school in Beit Lahiya, Gaza

Gunmen smashed windows, burned buses and looted
computers belonging to a private American school in
Gaza before dawn Saturday, an attack officials believed
was linked to U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to
the
West Bank earlier this week. Saturday's attack on
the
American International School was the second in
48 hours. On Thursday, just before Bush arrived in the
West Bank, gunmen fired a rocket-propelled grenade at
the school. The private school in northern
Gaza holds
classes in English and uses a U.S.-style curriculum but
has no ties to the
U.S. government


De facto government in Gaza condemns
attack on American school

The Gaza-based interior ministry affiliated to the Hamas-led
government in the Gaza Strip on Saturday condemned
the assault by unidentified gunmen on the American
school in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. In
a statement, the interior ministry described the assault as
a dangerous criminal act which can not go unpunished.
They also affirmed that investigations are ongoing,
and that the security services have collected some
information which might be helpful bringing the
perpetrators to justice. They also called upon the
Palestinian media outlets to avoid accusations against any
party before investigations are over.


Haniyeh: We will not accept a dwarfed Palestinian state
During a celebration honoring the Gazan hajj pilgrims
in the Yarmouk playground in
Gaza City, Haniyeh stipulated
the stoppage of security coordination with the Israelis in the

West Bank
as a pre-condition for resuming inter-Palestinian
dialogue. Haniyeh also denied that the Palestinian Authority
has been channeling any funds into the Gaza Strip.
"None of the billions that arrive in Ramallah is spent on the
Palestinian people of the Gaza Strip, and all claims to
the contrary are false," Haniyeh said.


Civil servants in Gaza Strip to be paid Sunday
The head of public sector employees in the Gaza
Strip on Saturday called on all civil servants to head to
the banks on Sunday to collect their December salaries.
He also highlighted in a press release that the de facto
government in Gaza Strip last Wednesday and Thursday
paid salaries for security services employees, and employees
of the interior ministry affiliated to the Hamas-run government.


Egypt rules out permanent U.S. presence
across Egypt-Gaza border

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit
has ruled out a permanent
U.S. presence on borders
between
Egypt and the Gaza Strip, the official MENA
news agency reported on Friday. The
United States
would sell advanced technical equipment to
Egypt to
detect tunnels along the Egyptian-Gaza border, Abul
Gheit was quoted as saying. However, the Egyptian
foreign minister dismissed as groundless a permanent
U.S. presence along the Egyptian-Gaza border area.
"I could not imagine a permanent
U.S. presence in the
land adjacent to the Egyptian borderline, taking into
account the
U.S. participation in the Multinational
Force and Observers (MFO) in Sinai since 1981,"
Abul Gheit told media. [U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice had said Tuesday that the
US
was ready to help
Egypt stop arms smuggling into
Gaza run by the militant Hamas.]


Insubstantial pageant
Unfortunately, the unity of Mr Bush's concept
crumbles after cursory examination. Just to take one,
but still vital, point over the future borders of a
Palestinian state. Mr Bush said they would require
mutually agreed adjustments to the armistice lines
of 1949 "to reflect current realities". That is code for

Israel
keeping some of the major settlement blocs that
cut deep into the territory of the
West Bank, and it is
in line with a letter he sent to the former Israeli prime
minister Ariel Sharon three years ago. But on the
same trip Mr Bush said that a future Palestinian state
should be contiguous, not a patch-work quilt of territories.
Harking back to Palestinian criticism of the map produced
after the abortive
Camp David peace talks seven years ago,
Mr Bush said: "Swiss cheese isn't going to work when it
comes to the outline of a state." Well, which is it? It is
either "current realities" or "Swiss cheese", but it can't be both.


Editorial: Cynicism with reason
We ought to be celebrating President George Bush's
declaration that a Palestinian state is "long overdue".
We ought to be positively over the moon about his newly
discovered belief that the Palestinian people "deserve it".
We should be excited by his call for an end to the Israeli
occupation, all the more because "occupation" is a word
so rarely used by the Americans in relation to the Israelis.
[But] it is impossible to feel any excitement about Bush's
words — because no Palestinian, no Arab believes he will,
or can, deliver.


Palestinian negotiator rules out
establishment of state in 2008

"In 2008, we expect a peace deal specifying the core
final-status issues and how to begin dealing with them,
" Saeb Erekat told reporters. The Palestinian National
Authority (PNA), which renewed peace talks with
Israel
last month, counts on an active
U.S. role in pushing
forward the slow-paced negotiations. "The success to
reach such a deal is subject to the Israeli government's
capability to stop the settlement building, remove
checkpoints, stop the offensive and engage in serious
negotiations," Erekat said.


Shalit deal: Olmert handed list of
prisoners for exchange

Ministers tasked with laying the groundwork
for a prisoner exchange to secure the release of
kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit met with Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday, and presented
him with the list of Palestinian prisoners who could
be released - signaling that negotiations with Hamas may be close to a deal.


Poll: Majority of Israelis support prisoner
trade of Marwan Barghouti for Gilad Shalit

A poll released Friday revealed that 71% of Israelis
would support a trade of Palestinian political prisoner
Marwan Barghouthi, who is one of 10,000 Palestinians
held in prison camps by
Israel, for the Israeli soldier
Gilad Shalit, who is the one Israeli held by Palestinian
resistance fighters. In spite of the newest poll, Israeli leaders
remain steadfast in their refusal to negotiate on the
question of Marwan Barghouthi's release. Marwan
Barghouthi is the founder of the Al-Aqsa Brigades,
the armed wing of the Fateh party, and has been sentenced by
Israeli courts for attacks carried out by members of that party.
The poll was conducted by the Dahaf Institute, and
has a 4.5% margin of error.


Israel's isolation
The visit said more about Israel's isolation
than about its importance. How lonely and desperate are
its leaders, grasping like orphans at the barren bosom of
one whose time has passed, but whose victims are still here:
Many years will pass before the scorched earth that Bush is
leaving in his wake will heal . . . Between the wall-to-wall
coverage in Israel and the 20 seconds given by the U.S.
television stations lies an infinite dead space . . .
This was the visit of an alien, who may look, walk
and talk like a president but is certainly not from
these parts, since he is completely detached from reality.


What Bush should have apologized for at Yad Vashem
Bush said in reference to Auschwitz: "
We should have bombed it." Bush's words also argue
that the
US (and the World) failed the Jewish people and
thus owe
Israel something (previous Jewish suffering
trumps current Palestinian suffering). Bush's words
also serve to justify his approach to many international
issues: bombing. I wonder if Bush thought about his
grandfather Prescott Bush who was Director of IG
Farber in 1942 when the company's assets were seized
under The Trading with the Enemy Act. If Bush honestly
thought about history he would have considered the
dangers of war profiteering and not have looked for
more opportunities for humanitarian bombing.


U.S. elections: Just like the movies – by Ramzy Baroud
With the notable exceptions of Republican
Ron Paul and Democrat Dennis Kucinich, most
visible presidential candidates were eager to compromise
the interest of their country to guarantee that of Israel's –
Rev Stan Moody of the Christian Policy Institute writes,
"Huckabee is a Rapturist" in reference to the mid-19th
Century interpretation of biblical text which culminated
in 1909 as the Scofield Desk Reference Bible. This
envisions -- and not metaphorically -- a Greater Israel
as a precondition to the return of Christ, who, with the
true Christians, will defeat Satanic forces, convert
144,000 Jews and exterminate the rest. It has no Harry
Potter twists, but it puts
Hollywood horror movies to
shame. The actual concern is that this group has
cultivated an alliance with the Israeli government
since the late 1970s and is a major powerbroker
in
US foreign policy in the Middle East .


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