Shadi Fadda
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Egyptian forces renew effort to
reseal breached Gaza border Sunday
Egyptian forces moved to close their breached
border with the Gaza Strip by stopping vehicle
traffic Sunday and further tightening their
security cordon around the small frontier town
of Rafah in effort to contain Palestinians
crossing freely into Egypt for the fifth day
in a row. Egyptian forces blocked one of the gaps
carved into the border wall with piles of sand
and border police carrying electric cattle prods
at other openings stopped cars with Palestinian
plates from entering Egypt and Egyptians cars
from crossing into Gaza. Pedestrians, however,
continued to move back and forth freely. Egyptian
border guards were now authorized to return fire if attacked,
Egypt shuts down Al-Arish Sunday
in apparent warning to Palestinians
Egyptian security forces ordered shops to close in the
city of Al-Arish, bordering the Gaza Strip. Ma'an's reporter
said that the city of Al-Arish was empty of Egyptian foot
traffic, though Palestinians could be seen wandering the
streets searching for an open shop to buy their needs.
Meanwhile, Palestinian students, patients, and businesspeople
continued to demonstrate in front of the offices of the
Egyptian Interior Ministry for the Sinai region,
demanding that they be allowed to travel outside
of Egypt. Egyptian officials have not allowed
Palestinians from Gaza to travel outside of the
Sinai. Separately, Kamal Abu Silmiyya, the chief
Palestinian food inspector for the Gaza Strip announced
that goods purchased in Egypt would be subject to
scrutiny before being allowed into the Gaza Strip.
Egypt seals off border town rather than frontier
The Egyptian government Saturday abandoned its sporadic efforts to seal off the Gaza Strip but tightened a cordon around this border city, restricting the availability of goods in order to dissuade Palestinians from flocking here to shop. Police used armored personnel carriers to block roads leading deeper into Egypt from Rafah and turned back hundreds of Palestinians. Authorities instructed hoteliers in El Arish, 25 miles southwest of here, not to lodge Palestinian travelers. Some shops were ordered to close early.
Egypt offers more food, medicine for
Palestinians in Gaza
An Egyptian charity body has sent a convoy of some
50 tons of food and medicine to the Palestinians
suffering a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip,
\the official MENA news agency reported on Sunday.
Mubarak has pledged that his country would not
allow the starvation of the Palestinians in Gaza.
On Friday, Egypt's Doctors Syndicate sent a
convoy of 40 tons of meat and other foodstuff
as well as six tons of medicines into Gaza.
In addition, a four-truck convoy carrying some
200 tons of wheat, rice, other foodstuff and medicines
offered by the Egyptian Shari'a Association on
Friday reached Palestinians who have flooded
into the Egyptian side of Rafah crossing.
Border town united by
Gaza border breach
RAFAH, Gaza Strip - Divided by a twist
of history 26 years ago, this remote town
straddling the Gaza-Egypt border has been reunited in
just as haphazard a fashion. After the towering
border wall slicing through Rafah was toppled
earlier this week, long-separated relatives,
friends and even former soccer buddies
just had to walk a few yards to embrace and
reminisce. Some even dared to make plans
for an uncertain future: One large Palestinian
clan quickly married off four women to
relatives on the Egyptian side.
Olmert promises Abbas not to disrupt
flow of food, medicine into Gaza
Olmert and Abbas met Sunday at the prime
minister's official residence in Jerusalem for
a two-hour tete-a-tete that focused on the Gaza
Strip border crisis. The two leaders met as
Palestinians were pouring from the Gaza
Strip into Egypt for the fifth consecutive day.
Abbas was expected to ask Olmert to consider
transferring control of the Gaza Strip border
crossings to the Palestinian Authority. He
was also expected to ask Olmert to lift
restrictions on the movement of Palestinians
in the West Bank and to remove roadblocks.
Hamas says Egypt not decided
on Abbas' Gaza plan
(Reuters) - Hamas said on Sunday it received
assurances from Egypt that Cairo has not
reached an agreement with Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas's government
that would exclude the Islamist group
from running Gaza's border. Hamas
official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters Egyptian
officials had told Hamas that they wanted
to work out a new arrangement to manage
Gaza's border with Egypt in talks with
Hamas and Abbas's secular Fatah faction.
Abu Zuhri's comments contradicted those
made earlier by Palestinian Foreign Minister
Riyad al-Malki who said Egypt had already
agreed to Abbas taking control of the crossing,
excluding Hamas. [End]
Israeli cabinet discusses
Gaza blockade Sunday
Sunday's cabinet meeting revolved, among
other things, around the humanitarian situation
in the Gaza Strip, and what the ministers referred
to as the fenceless border between Gaza and Egypt.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak stressed that Israel
intends to "keep the crossings into the Strip closed,
while maintaining a close watch on the
humanitarian situation." Environment Minister
Gidon Ezra told the cabinet he believed "
completely closing all the crossings is not
possible," adding the crossings should be made
available for "sustaining the humanitarian needs
of the Palestinian population."
Abbas blasts Israel for disclaiming
Gaza responsibility
President Mahmoud Abbas told Israeli
PM Ehud Olmert that he was opposed to
Israel disclaiming security responsibility
for the Gaza Strip. This took place during a two-hour
meeting between both leaders at Olmert's
residence in Jerusalem earlier Sunday.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat
said Abbas had told Olmert that the
Israeli occupation of Gaza still existed
and that the occupiers were responsible
for the strip. Erekat added that Abbas would
travel to Cairo later this week to meet
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to
mull over all details of the crossing.
Special Palestine Remembered page
on the 'Gaza Jail Break' – many good
(and large) photos
Umm al-Fahm turns out lights;
Israelis rally against Gaza siege
The Israeli-Arab town of Umm al-Fahm shut off
its electricity for one hour on Saturday night
in an intentional blackout, and a torch-lit march
was held in solidarity with the residents of the
Gaza Strip to protest an Israeli blockade of goods
entering the coastal territory. Earlier, more than
1,000 people in Israel demonstrated the sanctions
on the Erez Crossing on the Gaza border.
The demonstration was coordinated with the
police, and organized by both Jewish and Arab groups,
Israel to reinstate fuel deliveries to Gaza,
but supplies fall short of minimums
Israel is planning to resume industrial fuel
deliveries to the Gaza Strip that fall short of the
bare minimum needed to keep the Strip's basic
services running, the international aid agency
Oxfam said on Sunday. Speaking from Jerusalem,
Oxfam spokesperson Sarah-Eve Hammond
said that the planned deliveries are likely to
be less than the minimum required for daily life.
The Israeli state promised to resume deliveries
at pre-blockade levels, which had already
been much reduced. Hammond said that Israel
did not even make good on a pledge to supply
2.2 million liters of fuel last week to keep
Gaza's power plant running.
Israel to restore supply of industrial-
use fuel to Gaza Strip
The state told the High Court of Justice on
Sunday that Israel would restore the supply of
industrial-use diesel to the Gaza Strip to target
levels set prior to the blockade imposed on
Gaza earlier this month. The state prosecution
said those levels were the minimum required
in order to meet the basic humanitarian needs
of the Strip's civilian population.
Hamas leader Zahhar visits
Gaza-Egyptian border
Senior Hamas leader and former
Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud
Zahhar visited the Palestinian-Egyptian
border on Saturday, expressing his
appreciation to the Egyptian police for facilitating
the passage of Palestinians into Egypt. Zahhar
also stated his apologies for occasional clashes
between Palestinians and Egyptian riot police at
the border. He said that such 'negative behavior'
does not reflect Palestinian culture or their
attitude toward their 'Egyptian brothers'.
In a failed attempt to close the Rafah border
on Friday, Egyptian police used clubs and
water cannons to disperse stone throwing
Palestinians.
Mash'al: Hamas ready to turn over
presidential security HQ to PA
Khalid Mash'al, the Damascus-based head of
Hamas political bureau, said that a handover
of the other security compounds would require
further discussion among Palestinian officials
before being handed over. He also said Hamas
wants to lift the Israeli-imposed blockade
and shore up security without harming
Egyptian interests. "I have told the chief of
the Egyptian intelligence Omar Sulaiman
that the angry reaction which resulted in
toppling the border walls at the Rafah
crossing was never meant to be against
Egypt. The toppling of the crossing was
a correct step, yet we need to follow up
with that because the issue is not about
Gaza Strip's residents shopping in Egypt,"
Mash'al explained. Mash'al did not however
give a date for the beginning of direct
consultations over the issue of the crossings;
he just stated that a solution will be reached
through private meetings sheltered from the media.
Islamic Jihad leader: Israel
trying to break Palestinian will
Islamic Jihad leader Muhammad
Al-Hindi said on Saturday that the siege on the
Palestinian territories is a continuous
escalating Israeli policy aimed at breaking
the will of the Palestinian resistance. "
We do not need their fuel, yet they prevent us
from extracting gas from the sea near the
Gaza Strip. We do not need their hospitals,
yet they deprive our patients of treatment in
Arab countries. They are rendering the
Gaza Strip on the verge of a famine, trying to
let the people come to an inevitable conclusion
that resistance will be useless and the best way
will be to surrender," Al-Hindi said.
Haaretz editorial:
Double threat to peace
Events on the border between the Gaza Strip
and Egypt threaten to tear the delicate fabric
of Cairo-Jerusalem relations. At the same time,
they also jeopardize the yet-to-be-attained
peace between Israel and the Palestinians,
at a fragile moment in the process the Bush
administration is trying to drive forward. . .
The helplessness of the Egyptian government,
out of fear of projecting a harsh image
toward the Palestinian population
(in contrast to the Hamas government),
is understandable but not justifiable. A country
has the right to prevent mass infiltration into its
territory, as in the case of the United States
with Mexico.
Ending the stranglehold on Gaza –
by Eyad al-Sarraj and Sarah Roy
Although international pressure forced Israel
to let in some supplies two days later, and the
situation further eased when Palestinians
breached the border wall with Egypt, the worst
may be yet to come. The Israeli foreign minister,
Tzipi Livni, agrees with Ramon's strategy,
saying that it is "inconceivable that life in
Gaza continues to be normal."
The rapid and deepening desperation of Gaza's
sick and hungry is of no moral concern to her.
For Livni, like Ramon, the siege is a tactical
measure, a human experiment to stop the rockets
and bring down a duly elected government.
. . In 2007, 87 percent of Gazans lived below
the poverty line, more than a tripling of the
percentage in 2000. In a November 2007
report, the Red Cross stated about the food
allowed into Gaza that people are getting "
enough to survive, not enough to live."
Why is this acceptable?
Gaza's falling wall changes Middle
Eastern map for ever
Ameera, 24, texts her husband to ask if there is
anything he wants brought back from Egypt.
'Oh!', she says suddenly in a quiet, happy voice,
surveying a pretty vista of open fields, without
walls or boundaries that cannot be crossed without risk.
'This is my first time out of Gaza.' So walls fall down.
Not only physically, blasted down on Gaza's border
with Egypt last week with dynamite and cutting torches,
but in the mind as well. . . Even as tens of
thousands headed south, other merchants, already on
the edge of ruin, were left watching money that
would, in normal circumstances, be spent inside
Gaza pouring out into Egypt.
Israel demands that Egypt restore
order at Gaza-Egypt border
The head of the security-political task force
at the Defense Ministry, Amos Gilad, demanded
over the weekend that the Egyptian authorities
take action to prevent the unsupervised crossing
of Gazans back and forth between the two territories
Local residents:
High alert on Gaza border bogus
Southern residents charged Saturday that IDF
announcements regarding a heightened state
of alert on the Egyptian border were bogus
and were not backed up by any measures on
the ground. Locals and visiting hikers alike
said they have not seen any extra presence
of soldiers along the border. Residents of
the Ramat Hanegev regional council also
said they are furious over the IDF's
announcement regarding the closure of tourist
sites near the Israel-Egypt border.
This exodus presents us Egyptians
with a threat – and an opportunity
In a letter sent out last Tuesday, Iyad Sarraj,
the Palestinian doctor who for many years has run the
Gaza Community Mental Health Programme,
warned that the aim of the current Israeli policy is
to push Egypt to open its Rafah border. 'Israel will
then close its borders with Gaza, separate the
Strip from the West Bank and destroy the peace
proposals ... Wait for the exodus,' he wrote.
Whose monopoly now? –
By Zvi Bar'el
First there was delight. Senior officials in
Israel said that Egypt had taken on this trouble
called Gaza. You could almost hear the schadenfreude
in their voices. After not wanting to hear about
Gaza or its refugees for a generation, Egypt received
both, explosively. Now, at last, there will be a
responsible country, and not Israel, to deal with
the refugees. Hey, Hamas really showed Egypt
what's what this time. But this approach ignores
two facts. First, it was not Egypt that breached
the barrier. Second, it is the Israeli government,
with its failed policy, and not Egypt, that lost
control of Gaza. What happened last week was
not just the breaching of a fence. It was a strategic
shift that showed Israeli policy in its unvarnished folly.
Gaza: Then and Now
– by Daoud Kuttab
Gaza is usually viewed in terms of Hamas'
overwhelming support there, but the reality is
much different. Opinion polls conducted in
Gaza by the Near East Consulting Group in late
November 2007 indicated 74 percent popular
support for a peace agreement with Israel.
Only 15 percent would vote for Hamas deputies
or a Hamas presidential candidate, compared to
55 percent for Fatah candidates. The Annapolis
-inspired peace process received 81 percent
support. [but that was last November….]
My talks with Hamas –
by Dror Ze'evi
Now I can reveal this: Several months ago,
I participated in a series of meetings in Europe
that involved a small group of Israeli and
Palestinian public figures and academicians,
including senior Hamas supporters.
During our talks, they made it clear to us that as
far as they could see, in exchange for Israeli
willingness to stop the fighting and open the
Gaza borders, Hamas will guarantee that quiet
will prevail for a period of time to be determined
by both sides. They expressed their willingness
to talk about a long period of time – 20 or 25
years. In my view, there was something refreshing
in their honestyThey openly expressed their hope
for Israel's elimination, but also said that nobody
can tell what the future holds. It is possible that in
10 or 20 years their views would also change,
and perhaps their sons and our own sons would
view co-existence in a different light..
Funeral for PFLP founder George Habbash
to be held on Monday in Amman
The procession will leave Jordan Hospital for an
Orthodox church, and then on to a cemetery in the
Sahab neighborhood. Habash died of a heart attack
on Saturday night. Spontaneous rallies took place
throughout the occupied Palestinian territories
when word of Habash's death spread. Rallies
were reported in Ramallah, Bethlehem, Beit Jala,
and Duheisha refugee camp.
PFLP founder Dr. George
Habash, 1925-2008
George Habash, the founder of the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)
and a godfather of the Palestinian struggle,
died of a heart attack on Saturday in the
Jordanian capital, Amman, medical sources said.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has
declared three days of national mourning to
honor Habash, who was known as "Al Hakim,"
the Wise Man. Habash was born in Lydda, in
Mandate Palestine in 1925 into a Greek
Orthodox family. Like hundreds of thousands of
other Palestinians, he became a refugee during
the mass expulsion committed by the Israeli army
in 1948.
Arab nationalist planned hijackings
George Habash [was] the founder of
Arab nationalism and architect of the
infamous airline hijackings of the 1960s
and '70s that brought the search for a
Palestinian homeland terrifyingly close to
home for millions around the world. A Marxist
physician who dreamed that a united Arab
nation could force Israel to give back
Palestine, Habash played the revolutionary
to PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat's role of
politician, frequently ridiculing Arafat's
checkered headdress and military uniform.
For millions of young Arabs, Habash represented
the voice that said no to Western intervention
in the Middle East and to the Arab regimes,
such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt,
that had allowed U.S. interests to dominate
the region.
'Breakout into Israel' ahead
A senior Hamas official warned yesterday
that the next breakout from the Gaza Strip could
be into Israel, with 500,000 Palestinians
attempting to march towards the towns and
villages from which they or their parents fled
or were expelled 60 years ago. "This is not an
imaginary scenario and many Palestinians would
be prepared to sacrifice their lives," said Ahmed
Youssef, political adviser to Hamas Prime Minister
Ismail Haniya. Israeli minister Ze'ev Boim
said the threat must be taken seriously in light
of the successful Hamas breakout into Egyptian
territory on Wednesday, adding: "We must
learn from what has just happened there."
A rough guide to Hebron: The world's
strangest guided tour highlights the
abuse of Palestinians
Yehuda Shaul is a religious Israeli who served
in the army. Now he runs guided tours highlighting
the abuse of Palestinians. It's controversial and
dangerous work – so why does he do it? .Stationed in
Bethlehem in the last few weeks of his military
service he had "an enlightened moment" in which
he says he began to understand what one of the
group's later publications would call the "terrible
moral price" exacted by the occupation from the
young soldiers who serve in the West Bank and
Gaza . . . And then we arrive at the end of the
street and the home of Hani Abu Heikel, whose
family was one of those who sheltered more
than 400 of the Jews who survived the 1929
massacre. He says that the settlers from the
neighbouring Al Bakri house have attacked
his house with water pipes in the night, that
his car has been attacked and burned four
times and that in June most of the trees in
the olive grove next to his house were
ruined by being set on fire.
Israeli forces seize three Palestinians
in Hebron district
Palestinian security sources said that Israeli
forces detained 27-year-old Sufyan Abdul-Basit
near the Ibrahimi mosque in the centre of Hebron.
In Beit Ummar Israeli forces seized two brothers,
Mousa and Muhammad Breigheith, under the pretext
that they entered an area that is off-limits for Palestinians.
Hamas: PA seizes four more Hamas
members in West Bank
Hamas said in a statement that the arrestees
were from the Tulkarem and Salfit districts.
Labor minister intervenes to end
paramedics' seven-day strike
Palestinian paramedics have been on strike since
7am on Sunday 20th January, treating only urgent
cases, to demand increased salaries, health insurance,
and increased pensions. According to the agreement,
the employees will end the strike and a committee will
be set up by the Labor Ministry to follow up with the
implementation of a collective agreement about
the employees' demands in accordance with
Palestinian labor law.
Sovereignty by stealth: Eyal
Weizman's "Hollow Land"
This architecture of occupation is thoroughly
analyzed in the Israeli-born architect Eyal
Weizman's Hollow Land. The study takes us to
the heart of a conflict which has always been
about land, where "the mundane elements of
planning and architecture have become tactical
tools and the means of dispossession."
Behind the headlines, the reality on the ground
(as well as above and beneath it) continues to
be reshaped daily. Many new arrivals and even
resident Israelis are unable to see where Israel
proper ends and where the occupation begins.
Once, viewing the West Bank colonies, Ariel
Sharon remarked that "Arabs should see Jewish
lights every night from 500 meters."
Court convicts IDF officer who led
troops in West Bank rampage
Israel Defense Forces officer Yaakov Gigi,
who commanded troops implicated in a West
Bank rampage that led to the wrongful shooting
of a Palestinian civilian last July, was convicted
on Sunday of a string of serious charges. The
prosecution asked the Jaffa military court that
tried Gigi to sentence him to 15 months imprisonment,
demotion and a suspended sentence.
[why prosecute someone for this particular wrongful
shooting, and not any of the many others?
Oh, to show that this is the world's most 'moral' army]
Israeli AG: No cops will be indicted
for involvement in October 2000 riot deaths
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz said
Sunday that he would not indict the police officers
involved in the deaths of 13 Arab civilians
during riots of October 2000. During the riots, which
lasted for some ten days, 12 Israeli Arabs and one
Palestinian resident of Gaza were shot and killed by
police and security forces during violent demonstrations
at the entrance to Umm al-Fahm.
Israeli Arab suspected of dealing in arms
with Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade
The gag order on the investigation was lifted
Saturday, revealing that 20 Israeli citizens,
residents of the Arab towns of Wadi Ara and Jiser
a Zarka, have been arrested recently on suspicion
that they were involved in arms trading with Hamza
Masri, 24, of Kfar Kara. Masri himself is
suspected of selling weapons to Shaher Hanina,
the head of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade's
infrastructure in Qalqiliya.
Arabs accused of arms trade
with Tanzim operatives
The investigation revealed that ringleader
Hamze Massari (24) from the village of
Qira near Haifa would regularly purchase arms from
a Tanzim operative in Qalqilya, and then sell them
for either money or narcotics. Beginning in April
2007, Massari would contact Chief Tanzim operative
in Qalqilya, Sha'ar Hanini, and purchase illicit firearms
which Massari would then sell. On one occasion
Massari 'paid' for the weapons in 15 KG (33 Pounds)
bags of sulfur and potassium, which Shin Bet
sources indicate were likely used by the Tanzim
for terror attacks within Israel.
Panel discusses integration of Arab
citizens in Israeli media
Veteran journalist Anat Saragusti is training an
Arab from northern Israel to be a part of the
mainstream Channel Two news team. The law
, she said, is very vague about quotas for
minorities in the media. Saragusti lamented the
lack of accessible channels for a wider range of
Israelis to be journalists in the electronic media.
Most of the reporters on Channel Two grew out of
Army Radio, where they did their military service,
she said. Army Radio is considered the best school
of journalism in the country. "No Arabs, of course,
would be there," Saragusti said. "You won't find an
y Arab, any Russian immigrant or any Ethiopian
immigrant. What you will find there is the
stronger part of society."
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 programs for Palestinian refugees in
Lebanon. "And we know the right of return is not an
easy goal. It may not happen in our lifetime. But we
have to keep this right for the coming generation,
and after that. And one day we will get it because it's
our historic right and we won't give it up." She adds
softly, "I cannot give up a country that we had, when
I find my father crying when he sees Jaffa on TV. I
cannot give this away."
Book Review - Tales of Black September
A 17-year-old American Jewish hostage during
the 1970 Palestinian uprising in Jordan survived
the ordeal and has now written a book on the events.
\Raab was on one of the three New York-bound
airplanes that were hijacked during the second
week of September 1970. The hijackings prompted
the late Jordanian King Hussein to launch a massive
offensive to cleanse his kingdom of militant
strongholds, killing thousands of Palestinians in
the process. Raab discusses these events in his book
Terror in Black September, published last year
by Palgrave Macmillan.
Around 5,000 protest opposite PM's
residence in London Saturday to call for end of siege
They were joined by doctors and medical staff
who handed in a letter to Gordon Brown MP,
highlighting the fate of more than 70 Gazans
who have died as a direct result of being denied
access to medical treatment by the Israeli
authorities. Comedian Alexei Sayle, MPs
including Jeremy Corbyn and George
Galloway, as well as representatives of national
Trade Unions, including the UCU, NUT, PCS,
UNISON and CWU joined the protest.
Campaign of falsehoods on
Obama seen sticking
On eve of Florida primary, signs that
e-mail blitz charging Muslim background gaining
traction among Jews – Jewish leaders in diverse
parts of the country say the year-old campaign
to pillory Obama based on the four childhood years
he spent in Indonesia and the fact his stepfather was
a secular Muslim continues, despite intensifying
efforts by the Obama campaign to reaffirm his
friendship with the Jewish community and tout
his credentials as an active Christian. [Note: at a
coffee shop in the US this morning my sister
was informed that not only were Obama's father
and stepfather terrorists, but his mother was a
terrorist also – for the IRA! People seem to
believe the smears – yet he just won South Carolina.]
__,_._,___
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