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Palestinian Cultural Mural
Honors Dr. Edward Said
AFTER A LONG struggle spearheaded by the General Union
of Palestine Students (GUPS) of San Francisco State
University, the Palestinian Cultural Mural honoring
Dr. Edward Said was unveiled Nov. 2. A palpable
buzz reverberated throughout the audience during
a dramatic 10-second countdown before the mural
—with its pensive portrait of the iconic
Palestinian-American writer and scholar—was revealed.
Rights orgs: Israel escalating Gaza
collective punishment measures
Beginning tomorrow (Thursday, 7 February), Israel
will reduce supplies of electricity it sells to Gaza,
as part of punitive measures taken against
Gaza's civilian population, with the approval of
Israel's high court. The cutbacks to electricity
were permitted after the court last week
rejected a petition by ten Israeli and
Palestinian human rights organizations
challenging Israel's planned reductions to the
supplies of electricity and fuel it allows
Gaza residents to purchase.
Gaza: Israel's Energy Cuts Violate Laws
of War, Source: Human Rights Watch
Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for
the content of this article or for any external
internet sites. The views expressed are the
author's alone. (New York, February 7, 2008).
Israel's cuts of fuel and electricity to Gaza,
set to escalate today, amount to collective
punishment of the civilian population, and
violate Israel's obligations under the laws of
war, Human Rights Watch said today
Israel adds more restrictions on
Gaza power deliveries
Israel on Thursday started to reduce electricity
supply to the Gaza Strip as part of pressure on
the civilian population to force armed groups
stop rocket attacks against Israel. The
reduction will be 1.5 megawatts out of the
120 megawatts that Israel directly sells to
Gaza. Last week, the Israeli High Court
rejected a petition by 10 Israeli and
Palestinian human rights organizations
against the power cutoff.
PYN, Paz Ahora, and ISM attempt to
break the blockade by sending a 50,000
Euro medical convoy into Gaza
[RAMALLAH] The Palestinian Youth Network
(PYN), together with the Spanish Paz Ahora
Association, and the International Solidarity
Movement (ISM) in Spain will deliver 50,000
euros worth of medicine to United Nations-
operated clinics in Gaza's eight refugee camps.
Israeli air strike targets Gaza fighters
Israeli strikes and Hamas rocket attacks continued
last night in the aftermath of Monday's suicide
bombing in southern Israel - the first such
attack inside the country for more than a year.
In at least one overnight air strike, Israeli
forces targeted fighters in Gaza. Hamas
said four men were injured, and claimed
Israel had carried out several air attacks.
The Israeli army confirmed only one, and
said three civilians were injured.
Six Palestinians killed in several
Israeli military attacks in the Gaza Strip
Palestinian medical sources in the Gaza Strip
reported on Thursday morning that six
Palestinians, including one teacher, were killed
in three separate Israeli air strikes that targeted
several areas in the Gaza Strip; several
residents were injured.
Israelis aircrafts kill seven Palestinians
in Gaza, as Hamas to continue resistance
Over the past 24 hours, the Israeli aircrafts hit
different targets in the Gaza Strip, killing 7
Palestinians including five fighters of Hamas and
another of the Islamic Jihad's armed wing,
Saraya aL-Quds brigades.
Israeli strikes wound Gaza militants,
civilians- Hamas
An Israeli missile strike wounded three
Palestinian militants in the northern Gaza Strip
on Wednesday as they tried to launch
makeshift rockets into Israel, Hamas
and medical officials said.
Troops shell the house of a
Hamas leader east of Khan Younis
The Israeli Air Force shelled on Wednesday
evening the house of Sheikh Zaki Al Dardeesy,
one of the political leaders of Hamas movement i
Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip
Israeli military injuries one and
kidnaps six in Qabatiya
Israeli forces kidnapped six Palestinians and injured
one in pre-dawn invasion on Thursday of Qabatiya town,
near the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
Israel arrests 17 Palestinians in West Bank
Israeli army arrested 17 Palestinians in an overnight
raid on the West Bank, Palestinian security
sources said Thursday. The sources said the
detentions took place in West Bank cities of
Ramallah, Nablus and Hebron and the detainees
were taken for interrogation at Israeli detention
facilities inside a West Bank settlement.
The Israeli army invades Nablus city and
nearby villages, troops kidnap three civilians
Palestinian sources reported that the Israeli army
invaded the northern West Bank city of Nablus
and nearby village on Thursday morning and
kidnapped three civilians.
Four Palestinians kidnapped by Israeli
army in Tulkarem and Ramallah
Israeli military invade the northern and the
central part of West Bank, conducting
abduction campaigns.
The Israeli army kidnaps four Palestinian
civilians from several parts of the West Bank
Four civilians were reported kidnapped by the Israeli
army from several parts of the West Bank during pre
dawn invasions on Wednesday.
Israeli forces attack homes in Dora
and al Thahirya towns in Hebron
Israeli forces attacked scores of civilians'
homes in the Dora and al Thahirya towns in the
southern West Bank city of Hebron on
Thursday morning.
Troops demolish a Palestinian-owned
house in Jerusalem
On Wednesday morning the Israeli army
demolished a Palestinian-owned house
located in the old city part of Jerusalem.
The two-story house, which is owned by
Isma'il Al-Masri and his family, is the home
of 30 people. The Israeli municipality of
Jerusalem issued a warning last week
to Al Masri that he should demolish th
house or the municipality will demolished
it and make him pay the costs.
Israeli forces demolish shop
in a village near Salfit
Israeli bulldozers on Wednesday demolished a
Palestinian shop in the northern West Bank
village of Haris west of Salfit. Ma'an's reporter said
that the Israeli soldiers handcuffed the shop owner
Abdullah Muhammad Dawood and detained his
wife while they conducted the demolition.
The Israelis said the reason the shop was demolished
was that it was built without a license. The demolition
resulted in losses estimated at more than ten thousand
NIS, beside being the main family's source of income.
A Palestinian patient looses arm as
treatment refused by Israeli hospital
Israeli media sources reported that an injured
Palestinian man lost his arm as Israeli hospital
refused treat him
The Israeli army attacks the house of one
of the Dimona alleged suicide attackers
Palestinian sources reported that the Israeli army
attacked and searched the house of Mohamed
Al Herbawi located in the southern West Bank city
of Hebron on Thursday at dawn.
Israel arrests father of West Bank
suicide bomber
Ramallah/Tel Aviv - Israel overnight arrested the father of
one of two suicide bombers who killed an Israeli woman
in the southern Israeli town of Dimona earlier this week,
Voice of Palestine Radio reported Wednesday.
Salim Hirbawi, the father of Mohammed Hirbawi,
was arrested in the southern West Bank city of Hebron.
The arrest came after the radical Islamic Hamas
movement formally claimed responsibility for
the suicide bombing early Tuesday evening,
more than 30 hours after the Monday morning attack.
Dimona bombers came through
West Bank, hints Barak
Defense Minister meets future IDF
officers, reveals defense establishment
believes Dimona bombers infiltrated
Israel from West Bank, not through
breached Gaza border.
DFLP calls for a national
campaign to save the Plains areas
continued annexation
The Democratic Front for the Liberation
of Palestine (DFLP) called for launching a
comprehensive national campaign in order
to save the Palestinian Plaines areas, in the
Jordan Valley, from the ongoing Israeli
settlement expansion and annexation
which aim at removing the residents from their lands.
Israeli Army blocks the only road
for the residents of an east
Jerusalem neighborhood
The residents of Biet Hanina, a neighborhood
of East Jerusalem were surprised by the
blocking of the only road that connects this
neighborhood with east Jerusalem.
The Israeli army had blocked this road
by installing barbed wires and cement
blocks close to the residents' buildings
closing this road. All of the residents of
Biet Hanina neighborhood.
2 girls lightly injured in Qassam
attack on western Negev
Rocket fired by Palestinians lands near
kindergarten in Eshkol Regional Council
kibbutz; two girls, aged two and 12 lightly
inured from shrapnel, mother suffers from
shock. Another Qassam hits Sderot
home; no injuries.
Islamic Jihad guns down
2 Israeli soldiers
The military wing of Islamic Jihad in
Palestine, the Al-Quds Brigades, took
full responsibility today for the shooting of
two Israeli soldiers at the Sraij gate east of
Al Qarareh. The Brigades added in a
statement sent to Ma'an that this mission
comes as part of the continuous response
to the Israeli aggression against the
Palestinian people in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip, and to confirm the choice of
struggle until Palestine is liberated.
Egyptian FM: Whoever breaks
border will have his legs broken
The Egyptian foreign ministry on Thursday
warned Palestinians against attempts to
breach the Gaza Strip border, saying,
"whoever breaks the border line will have
his legs broken."
Barak vows harsher IDF response
if Qassam fire continues
Defense Minister Ehud Barak vowed
Thursday harsher military action, should
Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip
continue to fire Qassam rockets at
southern Israel. "If the Qassam fire
continues ? we will step up and step up our
[military] activity, and the other side's losses,
until the problem is resolved," said Barak
during a visit to the Israel Defense Forces'
Ze'elim training base.
Israeli army considering more
targeted assassinations of
Palestinian faction leaders
The Israeli army is considering more
targeted assassinations against leaders
of Palestinian factions in the aftermath of
the Dimona bombing, the Israeli daily
newspaper Maariv said on Wednesday.
Senator: U.S. to boycott UN
anti-racism meet due to anti-Israel agenda
A U.S. senator says the United States has
decided not to attend next year's follow-up
to the 2001 United Nations World Conference
on Racism because the panel seems certain to
repeat anti-Semitic and anti-Israel positions
of the original gathering.
EU set to provide 7.44 million
to revive the Palestinian
Agricultural sector
The European Union stated that it is providing
assistance to five new projects to revive the
development of the agricultural sector in the
Palestinian territories. The amount which will
be provided, according to the EU statement,
is €7.44 million.
Popular Committee for
Defending Public Freedom prepares
for its regional conference
As the Israeli state intensified its prosecution
against Arab leaders in the country, the
Popular Committee For Defending Public
Freedom, part of the Higher Follow-Up
Committee, intensified its preparations for
the regional conference which will be held in
Um Al Fahim Arab town on Saturday February 23.
Palestinians Preserve Heritage
and Homes in Old Jerusalem
THE MOSAIC FOUNDATION hosted a
superb lecture by Dr. Shaida Touqan on
"Heritage Preservation and Regeneration
in the Old City of Jerusalem" at the National
Geographic Society's Grosvenor Auditorium
in Washington, DC on Oct. 24. Christ'l Safieh,
wife of the head of the PLO Mission to the
United States, introduced the speaker,
who, she said, is working to preserve
Jerusalem's heritage for its people. Dr. Touqan,
2004 winner of the prestigious Aga Khan award
for architecture, is the director of the Welfare
Association's Old City of Jerusalem Revitalization Plan.
Hamas: contacts with Egyptians
are ongoing regarding Rafah border
Talks are ongoing between Hamas and
Egypt on the subject of the Rafah border
between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, Hamas
spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri said on
Wednesday. The announcement comes
a day after Egyptian officials indicated
that they want the Palestinian Authority,
not Hamas, to control the border, which was
resealed on Sunday after nearly two weeks
of unregulated cross-border traffic.
Gaza and Israel: This round goes
to Hamas, Lt. Col. Rick Francona,
Military analyst
Francona: Israel's pressure on Hamas created
more problems than it solved. Hamas's
breakthrough of the barrier between the
Gaza Strip and Egypt now presents Israel
with a much more complicated situation on
its southern border. The tough Israeli measures,
which were meant to put pressure on the
Hamas-led government, backfired.
Poll: Gaza border breach boosted
Hamas' popularity
Survey among residents of Strip shows
6-point rise in support for Islamist movement,
but rival Fatah group still in the lead.
EU envoy warns Gaza could become
the next Somalia
Israel's policies in the Gaza Strip are likely to turn the territory into Somalia, European Union special envoy to the Middle East Marc Otte told Haaretz on Thursday in an interview. "Israel's tactics in the Gaza Strip did not work," Otte said. "The blockade and the sanctions against the population failed, and only strengthened Hamas and weakened [Prime Minister Salam] Fayyad and [President Mahmoud Abbas] Abu Mazen."
Hamas conditionally welcomes
return of EU monitors to Rafah crossing
Hamas administration of Gaza on Thursday said it doesn't mind the return of European Union (EU) monitors to Rafah border crossing in line with 2005 international deal. Taher al-Nounou, spokesman for the deposed administration, added that the government also welcomes the return of "civilian employees" of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to the crossing point with Egypt.
Tony Blair: the occupation must
end and peace efforts should be doubled
The Quartet Envoy to the Middle East,
Tony Blair, visited the northern West Bank
city of Nablus on Thursday, during his visit
Blair stated that the Israeli occupation must
end and peace efforts should be doubled.
Blair: Palestinians carrying
out 'road map' plan
International Middle East envoy Tony Blair
said on Thursday the Palestinians were
meeting their security obligations under a
long-stalled "road map" peace plan and
that Israel should start responding.
The U.S. government will assess and judge
whether Israel and the Palestinians are
meeting their obligations under the 2003
road map as part of a push for a Palestinian
statehood agreement before President
George W. Bush leaves office next January.
Hamas deplores Arab officials
exploiting Palestinian suffering
for political aim
The Hamas Movement strongly denounced
some Arab officials for exploiting the suffering
of the Palestinian people especially the
opening of the Rafah crossing for the
achievement of political aims. In a press
statement received by the PIC, Dr. Sami
Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, stated
that the statements issued by some Arab
officials which stipulate the return of the
PA leadership to control the crossings and
the implementation of the 2005 crossing
agreement before any opening of the Rafah
crossing is an attempt to employ the suffering
of the Palestinian people to achieve political gains.
Gaza Diary: Not a life for children
"Why us? Why are we cold? What is happening?"
my children ask all the time. They are six and two.
When they ask for chocolate and I cannot give
it to them, they ask why. I explain to them that
it is because of the closure, but this does not
explain things any further to them, they still
ask: "Why? Why us?" What they least
understand is why their lives are being
affected by something which they are
not responsible for.
Refugee stories -
Letters from Gaza (5) …the lost generation
I'm writing from Gaza, but it's not the Gaza I knew
and loved. People today have lost the sparkle in
their eyes because they've lost their faith in life.
Men, women and children are walking around
with pale faces, lacklustre smiles and no joie
de vivre. People everywhere look stunned as
if their minds and souls are far away.
Two Irish women trapped in Gaza
Two Irish women have become trapped in
Gaza after sneaking into the Hamas controlled
Palestinian area. Egyptian authorites refused to
let Treasa Ni Cheannabhain and her daughter,
Naisirin Elsafty, back into Egypt. Both women
are members from the Galway branch of the
Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
Red Cross urges immediate
global ban on cluster bombs
The International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC) called on Wednesday for urgent
conclusion of a global pact to ban cluster
weapons even if big powers like the United
States, Russia and China were not ready to join.
2,000 Arab men enter Gaza Strip
to join Palestinian resistance
Around 2,000 men from different Arab
countries entered the Gaza Strip, after the
toppling of the Rafah border wall, wanting to
join the Palestinian resistance against Israel,
reliable Palestinian sources told Ma'an on
Wednesday. Sources within Hamas told Ma'an
that the men, many of whom are Egyptian
young men offered to join the Palestinian
resistance. He added that Hamas expressed
its appreciation for the solidarity shown by
the move. However, he added that Palestinian
resistance factions are not interested in
foreign fighters.
Water Authority: Israel is
rapidly losing its water sources
Israel will soon be unable to use a
considerable part of its natural water sources,
the Water Authority warns, because of the
deteriorating quality of ground-water reserves,
exacerbated by reduced rainfall due to
climate change.
Instep Intifada:
Soccer Star Stands for Gaza
In a world where mainstream media dumb
down news reportage with inane sports
metaphors, sometimes it takes sports to
remind us of the gravity of the actual news.
While the press acts like extras on Gossip
Girl as they assess the latest machinations
of Bill, Barack and Hillary, a soccer player
aimed to alert the world to a humanitarian
catastrophe.
Photostory: The month in pictures,
January 2008
January 2008 saw a tightening of Israel's
siege of the Gaza Strip following Hamas'
routing of Fatah there the previous June.
Palestinians in Gaza have been cut off from
the outside world and Israel has banned or
severely restricted the import of basic needs
such as fuel, medicine and medical equipment,
food, school supplies and cement. In January,
electricity cuts lasted more than 12 hours per
day as lack of fuel forced the closure of the
region's sole power plant.The above slideshow
is a selection of images related to the breaking
the Gaza siege in January 2008 taken by
MaanImages photographer Wissam Nassar.
Demand answers about
the USS Liberty attack
If senators and representatives want to
take up an issue that has insulted service
members and their families, they can look
at the Liberty, an American spy ship that was
strafed, napalmed and torpedoed by Israeli
air and naval forces on June 8, 1967.
Video: BBC Four investigative report regarding,
Israels attack on the USS Liberty . Thirty-four
American servicemen were killed in the two-
hour assault by Israeli warplanes and torpedo boats.
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