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Israeli forces roll into
destroyed Rafah airport in S Gaza
A number of Israeli army tanks on Wednesday
rolled into the destroyed airport of Rafah town
in southern Gaza Strip after withdrawing last
night following clashes, witnesses said.
Israeli forces arrest 70 Palestinians in
West Bank, including 14 youth from Bethlehem
Israeli forces launched a major arrest campaign in
Bethlehem early Wednesday. Before the sun was
up, dozens of homes were stormed. Families were
forced out of their homes and into the streets,
including children, the elderly and women.
Soldiers claimed that the attack was aimed at
the so-called wanted. However, they destroyed
personal property of residents and kept them
in the pre-dawn streets for hours.
Israeli army invades Nablus and
village near Hebron - 48 civilians kidnapped
The Israeli army on Wednesday invaded both the city
of Nablus, in the northern West Bank, and the village
of Beit Ummer, located near the city of Hebron in the
southern West Bank. In total, at least 48 Palestinian
civilians were abducted by the invading military.
Israeli soldier stabbed in
Jab'a village, near Jenin
Israeli sources have revealed that a soldier of the
Israeli army was stabbed by a Palestinian man from
Jab'a village, south of Jenin, on Tuesday night.
Five Palestinians kidnapped by Israeli army
in Bethlehem suburb of Al Khadir
Five Palestinians were kidnapped from the village of
Al Khadir, west of Bethlehem city, in a pre-dawn
invasion of the area on Wednesday.
Three Palestinians kidnapped
from northern West Bank
The Israeli military has invaded the northern West
Bank cities of Nablus and Jenin, kidnapping three
Palestinians in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Several Female detainees suffering bad
health conditions, violations
One of the lawyers of the Palestinian Prisoners Society
(PPS) visited a number of female detainees in Hasharon
Israeli detention facility and met with a number of
detainees who informed him of cases of detainees
suffering from various health issues and not
receiving the needed medical attention.
Prosecutor rejects appeal in case
of killing of Palestinian girl
The State Prosecutor's Office on Tuesday rejected an
appeal by a human rights group to reopen the case of
a Palestinian girl killed during clashes with police last
year, the Justice Ministry said. Ten-year-old Abir
Aramin was critically wounded in January 2007
when she was caught between Palestinian students
throwing rocks and Border Police
firing rubber bullets in the refugee camp of Anata,
on the outskirts of Jerusalem. She died two days
later in a Jerusalem hospital.
Israeli military court sentences Israeli
soldier to 15 months for shooting a
Palestinian civilian
Israeli media sources reported that an Israeli
military court in the coastal city of Jaffa on
Wednesday sentenced an Israeli army
officer to 15 months in jail.
IOF troops wage campaign of piracy
against Palestinian exchangers
The IOF troops on Monday night waged a wide
campaign of piracy against Palestinian exchange
stores in various parts of the West Bank cities and
confiscated their contents and a huge sum of money.
'IDF should wipe out
parts of Gaza'
Israel will escalate its ground and air operations in
the Gaza Strip this week and may begin targeting
members of the Hamas political leadership in the
wake of intensified Kassam rocket attacks against
Sderot, senior defense officials said Sunday.
Israel seeks international backing
for Gaza campaign
Israel took nearly 70 foreign ambassadors to its border
with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday as part of a
diplomatic campaign to enlist international support
for tougher action against the enclave's Hamas
Islamist rulers.
attacks on Gaza civilians
India on Monday condemned Israel's use of force in
civilian areas in Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and said
it would soon send humanitarian relief to the area.
12k Letters to Congress Appeal
to End Gaza Blockade
CAIR sets new goal of 20,000 letters seeking
relief for besieged civilians. The Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said today it
has collected and is delivering to Congress more
than 12,000 letters calling for an end to Israel's "
collective punishment" of Palestinian civilians
in the Gaza Strip.
Fatah undergoing major democratic reform
to compete with Hamas, Fayyad
RAMALLAH - Fatah is undergoing unprecedented
internal reforms to democratize the ailing movement
in the face of the electoral threat from political rivals
such as Hamas and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
Hamas accuses Fayyad gov't
of helping Israeli offensive in Gaza
A Hamas lawmaker on Wednesday accused Ramallah-
based acting Palestinian government of supporting
Israeli offensive into Gaza Strip by keeping silent.
"Hamas deals with Salam Fayyad's government
and some other powers, which have ties with the
Israeli side, as parties that support the Israeli threats
and encourage them," said Hamas lawmaker, Atef Adwan.
Human rights group in Gaza to
sue Fayyad over salaries
Dr. Eyad Al-Sarraj, the head of the Palestinian international
campaign for breaking Gaza siege, asserted on Monday that
the human rights committee in his group will file a lawsuit
against the "unconstitutional" PA government of Salam
Fayyad for cutting off salaries of thousands of PA employees.
Hamas official renews call
for Mideast ceasefire
A Hamas official on Tuesday renewed calls for a
ceasefire amid mounting Israeli demands for a broad
military offensive in the Islamist-ruled Gaza Strip.
Writing in the Israeli daily Haaretz, Ahmed Yussef, a
Hamas foreign policy advisor, called for a long-term
ceasefire between Palestinian militants and Israeli forces.
We will not stop construction of
Jerusalem settlements"
The Israeli Minister of Housing, Ze'ev Boim, told Israeli
media outlets on Tuesday that the Israeli government
will not freeze construction of settlements in the city of Jerusalem.
Israel to Build More in East Jerusalem
Israel announced plans Tuesday to build more
than 1,000 homes in disputed east Jerusalem,
infuriating the Palestinians and triggering a new
crisis in already troubled peace talks. Palestinian
officials accused Israel of undermining efforts to
reach a peace agreement by the end of the year
and urged a halt to the project.
Fayyad says Israel hasn't
done 'a thing' to help
Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad said on
Tuesday that Israel has done nothing on the ground to
help his government and he would be "a damn lot
happier" if it took concrete actions to do so.
Olmert optimistic over borders of Palestinian
state as Qurai slams Israeli settlement building
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appeared optimistic
yesterday towards reaching an agreement with the
Palestinians regarding borders of a future Palestinian
state, considering the issue of borders the simplest
among the other two main issues of the status of
Jerusalem and the issues surrounding Palestinian refugees.
Report: Egyptian forces hunt
tunnels dug between Gaza, Egypt
London based al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper reports
Egyptian security forces launch large-scale operation
aimed at sealing off smugglers' tunnels between
Egyptian, Palestinian sides of Rafah;
eleven tunnels cut off so far.
Egyptians free Irish Gaza entrant
(they were not being held captive)
An Irish woman who was trapped in Gaza after
sneaking into the Palestinian area has been
released by the Egyptian authorities.
Zobeidi denies reports of
Israel pardoning him
Leader of the Al Aqsa Brigades, the armed wing
of Fateh movement, denied media reports by the
French Press Agency which claimed that Israel
has pardoned him and that he handed his weapon
to the Palestinian Authority in Jenin, in the
northern part of the West Bank.
Wounded Palestinians 'may
be flown to Bahrain'
PALESTINIAN people, including women and children,
injured in Israeli bombings in Gaza could be brought
to Bahrain for urgent treatment, an MP said last night.
Nasser Al Fadallah, whose four-man aid delegation
returned home yesterday after being stranded in
Gaza for 12 days, told the GDN that many patients
would die unless they were given access to basic
medical facilities.
Lebanon: Ray of hope for Beirut
squat on edge of Shatila refugee camp
Mirna Abu Nader woke up just in time. "We had noticed
that the iron girders had started to bend from the huge
pressure on the roof," said the 24-year-old mother of
two toddlers. "I was sleeping when I heard a creak
and then a huge slab of concrete fell into our room.
I only just managed to grab the baby in time."
FEATURE-Child victims of Gaza
war lie close, but apart
Child victims of the same war, the two young boys
lie just metres apart in hospital, bruised, bandaged
and fighting for their lives. One is Israeli, the other
Palestinian. They were wounded on opposite sides
of a conflict fought out daily between the Jewish
state and the Hamas Islamists who control the Gaza Strip.
Israel: The lights have been turned off
One after another, the final lights are being
turned off, and a moral gloom is falling upon us
as we stand at the edge of an abyss. Just last
week, three more lights were turned off. The
Winograd Report did not come out clearly against
the fact that Israel embarked on a pointless war;
the Supreme Court authorized collective punishment
and the attorney general concluded that the killing
of 12 Israeli citizens and someone from the territories
by the police does not warrant a trial.
Zionism is now at the
heart of Jewish life
The crime against the Palestinian people is being
committed by a Jewish state with Jewish soldiers
using weapons displaying Jewish religious symbols,
and with the full support and complicity of the
overwhelming mass of organised Jews worldwide.
But to name Jews as responsible for this crime
seems impossible to do.
Neighborhood memories
When I hear Israelis propose that a Gazan
neighborhood be obliterated, I see Yafa, 15, in her
neighborhood. I've known her since she was a year
old. Always-curious eyes, now behind thin-rimmed
eyeglasses, a slightly husky voice, bouncy and quiet,
persistent, good in English and math, helps out at
home and tries to calm down her two younger sisters
- balls of energy who, unlike her, are talkative. She
likes to surf the Internet and chat with her friends
online. Within a range of hundreds of meters from her
home, in Gaza City's Tel al-Hawwa neighborhood, a
few houses already have been obliterated by
Israeli bombs.
There is only one long entrance to the village, a
part of which is covered with tarmac. The villagers
covered the rest of it with concrete when they could
no longer stand any more summer dust or winter
mud. They used concrete because bulldozers cannot
dig it out. They did it themselves, as with all the other
projects in the village, which they initiated without any
governmental support. They were motivated by their
strong will and continual insistence to remain in their
new place. Muhammad Abu Al-Hayja inspired and
reinforced this spirit of perseverance in his sons and
grandchildren after they migrated from their home,
Ain Hod.
Call for entries: Expressions
of the Nakba
The year 2008 marks the 60th anniversary of the Nakba
(the catastrophe): the expulsion and dispossession of
hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes
and land in 1948. The US Campaign to End the Israeli
Occupation is currently soliciting entries for a
commemoration of the Nakba through personal
expressions in the form of visual arts, essays,
poetry, music, video and digital media for its "
Expressions of al-Nakba" international
competition.
Rabbis for Human Rights
targets Gaza blockade
The North American Rabbis for Human Rights joined its
Israeli partner in calling for an end to the blockade of the
Gaza Strip. "As rabbis in North America committed to
supporting the security of Israel and the Jewish
tradition of human rights, we join our Israeli colleagues
of Rabbis for Human Rights in calling for an immediate
cessation of the collective punishment through Israel's
blockade of Gaza and Palestinians' firing of Kassam
rockets into Israeli civilian areas," a statement issued
Tuesday said. "We join them in affirming that 'Only a
concerted effort aimed at getting all parties to honor
God's Image within every human being, as well as
international law, can stop this unfolding desecration
of all that we hold sacred.'"
Palestinian Art: Knocking
on Heaven's Door
Cultural Shock and Awe: The first art exhibition by
visual artists from Palestine, in the USA. Previously,
one never read of Palestinian cultural figures—
writers, poets, visual artists or their productions
in the Unites State's media—there has been a
solid media blackout—because this would humanize
their loss and struggle.
Moving pictures -
literally - in the West Bank
Before the First Intifada, each major city in the
West Bank had two or three cinemas. Now, they've
remained closed for so long that the habit of going
to the cinema has virtually died away. Yousef
Aldeek, a 43-year-old producer, started this
Mobile Cinema last November after buying a second
-hand 16mm projector on the street, together with
some old reels...
As the lights go out, the kids squeal with excitement.
Most of them have never been to a movie theater before
and this is the first time in their lives they have ever
seen larger-than-life figures moving up on the big screen.
Jerusalem off the radar
Recently, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
was reported to have suggested that the question
of Jerusalem would be "left to last" in negotiations
with the Palestinians. This was apparently on
account of the issue being "too sensitive and
complex," as well as fears that talks on Jerusalem
would cause the departure of religious right
-wingers from Olmert's ruling coalition.
Hoenlein says 'concerned' by
atmosphere surrounding Obama campaign
The head of the Conference of Presidents of Major
American Jewish Organizations, Malcolm Hoenlein,
expressed concern Tuesday with the atmosphere
that has surrounded Democratic Senator Barack
Obama's campaign for president, while making it
clear he has no problem with Obama himself.
Bush imposes, then waives,
PLO sanction
US President George W. Bush temporarily downgraded,
then reinstated, the status of the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO) offices in the United States, the
White House said Tuesday. In a memorandum for
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, dated Monday,
Bush extended permission for the PLO to keep a
Washington office and spend money in the United
States for another six months.
Israeli Lobby Declares
War On Gandhi
The problem the Israelis and their supporters have with
Gandhi refuses to go away.. In what they call their pre-State
era, they tried to get Mahatma Gandhi to endorse their
campaign to dispossess the Arabs and transform
Palestine into a Jewish homeland. He not only
branded their enterprise unjust but even made
comments which lend support to the Palestinian
resistance that has been calumniated more recently
by Israel and its American backers as terrorism.
Today, the Israel lobby in America is baying for
the blood of Arun Gandhi for his temerity in advising
the Jews in Israel that it is time they got over their
holocaust fixation and for their own secure future
moved on to build peace and friendship
with their neighbours.
Plagiarism, Cover Up and Misrepresentations,
The Case Against Alan Dershowitz
In June 2007, DePaul University denied tenure to
Norman Finkelstein, an assistant professor of political
science. The decision ignited a firestorm of protest
from DePaul students and faculty, as well as from
faculty across the country and abroad. Finkelstein's
department had voted 9-3 in favor of tenure, and a
college-level committee unanimously joined that
recommendation, 5-0. But the University Board
on Promotion and Tenure (UBPT) voted 4-3 against
tenure, and DePaul's president claimed to "find no
compelling reasons to overturn the UBPT's decision."
Syria: Naturally U.S., Israel would
hit Mughaniyah for money
Syria on Wednesday accused Israel of
masterminding the assassination of Hezbollah
Deputy Secretary General Imad Mughniyah,
with Syrian parliament member Mohammed
Habash saying that Israel and its "Zionist agents"
were behind the act.
Hamas calls Arabs to unite after
Damascus bombing
Hamas Islamists on Wednesday called for the Arab
world to unite against Israel after Hezbollah accused
the Jewish state of assassinating one of its founders.
Top Hezbollah commander Imad Moughniyah was
killed by a car bomb in Damascus on Tuesday.
Israel has denied any role in the killing.
Red Cross Appealing
for $19M for Iraq
The international Red Cross on Tuesday announced a
campaign to raise $19 million to provide food, other
supplies and health care to people in Iraq. The
assistance will be distributed by the Iraqi Red
Crescent to the 900,000 most needy in the country
over the next year, the International Federation of
Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said in a statement.
Guantanamo Comes to
Main Street U.S.A.
They say that the difference between how democracy
in Europe has evolved compared to that of the United
States is that in Europe the government is afraid of the
People whereas in the United States the People are
afraid of the government. That's a dangerous state of
affairs and it looks like it's going to get worse.
It's not only a matter of who you vote for... it's a
matter of how well informed you are when you do
vote... and Americans now are notorious for not being
nearly as well informed as the citizens of many other
countries are. So in America, we don't really think that
deeply about the range of choices that are or
are not available to us. Fatal mistake.
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