Monday, March 3

Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines March 3, 2008 ~

Brought to you by Shadi Fadda

Today in Palestine is a daily round up
of the headlines in regards to Palestine.

Click on the headline for full story!

Palestinian Health System in Gaza on brink of
collapse; patients and injured denied access to medical care.



Israel keeping true to its racist words
Dehumanizing the Palestinians has been necessary for Israel
to justify its actions ever since, and even before, the state
was declared on destroyed historic Palestine in 1948 and
then in 1967 when Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza.
Taken together, they indicate the historic effort to destroy
Palestinian national aspirations and this is what Israel is
trying to do in Gaza, which Nobel prize winner and late
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin once wished would
be swallowed by the sea. EI correspondent Rami
Almeghari comments from Gaza.

Gaza deaths surpass 100; hundreds injured
During the last 24 hours, another 39 Palestinians were
killed throughout the Gaza Strip. Twenty-two of them were
unarmed civilians, including nine children. Six of the victims
were from one family, including three women and three men
who were killed in an air strike in Gaza City. The death
toll since 27 February currently stands at 101 victims,
including 49 unarmed civilians.

100 Palestinians are killed in Gaza
As clashes erupted in the West Bank where a 13 year-old
boy was kkilled, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert brushed
aside a growing world outcry and told his cabinet yesterday:
"Let it be clear that Israel has no intention to stop the fighting
for a single moment."

Army kills Palestinian teenager at protest
against Israeli attacks on Gaza

A Palestinian teenager was killed on Monday and
several others injured when Israeli army troops attacked
a protest organized by school students in the village of
Al Mazra'ah Al Sarqyiah, located near the central West
Bank city of Ramallah.

Israeli attacks on Gaza Kill another 10 Palestinian
Palestinian sources said a 21-month-old baby girl
was also among Sunday's dead.

Hebron teen killed, 4 Israelis hurt as
violence spreads to W. Bank

A 14-year-old Palestinian was shot dead by Israel
Defense Forces in Hebron as the violence spilled
over into the West Bank on Sunday.

Palestinian teen killed by Israeli
settler in West Bank

A Palestinian teenager was shot dead by an Israeli settler
in the occupied West Bank on Monday, Israeli and
Palestinian sources said. Mohammed Saleh Shreiteh,
15, was shot in the head when an Israeli settler opened fire
on a group of youths throwing stones at cars outside the
settlement of Talmon near West Bank's political capital of
Ramallah, army radio reported quoting witnesses.

Israeli warplanes hit Haneya's office in Gaza
Israeli aircrafts struck the office of deposed Palestinian
Prime Minister Ismail Haneya in western Gaza City before
dawn on Sunday, residents in the city said. Israeli
aircrafts hovered over the western area of Gaza City and
fired two air-to-ground missiles at Haneya's office,
the witnesses said.

Bethlehem: five injured and three kidnapped as
Israeli army attack protest
Five Palestinian school boys were injured and three others
kidnapped on Monday as the Israeli troops attacked a protest
organized in the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem,
to protest the Israeli attacks on Gaza.

Israeli army kidnaps 14 Palestinians
in pre dawn invasion
Palestinian sources reported that the Israeli army kidnapped
at least 14 Palestinians during a pre dawn invasion targeting
several cities and towns in the West Bank on Monday.

Israel hits new Gaza targets after U.S. urges halt
Israeli aircraft struck new targets in the Gaza Strip on Monday,
killing two militants, after the government vowed to press home
an offensive despite appeals from Washington and elsewhere for
an end to violence. More than 100 Palestinians, many of them
civilians, have been killed since Israel launched the offensive
when an Israeli civilian was killed by a rocket fired from
Gaza on Wednesday.

Palestinian detainee dies in Israeli prison

The Nafha Society for Defending Detainees Rights and
Human Rights reported that detainee Fadil Shaheen,
47, died of medical negligence at the Al Ramla Israeli
Prison Hospital which lacks the basic equipment and tools.

Gazans search for loved ones amid din of fighting

The explosions still reverberated through the narrow streets
of Jabaliya when Manal Obeid ventured out to search for her
nine-year-old son Osama amid an Israeli blitz. "I came here
to search for my son... I heard from a neighbour that he
might have been killed or wounded," the 29-year-old said as
she stood next to the blackened crater left by an Israeli
missile strike.

Adel Samara - A Global Massacre Against Gaza
Note: I certainly need help in answering the following
two questions: What is going on in the mind of a
Palestinian infant in the last moments of his or her life
when a US/Israeli rocket strikes him/her? What do
Israeli military leaders tell their pilot when he shows
them the picture of that infant?

Sisters' horrible deaths push

Gaza family into media circus
A day after the Asliyeh sisters, Samah, 13, and Salwa,
18, were killed in an Israel Air Force bombing, their grandfather,
Mohammed, was hospitalized Sunday. His blood pressure
rose and his sons were afraid he would collapse.

The Gaza genocide
We celebrated Yousuf's fourth birthday today. We ate cake.
And we counted the bodies. We sang happy birthday. And my
mother sobbed. We watched the fighter jets roar voraciously on
our television screen, pounding street after street, then heard a
train screech outside, and shuddered. Yousuf tore open his presents,
and asked my mother to make a paper zanana, a drone, for him
with origami; we were torn open from the inside, engulfed by a
feeling of impotence and helplessness, fear and anger and grief,
despondence and confusion. Laila El-Haddad writes on the
"long-term" Gaza genocide.

A single rifle bullet, another victim -

but no hope of a doctor
First came an explosion in the street outside. Then the sound
of a single rifle bullet slicing through the sky in a sharp crack
and into the apartment directly above the home of Raed Abu
Saif, the same apartment into which his young daughter Safa had
just gone. It was Saturday afternoon, about 4pm. Abu Saif hurried
upstairs and found, lying on the floor of the front room, Safa, aged
12. There was a hole in her chest where the bullet had entered
and a hole in her back where it had exited. It took her three
hours to die.

Punishing the people
Four months have passed since the peace meeting in
Annapolis, and the smouldering fire of the Israel-Palestine conflict
has once again combusted. Up to 70 Palestinians have died in two
days of fighting, after Israel launched an offensive - involving ground
troops, air strikes and shelling - to stop the firing of Qassam rockets.
Half the casualties of Israel's onslaught are civilian,
including women, children and a 21-month-old baby.


Palestinian President Suspends Peace Talks

Tariq Dardona, 47, a resident of Gaza, said by telephone
Saturday afternoon that he was trapped in his house along
with 21 family members and the body of his brother.
Dardona said his brother had been shot by Israeli forces
when he refused to open the door of the home and bled
for four hours before dying.

Israeli communist party calls for ending

massacres against the Palestinians
Author Mohammad Naffa', secretary-general of the Israeli
Communist Party stated on Sunday that what the Israeli
army is doing against the Palestinians is considered a
war of extermination against and that the Israeli claims
that this offensive is to stop the firing of homemade
shells at Sderot are false are forgery of truth.

World urges end to Gaza violence

The White House on Sunday led calls for an end to
violence in Gaza where a massive Israeli assault has killed
scores of Palestinians, provoking international outrage and
accusations of war crimes. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
has vowed to continue the ground and air operation aimed at
halting rocket fire that has killed 71 Palestinians since
Saturday, raising fears about the future of Mideast peace talks.


Turkey condemns Israeli attacks in Gaza
ANKARA, Turkey: Turkey's prime minister has
accused Israel of using "disproportionate force"
in its attacks in the Gaza Strip that have killed nearly
70 Palestinians in two days. Recep Tayyip Erdogan
says the attacks are killing "children and civilians"
and that the attacks can have "no humanitarian justification."

Israel vows to continue Gaza attacks - 02 Mar 08

Anger explodes in West Bank over Israeli raids - 02 Mar 08

East Jerusalem residents protest Gaza operation
Palestinian residents of capital take to streets to demonstrate
against IDF actions in Strip; business owners launch solidarity strike.

Thousands of Jordanians hold anti-Israel march
Crying for revenge with suicide attacks, thousands of
Jordanians marched in the capital of the pro-U.S. kingdom
on Sunday to protest against Israel's Gaza offensive that had
killed more than 100 Palestinians. About 10,000 protesters,
mainly from Jordan's mainstream Muslim Brotherhood and
smaller opposition groups, took to the streets in one of the
country's most vocal and largest anti-Israeli demonstrations
in recent years.

Lebanon children protest Israel Gaza assault
Several hundred school children took part in a Hezbollah-organized
demonstration outside UN headquarters in the Lebanese capital on
Monday to protest against Israel's deadly offensive in Gaza.
Twenty schools participated in the rally, organizers said.
The children presented a letter to a UN representative calling
on the world body to take action.

Thousands rally across Mideast to
protest IDF attacks on Gaza
Tens of thousands of Syrians filled the central square of
Damascus Monday to protest ongoing Israel Defense Forces
operations in the Gaza Strip that have killed more than
100 Palestinians, while elsewhere in the region thousands
others also demonstrated.

Hebrew University: Dozens protest IDF operation in Gaza
Arab students rally in Jerusalem with Palestinian flags,
hurl stones at car; some 100 Hadash activists demonstrate
at Haifa University. Earlier, three east Jerusalem residents
arrested while rioting. Emek Yezreel College lecturer
allows moment of silence for Palestinians.

EU presidency condemns attacks on Gaza
EU president Slovenia today condemned Israel's attacks on
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as disproportionate and violating
international law, as a top EU foreign policy official left for
the West Asia.

Olmert: Don't preach morals to Israel
"No one has the right to preach morals to Israel"

Israeli Protests: End Gaza war crimes
Hundreds of Israeli "leftist" activists join calls made by Arab
states, EU; Tel Aviv protestor says 'child-killing government
has no moral right to exist.

Gaza raids met by loud silence from Arab leaders
As the death toll in Israel Defense Forces raids against
militants firing rockets from Gaza climbed to more than
50 yesterday, Palestinian Information Minister Riyad
al-Maliki responded by saying, "Hamas gave Israel
an excuse to start a war in Gaza." Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas also responded along these lines, saying
that the "operation in Gaza is not just a reaction to the rocket
barrage." Both comments can be interpreted as Palestinian
backing for the Israel Defense Forces ground incursion into
the Strip.

UN rights chief seeks probe into Gaza deaths
United Nations human rights chief Louise Arbour called on
Israel on Monday to conduct an "impartial" investigation
into the deaths of Palestinians during its offensive in Gaza.

Al-Khader village protests the wall
For the last two months the residents of al-Khader have
demonstrated every week against the illegal construction of
the Israeli wall on their land. The demonstrations are organized
by the al-Khader Popular Committee against the Wall and
Settlements, with the support of al-Khader institutions,
residents as well as Israeli and international activists.
Adri Nieuwhof and Samer Jaber report.

For God's sake, Dissolve the
Palestinian Authority now
As Zionist Jewish supremacists continue to emulate their
Nazi mentors, by carrying out pornographic mass killings of
stateless and helpless Palestinians, the so-called Palestinian
'national" Authority (PA) is still basking in its impotence and
morbid illusions about "peace talks" with Israel. This is
despite the present Israeli blitzkrieg in the Gaza Strip and
the equally murderous policy of narrowing Palestinian horizons
in the West Bank where we are told ad nauseam by a scandalously
mendacious western media that "Abbas is in control."

Torture coalition demands investigation

into death of PA detainee
Majd al-Barghouti died on 22 February, while he was
being illegally detained by the General Intelligence Service
(GIS) of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. There is
evidence "ncluding photographs" indicating that prior to his
death, al-Barghouti, 44 years old, arrested on political
grounds, was subjected to torture and ill-treatment.

PM to tell Rice: Israel reserves
right to act freely in Gaza
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will stress to U.S. Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice at their scheduled meeting in
Jerusalem Tuesday evening that Israel reserves the right to
act freely in the Gaza Strip against Hamas and other
Palestinian terror groups.

PM: Peace talks to go on, but so will hits on Hamas
PM to Knesset: IDF will act again in Gaza; PM to tell Rice:
Israel reserves right to act freely in Gaza Strip.

Israeli official threatens Hamas as
Olmert defends use of force
JERUSALEM — Israel's defense minister threatened
Sunday to move against Hamas leaders in Gaza as the next
step in a confrontation that on Saturday reached its deadliest level in years.

Red Cross sends aid convoy to
Palestinian areas from Jordan
The International Committee of the Red Cross sent
Monday an aid convoy - the first of several expected this week -
from the Jordanian capital to the Palestinian territories following
fighting in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Israelis show declining zest for military service
TEL AVIV, Israel — Throughout Israel's short, turbulent history,
the nation has grown cynical about almost every sector of
society but one: its military.

Police halt Israeli Arab rally against Gaza op,

arrest 2 at T.A. protest
Police Sunday broke up a demonstration in the Israel
Arab village of Wadi Ara protesting the ongoing Israel Defense
Forces offensive in Gaza. The rally was organized by Israeli
Arab party Ra'am-Ta'al and was one of three such protests
scheduled for Sunday. Later Sunday, Police arrested
two protesters who participated in a demonstration outside
IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv.


Lost In Translation
Translation is not the simple act of looking a word up in a
dictionary. Cultural connotation and context are often
crucial to understanding a translation which might have a very
different meaning from the one that was intended.
Such is the case now with the furor that has erupted over the
words of Israeli Deputy Minister of Defense, Matan Vilnai.
Here is the accurate translation of what Vilnai said that has
caused all the furor: ""The more Qassam [rocket] fire intensifies
and the rockets reach a longer range, they will bring upon
themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our
might to defend ourselves."

Palestinians don't have the right to defend themselves,

they've the right to die silently!
Dear member, As the Palestinian people in Gaza are being
murdered and starved on daily basis, the Western people
and their governments continue to cover-up Israeli war crimes.
In the West, the creation of the "Jewish state" by usurping
Palestinian rights is their way of telling Jews around the world:
We are sorry for practicing anti-Semitism against you for
centuries, and to compensate for the many Holocausts we have
committed against you, we shall unquestionably support the
creation of the "Jewish state". And if that happens on the
expense of the Palestinian people, let it be.

Children admire Hamas fighters'
Gaza resident says Israeli offensive counterproductive,
only unifying Palestinian public. PRC spokesman says
Israel clearly losing, taunts IDF as 'too scared' to enter Gaza.

Hamas vows to compensate Gazans hurt in IDF operation

IDF's Operation Warm Winter leaves 110 Palestinians
dead, great damage, but organization insists it defeated
Israeli army. Thousands attend victory marches in Gaza; Hamas'
al-Zahar promises to rebuild houses damaged in airstrikes, says
kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit won't be released before Israel frees
Palestinian prisoners.

Hamas vows to capture soldiers if Israel
expands Gaza incursion
Hamas' military wing, Ezz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades,
Monday vowed to kidnap and kill Israeli soldiers if the
Israeli army would expand its incursion into the Gaza Strip.

Gazans angry and unbowed

The black marks on the roads leading into Gaza City were
an indication of the earlier bloodshed. Palestinians had dragged
tyres onto the road and set them alight. They hoped that the
smokescreen would stop Israeli drones and Apache helicopters -
both armed with rockets - from hitting their targets.
But it was a futile gesture.

Inspired by God, Hamas fighters battle on
Abu Mohammed picked up his rifle, said farewell to his wife and
six children and went out to face the Israeli tanks, helicopter
gunships and missile-firing airborne drones. "Being unable to
defeat Israel is no reason to surrender," the Hamas fighter said
with a smile as he headed to the Gaza Strip's front line last
Saturday, ignoring pleas from his family to stay.

Mourning tents spread on Gaza Strip
MUSLIM tradition requires the dead to be buried before
sunset on the day of their death, so 12-year-old Safa Abu
Seif was buried on Sunday with only her father to mourn her.
The rest of her family, including her mother, were still pinned
down by the Israeli tanks and snipers occupying the north
Gaza neighbourhood where the child's family had watched
her die over three hours from a bullet through the stomach.

'Restraint' is deceitful, and 'forbearance' is vain
Even yesterday evening, after the IDF already had killed
about 50 Palestinians, at least half of them unarmed, and
including quite a number of women and children, Jerusalem
continued to claim, "At present there will be no major
ground operation." It's incredible: The IDF penetrates the heart
of a crowded refugee camp, kills in a terrifyingly wholesale manner,
with horrible bloodshed, and Israel continues to disseminate the lie
of restraint. Two days earlier Israel killed more Palestinians than have
been killed by all the Qassams over the past seven years. Among the
dead were four children and an infant. The next day Israel killed another
five boys. And who is the victim? Israel. And who is cruel? The Palestinians.

Colonial realities
Once again Israel defies an impotent international community
which offers nothing but timid calls for ceasefire on "both sides".
And once again Palestinian suffering and death tolls continue to
break records in the territories occupied by Israel since 1967.

Gaza families mourn as fighting rages on
As sunset approached Sunday, a steady stream of men walked the darkening streets toward Gaza City's Al Nafaq district to pay their respects to the Atallah family. In an open-air enclosure up a side street, dozens of mourners sat on plastic chairs. A loudspeaker blared a sermon lamenting the misfortunes of a family that lost six members in an Israeli airstrike.

Not about rockets
I started to become convinced that the current Israeli army operation in Gaza Strip is not aimed primarily at lessening the barrages of homemade rockets that the armed Palestinian groups fire into southern Israel and the Western Negev. Yet, the offensive seems to be part of many previous incursions and airstrikes, which so far have failed to repress Palestinian rocket squads.

Breaking the Silence,
Israeli Soldiers Talk About the Occupied Territories


'Obama touched by land of Israel'
Longtime Obama supporter Lee Rosenberg says presidential hopeful has always been strong supporter of Israel, recalls senator's meaningful visit to Jewish State.

Obama Tends Toward Mainstream
on Foreign Policy
On a number of issues, such as the Middle East peace process, Obama advocates a continuation of Bush administration policies but promises more energetic and intense presidential involvement.
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