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Al Jazeera: Conditions in Gazacontinue to worsen: 3/17/08
Israel killed 100 Hamas policemen since June
Chief of Hamas Police in Gaza General Tawfiq Jabber
said that Israel had killed some 100 Hamas police
officers in the Gaza Strip since the movement had
taken over the enclave in mid June last year. Israeli
air fighters hit several police stations and posts in
the Gaza Strip over the past nine months, killing
about 100 policemen. Israeli air strikes were
retaliatory to rockets attacks carried out by
Gaza militants against Israel.
Five Palestinians kidnapped in the West
Bank, two among them children
Israeli forces attacked northern and southern parts
of the West Bank early Monday morning kidnapping
five Palestinians, including two children.
Hamas: PA arrested five of its
supporters in West Bank
The Palestinian Authority security forces arrested
five Palestinians affiliated with the Hamas movement
from Bethlehem, Nablus and Tulkarem on Sunday,
a Hamas source stated Monday.
Israeli soldiers shoot peaceful protestor
in head at weekly Bil'in demonstration
The shooting of a European activist participating
in the weekly non-violent protest in Bil'in village
yesterday, just two days before the fifth anniversary
of the killing of Rachel Corrie, has once again
underlined that international solidarity activists
remain the targets of Israeli military violence. The
man, a volunteer with the Palestine Monitor, was hit
in the head by a rubber-coated bullet after Israeli
soldiers began firing directly at demonstrators from
positions behind the fence. An Israeli activist was
also hit in the leg, and both casualties were taken to
hospitals Ramallah and Tel Aviv respectively for
treatment. A further four people were injured during
the protest.
Israeli police invade a Hebron neighborhood
A contingent of Israeli police invaded the Abu Snaina
neighborhood in the West Bank city of Hebron on
Sunday afternoon, media sources and witnesses said.
Bil'in Outpost Under Attack
On Friday night one of the Palestinian activist
was beaten and threaten with murder by soldiers on
patrol at the outpost. ( The outpost is a small room
that the villagers of Bil'in built on their land separated
from their village by the Apartheid Wall) Damage was
also done to the structure and the water tank.
Militant's death unites Bethlehem
Outside Betlehem's Nativity Church, Christians
yesterday queued not to celebrate the birth they
believe happened here but to mourn a death - that
of a Palestinian militant with close links to
neighbouring Lebanon's Islamic militia, Hizbollah.
Mohammed Shehadeh was one of four Palestinians
shot in an Israeli undercover ambush here last
week, killings that have fuelled support for Hizbollah's
leader, Hassan Nasrallah, among Christians and Muslims alike.
Palestinian government will rebuild
dead militant's destroyed home
JERUSALEM: The moderate Palestinian government
will rebuild the home of a West Bank militant leader
who was killed by Israeli forces last week, an official
said Sunday, in an apparent response to similar
offers from the Lebanese Hezbollah and Hamas.
Mohammed Shehadeh, the Islamic Jihad leader in
Bethlehem, was killed along with three other militants
in an Israeli raid there last week. His house was
demolished by Israeli forces a week earlier.
Court case reveals how settlers illegally
grab W. Bank lands
West Bank settlements have expanded their
jurisdictions by taking control of private Palestinian
land and allocating it to settlers. The land takeover -
which the Civil Administration calls "theft" - has
occured in an orderly manner, without any official
authorization. The method of taking over land is
being publicized for the first time, based on testimony
from a hearing on an appeal filed by a Kedumim resident,
Michael Lesence, against a Civil Administration order to
vacate 35 dunams (almost 9 acres) near the Mitzpe
Yishai neighborhood of the settlement. Official records
show the land as belonging to Palestinians from Kafr Qaddum.
Palestinian Authority expects Cheney to help
stop Israel's settlement expansion
A Palestinian minister of the interim government
based in this West Bank town said Sunday the
Palestinian Authority hopes that U.S. Vice President
Dick Cheney would press Israel to stop expanding
settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Samir
Abdullah, minister of planning in the interim
Palestinian government, warned that Israel's
settlement activities "threaten the peace process."
Olmert: Israel to keep expanding settlements in
E. Jerusalem; No chance Israel will give up
areas like Har Homa
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday that Israel
would keep expanding a neighborhood in eastern
Jerusalem, defying international criticism and
triggering a spat with the Palestinians ahead of a new
round of peace talks. Israel plans to build hundreds of
new apartments in Har Homa, a neighborhood in the
section of Jerusalem claimed by the Palestinians. The
U.S. has said such construction is unhelpful to peace
efforts, and the Palestinians say the project is
undermining peace talks.
B'Tselem to Mazuz: Prevent demolition of
home belonging to family of terror attack
perpetrator
During the last few days, the media has reported that
Israel's Minister of Internal Security has directed the
police to demolish the family home of the Palestinian
who perpetrated the attack on the Merkaz Harav
Yeshiva in Jerusalem. According to the media, the
Minister of Defense supports the intention to demolish
the home.
Mideast Players Differ On Approach to Hamas
During a trip to the Middle East this month, Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice served as an informal
go-between for Hamas and its sworn enemy, the
government of Israel, helping to arrange a tentative
truce, according to U.S., Israeli and Arab officials. The
United States has long considered Hamas, the
Palestinian militant group that seized the Gaza Strip
last year, to be a terrorist group, and the Bush
administration remains firmly opposed to direct talks
until Hamas renounces violence and recognizes Israel.
President Bush has decried Hamas's "devotion to
terrorism and murder" and said there cannot be peace
until the group is dismantled.
Poll: IDF raids boost popularity of
Hamas chief Haniyeh
Israel Defense Forces attacks in the Hamas-
controlled Gaza Strip have boosted the popularity
of the Islamist group's leader Ismail Haniyeh among
Palestinians in that territory and in the West Bank,
according to a poll released Monday.
Hamas popularity on the rise: poll
The popularity of Hamas has risen in recent
months since the Gaza Strip's border breach with
Egypt, deadly Israeli strikes and the lack of
progress in renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace
talks, according to an opinion poll released on
Monday. "A major shift in Hamas's favour occurred
during the last three months with about 10 percent
of the population shifting their attitudes and
perceptions," said the Palestinian Centre for Policy
and Survey Research in a statement accompanying
the results.
Member: Abbas' delegation to
Yemen not to talk with Hamas
A delegation sent by Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas to Yemen will not hold talks with the Islamic
Resistance Movement (Hamas) which will also send
representatives to the Arab country, a delegation
member said on Sunday. Saleh Ra'fat, a member of
the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told
Voice of Palestine radio that "the delegation will
only meet with the Yemeni leadership and is not
allowed to hold any talks with Hamas."
Officials: Israel, PA negotiators held
secret talks last week
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators held secret
talks after a deadly Israel Defense Forces offensive
in the Gaza Strip led to their brief suspension.
Negotiators were set to meet again on Monday,
Israeli officials said.
Dialogue: Hamas and Fatah to
Yemen for reconciliation
Palestinian media sources reported Monday that
representatives of the rival Palestinian parties ,
Hamas and Fatah will be heading for the Yemeni
capital of San'a for talks over possible reconciliation.
Hamas salvoes spur Israeli rocket
defence rethink
Spurred by a surge in Palestinian rocket salvoes and
charges of arms industry protectionism, Israel is
rethinking its rejection of deployable foreign defence
technologies so a local system can be produced. Defence
Minister Ehud Barak has staked his reputation on Iron
Dome, a device in the works at Israeli state weapons
firm Rafael that would use missiles to shoot down the
short-range rockets favoured by Palestinian militants
in the Gaza Strip.
President Abbas concerned over
Annapolis, report
President Abbas has been reportedly concerned
over of the Annapolis peace summit, hosted by
Washington last November, the Jerusalem-based
aL-Manar Arabic online publication reported.
Palestinian Old Guard: Defiance, Regret
Looking back to the U.N. partition plan of 1947,
which envisaged Jewish and Palestinian states living
side by side in peace, Nayef Hawatmeh comes to the
painful acknowledgment of an opportunity missed. "
After 60 years, we are struggling for what we could
have had in 1947," laments the leader of the Democratic
Front for the Liberation of Palestine. "We have missed
many historic opportunities."
Action of silence and peace for
Gaza and Rachel Corrie
Popular Committee Against Siege in the Gaza Strip
has held a new action to lift siege. The action was
pretty-unique in which a scene of siege was
embodied on the ground. A commemoration of fifth
anniversary of the American-Palestinian peace
Martyr "Rachel Corrri" was done as well. The siege
scene has included many facets of Gazans sufferings.
Disabled Medical instruments and machines,
ambulances, electrical machines, travelers luggage
in addition to many samples of siege were brought
into the ground.
5 years on, we remember Rachel Corrie
It is impossible to underestimate quite how much life
for Rachel Corrie's family has changed since she was
killed by an Israeli army Caterpillar D9 bulldozer in the
Gaza Strip on 16 March 2003.
Denied Entry
By Starhawk Today is March 16. Five years ago, I
was in a small village in the Occupied Territories of
the West Bank of Palestine with a group of volunteers
from the International Solidarity Movement, which
supports nonviolent resistance against the Occupation.
US Protests call for an end to the
occupation of Iraq and Palestine
Protests were held throughout the United States on
Saturday to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the
U.S. invasion of Iraq, and calling for an end to the dual
occupations of Iraq and Palestine. Tens of thousands of
Americans gathered in dozens of cities to march, rally
and carry out acts of civil disobedience to call for peace in
the Middle East.
Activists to Waldorf-Astoria:
Cancel Friends of IDF fundraiser
As 13 organizations working for human rights, social
justice, and peace, we demand that The Waldorf-Astoria
Hotel in Manhattan rescind its agreement to host the 18
March fundraiser for Friends of the Israel Defense
Forces. The Israeli military has historically been a
flagrant violator of human rights and international law as
demonstrated by the recent attacks on Gaza that killed
over 100 Palestinians, the 2006 attack on Lebanon, and
the 60-year assault on and dispossession of the Palestinian
people.http://electronicintifada.net
Prominent rabbi to yeshiva heads:
Don't hire Arabs
"The rabbi added that Jews should refrain from
employing any non-Jews, not just Muslim Arabs,
and instead grant livelihood to Jews, "unless there
exists a huge disparity between the costs of the labor".
US official: Return of Palestinian
refugees will 'help' Lebanon
US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern
Affairs David Welch said on Sunday that both the
Palestinian and Lebanese people believe that
Palestinian refugees in Lebanon should live "inside a
Palestinian state." "Lebanon has quite a large number
of Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon," Welch said
during a hearing of the Middle East and South Asia
Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee
titled "Israel's disengagement from Gaza."
The Children of Palestine and Israel are
Cannon Fodder for the Rapture
Safa Abu Saif, a 12-year-old Palestinian girl, was visiting
a friend's apartment when the bullet fired from an
Israeli rifle slammed into her chest, punching a
gaping exit wound in her back. No ambulance could
reach her because of the fighting. Safa died in her
father's arms three hours after being shot. Danielle
Shafi, a 5-year-old Israeli girl, was killed by the bullet
fired from a Palestinian rifle as her mother combed her
hair in the child's upstairs bedroom. Drenched in the
blood of her wound, Danielle slowly stopped breathing
and died in her mother's arms minutes after being shot.
U.S. Amnesia in the Middle East
What amnesia, what loss of political essence, makes
the powers-that-be and the citizenry overlook such
a successful formula for peace in Palestine? Is it that
the Northern Irish are white Christians and the
Palestinians are Arab Muslims?
Germany's immoral policy toward the Palestinians
German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in Israel
Sunday on a three-day visit during which she is
expected to reassert Germany's "solidarity" and
"special relations" with the Zionist state. In her
weekly video message broadcast last week, Merkel
said she planned to stress Germany's deep commitment
to "defending" Israel when she addresses the Israeli
Knesset or parliament on Tuesday.
Nablus' olive oil soap: a
Palestinian tradition lives on
Its formula is strikingly simple - a combination of
virgin olive oil, water, and a basic sodium compound -
but the history of the olive soap industry in the West
Bank city of Nablus has been a complex one of development
in the face of constant adversity, ranging from natural
disasters to an ongoing military occupation.
Book Review: "An Israeli In Palestine
Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming Israel"
Jeff Halper's new book is, in part, the story of the
evolution of a "white moderate" peace campaigner
to a radical Israeli campaigner for justice for the
Palestinians. En route, he maps his development
from "ethnic Jew to Jewish national to Israeli,"
disregarding his grandmother's warning that
"Israel is no place for a Jewish boy!" Raymond
Deane reviews for EI.
5 years after Iraq's 'liberation,'
there are worms in the water
BAGHDAD — Iraq's most prominent clerics have
ruled that using a water pump on one's own pipes is
akin to stealing resources from a neighbor, so what
does a person do when it takes half an hour to fill a
cooking pot with water from the tap?
Occupation and resistance:
Haifa Zangana interview
WHILE many of those people who opposed the
2003 US-British invasion and subsequent
occupation of Iraq have often been disingenuously
smeared as apologists for Saddam Hussein, this
certainly can not be said about the Iraqi novelist
Haifa Zangana. Born in Baghdad in 1950, Zangana
joined a faction of the Iraqi Communist Party that
was committed to armed struggle against the ruling
Ba'ath Party while she was a student at Baghdad University.
Most Iraqis want foreign
occupation forces out
More than two-thirds of Iraqis believe the
American-led occupation forces should leave,
according to a poll conducted for British television
ahead of the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion.
Red Cross, Amnesty paint grim picture
of post-invasion Iraq
GENEVA (AFP) - Five years after the US-led invasion,
international aid and human rights groups said Monday.
The International Committee of the Red Cross highlighted
the plight of millions of Iraqis who still have little or no
access to clean water, sanitation or health care.
How to Destroy a Country in Five Years,
Iraq's Blood-Sodden Anniversaries
"It reminds me of Iraq under Saddam," said a
militant opponent of Saddam Hussein angrily to me
last week as he watched red-capped Iraqi soldiers
close down part of central Baghdad so the convoy
of Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki might briefly
venture into the city.
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