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Return and Coexistence Initiative
1.All Palestinian refugees inside and abroad
have the right to exercise the right of return
in a peaceful manner and become UN soldiers of peace.
2.All returnees have to raise the UN banner only.
3.All returnees have to attach UN resolution and the
refugee card on their chests. Continued.
http://www.return08.
com/Eng
Weekly Report on Israeli
human rights violations in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory 13 - 18 Mar 2008
Twelve residents injured in an
Israeli air strike in Gaza
Palestinian medical sources reported on Tuesday
at night that at twelve residents were wounded,
four seriously, when the Israeli air force fired
missiles at fighters who gathered near a local
mosque in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
Five of the injured were wounded in an army
shelling to Beit Lahia.
Israeli missile hits Gaza car,
casualties - Hamas
Israeli forces fired a missile at a Palestinian car
near Gaza City on Tuesday, causing casualties,
the ruling Islamist Hamas faction said. Hamas
officials described the incident as an air strike.
An Israeli military spokesman had no immediate
comment.
Israeli troops attack villages in southern
W.B and demolish at least four homes
On Wednesday, Israeli troops using military
bulldozers stormed Um-Nizel, and Briet villages
located to the south of Hebron city in the southern
part of the West Bank and demolished four homes.
Israeli army detains 14
Palestinians in W. Bank, Gaza
Palestinian and Israeli security sources said that
the Israeli army forces detained early on
Wednesday morning 14 Palestinians in the
West Bank and Gaza, saying they are wanted by Israel.
The Popular Committees Appeals the
release of a detained mother and her infant
The Palestinian Popular (Folk) Committees issued
on Tuesday a press release appealing the release
of a Palestinian mother and her newly born child
imprisoned at Hasharon Israeli detention facility.
Israeli military declares total closure
of the occupied Palestinian territories
The Israeli military establishment declared on
Tuesday a total closure of the occupied Palestinian
territories, starting from today morning until next Sunday.
Slain Jihad operative's son:
'Our entire family has turned Shi'ite'
Instead of a Britney Spears ring tone, Shehadeh
Shehadeh's cell phone emits a recording of a speech
by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. "Our entire
family has turned Shi'ite," he boasts. Last week,
Israeli security forces operating in the West Bank
town of Bethlehem killed his father, Mohammed
Shehadeh, who was a senior commander in
Islamic Jihad.
Abu Rudeineh denounces the continuation
of Israeli settlement activities in Palestine
In a press release issued on Tuesday, Nabeel Abu
Rudeineh, spokesperson of the Palestinian president
Mahmoud Abbas, denounced the continuation of the
Israeli settlement activities in the Palestinian
territories, saying that these settlement activities
"will abort the American efforts aiming at reviving
the peace process."
Bassam al-Salhi Secretary-General of
the PPP: Israel weakens Abbas through
its Settlements Policy
In an interview with Bassam al-Salhi, Secretary
General of Palestine People's Party on Tuesday,
he said that during the last meeting of the party,
three issues were discussed. Among them was the
political report that was presented by the party's
central committee focusing on the party's vision in
the current political situation and amidst the
obstructed peace negotiations with Israel. This
vision includes the party's declaration of an
independent Palestinian state within the 1967
borders and East Jerusalem as its capital by the
end of this year.
3,000 Settlers Left Sderot Due to Qassams
One issue Sderot's mayor doesn't like to talk about is
the number of Israeli settlers who have left the
rocket-battered southern settlement that the
Palestinian resistance groups launch in response
to the Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip. Only
talking about it, Eli Moyal believes, causes many people to leave.
Washington funds the government
of prime minister Fayyad
Washington presented on Wednesday a sum
of $150 millions to the Palestinian Authority,
as a part of U.S's financial commitment towards
sustainability of the PA, following the last
December's Paris donor meetin
Senior Abbas adviser suspected of
smuggling phones to Jordan
Ravhi Fatuah, a senior adviser of Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, was arrested
Tuesday after he was caught at the Allenby bridge
on the Jordanian-West Bank border with thousands
of cellular phones in his car.
Hamas ready to accept Yemeni initiative
for reconciliation with Fatah
A top Hamas official said his group was ready to
accept a Yemeni bid for reconciliation with Fatah,
which voiced willingness to start national dialogue
when its Islamist rival agrees to the terms of Yemen's initiative.
Hamas, Fatah far apart as
Yemen tries to mediate
Hamas voiced willingness on Wednesday to talk to
Fatah as part of a Yemeni reconciliation initiative
but said the secular faction must drop its demand
the Islamist group first give up control of the Gaza
Strip. "We do not accept it as a condition to restore
dialogue," Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha said. "
(The Gaza Strip) is only an item that can be discussed
within the agenda of the talks."
Lebanese newspaper: Israel plans to
assassinate senior Hamas leader
Israel is currently planning to assassinate a senior
Hamas leader before Egypt succeeds in brokering
a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel,
a reliable Hamas source told the Beirut-based
Al-Akhbar daily newspaper on Tuesday. The aim is
to force Hamas to accept Israeli stipulations, the
source said. The source, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, said Hamas had received reliable
information that Israel plans to assassinate a senior
Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip. According to the
source, "Israel is focusing on four Hamas men;
political leaders Isma'il Haniyeh, Mahmoud
Az-Zahhar and military leaders Muhammad
Deif and Ahmad Al-Ja'bary."
Dayton meets PA security
commanders in Al-Khalil
Gen. Keith Dayton, the American officer in charge
of security coordination between the PA and
Israeli security apparatuses, on Tuesday discussed
with commanders of PA security commanders in
Al-Khalil their efforts in implementing security
campaign in the West Bank.
Israel's 'religious right' gains clout,
complicating peace with Palestinians
Givat Zeev, West Bank - On a hilltop far enough
from the existing Israeli settlement of Givat Zeev that
one needs directions to get here stands the framework
of a settlement meant to house up to 750 families.
Eli Yishai stood on an unfinished balcony of one of the
new development's shell homes. He's a key coalition
partner of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the leader
of the religious party Shas, which is feted by some and
decried by others for having broken Israel's "settlement freeze."
MK Henin: Advocates of Gaza reoccupation
must learn lessons of Iraq war
"Against the background of harsh calls for a reoccupation
of the Gaza Strip, we must learn well the lessons of the
war in Iraq," MK Dov Henin (Hadash) said Tuesday during
an anti-war protest outside the US Embassy in Tel Aviv.
The demonstration, commemorating five years since the
US invasion, was held as part of worldwide anti-war
protests organized by left-wing groups.
Israeli High Court orders an end
to excavations in Silwan
The Israeli High Court of Justice and after several months
of excavations which caused damages to the constructions
and houses of the Palestinian residents of Wadi Hilwa
neighborhood Silwan town, in East Jerusalem, ordered
on Tuesday a halt to the excavations.
West Bank feels pinch of Chinese imports
HEBRON, West Bank - Yasser Herbawi once supplied
much of the West Bank and Gaza with black-and-white
checkered scarves, the proud emblem of Palestinian
identity made famous by the late Yasser Arafat. But
most of his looms now stand idle, his product edged
out by cheap imports from the world's newest keffiyeh
capital: China.
A Photo and a Story: A Boy with a Gun
One evening I was on a walk with a dear friend who
is a professor at Gaza University. We were on the
northern outskirts of Gaza City when we came
across a neighborhood in complete ruins. He knows
my interest in such things and we began to explore.
He explained that the buildings had once been a school,
a library and a fire department. Since the Israeli Defense
Forces attacks, they were nothing more than partially
standing walls, mangled wire and rubble.
Report: Israeli Jews increasingly
racist towards Arabs
Israel's Jewish community increasingly supports the
delegitimization, discrimination and even deportation
of Arabs, found a report on racism in Israel, set to be
released Wednesday.
High Court closes off use of major
highway to Palestinians
The interim decision issued 10 days ago by the
High Court of Justice on the use of Route 443
marks the first time the justices have issued a
ruling to close a road traversing occupied territory
to Palestinian use, for the convenience of Israeli travelers.
Sisters killed in Gaza "reborn" through cousins
Three young Palestinian sisters; Shahd Okal,
eight months old, Maria Okal, five years old and
Somaia Okal, 15 years old, and their mother were
killed when an Israeli rocket hit their house on
26 July 2006 while they were swinging inside
their house. But on 18 March 2008, Shahd,
Maria and Somaia were born in the same Izbet
Abed Rabbu neighborhood of Jabaliya town in
the northern Gaza Strip.
In prison, who knows why?
You would think the baby boy named Yousef has
his life ahead of him. But who knows, with a child
born to Palestinian parents from Gaza. What's
more, Yousef was born in an Israeli prison. He is
the only one of Fatima al-Zeq's nine children who is
with her for that reason -- she was arrested nine
months ago. But these days the baby is not with her.
He developed stomach pain, began to vomit, and has
been transferred to a hospital inside Hasharon prison in Israel.
Remembering Rachel
Rachel Corrie lost her life working to draw attention
to the plight of Palestinians. Five years on, her journals
tell the haunting story.
Mother of 4 stuck in London
Gaza woman cannot return to Israel after studying
in England due to border crossing closings. She
cannot enter Egypt, is illegal in UK. A real life catch-22.
Far from Palestine's sea, Diana Buttu
writing from Ramallah, occupied West Bank
In September 2000, I decided to do my part to bring
peace to the Middle East. As a Canadian attorney of
Palestinian origin, I believed I could use my legal
skills to help broker a peace agreement between
Israel and the Palestinians. Naive? Perhaps.
Israelis, Palestinians battle on Facebook
JERUSALEM - Israelis and Palestinians have taken
their conflict to Facebook. Members of the social
networking craze who are Jewish settlers living in the
West Bank were incensed to discover that they had to
choose "Palestine" as the state, not Israel, when filling
out the address section of their profile pages.
Jerusalem's first Palestinian Latin
Patriarch to retire this year
Michel Sabbah, the Holy Land's top Roman Catholic
clergyman, is to retire this year. The Latin Patriach is
turning 75 on Wednesday - the traditional retirement
age of church officials.
Arabs, Jews in Sakhnin Valley strive to
counter legacy of strife
Seventy Arab and Jewish community leaders and
residents met last weekend to promote a plan to turn
the scenic Sakhnin Valley, studded with Mount Tabor
oaks, into a model of intercommunal cooperation
rather than strife.
McCain signals vigorous support for Israel
US Republican presidential candidate John McCain on
Wednesday signalled vigorous support for Israel during
a fact-finding mission widely seen as a bid to polish his
credentials as a statesman.
Lieberman lends McCain an assist after
gaffe in Jordan
Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential
nominee-in-waiting, expressed fresh concern
Tuesday about Iran's influence in Iraq and rising sway
in Mideast. However, as the Washington Post's
campaign blog points out, McCain "misidentified in
remarks Tuesday which broad category of Iraqi
extremists are allegedly receiving support from Iran.
U.S. presidential hopeful McCain
gets celebrity welcome in J'lem
U.S. presidential hopeful John McCain received a
celebrity welcome in Jerusalem on Tuesday, with
American tourists scrambling to shake his hand and
get a souvenir snapshot.
Is the Pentagon Policy Shop
Funding Likudist Fronts?
Remember the curious and intriguing interconnections
between One Jerusalem, a Likud/settler group chaired
by Natan Sharansky, and two U.S-led "NGOs" with
overlapping or interchangeable directorates —
the "Policy Forum on International Security Affairs
(PF)" and the newly minted "Case for Freedom" —
that we discovered in the participants list of the
"Prague Democracy and Security" conference where
George W. Bush appeared despite the concerns of his
State Department last June? I wrote about the conference
twice, once describing it as a "Neo-Conservative
International" and a second time focusing on those
very same connections under the title,
"More on that Meeting in Prague."
Crossing the Line interviews daughter
of Sami Al-Arian
This week on Crossing The Line: As the ongoing
humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip continues,
the world listens with a deaf ear as Israel continues
its siege and incursions into the coastal territory.
Host Naji Ali speaks with physician and human rights
activist, Dr. Laila Al Marayati, about the physical and
emotional effects of occupation.
PHOTOS: Iraq after 5 years of war
Iraq – five years on
Seven out of 10 Iraqis want foreign
forces to leave: poll
More than two-thirds of Iraqis believe US-led coalition
forces should leave, according to a poll conducted for
British television ahead of the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion.
Sunnis Boycott Iraq Reconciliation Event
Iraq's main Sunni bloc boycotted a conference Tuesday
aimed at reconciling the nation's sectarian groups,
a sign of the deep schisms still facing this country.
Members of the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front said they
would not participate in the conference until Shiite
lawmakers address their political demands. They say
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, has failed to
release detainees not charged with specific crimes,
has not disbanded Shiite militias and has not sufficiently
included Sunni lawmakers in decision-making on security issues.
Death toll rises to 50 in Iraq bombing
Story Highlights: Bombings killed six Iraqis and wounded
51 in Baghdad and Mosul on Tuesday, and the Iraqi Interior
Ministry said the death toll in a suicide bombing the day
before in Karbala rose to 50.
Cheney: Iraq invasion was "successful endeavour"
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday declared
the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq a "successful
endeavour" during a visit to Baghdad, on the same day
a woman suicide bomber killed 40 people.
20pc of Iraqis displaced or refugees
NEARLY one in five of Iraq's population before the
US-led invasion five years ago are living as internally
displaced people or refugees in other countries, a global
relief agency says.
Five-Year Iraq Occupation Has
Caused Massive Refugee Crisis
IRC Commission Calls U.S. / World Response
'Grossly Inadequate'
Palestinian refugees in Iraq on 19 March again appealed for
protection; they said they were still living as "fugitives" and
demanded immediate help for their compatriots stranded
on the Iraq-Syria border.
US soldiers recall horror of war on innocent Iraqis
'Winter Soldier' testimony sheds light on
ignored atrocities caused by US troops in Iraq.
"It is well known, well shown, well documented, well
proven that much of the thefts of the museum were
from museum insiders and senior government officials,"
U.S. Marine Reserve Col. Matthew Bogdanos, the investigator
who led the probe into the looting, told The Associated Press.
"That's clear. Not all of it by any means, but much of it."
Partick Cockburn: A gross failure that ignored
history and ended with a humiliating retreat
The British failure in the Iraq war has been even more
gross because it has not ended with a costly military
victory but a humiliating scuttle. The victors in Basra and
southern Iraq have been the local Shia militia
masquerading as government security forces.
Robert Fisk: The only lesson we ever
learn is that we never learn
They drove the Brits out of Palestine and Aden, the
French out of Algeria, the Russians out of Afghanistan,
the Americans out of Somalia and Beirut, the Israelis ou
t of Lebanon. We have started up the road to empire and
over the next hill we will meet those who went before.
The only lesson we learn from history is that we do
not learn from history.
What is the real death toll in Iraq?
In just the last three weeks of April 2003, after
Saddam's statue and his regime were toppled, US forces
killed at least 266 civilians - a pattern of overeager
resort to fire which has continued to this day....They
reveal that the Americans killed four times more civilians
in the first two years of the war (thereby provoking armed
resistance to the occupation) than al-Qaida-linked insurgents
did, in spite of the media's emphasis on car bombs and
suicide attacks.
THE ROVING EYE: IRAQ FIVE YEARS ON:S
hocked, awed and left to rot
Future non-biased historians may well regard March 19, 2003
, as a crucial mark in the annals of Western imperial arrogance.
Five years later, the pre-emptive war celebratory fireworks
have turned to dust. For months now Iraq has been an invisible
American war. It's seldom on TV. It does not "sell". Thus, it doe
s not exist. US Vice President Dick Cheney, one of its key architect
s, has just been to a whirlwind Baghdad tour. He said he sensed
"phenomenal changes" since his last whirlwind tour 10 months ago.
He praised security progress as "dramatic".
Patrick Cockburn: This is the war that started
with lies, and continues with lie after lie after lie
It has been a war of lies from the start. All governments
ie in wartime but American and British propaganda in Iraq
over the past five years has been more untruthful than in
any conflict since the First World War.
Gitmo captive: I was threatened with rape
In a fresh document from the Guantánamo war court files,
Canadian captive Omar Khadr alleges that he was
repeatedly threatened with rape as an interrogation
technique in Afghanistan and at U.S. Navy base in
Cuba. The partially censored nine-page affidavit, signed
by Khadr on Feb. 22, covers old ground already investigated,
including allegations of abuse at Guantánamo that emerged
in 2005, prompting a Navy criminal investigation.
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