Tuesday, November 18

Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines November 18, 2008 ~

Report: Israel demolished 90 Palestinian houses since Annapolis
The applied research institute of Jerusalem (ARIJ) reported that Israel, since the Annapolis conference, has demolished 90 Palestinian houses at the pretext of illegal construction.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

Negev Bedouin mosque facing imminent demolition by Israeli government

The Israeli government is planning to demolish a recently built environmentally-sustainable Bedouin mosque in the Negev desert in the coming days. The Israeli Ministry of the Interior delivered the demolition order for the mud and straw bale structure in the village of Wadi Al-Na'am on Monday. A stop-construction order was issued in August.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33299

East Jerusalem home demolished; Israel to build new road in its place

Israeli forces demolished the home of Jamal Dahoud Abu Sneineh in the Al-Isawiya neighborhood of East Jerusalem on Tuesday.
Troops of Israeli police and military border guards descended on the area in the early afternoon and closed off the streets. A number of armed guards entered the home and threatened the Abu Sneineh family at gunpoint to leave the home or they would be shot.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33327

Israeli tanks move into Gaza, level farmland
AP - Israeli tanks forged into the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, drawing mortar fire from Palestinian militants and intensifying violence that has chipped away at a tenuous cease-fire.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081118/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians

Israeli Authorities Order Evacuation of al-Kurd Family from Protest Tent in East Jerusalem
The al-Kurd family, who were evacuated from their home in East Jerusalem on 9 November erected a protest tent on their neighbor's land. Israeli authorities have ordered the al-Kurd family to evacuate the protest tent in which they have been residing since being evacuated from their home (occupation-watch/occupation-watch/israel-evicts-al-kurd-family-from-home-in-east-jerusalem-20081109.html) in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah on 9 November.
http://www.alternativenews.org/content/view/1418/494/

IDF officials: Settlers unlikely to quit Hebron home unless forced

Settlers have three days to evacuate a disputed building in the West Bank town of Hebron, the High Court ruled Sunday. IDF officials predicted, however that settlers would not voluntarily vacate within the designated time and that forced would most likely be used to implement the evacuation.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037791.html

ISRAEL EXECUTES FOUR IN GAZA; SIEGE AFFECTS ACCESS TO DRINKING WATER

The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) continued to seal off the Gaza Strip for the eleventh day in a row, in an escalation of the collective punishment of Gaza's population imposed since 2000. The IOF resumed its military attacks and killed four Palestinians this morning
in an air strike in east Gaza.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9963.shtml

Israeli military invades Rafah city in southern Gaza

Israeli military bulldozers, backed by armored vehicles, swept early on Tuesday morning into the eastern borders of Rafah city in southern Gaza Strip.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57702

IOF Arrests 8 Citizens in West Bank
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Arrested, Monday, eight Palestinian citizens, from the West Bank cities of Nablus, Jenin and Hebron. Israeli special units attacked the Old City of Nablus and arrested Mohamed abu shaweesh.
http://english.wafa.ps/?action=detail&id=12319

Israeli military detains scores of Palestinians from the various West Bank areas
The Israeli military detained on Tuesday 32 Palestinian residents from different parts of the occupied West Bank, media sources and witnesses reported.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57704

In night of mass arrests Israeli forces detain at least 30 across West Bank

Israeli forces launched a wide-scale arrest campaign against Palestinian youth in the West Bank before sunrise on Tuesday. More than 30 individuals were taken, mostly from the Al-Fawwar refugee camp south of Hebron in the southern West Bank, and mostly men under thirty.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33313

ISM: Israeli Navy kidnapped 14 Palestinians, 3 Internationals in Gaza Strip
The International Solidarity Movement, (ISM) issued a press release in which it indicated that the Israeli naval vessels have kidnapped 14 Palestinian fishermen and 3 international peace activists from the Gaza shore Tuesday morning.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57706

Israeli marine arrests int'l activists, Palestinian fishermen in Gaza waters
Israeli naval forces on Tuesday held 15 Palestinian fishermen and three international activists offshore to the west of Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources said. The three campaigners, Andrew Muncie from Scotland, Vittorio Arrigoni from Italy and Dalin Gulack from the United States, are members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), according to the sources. Fedaa Qastal, ISM coordinator in Gaza, confirmed that the Israeli gunboats intercepted the Palestinian fishing boats at 7 mile offshore and ordered the boats' engines to turn off before arresting the campaigners and the fishermen.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/18/content_10376914.htm

Christian Peace Keeping Team-Hebron
Israeli settlers attack Palestinian shepherds and international accompaniers with large rocks. They manage to steal a donkey and stab it to death.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFPaPaURfI0

Hamas: Egypt detained nine Palestinian patients
Egyptian security forces detailed nine Palestinian patients on Monday who traveled to Cairo for treatment, taking them to an unknown location, Hamas-affiliated media reported. According to Hamas' Al-Aqsa satellite channel, Egyptian forces arrested the patients during a raid. A Three-year-old girl is reportedly among the detainees.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33293

Families of Gaza patients: Egypt besieges Gaza for the third year in a row
The family committee of Gaza patients stated Sunday that Egypt along with Israel besieges the Gaza Strip for the third consecutive year and bar the patients from receiving medical treatment abroad.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

Collaborator in Gaza sentenced to 15 years in prison

A suspected collaborator in the Gaza Strip was sentenced to 15 years in prison by the de facto government's Court of First Instance.
According to the court decision, 12 years were given for "contacting security affiliated to a foreign entity" and 3 years for "weakening resistance morale."
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33315

Israeli Tanks Move Into Gaza Strip
Palestinian witnesses say Israeli tanks have moved into the Gaza Strip, further threatening a fragile cease-fire Israel signed with Hamas militants in June. The witnesses say the tanks leveled lands Tuesday along the southern Gaza border east of the city of Rafah.
http://voanews.com/english/2008-11-18-voa11.cfm

Olmert orders plans drawn up for massive offensive against Gaza
Interim Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert accused Hamas on Sunday of "shattering" the Gaza truce after two rockets hit Israel, which the Jewish state followed with an air strike that killed four Palestinian resistance fighters. However, Olmert, who made the comments at a weekly Israeli Cabinet meeting, did not mention the initial Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip on November 5 that killed seven Hamas members.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=97756

Hamas: Abbas-Olmert meeting, a mockery
Fawzi Barhoum, spokesperson of the Hamas movement, slammed the meeting which took place on Monday between the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, and Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, and described the meeting as a mockery and a cover-up to the Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57699

Abbas' absence from Cairo meeting, political arrests caused Hamas to boycott talks

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' refusal to participate in meetings at the aborted Cairo Palestinian reconciliation meeting contributed to Hamas' decision to boycott the summit, informed sources told Ma'an. This revelation is contributing to an emerging picture of Hamas' reasons for withdrawing from the meeting, which contributed to its premature collapse.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33305

Abbas: No partial agreements with Israel
President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated his rejection of any peace agreement that does not settle the core issues, including Jerusalem, refugees, and borders, in his negotiations with Israel. During a press conference in Ramallah with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, Abbas said that he would not settle for half measures. He said the issues of water and security would also have to be settled, along with the release of Palestinian prisoners.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33307

Caretaker government lashes out at Hamas

The West Bank-based Palestinian government accused the rival Hamas movement of resisting newly deployed Palestinian security forces on Monday. Riad Al-Maliki, the spokesperson of the Fatah-dominated government said that a current security campaign in the West Bank is nonetheless "going well." "All the threats by Hamas to control the West Bank are worthless threats," said Al-Maliki.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33302

What is Mahmoud Abbas waiting for?

It appears clear to all but the Palestinian president that resistance, not supine collaboration, is the only strategic option, writes Ghada Karmi* With the appalling death toll in Gaza, relentless assaults on the West Bank (in which negotiations chief Ahmed Qurei's own bodyguard was killed), and Israel's blatant settlement expansion, one must wonder what Israeli atrocity, if any, would make the Palestinian president change course. True, last week he raised with his colleagues the possibility of suspending peace talks with Israel if it persisted in its assaults, but he has not acted. Why not?
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/881/op133.htm

The PA is cheating the Palestinian people

With fanfare, fireworks, military parades and a lot of rhetorical overindulgence, the American-backed Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas has been celebrating "Independence Day."
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

Is Israel Deliberately Strengthening Hamas?
The extraordinary conditions of the extreme siege and the disconnection between Gaza and the West Bank (another intentional Israeli policy) have made the possibility of holding new Palestinian general elections a very distant one. Hamas can thus bolster its rule with coercion, wages, charity and the consoling power of religion. And perhaps that is exactly what the Shin Bet, Israel Defense Forces and government want?
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037879.html

Abbas said to ask Olmert to free Barghouti as goodwill gesture

Ramallah-based paper Al-Ayyam reported Tuesday that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asked outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday to release Fatah militant leader Marwan Barghouti a goodwill gesture.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038468.html

"Half truce" the latest in regional lexicon - By Nasser Lahham
Israeli television's Channel Two described the relationship between Gaza and Israel as one of a "half truce." This is a new term in the regional dictionary, with a complicated definition and characteristic argument over which half is the truce, and what the other half consists of. Putting a name to the phenomena was Israeli political analyst Audi Segal who summed up his thoughts on the Israeli cabinet's refusal to take military action in Gaza by explaining, "there is a half truce that Israel does not want to spiral up into a military operation in the Gaza Strip at this time … [however] it does not want to keep silent as the firing of homemade shells by the Palestinian resistance factions in Gaza continues."
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33242

Top Obama aide denies report president-elect will back Arab peace plan
The Times cited a senior adviser who quoted Obama as telling Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas: "The Israelis would be crazy not to accept this initiative. It would give them peace with the Muslim world from Indonesia to Morocco."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037578.html

Israel renews blockade of Gaza crossings
Israel resealed border crossings with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday citing continued rocket fire at its towns, despite warnings from world aid groups of looming shortages of food and fuel supplies in the coastal territory. Israel had allowed 33 truckloads of supplies into Gaza for the first time in two weeks on Monday, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas he would not permit a humanitarian crisis to develop there.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LI315361.htm

Gaza Expecting The Worst
Last Friday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the Israeli government to keep in mind its legal responsibility to deliver urgent and steady supply of sufficient fuel and humanitarian aid to Gaza Strip. The Israelis have blocked fuel delivery and turned away trucks with food distributed by UNRWA. Ban Ki-moon said in a statement that he is deeply concerned about the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the risk of a possible humanitarian disaster.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14390

Israel lets "few days" of food supplies into Gaza; UN: "but then what?"
Delivery of an unspecified number of aid and food trucks to UNRWA and Gaza Strip commercial dealers was confirmed on Monday after Israel threatened to withhold the supplies "depending" on the actions of resistance groups, who launched projectiles at the Negev Monday afternoon. Thirty-three trucks filled with frozen meat, dairy products, medicines and UNRWA food aid waited at the Gaza border since Sunday, when they were turned back on the orders of Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33284

Siege up close: desperate father declares hunger strike "until something changes"

Fatima Ayaad is five-years-old, she lives in the Zaitoun neighborhood of Gaza city and on Saturday she asked her mother what chicken tasted like, because she had forgotten. Fatima has eleven brothers and sisters; her father Jumaa has been unemployed since the first Intifadah in 1987. He wanders the streets of Gaza City night and day looking for work, odd jobs, anything to put food in front of his family.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33301

Humanitarian aid boosts troubled Gaza truce
Israel's decision to allow a limited supply of aid into the Gaza Strip may strengthen the fragile ceasefire.
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20081117/FOREIGN/754481444/1040/rss

Supplies will soon run out
Food distribution to half the Gaza Strip's 1.5 million population resumed amid UN warnings that supplies will run out.
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20081118/FOREIGN/68310612/1042/rss

Gaza will run out of wheat Thursday; handful of mills working to process remaining grain

Flour mills in Gaza will shut down on Thursday because there is no more wheat in the Strip with which to make flower. Gaza has experienced wheat shortages since June 2007, said Fattouh, but said shipments of wheat were totally stopped two weeks ago. He said that there was a signed agreement with Israel to allow 450 tons of wheat daily into the Strip. For most of the siege there were 300 tons a day shipped into the area. "No ton is shipped now," Fattouh lamented.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33326

Day in Photos: Gaza Strip
A Palestinian smuggler climbs a tunnel in Rafah in the Gaza Strip, near the border with Egypt. Hoses that run through the tunnel are used to transport fuel from Egypt into Gaza. Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza have been engaged in fighting for the last two weeks, and Israel has closed the territory's border crossings, halting shipments of food, fuel and other basic supplies. (Khalil Hamra / Associated Press)
http://www.latimes.com/la-1117-day08_kahkbanc,0,3370721.photo


Palestinian PM: Construction in settlements will destroy the peace process
Palestinian Prime Minister and Finance Minister Salam Fayyad called on the international community to up the pressure on Israel to suspend all construction in the settlements and implied that the Palestinian Authority could apply to the International Court of Justice in this regard, adopting the example of the separation fence.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038419.html

Livni: "Settlements issue, over exaggerated"

During her meeting with the British Foreign Minister, David Miliband, Israeli Foreign Minister, Tzipi Linvi, claimed that the issue of settlements in the occupied territories is "an over exaggerated thing" and demanded the UK to lift the restrictions on importing products manufactured in Israeli settlements, in addition to voiding arrest warrants against a number of Israeli military officials.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57701

Gaza media blackout an unprecedented violation of press freedom, say journalists

Israel has continued to bar international journalists from the besieged Gaza Strip for at least a week in what media condemned on Monday as an unprecedented violation of press freedom. Steve Gutkin, the AP bureau chief in Jerusalem and the head of the Foreign Press Association told Ma'an that he knows of no foreign journalist that has been allowed into Gaza in the last week.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33306

Putting a final end to the Israeli soldiers' arbitrary humiliations on our people
Ramallah, 18-11-08: Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi MP, the Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative, strongly condemns the public humiliation carried out by the Israeli army on a Palestinian youth this Tuesday. The young man was arrested and stripped publicly at Beit Iba checkpoint, West of the city of Nablus. Dozens of soldiers surrounded the boy and searched him, while he was standing naked in the eye of the crowd. The Israeli army claimed he was in possession of explosive devices.
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article701

Dershowitz: I helped keep Carter silent
Why didn't Jimmy Carter speak from the podium at the Democratic National Convention? Alan Dershowitz said he had something to do with it. In an interview with Shalom TV, the Harvard Law School professor says he "pushed" Barack Obama "very hard to make that decision," Dershowitz said in an interview with Shalom TV. "Barack Obama had to make a choice between his Jewish supporters and his anti-Israel supporters like Jimmy Carter, and he did not choose Jimmy Carter. And that was an embarrassment for Jimmy Carter and a show of disrespect." "It was a good decision, a wise decision, a moral decision," Dershowitz added.
http://blogs.jta.org/politics/article/2008/11/13/1000960/ders

President Obama and the Prospects for Israeli-Palestinian Peace: An Analysis

President-elect Barack Obama's election victory has revived hopes that stalled Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations could finally lead to a two-state solution. Few new presidents have been greeted with such optimism and associated high expectations. However, the chances for progress depend on more than a new American president. There are several interrelated factors: U.S. engagement, the availability of a viable peace agreement, Israeli and Palestinian internal politics and the broader international situation.
http://zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticlePrint/19669

FEATURE-Israelis and Palestinians find peace on the playground

Israeli and Palestinian youngsters are finding some common ground on a school playground. Basketball games, hosted in Jerusalem by Hand in Hand, one of the few Israeli public schools where Jews and Arabs study together, are giving youths aged 10 to 16 a chance to try to bridge a wide political and religious divide.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LD524884.htm

Open Appeal to Australian Prime Minister: Help Gaza
I am writing to you about the situation in Gaza and the urgent need for the world community – including Australia – to require Israel to relieve the immediate humanitarian crisis. It may be objected that Gazans are, in some way, to blame for their own appalling plight. That is false for several reasons.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14388

Choice for Obama lies on the road to Jerusalem

The challenge for a US president rests in separating the urgent from the important. I once heard an official in George W. Bush's National Security Council describe the dilemma. Such is the pressure of events, he observed, that for the White House, the long term usually means "later this afternoon". Most presidents wind up imprisoned by the immediate.
http://www.gulfnews.com/opinion/columns/region/10260591.html

Family's eviction draws global outrage

The middle-of-the-night eviction last week of an elderly Palestinian couple from their home in East Jerusalem to make way for Jewish settlers is a demonstration of Israeli intent towards a future peace deal with the Palestinians. Mohammed and Fawziya Khurd are now on the street, living in a tent, after Israeli police enforced a court order issued in July to expel them.
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20081117/FOREIGN/258586645/1011/ART

No man's land: Iraqi-Palestinians in Al Tanf camp

Mon, 11/17/2008 - 18:20 - Al Tanf camp for Palestinian refugees from Iraq has to be in the top five of worst situated refugee camps in the world. It violates every principle of proper camp siting. In the no man's land between Syria and Iraq, it is within the border zone itself. It is completely exposed on one side to a highway, where trucks alternately speed by or sit idle for hours at a time waiting to make the border crossing. A 20-foot high concrete wall forms a second boundary. The site itself is in a culvert about 10 feet below the highway, making it a flood plain when it rains heavily. Refugees live in tents in the exposed area, forced to endure summer temperatures that climb well over 100 degrees and winter weather that drops near zero. Last winter, tents collapsed under a heavy snow fall.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/RMOI-7LH3QN?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P

Two thousand angry protesters cut electricity and build road blocks at Beit Fajjar Stone Factory
Two thousand workers in the Beit Fajjar Stone factories staged aggressive strike action south of Bethlehem on Saturday and 1,000 participated Sunday, calling for better wages and regular pay, as well as strict adherence to the Palestinian Labor Law. Workers erected barriers around the factories, preventing trucks from delivering supplies or exporting stone products. Large numbers of strikers were posted around the several compounds to prevent the use of alternative entry or exit points. Some said the electricity in some factories was also cut off.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33289

Lloyds TSB Tells IBB to Ceases Dealings with Interpal

No reason at all is given for this draconian and punitive measure, taken without any consideration for the thousands of contributors who have placed their faith in us to assist the needy of Palestine – and who want to continue to do so." Hewitt added that "it will be an administrative nightmare to transfer the thousands of standing orders that we have, etc. By acting in this way, Lloyds TSB has treated IBB with contempt. Their action sends a signal to other Muslim charities – as well as the bank's 50,000 Muslim account holders – that their accounts can be closed down without warning or explanation at any time. It is, at the very least, an example of the utter lack of respect faced by the Muslim community from some hostile quarters in this country."
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=63939&language=en

Worried West Bank settlers try wine and a bus tour
Israel's West Bank settlers have been ratcheting up their violence, defying their own government and flouting international public opinion. But on Monday a settler group tried another tack — wooing foreign journalists with a bus tour featuring a glass of merlot and a visit to a home overlooking the site where the biblical Israelites housed Moses' stone tablets.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hlU7SDe1CnYMLgKqDeXByRSeSpogD94GSUR81

Israel wants more Palestinians to join army
The Israeli government has begun to actively promote voluntary army service for Palestinian-Israelis. The Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, is meanwhile considering plans to make civil service compulsory for all Israeli citizens, including Palestinian-Israelis. The Palestinian community in Israel - the remnants of the indigenous population who were not ousted or fled from their land in the face of a Jewish terror campaign that preceded the creation of Israel - is opposing the plans. Leaders say the proposals are only a way of getting rid of Palestinian identity.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=97774

How did IDF gain control over half of the country?

Some countries have an army, and some armies, like the Israel Defense Forces,have a country. According to a recent study on the defense establishment and land in Israel, various defense bodies lord over half the land. The army tops the list, but they all largely do as they please with respect to planning and development. The result is that while the rest of the country adopts orderly processes, starting from national and regional master plans, much of the state land remains managed separately. The existence of this kingdom may be essential, but its size and management methods have yet to face serious public scrutiny.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037876.html

Turkey donates 15 fully equipped ambulances to Palestinians

Turkey has donated 15 fully equipped ambulances to the Palestinians on Tuesday, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.
The ambulances, which are worth approximately 1 million U.S. dollars, have been presented to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah by the Turkish International Cooperation Agency (TIKA), said the report.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/18/content_10378036.htm

Free Gaza to Aid Agencies: "Deliver it by Sea?"
The Free Gaza Movement today issued this open letter to all organizations delivering humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. Israel's closure of its land borders with Gaza, and Egypt's submission to Israeli pressure to close the Rafah border is a humanitarian disaster for 1.5 million Palestinians. The United Nations announced last Thursday that inside Gaza it had run out of the food essentials to supply 750,000 desperately needy citizens. "This has become a blockade against the United Nations itself," a spokesman said.
http://www.freegaza.org/index.php?module=latest_news&id=cae912fc1df16109c557b2b9b12201e2&offset=

UN SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY MEMBER COMPANY TIED TO SETTLEMENTS
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - A company that is a member of the UN Global Compact for corporate social responsibility has ties to production in an Israeli settlement on the West Bank considered illegal by the United Nations. A spokesperson for the company, Vileda said he was unaware of the contract with a manufacturer in the West Bank. However, a representative of Plasto confirmed that the
company was a subcontractor for Vileda.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9960.shtml

GROUPS PROTEST SETTLEMENT FUNDRAISER AT NEW YORK HOTEL
Eight groups representing tens of thousands of people in the United States, Palestine and Israel have called on the Marriott Marquis hotel in Manhattan to cancel the 17 November dinner for the Brooklyn-based Hebron Fund aiming to raise money for Israeli settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Hebron. In a 7 November letter the groups stated: "The Marriot Marquis will be facilitating activities that directly violate international law and US foreign policy, actively promote racial discrimination, and, at least indirectly, support brutal Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian civilians and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Hebron."
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9964.shtml

Norwegian groups demand apology for government cooperation seminar with Israeli partners
Norwegian civil society groups were outraged that their government went ahead with a seminar on trade and research aimed at enhancing Norwegian cooperation with Israel. The seminar was held on 3 November and hosted by State Secretary of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry Raymond Johansen in Oslo amidst protests from The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), the Socialist Youth League of Norway and several Norwegian unions.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33320

Trade fair to showcase handicrafts of UNRWA's cash-for-work beneficiaries in Jenin, West Bank
East Jerusalem, 17 November 2008 - Under the auspices of the Jenin Governorate and Municipality – and in cooperation with UNRWA's Cash-for-Work Project – the Refugee Affairs Committee will be holding a Palestinian handicrafts fair on 18 – 20 November 2008 in Jenin.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/EGUA-7LGNVQ?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P


"Occupied Space 2008" adds Palestinian color to London's art world

Using what they call the "simplest language," the Eltiqa Group for Contemporary Art seeks to challenge the harsh obstacles of life in their native Gaza: "we color life for the others." In the past month some of their work has reached London as part of a new exhibition organized by the UK Palestine Solidarity Campaign in association with the A.M. Qattan Foundation. Occupied Space 2008: Art for Palestine brought together over 100 works not only from Palestinian artists, but from those across the globe from Algeria, Tunisia and Jordan to the UK to China. Isabelle Humphries reviews for The Electronic Intifada.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9965.shtml

Disinvestment From West Bank Settlements Gains Momentum
JERUSALEM -- In an endeavor to breathe some life back into the moribund Israeli-Palestinian conflict the British government is taking steps to encourage disinvestment from illegal Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank by labeling all produce manufactured and produced by settlers.
http://www.metimes.com/International/2008/11/18/disinvestment_from_west_bank_settlements_gains_
momentum/6762/


Movie Review: Waltz With Bashir

Waltz With Bashir is a breath-taking new Israeli film, an animated documentary directed by Ari Folman. In 1982 (First Lebanon War), Folman was a 19-year-old IDF infantry soldier. Twenty-four years later, in 2006, Folman is surprised to find out that he does not remember a thing from that war or the massacres in Sabra and Shatila. The film is a journey into Folman's lost past.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14393

Palestinan film wins silver at 14th Cairo Arab Media Festival
The Palestinian film Kaffa! won silver this week at the Fourteenth annual Cairo Festival for Arab Media in the category of short film, in a pool of 33 films. Kaffa!, which means "enough" in Arabic, was produced by the Ma'an TV Network in 2008 and tells the story of internal political division through the lens of a Palestinian family whose sons are affiliated with different political factions. The tragic-comic film calls to action all sides and begs for an effort to heal the rift between brothers.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33298

Arab culture conference highlights importance of advancing Arabic language

Arab culture ministers issued a statement on advancing the Arabic language at the end of their two-day conference here Monday, Syria's official SANA news agency reported. In the Damascus Statement for the Advancement of the Arabic Language for Moving towards Knowledge Society, the ministers affirmed that the Arabic language and Arab culture are the basis of cultural unity and national identity.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/18/content_10372937.htm

An Unforgettable Moment

When I told this to Anwar Sadat, he laughed: "The moment the door of your airplane opened, all Israelis held their breath. I live on a main street in Tel-Aviv, and at that moment I looked out at the street below. It was totally empty. Nothing moved, except one cat which was probably hurrying home to the television."
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14395

West Bank Looting
For a thousand years the ruins of Khirbet Tawas, a Byzantine jewel crowning a gentle slope planted in olive trees, stood southwest of Hebron. Graceful rows of columns stretched the length of the basilica, watching over the church's ornate mosaic floor. Then, in 2000, the second intifada struck with the force of an earthquake. As Palestinians fought Israeli troops, the West Bank became all but ungovernable. Soon the Israelis set up a web of security checkpoints, sealed off the region, and barred most Palestinians from working inside Israel. Jobless men looked for cash wherever they could find it. Armed with shovels, a small band descended on Khirbet Tawas.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/12/palestine-antiquities/lange-text

Rights groups slam Katsav's new office

After state grants former president luxury office, women's groups launch letter to Finance Ministry asking why it had altered its decision to supply suspected sex offender with modest means. 'This constitutes contempt for complainants,' letter says.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3624515,00.html

UK: Every school to get Holocaust specialist under anti-racism initiative
Every secondary school is to get a Holocaust specialist to ensure that the subject is taught comprehensively and sensitively.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article5106164.ece

Monday: 18 Iraqis Killed, 45 Wounded
At least 18 Iraqis were killed and another 45 were wounded in the latest attacks. Another seven people were injured during an explosion blamed on a defective pipeline. No Coalition deaths were reported. Meanwhile, the Iraqi parliament began debate on a U.S.-Iraqi security agreement, raising hope that a vote on the pact will take place on Nov. 24. The agreement will, among other things, allow U.S. troops to remain in Iraq for three more years.
http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=13778

Bomber Kills 15 In Iraq
A suicide car bomber yesterday killed 15 people, including seven policemen, and wounded 20 in Iraq's volatile northern Diyala province.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/11172008/news/worldnews/bomber_kills_15_in_qaeda_town_139111.htm

Dabbagh: Iraq gov't endorsed two pacts
The Iraqi government says the cabinet has approved two agreements with the United States not just one pact as many people presume.
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail.aspx?id=75622&sectionid=351020201

Why Did the Iraqi Cabinet Approve SOFA Now? (Two Hints: Obama and Iran)
The election of Barack Obama changed Iran's calculus, and so Iran decided, very subtly, to shift to neutral on the pact. As a result, many politicians in Iraq who are either influenced by Iran or who are outright Iranian agents now support the pact.
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/107402/why_did_the_iraqi_cabinet_approve_sofa_now_%28two_
hints:_obama_and_iran%29/


Iraqis believe security pact to cause division

IRAQ / Aswat al-Iraq: Ismail al-Difaai, an Iraqi citizen, believes that the cabinet's approval of the security agreement draft with the U.S. will cause division among Iraqi political parties. "Signing the agreement will lead to a division between all political blocs and parties," al-Difaai, 49 from Sadr City, told Aswat al-Iraq.
http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=103279

Observations on the security agreement
http://arablinks.blogspot.com/2008/11/observations-on-security-agreement.html

Sadr Denounces Pact with US Occupier as Disgrace
Iraqi cleric Sayyed Moqtada al-Sadr said Monday that the Iraqi government's approval of the controversial Iraq-US military pact that seeks to organize the US occupation presence constituted "the first signs of disgrace and dishonor," calling on the Iraqi parliament to reject it "without hesitation."
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=64025&language=en

Militias lack strength to mount Iraq uprising: US commander
AFP - Iranian-backed "special groups" lack the strength to mount an uprising in Baghdad's predominantly Shiite Sadr City district, having suffered heavy losses, a US brigade commander said Monday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081117/pl_afp/iraqusmilitarybaghdad

Iraqi cleric repeats concerns on US-Iraq pact
AP - Iraq's top Shiite cleric said Tuesday that the U.S.-Iraqi security pact would only be viable if the country's main political groups backed it and it restored the country's full sovereignty.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081118/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq

Premier of Iraq Is Quietly Firing Fraud Monitors
The government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is systematically dismissing Iraqi oversight officials, who were installed to fight corruption in Iraqi ministries by order of the American occupation administration, which had hoped to bring Western standards of accountability to the notoriously opaque and graft-ridden bureaucracy here.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/world/middleeast/18maliki.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin

Iraq says 300 officials charged with corruption
Iraq has charged more than 300 officials with corruption this year and courts handed down 86 convictions, its corruption watchdog said on Tuesday, as a nation awash in oil money fought back against graft. Iraq is perceived as being the world's third most corrupt country, with only failed state Somalia and Myanmar's military junta below it, according to the Transparency International index measuring perceptions of graft in 180 nations.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/KAM838636.htm

Mask Ban Upsets Iraqis Hired as U.S. Interpreters
The U.S. military has barred Iraqi interpreters working with American troops in Baghdad from wearing ski masks to disguise themselves, prompting some to resign and others to bare their faces even though they fear it could get them killed.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/16/AR2008111602040.html?hpid=topnews

Top judge: US and UK acted as 'vigilantes' in Iraq invasion
One of Britain's most authoritative judicial figures last night delivered a blistering attack on the invasion of Iraq, describing it as a serious violation of international law, and accusing Britain and the US of acting like a "world vigilante". Lord Bingham, in his first major speech since retiring as the senior law lord, rejected the then attorney general's defence of the 2003 invasion as fundamentally flawed.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/18/iraq-us-foreign-policy

Al-Qaeda 'awakens' in Iraq

The policy of al-Qaeda in Iraq in its fight against Awakening Councils in Sunni tribal areas has been to assassinate the movement's leaders. Al-Qaeda has now set its sights on recruiting council youths disenchanted by the Iraqi government's attempts to integrate them into the regular security forces.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JK19Ak02.html

THE ROVING EYE A pact with the devil
WASHINGTON - The big bang is not that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's majority Shi'ite/Kurdish 37-member cabinet in Baghdad has approved the draft of a security pact with the George W Bush (and Barack Obama) administrations allowing the US military to stay in Iraq for three more years; it's that the 30-strong Sadrist bloc will move heaven and Earth - including massive nationwide protests - to bloc the pact in the Iraqi National Assembly.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JK18Ak01.html

Iraqi voices
Views on the recently struck deal on US troops.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/in_depth/7733786.stm

Pact, Approved in Iraq, Sets Time for U.S. Pullout

Iraq also obtained a significant degree of jurisdiction in some cases over serious crimes committed by Americans who are off duty and not on bases." *Note posted on Angry Arab by Nir Rosen: "This is a scam. It's not Vietnam where they go to bars and brothels. Americans dont go off bases in Iraq when they are off duty. So there will never be a case of an American soldier or Marine committing a crime off duty, they are always on duty, but it allows the Iraqis to claim a small victory".
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/17/world/middleeast/17iraq.html?pagewanted=print

All aboard the Baghdad Metro

The Iraqi capital's first commuter train is slow but steady through streets often tied up by checkpoints and bombings. Just beware the crossing cars, stone-throwing youths and meandering cows. Don't be put off by the sign, which reads "Cent al B ghd d Stat on."
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/456929684/la-fg-train18-2008nov18,0,3250455.story

US again misfires on Iranian arms in Iraq
WASHINGTON - Last April, top George W Bush administration officials, desperate to exploit any possible crack in the close relationship between Iraq's Nuri al-Maliki government and Iran, launched a new round of charges that Iran had stepped up covert arms assistance to Shi'ite militias.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JK18Ak03.html

Anti-war veterans deploy 4,171 toy soldiers at gas station

In a daring guerrilla raid earlier this fall, members of the Los Angeles chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) infiltrated a local gas station to deploy a battalion of 4171 toy soldiers, together with a sign reading, "Price of Gas: 4171 U.S. Soldiers."
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Antiwar_group_stages_4200_toy_soldiers_1117.html

Why Guantanamo Must Be Closed
Excerpt: On Sunday, in his first television interview since winning the presidential election, Barack Obama repeated his campaign pledge to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay and to ban the use of torture by U.S. forces.
http://www.antiwar.com/worthington/?articleid=13779

AIPAC's Man in the Obama Camp
Excerpt: Barack Obama's first appointment, that of Chicago Congressman Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff, is quite frankly unsettling and suggests that voters who had hoped for real change in Washington will be disappointed.
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/giraldi.php?articleid=13773

A time to speak out
The birth of Independent Jewish Voices in Britain caused some envious glances from across the Atlantic. "Of course it'd happen in the UK first," said the veteran American Jewish peace activist. "They create a diverse – however temporary – coalition, and get a major newspaper to do their publicity for them. We'd never be able to pull something like that off here." For anyone involved in Israeli-Palestinian peace advocacy in the US Jewish community, such statements were all too common as word began to filter out about the emergence of Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) last year.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/18/israelandthepalestinians-middleeast

www.TheHeadlines.org
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