Sunday, November 16

Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines November 16, 2008 ~

Israel turns away 15 truckloads of medicine headed for Gaza
Israeli border police prevented 15 trucks loaded with medication from entering the Gaza Strip on Sunday, according to a de facto Health Ministry representative. Emergency and Ambulatory Services Director General Mu'awiyya Hassanein said despite that the Health Ministry lacks over 300 types of necessary medication, the 15 trucks were stopped at the Karem Shalom crossing into Gaza. Hassanein said Gaza hospitals would soon run out of several other medications, as well.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33276

Gaza: Basic food supplies may run out within days

The Gaza Strip will run out of basic supplies of food in the next few days if Israel or Egypt does not ease a strict eleven-day blockade of the territory, a senior Palestinian official warned on Sunday. De facto Minister of National Economy Ziyad Thatha said, "There is a food and humanitarian crisis [in] the Gaza Strip where crossings have been closed for the eleventh day.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33267

Jerusalem Diaries: Home Demolitions in the Palestinian Village of Um Tuba

http://www.alternativenews.org/videocasts/jerusalem-diaries/jerusalem-diaries-home-demolitions-in-the-
palestinian-village-of-um-tuba-20081116.html


Israel Demolishes Homes, Animal Shelters in Palestinian Village of Shuqba

The Palestinian village of Shuqba is located in Area C, 18 kilometers northwest of Ramallah he Israeli military demolished two homes and two animal shelters in the Palestinian village of Shuqba last week (12 November), negatively impacting the lives and incomes of 18 people. The last time that Israel demolished homes in Shuqba, located in Area C 18 kilometers northwest of Ramallah, was in 2006.
http://www.alternativenews.org/content/view/1415/104/

Gaza fighters die in Israeli raid
Four Palestinian fighters have been killed in an Israeli attack in northern Gaza, local medics and the Israeli military say. "There was an aerial attack against a [rocket] launching squad in the northern Gaza Strip," an Israeli military spokesman said.
http://english.aljazeera.net/News/middleeast/2008/11/200811167121407435.html

Four fighters killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza
Palestinian medical sources reported on Sunday morning that four fighters were killed and two others were wounded in an Israeli airstrike that targeted Al Qobba area, east of Gaza City.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57680

One Palestinian Fighter Killed in Gaza Air Raid
Al-Manar correspondent in the Gaza Strip said that one Palestinian resistance fighter was killed in an Israeli air raid Saturday at noon. Initial reports said the fighter was preparing to fire a rocket into occupied territories. The Israeli army however denied that they had undertaken any attack in the area. "We haven't carried out a strike in northern Gaza in recent hours. The explosion might be due to mishandling of weapons," an army spokesman said.
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id= 63818&language=en

Settlers stone shepherds, kill donkey and wound internationals near Hebron
Settlers attacked Palestinian shepherds, killing one donkey and injuring two international activists who were accompanying the locals as their flocks grazed near the illegal Israeli settlement outpost Havot Ma'on in the southern West Bank on Saturday morning. According to a report released by the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), who live in Hebron and At-Tuwani to monitor the tense situation and report on Human Rights abuses, a group of masked settlers came running at the shepherds and threw rocks at them.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33263

Scottish activist films Israeli navy shooting at Gaza fishermen

A SCOTTISH human rights activist has filmed the Israeli navy firing machine guns at unarmed Palestinian fishing boats in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of the Gaza Strip. The footage, taken on September 6 by Andrew Muncie, who is from the Highlands, shows an Israeli gunboat engaging fishing boats while international observers hold their arms in the air and scream for them to stop firing.
http://www.sundayherald.com/search/display.var.2446157.0.scottish_activist_films_ israeli_navy
_shooting_at_gaza_ fishermen.php


Mofaz: Assassinate Hamas leaders now
Transportation minister suggests return of 'targeted killing' method used during his terms as IDF chief of staff, defense minister.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3623655,00.html

Jewish settlers given 72 hours to leave Hebron house
AFP -israel's High Court on Sunday ordered Jewish settlers to evacuate within three days a house in the flashpoint West Bank town of Hebron whose ownership is contested.
http://News.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081116/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictwestbanksettler court

Palestinian forces arrest 12 Hamas members in West Bank

Palestinian security forces arrested 12 members of Hamas in West Bank in an ongoing crackdown against the Islamic movement, Hamas said on Sunday. The arrests, by the forces loyal to president Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, took place in the cities of Nablus, Salfeet and Hebron, a statement by Hamas said.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/16/content_10367742.htm

Israeli forces detain Palestinian boys for disrupting possible house demolition in Jerusalem
Israeli forces detained a number of young Palestinian boys in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem on Sunday for confronting Jerusalem municipality workers who were preparing to demolish houses in the neighborhood. Witnesses said the detainees are all under the age of thirteen. Israeli police demolished three houses in Silwan and one in the Shu'afat neighborhood on 5 November, provoking clashes with Palestinian youths that left seven injured. Fifteen people were arrested. Ninety-seven other houses are slated for demolition in the Al-Bustan area of Silwan.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33281

Nine injured in N'ilin demonstration

On November 14th, nine people were injured in a demonstration against the construction of the apartheid wall in Ni'lin. The demonstration started from the centre of the village at 11.30am and made it all the way to the construction site. The Israeli army, situated right outside the village, did not attack the non-violent action immediately as it has in the last few demonstrations. Instead the soldiers waited until the demonstration had reached the construction site before firing rubber-coated steel bullets straight at the protesters. After that the protesters went back and forth in the fields between the construction site and the village, while trying not to avoid the teargas cannisters and rubber-coated steel bullets that were being shot by the soldiers.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/11/16/nine-injured-in-n%e2%80%99ilin-demonstration/

Israeli army attack Palestinian march to evacuated settlement of Homesh

Over 100 Palestinians and international activists were attacked by Israeli soldiers with tear gas and sound bombs as they attempted to march to the evacuated Israeli settlement Homesh from the village of Burqa, near Nablus, on Friday 14th November.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/11/16/israeli-army-attack-palestinian-march-to-evacuated-
settlement-of-homesh/


Road block removed outside Deir Izbi'
On Friday November 14th at 10:30am, Palestinian, Israeli and international activists joined together in an action to remove a roadblock outside the village of Deir Izbi' in Ramallah area. The roadblock is preventing 14 villages direct use of Road 463 and thereby making the transportation time to Ramallah much longer and more difficult. The action was organised by Ras Karka village council and the National Committees and was supported by the National Popular Committees.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/11/16/road-block-removed-outside-deir-izbi%e2% 80%99/

PRC: Truce with Israel is "over"
The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), an armed Palestinian group based in Gaza, announced on Sunday afternoon that the truce with Israel is "over." The PRC's official spokesperson, Abu Mujahid, vowed to retaliate for Israel's killing of four of its members earlier on Sunday. "The price Israel will have to pay will not only include projectiles and mortar shells; it will include more things that will make Israel regret starting such atrocities," said Abu Mujahid.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33277

Fayyad: Gaza events a "tragedy"
The West Bank-based Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, said on Sunday that recent events in the Gaza Strip have been a "real tragedy." Four Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on Sunday morning. Israel also continued a crippling blockade of the coastal territory, preventing deliveries of food and fuel.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33279

Six Israelis wounded as Palestinian homemade shells land on southern Israel
Israeli media sources said on Sunday evening that six Israelis were wounded , including two moderately and four others with shock, after two Palestinian homemade shells landed on the Sderot town, near the Gaza Strip.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57689

UNRWA says no food to distribute to 750,000
The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) said Friday that it will stop distributing aid to more than 750,000 Palestinians in Gaza because Israel has halted border crossings into the Palestinian territory. UNRWA's Director John Ging said that the agency has run out of food. "Our warehouses are empty. These interruptions on the crossing points affect us immediately," he added. He stressed that the immediate impact is that on Saturday morning, there will be no food to distribute. (end)
http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/articleDetails.aspx?id= 1953025&Language=en

Ban, EU Call on Israel to Open Gaza Crossings
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said that Israel's response to the firing of rockets from the Gaza Strip was "unacceptable." In a statement released by the UN, Ban voiced his concern "that food and other life saving assistance are being denied to hundreds of thousands of people." He called to immediately end the "measures which increase the hardship and suffering of the civilian population of the Gaza" and "to allow urgently, the steady and sufficient supply of fuel and humanitarian assistance."
Ban indicated his desire to see Israel resume the facilitation of UNRWA's activities, as well as the access of other humanitarian organizations to Gaza. The UN leader also condemned the attacks by the Palestinians, who fired 16 rockets into occupied territory on Friday.
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id= 63805&language=en

Ban "deeply concerned" at plight of "people" in Gaza, no mention of Palestinians at all
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is "deeply concerned" at the plight of "people" in Gaza and the rocket attacks on Israel, UN associate spokesman Farhan Haq told the daily press briefing. Haq read out a statement saying Ban is "deeply concerned at the deterioration of the humanitarian and security situation in Gaza and southern Israel, and at the potential for further suffering and violence." He did not mention the word Palestinian throught the text.
http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/articleDetails.aspx?id=1953033&Language=en

UNRWA head in Gaza: Israel's policy strengthens extremists

GAZA -israel's policies in the Gaza Strip are strengthening the stance of extremists there, the director of UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in the coastal territory, John Ging, told Haaretz last week. By not easing restrictions at crossings into the Strip during the months of the cease-fire, Israel bolstered extremists' claims that the closures represent a political, rather than security-related move.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037543.html

Gaza violence flares again as UN food handouts stop
Violence flared again around Gaza on Friday as UN food handouts to the Hamas-ruled strip ground to a halt and after the sole power station shut down when fuel ran out as Israel tightened its blockade. There were widespread demands by the United Nations, European Union and non-governmental organisations including Amnesty International for Israel to allow in food convoys and to resume supplies of fuel.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081114/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictgaza_11

No power, no fuel, no food, no justice
For the 9th day in a row, Israel has banned food from entering Gaza. For the 3rd day in a row, Israel has banned industrial fuel into Gaza to power the territories only power station. Hospital generators have hours of fuel left to work on. For the 9th day in a row, Israel has banned commercial fuel into Gaza. Many families that have run out of cooking fuel are burning cardboard to light the fires for cooking.
http://www.kabobfest.com/2008/11/no-power-no-fuel-no-food-no-justice.html

Abbas spokesman: Barak W. Bank plans kills peace process

The announcement that Defense Minister Ehud Barak had authorized the construction of dozens of new homes in the West Bank drew fire both in Israel and the Palestinian Authority, after the decision was publicized Monday in Haaretz. Haaretz revealed that Barak had authorized at least 400 new housing units and lots, including 32 lots and a commercial center in Beitar Illit, 48 housing units and 19 lots in Ariel, and 40 housing units and a commercial center in Efrat. "Ehud Barak's decision effectively destroys the peace process," said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. "Barak and his government know very well that the peace process can't proceed as long as our land is being stolen."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037561.html

PA negotiator Erekat: Netanyahu is closing the door to peace
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Sunday accused opposition leader and Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu of "closing the door to any chance for peace," by insisting that regional talks focus on economic, rather than territorial issues.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037813.html

Miliband to visit West Bank
Britain's embassy in Israel said Foreign Minister David Miliband will visit Israel and the Palestinian territories this week. He is set to meet with Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as well as the man who could well succeed him in February elections, opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu. Mr Olmert is being forced from office by a corruption scandal. Mr Miliband will also meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad over the two-day visit. Mr Miliband is scheduled to arrive for his two-day visit on Sunday. Later in the week, he is expected to travel to Lebanon and Syria.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/aLeqM5iEVeOlcvaCx0Ia-vk4W933GI7sgQ

U.K. Sunday Times: Obama to back Arab peace initiative

President-elect Barack Obama will throw his weight behind a 2002 Arab peace plan according to which Israel would withdraw to the 1967 cease-fire lines in exchange for full peace and normalization with all Arab states, the British Sunday Times is reporting on Sunday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037578.html

Amos Oz: New left-wing party will replace Labor

"I hope the expanded leftist movement will become a replacement for the Labor Party," author Amos Oz told Haaretz on Saturday. "The Labor Party has finished its historic role, it isn't putting forward a national agenda and it joins any coalition," Oz said. He was among 30 intellectuals and public figures who attended the Tel Aviv press conference Friday at which the official launch of a new left-wing party modeled after Meretz was announced.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=1037560

GA Magazine /Nothing to lose

"We are enjoying our miserable economic situation," says Palestinian Planning Minister Samir Abdullah in a cynical tone. "It gives us the best immunity against the effects of the global financial crisis." Abdullah and other Palestinian economics experts say that though the financial crisis will be felt in the Palestinian Authority to some extent, its overall effect on the local market is expected to be minimal. The World Bank recently published a report stating that Israel's checkpoint policy and restriction of Palestinian movement only strengthens the PA's reliance on international aid and makes it hard to improve the economy in the territories. The fear now among Palestinian economists is that the main source of income for the PA -donations -will be negatively affected by the downturn.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037248.html

US group calls for boycott of Israeli orchestra concert
In the state of Michigan, home to one of the largest concentrations of Arabs in the US, a group called the Middle East Task Force has called on a state-funded university to call off a concert by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra (JSO). The group has called for a boycott of all Israeli goods and services, as a way to pressure the Jewish state to end what the Middle East Task Force (METF) call apartheid policies against the Palestinian population whose land Israel occupies.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57683

Americans Vote Yes for Equality Between Jews and Non-Jews Inside Israel

Election day in the United States, 2008, will be remembered in most history books as the day Americans elected the first African-American as president. But it also deserves to go down in history for another reason. It was the first day when Americans rejected the instructions of their pro-Israel politicians and newspapers and instead voted for the principle that non-Jews should be equal with Jews under the law inside Israel, and not discriminated against as they are today in apartheid Israel.
http://palestinethinktank.com/2008/11/16/americans-vote-yes-for-equality-between-jews-and-non-
jews-inside/


Israel, Palestine and the media
Mordecai Briemberg on battle over satire, media concentration and coverage of Israel.
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content& task=view&id=31&Itemid=74& jumival=2800

Few places to relax in battle-scarred Gaza
From historic bathhouse to nightclubs and hotels everything is closed in this impoverished territory.
http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/537836

Violence Rises In Iraq

Weekend Edition Sunday, November 16, 2008 · In Iraq, there's been an upsurge in violence in the past ten days or so, mainly in the form of bombing attacks on police patrols and civilians. It's difficult to gauge how serious the upsurge may be, because U.S. and Iraqi sources give widely differing reports of the casualties.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97066240

Iraqi Cabinet Approves Security Pact With U.S.

BAGHDAD, Nov. 16 --iraq's cabinet Sunday approved a security agreement that would allow U.S. troops to remain in the country until the end of 2011. The vote came after the prime minister and Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric reportedly agreed Saturday to support the measure.
http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/%7Er/wp-dyn/rss/world/mideast/index_xml/%7E3/YiAUACbVy1M/AR200811
1600362.html


Shiite Bloc Fails to Go to Meeting on Iraq-U.S. Pact

Iraq's political leaders held a high-level meeting on Saturday to gauge support for a security agreement that will determine the future role and presence of American forces in Iraq before crucial votes in the cabinet and Parliament., But the most powerful Shiite bloc in Parliament, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, did not attend, and the meeting ended without any clear public resolution.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/world/middleeast/16iraq. html?r=1&ref=middleeast&oref=slogin

Iraq Head, Top Cleric Back 2011 Exit by U.S.

Iraq's prime minister and its most influential Shiite cleric have decided to support a security agreement that would allow U.S. troops to remain in the country until the end of 2011, sharply increasing its chances of passage in the Iraqi parliament, officials said Saturday.
Approval of the so-called status of forces agreement would be a cause for relief among Bush administration officials, who have grown increasingly concerned that U.S. forces would begin the new year with no legal basis to remain in Iraq. A U.N. mandate authorizing their presence is set to expire Dec. 31.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/15/AR2008111500679_pf.html

'Iraq war was not justified'

SYDNEY: Australia's former military chief has said there was no evidence to justify going to war in Iraq in 2003, a report said on Saturday. Admiral Chris Barrie, who headed the Australian Defence Force at the time, made the comments during an interview for a new television series about former prime minister John Howard's decade in power.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\11\16\ story_16-11-2008_pg4_9

US Task Force Found Few Iranian Arms in Iraq

Excerpt: Last April, top George W. Bush administration officials, desperate to exploit any possible crack in the close relationship between the Nouri al-Maliki government and Iran, launched a new round of charges that Iran had stepped up covert arms assistance to Shia militias.
http://www.antiwar.com/porter/?articleid=13770

Music returns to Baghdad as vice squad enforcers retreat
AFP -After years on the run from Shiite and Sunni militias and morality police, Iraqi musicians are slowly returning to the streets of Baghdad, looking to fill the silence left by the fading civil war.
http://News.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081115/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestmusic

Blackwater Busted? Six Guards May Be Charged in Iraq Massacre
After more than five years of rampant violence and misconduct carried out by the massive army of private corporate contractors in Iraq --actions that have gone totally unpunished under any system of law --the US Justice Department appears to be on the verge of handing down the first indictments against armed private forces for crimes committed in Iraq. The reported targets of the "draft" indictments: six Blackwater operatives involved in the September 16, 2007, killing of seventeen Iraqi civilians in Baghdad's Nisour Square.The Associated Press reports, "The draft is being reviewed by senior Justice Department officials but no charging decisions have been made. A decision is not expected until at least later this month."
http://zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticlePrint/19643

U.S. study urges Obama to press Israel over nukes
The Middle East is in danger of accumulating large stocks of nuclear material over the next decade that could be used to produce over 1,700 nuclear bombs, a U.S. research center has projected in a newly released report. The Institute for Science and International Security, headed by David Albright, one the world's top experts on nuclear weapons and the prevention of nuclear proliferation, recently released its report urging president-elect Barack Obama to take a number of measures to avoid such an outcome, including convincing Israel to halt production of its nuclear weapons.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037539.html

Obama could change dynamics in the Arab world

Conservative Muslims may find it harder to rally opposition to a U.S. led by a multicultural, charismatic president. He could also inspire an Internet-based revolt. Despising America has long been a Middle East pastime, but then the country that brought war to Iraq and orange-suited prisoners to Guantanamo Bay elected a Facebook-friendly president who speaks in poems.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/454696817/la-fg-essay16-2008nov16,0,5740826.story

www.TheHeadlines.org
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