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Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel
www.vtjp.org/
For those interested in keeping up with events in Palestine/Israel, there is no better digest than VTJP.
VTJP Archives | VTJP 2009
25 March, 2009

News

International Middle East Media Center

Ha'aretz Defense page

Ma'an News

Aljazeera

IRIN 

  • OPT: UN tracks rising violence against women in Gaza 
    GAZA CITY Tuesday, March 24, 2009 (IRIN) - The UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in Gaza, local Palestinian NGOs and mental health professionals are reporting increased incidents of domestic violence and sexual assault against women in Gaza since the beginning of 2009.
  • MIDDLE EAST: Water treatment kit for household grey water 
    ISTANBUL Monday, March 23, 2009 (IRIN) - A kit designed to treat household waste water for reuse could be one of the ways to tackle water scarcity in rural areas of the Middle East and North Africa, according to a Canadian organisation.

Stop The Wall

  • Friday protests continue against the Wall
    March 24th, 2009 --, This past Friday, people in Ni?lin, Ma?sara, Jayyous and Bi?lin held their weekly demonstrations. Hundreds turned out; some on the occasion of Mother?s Day and others in support of the American activist wounded the week prior in Ni?lin. Demonstrations in Wadi Rasha have halted for the time being, as Occupation forces have temporarily halted uprooting trees. [
  • Occupation targets media and youth in Jayyous village
    March 21st, 2009 --, On Friday, the youth of Jayyous lead another demonstration against the Wall that is isolating their village from its land. The Israeli military attacked the village attempting to destroy one home and injuring three. [

PCHR Latest

PCHR Weekly Report

  • (12- 18 March  2008)
    During the reporting period, IOF injured 19 Palestinian civilians, including nine children, and an American human rights defender in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Ha'aretz Diplomacy page

  • Hamas: We've resumed Shalit talks with Israel
    Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:47:43 GMT+02:00
    Hamas resumed indirect negotiations with Israel aimed at exchanging abducted Israel Defense Force soldier Gilad Shalit for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners currently held in Israeli jails, Hamas official Ali Barakeh said Wednesday. ...
  • Palestinian children sing for Holocaust survivors
    Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:19:34 GMT+02:00
    The Palestinian youths from a tough West Bank refugee camp stood facing the elderly Holocaust survivors on Wednesday, appearing somewhat defiant in a teenage sort of way. Then they began to sing. ...
  • Israel's UN ambassador: Netanyahu committed to peace
    Wed, 25 Mar 2009 19:52:13 GMT+02:00
    Israel's ambassador to the United Nations on Wednesday declared in an address before the Security Council that "the state of Israel is committed to the Middle East peace process." ...
  • Syria offers to help Obama pull troops from Iraq
    Wed, 25 Mar 2009 19:44:49 GMT+02:00
    Syria's foreign minister said on Wednesday his country would be happy to help U.S. President Barack Obama implement his plan to pull U.S. combat troops out of Iraq. ...
  • Assad says Syria-Israel talks depend on clear U.S. position
    Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:16:43 GMT+02:00
    A clear position by the United States on Israel-Syria peace negotiations is essential to progress in the talks, Syrian President Bashar Assad told a Lebanese daily in an interview published Wednesday. ...

The Guardian

Ha'aretz National page

  • Israeli stars fall prey to comic's conman brother
    Wed, 25 Mar 2009 21:14:45 GMT+02:00
    The brother of a stand-up comic was arrested Monday on suspicion of defrauding dozens of Israeli entertainers and television personalities of hundreds of thousands of dollars. ...
  • Labor split over entry to Netanyahu coalition
    Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:02:07 GMT+02:00
    The division among Labor lawmakers continued on Wednesday, one day after the party approved a deal struck by its leader, Ehud Barak, to bring Labor into Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu's incoming government. ...
  • Netanyahu, Lieberman 'struck secret deal for West Bank construction'
    Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:38:56 GMT+02:00
    Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu has struck a secret deal with Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman for highly contentious construction on West Bank land known as E1, Army Radio reported Wednesday. ...
  • Nonprofits: 40% more people seeking food aid for Pesach
    Wed, 25 Mar 2009 09:01:45 GMT+02:00
    The Pesach holiday will be here in two weeks, and as always, nonprofit organizations have started raising contributions of money and food. But this year, the economic crisis has cast a shadow over the holiday: The organizations say they have seen a 40 percent rise in the number of people asking for help compared to previous years. ...
  • Religious IDF troops walk out of event featuring woman singer
    Wed, 25 Mar 2009 08:52:23 GMT+02:00
    About 100 religious soldiers left a Paratroop Brigade assembly earlier this month to avoid being present at the performance of a female singer, the army weekly Bamahane reported last week. ...

Relief Web

YNet News

  • Likud, Jewish Home sign coalition deal
    Fourth coalition agreement: After Yisrael Beiteinu, Shas, and Labor signed coalition agreements with Likud, Wednesday night a deal was signed between Benjamin Netanyahu's party and the Jewish Home faction. ...
  • Hamas: Shalit talks resumed
    Efforts to free Shalit continue: Hamas resumed indirect negotiations with Israel on Wednesday aimed at exchanging an Israeli soldier held by the group for Palestinians jailed by Israel, Hamas official Ali Barakeh ...
  • Man convicted of bomb shelter theft
    A resident of southern Israel was convicted of theft charges Wednesday, after being found guilty of stealing supplies from several Beersheba bomb shelters during Operation Cast Lead. The court was told that ...
  • Clinton aide: Israel-Syria talks a positive sign
    WASHINGTON – A top US official says that indirect Israel-Syria talks were "a positive sign", but stressed that no peace would be possible until Damascus withheld funds and arms from Hizbullah and Hamas. Acting ...
  • Israel admits to testing anthrax vaccine on troops
    Israel has admitted to developing a vaccine against anthrax, fearing it might be used as a bio-weapon by enemy nations against civilians, and tested it on IDF soldiers. The story was cleared for publication ...
  • Rights group: IDF committed Gaza war crimes
    The IDF unlawfully fired white phosphorus shells over densely populated areas of the Gaza Strip during its recent offensive, needlessly killing and injuring civilians, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday. ...
  • UN official: Gaza border situation intolerable
    The situation at the borders between Israel and the Gaza Strip is "intolerable" and restrictions on imports into the Palestinian territory must be eased, a top UN official said on Wednesday. "The intolerable ...

B'tselem

  • Sharp rise in beating of Palestinians by security forces
    2009-03-24
    The 3 months since Operation ?Cast Lead? have seen a sharp rise in reports of violence by security forces toward Palestinians in the West Bank. B'Tselem has documented 24 cases in which Palestinians reported that police and soldiers had beaten them.
  • HR groups to Attorney General: "Stop whitewashing suspected crimes in Gaza"
    2009-03-19
    Israeli human rights organizations repeated their demand that the Attorney General hold an independent investigation of the army's conduct during operation "Cast Lead". The call followed chilling testimonies of soldiers concerning the killing of Palestini

Daily Star

  • Netanyahu vows to pursue peace, build more settlements 
    Thursday, March 26, 2009
    Israeli Premier-designate Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Wednesday to pursue peace talks with the Palestinians as he prepared to present his new government to parliament next week. "Peace ... is a common and enduring goal for all Israelis and Israeli governments, mine included.
  • Iraqi Kurd leader backs call for PKK to disarm 
    Thursday, March 26, 2009
    The premier of Iraq's Kurdish regional government on Wednesday backed a call by the country's president for Turkish Kurdish rebels holed up in the region to lay down their arms. Nechirvan Barzani said in remarks to the press in the regional capital of Irbil that it is "not reasonable for a group to carry out attacks against a state.
  • Israel's white-phosphorous use 'indiscriminate' - HRW 
    Thursday, March 26, 2009
    Israel's bombardment of heavily populated areas of the Gaza Strip with white phosphorous munitions violated international law and could constitute war crimes, a human-rights group said on Wednesday. Israel's military "repeatedly exploded white phosphorous munitions in the air over populated areas.
  • Egypt ignores anniversary of 1979 peace deal as Israel celebrates 
    Thursday, March 26, 2009
    Israel commemorated Wednesday its first peace treaty with an Arab state but its partner Egypt virtually ignored the 30th anniversary amid lingering opposition to the historic deal that dramatically changed the face of the Middle East. Three decades after then-Israeli Premier Menakhem Begin.
  • Two Turkish generals charged with coup plans 
    Thursday, March 26, 2009
    Turkish prosecutors have accused two retired four-star generals of hatching and leading a plot to topple the Islamist-rooted government, according to an indictment made public Wednesday. The 1,909-page charge sheet is the second one to emerge from a long-running investigation into an alleged secularist-nationalist group.
  • Rights groups says Gazans used as 'political pawns' 
    Thursday, March 26, 2009
    Two human-rights groups said Wednesday that Israel, Egypt, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority had all violated the rights of Gaza residents by preventing them from crossing into Egypt. Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and Gisha: Legal Center for Freedom of Movement said.
  • Middle East peace not any 'easier' but still 'necessary' - Obama 
    Thursday, March 26, 2009
    US President Barack Obama said Tuesday that Middle East peace efforts were not getting any "easier" with Israel building a government under hardliner Benjamin Netanyahu, but said they were "just as necessary." "It is critical for us to advance a two-state solution where Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side.
  • Bashir visits Egypt despite arrest order 
    Thursday, March 26, 2009
    CAIRO Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir met his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak in Cairo on Wednesday on his second visit since an international court ordered his arrest for war crimes in Darfur. Mubarak met Bashir at the airport and held talks that lasted a few hours before boarding a plane for the return flight to Khartoum.

Palestinian Information Center

Los Angeles Times

  • Israeli army rabbis criticized for stance on Gaza assault
    Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700
    Some Israeli soldiers say military rabbis cast the offensive against Hamas rockets as a fight to expel non-Jews. The winter assault on the Gaza Strip was officially portrayed in Israel as an attempt to quell rocket fire by militants of Hamas. But some soldiers say they also were lectured about a more ambitious aim: to banish non-Jews from the biblical land of Israel.
  • Marines embedded at L.A. County coroner's office
    Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700
    Fourteen troops in a specialty unit confront death and learn how to collect bodies to prepare themselves for similar work in Iraq, where the scale of the trauma probably will be greater. The body was found behind a soccer field in a sunken, weed-choked stream bed. It lay next to a dome tent and a pile of blankets.
  • Human rights advocate named State Department's top lawyer
    Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700
    Harold Hongju Koh, dean at the Yale Law School, has been one of the most vocal critics of the Bush administration's approach to the detention and trial of terrorism suspects. Harold Hongju Koh, an outspoken advocate of human rights and international law, has been chosen to be the top lawyer at the State Department.

New York Times

  • Netanyahu Promises Peace Effort
    Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:35:58 GMT
    Israel?s prime minister-designate, Benjamin Netanyahu, said that the coalition he is forming would be a ?partner for peace.?
  • Leading Iranian Official Ridicules Obama?s Overture
    Wed, 25 Mar 2009 18:31:18 GMT
    Ali Larijani, the speaker of Iran?s parliament, characterized President Obama?s videotaped message as inadequate to address the issues between the two countries.
  • U.S. Weighs Sharif as Partner in Pakistan
    Wed, 25 Mar 2009 05:55:08 GMT
    The Obama administration must decide whether Nawaz Sharif is likely to be a reliable ally or an obstructionist force.


Articles

Electronic Intifada
  • UN tracks rising violence against women in Gaza
    Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:37:02 PST
    GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IRIN) - The UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in Gaza, local Palestinian non-governmental organizations and mental health professionals are reporting increased incidents of domestic violence and sexual assault against women in Gaza since the beginning of 2009.
  • Turkey's fallout with Israel deals blow to settlers
    Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:05:48 PST
    A legal battle being waged by Palestinian families to stop the takeover of their neighborhood in East Jerusalem by Jewish settlers has received a major fillip from the recent souring of relations between Israel and Turkey. Jonathan Cook reports.

Tales To Tell

  • March 23: ?Fire also upon rescue??
    ?it said in the ?how to run an Israeli incursion? notes a commander appears to have left behind (doh) near Jabalia, according to Haaretz. Just in case the Palestine medics thought it was accidental. I shouldn?t read the comments that follow articles like this that try to speak out within Israel, but inevitably I do?and it?s kind of funny how half of them appear to be from such ignorant and rascist people that all by themselves they totally provid...
  • March 19: Speaking truth to power
    January 09 art from children at the Al Amal Centre, Khan Younis, We were back at Faraheen this morning accompanying farmers again, eyeing the jeeps driving along the Israeli border while our farmers removed the irrigation pipes from one of the fields we have visited regularly. Since Mohammed was shot in the leg, the farmer here has decided to give up on this field, its convenient well, and its half-grown parsley crop - 200,000 shekels worth - in ...

Palestine Chronicle

  • Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's Shame
    Wed, 25 Mar 2009 18:09:41 -0400
    By Neve Gordon – IsraelThanks to Binyamin Netanyahu's overweening ambition, Israel is to be saddled with a foreign minister who is a national disgraceImagine a country that appoints someone who has been found guilty of striking a 12-year-old boy to be its foreign minister. The person in question is also under investigation for money-laundering, fraud and breach of trust; in addition, he was a bona fide member of an outlawed racist party and...
  • Palestinian Struggle between Puppets and Resistance (Part II)
    Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:51:52 -0400
    By Dina Jadallah-Taschler'Force overcome by force' (Vi Victa Vis) Cicero, Roman Orator, politician, and philosopher (106 BC-43 BC) The first part of this essay has covered some of the diplomatic and economic controls that the international “consensus” has recently used to contain and subvert the Palestinian struggle.  Israel’s wantonly destructive behavior in Gaza did succeed, but only in accomplishing the dialectically oppo...