Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel
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For those interested in keeping up with events in Palestine/Israel, there is no better digest than VTJP.

News

Erekat: "Olmert obstructed a peace deal with the Palestinians"
28 Mar 2009 - Dr. Saeb Erekat, head of the Negotiations Department at the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), denied the statements of Israel’s outgoing Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, in which he claimed that he offered president Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas a full peace settlement and that he still awaits a response. ...

Hamas denies it agreed on the deportation of detainees
27 Mar 2009 - In an interview with the Arabs48 news website, Fawzi Barhoum, media spokesperson of the Hamas movement, said that Hamas did not agree on the Israeli condition to deport some of the detainees who would be freed in the framework of a prisoner exchange deal. ... 

EU presses Netanyahu to commit to a two-state solution
27 Mar 2009 - The European Union told the Israeli Prime Minister-designate, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Friday that relations between the European Union and Israel could be at odds if he does not accept a two-state solution. ...

Bardaweel: "Hamas will not be committed to previously signed peace deals"
27 Mar 2009 - Salah Bardaweel, one of the political leaders of Hamas movement, stated on Friday that the movement will not recognize peace agreements signed between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). ...

Settlers who attacked Israeli policemen freed
27 Mar 2009 - Five violent Israeli settlers of an illegal settlement outpost in the West Bank were released by a court decision on Friday after they were remanded for attacking under-cover Israeli policemen and vandalizing their vehicle. ... 

Palestinian FM: "New round of talks next Friday"
27 Mar 2009 - Palestinian Foreign Minister, Riyadh Al Maliky, stated on Friday evening that the Palestinian factions will be holding a new round of internal talks in Cairo next Friday, April 2nd. ...

Four injured in Bil'in's weekly demonstration
27 Mar 2009 - The residents of Bil'in village, located near the central west Bank city of Ramallah, marched towards the wall today after Friday prayers. The protest was joined by Israeli and international activists. ...

13 injured at Nil'in village weekly protest
27 Mar 2009 - Scores of villagers from Nil'in, located near the central West Bank city of Ramallah, held their weekly protest on Friday midday against the illegal Israeli wall being built on village land. ...

Four injured at peaceful protest near Bethlehem
27 Mar 2009 - On Friday, more than one hundred Palestinian, Israeli and international demonstrators gathered at al-Ma'sara, a village near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem. ...

Israel announces successfully testing new 'Iron Dome' interception system
27 Mar 2009 - The Israeli Defense Ministry announced on Thursday that over the last few days it has concluded a series of tests on the new “Iron Dome” interception system that can detect and intercept shells fired from the Gaza Strip. ...

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OPT: Tough times for university students in Gaza 
26 Mar 2009 - GAZA CITY Thursday, March 26, 2009 (IRIN) - Many university students who lost relatives or whose homes were destroyed during the recent 23-day Israeli offensive are finding it difficult to cope, according to university officials and students. 

OPT: UN tracks rising violence against women in Gaza 
26 Mar 2009 - 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 
26 Mar 2009 - 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. 

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Tales To Tell
March 26: Dancing in the Ruins
26 Mar 2009 - Dubke dancing in the ruins of the Red Crescent theatre, Telal Howa, The building in the shelled Telal Howa Red Crescent complex (which includes Al Quds Hospital, burned with phosphorous) that was worst hit during the attacks was the Red Crescent Theatre, which I believe also had a music school in it. It pretty much burnt down, and its ruins will be demolished. But this afternoon the Palestinian Brotherhood of Tunisia sponsored cultural groups, including the Watar Band, in a performance “at the scene of the broken Red Crescent“, and it was inspiring. Read the rest of this post », The building in the shelled, Telal Howa , Red Crescent complex (which includes, Al Quds Hospital, burned with phosphorous , ) that was worst hit during the attacks was the Red Crescent Theatre, which I believe also had a music school in it. It pretty much burnt down, and its ruins will be demolished. But this afternoon the Palestinian Brotherhood of Tunisia sponsored cultural groups, including the Watar Band, in a performance “at the scene of the, broken Red Crescent , “, and it was inspiring.

Palestine Chronicle
Netanyahu and the Future of the Peace Process
27 Mar 2009 - By Ramzy Baroud It seems that the Palestinian-Israeli peace process is in serious jeopardy. This is the immediate impression one gleans from media reports from Israel. Unlike Israel's Kadima and Labour party "moderates" prime minister-designate Benyamin Netanyahu is widely seen as an obstacle to negotiations aimed at facilitating a two-state solution. The media stories, however, are riddled with misconceptions and dotted with false assumptions. While Netanyahu is indeed a right-wing ideologue his position on issues pertinent to the peace process -- if, indeed, it is possible to speak of such a thing, which I doubt -- hardly differs from his predecessors. Israel continues with its military onslaughts and illegal settlement expansion while the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas continues with isolating Hamas in Gaza and maintaining its own rule in the West Bank. So what is the peace process to which the media refers? What are the prospects for a viable two-state solution that are being so passionately discussed? Equally confusing is the fact that some Western leaders and diplomats maintain a wait-and-see position, hoping that Netanyahu will respect and maintain this non-existent peace process. In comments made to The National Tony Blair, now the envoy of the UN Quartet, said that Netanyahu had indicated his support "in principle" to the two-state solution. "When asked whether Netanyahu was supportive of a Palestinian state," the newspaper reported, "Blair said: 'He has always made that clear to me.'" Such rhetoric appears to pave the way for the kind of political ruse indulged...

We Are all Palestinian
27 Mar 2009 - By Joharah Baker Yesterday, March 24, clashes broke out in the Palestinian-Arab town of Um Al Fahm inside Israel between the residents and Israeli police and right-wing demonstrators. The incident was an accident waiting to happen, so to say, given the players involved. Apparently, a group of right-wing Israelis had received approval from Israel's High Court to march within the municipal borders of Um Al Fahm but not inside the city. While the actual intent of the march still remains unclear, it seems Israel's right-wingers – many of them settlers living in Hebron – want to force Israel's Arab-Palestinian residents to express their "loyalty to the state." Just how a provocative march along the outskirts of an Arab city inside Israel would accomplish this feat is a mystery. The only possible outcome of such a march could be what actually happened – a clash between the residents of the city and the right-wing Israelis whose self-righteousness has clearly crossed over into outright racism. How else could the imposition of loyalty to the state, whether these residents acquiesce or not, be explained? There really is only one logical explanation, the overall negativity most Israeli Jews harbor towards their Palestinian neighbors within the borders of the Jewish state. This is not a newborn animosity, nor is it one that is likely to be repaired any time soon as long as the state of Israel is structured in such a discriminatory and racist fashion. The 1.2 million Palestinians living inside Israel's borders have...

Tough Times for University Students in Gaza
27 Mar 2009 - By IRIN News Many university students who lost relatives or whose homes were destroyed during the recent 23-day Israeli offensive are finding it difficult to cope, according to university officials and students. Some have been unable to register for the new semester due to lack of funds; others are still traumatised. Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights in Gaza said 14 of the 15 higher education institutions in the Strip (most are in and around Gaza City) were damaged by Israeli forces. Six came under direct attack. Three colleges - Al-Da’wa College for Humanities in Rafah, Gaza College for Security Sciences in Gaza City, and the Agricultural College in Beit Hanoun (part of Al-Azhar University) - were destroyed, according to Al-Mezan communications officer Mahmoud AbuRahma. Six university buildings in Gaza were razed to the ground and 16 damaged. The total damage is estimated at US$21.1 million, according to the Palestinian National Early Recovery and Reconstruction Plan for Gaza. Just after midnight on 28 December the Islamic University was targeted in six separate air strikes, according to eyewitnesses. The two main buildings on campus were completely destroyed, while nine others were damaged; water, electrical and internet systems were affected, according to the university’s president, Kamalain Sha’ath. “The two [main] buildings contained 74 science and engineering laboratories equipped with thousands of pieces of apparatus,” said Islamic University public relations officer Hussam Ayesh. The university, which has 22,000 students enrolled, wants to rebuild and renovate but lacks building materials due to the Israeli blockade;...

Not About Justice: Ocampo, Al-Bashir and the ICC
26 Mar 2009 - By Mohamed El Mokhtar Sidi Haiba The rationale put forward by the prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo for rushing with his indictment against the sitting head of state of a sovereign nation was allegedly the imprescriptible crime of ongoing genocide. The judges of the International Criminal Court, or ICC, found though, in their majority opinion, that there was no tangible proof for such a serious claim in spite of all the allegations that were leveled against Al Bashir and his camp on that specific account. Moreover, the atrocities in question were committed between 2003 and 2004 and by all parties, although on an unequal basis, giving the natural gap in resources and manpower existing between the belligerents. Today the UN data from Genocide Intervention Network, etc., indicates that about 150 people or so are being killed every month. Such figure is certainly gruesome but does not, even remotely, amount to that of ongoing wide scale genocide. Furthermore, these numbers do not uniquely result from the criminal action of one side in the Darfur conflict. The victims of this conflict have been mostly innocent civilians and people responsible for those crimes should certainly be brought to justice but the timing and mechanism for such a process are of the utmost importance. Therefore, for the sake of peace and stability, other considerations ought to be weighed against those of the trial, if the overall goal of all this frenzy for justice was, in indeed, the welfare of the people of Sudan and not...