News
International Middle East Media Center
58 Detained, One Wounded and 70 Dunams Drowned in Sewage
IMEMC – Friday April 23, 2010 – 02:33, Thursday witnessed several attacks carried out by Israeli soldiers and policemen leading to the kidnapping of 58 Palestinians in the West Bank and in the 1948 areas, while one fisherman was wounded in Gaza and 70 Dunams of farmlands were flooded by Israeli Sewage.
Jordan Confirms Grad Missile Hit Aqaba
IMEMC – Friday April 23, 2010 – 01:12, The Jordanian Authorities confirmed Thursday that the explosion that took place at a cooling warehouse, north of the Aqaba coastal city was a grad missile, but added that the missile was not fired from Jordan.
Netanyahu To Mitchell: “No Settlement Freeze”
IMEMC – Friday April 23, 2010 – 00:49, On Thursday evening, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told the visiting U.S. Middle East Envoy, George Mitchell, that Israel will not freeze its settlement activities in the occupied territories, including in occupied East Jerusalem.
Israeli Tanks Invade And Destroy Farm Lands In Southern Gaza Strip
IMEMC – Thursday April 22, 2010 – 17:26, Israeli tanks and bulldozers stormed on Thursday the village of Abassan Al Mubra in southern Gaza Strip and destroyed farm lands.
Two Injured, One Detained; As Troops Attack People Protesting Wall Construction Near Bethlehem
IMEMC – Thursday April 22, 2010 – 17:02, Two Palestinian civilians were injured, one international peace activist detained on Thursday as Israeli troops used batons to suppress wall construction protesters at the town of Beit Jala near Bethlehem southern West Bank.
Israeli Troops Detain 15 Palestinian Civilians During Morning Invasions Targeting The West Bank
IMEMC – Thursday April 22, 2010 – 16:24, Fifteen Palestinian civilians were detained by Israeli troops during military invasions targeting West Bank communities on Thursday.
Two Katyusha Shells Fired Into Israel
IMEMC – Thursday April 22, 2010 – 12:31, Israeli security sources reported Thursday morning that two Katyusha rockets were fired at Eilat city. Israel is investigating the possibility that the rockets were fired from the Sinai peninsula although they seemed to have been fired from Jordan.
PPS: “Detainee Who Died Last Week, Was Hit On His Spine, Neck”
IMEMC – Thursday April 22, 2010 – 11:47, The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) reported that detainee Raed Abu Hammad, who died on April 16, was hit by Israeli interrogators on the center spine and the back on his neck, and died of his wounds in his cell.
As Mitchell Delays Visit To Israel, Shapiro Arrives In The Country
IMEMC – Thursday April 22, 2010 – 09:27, U.S. Special Middle East Envoy, George Mitchell, decided to delay his visit to Israel this week and will instead visit the region next week to hold meetings with Israeli officials. Meanwhile, Dan Shapiro, White House Top Middle East specialist arrived in Israel Wednesday.
Former Minister Of Detainees Released From Israeli Prison
IMEMC – Thursday April 22, 2010 – 08:20, The Israeli Authorities released on Wednesday former Palestinian Minister of Detainees, Wasfi Qabha, who was arrested along with several Hamas ministers and elected officials last year.
Protesters in Beit Jala beaten, Walaja under curfew
4/22/2010 – Jerusalem – Ma’an – Israeli bulldozers razed lands near the eastern entrance of Al-Walaja on Thursday, as preparations continued for the construction of the separation wall south of Jerusalem. Demonstrations in nearby Beit Jala saw two detained and three others two injured, while Al-Walaja residents said border guards and soldiers imposed a curfew, preventing locals from exiting their homes from early in the morning. Work continued in both areas following an injunction order filed two weeks ago, which was lifted on Thursday by the Israeli Supreme Court. Popular committee representatives said soldiers on horseback and riding all-terrain vehicles ordered residents attempting to leave their homes to return indoors, while village council member Adel Al-Atrash described a “large number of Israeli forces and border guards invading the village, surrounding homes, and preventing villagers from leaving.
Vineyard flooded with settlement sewage
4/22/2010 – Hebron – Ma’an – Israeli settlers opened a sewage pipe running toward the Hebron-area town of Beit Ummar on Wednesday night, flooding a Palestinian vineyard with wastewater, local officials said. By opening the sewage pipe, residents of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc destroyed some 70,000 square meters of the vineyard belonging to the Sabarneh family, experts visiting the site said. The land, in the Wad Shakhat area of northern Beit Ummar, was ruined by the flood of sewage, along with the crop after it was contaminated by the untreated wastewater, land experts who arrived at the scene along with the village mayor said. An Israeli Civil Administration representative confirmed the incident, saying a pump from the Kfar Etzion settlement stopped working due to a power malfunction and sewage overflowed from the network. The official said the matter was a mistake, and as soon as the Beit Ummar governor notified officials of the issue the problem was rectified.
Israel reverses Gaza deportation
4/22/2010 – Bethlehem – Ma’an – Israeli authorities reversed a decision on Thursday to expel a Palestinian man to the Gaza Strip.Hours earlier, de facto government officials had refused to accept Saber Al-Beyari, 36, following his deportation from Israel, security sources said, heightening tensions around a new military law expanding the definition of an “infiltrator.””Al-Beiyyari has returned home, after arriving at the Erez crossing, following the intervention of his lawyer,” the Wa’ed society said. The man had been granted a temporary residence permit 15 years earlier so he could live with his wife, a Palestinian citizen of Israel living in her native Yaffa, a small Palestinian community encompassed by what is now Tel Aviv. Palestinian security sources told Ma’an that Al-Beyari was taken from a hospital in the area and deported directly to Gaza without explanation. Related:Gaza native living in Yaffa deported to Strip
Gaza native living in Yaffa deported to Strip
4/22/2010 – Gaza – Ma’an – De facto government officials refused to accept a Gaza man into the Strip following his deportation from Israel on Thursday, security sources said, heightening tensions around a new military law expanding the definition of an “infiltrator.”The man, 36-year-oldSaber Al-Beyari, had been granted a temporary residence permit 15 years earlier so he could live with his wife, a Palestinian citizen of Israel living in h
er native Yaffa, a small Palestinian community encompassed by what is now Tel Aviv. Palestinian security sources told Ma’an that Al-Beyari was taken from a hospital in the area and deported directly to Gaza without explanation. The sources said he arrived at the Erez crossing at noon. Once on the Palestinian side of the Erez crossing, de facto government officials refused to receive Al-Beyari into the coastal enclave, in what officials called an effort to prevent Israel from implementing the policy. Related:Israel reverses Gaza deportation
Deported prisoner protests at Erez
4/22/2010 – Gaza – Ma’an – Deported to Gaza on Wednesday after his release from Israeli prison, Tulkarem native Ahmad Sabbah announced a sit-in strike at the Strip’s northern Erez crossing in protest.”I consider myself the first detainee deported to Gaza, and I will stay in this sit-in tent at the Erez terminal until I am allowed to return to my wife and family in Tulkarem,” Sabbah said Thursday. During an interview with Ma’an, Sabbah said the deportation was meant as a further punishment for him, and for all Palestinians detained by Israeli forces.”Israel is serious about this deportation decision,” Sabbah said, saying the country was putting pressure on the Palestinian Authority to let the decision stand. Sabbah’s family was waiting at the Al-Thahriyah crossing in the West Bank to receive their son after 10 years behind bars, but were surprised when Israeli authorities delivered the news that he had already been deported to Gaza.
7 detained as army storms Bethlehem village
4/22/2010 – Bethlehem – Ma’an – Israeli troops detained seven Palestinians from the village of Tuqu, east of Bethlehem, on Wednesday night and took the men to an unknown location. Invading troops broke into homes during what villagers described as a raid, taking the seven from their beds. The men were identified as Amin Sleiman, Loay Al-Badan, Mus’ab As-Sabah, Hisham Al-Omour, Ali Al-Omour and brothers Muhammad and Ahmad Salim Sabbah. [end]
Settlers throw stones at Palestinian cars in Salfit
4/22/2010 – Salfit – Ma’an – Israeli settlers threw stones at Palestinian cars traveling along the Kifl Haris junction on Monday in Salfit, northern West Bank, a village official said. Yasuf school principle Muhammad Abdul Hadi said a group of settlers from the nearby Ari’el settlement pelted his car with stones as he drove along the junction on the Aber As-Samera road in the direction of Yasuf. Abdul Hadi said he was surprised to see the settlers along the mainly Palestinian road, as the Ari’el settlement has an Israel-only bypass road running through it, but managed to drive away quickly before the pelting increased. The official condemned settler assaults against Palestinians, saying they were a violation of the basic human right to live in freedom and security in one’s homeland. Israel’s Civil Administration and military officials said they were unaware of any such incident.
Hunger strike marks 3rd week of prisoner protest
4/22/2010 – Salfit – Ma’an – The third week of family visit boycotts by Palestinians held in Israeli detention centers was punctuated by a third one-day hunger strike, the Wa’ed Center for Detainees announced on Thursday. Citing the example of Raed Abu Hammad, who died in solitary confinement last week, and whose family was denied visits for the past three years, prisoners told the society that they would continue to boycott family visits and would maintain the regimen of hunger strikes until fair and equal treatment for all detainees was secured. Prisoners told center staff that they had gotten word of the dozens of demonstrations held by Palestinians across the West Bank and Gaza, noting the displays of support gave prisoners strength to continue with their actions.
Abdul Qader: Settlers to march Sunday
4/22/2010 – Jerusalem – Ma’an – Settlers will gather in Silwan on Sunday, following an Israeli police decision to permit a demonstration first scheduled in March, Fatah official for Jerusalem affairs Hatem Abdul Qader told Ma’an. In response to what Abdul Qader called a provocation, he urged Palestinians and solidarity activists to gather in the Al-Bustan area of Silwan on Friday, and demand an end to home evictions in East Jerusalem. According to the Fatah official, the settler march comes amid continued provocations by settlers who have taken over parts of the Palestinian neighborhood. The latest clash came Wednesday night, when he said settlers provoked a group of young Palestinian men, who responded by throwing stones and empty bottles on the settler cars. The clash endedwhen Israeli forces came into Silwan to disperse the group.
Rafah faces water, power crises
4/22/2010 – Gaza – Ma’an – Adding to the misery of more than eight hours of blackouts on a daily basis, Rafah residents report that water has not reached their homes in days following a re-routing of Egyptian power lines from pumping stations. In the wake of the last power crisis in the Gaza Strip, government officials announced projects that would spread available power resources from Israel and Egypt to areas beyond the southern and northernmost residential areas hooked up to the grids, in an attempt to provide the central region with emergency power supplies. In order to provide areas of Khan Younis with reliable power, however, Rafah residents say electricity in the city was diverted from water stations, and an impending water shortage meant homes were provided with water for six hours every four days. Representative for the Gaza power plant Jamal Dardasawi said the recent problems in Rafah were. . .
Israeli army to investigate human shield report
4/22/2010 – Jerusalem – Ma’an – The Israeli army said Wednesday it would investigate allegations that a 14-year-old boy was used as a human shield by Israeli forces in Beit Ummar, a Hebron village, following a Ma’an inquiry. The Palestine Solidarity Project (PSP) said at 11am on Friday 16 April four jeeps entered the main street of Beit Ummar as local children responded by throwing stones. According to the PSP’s report, as Israeli troops set up snipers on a rooftop, while others fired rubber coated bullets, two soldiers took the unidentified child by the nape and “forced him to walk in front of them as a human shield as they advanced into the town.” “The boy was clearly distressed so a third soldier grabbed him forcefully by the arm and put the boy against a wall where he was handcuffed and pushed into a jeep,” the PSP report said. Ma’an obtained the photos reportedly showing Israeli forces using the child as a human shield and subsequently detaining him.
‘Israel institutes military order 1650’
4/22/2010 – Bethlehem – Ma’an – Israel authorities have deported a Palestinian prisoner to the Gaza Strip after he was released on Wednesday evening following a nine-year prison sentence, the Al-Mezan human rights center said Thursday. Ahmed Said Sabbah, 38, who lives in Thanaba village east of Tulkarem in the West Bank, was told by an official from the prison administration that he would be released at Erez crossing in the Gaza Strip. If he refused, he was told he would be detained for a further six months and face other measures as decided by the Israeli army. Sabbah’s family had been waiting
for him at the Al-Thahria checkpoint in the West Bank. Authorities did not give Sabbah the opportunity to appeal before any judicial or military committee or body, Al-Mezan said. “This actually violates the new military orders, which themselves violate international humanitarian law,” the group said in a statement. Related:Al Mezan Center for Human Rights
In photos: Border guards detain Israeli activists in Beit Jala
4/22/2010 – Israeli soldiers pull international and Israeli activists from a peaceful demonstration against the continued construction of the separation wall in Beit Jala on 22 April 2010. Construction on the wall continued after an injunction was lifted by Israel’s Supreme Court on Thursday morning. MaanImages / Luay Sababa. [end]
Veterinarians say harassed south of Hebron
4/22/2010 – Hebron – Ma’an – Specialists from the veterinary department of Hebron’s municipality were prevented from carrying out vaccinations on livestock near Yatta on Thursday, they said. The team, including two veterinarians, their assistants, and a driver of a red-plated car, were stopped for more than three hours by Israeli forces in the area, and ultimately forced to drag their equipment up a hill on foot, they said. The specialists were in the area, located between a number of settlements, to vaccinate herds of sheep against Brucellosis, also known as Mediterranean fever, a deadly disease that affects humans coming in close contact with contaminated milk or meat from infected animals. An Israeli military spokeswoman said the army was not familiar with such an incident.
Israeli vehicles make limited incursion into Gaza
4/22/2010 – Gaza – Ma’an – Seven Israeli military vehicles entered 300 meters into the Gaza Strip early on Thursday morning, as part of what locals called an ongoing sweep and survey of the area. The vehicles entered east of Khan Younis, between the Kissufim military base and the Sufa crossing, which was closed in September 2008. An Israeli military spokeswoman said she would look into the report. [end]
Report: Netanyahu rejects US demands
4/22/2010 – Bethlehem – Ma’an/Agencies – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the Obama administration’s demands to freeze construction in East Jerusalem, his office reportedly confirmed Thursday. The Israeli daily Haaretz reported that the Office of the Prime Minister was responding to a report in the Wall Street Journal that Netanyahu’s government had delivered over the weekend its most substantive response yet to that US request. Obama reportedly made the demand for an East Jerusalem construction freeze, along with other requests, in a tense White House meeting with Netanyahu on 23 March, the Israeli newspaper reported. [end]
PA: Palestinian work in settlements will stop this year
4/22/2010 – Ramallah – Ma’an – By the end of the calendar year there will be no Palestinians working in Israeli settlements, Ramallah-based Minister of Labor Ahmad Majdalani announced Thursday. The move comes amid a government campaign to boycott settlement products, following the prohibition of such goods in Palestinian markets, and the implementation of a ban on the sale of phone cards and SIM chips for Israeli cellphone providers with mobile towers in settlements. In his announcement, Majdalani said the ban – which began at the start of 2010 – had already achieved “notable results” during the course of the year. Specifically, he said there were 7,000 fewer Palestinians working in the settlements because of the decline in production of settlement goods, and added that Palestinian products were quickly replacing the settlement goods in shops.
Two Gaza crossings partially open
4/22/2010 – Gaza – Ma’an – Both the southern Kerem Shalom and northern Karni crossings will open to allow limited aid into the Gaza Strip, officials said Thursday, including five trucks of plastic pipes for the Gaza Water Authority. Raed Fattouh, a Palestinian crossings liaison official, said between 118 and 128 truckloads of aid, commercial and agricultural goods will be allowed into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing, along with what he described as limited quantities of domestic-use gas and industrial diesel. Another 174 truckloads of goods, mainly wheat and animal feed, will be allowed to enter Gaza through the Karni crossing, Fattouh added. Supplies entering Gaza remain well below pre-siege levels, and even below levels for the same time last year, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs noted in its weekly Protection of Civilians report.
Civilian traffic at Gaza crossings increases
4/22/2010 – Gaza – Ma’an – Civilian border traffic increased slightly on Wednesday, following two weeks of slow movement, the de facto government border monitoring committee reported on Thursday. At the southern crossing with Egypt special permit holders and an UNRWA delegation were the only groups to leave the Strip, with 40 Gaza residents and 16 foreign nationals in the group. Most of the Gaza residents were exiting for health services in Egypt, the monitoring committee said, adding that 128 entered the Strip at the same time. In the north, at the Erez crossing between Israel and Gaza, the committee said 223 individuals left Gaza, among them 155 residents (60 patients, 60 companions, 3 visitors, 24 work permit holders, 8 for other purposes), 52 foreign nationals and 16 Palestinians with Israeli citizenship. Entering Gaza from Israel were 221 individuals, of which 143 were residents (61 patients,. . .
Workers union: Jenin man assaulted en route to Jerusalem
4/22/2010 – Salfit – Ma’an – The Palestinian Workers Union reported the assault of a Palestinian man from Jenin as he traveled to work in Jerusalem on Thursday morning. Leader of the union in Salfit Mahmoud Al-Bar identified the victim as Najib Qawasmeh, 36, whose hand was broken during what Al-Bar said was an unjustified attack. [end]
South Africa condemns ‘infiltration order’
4/22/2010 – Bethlehem – Ma’an – Israel’s Prevention of Infiltration Order 1650 caused the South African government to have “taken note, with the greatest concern,” over a policy a statement called a “violation of an individual’s human rights.” Moreover, the statement said, the law is “reminiscent of past laws under apartheid South Africa,” and called the situation “unacceptable.””South Africa, because of its history, is particularly sensitive to the infringement of human rights that the carrying of a permit implies and should this “permit” not be the correct one, the unilateral punishments that can be brought to bear on an individual by the state, without the individual having recourse to an independent court of law,” the statement read. Israel’s military order 1650, which went into effect on 13 April, expanded the definition of a 1960s order allowing the deportation of infiltrators.
Israel army: Possible Katyusha lands near Jordan
4/22/2010 – Bethlehem – Ma’an – Israel’s military says its forces are investigating explosions and flashes of light reported n
ear the southern Israeli city of Eilat on Thursday morning. The Israeli Home Front Command and the Israeli Police searched the city following the reports, but no evidence indicating a security-related incident was found, Israel’s army said in a statement. A few hours following the incident, it was reported that remains of a Katyusha rocket were discovered near the city of Aqaba, Jordan, and forces are investigating, the statement added. [end]
Erekat: Mitchell heading to Ramallah
4/22/2010 – Bethlehem – Ma’an – US envoy to the Mideast George Mitchell will arrive in Ramallah on Thursday ahead of planned talks with President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday, chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat announced.”We were informed today of Mitchell’s visit to the region, where he will hold talks with President Abbas,” Erekat told Ma’an radio.”The Palestinian leadership expects Mitchell to arrive with an answer on Israel freezing settlements, and a pledge not to submit any new tenders, in order to enter direct talks,” Erekat said.”There is no indication as to what Mitchell is carrying with him, so we’ll have to wait until Friday to hear what he has to say.”The PLO official said Israel and its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, were responsible for the deadlock.”It [Israel] is placing obstacles in the path of peace, and trying to thwart Mitchell’s efforts,” Erekat said. Reports in the Israeli press, meanwhile, indicate that Netanyahu has rejected the Obama administration’s demands to freeze construction in East Jerusalem.
Europe from a Palestinian perspective
4/22/2010 – Bethlehem – Ma’an – Shirin Abu Fannouna, 23, has a different vision about Europe because she is an Arab Palestinian woman living and studying in France and reconciling different and sometimes contradicting lifestyles. On the one hand, Shirin is a big fan of the French feminist Simone de Beauvoir. She even memorized some of De Beauvoir’s famous quotations.” Women exist only as they are conceived by men,” Shirin quoted Beauvoir as saying, describing the line as “very deep as it tells the predetermined role society gives women from childhood.”On the other hand, she still longs for Palestine and Ramallah, with their completely different traditions and habits. Ma’an is producing a documentary about Shirn, “A Woman Between Two Worlds,” as part of a series about Palestinian students in Europe, “Europe from a Palestinian Perspective.
UN AMBASSADOR SAYS PALESTINIAN STATE IS A US NATIONAL INTEREST
Palestine Note 22 Apr 2010 – AMB. RICE RECOUNTS THE HUMAN FACE OF THE CONFLICT AS SHE CALLS FOR ISRAEL AND THE PA TO DO THEIR PART FOR STATEHOOD US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice delivered rousing remarks at the…
Earth Day: Solar energy improves West Bank quality of life
Palestine Note 22 Apr 2010 – Al-Jazeera English ‘s Sherine Tadros reports on the transformative power of renewable energy in a West Bank village. Samia Shineran had to shake a “dead a goat’s stomach filled with milk” for hours on end everyday…
Settlement boycott initiative: Palestinian employment on settlements stops this year
Palestine Note 22 Apr 2010 – By the end of this year, the PA aims to have no Palestinians working on Israeli settlements, Ma’an News Agency reports. PA labor minister Ahmad Majdalani made the announcement Thursday. Majdalani said to state-run Wafa news…
Israel begins deporting Palestinians to Gaza
Palestine Note 22 Apr 2010 – The first Palestinians have been deported to Gaza under a new Israeli ID law, Al-Jazeera English reports. (Please visit the site to view this media) An AJE report filed days before the ID law was put…
Israeli right-wingers burn effigies of Obama
Palestine Note 22 Apr 2010 – Rightists in Israel have passed out effigies of US president Barack Obama to be burned alongside other enemies of the Jewish people for the Lag BaOmer holiday, the Jerusalem Post reports. Lag BaOmer bonfire Adolf Hitler…
AMB. RICE: ‘WE SUPPORT THE FAYYAD STATEHOOD PLAN’
Palestine Note 22 Apr 2010 – US AMBASSADOR TO THE UN SAYS US SUPPORTS FAYYAD STATEHOOD PLAN IN REMARKS AT ARAB ARMERICAN INSTITUTE GALA US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice addressed the Arab American Institute’s Kahlil Gibran “Spirit of Humanity”…
Israel rejects US call to freeze Jerusalem building
Palestine Note 22 Apr 2010 – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has answered US President Obama’s request to freeze Jerusalem building, the answer is no, Haaretz reports. The prime minister responded to a Wall Street Journal report that the Israeli premier conveyed to…
Explosion rocks Jordanian sea port, Katyusha rockets hit Israel
Palestine Note 22 Apr 2010 – A blast in a refrigeration warehouse on the outskirts of Aqaba, Jordan’s Red Sea port city, has rocked the city, the National reports. Katyusha rocket damage in Israel from an older attack The blast, which occurred…
Gaza surfers catch waves despite environmental crisis
Palestine Note 22 Apr 2010 – The Gaza Surf Club has continued to surf the Mediterranean since Operation Cast Lead, despite the destruction to waterworks during the conflict, BBC reports. The 22-day Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip badly damaged civil and…
Trying to effect change in Isral
Palestine Note 22 Apr 2010 – An analysis of the most recent ABC TV interview with former US president Bill Clinton reveals a fascinating development in Washington, DC. The Obama administration has concluded who the culprit is in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and…
Gaza and the ashes of Eyjafjallajokul
Palestine Note 22 Apr 2010 – The world has been reporting extensively about the volcanic ash cloud that has created an aerial jam in Europe leaving many passengers stranded and unable to reach their destinations. In Gaza, the “Eyjafjallajokul” effect has been…
Will Netanyahu open his ears?
Palestine Note 22 Apr 2010 – Israel, like a child, always sees itself blameless, thanks to its traditio
nalist supporters, including some key members of the well-entrenched American Jewish community, who cannot see the light of day as if they are blindfolded. Here…
Not a Smiths song: Some national security advisers matter more than others
Palestine Note 22 Apr 2010 – General Jim Jones is an interesting kind of national security adviser. He doesn’t pretend to be an architect of strategic leaps like Zbigniew Brzezinski, Brent Scowcroft, or Henry Kissinger — who had to wrestle with a…
Polygamy ‘en vogue’ in Gaza
Palestine Note 21 Apr 2010 – By Mariam Hamed, special to Palestine Note I recently got in touch with my old friend Amal. I asked her what was new in her life, and to my surprise, she told me, “I’m marrying a…
US: Iran strike ‘still an option’
AlJazeera 21 Apr 2010 – Officials say military intervention a “last resort” against Iran’s nuclear programme.
Rockets land in Jordanian port city
AlJazeera 22 Apr 2010 – Warehouse damaged but no injuries reported in Aqaba near the Israeli border.
Palestinians deported to Gaza
AlJazeera 22 Apr 2010 – Israeli move raises fears of more Palestinians being expelled from Israel and West Bank.
US tightens pressure on Syria
AlJazeera 22 Apr 2010 – US warns that any transfer of Scud missiles to Lebanon’s Hezbollah would be “incendiary”.
Obama to U.S. Jews: Nothing will distance us from Israel
Ha’aretz 22 Apr 2010 – U.S. President sends rare letter to Major Jewish Organizations, says his views on Mideast misrepresented.
Israel’s leaders have forgotten Herzl’s dream
Ha’aretz 22 Apr 2010 – Israel must choose between either holy places and East Jerusalem, or peace and democracy.
Clinton: U.S. to advance Syria ties despite reported Hezbollah Scud deal
Ha’aretz 22 Apr 2010 – U.S. Secretary of State says benefits of sending a U.S. ambassador to Damascus outweigh the costs.
Anti-Israel group could cost Toronto Gay Pride parade its funding
Ha’aretz 22 Apr 2010 – Toronto officials consider pulling city funding over participation of group named ‘Queers Against Israeli Apartheid’.
Leftists to Elie Wiesel: Occupied Jerusalem can’t be holy
Ha’aretz 22 Apr 2010 – Last week the Nobel laureate published a full page ad saying Jerusalem was above political considerations.
Biden: Israel won’t attack Iran before sanctions allowed to work
Ha’aretz 22 Apr 2010 – U.S. Vice President: Everyone agrees on sanctions; Jim Jones: Mideast peace failures strengthen Iran.
Almost half of Americans feel Obama does not support Israel
Ha’aretz 22 Apr 2010 – New Quinnipiac University poll finds that 44% of Americans disapprove of Obama’s handling of the Mideast conflict.
U.S.: Mideast status quo is not sustainable
Ha’aretz 22 Apr 2010 – State Dept. responds to Netanyahu announcement that Israel would not halt construction in East Jerusalem.
Obama offered Netanyahu a gentlemen’s agreement on Jerusalem
Ha’aretz 22 Apr 2010 – The U.S. has given Netanyahu the cover he needs to reassure his allies over East Jerusalem.
Netanyahu’s ‘no freeze in Jerusalem’ declarations are hollow
Ha’aretz 22 Apr 2010 – Obama realizes PM’s Jerusalem rhetoric is necessary in order to keep his coalition together.
Not all U.S. Jews want to attack Obama
Ha’aretz 22 Apr 2010 – WJC President Ron Lauder represents a few dozen grandees with vested interests, not the Jewish people.
Netanyahu isn’t, and never will be, a true leader
Ha’aretz 22 Apr 2010 – Israel will pay a very heavy price for missing the opportunity to build a Mideast governed by sanity.
Netanyahu ready to agree to Palestinian state within temporary borders
Ha’aretz 22 Apr 2010 – But PM insists on delaying negotiations over final status of Jerusalem to end of process.
Meat and hummus sales soar on Independence Day
Ha’aretz 22 Apr 2010 – This year too the Israeli populace maintained its reputation as aficionados of outdoor grilling. The companies that sell the relevant Independence Day products say sales soared this year. …
Jordan confirms: Grad rocket hit Aqaba
Ha’aretz 22 Apr 2010 – Two rockets were fired early Thursday from Sinai toward southern Israeli city of Eilat; no one was hurt.
Jordan confirms rocket strike in Red Sea port city
Ha’aretz 22 Apr 2010 – Following reports of blasts, Israeli security forces search Eilat area, believed to be target of strike.
Gaza extremists urge Al-Qaida to target Yemen Jews
Ha’aretz 22 Apr 2010 – Al-Qaida also planning to set up base in Sinai Peninsula, Yemen-based Shi’ite group tells Haaretz.
Olmert continues daily routine – despite ongoing Holyland investigation
Ha’aretz 22 Apr 2010 – It’s business as usual for former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who returned from a trip to Spain last week. Olmert leaves his home in Jerusalem’s Motza neighborhood almost daily and commutes to his office in Tel Aviv’s Ha’arbaa street. There he holds business meetings with people associated with the business consulting company he has set up, and as part of his work as chairman of the Avraham Livnat Group, a company specializing in logistics, retailing, manufacturing, energy, agriculture and real estate, both in Israel and abroad. …
Tel Aviv to initiate free municipal WiFi pilot
Ha’aretz 22 Apr 2010 – The Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipality will start a pilot to offer free Wi-Fi Internet access to residents, and visitors, in the city. The t
est will start in another month and a half on Ben-Gurion Boulevard, and the city wants to expand it to other commercial and public areas of the city in the future. …
Israel deports West Bank Palestinian to Gaza upon release from prison
Ha’aretz 22 Apr 2010 – A Palestinian prisoner from the West Bank was forcibly deported to the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, immediately after his release from prison in Israel. …
Violent, drunk youngsters are taking over Kinneret beaches
Ha’aretz 22 Apr 2010 – Nine people were injured in drunken brawls on Lake Kinneret shores …
IOF attacks Palestinian worker on his way to work
22 Apr 2010 – West Bank, April 22, (Pal Telegraph) The Israeli soldiers attacked today Najib Fawzat Qawasmah, 36, from Jenin, they violently beat him when he was heading to his workplace in Jerusalem. According to security sources, Qawasmeh said to, “during my way to my work place in Jerusalem with another group of workers, Israeli occupation forces hampered us at a place near…
Egypt to open Rafah border today
22 Apr 2010 – Gaza, April 22, (Pal Telegraph) The Egyptian authorities continued today to open the Rafah crossing with the Gaza Strip, for the second day in a row in one direction from the Egyptian side for the return of Palestinian patients who have completed treatment in Egyptian hospitals. Egyptian official security source from within the Rafah crossing confirmed the opening of the…
Vilnai: No facilitations on Gaza’s crossings until ‘Shalit’ is released
22 Apr 2010 – Gaza, April 22, (Pal Telegraph) The Vice Minister of the Israeli army, Matan Vilnai, said that Israel will not provide more facilities to the crossings of the Gaza Strip as long as Hamas captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, remains in detention. This came during an inspection tour that Vilnai was taking at the Kerem Abu Salem crossing, which the commander…
IOF arrests citizens in Bethlehem
22 Apr 2010 – Bethlehem, April 22, (Pal Telegraph) The Israeli occupation forces arrested early today, 7 people, including two brothers in the town of “Takoa” east of Bethlehem, and took them to an unknown destination. Sources reported that Israeli forces stormed the village at dawn, and raided several houses searching and tampering with its contents, and arrested 7 people, mostly students. Sources added…
Abdel Qader calls Jerusalemites to be present at Friday prayers
22 Apr 2010 – Jerusalem, April 22, (Pal Telegraph) Hatem Abdel Qader, chairman of Jerusalem’s file in the Fatah movement, called upon Jerusalemites to participate in Friday prayers in a tent at “Al Bustan” area, in response to the march which Jewish extremists intend to organize in the town next Sunday. Abdel Qader expressed his astonishment about the Israeli police granting license to Jewish…
Clashes taking place in Jerusalem
22 Apr 2010 – Jerusalem, April 22, (Pal Telegraph) In the meantime, clashes in the town of Silwan to the south of the Old City of Jerusalem, are taking place between young Jerusalemites and Israeli soldiers. According to local sources in the town, the clashes began after the settlers provoked the citizens, so the citizens had to answer them back and hurled their cars…
Israeli gunboats open fire at Gazan fishing boats
22 Apr 2010 – Gaza, April 22, 2010 (Pal Telegraph) – Israeli armed boats opened fire today at Palestinian fishing boats in northern Gaza waters. The Israeli gunboats opened heavy fire towards dozens of Palestinian fishing boats on Al-Sodaneya and Al-Shati coastal areas, north of Gaza Strip, which enforced the fishermen to retreat to the cost, no casualties were reported. Yesterday, the fisherman, Youssef…
2010: Palestinian Prisoners Day
Uruknet April 22, 2010 – There are currently more than 7.000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Hundreds are being held in administrative detention. 17th of April was the Palestinian Prisoners Day. Hundreds of Palestinians took part to the rallies organised across the West Bank and Gaza. Palestine Monitor’s photographer, FLV, takes a look to the commemoration held in Ramallah…
Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS): “Detainee Who Died Last Week, Was Hit On His Spine, Neck”
Uruknet April 22, 2010 – The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) reported that detainee Raed Abu Hammad, who died on April 16, was hit by Israeli interrogators on the center spine and the back on his neck, and died of his wounds in his cell. Forensic examination revealed that Abu Hammad was healthy and did not suffer from any health condition. He…
IOF soldiers force Palestinian child to drink sewage water
Uruknet April 22, 2010 — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) beat up a Palestinian child in Al-Khalil district after arresting him for alleged involvement in throwing stones at them then forced him to drink sewage water. The IOF troops detained the child at the entrance to Beit Ummar village, north of Al-Khalil, where they have been imposing a tightened siege for the…
Right of return not negotiable
Uruknet April 22, 2010 – Washington insiders are now touting a misguided Obama-dictated plan to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Most recently, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Stephen Solarz took to the pages of The Washington Post to float the idea of an imposed peace, which largely undermines non-negotiable historic Palestinian rights. The authors call for the annulment of the Palestinian right of return,…
Barghouti: it’s time to end the historic injustice
Uruknet April 22, 2010 – The Secretary General of the National Palestinian Initiative has called for intensified popular resistance to restore the spirit and culture of public struggle in the face of the Israeli occupation. Dr. Mustafa Barghouti said that the world which is watching Israelis celebrating their country’s “independence” are watching celebrations of the Palestinian Nakba and the beginning of…
Palestinian Child Reveals Abuse, Torture By Israeli soldiers
Uruknet April 22, 2010 – A Palestinian child, 15 years old, revealed to the Qatar-based, Al Jazeera, details on how Israeli soldiers kidnapped him, struck him and forced him to drink untreated sewage water at the entrance of Beit Ummar town, north
of Hebron in the southern part of the West Bank. The child, Sabri Ibrahim Awad, told Al Jazeera that…
Palestinians deported to Gaza
Uruknet April 22, 2010 – Two Palestinians have been deported to the Gaza Strip from Israel, raising fears that more expulsions could follow under a controversial new Israeli military order. After nine years in Israeli jail, Ahmad Sabah, a 40-year-old Palestinian, was sent to Gaza, instead of being released to the West Bank where his family was waiting for him. Israelis…
Imprisoning Palestinian Women
Uruknet April 22, 2010 – A July 2008 Fact Sheet Series titled, “Behind the Bars: Palestinian Women in Israeli Prisons” was jointly prepared by the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, the Palestinian Counseling Center (PCC), and Mandela Institute. Along with background information, it covered Israel’s obligations under international law, prison conditions where they’re held, medical neglect, and their educational…
Beit Ummar: Vineyard flooded with settlement sewage
Uruknet April 22, 2010 ‚Äì Israeli settlers opened a sewage pipe running toward the Hebron-area town of Beit Ummar on Wednesday night, flooding a Palestinian vineyard with wastewater, local officials said.By opening the sewage pipe, residents of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc destroyed some 70,000 square meters of the vineyard belonging to the Sabarneh family, experts visiting the site said. The…
Israeli Tanks Invade And Destroy Farm Lands In Southern Gaza Strip
Uruknet April 22, 2010- Israeli tanks and bulldozers stormed on Thursday the village of Abassan Al Mubra in southern Gaza Strip and destroyed farm lands. Witnesses told local media that tanks opened fire at residents’ homes as bulldozers uprooted trees and destroyed farm lands owned by local farmers.
Weekly Report on Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (15-21 April 2010)
Uruknet April 22, 2010 – Summary: Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law continued in the OPT during the reporting period (15 ‚Äì 21 April 2010): Shooting: During the reporting period, IOF killed a member of the Palestinian resistance and one civilian in the Gaza Strip, and wounded two civilians, including a child, in the West Bank. On 16 April…
Hamas to Carry Out More Executions
Uruknet April 21, 2010 – The Hamas authorities in Gaza have vowed to carry out more executions of those on death row despite intense international criticism and condemnation from both Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups. During the last few days, the Islamic movement has faced a barrage of denunciation following the execution of two Gazan men last Thursday, by firing…
Netanyahu rejects East Jerusalem settlement freeze
The National 22 Apr 2010 – The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, rejects any freeze on settlement building in East Jerusalem, a key US and Palestinian demand.
US Middle East envoy launching new mission
The National 22 Apr 2010 – US Middle East envoy plans to begin a new mission that could determine whether Israel and the United States sink deeper into discord over Jewish settlement policy.
International Solidarity Movement
Bulldozers return to destroy children’s playground in Beit Jala. Six activists arrested.
4/22/2010 – International Solidarity Movement – Israeli bulldozers today destroyed a garden and children’s playground in Beit Jala, and 100 fruit and olive trees in Al Walaja, both in the Bethlehem district, to make way for the continued construction of their illegal apartheid wall. Soldiers present used violent force to remove Palestinian, Israeli and international activists who attempted to prevent the destruction. Two Israelis were arrested immediately, and six internationals were later arrested. In Beit Jala, this is the second time that this particular garden and playground has been bulldozed. A legal injunction preventing further destruction expired this week. Following the previous demolition, in early March, local Palestinian residents and international supporters rebuilt the playground and planted new olive trees in the garden. All these were today destroyed. Twelve people, representing six different nationalities, sat in front of the Caterpillar bulldozer as it moved up to the garden.
Prisoner’s Day in Bet Ummar
Alternative Information Center – Wednesday, 21 April 2010, Prisoner’s Day in Bet Ummar Prisoners’ Day pays tribute to the Palestinian prison population, which has a significant weight in Palestinian society, and events are held in their honour in cities, towns…
Holiday over for Israel as Obama lays down the law
PNN – RAMALLAH // Israel went back to work yesterday after a holiday season that has disrupted most of April. For the Israeli coalition government, however, that return is probably even less welcome than to…
Has Obama decided that the Netanyahu coalition is the problem?
PNN – By: Daoud Kuttab An analysis of the most recent ABC TV interview with former US president Bill Clinton reveals a fascinating development in Washington, DC. The Obama administration has concluded who the…
Israeli military dubs settler clash ‘intolerable’
PNN – Israel’s military has dubbed as intolerable what it described as a riot by settlers in the West Bank. The military said about 100 settlers threw rocks and attacked soldiers as they tried…
Palestinian Center for Human Rights
Weekly Report on Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (15-21 April 2010)
PCHR 21 Apr 2010 – Israeli soldiers detain a Palestinian man during clashes in the Safa village near Hebron Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Continue Systematic Attacks against Palestinian Civilians and Property in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)….
PCHR Receives EU Attach?© in Charge of Human Rights Projects
PCHR 22 Apr 2010 – Ref: 46/2010 Yesterday, 21 April 2010, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) received the Attach?© of the European Union (EU) dealing with Human Rights project in the OPT, Estelle Kadouch, accompanied by Natach Mathy of Oxfam Novib…..
PCHR Organizes Three Meetings on Political Participation and Elections
PCHR 21 Apr 2010 – Ref: 45/2010 During this week, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights’ (PCHR) Democratic Development Unit (DDU) organized three meetings on political participation and elections, in cooperation with three local organizations in the Gaza Strip…..
After 17 Years of His Death by an Israeli Settler, PCHR Succeed in Ensuring Reparation for Na’im al-Madhoun’s Family
PCHR 20 Apr 2010 – Ref: 44/2010 A few days ago, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) delivered to the family of a Palestinian victim, who was killed by an Israeli settler, 450,000 [[NIS]] paid by as a compensation according to a decision taken by the Magistrate Court in Jerusalem. The victim was killed by an Israeli settler in 1993…..
‘Gaza transfers not a change in policy’
Jeruslalem Post 22 Apr 2010 – Sewage pumping station equipment sent by COGAT into Gaza.
Arab World: A tale of two Palestinian authorities
Jeruslalem Post 22 Apr 2010 – Is Palestinian reconciliation really in the cards, or must we reconcile ourselves to a Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip?
Latest Dankner scandal revives controversy over salt deal
Jeruslalem Post 22 Apr 2010 – Petition addresses highly controversial agreement between Israel Lands Authority and Israel Salt Industry Companies.
‘Israel won’t strike Iran without US’
Jeruslalem Post 22 Apr 2010 – Biden stresses next step is UN sanctions, not preemptive attack.
Tourism minister vows to halt airport ‘degrading treatment’
Jeruslalem Post 22 Apr 2010 – “Comprehensive and perceptual” reform in works for Israel’s attitude toward those arriving at Ben-Gurion Airport.
Coalition may back PM on J’lem freeze
Jeruslalem Post 22 Apr 2010 – Israel Beiteinu, however, threatens crisis over other demands.
Analysis: Giving ground on Arab east Jerusalem?
Jeruslalem Post 22 Apr 2010 – On the face of it, Netanyahu’s interview with Channel 2 represents a fairly banal outing.
Police urge bribery charges against Ramat Gan mayor
Jeruslalem Post 22 Apr 2010 – Tzvi Bar, a one-time high-ranking Israel Police commander, accused of bribery, money-laundering, aggravated fraud, and income tax violations.
Ayalon, Rotem to reassure US critics of Conversion Bill
Jeruslalem Post 22 Apr 2010 – Deputy FM and Israel Beiteinu MK set to meet with Jewish leaders in New York.
HaMoked Condemns Forced Transfer of Palestinians to Gaza
WAFA 22 Apr 2010 – TEL AVIV, April 22, 2010 (WAFA) – HaMoked, Israeli Center for the Defense of the Individual said it seriously condemns the forced transfer of Palestinians to Gaza, or to anywhere else. Last
Palestinian Families to Benefit from much Needed Job Opportunities in Hebron
WAFA 22 Apr 2010 – HEBRON, April 22, 2010 (WAFA)- The international humanitarian organization Action Against Hunger (ACF), in partnership with the Union of Agriculture Work Committees (UAWC) and Dura Cooperative
Ir Amim: Israeli Government Endangering Israel’s Political Future
WAFA 22 Apr 2010 – TEL AVIV, April 22, 2010 (WAFA)- Ir Amim, an Israeli NGO said it is wary of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to continue construction in East Jerusalem
US to resume talks with Israel despite Netanyahu’s refusal to halt settlements
The Guardian 22 Apr 2010 – George Mitchell to combine meeting with PM with trip to Ramallah to see Mahmoud Abbas The US envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, will hold talks tomorrow with Binyamin Netanyahu, despite the Israeli prime minister’s…
Binyamin Netanyahu tells US: We won’t stop east Jerusalem settlement building
The Guardian 22 Apr 2010 – Israeli prime minister defiant ahead of visit from US special envoy, George Mitchell, despite deadlock in peace talks Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has reportedly told the US administration that his government will not stop settlement…
Im Tirtzu: delegitimising the ‘delegitimisers’ | Antony Lerman
The Guardian 22 Apr 2010 – A campaign to suppress all criticism now extends to smearing Israeli human rights activists as hostile to Jewish statehood The word “delegitimisation” has become the most significant weapon in the rhetorical arsenal of those defending Israel…
Israeli military insists freed Palestinian is from Gaza
Relief Web 22 Apr 2010 – Source: Agence France-Presse
OPT: Protection of Civilians Weekly Report, 14 – 20 Apr 2010
Relief Web 22 Apr 2010 – Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Press Conference on Gaza by United Nations Palestine Relief Agency
Relief Web 22 Apr 2010 – Source: UN Department of Public Information, UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near Ea
st
Volcanic eruption in Iceland delays resettlement plans of Palestinians
Relief Web 22 Apr 2010 – Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees
HaMoked – First deportation under new military order
B’tselem 21 Apr 2010 – Yesterday Israel forcibly transferred Ahmad Sayeed Sabah to Gaza with no judicial review. Sabah has resided in the West Bank for the past 15 years and his now separated from his wife and child. The move comes after official promises not to deport anyone f
Palestinian Information Center
Tafakji: Israel uses religion to erase Arab and Islamic roots from J’lem
PIC 23 Apr 2010 – Director of maps and survey department of the orient house Khalil Al-Tafakji said that Israel uses religion to remove the Arab and Islamic roots from Jerusalem and replace them with Jewish ones.
Hamas slams Israeli decision to deport prisoner Sabah from W. Bank
PIC 23 Apr 2010 – Hamas condemned Israel for coercively deporting prisoner Ahmed Sabah from the West Bank to Gaza, warning that this portends more racist practices against the Palestinians in the West Bank.
Rizqa: Israel’s refusal to freeze settlement ideological
PIC 23 Apr 2010 – Dr. Yousuf Rizqa said that the Israeli refusal of the US request to freeze settlement activities in east Jerusalem was an expected behavior because it stems from ideological and Talmudic grounds.
IOF troops bulldoze land in southern Gaza, as rockets target Eilat
PIC 23 Apr 2010 – Israeli occupation forces (IOF) advanced into southern Gaza Strip, east of Khan Younis city, on Thursday and bulldozed cultivated land lots, local sources reported.
Occupation police quell Palestinians in OJ, break the hand of worker
PIC 23 Apr 2010 – Israeli occupation policemen clashed with Palestinian demonstrators in Silwan suburb in occupied Jerusalem late Wednesday night.
Thabet to Obama: Palestine for Palestinians, not for Jews
PIC 23 Apr 2010 – Thabet organization has rejected a phrase by Obama in his message to Israel on the 62nd anniversary of its establishment saying that Palestine is the historical homeland of the Jewish people.
IOF soldiers force Palestinian child to drink sewage water
PIC 23 Apr 2010 – Israeli occupation forces (IOF) beat up a Palestinian child in Al-Khalil district after arresting him for alleged involvement in throwing stones at them then forced him to drink sewage water.
IOF troops round up 24 Palestinians including Hamas activist
PIC 23 Apr 2010 – Israeli occupation forces (IOF) rounded up 24 Palestinian citizens during various raids on West Bank areas at dawn Thursday, the Hebrew daily Yediot Ahronot reported.
Abu Halabia asks UN to send committee to investigate IOA schemes in OJ
PIC 23 Apr 2010 – Dr. Ahmed Abu Halabia, the head of the international Quds institution ‚Äì Gaza branch, has warned of the seriousness of the Israeli plan of building an underground in occupied Jerusalem’s Old City.
IOF report praises Ramallah authority for quelling resistance
PIC 23 Apr 2010 – A periodical report by the command of the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) heaped praise on the PA in Ramallah for aborting many resistance attacks against those forces.
Poll Shows Waning Palestinian Support for Two States
The Media Line 21 Apr 2010 – Support among Palestinians for a bi-national state is on the rise, poll suggests. There has been a steady increase in the number of Palestinians who are open to the idea of a bi-national state rather than…
Palestinian Prime Minister Tells Conference on Non-Violence: Keep Working to Build State
The Media Line 21 Apr 2010 – Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Faya’d told a conference on non-violent resistance on Wednesday that progress is being made through a boycott of goods manufactured or grown in Israeli communities located on land acquired in the 1967…
Israel Frees Former Hamas Minister Taken as Bargaining Chip
The Media Line 21 Apr 2010 – Israel on Wednesday released from jail a former Palestinian minister for prisoners’ affairs, Wasfi Kabha. Kabha was one of about 40 ministers and members of parliament loyal to Hamas arrested by Israel following the abduction by…
Hamas is accused of being moderate
LA Times 22 Apr 2010 – Hard-liners in the Gaza Strip say the militant group has become too soft on Israel now that it’s running a government and dealing with foreign officials. Hamas, the Palestinian faction viewed by many in the West as a nest of terrorists and Islamic hard-liners, is battling a curious new epithet: moderate.
Attacking Richard
Goldstone
LA Times 21 Apr 2010 – Personal attacks on the man who investigated the Gaza conflict by defenders of Israel are wrong. The worldwide Jewish community can be thin skinned about criticism of the policies of the state of Israel, but the vitriol reached a new low last week. After members of the South African Jewish community threatened to disrupt the ceremony if he attended, Justice Richard Goldstone, author of a controversial United Nations report on the conflict in Gaza, canceled plans to attend his grandson’s upcoming bar mitzvah ceremony in Johannesburg.
Why Iran won’t attack Israel
LA Times 21 Apr 2010 – The Jewish state’s substantial Palestinian population, which Israel once sought to expel, serves as a deterrent. Palestinians are in Israel today because they managed to survive the depopulation of 1948, the year the Jewish state was founded (Arabs constitute about 20% of Israel’s population). Ironically, while Benny Morris’ scholarship suggests that the mere existence of these Palestinians in Israel — and millions more in the occupied territories — irks him, Israel’s substantial Arab population also blows a hole in his argument about the need to deal with the supposed Iranian nuclear threat.
Report Lists Foreign Companies Working With Iran
New York Times 22 Apr 2010 – The Government Accountability Office report finds that over the last five years, 41 foreign companies have helped Iran develop its oil and gas sector.
Signs of Life for Mideast Peace Talks
New York Times 22 Apr 2010 – The U.S. envoy to the Middle East, George J. Mitchell, met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, a sign that peace talks may be getting back on track.
“Occupied” Pollution
Palestine Monitor – There are 121 settlements in the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem. In many of these, violence against the local Palestinian population is common. In a number, however, it is pollution that is a major problem. Waste-water pollution from settlements destroys crops and trees, pollutes ground and…
2010: Palestinian Prisoners Day
Palestine Monitor – There are currently more than 7.000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Hundreds are being held in administrative detention. 17th of April was the Palestinian Prisoners Day. Hundreds of Palestinians took part to the rallies organised across the West Bank and Gaza. Palestine Monitor’s photographer, FLV, takes…
Prisoner’s Day in Bet Ummar
Alternative Information Center – Wednesday, 21 April 2010, Prisoner’s Day in Bet Ummar Prisoners’ Day pays tribute to the Palestinian prison population, which has a significant weight in Palestinian society, and events are held in their honour in cities, towns and villages throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories. One of these…
Goldstone Report said that Gaza remains occupied… why?
Mondoweiss – Eva Bartlett of International Solidarity Movement posts this photograph and report today from Gaza: Four Israeli military bulldozers accompanied by four tanks invaded the Al Faraheen region, east of Khan Younis, this morning, destroying farmland, tearing up wheat and lentil crops, and terrorizing the civilians in…
Judt says Holocaust is exploited for ‘uncompromising Israelophilia and… lachrymose self-regard’
Mondoweiss – Another fabulous memoir piece by Tony Judt in the New York Review of Books , this one on the sources of his own proudly nonreligious Jewish identity. I gather his method of composition is oral, which you can see in the way he circles his subject, but…
Hafradah v apartheid, the story continues
Mondoweiss – Hannah Schwarzschild responds to the debate she helped start over the use of the word “hafradah,” which is Hebrew for separation, instead of “apartheid” to characterize Israel’s occupation. So let me respond quickly, since I seem to be getting attacked from left, right and center for…
Rashid Khalidi: Under Obama ‘there has been no real change in the fatally flawed policies of the U.S. in the region’
Mondoweiss – As Palestinians prepare to commemorate the Nakba and Israelis celebrated their Independence Day, tension between the U.S. and Israel over settlement construction in occupied East Jerusalem continues. To make sense of these and other developments, the Institute for Middle East Understanding sat down in New York…
Goldstone: ‘I would dearly love to attend my grandson’s bar mitzvah’
Mondoweiss – Wrenching letter from Judge Goldstone to Business Day, a Johannesburg publication, on the dustup over his grandson’s bar mitzvah. (For background on Rabbi Warren Goldstein’s stiffnecked position, to which Goldstone refers, read this ): I read with dismay Chief Rabbi Goldstein’s article in yesterday’s Business Day. I…
Articles
21st Century Mass Expulsion
Nasim Ahmed, The Palestine Telegraph, Palestine Telegraph4/23/2010
Briefing on the Israeli Order regarding Prevention of Infiltration (Amendment No. 2) and the Order regarding Security Provisions (Amendment No. 112) passed on Tuesday, April 13 2010.
Behind the euphuism, ‘prevention of Infiltration’ lies a horrible truth which Israeli officials are trying desperately hard to conceal. This simple truth is a truth that has been cardinal throughout Israel’s existence and continues to do so. It’s a truth that connects the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948 and the recent military order that would result in the forced expulsion of many thousands of Palestinians. It’s the truth that Israel was founded on a policy of systematic population transfer and it has been committed to this policy ever since its inception.
This simple fact is a natural outcome of Israel’s central creed, ‘redemption of the land with as few of the indigenous people as possible’. Since its inception its central creed has been efficiently carried out through modern methods of population transfer and land appropriation. This explains why, even as rhetoric and politics change, expulsion and dispossession continue through various methods.
Its strategy commenced with a total denial of Palestinian as a people. Since than over many decades, Israel has developed and refined policies to disperse imprison and impoverish the P
alestinian people, in a relentless effort to destroy them as a nation. It has industrialized Palestinian misery through ever more sophisticated systems of curfews, checkpoints, walls, permits and land grabs. It has transformed the West Bank and Gaza into laboratories for testing the infrastructure of confinement, human resolve and the limits of human despair.
Throughout history Israel rarely missed an opportunity to implement its core principal of population transfer and it has relentlessly pursued this course through its many wars, creeping colonization in the form of settlement building, a regime that combines occupation, apartheid and colonization.more..e-mail
US may soon send ultimatum to Israel
Daoud Kuttab, Ma’an News Agency4/22/2010
An analysis of the most recent ABC TV interview with former US President Bill Clinton reveals a fascinating development in Washington. The Obama administration finally decided who the culprit in the Arab-Israeli conflict is, and it’s not the Arabs.
When asked by reporter Jack Tapper about US plans for the Middle East, Clinton said Washington plans to “do something to deprive both sides of any excuse not to engage in serious negotiations.”
While the plan, as Clinton explained it, will affect both Israel and Palestine, it puts the blame for the stalemate clearly on Israeli shoulders. The argument against the administration putting forward a peace plan, Clinton said, is that the current Israeli government “almost certainly would reject it.”
Clinton, whose second-term administration is said to have forced Netanyahu, in his first term, out of power, clearly understands the risks of trying to influence the internal dynamics of a country like Israel.
Reflecting on that risk, Clinton told ABC News that it could “make us look weak.” But the Obama administration, Clinton said, “may decide it’s more important to have clarity and to do something that will be an action-forcing event to put them [Arabs and Israelis] back to the table.”
Translation: it is time to announce to the world what is required for peace in the Middle East, no matter who ends up looking like the obstructionist party to the conflict.
A US peace plan that is fair and reasonable would certainly have many ordinary Israelis and Palestinians cheering. It could cause some major damage to right-wing Israeli political forces that came to power as a result of eight years of former US president George Bush’s so-called war on terror.more..e-mail
Bad Faith in the Holy City
Rashid Khalidi, Jerusalem Fund for Education and Community Development4/15/2010
The Israeli government’s announcement in March that it would further expand East Jerusalem settlements was just the latest in a decades-old series of calculated slights to the United States.
Since 1967, virtually every time a U.S. envoy has arrived to discuss the fate of the West Bank or Gaza, the Israeli government of the day has bluntly shown who is really boss, usually with a carefully timed unilateral expansion of Israel’s presence in the occupied territories. Since the 1970s, Israel has illegally settled close to half a million of its citizens in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, not to mention building a barrier mainly inside the West Bank on Arab-owned land that is longer and taller than the Berlin Wall.
Given that for a year the Obama administration has sought a settlement freeze in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, it is impossible to interpret the latest announcement of settlement expansion in the city as anything but a provocation. (The alternative explanation — that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cannot control his own government — cannot be taken seriously.) As if on cue, an obedient majority in Congress issued a letter demanding that there be no public discussion of U.S.-Israeli differences. This, however, has not ended the controversy.
Although this episode has revealed that some things never change, it has been unusual in the sense that U.S. administrations usually take great care to avoid offending the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (known as AIPAC). Yet, this year, senior officials suggested that unconditional U.S. support for Israel, far from serving U.S. national interests, may in fact jeopardize them. The Israeli paper Yediot Ahronot reported that Vice President Joe Biden said as much to Netanyahu in March; the message was reiterated in a statement by Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and in the congressional testimony of the head of the United States Central Command, General David Petraeus, who argued that “Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of U.S. partnerships with governments and peoples [in the region].”more..e-mail
Right of return not negotiable
Electronic Intifada: 22 Apr 2010 – Washington insiders are now touting a misguided Obama-dictated plan to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Most recently, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Stephen Solarz took to the pages of The Washington Post to float the idea of an imposed peace, which largely undermines non-negotiable historic Palestinian rights. As a Palestinian, I believe that any plan that seeks to sacrifice our inalienable human rights to ensure race-based majorities in Israel will fail. Ahmed Moor comments.
Veolia tries to spin its involvement in the occupation
Electronic Intifada: 22 Apr 2010 – By participating in the touring Veolia Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition , the French transnational company Veolia Environnement is attempting to spin its image that has been tarnished by the exposure of its involvement in the Israeli occupation. Adri Nieuwhof reports for The Electronic Intifada.
watching the invasion unfold
In Gaza: 22 Apr 2010 – It was an early morning, farmers relieved to have harvested the 6 dunam (1 dunam is roughly 1000 square metres) field of lentils planted 5 months ago in Al Faraheen borderlands. The village, east of Khan Younis, includes land cut off to farmers by the Israeli-imposed “buffer zone”. That technically 300 metre no-go zone stretching south to north along Gaza’s border with Israel actually extends far beyond the few hundred metres, up to 2 km in some areas where Palestinian civilians have been shot, injured or killed, by Israeli soldiers while on their land. Abu Qater Tabbash has 100 dunams of land he can no longer access, he says, because it lies in the buffer zone. The land he worked today, along with 5 women from his family, is rented land. Their crop will no
t pay off, but it will provide lentils for the family and hay for their animals….
“Occupied” Pollution
Palestine Monitor: 22 Apr 2010 – There are 121 settlements in the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem. In many of these, violence against the local Palestinian population is common. In a number, however, it is pollution that is a major problem. Waste-water pollution from settlements destroys crops and trees, pollutes ground and drinking water supplies, and damages land and harms wildlife and the communities dependent on it. Palestine Monitor examines 3 cases. Elqana Just north of Route 5, near Qalqiliya in the northern West Bank, downhill from the Israeli settlement of Elqana, a pipe pumps foul-smelling domestic waste-water from the settlement into a Palestinian valley. The land is owned by farmers from the nearby town of Az Zawiya. The waste water also flows into a river that acts as a water source for the town. Uphill, two large tanks denote the water clarification plant whose construction is ongoing. The plant’s construction, a venture by the Ministry…
2010: Palestinian Prisoners Day
Palestine Monitor: 22 Apr 2010 – There are currently more than 7.000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Hundreds are being held in administrative detention. 17th of April was the Palestinian Prisoners Day. Hundreds of Palestinians took part to the rallies organised across the West Bank and Gaza. Palestine Monitor’s photographer, FLV, takes a look to the commemoration held in Ramallah. Since its occupation of the Palestinian Territory in 1967, the Israeli authorities systematically violate the most basic rights granted by international and human rights conventions through inhumane treatment, restrictions on movements, killings, deportation, and detention. According to the PCBS, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics: more than 19,000 Palestinian were under administrative detention in Israeli jails since year 2002. According to the data of the Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners and Ex-prisoners, Israel has detained since 1967 more than 760,000 Palestinians including about 70,000 since the Aqsa Intifada. The data shows that 315 of current prisoners were…
The New Dark Age 
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