News
International Middle East Media Center
Israeli forces deport 2 Palestinian residents of Israel to Gaza
IMEMC – Friday April 23, 2010 – 23:38, In what appears to be the first enforcement of a recent Israeli military order on Palestinian residency rights, 2 Palestinian residents of Israel have been deported to Gaza in separate incidents, in what Palestinians across Israel and the West Bank see as a precursor of what is to come.
Qassam Fighter Killed in Gaza Explosion
IMEMC – Friday April 23, 2010 – 22:13, The Al Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, reported Friday that one of its members was killed in an explosion in Al Zaytoun neighborhood, east of Gaza City.
Bil’in Ends Its Fifth Conference, Soldiers Attack The Weekly Protest Injuring A Dozen Civilians
IMEMC – Friday April 23, 2010 – 18:04, At least a dozen Palestinian and international civilians were injured during the weekly nonviolent protest at the central West Bank village of Bil’in.
Villagers Near Bethlehem Protest The Israeli Wall Built On Their Lands
IMEMC – Friday April 23, 2010 – 16:55, Residents of Al Ma’ssara village near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem protest on Friday midday the Israeli-built wall on their lands.
Al Walaja Villagers Protest The Wall Being Built On Their Lands
IMEMC – Friday April 23, 2010 – 16:09, Around 200 villagers along with international supporters gathered in Al-Walaja village south of Jerusalem on Friday to protest the Israeli wall being built on their lands.
Seven Injured in The Weekly Nil’in Anti-Wall Protest
IMEMC – Friday April 23, 2010 – 15:57, Seven local youth were injured at the village of Nil’in, central West Bank during the weekly anti wall protest on Friday.
PCHR Weekly Report: Palestinian fighter killed, 3 Palestinian civilians injured by Israeli troops
IMEMC – Friday April 23, 2010 – 13:20, In its Weekly Report on Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) found that during the week of 15-21 April 2010, a member of the Palestinian resistance was killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip. 3 Palestinian civilians, including a child, were wounded by Israeli gunfire in the West Bank.
Israel Bars Grand Mufti Of Jerusalem From Traveling
IMEMC – Friday April 23, 2010 – 12:29, Israeli Interior Minister, Elie Yishai, issued a decree on Thursday preventing Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, the Imam of the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and head of the Higher Islamic Committee from leaving the country until September 27, 2010.
Sunday Could Witness Official Declaration Of Indirect Talks, Israel Says
IMEMC – Friday April 23, 2010 – 12:00, Israeli sources reported that this coming Sunday could witness an official declaration for the beginning of American-mediated indirect Palestinian-Israeli peace talks. The sources expressed optimism that the mission of U.S. Middle East Envoy, George Mitchell, have a good chance to succeed while Israel will not be asked to declare settlement freeze.
Haniyya: “Resumption Of Talks Gives Israel A Cover-up For The Judaization Of Jerusalem”
IMEMC – Friday April 23, 2010 – 11:18, Ismail Haniyya, Prime Minister of the dissolved Hamas-led government in the Gaza Strip, stated Thursday the resuming peace talks with Israel provides another cover-up for what he described as the “Judaization of Jerusalem”.
Gas canister injures anti-wall protester in Bil’in
4/23/2010 – Bethlehem – Ma’an – A Palestinian citizen of Israel was injured by a high-velocity tear-gas canister during a protest against the separation wall in the West Bank village of Bil’in on Friday, witnesses and Israel’s army said. Emad Rezqa, 43, from Yaffa in Israel, was hit in the forehead by an aluminum tear-gas projectile shot directly at him by soldiers, the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee reported. He was hospitalized at the Hadassa Ein Karem hospital in Jerusalem with a fractured skull and brain hemorrhage, the committee stated. An Israeli military spokesman, quoting medics, described Rezqa’s injuries as light, and said he was evacuated by Israeli medics. The march, which commenced at the village’s mosque after the midday prayer, was attacked with tear gas some 30 seconds after reaching the gate in the wall, despite the fact that it was entirely peaceful, the committee stated.
Demolition orders issued south of Hebron
4/23/2010 – Hebron – Ma’an – Israeli authorities handed demolition orders to five structures including Bedouin tents east of Yatta, south of the West Bank city of Hebron, on Thursday, locals residents said. Sources in the Yatta municipality told Ma’an that Israeli forces raided the areas of Sha’b Al-Batam and Ma’een, to the east, which is surrounded by the settlements of Eva Hal, Metza Ya’er, and Sosya, where they handed over demolition orders. The farmers who were ordered to leave these areas were identified as Yousef Ismail An-Najjar, Ezzat Jubrael An-Najjar, Mahmoud Musa An-Najjar, Hatem Musa Al-Jabarin, and Ishaq Jibril. Representatives of Israel’s Civil Administration office could not be reached for comment by phone or e-mail. The demolition orders mark an upswing in Israeli home and structural demolitions in Area C of the West Bank.
Health conditions central concern for striking prisoners
4/23/2010 – Gaza – Ma’an – Prisoners punctuating a boycott of family visits with hunger strikes have grown concerned over the health of fellow detainees, one prisoner told officials on Thursday. Tawfiq Abu Na’im, currently held in an Israeli detention facility, told case workers at the Detainees Studies Center, that prisoners with failing health are neglected when they participate in hunger strikes, of which there have been three already in April.”We are afraid the number of detainees who perish inside this prison will increase,” Abu Na’im said, referring to the death of Ahmad Abu Hammad in an Israeli isolation cell on 15 April. Abu Na’im said the current protest treatment only serves to highlight the regularly poor medical care received in the prisons, like the use of doctors who have only recently finished their medical school training.
Haniyeh: US conditions remain obstacle to unity
4/23/2010 – Gaza – Ma’an – Egypt’s refusal to re-open the unity file is based on stubborn American conditions which ultimately prevent Palestinian unity and weaken the national position, de facto government Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Thursday. The Palestinian Authority in Ramallah is clinging to the US conditions, Haniyeh stated during an address to commemorate the death of poet and Muslim Brotherhood member Abdul Rahman Baroud, who was killed in early April. Haniyeh’s statements come as US Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell is set to arrive in the region, in what officials say will be his latest attempt to kickstart the peace process. Some analysts have said the trip could include some succinct ultimatums for Israeli behavior over the issue, though most remain skeptical.” They are talking about the arrival of Mitchell to the region to activate the negotiations and we wonder what negotiations they talking about,” Haniyeh said.
Settler rally during Mitchel visit a deliberate provocation, Fatah
4/23/2010 – Bethlehem – Ma’an – Fatah’s Revolutionary Council member Dimitri Diliani called the Israeli government’s decision to grant permission for a protest by “extreme right wing Israeli colonial Settlers” to rally in Silwan a provocation as US officials are in the region. Fatah’s Jerusalem Affairs chief, Hatem Abdul Qader, announced that the Israeli government had given the go-ahead for the rally on Thursday. Commenting on the issue Dilani called the move “state sponsored provocation of instability to undermine the visit of Special US envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell to Israel and Palestine.” Diliani called the government “anti-peace,” whose position had been made abundantly clear by recent statements from senior government officials like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. It is clear, Dilani said, that “Israel will not adhere to International Law and. . .
Israeli army raids Beit Ummar, detains 5
4/23/2010 – Jerusalem – Ma’an – The Israeli army conducted a raid and detention operation in the Hebron-area village of Beit Ummar early Friday morning, local sources said. A detachment of eight Israeli army jeeps entered the village shortly after 1am, and detained two locals, one witness said, while Muhammad Awad with the local popular committee said a total of five were detained. The first witness identified one of the detained as Yousef Sabarneh, noting both were handcuffed and blindfolded. Awad confirmed the detention of Sabarneh, 20, along with his relatives Khalil, 24, Hatem, 17, Ahmad Abu Hashem 42, and Yousef Awad, 17. An Israeli army spokeswoman said five “wanted” Palestinians were detained overnight in the village and taken for security questioning.
Palestinian woman marks 9th year in Israeli prison
4/23/2010 – Gaza – Ma’an – A Palestinian woman from the Arabah village in Israel marked her ninth year in Israeli prison on Sunday, the Prisoners High Committee in Gaza announced on Friday. Lina Jarbouny was detained in 2002 and was sentenced to 17 years in Israeli prison for affiliation to Islamic Jihad. Her brother, Said, said his family hopes she will be released soon in a prisoner swap. from Arabah village inside the green line marks her 9 years at Israeli prisons. [end]
Jerusalem court pays $120,000 to family of settler victim
4/23/2010 – Bethlehem – Ma’an – Seventeen years after his death at the hands of an Israeli setter, an Israeli court awarded the family of Na’im Al-Madhoun 120,000 US dollars in compensation, the Palestine Center for Human Rights reported. Lawyers with the Gaza-based rights center said the decision came pursuant to a lawsuit before the Israeli Magistrate Court in May 2009, on behalf of the family of the 22-year-old Al-Madhoun, killed by an Israeli settler near Erez crossing while returning to Gaza after work on 8 March 1993.According to PCHR, in its decision, the court held Israel completely responsible for the killing of Al-Madhoun, and rejected an appeal filed by the Israeli prosecution.In a statement on the case, PCHR said that when lawyers handed over the cheque to Al-Madhoun’s wife and 17-year-old daughter, born weeks after her father’s death. Related:PCHR: After 17 Years of H
is Death by an Israeli Settler, PCHR Succeed in Ensuring Reparation for Na’im al-Madhoun’s Family
Israel army detains 7 from Jenin district
4/23/2010 – Jenin – Ma’an – Israel’s army detained seven residents of several villages in the occupied West Bank district of Jenin after carrying out searches and raids on a number of residential areas including homes. Israeli forces backed by armored vehicles invaded Jenin city and the towns of Ya’bad and Qabatia as well as the villages of Dir Ghazalah, Jalboun and Muthalath Ash-Shuhada, where they carried out house searches and ransacked their contents. They fired live bullets and stun grenades, and forced families out of their homes for interrogation, our correspondent said. He identified the detainees as follows: Ghassan Ahmad Taheiyneh, 26, from Jenin cityNedal Jamil Sharif, 26, from Ya’badMajed Faisal Nezar, 21, and Jehad Abdallah Suleiman, 23, from QabatieyahWalid Ibrahim Abu RUB, 24, from JalbunMuhammad Jihad Al-Weshahi, 27, from Muthlath Ash-ShuhadaAbed Al-Qader Adnan Jalamnah, 23, from Dir. . .
Blast kills 1 near Gaza City
4/23/2010 – Gaza – Ma’an – An explosion in the central Gaza Strip killed a Palestinian teenager late Friday, medics and Hamas’ armed wing said. Muawiya Hassanein, head of ambulance and emergency services in the Gaza Health Ministry, told Ma’an that the body of Ahmad Al-Hajin arrived riddled with shrapnel injuries following a “mysterious explosion” in the Zaytoun neighborhood east of Gaza City.The Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, announced that one of its affiliates, Ahmad Abu Al-Hajin, 18, was killed during a “Jihad” mission in the Zaytoun neighborhood. [end] Related:Al-Qassam: Gaza blast killed fighter
Al-Qassam: Gaza blast killed fighter
4/23/2010 – Gaza – Ma’an – The Palestinian teenager killed in an explosion in the Gaza Strip on Friday night belonged to Hamas’ armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades announced shortly after the incident. Ahmad Abu Al-Hajin, 18, was killed during a “Jihad” mission in the Zaytoun neighborhood east of Gaza City, the group stated, offering no further details on the incident, which medics confirmed. [end] Related:Blast kills 1 near Gaza City
Gaza imports up last week, despite irregular closures
4/23/2010 – Gaza – Ma’an – Gaza crossings closed for the rest of the week on Friday, with Israeli officials again announcing the closure one day in advance of the scheduled Saturday weekend. The two-day weekend, in addition to the two-day holiday-closure for Israel’s memorial and independence days, meant crossings operated for only three out of a scheduled six days. Despite the restricted openings, the number of goods permitted to enter the Strip actually increased over recent weeks, according to numbers recoded by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. an increase in fuel and cooking gas imports, shortfallscontinueDuring the three days, OCHA recorded a total of 697 truckloads of goods entering the area, marking what the UN body said was a 44 % increase over the average of 483 truckloads in previous weeks. The numbers still, however, fall 75% behind pre-siege import numbers.
155 Palestinians return to Gaza via Rafah
4/23/2010 – Gaza – Ma’an – Border authorities in Gaza said Thursday that 155 Palestinians returned to Gaza via Rafah. Most were patients who completed treatment in Egypt, stranded people, and some sent back from the Cairo airport, the de facto crossings authority said in a statement.”The crossing was unusually opened on Wednesday, when 123 patients returned to Gaza.” [end]
EU supports Palestinian Bar Association
4/23/2010 – Bethlehem – Ma’an – European Union representative Christian Berger and Chairman of the Palestinian Bar Association Ali Muhanna have formally launched EU activities to support the Palestinian Bar Association until 2012. These will be provided by the “‚Äö¬¨4. 7m Seyada 2 project “Empowering the Palestinian Judicial System,” officials noted Thursday during a news conference where Berger emphasized the importance the EU attaches to developing the Bar Association.” Better lawyers means better justice,” Berger said.”It is only logical that the European Union’s Seyada 2 programme does not only support judges and prosecutors. Professional lawyers are part of the foundation of a functioning legal system and vital for our efforts to help build a Palestinian state, which ensures the rule of law for all and is accountable to its citizens.” “
Netanyahu refuses to talk Jerusalem
4/23/2010 – Bethlehem – Ma’an – Ahead his meeting with US enjoy to the Middle East George Mitchell, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters that any talks with Palestinians would not deal with Jerusalem as a final status issue. In what analysts have already called ‘nothing new,’ the Israeli leader told Mitchell that he would agree to temporary interim Palestinian borders, and that during any interim period, settlement construction would not stop in East Jerusalem, the site of what would be a Palestinian capital. The statements also appear to quash faint hopes that Mitchell would come bearing harsh admonishments, and perhaps even ultimatums, from the administration of US President Barack Obama, who reaffirmed his commitment to Mideast peace in recent weeks, since it came after several meetings with US officials that Israeli press reports called “intensive”.
Netanyahu urges Palestinians to enter talks
4/23/2010 – Bethlehem – Ma’an – Ahead of talks with US envoy to the Mideast George Mitchell in Jerusalem on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the Palestinians to enter into negotiations for peace agreement.”We hope the Palestinians respond – we have to move this process forward,” Netanyahu said in Jerusalem, telling Mitchell that “We’re serious about it. We know you’re serious about it,” and adding that he looked forward to working with the Obama administration and its Mideast envoy to move the peace process forward. The PLO has insisted that any credible negotiations would have to be preceded by a halt in all settlement construction as stated in the Olso Accords. Given the failure to advance the accords, and what Palestinians see as an unwillingness on the Israeli side to remain committed to objectives in the US-backed Road Map agreement, negotiators have settled on a “final status” set of talks.
Fatah leader accuses Gaza gov’t of preventing WB travel
4/23/2010 – Gaza – Ma’an – A member of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council in Gaza said Friday that officials in the de facto government were preventing him and other members of the council from traveling to the third regular meeting set to take place in Ramallah on Saturday. Fatah official in Gaza Salah Abu Khatla said Hamas officials prevented Fatah members from leaving Gaza at the Erez crossing, despite several attempts to leave, including direct talks with government officials. Similar complaints were made when Fatah members attempted to leave Gaza in order to attend the Sixth Fatah Conference in Bethlehem in August 2009. At the time, Hamas officials said the
party members would be permitted to travel when the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah agreed to release what Hamas said was hundreds of political prisoners affiliated with the party detained in the West Bank.
Fayyad runs 5k for children’s hospital
4/23/2010 – Ramallah – Ma’an – Caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad ran in the Ramallah 5k on Friday, in support of the Palestine Medical Compound which hopes to provide medical services to children upon completion. The race saw more than 500 children of all ages participate in an event overseen by Minister of Health in Ramallah Fathi Abu Moghli and senior figures from the health sector.”Our children deserve this,” Fayyad told those assembled to watch the race, organized under the same slogan. The prime minister said huge progress had been made on the childrens ward already, and hoped it would be completed in the coming months, with the generous support of donors and the public. One of the distinguishing features of the Palestinian Authority, he said, was the government’s committment to healthcare for Palestinians, calling it one of the three tracks of the popular Palestinian resistance.
CORCORAN: Easing Gaza’s bloackade?
Palestine Note 23 Apr 2010 – It is hard to imagine that more than 1,000 days have passed since Gaza’s borders were sealed in June of 2007. Sporadic Israeli air strikes still traumatize families there. More than 1.6 million men, women and…
Making Bibi sing
Palestine Note 23 Apr 2010 – During the first year of Barack Obama’s and Benjamin Netanyahu’s relationship, little has changed. Obama has reoriented America’s relationship with Israel, back towards a more pragmatic one, echoing the years prior to the Clinton Administration. But…
Schumer and Dershowitz vs. Obama
Palestine Note 23 Apr 2010 – Chuck Schumer is a Democrat who, it is reported, would love to become Senate Majority Leader someday. That makes it especially odd that he would choose to royally bash a Democratic President for his Middle East…
Will the Palestinians just go ahead and declare statehood?
Palestine Note 23 Apr 2010 – Kosovo did, and the U.S. immediately recognized it. Now, David Rothkopf has been hearing rumblings that the little-left-to-lose Palestinians may declare independence and the creation of their state, without necessarily having the state’s borders in their…
Yes, there are partners for peace
Palestine Note 23 Apr 2010 – On Monday, live on the Internet, the ceremony that ushers in Israel’s Independence Day at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl took me back 24 years. A rookie reporter for the Israeli daily Ha’aretz, I was covering the commemoration…
No progress after Mitchell-Netanyahu meeting
Palestine Note 23 Apr 2010 – US Middle East envoy Sen. George Mitchell and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu announced no progress had been made in regard to the peace process after their meeting in Jerusalem Friday, Xinhua reports. Neither revealed the details…
Riot dispersal tools critically injures anti-wall demonstrator
Palestine Note 23 Apr 2010 – Israeli Palestinian Emad Rezqa, 43, was severely injured by a tear-gas canister, which struck him in the forehead, Ma’an News Agency reports. Tear gas is part of the IOF’s “riot dispersal” gear meant to break up…
From Bilin to Beit Jala
Palestine Note 23 Apr 2010 – The past two days witnessed further Israeli war crimes from shooting at unarmed protesters in Gaza, to destruction of land and property, and to raids in the middle of the night. But we also had a…
While Dersh lies about J St, Schumer bashes Obama
Palestine Note 23 Apr 2010 – A few weeks ago, an Arab-American, active in efforts to achieve the two-state solution, told me was upset by the occasional appearancse on cable of some obscure professor who, he said, “makes all Arabs look bad.”…
Bad wine: Settlement floods vineyard with sewage
Palestine Note 23 Apr 2010 – According to local officials, Israeli settlers released a sewage pipe on the town of Beit Ummar Wednesday night, Ma’an News Agency reports. The wastewater, from Gush Etzion settlement, destroyed roughly 70,000 square meters of the Sabarneh…
HAMAS REFUSES ENTRY TO GAZA DEPORTEES
Palestine Note 23 Apr 2010 – HAMAS LEADER IN GAZA ISMAIL HANIYEH SAYS DEPORTATION ORDERS ‘WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO STAND’ The Hamas government in Gaza announced Thursday is will receive West Bank deportees in a tent erected at the Erez crossing,…
Lessons learned as a ‘volcano refugee’
Palestine Note 23 Apr 2010 – When the volcano with the unprounceable name erupted in Iceland, I was cocooned in Oxford, England, attending the Skoll World Forum, an annual conference for social entrepreneurs. I had no idea what a social entrepreneur was…
Jewish and Arab leaders unite against Silwan march
Palestine Note 23 Apr 2010 – The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is widely seen as a primordial grudge match of good vs. evil: you pick which is which. But all of Israel isn’t ultra nationalist or ultra Orthodox, demonstrated in East Jerusalem Friday as…
Living under the bombing of Gaza
Palestine Note 23 Apr 2010 – On December 27, 2008, 27-year old Khulood Ghanem was in Gaza City when Israel launched its massive three-week military assault on the captive population of Gaza. 1400 Palestinians were killed, a majority of them non-combatants and…
Has Chuck Schumer EVER criticized Israel or its leadership in the way he just unloaded on Obama?
Palestine Note 23 Apr 2010 – Senator Chuck Schumer may have just lost any shot at succeeding Harry Reid as Senate Majority Leader if the Nevada Senator stumbles in the upcoming tough 2010 challenge he is facing. Politico ‘s Ben Smit
h shares…
Bibi and Lieberman at odds over new UN Ambassador; Dore gold favored to replace “lame duck” Shalev
Palestine Note 23 Apr 2010 – One would think that a government, which repeats ad nauseum that effective diplomacy will lead to international acceptance of its hard-line agenda, would be able to get this right. That assumption, however, should probably have been…
Police shoot attacker at Church of the Holy Sepulcher
Ha’aretz 24 Apr 2010 – An Israeli policeman shot and seriously wounded a tourist in Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre after he tried to stab him with a knife, hospital sources and police said on Friday. …
Not all U.S. Jews are critical of Obama
Ha’aretz 23 Apr 2010 – WJC President Ron Lauder represents a few dozen grandees with vested interests, not the Jewish people.
Netanyahu amenable to Palestinian state within temporary borders
Ha’aretz 23 Apr 2010 – After meeting Obama, Netanyahu insists on delaying negotiations on status of Jerusalem until end of process.
U.S. Jewish magazine honors Goldstone for ‘upholding Jewish values’
Ha’aretz 23 Apr 2010 – Tikkun invites author of Gaza report to hold grandson’s bar mitzvah in U.S. after South Africa community ban.
Dutch court clears Muslim group over Holocaust cartoon
Ha’aretz 23 Apr 2010 – Court favors Arab European League defense that it published to highlight perceived double standards in free speech.
Iran to give UN better access to nuclear sites, say diplomats
Ha’aretz 23 Apr 2010 – Tehran says vow to allow surveillance measures in nuclear sites proves its cooperation with the IAEA.
New agreement means more flights between U.S. and Israel
Ha’aretz 23 Apr 2010 – Agreement allows airlines to pick routes based on passenger demand; no limit on number of flights.
At least 58 dead in multiple Iraq bombings
Ha’aretz 23 Apr 2010 – Biggest attack targets offices of an anti-U.S. Shi’ite cleric in the vast slum of Sadr City in Baghdad.
U.S.: Return to peace talks not yet in sight
Ha’aretz 23 Apr 2010 – Israel and Palestinians unlikely to make breakthrough following visit by peace envoy George Mitchell.
Israeli injured during protest against West Bank security fence
Ha’aretz 23 Apr 2010 – An Israeli protester was injured on Friday after being hit in the forehead with a teargas canister during a weekly protest against Israel’s West Bank security fence in Bil’in. …
‘We’ll march even if George Mitchell doesn’t like it’
Ha’aretz 23 Apr 2010 – A famous right wing activist refused a police request on Friday that he cancel a march through an Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem that he has planned for Monday. …
Swiss tourist dies on first leg of cycling trip in Israel
Ha’aretz 23 Apr 2010 – A Swiss tourist who came to Israel to cycle around the country was killed early Friday when a car hit him as he tried to merge with traffic on the coastal highway. …
Six decades of dispossession
Uruknet April 23, 2010 – With a strange combination of self- righteousness and self-gratification, Israel this week celebrated its 62nd anniversary. Using skilfully fabricated sound bites, Israeli leaders sought to deflect blame for the lingering conflict with the Palestinians and the stalemated political process, invoking the old mantras about the Jewish homeland and the miraculous establishment of Israel. Israeli Prime Minister…
Bil’in Ends Its Fifth Conference, Soldiers Attack The Weekly Protest Injuring A Dozen Civilians
Uruknet April 23, 2010 – At least a dozen Palestinian and international civilians were injured during the weekly nonviolent protest at the central West Bank village of Bil’in. This Friday protest marked the end of the Fifth Bil’in International Conference for Palestinian Popular Resistance, which began on Wednesday, April 21 with a full line-up of speakers including politicians, leaders of Popular…
Gaza: scouring for grazing grounds
Uruknet April 23, 2010 – Nine-year-old Ismail spends every afternoon herding his family’s flock of sheep and goats, a scraggly group of roughly 20 animals. They live in a shanty house district near Tel el Howa in Gaza City, where growth is sparse to non-existent. “I walk all over to find food for the animals,” he says, swishing his stick to…
Bulldozers return to destroy children’s playground in Beit Jala. Six activists arrested.
Uruknet April 22, 2010 – 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….
As Simple as A, B, C!
Uruknet April 22, 2010 – Israel has always been in the habit of changing its laws to suit its colonial aims in all of historic Palestine (but specifically in areas it has been occupying since the Partition of Palestine in November 1947) . These aims centre around the one single core policy which lies at the heart of the Zionist programme advocated…
Gaza: watching the invasion unfold
Uruknet April 22, 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…
The Murder of Donkeys and Detained Goats by Israel
Uruknet April 22, 2010 – On April 13 2010 I wrote an article about animals in Israeli jail. For me as a Palestinian journalist, this was not a new subject or story, but it was new for my readers. It looks like this was the first time that foreigners and the defenders of animals right
s hear about the treatment of animals…
Syrian-backed militant group may spell its own demise in Lebanon
The National 23 Apr 2010 – Police have sued the leaders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, General Command, after they accused authorities of plotting to capture one of their bases.
International Solidarity Movement
Israeli Demonstrator badly injured in Bil’in demonstration
4/23/2010 – International Solidarity Movement – Popular Struggle Coordinating Committee – An Israeli protester suffered a broken skull after soldiers shot him directly with a tear gas projectile that hit his forehead. Five demonstrators were arrested. Another protester was hit in the head with a tear gas projectile in Nabi Saleh. Emad Rezqa was hit in the forehead by an aluminum tear gas projectile shot directly at him by Israeli soldiers during the weekly anti-Wall demonstration in Bil’in earlier today. He suffered a fractured skull and brain hemorrhage. Rezqa is currently hospitalized at the Hadassa Ein Karem hospital in Jerusalem. The demonstration Rezqa was injured in concluded the three-day International Bil’in Conference on Popular Struggle, and was attended by hundreds of people. Five demonstrators were arrested during the protest. The march, which commenced at the village’s mosque after the midday prayer, was attacked. . . .
JORDAN: Women Make Progress But Honour Killings Persist
IPS AMMAN, Apr 22 (IPS) – Earlier this month, a 33-year-old man was charged with hammering his wife to death and dumping her body on the highway leading to the Queen Alia International Airport. The husband confessed to murdering her ”to defend his honour,” as she was meeting a male friend….
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)….
US: No breakthrough expected soon
Jeruslalem Post 24 Apr 2010 – President Peres tells Mitchell: Israel is seriously committed to peace.
Who needs the Jews?
Jeruslalem Post 23 Apr 2010 – US support for Israel always rested on what non-Jews think about Zionism.
‘Iran okays more IAEA overview’
Jeruslalem Post 23 Apr 2010 – Diplomats say Teheran will up agency’s capacities at enrichment site.
Barak, Mitchell meet amid high hopes
Jeruslalem Post 23 Apr 2010 – US envoy looking to announce the start of indirect “proximity” talks.
Israel boycott again on agenda in UK
Jeruslalem Post 23 Apr 2010 – University College Union will be asked to sever ties with Histadrut.
Humanitarian Plight in Gaza bewilderingly Difficult, UNRWA Says
WAFA 23 Apr 2010 – GAZA, April 23, 2010 (WAFA)- The Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Operations in Gaza described Thursday the humanitarian plight
Mitchell before Meeting Abbas: Comprehensive Peace must be Reality
WAFA 23 Apr 2010 – RAMALLAH, April 23, 2010 (WAFA) – “Comprehensive peace in this region must not be just a dream. It must be and it can be a reality”, U.S. Envoy for the Middle East Peace Process Senator George…
Palestinian Israeli seriously Injured in Bil’in
WAFA 23 Apr 2010 – RAMALLAH, April 23, 2010 (WAFA)- A Palestinian Israeli was seriously injured by a gas gangister in the weekly pacifist demonstration against the Israeli Apartheid Wall in the West Bank Village
Diliani: Settlers’ Rally in Jerusalem is State Sponsored Provocation
WAFA 23 Apr 2010 – JERUSALEM, April 23, 2010 (WAFA)- Fateh’s Revolutionary Council Member, Dimitri Diliani said today that Israeli government’s permission for extreme right wing colonial Settlers to organize a hostile
ISESCO Gives Support to Institutions in Jerusalem
WAFA 23 Apr 2010 – RABAT, April 23, 2010 (WAFA)- The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) provided financial support to several educational and cultural institutions in occupied Al Quds
US envoy George Mitchell back in Israel to renew push for talks
The Guardian 23 Apr 2010 – Abbas meeting planned after visit to Netanyahu as Palestinians offer hope of indirect negotiations George Mitchell, the US Middle East envoy, today launched a fresh effort to win agreement for indirect talks between Israeli and Palestinian…
OPT: Bright idea takes Nablus girls to California
Relief Web 23 Apr 2010 – Source: UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
US Mideast envoy meets Israeli officials on peace talks
Relief Web 23 Apr 2010 – Source: Kuwait News Agency
USAID West Bank/Gaza mission program achievements – Week of 12 Apr 2010
Relief Web 23 Apr 2010 – Source: US Agency for International Development
Palestinian Information Center
Resheq: Pressures won’t make Hamas bow
PIC 23 Apr 2010 – Ezzat Al-Resheq said Friday that no pressures would let Hamas recognize the Israeli occupation of Palestine as the Quartet Committee wants, urging the USA to change its policy in the region.
Jewish Settler website attacks, incites against Palestinian journalist
PIC 23 Apr 2010 – An Israeli news-and-views website affiliated with the Nazi-minded Gush Emunim movement has attacked and incited against a Palestinian journalist for criticizing Ed Kcoh.
Occupation authority serves demolition notices to five Palestinian families
PIC 23 Apr 2010 – The Israeli occupation authority has served five Palestinian families from the village of Yatta to the south of the southern West Bank city of al-Khalil with demolition notices..
Haneyya: We shall foil Israeli deportation decision as we did in Marj Al-Zohoor
PIC 23 Apr 2010 – Ismael Haneyya asserted Thursday that his government would foil the Israeli deportation decision against Palestinians living in the West Bank as they did before in Marj Al-Zohoor in 1992.
Death threatens tens of Palestinian captives in Israeli jails
PIC 23 Apr 2010 – Tawfeek Abu Nai’m has plainly accused the Israeli occupation authorities of deliberately neglecting the Palestinian captives and of exposing their lives to danger.
Occupation authority bar travel of Sheikh Ekrima Sabri
PIC 23 Apr 2010 – The Israeli occupation Interior Minister issued a decision on Thursday baring Sheikh Ekrima Sabri from travel abroad under the pretext that it constitutes a threat to state security.
Homes of 30 Palestinian families threatened with demolition in Beit Jala
PIC 23 Apr 2010 – Israeli occupation bulldozers started on Thursday bulldozing the garden of a Palestinian home in Beit Jala at the pretext of clearing the way for the apartheid wall.
Jewish settlers make a provocative tour of the old city of al-Khalil
PIC 23 Apr 2010 – Jewish settlers on Thursday made a provocative tour of the old city of al-Khalil in the southern West Bank under IOF protection.
PLC: congratulating the occupation equals relinquishment of Palestinian rights
PIC 23 Apr 2010 – The PLC condemned the act of congratulating the Israeli occupation on its 62nd anniversary by some Arab leaders saying that such an act represents an abandonment of Palestinian rights.
Odwan: official silence is more serious than the Israeli deportation policy
PIC 23 Apr 2010 – Dr. Isam Odwan stressed that the new Israeli policy of deporting Palestinians residing “illegally” in the West Bank is serious, but what is even more serious is silence towards such a racist policy.
South Africa judge who criticized Israel won’t attend grandson’s bar mitzvah
LA Times 23 Apr 2010 – Judge Richard Goldstone, whose U.N. report criticized Israel’s 2008-09 assault on Gaza, says a Zionist group threatened protests. He accuses South Africa’s top rabbi of politicizing the ceremony. The South African judge who led a United Nations fact-finding mission on Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip has decided to stay away from his grandson’s bar mitzvah after a Zionist group threatened protests at the synagogue.
Checkpoints
Palestine Monitor – “The right to freedom of movement provides that people are entitled to move freely within the borders of the state, to leave any country and to return to their country.” Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and article 12 of the International Covenant…
Report from Bil’in: ‘soldiers showed no discrimination with their firing, shooting directly at the faces of the protestors’
Mondoweiss – The Israeli military chases a protester in Bil’in. (Photo: Hamde Abo Rahma) Hamde Abo Rahma sends this report on the latest protest in Bil’in: Today’s demonstration marked the culminating event in the Fifth Bil’in International Conference for Palestinian Popular Resistance , which began on Wednesday, April 21…
Barack Obama is speaking the language of Israel-firster Dennis Ross
Mondoweiss – William Quandt, a National Security Council staffer in the NSC’s Middle East office during the Nixon and Carter administrations, has an article up at Foreign Policy’s Middle East Channel downplaying any hopes that the Obama administration is serious about pushing for a solution in Israel/Palestine. Quandt…
Clemons suggests that Schumer is representing Israel, not U.S.
Mondoweiss – Great post by Steve Clemons demanding to know if Chuck Schumer has ever sided with the U.S. against Israel. “Has Chuck Schumer EVER Criticized Israel or its Leadership in the Way He Just Unloaded on Obama?” Says that Schumer’s tonguelashing of the Obama administration for putting…
Wiesel should stop offering celestial pres
criptions for a city he doesn’t live in
Mondoweiss – More than a hundred activists from the Sheikh Jarrah movement in Jerusalem published an open letter to Elie Wiesel in response to the letter Wiesel published last week in the Washington Post : Dear Mr. Wiesel, We write to you from Jerusalem to convey our frustration, even…
BDS is a long term project with radically transformative potential
Mondoweiss – I’m grateful to Jerry Haber for taking the time to engage me on the role of ‚Äòliberal’ Zionists in the BDS movement. Sometimes my tone borders on truculence, which is really just impatience. I’m impatient for ‚Äòliberal’ Zionists to discard the ‚ÄòZionist’ and become regular liberals…
Articles
Israel’s Enabler in the U. S.
Esam Al-amin, CounterPunch4/21/2010
Wiesel is simply “a terrible fraud.” — Noam Chomsky
Every now and then Israel’s enablers in the US embark on a public campaign to apply as much political pressure on US policymakers as they can possibly get away with. Elie Wiesel , a Holocaust survivor and 1986 Nobel laureate, is one of those apologists that Israel employs when it is in trouble.
Wiesel ‘s disgraceful history of dismissing the suffering of some in favor of others is well documented. The late historian Howard Zinn called Wiesel’s refusal to include the suffering of non-Jews at the hands of the Nazis at the Holocaust Museum, along with exhibits documenting Jewish suffering, one of the most “shameful moments” in recent memory. In that episode, Wiesel described the inclusion of the terrible affliction of non-Jews by the Nazis in the Museum as an attempt to “falsify reality” and that such calls were tantamount to “stealing the Holocaust from us.”
Two months ago, Wiesel’s name was on a full-page ad in the New York Times, urging atrocious and lethal actions against Iran because of its nuclear energy program. On April 18, a Wiesel-endorsed ad ran in several prominent U.S. dailies, including the NYT and the Washington Post, tackling the issue of Jerusalem because of the public spat between the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government.
Since one can hardly think that Wiesel is ignorant of the facts, the number of deliberate lies and misleading information included in the ad was astounding. He asserted that Jerusalem “belongs to the Jewish people,” while dismissing its Islamic and Christian dimensions. His rationale was that Jerusalem was mentioned in the Torah “more than six hundred times,” while “not a single time in the Qur’an.” Such an ignorant statement demonstrates not only a total lack of knowledge regarding Islamic scriptures but also a distortion of history.more..e-mail
From Jerusalem, an open letter to Elie Wiesel
Just Jerusalem, Ma’an News Agency4/24/2010
We write to you from Jerusalem to convey our frustration, even outrage, at your recently published letter on Jerusalem. We are Jewish Jerusalemites — residents by choice of a battered city, a city used and abused, ransacked time and again first by foreign conquerors and now by its own politicians. We cannot recognize our city in the sentimental abstraction you call by its name.
Our Jerusalem is concrete, its hills covered with limestone houses and pine trees; its streets lined with synagogues, mosques and churches. Your Jerusalem is an ideal, an object of prayers and a bearer of the collective memory of a people whose members actually bear many individual memories. Our Jerusalem is populated with people, young and old, women and men, who wish their city to be a symbol of dignity – not of hubris, inequality and discrimination. You speak of the celestial Jerusalem; we live in the earthly one.
For more than a generation now the earthly city we call home has been crumbling under the weight of its own idealization. Your letter troubles us, not simply because it is replete with factual errors and false representations, but because it upholds an attachment to some other-worldly city which purports to supersede the interests of those who live in the this-worldly one. For every Jew, you say, a visit to Jerusalem is a homecoming, yet it is our commitment that makes your homecoming possible. We prefer the hardship of realizing citizenship in this city to the convenience of merely yearning for it.
Indeed, your claim that Jerusalem is above politics is doubly outrageous. First, because contemporary Jerusalem was created by a political decision and politics alone keeps it formally unified. The tortuous municipal boundaries of today’s Jerusalem were drawn by Israeli generals and politicians shortly after the 1967 war…. Source:Just Jerusalem— See also:Just Jerusalemmore..e-mail
My Investment in Israel
Vijay Prashad, CounterPunch4/21/2010
Are You an Anti-Semite?
I’m not Israeli. I’m not Palestinian. Nor Jewish, nor Arab, nor Muslim. I’ve never been to Jerusalem, nor Ramallah. I’m not sure if I’ll ever go there. I have no relatives who live there, no family who ever went there, or came from there. I have a friend who lives there, but I only knew him when we were children in Calcutta more than forty years ago. I don’t remember what he looks like.
It is a fair question: why do you care so much about Israel and the Palestinians? If you care about humanity, why not concentrate on the Great Lakes of Africa, where close to six million people have been killed between 1998 and the present in what is called Africa’s World War? [The six million figure is from the International Rescue Committee. It is contested by the Human Security Project, whose own numbers suggest that the excess mortality in the Congo is less than one million]. Of course I care about this war, which is far greater in scale than what is ongoing in Gaza and the West Bank (the total Palestinian population in the Occupied Territories is less than the maximum estimate for mortality in the Congo, and the lower estimate is twice the population of Gaza). I do not see the Israeli exertions in the Occupied Territories as especially different from the U. S. actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, for instance.
My investment in Israel is, however, not simply the same as my interest in other injustices, in other places. There is a particular set of reasons why I am invested in the struggles of the Palestinian against Israeli excesses:
(1) As an American.
For several years now I’ve been on the board of the National Priorities Project (nationalpriorities.org). We collect federal data to show how poorly our taxes are spent by the government, with so much more on guns than on anything else….more..e-mail
Travel ban imposed on Palestinian leader in Israel
Electronic Intifada: 23 Apr 2010 – This morning, the Israeli Border Police prevented Mr. Ameer Makhoul, the Director of Ittijah – Union of Arab Community-Based Associations inside Israel, from leaving the country. Makhoul, who also serves as the head of the Popular Committee for the Defense of Political Freedoms, received a prohibition order from leaving the country upon his arrival to the Jordan River Crossing.
Israel winning its war on goats
Electronic Intifada: 23 Apr 2010 – GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IPS) – Nine-year-old Ismail spends every afternoon herding his family’s flock of sheep and goats, a scraggly group of roughly 20 animals. They live in a shanty house district near Tel al-Howa in Gaza City, where growth is sparse to non-existent.
scouring for grazing grounds
In Gaza: 23 Apr 2010 – (IPS) — Nine-year-old Ismail spends every afternoon herding his family’s flock of sheep and goats, a scraggly group of roughly 20 animals. They live in a shanty house district near Tel el Howa in Gaza City, where growth is sparse to non-existent. “I walk all over to find food for the animals,” he says, swishing his stick to move them along. His and other flocks can be found throughout the Strip, walking city streets and scavenging vacant lots where rubbish has accumulated, scrounging for any edibles. On a back lane near Gaza’s Rimal district, Abu Mohammed and two of his sons herd 15 goats and sheep. “We live on the north end of Jalah Street. We walk everywhere to find food for our sheep,” Abu Mohammed says. He watches as his flock strays into a small, broken-walled vacant lot and head for the overflowing garbage bin. There are some tree…
The New Dark Age 