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Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines ~ |
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Eight injured, four arrested in Bil'in
Dozens of Palestinian, Israeli and international peace activists protested against the Separation Wall and settlements, in Bil'in village, near Ramallah. The peaceful protest was met with military violence; eight were injured, for arrested. The protestors wrote the names of landowners, who lost their orchards for the construction of the Wall, on big sings in English, Arabic and Hebrew.
http://www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15518&Itemid=1
Farmers march for their lives
On Sunday the 18th at 2:00 PM farmers of the Tubas region will hold their second march to the Bardala checkpoint. This checkpoint has served as the only venue where Palestinian farmers could sell their produce to Israeli traders for distribution. For the last two weeks the checkpoint has been closed and the farmers produce has been left to rot.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2005/12/15/farmers-march-for-their-lives/
Twilight Zone / Theater of the absurd
Soon the new Qalandiyah crossing will be dedicated: a virtual checkpoint city with the suffocating separation wall alongside, impressively organized international lanes for passage with parking places for the disabled - the comfortable occupation. The renovated checkpoint that cuts the occupied West Bank in half will be "the hope of us all."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/658494.html
(ILLEGAL) Settlers who invaded Hebron market face evacuation
The Hebron Municipality filed a petition to the High Court of Justice four years ago, a short while after Jewish settlers took over Palestinian stores in the wholesale market located near a (ILLEGAL) Jewish neighborhood.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3185105,00.html
‘Israel to expand West Bank settlements'
Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz has approved more than 290 new settlement homes in the West Bank despite Israel's obligation to freeze such construction under a US-backed peace plan, a newspaper report said on Wednesday.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2005%5C12%5C15%5Cstory_15-12-2005_pg4_3
Minister Khouri Calls for Ensuring Jerusalemites' Participation in Legislative Election
She added that Israel's continuation to hinder the electoral process in East Jerusalem is a flagrant violation of the Road Map as well as the international law.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?id=4906
Citizen Dies of Wounds in Jerusalem
Security sources reported that Mahmoud Shawawreh 44, died, at a hospital, of wounds he suffered due to severe beating by Israeli soldiers as he was cultivating his farm, near Abu Ghuneim colony in Jerusalem.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?id=4909
Israeli-Arabs, PA collaborators clash
A 43-year-old father of 10 was shot to death Thursday during a brawl involving veteran residents of an Arab-Israeli village in northern Israel and Palestinian collaborators relocated to the area by security authorities.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3185328,00.html
Gaza Strip: At least four Palestinians die in Israel attack
At least four Palestinians were killed on Wednesday afternoon and several others were wounded when an Israeli drone hit a vehicle in Gaza Strip. According to RNA, eyewitnesses said that the vehicle was hit by three rockets and completely destroyed, east of Gaza City.
http://www.albawaba.com/en/countries/Palestine/192643
Palestinian gunmen kill West Bank (ILLEGAL) settler
Palestinian gunmen killed a Jewish settler in a drive-by shooting in the occupied West Bank on Friday and wounded two other Israelis. The car was ambushed on a road near the city of Hebron.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L16730954.htm
Mofaz decides not to allow Gaza-West Bank bus convoys next week
Despite intense American pressure , Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz on Thursday evening decided not to allow the passage of Palestinian bus convoys between Gaza and the West Bank next week. The decision will be re-evaluated next week.
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=658345
Trøndelag County decides to boycott Israeli products
Trøndelag County council, in Norway, voted on Friday in support of a decision to boycott the Israeli products; the county includes the third largest city on Norway, Trondheim, which is inhibited by 270000 residents. The total population in Norway is 4.600.000. Also, the Labor parties, leftist and central parties supported the proposal.
http://www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15515&Itemid=1
Palestinian local elections: marked improvement over previous rounds but major challenges remain, say Congress observers
However, the delegation observed active campaigning on the election day near polling stations in almost all municipalities, disruptive in some cases, which constitutes a clear violation of the law. Another area of concern was the provision for voting by illiterate electors as there are different interpretations of the law concerning who can accompany such people, and the procedure for doing so needs clarification.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/EVOD-6K5JJ8?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR
Hamas wins al-Bireh, Nablus councils
A Palestinian official who helped administer the elections said on Thursday that preliminary results showed that Hamas won control of the councils of Nablus, one of the biggest cities in the West Bank, and al-Bireh, although he did not reveal specific figures.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/971F7B8D-6FE7-4D15-B340-0AE5C9209B95.htm
49% of Israelis back Jerusalem division
According to the Yedioth Ahronoth and Mina Tzemach poll, released Friday, 49 percent of Israelis back a compromise that would see Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods and Arab areas adjacent to the capital handed over to the Palestinians, with Jewish neighborhoods and the Western Wall remaining in Israeli hands.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3185313,00.html
Fatah rebels insist on split
The activists in the breakaway faction stood firm on Thursday in their determination to push aside the movement's corrupt old guard and form their own party for the January parliamentary elections. The decision made after meeting Marwan Barghouti, their imprisoned leader, deepened a crisis for President Abbas and threatened to give a boost to the rival Islamic Hamas movement.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/6DC2AD8A-AFE2-42CD-AB92-EA649DCFF605.htm
Palestinian Chief Threatens to Quit Over Rival Fatah Slate
The divisions in the main Palestinian faction, Fatah, broke sharply into the open on Thursday, as the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, threatened to resign unless a rival slate of younger Fatah members for the Jan. 25 legislative elections was withdrawn, Palestinian officials said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/16/international/middleeast/16mideast.html
Peretz camp: Sharon wants terror
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has the power to decide whether terror attacks continue and is renewing the 'cycle of violence' with his targeted assassination policy in order to turn attention away from other issues, Labor party leader Amir Peretz's campaign manager Motti Morel charges.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3184798,00.html
Fatah future in doubt after split
Tension within Fatah had been building for several years: between a younger generation of activists who had come to prominence during the first Palestinian intifada of the late 1980s and the "old guard" who had spent those years exiled with Mr Arafat in Tunis. But such was Mr Arafat's grip on power that it was not until his death that those tensions started bubbling to the surface.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4533438.stm
State of decay - By Azmi Bishara
Large segments of the Israeli right have reached the conviction that Israel needs the establishment of a Palestinian state-like entity in order to extricate Israel from its demographic predicament. This conviction, however, stops well short of the conclusions that the creation of such a Palestinian state requires Israel's withdrawal to the pre-June 1967 borders, the dismantlement of all Israeli settlements and the recognition of the Palestinian right to return.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/773/op2.htm
Bush Says Iraq War Is Good for Israel
Israeli security officials argued the opposite view at this month's American-Israeli strategic dialogue, warning that regime change and democratization threatened to destabilize the Middle East. Israel sees its security tied to regimes such as Egypt and Jordan, and fears that democratization could turn those countries against Israel.
http://www.forward.com/articles/7020
US 'must fight for Palestine'
Bob Hawke, speaking on Thursday at a global peace forum in Kuala Lumpur , said: "Nothing effective can be done while the festering sore of the Palestinian problem continues. "Everything that has been tried at this point has not worked. If anything, the situation is now in many respects worse than it has ever been."
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/6250D5C6-3AFD-46B2-AC93-9524D9C77B30.htm
Egyptian-Israeli trade soars 130 percent
Egypt's trade with Israel is expected to rise 130 percent this year, according to the latest figures, the result of a US-brokered agreement that has created an estimated 15,000 Egyptian jobs, an indication of how better relations can produce economic growth.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3185441,00.html
Immunity was a mistake
The suit against Dichter assigns him with personal and command-level responsibility for killing and injuring innocent Palestinian civilians during the targeted assassination of Salah Shehadeh, the head of the Hamas military wing in Gaza, in July 2002. Consequently, denying the right to file suits in Israel's courts means that there is nothing to prevent the filing of corresponding damages suits in the United States.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/658648.html
Netanyahu and Shalom virtually tied
A poll commissioned by Israel Radio among Likud voters found that Netanyahu would receive 40.2 percent of the vote while 39% would vote for Shalom. According to the poll, Likud activist Moshe Feiglin would finish third with 7.1% and Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz fourth with 4.6%.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1134309586496&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Former IDF chief sued in U.S. court for his role in Kafr Kana shelling
The class action lawsuit, filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), is in relation to the hundreds of civilian deaths and injuries in the 1996 shelling by the IDF of a United Nations compound in south Lebanon's Kafr Kana.
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=658545
Former Head of the Intelligence Branch of the Israel Defense Forces and Chief of Staff Charged in U.S. Court with War Crimes for Shelling of U.N. Compound
On December 15, 2005, in New York, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) served process papers on Lt. Gen. (ret.) Moshe Ya'alon, former Head of the Intelligence Branch and former Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), for war crimes and other human rights violations.
http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/reports/report.asp?ObjID=XeKpqhgbBK&Content=681
Former IDF chief: War crimes suit won't disrupt U.S. stay
The class-action lawsuit brought by a group of Lebanese nationals was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, where Ya'alon is serving as a research fellow at the Washington Institute. Ya'alon refused to accept the lawsuit when it was delivered to him, Israel Radio said.
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/658545.html
Sharp rise in tourism to Israel
The survey results indicate that 156,000 Catholic tourists visited the country in the first half of 2005, a 91 percent increase over the first half of 2004. 104,000 Protestant tourists came, a 39 percent increase, and 104,000 other Christians visited Israel, a 53 percent increase.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3184892,00.html
Lebanon to complain to UN of Israeli land, sea, air space violations
It would be the second such complaint in just over a month. The Foreign Ministry has been instructed to ask the world community, the UN and Secretary General Kofi Annan to pressure Israel to stop such violations "in order to prevent further deterioration of the tense situation along the border"
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=658601
The Ethical and Legal Challenges Facing Palestine
How deep does the legal challenge that faces Palestine go? I do not say the legal challenge that Israel faces but rather the legal challenge facing Palestine, because such a challenge embraces both oppressors and oppressed, both righteous and dispossessed, who, I presume would, at heart, like to find some form of hate-free togetherness in this land.
http://www.counterpunch.org/bendor12152005.html |
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