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Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines ~ |
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Announcements of Israeli Change of Policy Unfounded in Reality
Despite assurances relayed by American and European diplomats, foreign passport holders trying to join their families in the Israeli occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), including Bethlehem, for the holidays are being denied entry and expelled by Israel. In stark contrast to that announcement, at least three foreign nationals attempting to join their families in the Israeli occupied Palestinian territory were expelled last week.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/12/23/denials-pr-dec23/
Villagers Unite Against Apartheid Road
This afternoon over 200 Palestinian, Israeli and international activists participated in a protest against the proposed “Route 60? apartheid road which will illegally annex Palestinian farmland, affect homes and destroy significant heritage sites including a cemetery in the Halhul and Beit Omar villages near Hebron in the West Bank. The proposed road will result in the illegal confiscation of precious Palestinian farmland and be exclusively for the use of Jewish settlers.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/12/23/route60-march/
Wall gate delays transfer of body of a deceased resident for three hours
Even the dead cannot cross through this gate installed in the Annexation Wall section leading to Barta'a village, south-west of Jenin in the northern part of the West Bank. As residents were attempting to move the body of a dead relative back to the village, soldiers stationed at a gate of the Wall delayed their entry to their own village for three hours.
http://www.imemc.org/content/view/23342/1/
Infighting fails to inspire Gaza blood donors
When Palestinians are wounded by Israeli fire, Gaza's hospitals fill up with blood donors. But after this week's factional fighting, they've been largely empty as residents register their discontent with the internecine violence. For the dozens of people wounded during this week's battles between Fatah and Hamas, that could soon mean a shortage of badly needed blood." Our blood bank is at its lowest level," said doctor Jumaa al-Saqqa.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=77924
PM Olmert and PA Chair Abbas meet in Jerusalem
The meeting is being described as a private one, and therefore the leaders will not hold a press conference nor issue any official statements following the meeting. The meeting signals that the two sides have reached agreement on the confidence-building measures Israel will offer the PA chairman.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/804608.html
Head of Fateh in PLC says national unity dialogue must be complete in 2 weeks & is still blaming PM
He gave it two weeks, telling a Ramallah press conference that if talks were not completed within that time frame, the President would move forward with early elections. “The decision by President Mahmoud Abbas to call for Presidential and Legislative elections is serious. President Abbas is holding consultations with the Central Elections Commission and the relevant parties for the provision of the technical and security aspects of holding elections.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1272
Senior Fatah security official critically hurt in Gaza shooting
Hassan Jarbouh, the deputy director of the Rafah branch of the Preventive Security Service, which is allied with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, was critically wounded in the shooting.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/804229.html
30 village councils in Bethlehem voice appeal for ceasefire
Thirty village councils in Bethlehem voiced an appeal to all Palestinian factions in order to stop the internal clashes and solidify the ceasefire between the armed groups, especially Fateh and Hamas who engaged in violent clashes. Moreover, the appeal stated that the Palestinian people are facing a serious stage which involves vast immigration of youth and businessmen while the Israeli occupation continued its attacks and assaults against the people and their property.
http://www.imemc.org/content/view/23340/1/
Israel blocks another UN fact-finding mission
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mark Regev disingenuously claimed that Israel had not denied entry, but simply not yet reached a decision. The families of the 19 Palestinian civilians slain at Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip on 8 November 2006 will apparently not see even an approximation of justice at this time.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6302.shtml
'A matter of making history'
It is not easy to take responsibility for the future of over one million people, but that is what Rinawi has been doing for the past year and a half. During this period she coordinated the work of about 40 Israeli Arab intellectuals, who together sought to come up with a vision for their community's future in the coming years.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=804217
Abbas opposes Hamas proposal for long-term truce with Israel
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday that he opposes a Hamas proposal to offer Israel a long-term cease-fire in exchange for the creation of a Palestinian state within the pre-1967 boundary.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/804588.html
Palestinian Fatah, Hamas committed to cease-fire deal
A Palestinian factional committee announced on Saturday that rivals Fatah and Hamas groups are holding on to an internal deal of cease-fire in spite of sporadic violations. In a joint written statement, representatives of the two movements agreed to stop media escalation and set up a joint office to monitor any future breach in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-12/23/content_5524670.htm
Palestinian militant group threatens to drop ceasefire with Israel
Dawood Shihab, Islamic Jihad's spokesman in Gaza, told reporters that his movement "rejects the calm agreement and the truce with Israel which continues its attacks on the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank." On Thursday, two Islamic Jihad militants were killed in northern West Bank by Israeli special forces.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-12/23/content_5524426.htm
Quartet to channel funds to Palestinians skirting Hamas
In a statement, the so-called Quartet - the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia - said the Palestinian people are in need and encouraged donors to respond to UN and other requests for aid.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=804588
Harper calls Hamas 'genocidal'
Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Canada will not talk with the "genocidal" Islamic groups Hamas and Hezbollah even though he acknowledged that dialogue is the way to peace in the Middle East.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061221.wxharper21/BNStory/National/
Palestinian Organization for the Right of Return opens Beirut headquarters
In a news conference held at the Press Federation headquarters in Ain al-Mreisseh on Friday, FIRM's administrators described the organization as a non-governmental, cultural entity, whose activities encompass issues related to the Palestinian diaspora. FIRM is dedicated to championing the Palestinian refugees' cause and their right of return to their homeland. One of FIRM's key goals is the creation of a lobby "that would make the voice of Palestinian refugees heard,"
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=77931
Supreme Court compels finance ministry to explain exclusion of Arab villages
Adalah also requested that an equitable policy be determined for the calculation of compensation payments covering the remaining towns and villages in northern Israel, which have been classified as 'restricted towns'. This would entail applying an equal method of compensation, in accordance with the Property Tax Regulations and Restitution Fund (Compensation Payments) (Direct and Indirect War Damages), 1973, to all towns and villages exposed to the same dangers during the war.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6300.shtml
South Africans Urge the Recall of the Ambassador From Tel Aviv and Sanctions Against Israel
At a press conference held on the 18th of December in South Africa the Palestine Solidarity Committee, COSATU (the Congress of South African Trade Unions representing 1.2 million workers) and the South African Council of Churches called on the South African government to recall the ambassador to Israel and to implement sanctions against Israel.
http://stopthewall.org/worldwideactivism/1381.shtml
Fighting rages on in Gaza and West Bank; Abbas blocks Hamas appointments
Adding to the tensions, Abbas blocked five major Hamas appointments to senior government positions. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas had accused Abbas of trying to subvert the government's authority by refusing to authorize the appointments. Adnan Amr, a legal adviser to Abbas, said the president rejected 40 appointments in all.
http://www.brooksbulletin.com/news/world_news.asp?itemid=59328
Christians suffer for Iraq, says archbishop
Dr Williams, who is visiting Israel with Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, Archbishop of Westminster, Bishop Nathan Hovhannisian, the Armenian Primate of Britain and David Coffey, the head of the Baptist World Alliance, returns to Britain today with a call for all British churches to take action to raise the profile of Christians in the Middle East. Dr Williams said yesterday that the Israeli-built wall around Bethlehem symbolised what was “deeply wrong in the human heart”.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2516916,00.html
Face to faith
Back in May, in the Assembly Hall at the top of the Mound in Edinburgh, during the Church of Scotland's general assembly, the Rev Dr Mitri Raheb, a Lutheran minister from Bethlehem, won the rapt atttention of the gathering when he spoke movingly about what it feels like to be living in the birthplace of Christ surrounded by the high wall erected by the Israeli Defence Force in the West Bank.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1978160,00.html
Alive and kicking
One of the speakers shouted into the microphone slogans about Palestinian unity and the heroic shaheeds (martyrs), Yasser Arafat and Ahmad Yassin. He asked the participants to repeat after him: "I swear in the name of Allah that I will not participate and I will not fight in wars against members of my Palestinian people."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/804240.html
End the policy of isolation
As long as the United States does not change its policies toward Iran and Syria - that is, open the lines of communication and break their diplomatic isolation as well as the isolation of Hamas - there can never be a solution to the Palestinian problem. This also forms part of the recommendations issued in the Baker-Hamilton report, recommendations that Bush still seems very hesitant to adopt.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/804274.html
Olmert giving Abbas one last chance
The real reason behind the recent restraint in the face of ongoing Qassam attacks is only discussed in the innermost offices of the government: It's not a desire to win points from the international community and it's not recognition of the fact that the IDF has no effective solution to stop the Qassam fire.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3343336,00.html
Satire gone wild
Another thing is that Independence Day or Remembrance Day or the Sherutrom (annual fundraising day for the IDF), all the strong Zionist powers here have so much propaganda power. We don’t say what’s right and what’s wrong, we just want to expose the fact that this is propaganda. I think that the perviousness of the Israeli society to different ideas has really decreased, especially since the intifada… in some way we want to disrupt the way in which reality is viewed.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3343144,00.html
Syrian deputy PM: Our isolation over
"I don't want to say there is a sense of 'I told you so' but there is a sense that people are realizing in Western capitals that if you want to be influential in the Middle East, you have to come through Damascus."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3343422,00.html
Iran: Sanctions 'illegal, outside Security Council's jurisdiction'
"Some of the members of the Security Council, especially the United States ... do not commit themselves to the NPT [Non-Proliferation Treaty] and freely provide this technology and equipment to other countries and do not commit themselves to any of the articles of nuclear disarmament," Hosseini said. "On the contrary they develop their nuclear arsenals."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/804614.html
Security Council unanimously approves sanctions on Iran over nuclear program
The resolution demands Tehran end all research on uranium enrichment, which can produce fuel for nuclear power plants as well as for bombs, and halt research and development that can make or deliver atomic weapons.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/804551.html
U.S. judge: Iran owes $254m to victims of 1996 Khobar Towers bombing
"The defendants also provided money, training and travel documents to Saudi Hezbollah members in order to facilitate the attacks," Lamberth wrote "Moreover, the sheer gravity and nature of the attack demonstrate the defendants' unlawful intent to inflict severe emotional distress upon the American servicemen as well as their close relatives."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/804598.html
Gates pledges ‘enduring’ US presence in Gulf
"I think the message that we are sending to everyone, not just Iran, is that the United States is an enduring presence in this part of the world. We have been here for a long time. We will be here for a long time and everybody needs to remember that - both our friends and those who might consider themselves our adversaries," he said.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/fde9f7a0-919d-11db-a945-0000779e2340.html |
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