Outpost
funding would violate Israel's promises, report warns
The
author of a highly influential government report on illegal outposts
in the West Bank has recently warned the
government against approving a new justice ministry proposal that
would allow state funding for outposts. The ministry's proposal,
which will come up for discussion in 10 days, advocates cementing
Jewish ownership of land that is owned by Palestinians. A major
contention for Sasson is a clause stating that settlements would be
allowed to realize old building plans that have been approved by
former governments. "This allows expanding settlements by
letting them form a new 'neighborhood' several kilometers away from
the main settlement," Sasson says. "These so-called
neighborhoods will in fact become new
settlements."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/929713.html
Will
peace cost me my home? – by Ghada Ageel
Sixty
years ago, my grandparents lived in the beautiful village of
Beit Daras, a few kilometers north of Gaza. They were farmers and
owned hundreds of acres of land. [In 1948] we became refugees,
queuing for tents, food and assistance, while the state of Israel
was established on the ruins of my family's property and
on the ruins of hundreds of other Palestinian villages. Some people
may tire of hearing such stories from the past. But for me, the line
between past and present is not so easily broken. I raise this story
today because it remains profoundly relevant to the Middle East
peace process -- and to help convey the deep-seated
fears of Palestinian refugees that we will be asked to exonerate
Israel for its actions and to relinquish our
right to return home. That cannot be allowed to happen. All refugees
have the right to return. This is an individual right, long
recognized in international law, that cannot be negotiated away.
Palestinian refugees hold this right no less than Kosovar or Rwandan
or any other
refugees.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-oe-ageel1
dec01,1,940804.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
Gillerman
to U.N.: "Stop eternalizing the past"
As
Hamas officials called for the United Nations to rescind the
partition plan that was adopted in 1947, UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman
on Thursday urged it to stop "eternalizing the past" and
work toward a better future. [This is a joke, right? Who eternalizes
the past more than
Israel?]
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1195546754188&pagename=
JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Claims
of chemical weapon use in Gaza
Israeli
ambassador Ron Prosor (Response, November 30) denies Israel
used chemical weapons in Gaza. Claims and counterclaims
about the use of such weapons have a long history and are often hard
to verify. Mr Prosor's denial must be judged against the reports by
health workers in Gaza of injured Palestinians
suffering from "severe convulsions, muscle spasms, vomiting,
amnesia or partial memory loss" after exposure to Israeli gas
attacks (multiple references
available).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2220217,00.html
250
Palestinians to be allowed to leave Gaza on Sunday
for
work, study, and medical treatment, in the first such transfer since
June. Oce the Gaza residents have passed through
the Israeli-controlled Erez border crossing at the northern end of
the coastal territory, the group will be transferred to the West Bank
and beyond. The transfer will take place under the
supervision of the Ramallah-based, Fatah-led Palestinian Authority,
not the Hamas-controlled government of the Gaza Strip. The full list
of 250 can be found on Ma'an's Arabic language
website.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&
ID=26572
Haniyeh
appeals to Egypt to open Rafah crossing
to
allow medical patients and Muslim pilgrims headed for Mecca to
leave the Gaza Strip. Israel, with the cooperation of Egypt
and the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority, has
maintained a near-total closure of Gaza's border crossings since
June. Also, Mushir Al Masri, a Hamas-affiliated member of the
Palestinian Legislative Council, said that Israel's military action
in the Gaza Strip, which have killed more than a dozen Palestinians
this week, were the outcome of Tuesday's Annapolis
meeting.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&
ID=26567
Hamas
boycotts Palestinian census
"We
have not been able to begin census-taking in the Gaza Strip because
Hamas has prevented us from doing so," said Loai Shabana,the
head of the Palestinian statistics office, in Ramallah. In contrast,
the census did begin in the West Bank, and is expected to last 16
days. The most recent Palestinian census numbers, published
two years ago, put the total population of the West Bank and
Gaza at 3,762,000 people. Of that, 2,372,000
people lived in the West Bank and 1,390,000 in
Gaza. Nearly half of the population -- 46 percent -- was less than 15
years old, and 42 percent lived below the poverty
line.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071201/wl_mideast_afp/mideastpalestinian
demographicscensus_071201143311
Five
Al-Qassam Brigades fighters killed in Israeli airstrike in
Gaza
Medical sources confirmed the death of Mohammed Abu
Anza, his brother Ziad, Ibrahim Albraim, Jihad Qudaih, Tamer Abu Jama
and injury of three others while trying to save those injured in the
airstrike. Local sources reported that the Israeli warplanes targeted
the fighters with three air-to-surface missiles at 12:50 am on
Saturday before resuming firing another batch of missiles on the same
area. The sources told the PIC reporter that the Israeli warplanes
opened fire indiscriminately from their machine guns on the area to
prevent the access of Palestinian rescue workers and ambulance crews
to reach and rescue the
injured.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2
bi1s7fqm%2b0vQT04Ontz0jtYTYTXV4GDkOWR%2fPXJRw2yKU2Aivg9xvMN6jjgNgQVHFAbLoXRhNtLaPqdXRbxN
jUx6raQZsReAxqJ56SHIB5E4t884%3d
Death
toll rises to six as Israeli warplanes assassinate Al-Quds Brigades
fighter
An Israeli airstrike killed
one member of Islamic Jihad's Al-Quds Brigades and injured three
others in Jabalia Refugee Camp, raising Saturday's death toll to six
in the Gaza
Strip.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&
ID=26575
Al-Aqsa
Brigades fighters survive sea and air attack on Friday
According
to the Al-Aqsa Brigades, Israeli naval forces fired automatic weapons
and an Israeli airplane fired a missile at the group while it
attempted to launch a homemade projectile at the Israeli city of
Ashkelon, just after 6am local time. The fighters
said the attack took place near the headquarters of the Palestinian
naval forces on the shore north of Gaza City.
They also said that they succeeded in launching the projectile, but
it landed in the
Mediterranean.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&
ID=26558
Al-Aqsa
Brigades claim two attacks on Israeli targets Saturday morning
In
one attack, the group said it launched one projectile at the Israeli
town of Zikim, which borders the Gaza Strip. They claimed that the
rocket caused material damage. Separately, the Brigades claimed they
launched four projectiles at an Israeli military installation at
Kisufim, also near the Gaza Strip. The group said that these attacks
were a response to Israeli crimes committed against
Palestinians/
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&
ID=26571
Haaretz
Video: Viagra, antidepressants in high demand as Palestinians seek to
forget distress
The flow of weapons
from Sinai into Gaza has recently drawn threats
from Israel's security establishment of a large military operation.
The smuggling of Viagra and antidepressant painkillers to the coastal
strip is less of a prominent issue, but according to smugglers it is
also highly lucrative. Palestinians describe in the video how the
drugs aid them in dealing with the distress of unemployment, civil
war and ongoing conflict with
Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/929688.html
Gaza,
Ramallah – Torn apart in the same country – by Lama Hourani
It
is a very strange feeling to leave Gaza and come
to Ramallah. It is as if one were emigrating. For a while we forget
that we are talking about the same country, Palestine, and are the
same people, Palestinians. Well, usually under normal conditions, in
normal countries, when people decide to move from one city to another
in the same country it's not that difficult or that strange. We have
not been able to bring any of our belongings except for the very
personal ones. We were not allowed to bring even books because of the
closure imposed on the Gaza Strip. We were allowed only a 12 hour
permit that allowed us to come to the West Bank without
returning back. We had to cut all the bridges with the city that we
chose to live in 13 years ago.>http://gazasunflower.blogspot.com/
Palestinian
ambulances start service in E. Jerusalem
Geneva:
Five Palestinian ambulances have entered service for the first time
in East Jerusalem, following an agreement between Israeli authorities
and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, officials said yesterday.
The US immediately welcomed the breakthrough,
reached at an international conference of the Red Cross, saying it
hoped that its "co-operative spirit" would
continue.
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=
187644&version=1&template_id=37&parent_id=17
Palestinians:
Settlers throw stones at boy, steal his donkey
The
incident reportedly occurred after some 150 left-wing activists
marched in protest against the long route Palestinian children are
forced to take to get to school from their South Hebron Hills
village. Children from Tuba go to school in Twane, a nearby village,
via a lengthy and indirect path, in order to avoid harassment from
residents of the Havot Ma'on settlement. The Ta'ayush Arab-Jewish
Partnership activists, upon receiving word of the settler aggression,
marched to Havot to retrieve the donkey, but were stopped at the
settlement entrance by
police.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/929977.html
Marda
village placed under 'curfew' Friday afternoon during yet another
(typical) invasion
Israeli soldiers
invaded the village at approximately 2pm, with four jeeps shooting
sound bombs, tear gas, and live ammunition to force the villagers off
the streets. One youth was randomly abducted as he attempted to make
his way home at the announcement of the curfew. Hammed, aged 16, and
a student at the Lutheran High School in
Jerusalem, was home to visit his family for the first time in three
weeks. Before releasing him, soldiers took his permit to enter
Jerusalem to attend school and destroyed it -
tearing it into pieces. Hammed is unsure as to how long it will take
to acquire another permit, or if indeed it will be possible at all.
In the meantime he will be unable to pass through the checkpoint at
Qalandia, and as such unable to attend
school.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/11/30/marda-placed-under-
curfew-during-yet-another-invasion/
Israeli
forces seize 13-year-old boy in Marda, West Bank, on Saturday
morning
Witnesses said five Israeli
military vehicles entered the town, blocking people from leaving
their houses before abducting the child. Residents of the village
said the boy, Muhammad Hamad, was accused of throwing stones at
Israeli cars. [Marda is squeezed between the huge settlement of Ariel
and a settler
road.]
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&
ID=26570
Israeli
forces abduct two Palestinians from Qabalan village near Nablus on
Saturday
Witnesses said that least
thirteen Israeli military vehicles invaded the town. Israeli troops
broke into several houses, searching for 'wanted' Palestinians. Local
sources said that the soldiers abducted 40-year-old Muhammad Abed Al
Jalil Abu Zahra and 33-year-old Bilal Muhammad Ahmad Al
Az'ar.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&
ID=26569
Israeli
soldiers attack peaceful demonstrators in Ramallah village of Beit
U'r
After reaching the settlement road
known as road 443 and conducting the Friday prayers there, the group
was confronted by Israeli soldiers who were deployed in the area and
attacked the protesters with batons. More than fifteen people
were injured including a Palestinian legislator and associated press
journalist. Two protesters were
detained.
http://www.imemc.org/article/51805
Nativity
scene recast with security barrier for 'Kitschmas'
The
walled nativity set, launched this week as part of a range of
alternative Christmas gifts, is intended to be a reminder of the
230-mile, six-metre-high wall topped with barbed wire and lined with
guard towers, that encircles the Palestinian land and Bethlehem. The
message, according to its manufacturers, the Amos Trust, is that in
2007 the wise men would not have made it to the stable. The sets,
priced at £12 for the small version and £50 for the large
one, have been made from olive wood by Palestinian craftsmen, and all
proceeds from the sales will be donated to Palestinian
projects.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2219043,00.html
Palestinian
reporter hospitalized after torture by PA intelligence officers
The
reporter was identified as Mohammad Halaiqa, a cameraman for the
Al-Aqsa Satellite News Agency, affiliated with Hamas. A family member
said that more than seven security officers attacked Mohammad,
punched and slapped him for an extended period before kicking him
until he fell unconscious.
http://www.imemc.org/article/51811
Ma'an
political editor on PA 'Annapolis attacks': "I cried until even
my pen was wet"
I cried when I
saw those pictures of the repression and beatings of participants in
the mass marches in West Bank cities, which
resulted in the death of the young Hisham Al Barad'i from Hebron.
Dozens were wounded, including journalists. Perhaps most
viewers were crying when they saw pictures of my colleague, Al
Jazeera reporter Wael Shoyoukhi, whose arm was broken when he was
beaten by security forces. Perhaps we can be reassured by Fatah's
official condemnation of those attacks and the formation of a
commission of
inquiry.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&
ID=26573
Israel
delays Palestinian prisoner release
Israel
will delay until Monday the release of more than 400
Palestinian prisoners who had been slated to be freed on Sunday, the
head of the prison administration said. "The release of the
prisoners has been put off until Monday morning," Yaron Zamir
said on Saturday, adding that they will be freed from Kesiot prison
in the Neguev Desert. He did not say why the move
had been delayed.
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=20486
Twilight
Zone / One in a shroud, the other on crutches – by Gideon Levy
The prisoners went to sleep after the
evening roll call. At 2 A.M. they woke in a panic
when hundreds of armed warders from the Masada and
Nahshon units of the Israel Prisons Service (IPS) raided their
tents.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/929676.html
Israel's
dumping ground – by Amira Hass
Every
day, dozens of Israeli drivers continue to bring Israeli waste to the
western part of the West Bank, to an area that is under full Israeli
responsibility, via Israeli military checkpoints. The managers of the
unlicensed sites continue to accept the Israeli waste and garbage
completely unhindered. What a difference between the helplessness of
the Civil Administration here, to judge by the results at least, and
its energetic activity against the villages northwest of Jerusalem,
which are searching for an orderly dump site sufficiently distant
from homes and schools, where they could dispose of their waste.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/929673.html
Haaretz
Editorial: A halt, not a suspension
When
Ehud Olmert warns that the world could impose a "South African
solution" on Israel if two states are not
created, side by side, he is tacitly admitting that expansion of the
settlements is making Israel look increasingly
like an apartheid regime. The agreement to withdraw, or to make
"painful concessions," as it is sanctimoniously called, is
therefore less painful than any other alternative.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/929727.html
Democracy
Now: Mustapha Barghouti and Daniel Levi on Annapolis
MUSTAFA
BARGHOUTI: Well, the only official thing that came out of this is the
statement, the joint statement, and in that statement, the
Palestinian delegation failed to present any of the Palestinian
demands. And basically the whole document and the whole outcome of
the meeting has practically met every Israeli need or
demand.
http://www.apartheidmasked.org/?p=316#more-316
The
'never-never' peace conference – by Sonja Karkar
But,
the world does have to look hard at itself and ask why it has allowed
a man-made human catastrophe to go on relentlessly for 60 years
without a whimper of protest against Israel. Even a cursory look at
the last 16 years of peace talks, beginning with the Oslo
preliminaries, would show that Annapolis is
nothing more than another delaying tactic that is intended to allow
Israel to establish its Jewish state in all of
Palestine . Experience tells us that this latest
process will probably be as drawn out as all the others. And that
about sums up a meeting that will now enter the realms of the
"never-never" peace
talks.
http://www.counterpunch.org/karkar12012007.html
Abbas
says Annapolis conference achieved its goal
"The
main goal of the Annapolis conference was to
launch negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis and this is in
fact what happened," Abbas told reporters in Cairo after
meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. "Some had been under
the illusion that the negotiations would actually start in
(Annapolis) or that a deal would be struck," he said.
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=204867
The
12 myths of Annapolis
http://www.apartheidmasked.org/?p=319
Report:
Rice compares life in U.S. south to Palestinians' plight
She
told a closed meeting of Arab and Israeli envoys in Annapolis
this week that her childhood in the segregated U.S.
south helped her to understand the plight of
Palestinians and the fear felt by Israelis. "I know what its
like to hear that you can't use a certain road, or pass through a
checkpoint because you are a Palestinian. I know what it is like to
feel discriminated against and powerless," Rice was reported as
saying. [See also
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/29/AR2007112901032.html
]
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/929499.html
U.S.
withdraws Mideast resolution
UNITED
NATIONS -- The United States withdrew a Security Council resolution
Friday endorsing this week's agreement on Middle East peace
negotiations, after it became clear that the U.S. ambassador had
introduced it without fully consulting Israeli and Palestinian
diplomats -- or, apparently, even his
boss.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-envoy1dec01,1,
1864113.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
Washington:
There is no place yet for Syria in peace process
WASHINGTON
- U.S. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said
Thursday it is difficult to see how Syria can fit
into the renewed peace process. "Syria is a
state that supports terror, including Hezbollah and Hamas,"
Hadley told students in a speech at Johns Hopkins
University's international studies school in
Washington.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/929744.html
T-shirt
trial divides a nation
Seven Danes
face long jail terms for plan to donate to groups in Palestine and
Colombia – In the eyes of Denmark's ministry of justice, Preben
Mikkelson, the 56-year-old grandfather cheerfully grilling half a
dozen different kinds of sausages by the roadside earlier this week
is at the very least a terrorist sympathiser. Alongside Schultz and
five other Danes, Mikkelson could be in jail by Christmas for his
part in one of Europe's most curious court cases: the so-called
T-shirt terror trial. His crime was sticking a poster up in his van
for a brand of T-shirts bearing the logos of two groups classed by
the EU as terrorist organisations: the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia
(Farc).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2218613,00.html
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