A Barrier to Peace

As Palestinians and the international community exert effort in order to guarantee a successful mid-November peace meeting, Israel has focused its attention on another matter. Ahead of the planned high-level talks, Israel has published maps that reveal a change in the route of its Separation Wall. The new maps, published on Israel's Ministry of Defense website, show a significant increase in the length of the Wall to allow the annexation of large tracts of Palestinian land. According to a recent assessment report by the PLO's Negotiations Affairs Department, the new route will annex 12 percent of the West Bank. The change to the Wall's route and the planned expansion of settlements will place 46 percent of the West Bank under full Israeli control.

http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/10/02/palestine-center-a-barrier-to-peace/

State tells Court it backs evacuation of settlers from Hebron market

The State Prosecution informed the High Court of Justice on Monday that it supports the evacuation of settlers who are squatting in Palestinian-owned stores in a market in the West Bank city of Hebron.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=908786&contrassID=1&subContrassID=7

Israeli settlers erect tents to establish new illegal settlement

Dozens of Israeli settlers on Sunday erected tents on a hill at the Al-Nabi Younis in Hahul north of Hebron as a base for establishing a new Israeli settlement on the hill, Ma'an's reporter said.

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25632

Israel to move police into West Bank headquarters near Jerusalem, despite U.S. concerns

Israel is determined to move police to a new West Bank headquarters by the end of the year, officials said Monday, despite U.S . concerns that Israeli development in that particular area near Jerusalem harms prospects for establishing a viable Palestinian state.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/01/africa/ME-GEN-Israel-West-Bank.php

Israel fires towards Palestinians near Gaza crossing

Israeli soldiers on Tuesday opened fire towards Palestinians who tried to approach a border crossing as 29 prisoners were entering the Gaza Strip after being freed by Israel, Reuters witnesses said.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L02259650.htm

Israeli troops shoot photographer at Gaza crossing

Israeli soldiers shot and wounded a Reuters photographer in Gaza on Tuesday as he took pictures of Palestinians greeting 29 released prisoners at a border crossing with Israel. Mohammed Jadallah, a Palestinian, was hit by a bullet that passed through his calf muscle when the crowd surged forward.

http://wap.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L02337784.htm

29 Palestinian prisoners cross into Gaza

Erez, northern Gaza- Twenty-nine Palestinian prisoners crossed into the Gaza Strip Tuesday, after being released by Israel from a prison in southern Israel as a confidence building measure for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The prisoners, most of them members of Abbas' Fatah party's armed wing and some of the left radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), were received by thousands of cheering and ulating relatives and supporters, waving yellow Fatah and red PFLP flags.

http://rawstory.com/news/dpa/29_Palestinian_prisoners_cross_into_10022007.html

Hamas disbands Executive Force, absorbs troops into police

Gaza City- Hamas has dismantled its security force in the Gaza Strip and absorbed its members into existing police forces now under its control, a spokesman for the de-facto Hamas administration in Gaza said Tuesday.  The Executive Force, set up by Hamas shortly after it beat the rival Fatah party of President Mahmoud Abbas in January 2006 legislative elections, has seized to exist, Ihab al-Ghusein, a spokesman for the Hamas-led ministry of interior, told a news conference in Gaza.

http://rawstory.com/news/dpa/Hamas_disbands_Executive_Force_abso_10022007.html

Eight wounded in Fatah-Hamas clashes in southern Gaza

Gaza- Eight Palestinians were wounded Monday night during clashes between President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah members and members of Hamas executive force in the southern Gaza Strip, witnesses said. They said the clashes erupted near one of the mosques in the city of Khan Younis, beginning with fist fighting.

http://rawstory.com/news/dpa/Eight_wounded_in_Fatah_Hamas_clashe_10012007.html

Arab and Islamic countries contacted to end Palestinian political crisis, Brigades spokeman claims

The spokesperson of the An-Nasser Salah Addin Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, said on Monday evening that group of Arab and Islamic countries have been contacted to assist in ending the crippling siege on the Gaza Strip and to heal the political rift within the Palestinian territories.

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25652

Al-Dura's father: Israel's claims ridiculous: 'Israel tries time and again to deny its responsibility for the incident because it can't deal with the criticism against it,' says Jamal al-Dura in response to official Israeli assertion that incident was staged. Israel: It is time for French to release raw footage, 'out of 26 minutes the world has only ever seen 59 seconds'.

British government faces legal challenge over arms sales to Israel

The British government will face a legal challenge over arms-related sales to Israel, a Palestinian human rights organization revealed on Tuesday.

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25658

Ha'aretz: Democracy is more than going to the polls

"The protest wave has calmed down," some Israeli journalists said Friday of the Burmese military junta's success in driving thousands of demonstrators off the streets, using excessive violence.   Despite the natural sympathy for the uprisers, several editors chose the word "calm," which embodies the rulers' point of view: The norm is "calm," even if it means constant government violence. The mass protest against the oppression is a disruption of order and calm.

http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/10/02/haaretz-democracy-is-more-than-going-to-the-polls/

The One-State Solution: Abunimah vs Akiva Eldar

On 24 September 2007, EI's Ali Abunimah appeared on the Canadian Brodcasting Corporation program, The Current with host Anna Maria Tremonti. Abunimah was invited to take part in a debate with Israeli journalist and political columnist for the Israeli daily Haaretz, Akiva Eldar.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9020.shtml

Back-to-School Gift for the Children

Donate a Back to school gift for Palestinian Children (thru Middle East Children's Alliance.

http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2007/10/01/back-to-school-gift-for-the-children/

Settlers steal two more flags from Issa's house

As part of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, hundreds of religious visitors traveled to the West Bank city of Hebron on Sunday to view various religious sites and the settlements within the area. In previous years this event has coincided with incidences of violence towards local Palestinians and Human Rights Workers (HRWs), so efforts were made this year to provide a large international presence in an attempt to ensure that any aggression was documented and that the event passed peacefully. International HRWs accompanied local children to school before providing observation at check-points and outside a house recently illegally occupied by force by settlers, now protected by the Israeli Occupation Force (IOF).
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/10/01/settlers-steal-two-more-flags-from-issas-house/

Christians fly to Israel to support ethnic cleansing and war to snub thier noses at Palestinian Christians

Christian supporters of Israel marched in Jerusalem to celebrate 40 years since its unification. An estimated 6,000 to 7,000 Christians from more than 90 countries staged the annual Feast of the Tabernacles parade in the Israeli capital Tuesday.

http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/104457.html

Ultra-Orthodox school bars girl over her 'mother's immodesty'

When Ruth (not her real name) asked to sign up for an ultra-Orthodox high school in her home town in the North, she was refused. The official reason: Claims by the educational institution's management of so-called immodest behavior by her mother - which Ruth rejected out of hand.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=909080&contrassID=1&subContrassID=7

Israel's Toy Soldiers

If you are a young Muslim American and head off to the Middle East for a spell in a fundamentalist "madrassa," or religious school, Homeland Security will probably greet you at the airport when you return. But if you are an American Jew and you join hundreds of teenagers from Europe and Mexico for an eight-week training course run by the Israel Defense Forces, you can post your picture wearing an Israeli army uniform and holding an automatic weapon on MySpace.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18488.htm

Neo-Nazi teen: Ashkenazim an inferior race

Religious teen arrested for spraying swastikas on Haifa synagogue collected Nazi items and was motivated by hate for religious Ashkenazi Jews. 'Sephardi Jews are the superior race,' he wrote.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3455733,00.html

Israel is Warmongering

DAMASCUS - Syria's deputy president has accused Israel of making excuses to start a war by spreading false reports that an alleged Israeli air raid targeted a site linked to weapons of mass destruction.

http://palestinechronicle.com/story-10020740810.htm