Olive harvest season in Jordan Valley threatened by Wall, military restrictions
Hundreds of Palestinian farmers in the Palestinian Plaines areas, in West Bank's Jordan Valley region, are still deprived from reaching their farmlands, and olive orchards, since their lands are near or behind the Annexation Wall, an issue which threatens to cause the loss of the entire olive harvest season.
http://www.imemc.org/article/51263

 
Reaping the occupation's fruit – by Amira Hass
If the plot of land belonging to Dr. Salam Fayad, the Palestinian prime minister, were located 50 meters west of its present location, in the level part of the village of Deir al-Ghusun, it would now be growing thorns and thistles. Deir al-Ghusun, eight kilometers north of Tul Karm, incorporates about 15,000 dunams (including the built-up area and the master plan). Of these, 2,200 dunams are pinned between the separation fence and the Green Line. About 300 families own plots of land in this area. Throughout the year - not including the height of the agricultural season - about 150 people need regular permits to reach their private land.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/919155.html

 
As mausoleum goes up, Arafat's popularity grows
Tens of thousands of Palestinians are expected to gather next weekend inside the Muqata'a presidential compound – the complex where Mr. Arafat spent most of the final two years of his life before he died of a mysterious illness on Nov. 11, 2004 – for the official opening of the mausoleum. It also marks the beginning of a new process of mythologizing Mr. Arafat and his long reign at the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071103.arafat03/BNStory/International/home

 
AP interview: PM Fayyad calls for deadline for peace deals
Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad on Saturday urged Israel to agree to a deadline for peace talks and make "bold moves" ahead of a U.S.-hosted Mideast conference, including the release of 2,000 of more than 12,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Israel has rejected demands for a timetable, and U.S. officials have also been cool to the idea, but Fayyad told The Associated Press in an interview that a deadline is essential for restoring credibility to more than a decade of failed peace efforts.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/03/africa/ME-GEN-Palestinians-Prime-Minister.php

 
Rice's bridge to peace  
It's an unlikely recipe for peace: Take one unpopular Israeli prime minister still suffering from setbacks in Lebanon; add one politically weak Palestinian president who has lost control of part of his territory; fold in lukewarm support from Arab states. Now, beat the mixture with an energetic secretary of state and cook over high heat. The diplomat in the chef's hat, Condoleezza Rice, hopes to produce something palatable in time for a big peace conference in Annapolis in late November or the first half of December.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/02/AR2007110201784.html

 
PLC member: Hamas united in call for dialogue with Fatah
Palestinian Legislative Council member Khalil Al Hayya, who represents Gaza City, said he welcomed Friday's meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and three Hamas officials in Ramallah. Al Hayya said he hoped the meeting would mark the beginning of a process of dialogue that will eventually heal the divisions that have marred Palestinian politics since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in June. Al Hayya also asked that Fatah cease harassment of Hamas members and their families
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=26120

 
Head of Palestinian central bank resigns
The resignation of George Abed comes as Abbas's government is working with international donors to revitalise a local economy devastated by a seven-year-long uprising and widespread Israeli restrictions on movement. The president's office said Abed had tendered his resignation in order to tend to a sick child. Abed, an independent technocrat, was appointed the bank's governor in April 2005, after a long career at the International Monetary Fund.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071103/wl_mideast_afp/mideastpalestinianseconomybank_071103152604

 
Zawahiri urges overthrow of Palestinian president
DUBAI – Al Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri called for the overthrow of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas saying he had turned the movement into an "annex of the CIA," in an audiotape message released on Saturday. He also called on "nationalist and lay Arabs" to "repent and embrace Islam" because Arab leaders "like Moamer Kadhafi and Mahmud Abbas have sold you to the United States and Israel ."
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2007/November/middleeast_November35.xml&section=middleeast&col =  

Israeli military invades Ramallah, Al Bireh, and Qalqilia, kidnapping three
from Azoun town, near Qalqilia.  Villagers told IMEMC that Israeli army has declared Azoun village a closed military area and imposed house arrest. Sources also reported that Israeli military invaded the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem and the refugee camps, taking parts of the area as military posts. Troops opened heavy random fire in the military operations. No injuries or abductions were reported.
http://www.imemc.org/article/51270

 
Settlers beat Palestinian man while Israeli soldiers look on
Scores of Israeli settlers ransacked a Palestinian house and beat a Palestinian man while Israeli soldiers looked on in the West Bank city of Hebron on Friday evening. Witnesses said approximately 100 settlers from the nearby settlements of Kiryat Arba and Kharsina surrounded a house belonging to Hebron resident Abed Al Karim Al Ja'bari, before entering the home and beating his son Ramzi with stones. Local sources said Israeli soldiers and police officers were called to the scene of the attack but did not intervene.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=26116

 
Hamas detainees slam arrest of 15 Hamas supporters by PA forces
Sources close to Hamas reported that Palestinian security forces attacked a dinner party held by one of the residents to honor four detainees who were recently released from an Israeli detention center. The sources added that the security forces arrested fifteen residents, including the four. Hamas detainees imprisoned by Israel slammed the attack and considered it "an act which shames the security forces", and demanded their release.
http://www.imemc.org/article/51262

 
Hamas sources: PA Security breaks into student residences, arrests seven
Palestinian security forces loyal to Fateh movement broke into a residence used by students of the university in Al Zababda village, east of Jenin and arrested three students, members of the Islamic Block at the university.  Also on Thursday evening, Palestinian security forces broke into another students residence in the village and arrested four other students.
http://www.imemc.org/article/51261

 
No legal obstacles to Gaza fuel cuts
The State Attorney's Office informed the High Court of Justice on Friday that it sees no legal obstacles to cutting back fuel to the Gaza Strip as long as it causes no humanitarian crisis. In an initial response to the appeals, the State Attorney's Office said the plan does not constitute collective punishment, as it is part of an armed conflict with a hostile entity that is hurting and causing damage to civilians. The state added that the alternative to the plan is a large-scale military operation which would cause deaths and casualties. It said that if Barak's plan is carried out, cuts to the supply of diesel for ambulances [!], public transport and power stations should be limited so that the humanitarian repercussions are as small as possible.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1192380718871&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

 
Egypt to increase electricity supply to Gaza Strip
Dr Younis said there was a bilateral agreement between the Palestinian Authority and the Egyptian government to set up a new electricity generator for the Gaza Strip. The coastal enclave has been subject to frequent power outages for many months. The new generator will alleviate the problems with the electricity supply.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=26112

 
Report: US okays widespread Gaza operation
Lebanese daily al-Akhbar quotes diplomatic sources as saying Washington gave 'green light' to Israel to launch extensive incursion in Strip, following Defense Minister Barak's reports about Palestinian factions' alarming military buildup – Al-Akhbar claimed that Barak has met with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert several times in the last week, in a bid to "reach an understanding regarding the date and scope of a Gaza invasion."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3467145,00.html

 
Hamas lying in wait
As happened in the Gaza Strip, the lethargic approach to Hamas could exact a heavy price. For example, one of the things Israel may discover is that its "most wanted" lists are no longer relevant.  "The most amazing thing that happened to us on the morning of June 15th, the day Hamas took over Gaza, was that we discovered that the people running the show in Gaza are not people we were familiar with," says a former senior Fatah official. "They were completely different people."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3467023,00.html

 
Mortar shell hits kibbutz, no damage or injuries
Gaza militants fired four mortar shells at the western Negev on Friday, one of which struck a local kibbutz. The three other shells hit open areas.  On Thursday, Palestinian militants fired a barrage of nine Qassam rockets at the western Negev. One of the rockets struck front yard of a home in the western Negev town and did not explode. Two other rockets landed in open fields. In response, the IAF targeted two Qassam rocket launchers in the northern Gaza Strip, Army Radio reported.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/919813.html

 
Sderot and Gaza – by M.J. Rosenberg
The terrorist shelling of Sderot and other towns and villages neighboring Gaza has to stop, but the policies Israel has adopted to achieve that goal will not do the job. The most significant thing to know about the shelling is that Sderot is in Israel itself—not in the occupied territories. Accordingly, it is ridiculous to refer to the attacks as representing "resistance" unless, of course, the resistance is to the existence of Israel and not the occupation. In the case of Sderot, and neighboring towns, it clearly is. The fact that Sderot is in Israel proper is critical. In the case of Israeli settlers living in some far-flung settlement or in the midst of Hebron, one can simply ask why they are there in the first place. The people of Sderot . . . are in Israel. They are not settlers. They are Israelis, trying to live at home in Israel. Ever since Hamas won the Palestinian election, Israel 's policy toward Gaza has been closure, isolation and intermittent attacks. It is possible that these policies have hurt the terrorists although they have not deterred them.  It is certain that they have hurt everyone else.
http://www.ipforum.org/display.cfm?id=6&Sub=15

 
One Palestinian injured, three killed as airstrike target a car in Rafah
One Palestinian police officer was killed in the early hours of Saturday morning and three others were injured in an Israeli airstrike against a civilian car that belongs to the Palestinian police in Morag area near  the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah. Mohammad Siyam, 22, died of wounds sustained by debris of an Israeli missile. Eyewitnesses told IMEMC that the airstrike was executed by Israeli military jet fighters that fired a missile on a car near a Palestinian police station while the police officers were crowded in the area.
http://www.imemc.org/article/51267

 
Tunnel to link Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem with Muslim Quarter synagogue
An underground passage is being planned in Jerusalem's Old City to link the reconstructed Ohel Yitzhak synagogue in the Muslim Quarter with the Western Wall tunnels in the Jewish Quarter.
The passageway, which is being planned by the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, will utilize existing spaces created by archaeological excavations beneath the Muslim Quarter. This would minimize the need for new digging, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz told Haaretz.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/919750.html

 
Film Review  – Jerusalem: The East Side Story – by Sam Bahour
Director Mohammed Alatar made a few comments following the Jerusalem premiere. He said that he did not make the film so that people would like it, because there is nothing to like in military occupation. It is a documentary that squeezes nearly 100 years of history into an hour or so of cinema. It mainly exposes the past 40 years of Israeli military occupation policies in Jerusalem and their devastating impact on the city and its peoples. 
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/story-11020750435.htm

 
Yad Vashem exhibition honors Muslims who saved Jews from Nazi persecution
"This is a very unique story," said Yehudit Shendar, the exhibition's curator. Though Islam [now] has an anti-Jewish image, these were "Muslims who endangered their own lives to save Jews," she said. Albanians sheltered between 600 and 1,800 Jewish refugees, risking death or imprisonment, officials said. At the end of the war, Albania was the only European country with a larger Jewish population than before the war.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3466782,00.html

 
Only Christian TV station in Holy Land closes after 11 years because of a lack of funding
Nativity television, or al-Mahed as it was known in Arabic, broadcast a mix of church services, films and discussion programmes 24 hours a day from a small studio in Bethlehem, not far from the Church of the Nativity. The channel broadcast mostly in Arabic, and Mr Qumsieh said he sometimes had Muslims and Jews phoning in to talk on discussion programmes. He said Christians were leaving the city in large part because of the sharp economic slowdown brought about by the Israeli occupation and the effect of the concrete West Bank wall that runs nearby.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2204359,00.html

 
Say it with flowers – by Uri Avnery
REJOICE, REJOICE: the Foreign Minister has decided to set up a special team for dealing with the "core issues" of peace with the Palestinians. Yes, indeed. In preparation for the Annapolis meeting, the Prime Minister has put the Foreign Minister in charge of negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. You might well ask: Isn't it natural for the Foreign Ministry to deal with foreign policy? Well, it may be natural in other countries. In Israel, it is not natural at all. . . Is there any evidence of Olmert's intention not to take any serious step towards peace? Indeed there is. It is his decision to put Tzipi Livni in charge of the contacts with the Palestinians.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=26099

 
AIPAC trial judge okays defense to subpoena Rice and Hadley
The U.S. judge presiding over the trial of two former staffers of a pro-Israel lobby who are accused of giving Israel classified information approved Friday subpoenas for top U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=919822&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1

 
Pressure, self-censorship and the Israeli lobby
What do we (the U.S.), as a society, lose by allowing, year after year, the stifling of open, critical discussion of Israeli policy and U.S. support for it?
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/story-110207155639.htm

 
Friends and enemies
That evangelical American Christians support Israeli government policies through thick and thin should come as no surprise to those who pay attention to Middle Eastern politics. . . the focus on the Jewish-Muslim tension of the last 80 years and the good Jewish-Christian relations of the last 40 often deliberately inverts history, placing Christians as the eternal friend of the Jews and Muslims the eternal enemy, whereas the reality is rather more complex, with periods of calm and periods of conflict between all three religions throughout history. Right-wing Jews would do well to consider that despite Israel's current allegiances, the naturalisation of existent hostilities with certain Muslims as a timeless, unavoidable given, will do nothing to solve Israel's political problems.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/josh_freedman_berthoud/2007/11/friends_and_enemies.html

 
CAMERA's high-tech lynching of Christian group Sabeel
The Boston Globe is the latest mainstream media source to be taken in by the CAMERA-David Project-Campus Watch propaganda machine. They've allowed Dexter Van Zile, CAMERA "Christian media analyst" (what exactly does this mean?) to accuse SABEEL of in effect hanging nooses around the necks of Jews in the group's alleged anti-Israel positions.
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2007/10/27/dexter-van-ziles-fraudulent-campaign-against-sabeel/  

 
Embattled Barnard anthropologist is awarded tenure
[nice to see one US university has some guts] The professor, Nadia Abu El-Haj, who was born in America and is of Palestinian descent, contended in her first book, "Facts on the Ground," that Israeli archaeologists searched for an ancient Jewish presence to help build the case for a Jewish state. In their quest, she wrote, they sometimes used bulldozers, destroying the remains of Arab and other cultures.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/03/nyregion/03barnard.html

 
End to a shoddy prosecution
The federal government agreed this week to terminate 20-year-old deportation proceedings against two Palestinian men who were wrongly targeted for their political beliefs and activities. Better late than never, but we fear that there is little hope that the Bush administration will learn any lesson from this shockingly mishandled prosecution. The two legal United States residents at the center of the storm — Khader Hamide and Michel Shehadeh — were the remaining defendants in a travesty dating back to the Ronald Reagan administration known as the L.A. Eight case.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/03/opinion/03sat2.html