Situation in Occupied Territory no better despite recent diplomatic moves, Committee on Palestinian Rights told

The grave situation in the occupied Palestinian territory had not improved despite recent diplomatic initiatives, Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of Palestine, said this morning as the Palestinian Rights Committee met to adopt its annual report and review its activities since its last meeting.

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/YSAR-77NRZA?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR

Israel denies medical treatment to Gaza Strip residents

Physicians for Human Rights reported on Friday that Israeli officials are allowing only those Palestinians with life-threatening injuries to enter Israel for treatment. Injuries that may result in the loss of a limb are not considered serious enough.

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25684

Four injured at demonstration against Israeli separation barrier in Bil'in

Four people were injured during a demonstration in the West Bank village of Bil'in, near Ramallah on Friday. After the noon prayer, a large group of Palestinian, Israeli and international protesters marched to the Israeli separation barrier.

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25706

Hamas pays Gaza security forces wages in cash from suitcases

Hamas paid thousands of Gaza security officials on Friday by dishing out cash from suitcases rather than using banks, to circumvent banks which Israel is pressuring to shun Hamas, a senior finance ministry official said.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=909886&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1

Gaza City municipal workers declare strike, blame Fayyad and Abbas for cutting off pay

Frustrated after months of working without pay, employees at the Gaza City have declared a strike to begin Saturday.

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25704

Three Hamas-affiliated teachers arrested, movement claims

Hamas has accused the Fatah-dominated Preventive Security forces arresting three Hamas-affiliated teachers in the West Bank Thursday and Friday. Hamas said teacher Mohamed Abu Arqoub was arrested from the village of Dora, south of Hebron.

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25702

Three injured in Gaza Strip blasts; Hamas and Fatah trade accusations

Hamas and Fatah traded accusations over three explosions that took place in the Gaza Strip Thursday night. Al Jazeera reported that three Members of Hamas' Executive Force (EF) were injured what appeared to be a roadside bomb aimed at an EF patrol in Gaza City. Hamas accused Fatah members of planting the bomb.

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25699

Violence, blockade disrupts Gaza schooling-UN

A third of Palestinian children at United Nations schools in Hamas-run Gaza struggle to read and write because violence and an Israeli blockade are disrupting their education, a United Nations agency said on Friday. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which runs refugee schools in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, said children in the Gaza Strip were lagging way behind Palestinian refugee students elsewhere.

http://wap.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L03267740.htm

High number of students in Gaza UN-run schools fail math, Arabic tests

Large numbers of students in United Nations-run schools in Gaza have flunked achievement tests in math and Arabic, the agency said Thursday, attributing the poor showing to violence, overcrowding and poverty.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=909610&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1

Thousands gather in Gaza for Jerusalem Day

Thousands marched in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip Friday, torching the flags of Israel, the United States and Britain in an annual day of protest called by Iran in solidarity with Palestinians.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071005/wl_mideast_afp/mideastgazademo_071005132824;_ylt=AmwuZiH.KyoFNZmlGCLQn8qaOrgF

Iranians voice support for Palestinians to mark Jerusalem day

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday reiterated the country's support for the Palestinians and condemned Israel's "atrocities". Ahmadinejad voiced the support while addressing a rally at the Tehran University to mark the International Qods (Jerusalem) Day, which was initiated by the late Iranian leader Ruholla Khomeini to show solidarity with the Palestinians.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-10/05/content_6832447.htm

Israel continues Jerusalem restrictions for fourth Friday of Ramadan

Israeli authorities deployed thousands of police in Jerusalem while continuing restrictions on Palestinian worshipers' access to the city on the fourth Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25692

Politicians: U.S.-sponsored Mideast conference not likely to succeed amid Palestinian division

Some Egyptian and Palestinian politicians and experts have played down chances of success of a U.S.-proposed international conference on Mideast peace due to Palestinian division, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported on Thursday.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-10/05/content_6831022.htm

Released BBC journalist to tell story of gaza capture

The BBC journalist who was abducted and held by militants in Gaza City earlier this year is to reveal details of his ordeal in an hour-long Panorama special.  Alan Johnston spent 113 days in captivity before being released in on July 4. The documentary, to be shown on October 25, will include questions put to Mr Johnston and interviews with some of those involved in the campaign for his release.

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/uk/news/article_1362685.php/Released_BBC_journalist_to_tell_story_of_gaza_capture

PA demands all prisoners freed within few months

Ashraf al-Ajrami, the Palestinian Authority minister for prisoners affairs, met this week with Public Security Minister Avi Dichter and demanded that all Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails be freed in the coming months, Ajrami told Army Radio on Friday.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=909862&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1

An interview with Marwan Barghouthi

This interview was originally published in Yedioth Ahronoth in Hebrew; it has been translated by Diana Buttu of The Institute for Middle East Understanding.  The moment that Abbas officially announces his resignation, even if I am in prison, I will put forward my candidacy for President (of the Palestinian Authority) and I will win.

http://imeu.net/news/article006669.shtml

Rights group: Impartial investigation for 2000 killing of Muhammad al-Dura

The now iconic scene of Muhammad al-Dura and his father Jamal before being shot on 30 September 2000. The footage that Israel is claiming was staged was recorded by Talal Abu Rahma for France 2 TV.  The Israeli Government Press Office (GPO) claimed yesterday that the video of the murder of Muhammad Jamal al-Dura on 30 September 2000 was staged by a cameraman in Gaza. The scene of the killing of the 11-year-old boy was one of the most moving ones ever broadcast during the second intifada that had started three days before the incident.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9029.shtml

Seven years on

"We didn't just start the Intifada for the sake of it," said Sami, the young Islamic student activist from Hebron, in the southern West Bank. He and a group of young college students were discussing the pluses and minuses of the Al-Aqsa uprising which this week entered its eighth year.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/865/re3.htm

A putative peace

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas has privately threatened to resign if the upcoming American- sponsored international peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, ends in failure. According to sources within Abbas's immediate circle, the Palestinian leader is increasingly worried that a fiasco at the much-heralded conference would undermine his credibility among Palestinians, including members of his own Fatah Party.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/865/fr1.htm

'Our job was to hit them'

One soldier from the company agreed to be interviewed for this article under his full name. Ilan Vilanda, 38, is unmarried and lives in a moshav in the Jezreel Valley. He was born in Kibbutz Merhavia to immigrant parents (mother from France, father from Holland) who met as volunteers on the kibbutz in 1967. Vilanda was drafted in 1988 and served in the Givati infantry brigade. He was sent to prison four times for disciplinary infractions, and was transferred to Southern Command and assigned to Ash'har company, and later transferred to Ashbal Company.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/909588.html

Twilight Zone / Black holes

A visit to Ein Beit-Ilma refugee camp on the outskirts of Nablus. We proceed from house to house through the holes made by soldiers in the walls of the rooms. From the home of the Yunes family, our hosts, we make our way to the Rajab family through the hole in the stairwell. From the Rajabs we go on to the Namruttis, this time through the hole in the bedroom wall. From there to the Taha family, now through the living room. "Let's go back to the street," says Dr. Ghassan Hamdan, director of Palestinian Medical Relief Services in Nablus, after we have passed dustily through half a dozen homes without having emerged into the street. "We are not soldiers," he says.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/909594.html 

'Everything is permitted'

The callousness of some of the soldiers produced extreme indifference to the Arabs' suffering: "We were in a weapon carrier when this guy, around 25, passed by in the street, and just like that, for no reason, he didn't throw a stone, did nothing - bang, a bullet in the stomach - he shot him in the stomach and the guy is dying on the sidewalk and we keep going, apathetic. No one gave him a second look."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=909589

Mirror, mirror on the wall : Fatah confronts itself in Gaza, and it's not a pretty picture, observes

Only 10 days separated the two demonstrations that Hassan Zarqi, a 29-year-old officer in the Gaza security forces and supporter of Fatah, participated in. The first was in support of the Fayad government and criticism of the Hamas movement and its "putsch" in Gaza. The second was in criticism of the Fayad government and its policy based on "discrimination". Zarqi had previously participated in all protest actions against Hamas, but last Wednesday could not avoid participating in a demonstration against the Fayad government itself after the government stopped paying his salary and that of 10,000 other members of the security forces, most of whom belong to Fatah. "In my worst nightmares, I never imagined that this would happen to me," he told Al-Ahram Weekly. "I never expected to be punished by the government I have risked my life to defend," he said.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/865/re1.htm