West Bank village hails victory
The Bil'in Popular Committee meets on Wednesday night to plan the next step in a [nonviolent] campaign that turned this Palestinian farming community into a symbol of unarmed resistance against the Israeli occupation. The Israeli government says the barrier is a security measure to stop suicide bombers, but critics say the structure is a calculated effort to annex occupied land. Before rejoining battle in the courts and with the marches, the village has declared a week of festivities, the first of which took place on Tuesday.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6979923.stm

 
Victory celebration in Bil'in – with photos
The demonstration had a double purpose. First of all, it was a victory celebration. The veteran demonstrators felt that their 135 consecutive demonstrations in the village have achieved their purpose and had an impact on the decision of the Supreme Court to move the "separation fence" to the west, returning to the village a part of its stolen land. But the demonstration was also designed to express the resolute determination to continue the struggle until the fence will be removed altogether or moved to the Green Line.
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/events/1189205371

 
Gush Shalom's ad for this week in Israeli newspapers
Balance  - This week the Supreme Court  Ordered to transfer the Fence  And return to the people of Bil'in
Their stolen agricultural land.  Very good - but the court  Also gave legal confirmation  To a settlement housing project  That was built illegally  On Bil'in land.  The message: settlers, Build quickly!  Create facts!
All that you succeed in stealing  The court will approve -  Retroactively.
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/weekly_ad/1189104002

Meron Rapoport: A victory for the anarchists
Any [Israeli] who went to demonstrate in Bil'in knew that he stood more than a small chance of getting hurt somehow by "his" army: by clubs, tear gas, rubber bullets. Undoubtedly, there were a few who sought out this violence, but it also befell those who did not seek it out. It was part of the deal. The violence that the soldiers and Border Police officers employed against the Israeli demonstrators on an average Friday in Bil'in surpassed that used against the settlers during the entire evacuation of Gush Katif. Nevertheless, a few hundred Israelis made this trip every Friday, without fail, for the last two and a half years.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/901786.html

 
Behind the Wall: medical conditions, political decisions
Earlier this year a man walked into Caritas Hospital carrying a small baby in his arms from a refugee camp. The child's feet were blue, they were frozen…this time the child's life was saved. Palestine in 2007 is geographically hardly recognizable from Palestine in 1952. Go back a further five years and 'historical Palestine' still existed. Now only around 12% of 'historical Palestine' is accessible to Palestinians. Caritas cannot even cater to all of this 12%. Children from Jenin, Nablus, and other cities in the northern section of the West Bank cannot get to the hospital due to travel restrictions, checkpoints, and the series of Bantustans which the Occupation is dividing the country into.
http://palestinechronicle.com/story-09080755947.htm

 
Fayad: Mideast peace conference must lead to deal on statehood
"The conference should produce explicit agreement on the establishment of a Palestinian state and laying down a binding timetable and international guarantees for the completion of an Israeli-Palestinian agreement," Fayad told reporters.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=902060&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1

 
Abbas' election decree – a blow to Palestinian institutions and rule of law
Last January, the Palestinian people took part in an election that marked a sharp turn in their path to becoming a sovereign state. International observers praised the elections as competitive, free and fair, among the most democratic the Middle East has seen in recent memory. But it was the victors who made the headlines: the Islamist party, Hamas. Rather than reward Palestinian leaders for their turn to democratic ideals, President Bush's refusal to recognize the legitimate winners punished the Palestinians' achievement. We want democracy in the Middle East, Bush's policy says, but we want it our way. Election analysts and experts stressed that Hamas' 2006 victory was in large part due to Fatah's failure to understand how the recently passed election laws would translate votes into seats, not a public turn in support of Hamas. On Sunday, President Abbas announced his decree of a new election law establishing full proportional representation based on national party lists. Due to this change, Fatah is almost certain to win a majority under the full proportional representation system, despite its divisions and weaknesses.
http://palestinechronicle.com/story-09080760124.htm

 
EU resumes direct financial aid to Abbas's Palestinian Authority
"we have have changed the disbursement mechanism and we have reoriented it (towards the Palestinian government)," said EU Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner.  The EU had frozen millions of dollars in direct aid to the Fatah-led Palestinian government after last year's Hamas electoral victory.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/902066.html

 
Israeli army kills Palestinian youth near eastern Gaza border
on Saturday afternoon. Ramez Helles, 16, was shot and killed near the Karni crossing between Gaza and Israel. Israeli army sources said that troops stationed at the borders identified a Palestinian youth approaching the border and they fired in air to force him to leave the area. Witnesses and medics said that the child was hit directly with live rounds and died on the spot.
http://www.imemc.org/article/50315

 
Palestinian found shot dead in Gaza - medics
A 19-year-old Palestinian civilian was found shot dead in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday near the border with Israel, Palestinian medics said.  An Israeli army spokeswoman said troops fired warning shots, then shot at four suspects who were approaching the border fence, but did confirm hitting them. Medical officials said the man was carrying a wooden gun used to shoot at birds, and died of massive blood loss after being shot in the thigh.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L0861502.htm

 
Palestinian resistance fighter dies in a military operation in the Gaza Strip
Palestinian sources said hw was killed during a resistance operation that targeted an Israeli military site near Gaza city. The Al Qassam brigades issued a press release stating that the killed fighter is Nabeel Abed Al A'al, adding that he is one of the top leaders of the brigades in the coastal region. Saturday's attack follows a similar strike on Thursday, in which the Al Qassam Brigades targeted an Israeli military site near the northern Gaza Israeli borders.
http://www.imemc.org/article/50314

 
Israeli army invades Jenin city, refugee camp, and Qabatiya town
in the early hours of Saturday morning. Security sources reported to the Palestinian News Agency WAFA that troops toured the area and ransacked homes, claiming that they were searching for so-called wanted Palestinians. The Al-Quds brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad clashed with the military during the invasion, and announced that that they carried out this operation as a response to the escalation of the Israeli attacks against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The same sources stated that the Israeli force used police dogs in the military operation.
http://www.imemc.org/article/50312

 
Jailed Palestinian died due to negligence, family claims
A Palestinian prisoner from the West Bank died in his cell in Ma'asiyahu prison on Saturday, August 25 due to medical negligence, his family said. The Prison Service has denied allegations of medical negligence or maltreatment prior to the death of Omar Masalma, 23, from the village of Beit Awa , south of Hebron. Masalma banged on his cell door for a long time on the night he died, seeking help. Eventually he was taken out of his cell but was returned five minutes later, after receiving some kind of pill, he could not say what kind, his cell mates said. He groaned with pain for hours and fell silent at about 4 A.M. His fellow inmates thought he had fallen asleep, but in the morning he was dead.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/901361.html

 
Families of Palestinian prisoners in Israel's Ramon Prison attacked by guards
on Thursday, and prevented from visiting their loved ones. The prison is located on the Israel-Egypt border, and Palestinians must obtain special permits weeks in advance, and travel for six hours each way for a brief, no-contact visit with their imprisoned loved one. Umm Hatem Al-Jayossy came from the West Bank city of Tulkarem to visit her son in Ramon prison. She told how the guards attacked the Palestinians. Thursday's incident is just one of many that have been documented in which guards at the Ramon Prison attack and punish family members, as well as those imprisoned in the facility.
http://www.imemc.org/article/50318

 
Israelis don Hamas garb to nab group chief in Gaza
Hamas said commandos dressed in the light blue fatigues of Hamas's paramilitary police Executive Force drove up to Mohawesh al-Qadi's car outside Rafah town on Friday night, bundled him into their vehicle, and escaped. Qadi, a local Executive Force commander who also serves in the Hamas armed wing, was with his wife at the time. She was left behind and reported the incident to Hamas, it said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L08508238.htm

 
Hamas vows to deal with attacks on reporters in the Gaza Strip
Ayman Taha, one of the leaders of Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip, stated on Friday that the movement rejects all attacks against reporters and media outlets, and added that Hamas does not silence the media. Taha said that the Ministry of Interior formed a government committee to probe incidents of attacks against reporters, and to prosecute the assailants.
http://www.imemc.org/article/50305

 
Peace settles on Gaza, but economy crumbles
Nearly three months after Hamas conquered teeming Gaza, the streets are subdued. People stroll at all hours; car theft has practically stopped; even armed police officers are rarely seen. Following 18 months in which gun battles between Hamas and rival Fatah forces defined street life, Hamas has made it illegal to carry weapons in public or to fire them, even at weddings or funerals.. But Hamas's battle with Fatah, which largely controls the West Bank, continues. Youssef, one of the senior Hamas officials, also has a tough warning for Fatah and Abbas. "We could turn the table on Abu Mazen in Ramallah if we wanted to," Youssef said, "but we hope that in a few months we can talk together and solve our internal problems and find a solution on a new government."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/07/america/gaza.php

 
The ridiculous and the sublime
Although it may not be possible for history to repeat itself verbatim, there are clear indications that Israel and the Palestinian Authority may be heading toward a re-enactment of the Camp David talks in 2000, when then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak presented his famous "generous" (sic) offer to Yasser Arafat.All the essential ingredients for such a farce are in place.  We have an American president approaching the advanced stages of lame-duckery, desperate for something the American people might remember him by besides endless war and national disgrace. We have an Israeli prime minister who ruined his own reputation amid the ruins of Lebanon . . .
http://palestinechronicle.com/story-090607113735.htm

 
Russia calls on Israel to honor international law
Russia on Thursday called on Israel to respect international law following an alleged violation of Syrian airspace.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/901817.html

Army: Israeli warplanes violated Lebanese air space
Israeli warplanes infiltrated into Lebanese air space on Friday, flying over towns north and south of the country, the Lebanese army said in a statement.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-09/08/content_6684174.htm

 
Syrian VP says response to IAF action will come quickly
and that  that Damascus was considering a number of responses. A Syrian government newspaper on Saturday called the alleged IAF violation of Syrian airspace a joint U.S.-Israel operation, adding that the United States' silence on the issue encourages Israel's actions.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/902017.html

 
Turkey says two IAF fuel tanks found near its border with Syria
Turkey has asked Israel for clarification, a Turkish source said Saturday.  The statement came two days after Damascus said that Israeli jets broke the sound barrier flying over northern Syria , then dropped munitions onto deserted areas after being shot at by Syria 's air defenses. The source said Turkish authorities were also trying to establish whether IAF warplanes had briefly violated Turkey's airspace.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/902073.html

 
Israeli occupation forces and gunships kill 10 Palestinian resistance fighters
Local residents said a small Israeli commando force crossed into the territory near the Palestinian town of Khan Younis and that gun battles erupted.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22377583-401,00.html

 
Twilight Zone / The school year that never started – by Gideon Levy
Mahmoud, 11, had climbed the fig tree in the yard to pick some figs for lunch, when his stepbrother, Sadiq Awdi, 22, a wanted Islamic Jihad member, came to the house armed and accompanied by a friend, also a wanted man, to see his mother and brothers who live in Israel. According to witnesses, undercover officers (mist'arvim) suddenly entered the house and began firing indiscriminately, killing the boy in the tree, seriously wounding his stepbrother and killing the friend. . . With one child dead and four sons and a daughter in Israeli prisons, one of them seriously wounded - Najah sits in her home in the Bedouin town of Rahat, crying over Mahmoud and displaying the new clothes and book bag she had bought for him for the new school year that he didn't live to see.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/901661.html

 
Hamas rejects Red Cross request to see abducted soldier Gilad Shalit
A senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, Osama Al-Mazini, said that allowing a visit might lead Israel to Shalit.  Also Thursday, Hamas denied that it had received a new Israeli offer aimed at securing Shalit's release.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/901645.html

 
Rannie Amiri: Battle of the Camps – The siege of Nahr al-Barad
To undermine Hezbollah, radical anti-Shia groups like Fatah al-Islam were invited into Lebanon (or let out of its prisons) by the current Lebanese government, with the junior Hariri calling on old friends in Saudi Arabia for assistance. But deals with devils often do not go as planned; hence the outbreak of violence in Nahr al-Bared.  But similarly-minded organizations remain sprinkled throughout the Palestinian refugee camps of Lebanon. The saga of The Battle of Camps has just begun
http://www.counterpunch.com/amiri09082007.html

 
MJ Rosenberg: It's lobbying, but is it pro-Israel?
I spent almost 20 years as a Congressional aide and can testify from repeated personal experience that Senators and House Members are under constant pressure to support status quo policies on Israel. . . The question I ask today, and not for the first time, is whether this type of behavior is good for Israel. Forty years after the Six Day War, the occupation continues, the resistance to it intensifies, and Israelis in increasing numbers question whether they have a future in the Jewish state. Has "pro-Israel" advocacy consistently produced "pro-Israel" ends?  At several critical moments, it most certainly has not.
http://www.ipforum.org/display.cfm?id=6&Sub=15

 
The biggest sin in life is having 'Palestinian heritage'
An American-Palestinian family was separated by force at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel. Steve Yacoub, the children's father, owns a convenience store in Lakeland. He is a native of Palestine, but has been an American citizen for about 30 years. On Aug. 18, as they tried to return home, Israeli security officials told the children their father's Palestinian heritage disqualified them from traveling as American citizens, Wedad Yacoub said. [more, including Ledger article] In the case of the Yacoub family, the mother and children WERE allowed in through Ben Gurion but not allowed out till they agreed to take the identity card. They eventually exited through Jordan but were STILL forced to take the card in order to exit. [This is all most odd, since Israel has in the past denied Palestinian ID cards to people who happened to be visiting elsewhere when they occupied the West Bank, or who stayed out of the country 'too long' to study, etc.]
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2007/09/08/the-biggest-sin-in-life-is-having-palestinian-heritage/ 

 
So much for your American citizenship if Israel claims you're a Palestinian resident
Excerpts from U.S. State Department website: Palestinian Americans: Israeli authorities may consider American citizens to be residents of the West Bank or Gaza if they were born there, lived there, or have a Palestinian Authority ID number.  It is possible that an American citizen born in the United States whose parents were born or lived in the West Bank or Gaza would be considered a resident by Israeli authorities. . . During periods of heightened security restrictions, American citizens with residency status in the West Bank or Gaza might not be allowed to enter or exit Gaza or the West Bank at all, even with an American passport.
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1064.html

 
Law change traps Lakeland children in Israel
A controversial and poorly publicized Israeli policy has apparently been instituted this year. It seems to treat American citizens who were born in the United States but whose parents have lived in Palestine differently from everyone else. Israel considers them to be Palestinian residents with respect to travel inside of Israel.   . . . Wedad Yacoub was concerned that Israelis only prohibit people of Palestinian background from traveling, even though the children were born in America. "I think that's unfair ... I'm an American citizen, my kids were all born in America. …" CAIR has also asked for help from a branch of the U.S. State Department, American Citizen Services in Jerusalem, but this morning an unsigned email from that office said that they could not be of assistance. "This is local travel policy and law" the email said
http://www.wmnf.org/news_stories/show/4693  

 
Ex-Diplomat Testifies for Muslim Charity
Associated Press - Sep 5, 2007 Abingdon's testimony took dead aim at prosecutors' claims that the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development was knowingly funding terrorists instead ...
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gx4vjZc-Sl7DwrwgyqX-hIbr_GSg

 
Middle East Mind Lock: The Occupation Within
Observers of Israel and its influence within the United States see a long trend toward ideological convergence between the two nations, especially in foreign policy, war, economics, and propaganda. One of the little-noted fundamentals of this growing affinity is a mutual and increasing need and desire to justify unjustifiable acts and obscure incriminating truths. . . In the US, we face a threat to our national sanity that is similar to the physical danger bearing down on the caged and impoverished Palestinian people-the destruction of what we have left. Our common foe is an irrational ideology that inverts fundamental values and legitimizes crimes against humanity. For us, the struggle to overcome the threat begins in the mind.
http://www.counterpunch.com/brooks09072007.html

 
Matthew Abraham: Finkelstein's legacy at DePaul
[The writer is an assistant professor at DePaul, who could conceivably be denied tenure himself one day as a result of his support of Finkelstein] In examining the evidence at hand, it's fairly clear that Finkelstein was not denied tenure because of his supposed ad hominem attacks or his lack of collegiality. He was denied tenure at DePaul because tremendous outside pressure was placed on the university to remove an effective critic of U.S. and Israeli policy in the Middle East from its precincts. I wish the administration would stop repeating the bald-face lie that Finkelstein's scholarship did not meet DePaul's tenure and promotion standards.
http://www.counterpunch.com/abraham09082007.html