Jewish settlements defy Annapolis
Peace Now refuted Israeli claims that the expansion of settlements is a "natural growth" of their populations. It noted that the number of settlers in the West Bank has grown by 5.8 percent, compared with 1.8 percent growth within Israel during the same period. "This means that the growth of settlements is much more than the 'natural growth' and includes massive migration of settlers to the West Bank." Yariv Oppenheimer, the group's secretary general, warned that if this policy continues "we will soon have a settler state instead of a Palestinian state." "There is no connection between what is happening in political negotiations and what is happening on the ground," he told Army Radio.
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/story-11080734728.htm

 
Former U.N. chief: No wonder everyone hates you
Boutros Boutros Ghali blames Israel for lack of peace in Middle East, paints a stark picture for future of Arab-Israeli relations; 'After 30 years, I don't even see one centimeter of progress'. It's hard to hear such severe criticism from one of the architects of Israel's first peace agreement – the 1977 Camp David Accords with Egypt – but Ghali has no intentions of hiding his anger with Israel behind diplomatic formalities. [Interestingly, Ghali is a Coptic Christian married to a Jew.]
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3469518,00.html

 
Abbas, at mausoleum, vows to continue Arafat's path to statehood
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday inaugurated a mausoleum built over Yasser Arafat's grave and vowed to continue on his iconic predecessor's path in seeking statehood. Abbas said he hoped Arafat's wish to be buried in Jerusalem could still be fulfilled, along with Palestinians' dream of making the disputed city the capital of their future state. "We will continue on the path to set up the independent Palestinian state with (Jerusalem) as its capital, God willing," Abbas said at an unveiling ceremony in the occupied West Bank.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L1028082.htm

 
A journey to la-la land
With the same haste that characterized his decision to embark on the Second Lebanon War, Olmert declared at the Saban Forum that he is going to Annapolis with no lesser goal than solving all the fundamental historic problems of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - borders, refugees, Jerusalem, the whole kit and caboodle - maybe even before President George W. Bush's term ends at the beginning of 2009. He is leaving open the question of how he will get to these core issues, considering that he and his government have yet to figure out a solution to two such "marginal" matters as getting our three kidnapped soldiers released and ending the rocket fire on Sderot, which has been going on nonstop for the last seven years and has prompted a mass exodus of residents unprecedented in scope.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/922232.html

 
Conference in Bethlehem on mobilizing faith communities for resistance to occupation
The National Coalition of Christian Organizations in Palestine together with Peace for Life organization organized a conference in Bethlehem on Friday on taking the faith communities to the front lines of resistance to end the Israeli occupation in Palestine. The Palestinian Minister of Tourism, Dr. Khuloud Deibes welcomed the delegation of Peace for Life organization who come from a number of countries, including the USA, UK, Canada, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Puerto Rico, among them Jews, Christians and Muslims. A number of speakers highlighted and stressed the Palestinian civil society's call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel until it abides by International law.
http://www.imemc.org/article/51397

 
Gaza's isolation takes toll on students and prices
Miriam Ashour is among some 670 Gazans enrolled in schools abroad who have been denied permission to leave the territory. That number includes six Fulbright scholars.  At least 35 are enrolled in American institutions, according to an Israeli lobbying group, Gisha, which has sued the Israeli Supreme Court on behalf of the students. . . The average income of nonrefugees in Gaza has dropped 22 percent since June and 70 percent of them are now existing on less than $1.20 a day, compared with 55 percent in June, according to the World Food Program.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/10/world/middleeast/10gaza.html?ex=1352350800&en=0cf0494e2e4c29df&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

 
A moment before the lights go out – by Amira Hass
The electricity and fuel supply to Gaza has already been reduced to below the level of basic human needs. An additional reduction will affect the above solutions to the water problem, and beyond. "To darken Gaza," as some of the security experts among us have recently proposed, does not end merely with darkened homes at night. The water network is the biggest energy consumer in the Gaza Strip: The 135 wells across the Gaza Strip that supply water, poor quality as it may be, cannot function if the electricity and diesel fuel supply is cut further. The same is true of sewage treatment plants.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/921140.html

 
UN chief orders full probe of  rocket launching from school in Gaza
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has asked for a full investigation of an incident in which Palestinian militants fired rockets at Israel from a UN-run school in Gaza, the United Nations said on Thursday. UN officials said the school in the town of Beit Hanoun run by the UNRWA agency, which aids Palestinian refugees, was empty at the time of last week's incident after being evacuated because of an Israel Defense Forces incursion into Gaza.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/922055.html

 
IDF reservists: Hamas men fight like soldiers, not terrorists
Reserve-duty paratroopers who completed a month of duty in the Gaza Strip last week say that facing militant groups such as Hamas was like taking part in a "mini-war." "The people we killed weren't terrorists, they were soldiers," an officer in the company told Haaretz. "In a direct confrontation, the IDF has superiority over them, but in all parameters - training, equipment quality, operational discipline - we are facing an army, not gangs," he said. "On the professional level, Hamas in the Gaza Strip is nothing like the terrorists we dealt with before."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/921831.html

 
IDF troops open fire, arrest suspected smugglers who infiltrated Israel
IDF soldiers on Friday opened fire on two apparent drug smugglers who were trying to infiltrate into Israel from Lebanon , near the divided border town of Ghajar. The troops fired at the feet of two individuals trying to cross the border fence, wounding both.  The IDF said that one of the wounded suspects, a 44-year-old Lebanese man, was only lightly hurt, and that he had been treated at the scene by soldiers. Hospital officials, however, said the man had been moderately to seriously hurt with three bullet wounds in his thigh.  Also Friday, IDF troops shot and killed two Palestinians who were crawling near the security fence separating the Gaza Strip from Israel on Friday night, apparently planting an explosive device, the military said.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=922349&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1

 
Israeli forces admit shooting two teenagers in Gaza Strip
Palestinian medical personnel have found the bodies of two teenagers who were shot dead by Israeli forces east of Al-Maghazi in the Gaza Strip, it was announced on Saturday. The general director for ambulances and emergency and ambulances Mu'awiyah Hassanein announced that they found the dead bodies near the Al- Bureij and Al-Maghazi refugee camps in Gaza. Hassanein named the dead teenagers as sixteen-year-old Bilal Ahmed Nabaheen and seventeen-year-old Jihad Nasser Nabaheen.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=26216

 
Palestinian child injured by Israeli gunfire in Hebron area
The boy, Mohammad al Tal, 14, sustained moderate injuries when Israeli soldiers randomly opened fire during an invasion of al-Thahriya town in southern Hebron.  While there were clashes between local residents and invading soldiers during the attack, no abductions were reported.
http://www.imemc.org/article/51409

 
Israeli army attacks Ramallah region on Saturday morning; three civilians kidnapped
In Beitunia, Israeli troops searched and ransacked several homes before kidnapping Zakaria Armish, Idrees Armosh, and Yihia Armosh.  All three were taken to the nearby Ofer military base, which is built on the town's land. In Kufer Malek, Israeli army jeeps stormed the village before troops searched homes and left. No kidnapping were reported.
In related news, the Israeli army invaded Jenin city and the nearby town of Qabatiya on Saturday morning. Again, no kidnappings were reported.
http://www.imemc.org/article/51410

 
PA police seize 40 bombs in militant hideout in Nablus
Palestinian police confiscated 40 homemade bombs in their first foray in years into the militant center of the West Bank city of Nablus, a senior official said on Saturday - a new sign of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' resolve to impose control across the lawless West Bank. Nablus police chief Ahmed Sharkawi said officers seized the homemade bombs, most of them pipe bombs, on Thursday from houses in the Old City , a downtown market area ruled by militants. This raid marked the first time in years that police entered the crowded neighborhood. Much of the Old City has been badly damaged by Israeli raids against Palestinian militants.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/922364.html

 
U.S. to aid 'restive' West Bank city before summit
The United States plans to rush aid to the restive West Bank city of Nablus to try to support Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's government ahead of a U.S.-sponsored conference on statehood. Though tiny in U.S. budget terms at around $1 million, the projects are meant to give a facelift to the battered city, a frequent flashpoint between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants, according to U.S., Western and Palestinian officials.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L08815381.htm

 
Israeli forces raid West Bank towns at dawn on Friday, arrest 12 Palestinians
Soldiers detained thiry-nine-year-old school teacher Abdullah Subaih from the village of Al-Khader, neighboring Bethlehem. In Al-Azza refugee camp, Israeli forces abducted eighteen-year-old Imad Nashash. Twenty-two-year old Bethlehem resident Jad Shatarat was arrested at the Allenby bridge, on the border between the West Bank and Jordan, the sources said. Israeli forces also conducted raids in the cities of Nablus, Ramallah, and Hebron.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=26208

 
PA news agency Ma'an strikes to protest arrest of executive for airing Hamas speech – 6:09 Saturday
Maan, a major independent Palestinian news agency, declared an open-ended strike on Friday to protest the Palestinian government's arrest of an executive who allowed Hamas officials and activities to appear in agency reports. The agency shut down all 20 of its offices in the West Bank following the detention Thursday of Muataz al-Kurdi, a Maan executive and head of the privately owned Al Amal TV station in the West Bank town of Hebron . Maan also shut down its Web site. The new government has banned the only Hamas newspaper, Felasteen, from publishing in the West Bank and has barred all mention of Hamas on West Bank TV. Ibrahim Ibrach, Abbas' culture minister, said al-Kurdi was arrested on security grounds.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=922325&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1

 
Release of executive ends Ma'an news blackout – 13:04 Saturday
After the interventions of the Palestinian minister of information, the minister of the interior, demands from the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, and finally, an order from the office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Al-Kurdi was released.  Ma'an News Network wishes to thank all those who participated in bringing this issue to an end. . . We promise our people and our leadership, led by President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) to remain loyal to our nation and the Palestinian cause. We are committed to freedom of opinion and expressing and defending our freedoms and human rights.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=26212

 
Special report: Death of a young man
Martyr in Palestine refers to anyone who has died as a result of the Occupation and Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), as with the 38 year old handicapped wheelchair-bound man killed in an IOF invasion in Nablus' Al-Ain Refugee camp 1.5 months ago, or the elderly man shot 5 times in the chest after he opened his door to IOF assurances of his safety during the same Israeli October 16th invasion which eventually claimed Abed's life. Abed, the martyr, loved life, and this was evident in his words, actions, his dreams. He told me once he would love to sleep at night, to walk freely in the hills that surround Nablus, to travel to other countries… He was one of Nablus ' resistance fighters, living in and defending the streets of the Old City.
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/story-11080734615.htm

 
Internal clashes damage Gaza coffee shop
An explosive device on Friday detonated in front of Gaza city coffee shop, causing damage but no injuries. The al-Zahar neighborhood of Gaza city, in which the café is located, has been the centre of much internal violence in previous weeks, with a similar explosion occurring earlier this week. The neighborhood is home to al-Zahar University, a secular institution that has been at the center of conflict between Hamas and Fatah forces. As internal unrest spreads, the bomb is thought to be the latest in a series of conflicts between the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements. Two Islamic Jihad members and one bystander have been killed in the last three weeks in fighting with the Hamas-dominated security forces.
http://www.imemc.org/article/51401

 
Palestinian factions call on Hamas to relinquish power in Gaza
in the interest of Palestinian unity. The call came during a symposium organized by the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza City. The factions called for a return to comprehensive national talks based on the national unity document and the Cairo declaration in order to resolve the current crisis. They called on the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to revoke previous presidential decrees condemning Hamas, in order to reach a compromise between Abbas' Fateh party and the rival Hamas, which won last year's election in Palestine.
http://www.imemc.org/article/51377

 
Amnesty International flays Israel's 'Wall of Injustice'
MADRID - Amnesty International on Thursday handed a letter with some 130,000 signatures to the Israeli Embassy in Madrid demanding the Jewish state halt construction of its Occupied West Bank separation barrier.
http://www.omantribune.com/index.php?page=news&id=16258&heading=Other%20Top%20Stories

 
Arab League denounces excavations under houses in occupied Jerusalem
Arab League has strongly condemned an Israeli assembly to begin the implementation of new project to dig a tunnel passing under the old town houses in the occupied Jerusalem near al-Aqsa Mosque. The Arab League, in a statement today, called the United Nations and UNESCO and the quartet committee to immediately intervene
http://www.sana.org/eng/22/2007/11/09/147869.htm

 
Seed of extinct Judean date palm sprouts after 2,000 years
Planted on Jan. 25, the seedling growing in the black pot in Solowey's nursery on this kibbutz in Israel's Arava desert is 2,000 years old -- more than twice as old as the 900-year-old biblical character who lent his name to the young tree. It is the oldest seed ever known to produce a viable young tree.
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2007/11/09/palestine-seed-sprouts-after-2000-yrs/  

 
Father of Israeli POW Gilad Shalit expresses concern over son's fate
Na'om Shalit, the father of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, on Friday expressed fears that internal unrests within the Palestinian territories would affect negotiations for his son's release. During a meeting with Sheikh Ibrahim Abdullah, head of the Islamic movement inside Israel and a member of the Israeli parliament, the two men are thought o have discussed the importance of a prisoner swap deal, with both agreeing that all prisoners should be treated equally, regardless of their nationality, and Sheikh Abdullah adding that the ball lay in the court of the Israli administration.
http://www.imemc.org/article/51400

 
Visions of hell
A team from Haaretz Magazine documents the daily violence, illness, humiliation and despair that are the lot of hundreds of young men and women, drug addicts, dealers and prostitutes, living in a vermin-infested building in Tel Aviv's old Central Bus Station.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/922008.html

 
Conditions deteriorate for 2,000 Palestinians stuck at Iraq-Syria border
The population of Al Tanf camp in the no-man's land between Iraq and Syria increased to 437 in recent weeks when Syrian authorities took to the camp an additional 97 Palestinians who had fled from Iraq into Syria during the past year on forged documents. Another camp inside Iraq, Al Waleed, is currently hosting 1,560 Palestinian refugees and the number is expected to increase as new families continue to arrive at the camp. UNHCR estimates some 13,000 Palestinians are still living in Baghdad.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/UNHCR/9f3813e2a6337ad4f302bf7512fe1e31.htm

 
AP: Border fence may cut property
Um, what country is this again?  Does the US have to copy every mistake Israel makes? A map obtained by The Associated Press shows that the double- or triple-layer fence may be built as much as two miles from the river on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande, leaving parts of Granjeno and other nearby communities in a potential no-man's-land between the barrier and the water's edge. Local officials also fear the fence could cut off access to drinking water that is pumped from the river and piped in to 35,000 homes in the Rio Grande Valley. They fear that town officials will not be allowed to set foot inside the no-man's-land to repair any pumps that might fail. Homeland Security documents on a department Web site say that "in some cases, secure gates will be constructed to allow land owners access to their private property near the Rio Grande."
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20071108/D8SPP8HO0.html