Israeli curfew: doctor denied access to patient
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2007/12/12/israeli-curfew-doctor-denied-access-to-patient/

Education suffers amidst political tension and conflict in Gaza
Najwa Al Smairi, 11, goes to school just metres from Gaza's heavily guarded perimeter. She is one of the brightest students in her class but fears failure due to the violence and uncertainty around her. Recently, Najwah has slipped from fourth to fifth in her class, and the studious 11-year-old is concerned. "When I spoke to my sister she told me not to worry, that it was normal, but I am still worried," she says.
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/oPt_42178.html

Rice to attend Paris Palestinian donors conference Sunday
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will attend a conference in Paris on Sunday and Monday aimed at offering financial and other aid to the Palestinians as they pursue peace talks with Israel. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters that "Rice will travel to Paris December 16 and 17 for an international donors conference in supporting Palestinian reforms in institution-building."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071212/wl_mideast_afp/mideastusaidpalestinian_071212184852

The right wing's Jerusalem gambit
A new coalition of religious hard-liners with ties to President Bush seeks to scuttle any plans for dividing Jerusalem between Israelis and Palestinians. On Nov. 26, the U.S. State Department got hit with an unexpected barrage of phone calls. The Coordinating Council on Jerusalem, a new coalition of American groups with hard-line views on Israel, was on the line -- all of the lines. Or so the group said two days later in a press release, proudly proclaiming that with 10,000 calls in less than 48 hours it had managed to overload the State Department's voice-mail system. The group was making known its opposition to any Israeli concessions on dividing Jerusalem between Israelis and Palestinians -- an issue that was swirling around the Bush administration's peace summit taking place in Annapolis, Md.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/12/13/jerusalem/

Teenage dreams of wrecking peace process from Jewish outpost
SHVUT AMI OUTPOST, West Bank (AFP) - Littered with leftover pizza and mattresses, the dilapidated house on an occupied West Bank hill is a squat for 20 teenage Jewish settlers determined to sink the peace process. The school-age youth, none older than 18, have illegally occupied the abandoned Arab house deep inside the northern West Bank on and off for two months -- chased away by Israeli police only to return when no one is looking.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071212/wl_mideast_afp/mideastdiplomacyisraelsettlers_071212163850

Palestinian ambassador: Israel has deflated optimism of Annapolis
Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Observer Mission in Geneva Dr. Mohammad Abu-Koash told the Human Rights Council Wednesday that next week the Palestinians would be celeberating Adha Eid and Christmas within the upcoming days, urging Israel to halt military operations "Spare a minute in your prayers for occupied Jerusalem, sad Bethlehem, besieged Gaza, and Palestinian children traumatized by tyrants," he said Dr. Mohammad Abu-Koash, addressing the Israeli Ambassador as the "jail man", and said that Israeli activities constitute a flagrant violation of international law. He added that Israel has deflated the optimism of Annapolis by expanding the settlements in Abu Ghoneim mount and launched an attack against occupied Gaza.
http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=1868163&Language=en

Israel making moves to annex Gaza: Meshaal
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas yesterday accused Israel of making moves to occupy Gaza. Addressing a news conference, Hamas Politburo Chief Khaled Meshaal said Israeli aggression had increased after the Annapolis Middle East Peace Conference and it was now eyeing Gaza for occupation and control. Israel has been exploiting the conference to the hilt to its benefit. "If Israel chooses to attack Gaza, we won't have any surprises waiting for them, but we will resist them. We will fight," he said.
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News& month=December2007&file=Local_News200712133826.xml

World Bank: PA economy can't pick up when mobility is limited
A report released Thursday by the World Bank warns that even if the donor countries meet all of the PA's demands for aid, the Palestinian economy will continue to deteriorate if Israel does not alter mobility and trade restrictions in the West Bank.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=934273

A UN official says Israeli settlement activities 'unhelpful' to peace
Special representative of United Nations Secretary General, Robert Cherie, said Thursday that underway Israeli settlement plans are ' unhelpful' to peace-making efforts.
http://www.imemc.org/article/51988

Restrictions block Palestinian revival: World Bank
Increased foreign aid and Palestinian plans to rein in government spending will not be enough to revive their economy if Israeli-imposed trade and travel limits stay in place, the World Bank said on Thursday.
http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSL1326264420071213?rpc=401&

Thanks, but no thanks, Statehood does not offer the equitable and fair solution the Palestinian people deserve
The Palestinian state has now become the universal standard for all solutions to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The international community applauds the concept. President Bush proudly proclaims it as his "vision". The Israelis have come to it belatedly, after years of steadfast refusal and rejection.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2226424,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12

Municipal legal counsel: J'lem fails to educate Arab pupils
The Jerusalem municipality is discriminating against East Jerusalem students by not providing places of study for everyone, and is thereby contravening its legal obligation, the municipality's own legal counsel says in a letter addressed to the mayor and all senior city hall officials.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=934274

Israel's Palestinians speak out
The Annapolis peace talks regard me as an interloper in my own land. Israel's deputy prime minister, Avigdor Lieberman, argues that I should "take [my] bundles and get lost." Henry Kissinger thinks I ought to be summarily swapped from inside Israel to the would-be Palestinian state. I am a Palestinian with Israeli citizenship -- one of 1.4 million. We are Palestinian Arabs -- Christian, Muslim and Druze -- not Jewish. More than twenty Israeli laws explicitly privilege Jews over non-Jews. Nadim Rouhana comments.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9157.shtml

Inside Palestine's Media War
Hamas and Fatah have been squaring off politically and militarily since Hamas' election victory. But the two factions are also engaged in a protracted media battle. Menassat.com takes a look at the media war in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Palestine, Fateh or Hamas. The imaginary chair is labeled 'the seat of government.' The figure on the right is labeled 'Hamas' and the one on the left is 'Fatah.'..These days, headlines for the Fatah-controlled press go something like this: "Hamas' militia continues to perpetrate its crimes," or "Hamas' insurgent gangs do x, y, z."  Whereas a newspaper opinion poll might be framed like: "What is the expected method for Hamas' fall from power?" On the other side of the embattled Palestinian territories in the Gaza Strip is the Hamas-controlled press with their own version of events. Their headlines may appear like, "Abbas' Security Forces kidnap nine Hamas members", with newspaper polls reflecting the recent attempt at a US-brokered peace map: "Following the Annapolis conference... Are you in favor of it?"
http://www.menassat.com/?q=en/news-articles/2433-inside-palestines-media-war

Deputy-speaker of Palestinian parliament calls for a new cabinet
Palestinian deputy-speaker of parliament, Ahmad Bahhar of Hamas, called today on president Mahmoud Abbas to name a new prime minister for forming a new government, in a bid to find a way out of current political stalemate.
http://www.imemc.org/article/51989

JORDAN: Refugees' shacks to be replaced with concrete housing units
The Jordanian government will next year build concrete housing units for 500 Palestinian refugee families living in tin shacks, at an estimated cost of US$5 million, according to the director of the Department of Palestinian Affairs, Wajih Azaizeh.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/def34786e8d53ac2e201dad3452bea21.htm

Photostory: A pervasive occupation
Occupation has a way of making its presence experienced beyond its immediate manifestations -- war machines and walls and checkpoints -- and wounding everything it comes in contact with. The Israeli occupation has left scars on nearly all aspects of Palestinian society -- both literal, physical tears in the earth and edifice. Where a million olive trees used to be rooted or tens of thousands of homes that used to be places to live and now are little more than a painful memory. However, in the midst of occupation is the energy to resist, a veiled hope for peace and justice, even at impossible odds. Photographer Adam Beach documented life in occupied Palestine.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9159.shtml

Dignity denied in the occupied Palestinian territories
"To be a Palestinian means to face limits in every aspect of life. We are blocked everywhere: we lose our jobs, we cannot travel freely, we are separated from our families. To be a Palestinian means to be deprived of many things that to others are normal." Mohammed, a Jerusalemite.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/SSHN-79UH4P?OpenDocument& rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR

Peace Now asks Egged to halt bus lines to illegal W. Bank outposts
The Peace Now movement on Wednesday asked the Egged bus company to halt all routes to illegal outposts in the West Bank and to immediately evacuate any bus stops in the area, Army Radio reported on Wednesday. Peace Now General Secretary Yariv Oppenheimer made the movement's request in a letter to the company which was also sent on to Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/933976.html

Document reveals details of Camp David summit
The Palestinian Authority vehemently rejected most of Israel's security demands in negotiations at Camp David and Taba in 2000 and 2001, but contrary to what has been assumed for years, significant agreement was reached on parts of three core issues: borders, refugees and Jerusalem.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=934110

Palestinians to build their first new town in West Bank in decades
Ramallah - A Palestinian real estate company announced Wednesday that it plans to build the first new Palestinian town in the West Bank in at least a century. The 200 million-US-dollar town near Ramallah, in the central West Bank, will also be the first pre-planned Palestinian town. The company, Bayti, said in a statement sent to the media that the new town, which will be called Rawabi (Arabic for hills) will have its groundbreaking in the spring.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/157555.html

Three wise men hit a barrier in Bethlehem
Tawfiq Salsaa's olive wood nativity scene looks like thousands of others sold to pilgrims in Bethlehem at Christmas. Except in his version, a wall separates the baby Jesus from the three wise men. "I wanted to give the world an idea of how we live in the Holy Land," the 65-year-old Palestinian carpenter said in his workshop, his sweater speckled with sawdust. "I was inspired by our own wall."
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L10261075.htm

A Hip Hop Foreigner in Gaza
Our correspondent in Gaza City explores what one group of young Palestinians are doing to express themselves in the face of the daily struggle for survival in the Strip: rap, Gaza style.It's not often that you get to see musical performances in Gaza these days. Although Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip in 2005, its security policies have otherwise choked off any hope of cultural normalcy for the 1,5 million plus Palestinians living here. Israel completely controls the borders of Gaza like a prison. So cultural expression is just one of the many casualties of war.
http://www.menassat.com/?q=en/news-articles/2447-hip-hop-foreigner-gaza

William Cook: No Peace, No Justice: Just Deception
The Annapolis Conference spawned a series of responses on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides, almost all negative about any resolution to the conflict. Perhaps one of the most predictable reviews took place this past week when Rep. Tom Lantos chaired a hearing on the conference for the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Despite attempts by the Council for the National Interest and other like groups to bring in non-Israeli supporters as witnesses, Lantos limited the witnesses to Dennis Ross and David Wurmser, two predictable advocates for the Israeli state based on "reality on the ground," a euphemism for justifying the theft of Palestinian land. "The opening statements by Chairman Lantos and ranking minority member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R. FL) were even more biased than the testimony of two well-known pro-Israeli supporters Dennis Ross and David Wurmser." (CNI news statement, 12/6/07). When our representatives predetermine the debate by hand-picking their speakers, they negate the efficacy of the effort and make a laughing stock of justice.
http://palestinechronicle.com/story-121207154622.htm

Dan Lieberman: Who Speaks for the Palestinians?
The inability to force responses to UN resolutions and provide a legal context to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is a principal reason for continuation of the decades old conflict.
http://palestinechronicle.com/story-121207181410.htm

Itching powder delivered to MKs sparks Knesset investigation
After 120 Knesset members received packets of magic store itching powder, Knesset director general Avi Balashnikov Wednesday instructed Knesset Guard commander Avi Shadar to initiate an investigation into their distribution.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=934061

Mullen: Israel not alone against Iran
Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen wrapped up his lightning trip to Israel on Monday, leaving the IDF with a feeling that Israel does not stand alone in the face of the Iranian nuclear threat, despite a recent American intelligence report.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1196847300343&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Israel keeps up pressure on Iran
The Israeli government does not like the US National Intelligence Estimate on Iran - and for the most part, is not buying it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7138506.stm

Israel must be in on US-Iran talks : former Mossad head
"Israel, he said, had to operate "on the basis of the worst-case scenario."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1196847315306&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

American Jews oppose attack on Iran
Regarding Iran's nuclear program, 92 percent of American Jews are concerned about the prospect of Iran obtaining nuclear weapons. Still, a majority - 57 percent - oppose US military action to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1196847318454&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

US Jews Tilt Rightwards on Israel
US Jews appear to have become more opposed both to Israel's making key concessions in renewed peace talks with Palestinians and to the US carrying out a military attack against Iran's nuclear facilities, according to the latest in an annual series of surveys of Jewish opinion released here this week by the American Jewish Committee (AJC).
http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=12048