State
refuses to release list of Waqf-owned properties in T.A. Jaffa:
The state is refusing to hand over the list of properties belonging
to the Waqf in Tel Aviv and Jaffa, claiming that revealing such
information could possibly damage Israel's foreign relations. The
statement was in response to a suit filed in Tel Aviv District Court
demanding the list of assets belonging to the Muslim religious trust.
"In diplomatic talks held in the past with the Palestinians, the
issue of refugees and their assets was raised, among other matters.
It is almost certain that revealing the requested information would
seriously harm Israel's foreign relations," said the state's
representatives.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=923734&contrassID=1&subContrassID=7
Uprooted
and displaced Standing on a hill at the edge of
Idhna with the displaced farmers Muhammad Talab and Muhammad Ibrahim
Natah, the only visible remnants of their destroyed village is a
patch of white dust just on the other side of Israel's wall. Despite
being part of the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military destroyed
the 267-person farming village of tents and tin houses west of Hebron
on 29 October and allegedly ordered villagers to relocate to Idhna.
EI contributor Jesse Rosenfeld reports from the occupied West Bank.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9095.shtml
Stranded
Palestinians to commence hunger-strike A group of
Palestinian stranded on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border
crossing on Wednesday stated that they would soon commence a hunger
strike in protest against their continued predicament.
http://www.imemc.org/article/51500
Israeli
military establishes three flying checkpoints near Jenin Israeli
military forces on Wednesday established three flying checkpoints in
several parts of the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
http://www.imemc.org/article/51494
Israeli
military storms northern West Bank cities of Tulkarem and Nablus
Israeli military forces on Wednesday morning invaded the
northern west Bank cities of Tulkarem and Nablus, harassing
residents, searching homes and establishing checkpoints.
http://www.imemc.org/article/51498
Tough
homecoming for Lebanon's refugees Nahr
al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp, Lebanon - Abu Tawfiq stands in the
soot-encrusted ruin of his home as cold rain blows in where an
outside wall once stood. "This room is Hiroshima and the other
one is Nagasaki," says the former school teacher who, agreed to
speak on condition of anonymity.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1114/p04s01-wome.html
The
'Brazilian Palestine' Rio Grande do Sul is the Brazilian
state that harbours the largest community of Palestinians and
descendents. Not by chance, it is there that 52 of the 108
Palestinians who have been in Brazil since last September are living,
after they were received by the Brazilian government and the United
Nations Higher Commissioner for Refugees. Life in the 'Brazilian
Palestine' and the support of the state community are the subjects of
the third story in the ANBA series about the Palestinians.
http://www.anba.com.br/ingles/especial.php?id=404
Hamas
Arrests Fatah Supporters Hamas police officers
rounded up scores of supporters of the rival Fatah movement in Gaza
on Teusday, a day after a mass rally in honor of Yasir Arafat ended
in violence.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/14/world/middleeast/14mideast.html?ex=1352696400&en=ee71b6e1a096cab9&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Hamas
cracks down on Fatah after Gaza rally bloodshed Hamas
rounded up dozens of Fatah activists in the Islamist-ruled Gaza Strip
after its secular rival drew more than 200,000 supporters to a rally
that ended in gunfire that killed seven people, officials said on
Tuesday.
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-30477020071113
Israels
Abuse of Bedouin Rights The
Ministry of Foreign Affairs writes on their website that the Bedouin
enjoy a higher standard of living than elsewhere in the Middle East.
But countless Bedouin homes and villagers have been destroyed by
Israel. The government's 'township' policy, displacing Bedouin into
townships so they can be easily managed, luring them with electricity
and water and cheap housing so they can be put in one place, kept
under control, is what the government refers to as integration. The
Bedouin are forced to choose between constant demolition of their
houses and harassment by settlers and army, or being moved from the
land they live upon to townships to cease practicing their culture
and to conform to Israeli society.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/11/13/israels-abuse-of-bedouin-rights/
Wire
cage installed to further obstruct passage at Huwwara
checkpoint" Israeli
forces have installed wire caging material at the notorious Huwwara
checkpoint in the northern West Bank, creating a 'checkpoint within a
checkpoint' that has doubled the waiting time for Palestinians trying
to pass through. http://www.imemc.org/article/51489
Settler
leaders fear 'tsunami' if PM decides to withdraw from West Bank
Settler leaders said they feel as if a "tsunami"
were approaching after meeting with Prime Minster Ehud Olmert
yesterday. Danny Dayan, chairman of the Yesha Council of settlements,
said that while he had previously understood the existing freeze on
settlement construction to be aimed at forcing settlers to evacuate
unauthorized outposts, he now realizes that Olmert favors the freeze
for its own sake.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/923905.html
INTERVIEW-Israeli-Palestinian
deal 'doable' in 9 months - EU The
EU's top diplomat said on Tuesday an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal
was "doable" within nine months and that the issue of the
Golan Heights should be addressed by a planned peace conference this
month. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L13883559.htm
Rice:
Israelis are prepared to give up West Bank for peace NASHVILLE,
Tennessee - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday she
believes that the majority of Israelis are prepared to give up the
West Bank in exchange for
peace. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=923721&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1
Annapolis
to address core issues, reference past decisions Israel
and the Palestinian Authority's joint declaration at the Annapolis
summit will focus on the format and goals of negotiations on a
permanent settlement. The declaration will reference previous
decisions, such as Security Council rulings and the road
map. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/923973.html
Abbas
bamboozled again While Palestinian Authority Chairman
Mahmoud Abbas is acting tough toward Hamas, probably in order to
impress Israel and her guardian-ally, the United States , the way he
has been running the "peace show" with the Zionists.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7lAtQR406bMcqXWvdTUsGTpP3EhabpZ5iKMpIs9PgrrPe8%2f3CPsb6e4%2bdZPfhEPhdLSbjEz2%2b9D44BlcvrHGyhQpbwEvUO4I2RUcci6T4rZs%3d
Israel
to hold major war games in West Bank The Israeli army said
on Tuesday it is to launch a major military exercise across the
occupied West Bank simulating its response to an outbreak of
Palestinian violence. "The army will undertake a current
exercise on November 18 to prepare it to better face all
eventualities," an army spokesman told AFP.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071113/wl_afp/mideastisraelmilitarywestbank_071113081941;_ylt=A0WTUchTVDpHg3cBSAgUvioA
Palestinian
President: An end to occupation will bring peace to Israel In
a press conference in Turkey on Tuesday, the Palestinian President,
Mahmoud Abbas, stated that Israel will have peace if the state signs
a peace agreement with the Palestinian people, and ends the
occupation of Palestinian land.
http://www.imemc.org/article/51491
Hamas
government in Gaza 'dismisses' Palestinian UN Representative The
democratically-elected Hamas government, currently in power in the
Gaza Strip, has 'dismissed' the United Nations representative for the
Palestinian people, Riyadh Mansour, after he pushed forward a
resolution declaring Hamas to be an illegal militia.
http://www.imemc.org/article/51492
PM
to settler council: We will have to make concessions Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert told heads of the Yesha council of settlements
on Tuesday that in efforts to make peace with the Palestinians, "we
will be forced to make some concessions."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/923640.html
Knesset
give preliminary okay to bill requiring 80 MKs to divide J'lem The
Knesset plenum passed in a preliminary vote Wednesday a bill that
would make it far more difficult to divide Jerusalem in the context
of a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=924023&contrassID=1&subContrassID=7
Senior
Hamas member says Hamas has ideas to end conflict with with Israel
peacefully Ahmed Yousef, a political aide to
deposed prime minister of Hamas Ismail Haneya, said Tuesday that
Hamas has ideas and proposals on resolving the conflict with Israel
peacefully. Yousef told the press that Hamas has attempted to present
ideas for a peaceful solution to the conflict, "but
unfortunately Israel and United States work on thwarting these
attempts."
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/PANA-78WH47?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR
Hamas
Debates the Future - Palestine's Islamic Resistance Movement Attempts
to Reconcile Ideological Purity and Political Realism, A Conflicts
Forum Monograph, by Khalid Amayreh "Palestine's
Islamic Resistance Movement — Hamas — won a surprising electoral
victory in the January 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections.
Almost immediately, Hamas leaders, movement activists, and Islamist
academics began to debate the future course of the movement. Under
what conditions would Hamas recognize Israel? What was its place as a
movement in the Middle East? How should it approach the question of
governance of the Palestinian territories? And finally, and most
importantly, how would it balance its need to remain an Islamist
party while adopting more pragmatic political programs?....."
http://conflictsforum.org/briefings/Hamas-Debates-the-Future-monograph.pdf
Israel
has no jurisdiction on Temple Mount, says culture minister Raleb
Majadele, Arieh Eldad polemicize over question of Israel's legal pull
on Temple Mount. 'In keeping with the status-quo al-Aqsa cannot be
under Israel's legal control,' says Majadele
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3471160,00.html
Hamas's
singing policemen boost morale in Gaza Wearing blue
camouflage fatigues and crooning about Islamic holy war, the five
members of Hamas's Protectors of the Homeland police band are trying
to boost morale in Gaza with an arsenal of anti-Israel numbers.
http://www.reuters.com/article/inDepthNews/idUSL0439897620071114
One
reason for the absence of peace TWO months ago Heftsiba,
an Israeli construction firm, went bust. One reason for its woes was
a court order last year to freeze work on a big housing project on an
Israeli settlement just inside the West Bank. The land, it turned
out, had in effect been stolen from private owners in a neighbouring
Palestinian village, Bilin. Yet after the bankruptcy, the same court
ruled that the apartment blocks—and their prospective buyers, who
had broken in and occupied them at the news of Heftsiba's impending
collapse—could stay. And thus it has always been. Never mind that
Israel has flouted international law by settling its citizens in
occupied foreign territory; what is remarkable is how consistently
the settlers have thwarted Israel's own laws, in pursuit of what to
them are biblical lands inhabited by Palestinian interlopers. The
Bilin case was just a variation on a tried and tested method: seize
land illegally, establish hard-to-reverse "facts on the ground"
and then legalise the claim retroactively through the courts or the
government. The result is a West Bank so riddled with settlement that
it is hard to see how enough can be removed for a viable Palestinian
state to emerge.
http://www.economist.com/books/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=9941757
Economic
woes behind new unrest in Gaza The backdrop to the
latest explosion of violence in the Gaza Strip: skeletons of
unfinished apartment towers, shuttered factories, empty store shelves
and skyrocketing prices for bread and cigarettes.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071113/ap_on_re_mi_ea/palestinian_struggling_in_gaza_1;_ylt=A0WTUchTVDpHg3cBQwgUvioA
Closed
factories, lost jobs, empty shelves provide backdrop for Gaza Strip's
latest violence The
backdrop to the latest explosion of violence in the Gaza Strip:
skeletons of unfinished apartment towers, shuttered factories, empty
store shelves and skyrocketing prices for bread and cigarettes. Five
months of rule by the Islamic militants of Hamas and isolation from
the world have taken a heavy toll on the already impoverished
territory, and frustration over the hardship helped drive this week's
mass rally by the rival Fatah movement that ended in mayhem.
http://www.hdnews.net/Story/p0697_BC_Palestinian_Strugglin_11_13_1265
Gaza
media battle in French court At
the start of the second intifada, pictures of Muhammad al-Durrah and
his father seeking shelter from gunfire were seen everywhere as a
powerful symbol of Palestinian suffering and the brutality of the
Israeli occupation. Seven years on, a Paris court is set to look at
the footage on Wednesday, as part of a libel case that could in turn
become a cause celebre.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7092262.stm
Visitors
to West Bank Describe Palestinians As Overpowered, but not Resigned
ON A TWO-WEEK TRIP to the West Bank, Greta Berlin, Mary
Hughes-Thompson, Hedy Epstein and journalist Alison Weir twice were
removed from buses for taking photos, Berlin's passport was
confiscated, and Epstein was barred from entering Hebron through a
Palestinian-only path because she is a Jew.
http://www.wrmea.com/archives/November_2007/0711048.html
The
one-state reality A
few weeks ago, the Oxford University Union held a debate on the
"one-state solution" in Palestine/Israel. Before the
speakers had even taken to the floor, however, the event was the
focus of an intense controversy, over allegations that the Union
organizers had buckled under pressure to cancel Norman Finkelstein's
appearance. Ghada Karmi, Ilan Pappe, and Avi Shlaim -- all scheduled
to speak on the opposite side of the floor to Finkelstein -- pulled
out in solidarity. [1]
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9097.shtml
Articulating
the Unprintable: Ramzy Baroud Discusses Media Response to His Book
So as far as mainstream media goes, you—and your
book—are either ignored or vilified. What is it that strikes a
nerve? Is it the topic of Palestine, or your particular
perspective? http://palestinechronicle.com/story-11140711555.htm
Dichter:
Syria is only neighbor that prevents smuggling Syria is
the only country among Israel's neighbors that keeps a quiet border
and meets its obligations to prevent smuggling from its side, Public
Security Minister Avi Dichter told a conference at the
Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya Tuesday. Defense Minister Ehud
Barak, who also spoke, said Washington and Jerusalem agree Syrian
participation in the peace conference in Annapolis would be
"positive." http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=923735&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1
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