Monday, August 28, 2006

Meanwhile in Palestine

The ghetto of Bir Nabala: Bir Nabala is one of the Palestinian places in Jerusalem district whose mere existence is threatened by the Apartheid Wall choking life in the town. Bir Nabala is situated northwest of Jerusalem and has been for centuries weaved into the social and cultural fabric of the Palestinian capital.

Israel Proposes To Maintain W Bank Outposts - Attorney: JERUSALEM (AP)--An internal Justice Ministry document indicates Israel is planning to legalize several unauthorized outposts in the West Bank and not dismantle them as it has pledged, a leading Israeli attorney said Monday.

IDF troops in Jenin kill 64-year-old man holding a flashlight: Israel Defense Forces troops killed a 64-year-old man in Jenin on Sunday, it was released for publication Monday. Palestinian sources said Monday that Sabri Khalil worked as a night watchman at a local school. After he shined his flashlight on a passing car, soldiers patrolling the city shot him in the chest, killing him.

Army invades Jenin, fires at resident's houses: An Israeli army force invaded the West Bank city of Jenin on Monday morning and opened fired at residents' houses. Soldiers took no prisoners but residents said that these invasions are taking place on daily basis and that most of the time, these attacks end by several reisdents taken prisoners or injured.

Resident, child, killed in Beit Hanoun and Rafah: Palestinian medical sources in Beit Hanoun, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, reported that one child died after an explosive left by the army detonated near him.

Israeli fire kills five Palestinians in Gaza: Sabet Edwan, 22, was killed by Israeli tank fire near the southern city of Rafah, they said. Earlier in the day, four Palestinians, including two Hamas militants and two members of president Mahmud Abbas's presidential guard, were killed in Gaza City's eastern Shejaya neighborhood.

Israeli Siege Leaves Gaza Isolated and Desperate: The war in southern Lebanon has overshadowed Israel's second front, a military and economic siege of the Gaza Strip that is deepening the poverty and desperation in this dense area of 1.4 million people. More than 200 Palestinians, at least 44 of them children, have been killed in the past 8 1/2 weeks. Three Israeli soldiers have been killed. Huge Israeli bulldozers and "pinpoint" missiles have razed at least 40 houses and dozens of other buildings, according to the army, leaving many families homeless.

Israeli Soldiers detain scores of civilians at a military checkpoint near Qabatia village: Local residents said that the army has been installing new checkpoints, both permanent and temporary, all over the Jenin district, causing people to lose their jobs, and preventing students from getting to school. Residents complained of the difficult and humiliating procedures they are forced to undergo at the checkpoints.

Three Children Taken Prisoners near Qalqilia: Local sources reported that troops swept the village, conducted house-to-house search before taking Leith Abass, 14, Ayoub Mustafa, 16, and Ja'far Mustafa, 15, to unknown destinations.

Palestinian Children Assaulted by Israeli Army: The other three boys were still there, and the police officer told the HRW, who tried to intervene, that he should leave because they were �taking the kids back home�. The HRWs moved back several yards and saw the border police and the police officer take one boy after another into the military post, behind the camouflage netting, where the HRWs couldn't see what was being done. When the first boy came out again (after about 15 seconds), the HRW saw that he was holding his head, so they suspected that those boys were taken in there to beat them.

Fox reporters freed, tell others not to fear Gaza: ''I hope that this never scares a single journalist away from coming to Gaza to cover the story because the Palestinian people are very beautiful and kindhearted,'' said Steve Centanni, a 60-year-old American reporter who was released along with cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, of New Zealand. ''The world needs to know more about them.''

Ezra says Arab towns should not receive aid intended for north: Speaking during a special cabinet to present a plan by the Education Minister on the rehabilitation of the north, Ezra said that the Arab towns and villages "carried on as normal" during the war, and, as such, there was no need to hand out any money to them.

Accidental emigrant: In December 1995 the Ministry of Interior began implementing a systematic policy of revoking the Jerusalem residency status of thousands of Palestinians who were born in the city, but for whom, according to the ministry, Jerusalem was no longer "the center of their lives" - and therefore their permanent residency permit had "expired." This applied to all those who lived abroad in the past or at that time, as well as those Palestinians who lived in neighborhoods just outside Jerusalem's municipal boundary.

Uglier and uglier: This used to be a most important Palestinian political body - something like the politburo in the communist regimes or the secretariat of Mapai (precursor of the Labor Party) in days gone by. Now, at the meeting in Jordan, they decided on the establishment of a national unity government with Hamas, ignoring the fact that they are no longer in charge and that the government that is in power today is one that exists on behalf of Hamas.

Relief operations in Gaza Strip come to a standstill: The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has said it has just one week's fuel supply left and will not be able to distribute food to 830,000 people next week unless the Karni crossing reopens.

U.S. proposal: Int'l observers, expansion at Karni crossing: The observers would be stationed on the Palestinian side of the terminal, and their job would be to ensure that the PA security personnel stationed there do what is necessary to prevent terror attacks in the vicinity. While the observers would be European, like those already stationed at the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, American officials would supervise them.

Analysis: And then there were none: The decision by El Salvador to move its embassy from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv will leave the capital bereft of any foreign embassy for the first time in a quarter century. The move, which came on the heels of a similar decision by fellow Central American nation Costa Rica, marks the first major diplomatic gain for the Palestinians as a result of the month-long war with Hizbullah in Lebanon.

Israeli Occupation Forces Kill Teen Killed : Palestine Authority sources earlier on Monday afternoon reported an 18-year-old male was killed by IOF fire in the Rafiah area of southern Gaza.

A policy of no-return: Since April 2006, Israel has imposed a sweeping ban on the return to the country of Palestinians of Western nationality, primarily Americans

Immanuel Wallerstein.: What Can Israel Achieve?: Israel has always depended on its own military strength and an outside force - first the Soviet Union, then France, and now the United States - to achieve its security. Israel had better understand that it needs Hamas and Hezbollah if it is to survive.

Are Christian Zionists Mentally Ill?: The Jerusalem Syndrome: Video: Jerusalem attracts foreign pilgrims in their thousands, but each year dozens are diagnosed with the psychotic disorder known as "Jerusalem Syndrome".

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