Meanwhile in Palestine

Israeli authorities impose additional restrictions on farmers in southern Qalqilia: Residents of Azoun 'Atma live behind the Wall in southern Qalqilia. The village became entirely isolated from the rest of the northwestern West Bank district when the Wall was imposed, and now the Israeli authorities have placed additional restrictions on them. The Israeli administration decided that this season Israeli soldiers will accompany farmers to the olive harvest in order to protect them. Therefore, farmers have only three days. Any additional harvesting in prohibited. A farmer with 86 Dunams of planted land said this will result in huge losses.

Despite high turnover, West Bank settlements keep growing: Over the past two decades, they have grown at a faster rate than most other communities in Israel. The average annual growth rate in the settlements is five to six percent, as opposed to two to three percent in the Jerusalem area and central Israel, and even lower rates in Tel Aviv, Bnei Brak, Petah Tikva, Ashdod or Ra'anana.

UN: Number of IDF roadblocks in West Bank up: A UN aid agency said Wednesday that the number of Israeli military roadblocks in the West Bank grew by nearly 40 percent in the past year, part of an increasingly sophisticated lockdown that disrupts all aspects of Palestinian life. The placement of these checkpoints and unmanned physical obstacles means the West Bank is increasingly being carved up into separate parts, with travel between them becoming more and more difficult

U.N. humanitarian chief says Gaza crossings must be opened to avert 'social explosion' : "It cannot continue like it is now without a social explosion that will hurt everybody, including Israeli security," Jan Egeland told reporters in Geneva. He said that the 750,000 young people in Gaza were particularly hard hit by the border closure and the increasing humanitarian crisis. They "feel they have no hope, no future, and of course that will not lead to less extremism, it will lead to more extremism, so it has to change," said Egeland.

Israeli forces shot Jenin child four years ago; medical problems persist : In the year 2002 Israeli forces invaded Jenin Refugee Camp. Tanks began firing down alleyways. Thirteen year old Jihad Mousa stood near his house on the edge of the northern West Bank camp. From four meters away an Israeli soldier shot the child. He fell to the ground, soaked in blood from the 250mm bullet that pierced his young body. The child is now 17 and is suffering kidney failure. His health has deteriorated since the day Israeli forces shot him in several places.

Hamas proposes new deal on coalition government: Khaled Mash'al, exiled Hamas leader, proposes a new deal to support Qatar's 6 point initiative to form a Palestinian national unity government, according to 'Al Hayat' in London. The two Hamas leaders, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and Mash'al, produced a written document outlining a new five point initiative to solve the disagreements between Hamas and Fatah.

Settlers attack residents of Tall Al Rimada in Hebron: The settlers, who live in the illegal Israeli settlement of Ramatiashai, near the Tell Al Rumida area, attacked residents' houses with stones while giving death threats. These attacks are becoming daily events in the area, residents say, with the attacks even being carried out under the protection of the Israeli army.

Forbidden to settlers, not the state: The state promised the High Court that it would make it possible for the farmers to reach these lands. So it promised. But most of the year, the gates are open only twice a week. People have therefore given up on trying to grow vegetables and wheat, which require daily attention, or on letting their sheep graze in uncultivated pastures. Now that it is harvest time, the gates are due to open every day, three times a day. Instead of several dozen permits for every village, several hundred are being given out. Yet there are still many who are turned down, in arbitrary fashion. This daily damage to the Palestinians does not find its way into the headlines.

Six residents taken prison in Jenin, resistance exchanges fire with invading forces : Israeli soldiers invaded, on Wednesday at dawn, Qabatia town near Jenin and exchanged fire with resistance fighters. Six residents, including two brothers, were taken prisoner in several areas near Jenin, Palestinian sources reported.

PA probing militant group's claim it kidnapped American in Nablus; Samah Atout, manager of Project Hope, said she received a call saying Phillips had been kidnapped. She refused to give further details. She said Phillips was working with Project Hope in refugee camps near the West Bank city of Nablus, teaching English.

State Prosecutor won't reopen case against policemen 'absolved' of killing Arab Israeli in 2003 : The State Prosecutor's Office turned down a request to reopen the 2003 investigation of police officers who killed Moursi Jabali, an Arab Israeli from Taibeh. The state last weekend informed the Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel that it found no reason to overturn the decision by the Justice Ministry's Police Investigation Unit (PIU) to close the case for "lack of guilt," and said that "the shooting was justified."

US free speech row grows as author says Jewish complaints stopped launch party : The British-based author and former publisher Carmen Callil has become embroiled in a growing dispute over the limits of freedom of speech in America after a party celebrating her new book on Vichy France was cancelled because of the opinion she expresses about the modern state of Israel. n the postscript Callil says she grew anxious while researching the "helpless terror of the Jews of France" to see "what the Jews of Israel were passing on to the Palestinian people. Like the rest of humanity, the Jews of Israel 'forget' the Palestinians. Everyone forgets."

Italian probe: Israel used new weapon prototype in Gaza Strip: The weapon is similar to one developed by the U.S. military called DIME, which causes a powerful and lethal blast, but only within a relatively small radius. The Italian report is based on the eyewitness accounts of medical doctors in the Strip, as well as tests carried out in an Italian laboratory. The investigative team is the same one that exposed, several months ago, the use by U.S. forces in Iraq of phosphorous bombs, against Iraqi rebels in Faluja.

A rerun of Lebanon war in Palestine? : The reality is that the Palestinian Authority is not and has never been a government for the Palestinian people. The Palestinian Authority receives Western backing only to the extent that it directly and exclusively serves Israeli interests. It was designed to protect the Israeli occupation against its victims; no one will be permitted to turn it into a representative body that fights for the rights and interests of Palestinians. To avoid the trap that is being set, Hamas will either have to sell out or get out.

Fatah and Hamas trade blame for ongoing crisis in unity gov't talks: An advisor to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, Nabil Amru, accused Hamas leaders of trying to fundamentally change a critical Arab peace initiative in order to cause it to fail, while Hamas Information Minister Youssef Rezqa told reporters that associates of Abbas "were conducting media wars" against Hamas to cause it "to lose its principles."

Palestinians suffer from West Bank closure: Although the number of Palestinians working in Israel has gone down significantly in the past few years, thousands of West Bank residents still find their source of income in Israel. Gaza residents, on the other hand, have been forbidden entry into Israel since Hamas' victory in the Palestinian elections.

Victims of insecurity increase in oPt: "This year has witnessed a significant rise in the number of insecurity victims," said Ma'moun Iteily of the PICCR's department which documents cases of insecurity and human rights violations. According to the PICCR statistics, 270 people were killed in the oPt by 10 October. By contrast, 93 people were killed in 2004 and 176 in 2005.

Abbas briefs Kadhafi on situation in Palestine: President Mahmoud Abbas has briefed Libyan leader Colonel Moammar Kadhafi on the latest developments relating to the situation in Palestine, official Libyan sources revealed here Wednesday. (LOL)

Jordan's King warns Palestinian statehood at risk due to feuding: A power struggle between Hamas and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction that triggered the worst internal fighting in a decade last week could be exploited by Israel and worsen the Palestinians' plight, Abdullah said.

Report: Peres torpedoed Gaza desalination plant in '92: "I stressed to him that I was about to establish a desalination plant on the border of the Gaza Strip," Zaslavsky related. "Peres burst out in response that he opposed it, because it did not concern us, and we did not need to worry about the Arabs, as they would look after themselves." He claims that the project was consequently canceled.

A long Yom Kippur detour for an Arab bus in Jerusalem: To my surprise, on leaving Nablus Gate the bus did not turn north as usual onto the main road, Highway No. 1, but rather turned east, toward the Wadi Joz neighborhood. The driver explained that because of Yom Kippur the police blocked Highway 1, and we have to go around through the Mount of Olives. There was no other option.