Palestinians want help more than handouts in Paris Jiftlik, home to 5,500 Palestinians, is surrounded by settlements, Israeli military bases, nature reserves and roads set aside mostly for Israeli-owned cars only. The past 40 years of occupation have swallowed most of their grazing and farmland, and the farmers describe constant harassment from Israeli soldiers. Many farmers live in tents because it is almost impossible to get an Israeli permit to build a house; in 2005 and 2006 the Israelis demolished 24 homes and structures there. This is Israeli democracy, folks. More like apartheid.
Aid can only go so far for isolated Palestinians Time and again, the trucks carrying the harvest were stopped at the crossing into Israel and refused permission to leave Gaza. "There the produce stayed, sometimes for seven days. We brought it back and had to throw it away," recalls Fawzy Edwan, a farm labourer......In the West Bank, too, the economy is suffering from Israeli security measures. Roadblocks, checkpoints and the need for Palestinians to obtain permits to travel within the territory "have fragmented the Palestinian economy into disconnected cantons", the World Bank says.
Israel unveils new strategy on Iran There have been calls within the government to reveal at least part of the Israeli assessments of the Iranian programme, but these have been rebuffed by the intelligence community.
Israeli report finds widespread checkpoint abuse Yediot Achronot on Sunday published a study commissioned by Maj.-Gen. Gadi Shamni, the chief of Israeli forces in the West Bank, which indicated that 25 percent of his soldiers have either harassed Palestinians at checkpoints or heard of comrades who committed such abuses.
Israeli team in US to counter new Iran assessment: press
Palestinians warn settlement plan will cloud talks Israel's plan to build houses on occupied land near Jerusalem will cloud renewed peace talks, the Palestinian Authority said on Sunday, the day before an international aid conference opens in Paris.
World powers gather in Paris to bankroll Palestinian state
Quarter of Israeli troops in West Bank witness to abuse: report The abuse includes humilitations, gratuitous delays and bribe-taking. One soldier reported forcing a Palestinian truck driver to remain on his knees for four hours for lying that he had a permit to cross the roadblock.
Israeli airstrike in Gaza wounds four Hamas militants: Hamas Ezzadine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's armed wing, said gunmen unleashed a barrage of gunfire and missiles at Israeli forces after they entered the city to try to arrest a leader of the group. Israeli forces then launched a missile at a car carrying the leader, wounding four fighters.
Israel plays down split with US on Iran The Israelis are also hoping to receive additional information from the U.S. report, which for the most part was classified, the officials said. .....The U.S. and Israel will hold additional formal meetings on the matter in coming weeks, the Israeli officials said. Israel will use these forums to try to persuade the Americans that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons, and to present top secret Israeli intelligence material, the officials said.
Dutch Web site puts message on fence Van Oel says the project is aimed to send a single, simple message: "Palestinians are human beings, just like anyone, with a sense of humor and a lust for life."
Israel lets Gazans leave for Hajj The Palestinians left Gaza on Sunday by the Erez checkpoint, controlled by Israel and usually closed to civilians.
Politicians held as Israel cracks down on Hamas raids Israeli troops have arrested 24 Hamas activists in Nablus and other West Bank towns, with many of those grabbed from their beds politicians and intellectuals rather than the gunmen usually snared in the nightly raids by Israel since Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June. Among those rounded up was Ahmed al-Hajj Ali, a member of the Palestinian legislative council, bringing to 46 the number of MPs now in Israeli custody.
Seoul pledges $13 mln to Palestine: official
Blair nears $5.6bn for Palestinianeconomy
Olmert muzzles Cabinet on Iran Ehud Olmert ordered his Cabinet ministers to keep quiet on Iran's nuclear program.
Peace of Christmas in Bethlehem Palestinians lit a four-story Christmas tree in this biblical town Saturday, kicking off a holiday season free of fighting with Israel that officials say will bring the most pilgrims since hostilities broke out seven years ago.
Egypt finds two Gaza smuggling tunnels Egyptian authorities have discovered two underground tunnels used for smuggling weapons into the Gaza Strip from the Sinai peninsula, a security source told AFP on Sunday.
Palestinians Recount Rigors of Haj Journey The Palestinian Haj delegation, comprising 2,186 people, thanked the Saudi government for its continuous support since their arrival in the Kingdom following a gruesome seven-day trip from occupied Palestine.
Banksy work in Bethlehem Christmas sale The money will be donated to children's charities in the occupied territories.
The Israeli army does not do enough to combat abuse of Palestinians B'Tselem recently received figures on such investigations which illustrate the enormity of the problem. Over the past seven years, only 36 indictments were filed against soldiers on charges of abusing Palestinians. These figures relate to all abuse, not only to abuse at checkpoints, and do not include death and injury due to gunfire, or damage to property.
Report: Gov't won't grant rights to Palestinians west of fence The State of Israel will not grant permanent or temporary residency to West Bank Palestinians whose homes were annexed to the Jerusalem municipal area by the separation fence, the Palestinian newspaper Al Quds reported on Sunday.
Palestinian rocket injures 2-year-old boy
PFLP asserts concern over Palestinian national consensus The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) rebuffed Sunday statements by Hamas's spokesperson, Sami Abu Zuhri, in which he believed that the PFLP and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), can not take the role of mediators between Hamas and Fatah.
Spokesman: Hamas not to end Gaza takeover before resuming dialogue Sami Abu Zuhri, Islamic Hamas movement spokesman said Sunday his movement would not hand over Gaza Strip before resuming dialogue with rival Fatah movement.
Gaza embargo puts hope on life support
Cabinet okays renewing controversial Temple Mount Mugrabi excavation Excavations at the site, a walkway leading to the Mugrabi Gate at the Temple Mount, were halted in June after they raised an international protest.
Israel?s bold new UK strategy Israeli diplomats are to mount an aggressive new strategy in Britain, making Israel?s case more actively in the media and taking their message out of London.
Ayalon: Gaza op must be carefully planned
Azerbaijan: 15 convicted of treason gave Iran information on Israel n a statement released Saturday, the National Security Ministry revealed new details about the group, which allegedly passed to Iranian agents details on Western embassies, companies, pipeline operations and employees operating in Azerbaijan in 2005-2006.
This just seems like it's bull and may be a precursor for other things to come.
Dialogue effort is largest of its kind Yoffie told conference participants, who had gathered for a massive Shabbat service in a converted ballroom, that the Union for Reform Judaism chose the Islamic Society as its partner because the Muslim group has repeatedly condemned terrorism and supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel, Quebec sign cooperation pact The agreement is expected to create new joint venture opportunities, as well as further cooperation
in the fields of technology, science, medicine and education.
It's time to stop the hypocrisy of U.S.- Saudi relationship Odds are the legislation proffered by Specter, Widen and Weiner will die on the vine, never making it out of committee; I'm afraid the Saudi lobby will win this battle easily. Indeed, similar legislation in recent years has gone nowhere, even when there was the hardest of evidence proving that the Saudi government was paying the families of suicide murderers and directly supporting Hamas. One reason for the past failure was the lack of a concerted, unified push by the legendary pro-Israel lobby.
Note the source.
'Arabs will never do national service' Israeli Arabs will never agree to do national service for the State of Israel because it would call into question their loyalty to the Palestinian cause, the founder of Israel's Islamic Movement, Sheikh Abdullah Nimr Darwish, said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.
Deck the mall in Arab Jordan there is a grim edge to the Christmas cheer, caused by continued restrictions on movement for West Bank residents. At least five parish priests from the area are stuck, either at home or outside the Palestinian territory, after the Israeli interior ministry rescinded automatic re-entry visas for Christian Arab religious leaders earlier this year.
Blair sees Mideast solution beyond territory
Annapolis unsettled Har Homa was widely denounced as contravening international law and publicly criticised by President Bill Clinton. The point of Har Homa (which means "mountain wall") was to close the last corridor linking Arab east Jerusalem to Bethlehem and the West Bank. It is the last rampart in the wall of settlements encircling east Jerusalem, closing off any chance of it becoming the capital of a future Palestinian state. Just as talks restart on the borders of the two states, the possibility of sharing Jerusalem - essential to that outcome - is being foreclosed......Unless it wants another failure, Washington must tell Israel it can either have peace or keep all its settlements on occupied land. It cannot have both.
Israel's cabinet recognizes Greek Orthodox patriarch More than two years after Theofilos III was sworn in as the Greek Orthodox Patriarch in the Holy Land, Israel's cabinet on Sunday recognized his appointment, apparently ending a religious and political saga.
Report: Poverty among Arab population growing Socioeconomic gap between Jewish, Arab sectors in Israel increasing, study shows. 'Without the government's massive intervention, this trend may worsen in the coming years,' researcher says
Letters for December 16 In recent weeks, Republican Mike Huckabee has appeared in television interviews and Internet videos suggesting a different sort of solution, a relocation of Palestinians to another part of the Middle East. Never mind that Palestinians have lived in historical Palestine for centuries.
Israel rules out attacks by Hezbollah, Syria in 2008: report Israel's Aman military intelligence does not think that Syria or Lebanon's Hezbollah militia will carry out a largescale offensive against Israel in 2008, an Israeli daily said on Sunday.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment