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| Today in Palestine! 08 - Apr - 2005 |
| www.TheHeadlines.Org |
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Five injured, one arrested west of Ramallah
The protestors carried Palestinian flags and chanted slogans against the Wall and the occupation, and marched towards the mosque of the village. Army surrounded the mosque area and fired gas bombs and rubber coated bullets, five were injured and one resident was arrested.
 http://imemc2.thinkhost.net/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=10153&Itemid=2


Popular Resistance on the march again in Saffa
As the protestors drew back they were followed by the Occupation Forces, who entered homes and closed streets in an attempt to stifle public protest. With the villagers maintaining their resistance, the Occupation eventually retreated. However, villagers were fearful that they would return later that night to impose curfews and arbitrary arrests.
 http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/894.shtml


New Jerusalem Map includes Ma'ale Adumim
The source also added that there is a plan to build another settlement that will connect Sheikh Jarrah area and Ras Al-Amoud with Ma'ale Adumim. Palestinian observers believe this plan is part of a bigger plan to diminish the Palestinian nature of Jerusalem.
 http://imemc2.thinkhost.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10145&Itemid=1


Palestinian village fears becoming Israel's rubbish dump
A nauseating stench rises from this disused West Bank quarry where rubbish from a Jewish settlement is slowly piling up. With thousands of tonnes more Israeli waste set to arrive, the Palestinian village of Deir Sharaf fears the worst.
 http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/VBOL-6B8HH5?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR


93132.5 Dunams annexed within two months
The National Office for Land Defense revealed that Israel annexed during the months of February and March 93132.5 Dunams, and approved constructing 10291 homes for settlers in the West Bank. Also, the office revealed that the army issued military orders to annex 1539.5 Dunams, while settlers occupied 600 additional Dunams. (During "Cease-Fire" !!! )
 http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/printer_16480.shtml


Peres to Cheney: No building in Ma'aleh Adumim "for now"
Cheney asked Peres some clarifications on Israel's activity in the area, and Peres responded that there must be a distinction made between activity on the ground and plans. ( The ILLEGAL Settlemets will be expanded "later" )
 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/562038.html


EU “deeply concerned” over Israel's settlement plans
Luxembourg, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, released the statement, saying that "The European Union is deeply concerned over the announcement by the Israeli authorities of a plan to build 3,500 new housing units in Ma'aleh Adumim and plans to expand two other settlement blocks in the West Bank."
 http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=7820


'Let me fight my monsters'
Rachel was killed, aged 23, on March 16 2003, by a Caterpillar D-9 bulldozer, a vehicle especially built to demolish houses. Three decades before, her father had driven bulldozers in Vietnam for the US army. Her death was the first of a string of killings of westerners in Gaza in spring 2003, as the war was taking place in Iraq: Briton Tom Hurndall, 22, shot on April 11; another Briton, cameraman James Miller, 34, shot on May 16.
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1454990,00.html


Child detainee severly tortured
Mahmoud Radi Erekat, 16, from Abu Dis, near Jerusalem, complained of torture practiced against him in Maali Adumim detention center, before he was transferred to Atzion detention. Also, Erekat added that he was not allowed to sleep or use the toilet for long periods. Lawyer Al-Sheikh said that he saw wounds in his face and head in addition to the burn marks of cigarettes on his body.
 http://imemc2.thinkhost.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10149&Itemid=1


Creeping boycott
Pro-Palestinian organizations that have bought shares in the company will bring the proposal up for a vote, in hopes that this will increase awareness on the part of the company's management of what these organizations regard as the risks of doing business with Israel. Caterpillar sells military versions of its D9 bulldozer to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which has been used to destroy Palestinian houses.
 http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/DocView.asp?did=902315&fid=980


Orthodox Arab leaders demand patriarch's resignation
A week ago, the patriarch's bookkeeper said he signed a contract leasing church-owned property in Jerusalem's Old City. The bookkeeper said the transaction was ordered by Irineos I, and other reports said property was not only leased, but sold.
 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/562464.html


Racism by any other name
Meanwhile, an "emergency regulation" passed in 2003 limits the right of Arab citizens of Israel - a right that belongs to not only every Jew in Israel but every Jew in the world - to have their spouse and children naturalized. That distinction is expressed in the classifications of the Central Bureau of Statistics, which formally divides the citizens of Israel into two categories: "Jews and others"
 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=562013&contrassID=1&subContrassID=4&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Palestinians say truce over if mosques attacked
The eight factions issued the warning a day after Israel said it would ban non-Muslims from the site, revered by Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) and by Jews as the Temple Mount, to prevent far-right Israelis rallying there.
 http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L08683866.htm


'Frustrated' militants rocket Israel
Earlier yesterday a senior member of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, Qais Abu Leila, said gunmen were clashing with the Palestinian security forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip almost daily, and added: "There is a very real chance that this could spill over into attacks against Israel."
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1454991,00.html


Touring Gandhi to help Palestinians help themselves
The Oscar-winning British actor Ben Kingsley was in Ramallah last night to unveil a dubbed version of his 1982 film Gandhi. The aim of the premiere was to school Palestinians in the Indian leader's message of non-violent resistance, and point the way to a possible resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
 http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Guardian/0,4029,1454134,00.html


No should be no
IF THE BUSH administration wants to stop settlement expansion in Israel, it will have to do more than complain about it. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon arrives in the United States on Sunday for meetings with President Bush after staunchly defending plans to expand a Jerusalem-area settlement and connect it to the capital, a move that would isolate West Bank Palestinians from the holy city.
 http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bal-ed.mideast08apr08,1,2479062.story?coll=bal-opinion-headlines&ctrack=1&cset=true


Israeli, Syrian, Iranian Leaders Meet
"During the prayers, according to the Christian tradition we exchanged handshakes ... During this, it was the Syrian president who extended his hand to me and we again shook hands." The Iranian-born Katsav also spoke briefly with Iranian President Mohammed Khatami in Farsi. ( President Katsav = Settler from Iran!! )
 http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=540&e=5&u=/ap/20050408/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_pope_diplomacy


Muslim prayers on Temple Mount end without incident
Tens of thousands of Muslim worshippers concluded weekly prayers on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on Friday without incident, Israel Radio reported. Only Muslim men aged 40 and above holding Israeli ID cards were allowed to attend the prayers. There were be no limitations for women.
 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/562743.html


Israel Will Not Destroy Gaza Settlements
Palestinian officials have repeatedly complained that Israeli was not negotiating the pullout with them, and criticized Mofaz's unilateral decision. "They have finished the negotiations with themselves, and now they are trying to tell us what to do," Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.
 http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=651937


PA gets .ps Web suffix although it is still not a state (still under Occupation!)
PA Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia told of the development at a press conference in Ramallah on Monday, noting that the PA was involved in new projects in the framework of its "electronic government" program, which is intended to boost ties between the man in the street and government institutions via the Internet.
 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/562528.html


Stink bomb
Three Israeli municipal bodies (the Kedumim and the Karnei Shimron councils and the Samaria regional council), which are themselves illegal bodies under international law, that were established 25 years ago with typical stealth to set up a regime of annexation on the basis of ethnic criteria, have taken control of lands stolen from Palestinian inhabitants. With the approval of the government of Israel...
 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/562521.html


Remembering Land Day - By Nayef Hawatmeh
In his notorious interview with Ari Shavit in Haaretz on 9 January 2004, Israeli historian Benny Morris said: "If the end of the story turns out to be a gloomy one for the Jews, it will be because Ben- Gurion did not complete the transfer in 1948. Because he left a large and volatile demographic reserve in the West Bank and Gaza and within Israel itself."
 http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/737/op3.htm


Reconstructing Palestine
Bab Al-Shams may deal with events that took place 57 years ago but they are historically accurate -- recorded in Palestinian oral history and now in the Atlas of Palestine 1948 -- published three months ago. Turn to page 147 of the Atlas and you will find Ein Al- Zaytoun on the map, with a seamless collection of aerial photographs as background. A mosque, cemetery, school and spring are marked on the eastern side of the village.
 http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/737/re1.htm


Two states, one nation
But it would be a mistake to think it will end with that. If the Israeli government really intends to carry out its commitments to the road map, the conflict between the sides will probably intensify. The State of Israel established the state of the settlers and, in the final analysis, the golem is rebelling against its creator.
 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/562522.html


The Texas-Israel two-step, repeated
For instance, a story about an Israeli prime minister sitting in the living room of the U.S. president's Texas ranch, talking about Arab-Israel negotiations with a host distracted by a quagmire elsewhere. That news item, supposedly about next Monday, was originally written in January 1968, when Levi Eshkol visited Lyndon Johnson. "What kind of Israel do you want?" Eshkol, tragically, couldn't answer.
 http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-opgor084208048apr08,0,106875.story?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlines


Mechanisms Of Dispossession
Like the 'anti-Semitism' card, the Holocaust is used to blackmail any criticism of Israel's crimes against the Palestinian people. The cliché goes like this: what ever the Israelis do to the Palestinians, is justified on the basis that; it is not the Holocaust yet. "The Holocaust overshadows everything the Israeli people think and do.
 http://www.countercurrents.org/pa-hassan070405.htm


"This is Not a Subject for Comedy": Jewish comedian tackles the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
It is critical that Dembina structures his act the way that he does, by provoking his (primarily Jewish) audiences' imagination by illustrating the potentially dire situation of being a Jew in an under-curfew Jenin, and then gaining his audiences' trust by discussing his personal experiences while growing up, before fully tackling the current situation in Israel-Palestine.
 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3749.shtml


US warns citizens on travel to Israel, Palestine territories
"The Department of State urges US citizens to carefully weigh the necessity of their travel to Israel in light of the risks. "The department also urges US citizens to defer unnecessary travel to the West Bank and avoid all travel to Gaza,"
 http://www.geo.tv/main_files/world.aspx?id=73161


Report: Hezbollah to drop arms if Israel quits Shebaa
Sheikh Naim Kassem told the Financial Times that disarmament, called for by Washington and the United Nations, could pave the way for Hezbollah's fighters to become a kind of reservist army working with Lebanese authorities.
 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/562751.html


Protest Planned 2 Years After Baghdad Fell
"The occupation forces started with this place, and now from this same place we want them to leave Iraq," said Sheik Abdul-Hadi al-Daraji, a spokesman for al-Sadr, who led uprisings against coalition forces last year. "They have toppled Saddam and now we want them out. The situation in Iraq is going from bad to worse. The Iraqis saw no good during these two years of occupation."
 http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=540&e=1&u=/ap/20050408/ap_on_re_mi_ea/baghdad_two_years_later


An Old U.S. Foe Rises Again in Iraq; Shiite Mahdi Army Growing Bolder in South
Over the loudspeakers set up in this small town in a backwater of southern Iraq, the commands came in staccato bursts. "Forward!" a man clad in black shouted to the militiamen. "March!" Column after column followed through the dusty, windswept square.
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35586-2005Apr7.html