Palestine Today 11 12 2013
IMEMC News | 11.12.2013 19:25 | Anti-racism | Other Press | Palestine | World
Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Wednesday December 11, 2013.
Israeli settlers stab a Palestinian youth in Jerusalem and the military kidnaps six Palestinians in Bethlehem, these stories and more, coming up, stay tuned.
Palestinian media sources state that a young Palestinian man was moderately hurt after being stabbed by an Israeli settler in Jaffa Road, in West Jerusalem, the Milad News Agency has reported.
The sources said that Mohammad Marwan, 20 years of age, was heading back home from work when an Israeli settler stopped him to ask for a cigarette and, when the settler made sure that the young man was an Arab, he stabbed him.
The young Palestinian man, from Ras Al-’Amoud in East Jerusalem, was stabbed in the arm as he tried to fend off the attack, upon noticing the knife.
His family said that, after Mohammad was stabbed, around nine more settlers who were apparently hiding in the area gathered around him, and one of them was striking him on the head with a baton.
Mohammad’s cousin, who was shopping at a nearby store, said that he noticed one of the settlers placing a knife on his cousin’s neck, however the settlers fled the scene when he started screaming and running towards them.
In other news, dozens of Israeli soldiers have invaded the Aida Refugee camp, north of the West Bank city of Bethlehem, kidnapping six Palestinians, including two brothers, and serving two residents with warrants ordering them to head to a military base for interrogation.
Local sources have reported that the army broke into several homes and conducted violent searches, causing excessive property damage before kidnapping the six Palestinians.
The kidnapped have been identified as Khalil Abu Aker, 21, his brother Mustafa, 24, Hamdi Ali Ayyad, Mohammad Adel Jado, Jawad Mohammad, 20, and Akram Abu Khdeir, 18.
The army also served warrants to residents Ahmad Amer Odah, 24, and Saed Khalil Abu Aker, 21, ordering them to the Etzion military base, south of Bethlehem, for interrogation.
On Tuesday, soldiers invaded the nearby Deheisha refugee camp, south of Bethlehem, searched several homes and kidnapped five Palestinians, including three brothers.
In political news, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to arrive to the region, today, in order to push the last of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
Palestinian sources expect a round of talks to be conducted by Kerry, with Palestinian and Israeli officials, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, talks which are crucial to the fate of negotiations between the two sides.
The sources confirmed, again, disappointment on the part of the Palestinians, in regard to the new U.S. proposals on security measures, stating that Washington had already adopted the Israeli position.
And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Wednesday December, 11, 2013 news round-up from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates please visit our web site at www.imemc.org. Today’s report has been brought to you by Ghassan Bannoura and George Rishmawi
Palestinian media sources state that a young Palestinian man was moderately hurt after being stabbed by an Israeli settler in Jaffa Road, in West Jerusalem, the Milad News Agency has reported.
The sources said that Mohammad Marwan, 20 years of age, was heading back home from work when an Israeli settler stopped him to ask for a cigarette and, when the settler made sure that the young man was an Arab, he stabbed him.
The young Palestinian man, from Ras Al-’Amoud in East Jerusalem, was stabbed in the arm as he tried to fend off the attack, upon noticing the knife.
His family said that, after Mohammad was stabbed, around nine more settlers who were apparently hiding in the area gathered around him, and one of them was striking him on the head with a baton.
Mohammad’s cousin, who was shopping at a nearby store, said that he noticed one of the settlers placing a knife on his cousin’s neck, however the settlers fled the scene when he started screaming and running towards them.
In other news, dozens of Israeli soldiers have invaded the Aida Refugee camp, north of the West Bank city of Bethlehem, kidnapping six Palestinians, including two brothers, and serving two residents with warrants ordering them to head to a military base for interrogation.
Local sources have reported that the army broke into several homes and conducted violent searches, causing excessive property damage before kidnapping the six Palestinians.
The kidnapped have been identified as Khalil Abu Aker, 21, his brother Mustafa, 24, Hamdi Ali Ayyad, Mohammad Adel Jado, Jawad Mohammad, 20, and Akram Abu Khdeir, 18.
The army also served warrants to residents Ahmad Amer Odah, 24, and Saed Khalil Abu Aker, 21, ordering them to the Etzion military base, south of Bethlehem, for interrogation.
On Tuesday, soldiers invaded the nearby Deheisha refugee camp, south of Bethlehem, searched several homes and kidnapped five Palestinians, including three brothers.
In political news, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to arrive to the region, today, in order to push the last of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
Palestinian sources expect a round of talks to be conducted by Kerry, with Palestinian and Israeli officials, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, talks which are crucial to the fate of negotiations between the two sides.
The sources confirmed, again, disappointment on the part of the Palestinians, in regard to the new U.S. proposals on security measures, stating that Washington had already adopted the Israeli position.
And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Wednesday December, 11, 2013 news round-up from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates please visit our web site at www.imemc.org. Today’s report has been brought to you by Ghassan Bannoura and George Rishmawi
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Also in "Palestine" today
11.12.2013 21:34
By REUTERS
12/11/2013 16:58
BRUSSELS - The European Union should stop funding Palestinian civil servants in the Gaza Strip because money is going to officials who do not work, European auditors said on Wednesday.
As the biggest aid donor to the Palestinian territories, EU taxpayers pay a fifth of the salaries of teachers, doctors and bureaucrats in the small coastal territory, which has been governed by the Islamist group Hamas since 2007.
But following an investigation into how EU aid is being spent, the European Court of Auditors has found that large numbers of recipients are providing no public service.
The court did not have overall figures on the size of the problem. But in one spot check, 90 of the 125 employees at the National Audit Institute of Palestine said they did not work.
In another sample, 40 percent of civil servants were not working, EU auditor Hans Gustaf Wessberg, who led the inspections over the past 16 months, told a news conference.
"Our suggestion is to discontinue the program for employees in Gaza," said Wessberg, saying the money could go to the West Bank instead. "The payment of civil servants who do not work does not meet one of (the EU's) main objectives to provide public services to the Palestinian people."
Wessberg denied EU money was going to former prisoners or militants and blamed the problem on the split in the Palestinian Authority between Hamas in Gaza and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party in the West Bank.
The auditors looked into around 1 billion euros ($1.38 billion) of spending in the Palestinian territories between 2008-2012.
Auditors could not establish what had happened to 90 million euros that was meant to pay fuel taxes and keep Gaza's only power plant running. Fuel shortages mean it has now ceased to serve nearly half the 1.8 million population.
Israel's on-off blockade of Gaza and Egypt's closure of around 1,200 tunnels that once linked the territory to the Sinai peninsula have choked off a large amount of economic activity.
The auditors' report raises questions about the oversight exercised by the European Commission, the EU executive, which is responsible for overseeing EU aid programs.
But a Commission spokesman said many people were prevented from going to work in Gaza, referring to the fragile security situation in the strip, and needed financial support.
"If the Palestinian Authority is not paying these people, who is going to provide for them? If you have people running around without income, then of course, they are more prone to be taken by extremists," said Commission spokesman Peter Stano.
The report follows an EU audit published in June that found that a 1 billion euro package of support for Egypt from 2007 to 2013 had been mismanaged.
Over the past two decades, the EU has given 5.6 billion euros to the Palestinian territories. ($1 = 0.7261 euros)
Haw Haw watch
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