This Week In Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.IMEMC.org, for August 23rd, through August, 29th, 2008.
This Week In Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.IMEMC.org, for August 23rd, through August, 29th, 2008.
Lead: The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is back visiting the region within the framework of US efforts to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, while Israeli forces continue to close all the Gaza border crossings, as they have done for more than two years. These stories and more, coming up stay tuned.
Nonviolent Resistance
We begin our weekly report with recent nonviolent actions in the West Bank. IMEMC's Rula Shahwan has the details:
Nil'in
The Israeli army dispersed the weekly nonviolent protest in Nil'in village, located south of the West Bank city of Ramallah today with tear gas and sound bombs, causing many civilians to suffer from gas inhalation
Salah Khawaja, coordinator of the Ni’lin popular committee, told IMEMC that nearly 200 Palestinians, internationals and Israelis took to the streets of the village to nonviolently protest the construction of the wall and settlements on the village’s land.
The protest started following the Friday noon prayers, when worshippers and international and Israeli solidarity activists walked towards the construction site of the wall.
On Thursday, An Israeli military force also attacked the village's non violent protest, injuring 9 civilians and causing dozens to suffer from gas inhalation among them women and children.
Moreover, On Sunday, the popular committee in Nil'in organized a nonviolent protest against the Annexation Wall. Israeli troops fired CS gas canisters rubber-coated steel bullets and sprayed foul smelling liquid at the nonviolent demonstrators, wounding nine civilians, including five children, and an Israeli human rights defender.
Bil’in
A civilian was shot and dozens of Palestinian, international and Israeli civilians were treated for gas inhalation as the Israeli army showered them with CS gas and gun fire during the weekly nonviolent anti-wall protest in the village of Bil’in, west of Ramallah.
A group of 150 protestors marched after the Friday prayers in the village towards the illegal wall built on the villagers’ land.
The Israeli army attacked the civilian protesters with concussion grenades and CS gas, causing the injury of a civilian in the head and dozens to suffer from gas inhalation, Eyad Burnat, head of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements in Bil’in reported.
Moreover, troops sprayed protestors with colored water. Burnat told IMEMC he believes the water contained chemicals and could cause skin problems.
Bethlehem
Similarly, 100 internationals, Israeli peace activists and Palestinian villagers marched after the Friday prayers in Al-Ma'sara village near Bethlehem, in a nonviolent protest against the annexation wall being built on the village lands.
Mazen Al-Azza, one of the local coordinators, told IMEMC that the protestors were able to reach the wall and remove the wire surrounding the wall's gate and enter the Israeli settlement behind it.
Israeli troops dispersed the protest by beating the protestors, later on troops invaded the village and seized 8 French members of the international temporary presence in the village and released them after a couple of hours
For IMEMC.org this is Rula Shahwan.
Gaza Strip
Lead: As the Palestinian ceasefire with Israel enters its tenth week, Israeli forces continue to close all the Gaza border crossings, as they have done for more than two years. This and more from IMEMC’s Rami Al Mughari in Gaza has details
Israeli troops have continued to isolate the Gaza Strip from the outside world, despite Israel’s commitment to open the crossings under the truce agreement which began in June. Israeli forces have now closed all border crossings to and from the Gaza Strip for more than two years. The Israeli siege on Gaza, which has been steadily tightened since June 2007, has had a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and economic situation in the Gaza Strip.
After successfully breaking the siege on Gaza via sea on Saturday, the Free Gaza boats were slated to set sail on Thursday from Gaza to Cyprus. Seven Palestinians who have previously been denied exit visas by Israel will be leaving with them.
Nine international human rights workers are staying behind in Gaza to monitor the humanitarian situation.
The group arrived in Gaza on Saturday in two boats having made the 30-hour voyage from Cyprus. The international human rights activists aimed to break the siege on the Gaza Strip and to bring much-needed medicine, medical supplies and food to the civilian population of Gaza, which has been suffering under the tightened Israeli siege for over a year.
On Thursday, media outlets reported that Egypt said it would reopen the Rafah crossing into the Gaza Strip on Saturday and Sunday to allow 200 Egyptians stranded in the Gaza Strip for the past seven months to return to Egypt.
The continuing Israeli siege means that 1.5 million people in the Gaza Strip are being denied their basic rights, including freedom of movement and the rights to appropriate living conditions, decent work, health and education.
The Egyptian-brokered truce between Palestinian resistance groups and Israel began on 19 June; however, there have been no major changes since then regarding the movement of civilians and goods through the six Gaza Strip border crossings, which are controlled by Israel.
For IMEMC.Org this is Rami al Mughari
West Bank
Lead: This week, 9 Palestinian civilians, including 5 children, and an Israeli human rights defender, were wounded by Israeli fire in the West Bank; and Israeli military forces invaded 53 Palestinian communities in the West Bank. During these invasions, Israeli forces kidnapped 48 Palestinian civilians, including 5 children. for IMEMC's E.L Humble has the details.
This week’s attacks focused on the cities of Nablus, Hebron, Jenin and Ramallah. The number of Palestinian civilians kidnapped by the Israeli army in the West Bank since the beginning of this year now stands at 1,837 following these latest invasions.
On Sunday, Israeli soldiers attacked a nonviolent protest against the Wall in Nil'in village, near the West Bank city of Ramallah. Soldiers fired gas bombs, injuring 9 Palestinian civilians, including 5 children, and an Israeli human rights defender.
On Monday, Israel released 199 Palestinian prisoners ahead of a visit to the region by Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State.
The Israeli cabinet had approved a list of 199 detainees for release, describing it as a "goodwill" gesture to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. All those freed were from the West Bank, no Gazan prisoners were released.
Although Israel occasionally releases a number of Palestinian prisoners in such “goodwill gestures,” the number of imprisoned Palestinians continues to grow. There are over 11,000 Palestinian prisoners currently being held in Israeli detention centers according to human rights groups.
Also this week on Tuesday, a group of Israeli settlers, some of them armed, harassed Palestinian civilians in the West Bank city of Hebron. The settlers came from the Kiryat Arba' settlement next to the city and the occupied Al-Jabiri building, a Palestinian house which has been occupied by Israeli settlers for several months.
The settlers attacked houses and threw stones and glass bottles at houses, civilians and school children in the Al-Nasara and Al-Ja'abari neighborhoods of Hebron.
Settlers also assaulted members of the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH), an international observer mission, when they were called to document the settlers' assault.
On Thursday, a group of Israeli settlers set a construction workshop on fire in Burin village, south of the West Bank city of Nablus.
Eyewitnesses said the settlers, from the nearby Brakha settlement, poured gasoline on the construction equipment and then started the fire, burning most of the tools and equipment in the workshop. No casualties were reported.
Moreover, Israeli forces have continued to impose severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians throughout the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. Millions of Palestinian civilians from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip continue to be denied access to Jerusalem.
Israeli forces have established checkpoints in and around Jerusalem, severely restricting Palestinian access to the city. Civilians are frequently prevented from praying at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, despite the fact that the holy month of Ramadan is approaching.
For IMEMC .org this is E.L Humble
The Political report
Lead: This week in Palestine, US Secretary Condoleezza Rice is back visiting the region within the framework of US efforts to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict before the end of this year. This and more by IMEMC's George Rishmawi has details
During her visit, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stated that a solution is still possible by the end of 2008, as the current negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis are more serious than they were before.
In Ramallah, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas expressed his hope that a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital will be established soon. Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni downplayed Rice's concerns about Israeli settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.
Yet, according to the latest report by the Israeli Peace Now movement, 55% of Israeli settlements building units are located inside the Palestinian territories to the east of Israel’s separation barrier.
Jeff Halper, an Israeli-American campaigner against the Israeli policy of house demolitions, commented on the current peace talks:
Actuality (In English) [Quote]
"It’s not a genuine peace process, there are no genuine negotiations, there is just the idea that the parties can be brought together, but Israel is trying, with the American help, to get on with its Apartheid regime."
Later in the week President Abbas speaking from Beirut reasserted the Palestinian people's right to return to historical Palestine after the Israeli foreign minister, Livni, said that the right of return is incompatible with the creation of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders. Israel displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland in 1948.
Meanwhile, the conditions for Palestinians in Gaza remain unchanged, with Israel still closing the border crossings and only allowing in small shipments of goods and commodities, despite an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire between the ruling Hamas party and Israel that began in June 2008.
Asked by IMEMC's correspondent whether there have been any pledges by Egypt to solve the problem of crossings, particularly the Rafah crossing terminal which Egypt controls, senior Hamas leader Dr. Mahmoud Az-Zahar said:
Actuality (In English) [Quote]
"Personally, on the Arab League, I succeeded in pressuring the Arab foreign ministers to decide to end the siege, but so far they have failed to."
In the meantime, on board the Free Gaza boat, a stranded Palestinian family and a wounded child joined at least 34 international peace activists on their way back to Cyprus, after they succeeded in breaking the Israeli blockade on the Strip by sailing to Gaza last Saturday.
The Free Gaza boat was organized by a group of human rights activists, aid workers and journalists, who spent two years planning how to reach Gaza by sea in solidarity with the besieged population.
Huwaida Arraf, one of the organizers of the Free Gaza boat, is Palestinian with Israeli an and American citizenship from the historical Palestinian city of Akka.
Actuality (In English) [Quote]
"Israel is grossly violating its obligations as an occupying power and purposely putting the entire Palestinian population under siege in a form of collective punishment, which is prohibited by international humanitarian law. We are going to take this message out with us to the world, let them know what is happening in Gaza and call on them to act; the people of the world must act, and we can't stay silent in the face of these crimes."
Seven other Palestinian Fulbright scholarship candidates were supposed to be on board the Free Gaza ship, but they were denied visas to Cyprus, the boat’s return destination.
For IMEMC.org this is George Rishmawi
Conclusion
And that’s just some of the news this week in Palestine. For constant updates, check out our website, www.IMEMC.org. Thanks for joining us from Occupied Bethlehem. This week's report has been brought to you by Husam Qassis and George Rishmawi
Lead: The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is back visiting the region within the framework of US efforts to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, while Israeli forces continue to close all the Gaza border crossings, as they have done for more than two years. These stories and more, coming up stay tuned.
Nonviolent Resistance
We begin our weekly report with recent nonviolent actions in the West Bank. IMEMC's Rula Shahwan has the details:
Nil'in
The Israeli army dispersed the weekly nonviolent protest in Nil'in village, located south of the West Bank city of Ramallah today with tear gas and sound bombs, causing many civilians to suffer from gas inhalation
Salah Khawaja, coordinator of the Ni’lin popular committee, told IMEMC that nearly 200 Palestinians, internationals and Israelis took to the streets of the village to nonviolently protest the construction of the wall and settlements on the village’s land.
The protest started following the Friday noon prayers, when worshippers and international and Israeli solidarity activists walked towards the construction site of the wall.
On Thursday, An Israeli military force also attacked the village's non violent protest, injuring 9 civilians and causing dozens to suffer from gas inhalation among them women and children.
Moreover, On Sunday, the popular committee in Nil'in organized a nonviolent protest against the Annexation Wall. Israeli troops fired CS gas canisters rubber-coated steel bullets and sprayed foul smelling liquid at the nonviolent demonstrators, wounding nine civilians, including five children, and an Israeli human rights defender.
Bil’in
A civilian was shot and dozens of Palestinian, international and Israeli civilians were treated for gas inhalation as the Israeli army showered them with CS gas and gun fire during the weekly nonviolent anti-wall protest in the village of Bil’in, west of Ramallah.
A group of 150 protestors marched after the Friday prayers in the village towards the illegal wall built on the villagers’ land.
The Israeli army attacked the civilian protesters with concussion grenades and CS gas, causing the injury of a civilian in the head and dozens to suffer from gas inhalation, Eyad Burnat, head of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements in Bil’in reported.
Moreover, troops sprayed protestors with colored water. Burnat told IMEMC he believes the water contained chemicals and could cause skin problems.
Bethlehem
Similarly, 100 internationals, Israeli peace activists and Palestinian villagers marched after the Friday prayers in Al-Ma'sara village near Bethlehem, in a nonviolent protest against the annexation wall being built on the village lands.
Mazen Al-Azza, one of the local coordinators, told IMEMC that the protestors were able to reach the wall and remove the wire surrounding the wall's gate and enter the Israeli settlement behind it.
Israeli troops dispersed the protest by beating the protestors, later on troops invaded the village and seized 8 French members of the international temporary presence in the village and released them after a couple of hours
For IMEMC.org this is Rula Shahwan.
Gaza Strip
Lead: As the Palestinian ceasefire with Israel enters its tenth week, Israeli forces continue to close all the Gaza border crossings, as they have done for more than two years. This and more from IMEMC’s Rami Al Mughari in Gaza has details
Israeli troops have continued to isolate the Gaza Strip from the outside world, despite Israel’s commitment to open the crossings under the truce agreement which began in June. Israeli forces have now closed all border crossings to and from the Gaza Strip for more than two years. The Israeli siege on Gaza, which has been steadily tightened since June 2007, has had a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and economic situation in the Gaza Strip.
After successfully breaking the siege on Gaza via sea on Saturday, the Free Gaza boats were slated to set sail on Thursday from Gaza to Cyprus. Seven Palestinians who have previously been denied exit visas by Israel will be leaving with them.
Nine international human rights workers are staying behind in Gaza to monitor the humanitarian situation.
The group arrived in Gaza on Saturday in two boats having made the 30-hour voyage from Cyprus. The international human rights activists aimed to break the siege on the Gaza Strip and to bring much-needed medicine, medical supplies and food to the civilian population of Gaza, which has been suffering under the tightened Israeli siege for over a year.
On Thursday, media outlets reported that Egypt said it would reopen the Rafah crossing into the Gaza Strip on Saturday and Sunday to allow 200 Egyptians stranded in the Gaza Strip for the past seven months to return to Egypt.
The continuing Israeli siege means that 1.5 million people in the Gaza Strip are being denied their basic rights, including freedom of movement and the rights to appropriate living conditions, decent work, health and education.
The Egyptian-brokered truce between Palestinian resistance groups and Israel began on 19 June; however, there have been no major changes since then regarding the movement of civilians and goods through the six Gaza Strip border crossings, which are controlled by Israel.
For IMEMC.Org this is Rami al Mughari
West Bank
Lead: This week, 9 Palestinian civilians, including 5 children, and an Israeli human rights defender, were wounded by Israeli fire in the West Bank; and Israeli military forces invaded 53 Palestinian communities in the West Bank. During these invasions, Israeli forces kidnapped 48 Palestinian civilians, including 5 children. for IMEMC's E.L Humble has the details.
This week’s attacks focused on the cities of Nablus, Hebron, Jenin and Ramallah. The number of Palestinian civilians kidnapped by the Israeli army in the West Bank since the beginning of this year now stands at 1,837 following these latest invasions.
On Sunday, Israeli soldiers attacked a nonviolent protest against the Wall in Nil'in village, near the West Bank city of Ramallah. Soldiers fired gas bombs, injuring 9 Palestinian civilians, including 5 children, and an Israeli human rights defender.
On Monday, Israel released 199 Palestinian prisoners ahead of a visit to the region by Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State.
The Israeli cabinet had approved a list of 199 detainees for release, describing it as a "goodwill" gesture to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. All those freed were from the West Bank, no Gazan prisoners were released.
Although Israel occasionally releases a number of Palestinian prisoners in such “goodwill gestures,” the number of imprisoned Palestinians continues to grow. There are over 11,000 Palestinian prisoners currently being held in Israeli detention centers according to human rights groups.
Also this week on Tuesday, a group of Israeli settlers, some of them armed, harassed Palestinian civilians in the West Bank city of Hebron. The settlers came from the Kiryat Arba' settlement next to the city and the occupied Al-Jabiri building, a Palestinian house which has been occupied by Israeli settlers for several months.
The settlers attacked houses and threw stones and glass bottles at houses, civilians and school children in the Al-Nasara and Al-Ja'abari neighborhoods of Hebron.
Settlers also assaulted members of the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH), an international observer mission, when they were called to document the settlers' assault.
On Thursday, a group of Israeli settlers set a construction workshop on fire in Burin village, south of the West Bank city of Nablus.
Eyewitnesses said the settlers, from the nearby Brakha settlement, poured gasoline on the construction equipment and then started the fire, burning most of the tools and equipment in the workshop. No casualties were reported.
Moreover, Israeli forces have continued to impose severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians throughout the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. Millions of Palestinian civilians from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip continue to be denied access to Jerusalem.
Israeli forces have established checkpoints in and around Jerusalem, severely restricting Palestinian access to the city. Civilians are frequently prevented from praying at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, despite the fact that the holy month of Ramadan is approaching.
For IMEMC .org this is E.L Humble
The Political report
Lead: This week in Palestine, US Secretary Condoleezza Rice is back visiting the region within the framework of US efforts to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict before the end of this year. This and more by IMEMC's George Rishmawi has details
During her visit, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stated that a solution is still possible by the end of 2008, as the current negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis are more serious than they were before.
In Ramallah, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas expressed his hope that a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital will be established soon. Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni downplayed Rice's concerns about Israeli settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.
Yet, according to the latest report by the Israeli Peace Now movement, 55% of Israeli settlements building units are located inside the Palestinian territories to the east of Israel’s separation barrier.
Jeff Halper, an Israeli-American campaigner against the Israeli policy of house demolitions, commented on the current peace talks:
Actuality (In English) [Quote]
"It’s not a genuine peace process, there are no genuine negotiations, there is just the idea that the parties can be brought together, but Israel is trying, with the American help, to get on with its Apartheid regime."
Later in the week President Abbas speaking from Beirut reasserted the Palestinian people's right to return to historical Palestine after the Israeli foreign minister, Livni, said that the right of return is incompatible with the creation of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders. Israel displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland in 1948.
Meanwhile, the conditions for Palestinians in Gaza remain unchanged, with Israel still closing the border crossings and only allowing in small shipments of goods and commodities, despite an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire between the ruling Hamas party and Israel that began in June 2008.
Asked by IMEMC's correspondent whether there have been any pledges by Egypt to solve the problem of crossings, particularly the Rafah crossing terminal which Egypt controls, senior Hamas leader Dr. Mahmoud Az-Zahar said:
Actuality (In English) [Quote]
"Personally, on the Arab League, I succeeded in pressuring the Arab foreign ministers to decide to end the siege, but so far they have failed to."
In the meantime, on board the Free Gaza boat, a stranded Palestinian family and a wounded child joined at least 34 international peace activists on their way back to Cyprus, after they succeeded in breaking the Israeli blockade on the Strip by sailing to Gaza last Saturday.
The Free Gaza boat was organized by a group of human rights activists, aid workers and journalists, who spent two years planning how to reach Gaza by sea in solidarity with the besieged population.
Huwaida Arraf, one of the organizers of the Free Gaza boat, is Palestinian with Israeli an and American citizenship from the historical Palestinian city of Akka.
Actuality (In English) [Quote]
"Israel is grossly violating its obligations as an occupying power and purposely putting the entire Palestinian population under siege in a form of collective punishment, which is prohibited by international humanitarian law. We are going to take this message out with us to the world, let them know what is happening in Gaza and call on them to act; the people of the world must act, and we can't stay silent in the face of these crimes."
Seven other Palestinian Fulbright scholarship candidates were supposed to be on board the Free Gaza ship, but they were denied visas to Cyprus, the boat’s return destination.
For IMEMC.org this is George Rishmawi
Conclusion
And that’s just some of the news this week in Palestine. For constant updates, check out our website, www.IMEMC.org. Thanks for joining us from Occupied Bethlehem. This week's report has been brought to you by Husam Qassis and George Rishmawi
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