This Week in Palestine week 39 2008

Lede: Palestinian leadership still hopeful of a two-state solution despite of the ongoing Israeli policy of land garb. Palestinians on the other hand, continue their nonviolent resistance against the wall and settlements, these stories and more are coming up, stay tuned.

Nonviolence

As usual, we begin report with nonviolent actions and protests in Palestine during which dozens of Palestinians were wounded this week.
Ni’lin
Dozens were treated for gas inhalation in the village of Ni’lin, near the west Bank city of Ramallah on Friday afternoon during an anti-wall protest.

The Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements organized a nonviolent protest in the village after the Friday prayer. Israeli troops who came to the village did not allow the protestors to reach the land which has been registered as land to be lost to the extension of the wall.

As the protesters came close to the land, the soldiers showered them with dozens of C.S. gas canisters, causing many of them to choke.

During the Friday prayer, the preacher called the worshippers to unite and to continue the struggle against the Israeli military occupation.

On their part, the popular committee in the village said in a press release, that the villagers should boycott the permits which Israel requests the farmers to obtain in order to enter their property which is registered for confiscation.

Meanwhile, Salah el-Khawaja, spokesperson of the committee told IMEMC that there will be a campaign to protect the farmers while attempting to harvest their olive trees from settler and military attacks.

On Tuesday, Ahed al-Khawaja, member of the popular committee in Ni’lin suffered facial injuries as Israeli troops fired gas bombs and concussion grenades at him as he was accompanying a delegation from the European Union visiting the village.

According to a press release by the Grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign sent to IMEMC al-Khawaja sustained serious injuries as one of the grenades hit him in his face causing him a fracture in the nose and burns and bruises in the face and eyes.

Khawaja was transported to the Sheikh Zayed hospital in Ramallah for medical treatment. Doctors estimate that he needs at least a week before the recovery process.

Bil’in

Not far away from Ni’lin, in Bil’in village, three protestors were wounded on Friday at noon including a Scottish human rights activist with rubber-coated steel bullets fired by the Israeli military forces in the village.

The wounded were identified as Yassin Mohammad, Tamer e-Khatib and Oliver, their wounds were described as light.

Troops fire rubber-coated steel bullets and C.S gas at civilians who gathered after the Friday prayer to protest against the land confiscation and settlement and wall building on the village’s land.

Protestors carried Palestinian flags and banners calling for more active nonviolent resistance to the wall and settlements and also, the opening of the roads closed by the Israeli military.

Among the protestors was an Israeli who had refused to enlist with the Israeli army. Yuval Oron, 19 a resident of the mixed Arab-Jewish village Neveh Shalom, “Peace Oasis” near Tel Aviv, said that he will not register for military service in the Israeli army, although he knows that he will end up in jail for doing so.

He added that some of his friends are already in jail for refusing the service. Oron, who will be called for his military service next month, said the reason for refusing the service, is that he would not serve an army that forcefully occupies other people’s land.

In other news, members of the Free Gaza Movement said Friday that they will postpone their second trip from Cyprus to Gaza due to disagreement with one of the boat owners. The Free Gaza Movement organizers believe the delay is a result of outside pressure on the boat owner.

IN august, the Free Gaza Movement managed to sail to Gaza with two boats carrying 44 ordinary people in bid to break the siege Israel imposed on the coastal region for over 15 months. The boats returned Cyprus carrying some Palestinians who needed urgent medical treatment unavailable in Gaza due to the blockade.

For IMEMC.org this is George Rishmawi

Political

Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, asserted on Thursday that he is still hopeful towards realizing a two-state solution, as Palestinians mark this week the International Day of Jerusalem. This and more with IMEMC’s correspondence in Gaza Rami Al-Meghari

The Palestinian people marked this Friday the International Day of Jerusalem, as peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis are currently unstable. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, said on Thursday on the sideline of the United Nations General Assembly annual meeting in New York, that he is looking forward to achieving the two-state solution, envisioned by the U.S president Gorge W. Bush.

The Palestinian Prime Minister of Hamas in Gaza, Mr. Ismail Haniya, commented on the occasion by saying that Jerusalem is under danger, and requires a genuine political and economic intervention to save the holy city.

Also, deputy-secretary general of the Islamic Jihad group, Ziyad Alnakhallah, called for the mobilization by Arabs and Muslims alike in order to free the occupied East Jerusalem from the Israeli occupation.

Alnakhalla's senior, Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, said from Damascus this week that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), was established to liberate Palestine not to recognize Israel, referring to current Palestinian-Israeli takes, based on the Oslo accords of 1999, signed by PLO.

In the meantime, Palestinian national unity talks are underway in Cairo between Egyptian officials and Palestinian faction representatives. The talks are aimed to bring together the major rival Fatah and Hamas parties.

The Fatah delegation had already presented the party's vision to ending the division, as the Hamas delegation will arrive in Cairo on Octover8. Hamas has already announced willingness to an 'unconditional' dialogue.

The Hamas spokesman in Gaza , Fawzi Barhoum, stated that his party wants a dialogue that returns to the national unity government, reforms the PLO on basis of the 2006's parliamentary elections and also reconstructs the Palestinian security services, based on the same results, which brought Hamas to power.

In June 2007, Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip, ejecting Fatah-loyal security forces and personnel and forming institutions of its own. President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah outlawed Hamas and boycotted its government.

Hamas has shunned peace talks with Israel , until Israel halts all its actions against the Palestinian people, including settlement building or their expansion, as well as daily attacks on Palestinian cities, towns, villages and camps.

At the Israeli level, an Israeli ministerial committee prepared this week a list of potential Palestinian freed detainees, to be swapped for captured Israeli soldier in Gaza, Gil'ad Shalit.

The list of 450 is made up of half from the ruling Hamas party in Gaza, has long demanded Egyptian mediators. The list remains unconfirmed until it is endorsed by the outgoing Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, and accepted by the Hamas party.

Also in Israel, the ruling Kadima party's newly-elected leader , foreign minister, Tsibi Livni, met this week with defense minister and head of the labor party, Ehud Barak, over forming a coalition government after PM Olmert resigned from post earlier in the week

Commenting on potential peace deal with the Palestinians by the end of this year, Livni believed that there will be no room for establishing an independent Palestinian state.

Mustafa Barghouthi, Palestinian MP, head of the National Initiative Party and former minister, considered the said Livni's statements as an indication of what he considered ' no difference among Israeli officials, when it comes to decisive solutions of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

For IMEMC.org, I am Rami Almeghari in Gaza

West Bank

A 14-year-old Palestinian boy was killed near the illegal Israeli settlement of Yitzhar in the West Bank city of Nablus, while at least four other Palestinian residents were wounded in separate incidents across the West Bank. IMEMC's Hana Kidan with the details.

On Saturday, Israeli troops shot and killed a 14-year-old boy near the illegal Israeli settlement of Yitzhar, erected on the land of Nablus city.

The boy was walking along the settlement's fence, when he was gunned down by the soldiers. Witnesses said that the victims home is 100-meters-away from the settlement, while Israeli troops claimed he was carrying a knife and a Molotov cocktail.

Recently, the settlers of Yitzhar settlement have been reported for clashing with local Palestinian residents in the vicinity of the settlement.

In Nilin village, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, a member of the Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall campaign, was hit with an Israeli gas canister in his face, causing a fracture to his nose and burns to his face. The victim, Ahed Al-Khawaja, was wounded on Tuesday during a visit by a European Union delegation to the segment of the Israeli separation barrier in Ni’lin.

Also this week, Israeli soldiers, manning the Huwwara checkpoint in Nablus city, shot and wounded thee Palestinians, including a woman, after a young woman attacked a soldier with an acid to face. The wounded woman is believed to be the assailant. Many human rights organizations have said that Israeli soldiers, manning hundreds of checkpoints across the West Bank, harass or delay movement of Palestinian people for prolonged hours.

In addition, Israeli army invasions of West Bank cities, towns, villages and refugees camps continued throughout this week. More than a dozen Palestinians were detained during those invasions.

Israeli army invasions included the Bethlehem, Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarem and Hebron cities, through which the Israeli soldiers, ransacked and searched houses, vandalizing them severely, according to witnesses.

Meanwhile, the ruling Hamas party in Gaza reported this week that the Fatah-allied Palestinian Authorities' security services have rounded up more than a dozen of Hamas supporters and members in different parts of the West Bank.

For imemc.org, this is Hana Kidan in the West Bank

Gaza Attacks
This week in Gaza, one Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli troops near the border with Egypt. Meanwhile the Israeli blockade of Gaza remains in place, despite a three-month ceasefire. IMEMC's Rami al-Meghari has more.

Early this week, Israeli soldiers, manning the southern Gaza border with Egypt, spotted three Palestinian men. They killed one instantly and the other two escaped the scene.

This shooting attack comes as Israel strictly blockades the Gaza Strip since June 2007 and despite a recent Egyptian-brokered three-month-old ceasefire with Palestinian resistance factions.

Almost two months ago, Israeli soldiers shot dead a 21-year-old young man on the southeastern Israel-Gaza border lines. The victim was said to be sneaking into Israel to seek work amidst a debilitating Israeli blockade.

This week in Israel, a military court sentenced local Gaza leader, Ali Alkafarna of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He was sentenced to 12-year-long imprisonment after he was nabbed from the northern Gaza city of Beit Hanoun during an Israeli invasion in 2006.

Meanwhile, a newly-emerged group in Gaza calling itself ' the brigades for supporting the oppressed', warned this week of blowing up the Egyptian-Palestinian Rafah crossing terminal in southern Gaza, if the terminal remains closed.

Earlier this week, sources close to the ruling Hamas party, slammed the Egyptian authorities mishandling of movement at the terminal on Saturday as the Egyptians reopened the terminal for a couple of days.

Egypt had closed the terminal following Hamas's takeover of Gaza, arguing the crossing should be reopened in accordance with the 2005's U.S-brokered operation agreement.

Since then, the Egyptian authorities open the terminal from time to time for special emergency cases in need of urgent medical care outside of Gaza, stranded visitors or students, awaiting to study overseas.

In Gaza, Palestinian lawmaker and head of the local popular committee for breaking the Israeli siege on Gaza, Mr. Jamal, announced on Thursday that the arrival of Hope Boat in Gaza was delayed due to weather conditions.

The Hope Boat is similar to the Free Gaza Boat, which symbolically broke the Gaza siege on August 23, as more than 44 internationals sailed from Cyprus t Gaza in a bid of support to the Palestinian people.

For imemc.org, This is Rami al-Meghari

Conclusion:
And that was just some of the news this week in Palestine. For constant update check out
our website, www.IMEMC.org. Thanks for joining us from occupied Bethlehem. This week's report has been brought to you by Hussam Qassis and George Rishmawi