Palestine Today 121608

Late Monday night, an under-cover force of the Israeli army assassinated the leader of the al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, in the northern part of the West Bank after the forces surrounded an internet coffee-shop in the al-Yamoun town, west of Jenin. These stories and more coming up Stay tuned.

The fighter was identified as Jihad Amin Nawahda,, age 21. Palestinian security sources reported that the soldiers surrounded the building and ordered Nawahda to surrender but he refused. Soldiers then opened fire and killed him.

His body was moved to the governmental hospital in Jenin.

In Israel, The Regional Committee for Unrecognized Villages in the Negev reported on Monday that Israeli authorities displaced the population of an unrecognized Arab village in the Negev, inside Israel, rendering dozens of families homeless.

The committee stated that the army attacked the village during early morning hours and demolished dozens of homes belonging to the Al Zarqan and Abu Hadwiyya families.

Several dozen families were left in the cold, as authorities sent part of their belongings to a 'recognized' village, and dumped the rest near the area.

Hussein Al Rafay’a, head of the Regional Council, and Arab member of the Knesset Talab El Sane, tried to intervene, and attempted to delay the demolition until the families could find another place to live, but to no avail.

The Committee slammed the attack and said that the families are now homeless without any alternative, while the Israeli government ignored their human rights.

Also on Monday, the Jerusalem District Court indicted an Israeli settler on charges of kidnapping and assaulting a Palestinian child in the West Bank, according to Israeli media.

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the settler, Tzvi Struk, a resident of the illegal West Bank settlement of Shiloh, beat a Palestinian child until the child lost consciousness. Struk then tied him up and forcibly removed his clothing. When the child regained consciousness, he was forced to hitchhike home naked, in humiliation.

Struk is the son of Hebron settlement spokesperson Orit Struk. Prosecutors in the case disclosed that he and another unidentified settler were driving an all-terrain vehicle, armed with guns and ammunition, when they approached three Palestinian children somewhere between the village of Kfar Kusra and the "Esh Kodesh" outpost.

On Tuesday morning, Palestinian security sources reported that scores of Israeli soldiers broke into various cities inside the West Bank, rounding up 22 residents.

The sources identified the invaded areas as Deir Abu Mash'al village, an outskirt of Ramallah, Alfwaar refugee camp of Hebron, Beit Ommar of Hebron, as well as other regions. The sources added that those detained were transferred to Israeli interrogation centers nearby.

On the political stage, Palestinian Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Yasser Abed Rabo, expects Palestinian Presidential and Parliamentary elections to be held by mid 2009.

Abed Rabo was responding to calls by leaders of the ruling Hamas party in Gaza that the Palestinian constitution should decide whether Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah will remain or quit office after January 9, 2009. The PLO official confirmed that the Palestinian National Council will convene early next month to institute a series of measures prior to holding the elections.

Controversy between Hamas and Fatah over elections comes in the backdrop of a failed national unity dialogue. President Abbas outlawed Hamas in June of 2007, after the party took over Gaza amidst factional fighting with his Fatah party. In January of 2006, Hamas reached power through democratic elections, ending a long-standing PLO hegemony over Palestinian politics.


Thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem. You have been listening to Palestine Today from the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org. This report has been brought to you by Justin Theriault and Husam Qassis.