Palestine Today 01 27 2011

Today, The Nablus region, in the north of the West Bank, has suffered from two acts of settler violence. During the afternoon, nineteen year old Ady Maher Qadous, a farmer from the village of Iraq Burin, was shot by settlers.

Reports are conflicted as to the nature of events leading up to Qadous’ death, with +972 Magazine reporting that he was shot whilst farming, and Ma’an News Agency reporting that he was part of a march by the villagers of Iraq Burin towards the illegal settlement of Yitzhar.

At approximately 3am settlers entered the village of Einabus, also near Nablus, and set fire to a car belonging to a resident of the village. The settlers left behind “Price Tag” graffiti and police believe that the act was in responce to a recent order to demolish a number of illegal buildings in Bat Ayin settlement.

Furthermore, protest was held in the city of Nablus, on Thursday morning, against the recent release of documents by al-Jazeera.

Major General Jibreen al-Bakri, Governor of Nablus and staunch Fatah ally to President Abbas, called for a ‘popular protest’ to be held in the middle of the city, on Thursday at 11 a.m, against the documents.

Speaking to Wafa on Wednesday, Bakri stated, “Al-Jazeera TV is destabilizing the situation and energizing negative elements in the region. What they have done deserves a popular response, because al-Jazeera deviated from the script and started targeting the Palestinian people.”

The latest revelation to come from the “Palestine papers”, on Thursday shows that the Palestinian Authority helped delay the UN Human Rights Council vote to endorse the Goldstone Report in October of 2009 to 2010, at the behest of the United States.

The U.S. government persuaded the PA that the extra time would convince the Israeli government to return to the negotiating table.

Speaking on the al-Jazeera program “Without Borders,” chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, named al-Jazeera reporter--and alleged former CIA agent--Clayton Swisher and former MI6 agent Alastair Crooke as the source of the Palestine Papers.

Erekat demanded that the U.S. Department of State investigate Swisher to confirm that he was the source of the leaks, and claimed that the release of these document had put his and his family’s lives at risk.

Erekat defended his position on the negotiations, calling the papers “totally baseless” and defying al-Jazeera to “present authentic papers.”

A B’Tselem report has shown the demolitions by Israel of Palestinian homes in the West Bank tripled in 2010, figures from an Israeli human rights group showed on Wednesday, with a big increase in demolitions in the Jordan Valley.

Israel demolished 86 homes across the West Bank in 2010, compared with 28 a year earlier, leaving 472 people homeless, almost half of them children.

Demolitions more than doubled in the Tubas region, which is in the Jordan Valley, rising to 51 from 24 in 2009 and leaving some 219 people homeless, 94 of them children.

That sums up our news for today, thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem, you have been listening to Palestine Today, from International Middle East Media Center. For more updates, please visit our website at www.imemc.org. This report has been brought to you by Husam Qassis and Ramona M.