Palestine Today 12 20 2011

Three Palestinians are arrested in Jenin refugee camp, and another Mosque is vandalized, these stories and more coming up; so stay tuned.

In a dawn raid this Tuesday, Israeli military vehicles drove into Jenin refugee camp, in the north of the West Bank, and arrested three Palestinians. The three are Kamal Awwad, 24, Mazin Al-Sa’dy, 22 and Yousef Abu Al-Siba’, 31, and they have been taken to an undisclosed location.

Soldiers also moved into the nearby town of Qabatia town, and installed a road block, and also installed a road block on the Jenin-Jaffa road, stopping and searching vehicles.

In the fourth attack of its kind in two weeks, a mosque was vandalized in the southern West Bank city of Hebron. Unlike the others, this mosque was not subjected to an arson attack, but the settlers spray painted insulting slogans, including “Price Tag”. Settlers attack Palestinians, property and Holy Sites in retaliation for any attempt by the Israeli government to remove or dismantle illegal settlements in the West Bank.

In a separate settler incident, five Palestinian cars were torched in the village of Beitin, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah. A group of several dozen armed settlers were seen to enter the village, whereby they set the cars on fire before leaving again. The last year, and particularly the last few months has seen a sharp rise in settler attacks.

In other new in a neighbourhood in Silwan, East Jerusalem, Israeli bulldozers arrived and destroyed industrial stalls. The site of demolition is believed to belong to the Ibrahimi College, and Israel is trying to remove the Palestinian structures from the area in order to build a National Security College. The project that the Jerusalem Municipality is trying to build is on Palestinian-owned lands, including land that belongs to the Ibrahimi College.

The President of Southern Sudan arrived in Israel last night, Monday, for a short 24 hour visit. The tour includes meeting senior officials and the Israeli President, Shimon Peres. The South Sudanese president will also be meeting the Israeli Prime Minister and Defence Minister.

The visit remained under the radar despite the fact that media outlets previously reported that the president intends to visit Israel, but no exact date was set, and Netanyahu will also be visiting South Sudan in the new year.

Israeli officially recognized the new state of Southern Sudan earlier in July of this year, and even offered economic aid.

That’s all for today from the IMEMC News, this was the Tuesday December 20 daily roundup of news from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. We hope you will join us again tomorrow. This was brought to you by Husam Qassis, and me, William Gibson.