Today in Palestine !

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Land Theft/Demolitions/Bantustans/Settlers

Court temporarily halts demolition of East Jerusalem school
A Jerusalem court issued an injunction on Friday to temporarily halt the demolition of the Al-Huda school in East Jerusalem, a senior Palestinian official said. The Israeli-controlled Jerusalem Municipality issued a demolition order for the school on Thursday on the grounds that a wing had been added to the building 15 years ago without the proper permits. The school is located near the New Gate of Jerusalem’s Old City. According to Abdul-Qadir, the demolition is suspended until the court finishes an investigation.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36441

Jerusalemites hold Friday prayers in protest camp under occupying reinforcements
East Jerusalem Palestinians, whose houses are being threatened with demolition, held Friday prayers today as an expression of solidarity with citizens and residents. The protest signifies an absolute rejection of the policies and schemes of the Israeli occupation in the city. The organizers of the protest and solidarity event said that there was a massive deployment of border guards and police throughout the vicinity of the threatened neighborhoods. However, this did not affect the flow of people from various areas to the protest camp.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59329

Photo essay: West Bank barrier and closure
Haitham Sabbah. There is only one place on earth where you can find all the types of barriers and closure systems, forcibly imposed by the Israeli occupation forces. This place is the Occupied West Bank, Palestine.
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2009/03/14/west-bank-barrier-and-closure/

Photo: Homeless Bedouins of the Abu Rashed family build a makeshift shelter in Ga
Homeless Bedouins of the Abu Rashed family make tea in a makeshift shelter on the ruins of their house March 13, 2009 in eastern Jabalya refugee camp. Their house was destroyed during Israel’s three-week long offensive in Gaza Strip last January. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis (GAZA CONFLICT SOCIETY IMAGE OF THE DAY TOP PICTURE)
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/pictures/YAN04.htm

Cop indicted for beating settler youths held during evacuation
A policeman was indicted this week for beating two youths who had been detained and bound during the evacuation of an illegal West Bank outpost a year and a half ago. Salman Abu Asla was charged in the Rishon Letzion Magistrate’s Court with slapping, punching and beating the handcuffed minors, aged 16 and 15, in the police car and in the Kadum police station compound after their evacuation from the Shvut Ami outpost near Kedumim.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1070790.html

Building on bold-faced lies
Leaked Israeli settlement expansion plans prove that interminable peace talks are but cover for the material destruction of Palestinian horizons, writes Khaled Amayreh in occupied East Jerusalem — In 2008, less than 18,000 immigrants arrived in Israel. This is a mere trickle compared to the hundreds of thousands who arrived in the late 1980s and early 1990s following the collapse of the former Soviet Union. Nonetheless, the Israeli government hopes to be able to tackle this problem, at least partially, by giving "generous inducements" to potential settlers that would woo Israeli Jewish citizens to move onto the West Bank. These inducements include hefty tax reductions, preferential treatment with regards to income tax, and long-term loans.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/938/re04.htm

Attacks/Arrests

Um Salamounah demonstration results in hospital casualty
An elderly man collapsed and was rushed to hospital after being beaten to the ground by Israeli soldiers at the demonstration near Bethlehem following Friday prayers today, 13 March ... The demonstration was meant to take place at the point where the wall is proposed to cross Route 60. This would bar the Palestinian residents from accessing any of their lands. However, the Israeli military prevented the protestors from reaching their destination by throwing razor wire across the road. As one elderly villager tried to present his case to the soldiers, a scuffle broke out and he was knocked to the ground. Visibly shaken, he was helped up by other demonstrators but then quickly collapsed from chest pains. After some time, an ambulance arrived and he was stretched across the razor wire as the stand-off continued.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59330

US citizen in critical condition; four others wounded by Israeli fire in Ni`lin
Israeli soldiers critically wounded an American peace activist after launching a tear-gas canister at his head and shot four Palestinians with rubber-coated bullets in the West Bank village of Ni’lin, west of Ramallah, on Friday. “He had a large hole in the front of his head, and his brain was visible,” one protester said of the injuries to the American activist. Dozens of others choked on tear gas at an otherwise peaceful demonstration against the Israeli separation wall.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36418

American citizen critically injured after being shot in the head by Israeli forces in Ni`lin
[with video] The Israeli army began using a high velocity tear gas canister in December 2008. The black canister, labeled in Hebrew as “40mm bullet special/long range,” can shoot over 400 meters. The gas canister does not make a noise when fired or emit a smoke tail. A combination of the canister’s high velocity and silence is extremely dangerous and has caused numerous injuries, including a Palestinian male whose leg was broken in January 2009. ... Four Ni’lin residents have been killed during demonstrations against the confiscation of their land [with nowhere near the publicity the wounding of an American will get, of course]
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/03/5324

American protester shot by Israeli soldiers still in critical condition after surgery
“His skull is fractured. Fragments of bone went into his brain,” said Anderson’s partner, 25-year-old Gabrielle Silverman, originally from Brooklyn, New York, speaking on the phone from Tel Hashomer Hospital in Tel Aviv Saturday. Silverman said doctors had removed part of the right frontal lobe of Anderson’s brain and were working to “put his face back together,” to address trauma to his eye and forehead. The hospital is refusing to release further details, she said ... Silverman herself came to Israel in early February on the Taglit-Birthright program which offers free trips to Israel for young Jews from around the world. She stayed on after the program ended, planning to spend a month in Israel, a month in the West Bank, and a month travelling in Egypt and Jordan. Anderson later joined her. “They shot Tristan for one of two reasons; either because they believed he was a Palestinian, or because they were indiscriminately firing. Either way we need serious accountability from the Israeli government,” Silverman said. “As a Jew and as an American I’m very ashamed,” she added.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36435

Israeli police kill Palestinian in Jerusalem
A Palestinian youth was shot and killed by the Israeli police on Saturday morning. The police claimed that he attempted to rob a store in Jerusalem, with the help of a Jewish woman. The police claimed that the youth, a resident of Jerusalem, also attempted to ram his vehicle into them while trying to flee the scene. A probe has been initiated into the incident, the police said.
According to a police report, eyewitnesses said that they saw a young man and a woman trying to rob a clothes store, and informed the police.The woman is from an Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem. A police patrol arrived at the scene and the two tried to drive away from the scene. The police report stated that policemen ordered the two to surrender but they sped away, and rammed a number of vehicles during the pursuit. Later on, a policeman opened fire at the two and wounded the Jerusalemite youth seriously. He died of his wounds shortly afterwards.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59338

IOF troops wound Palestinian teen, kidnap others in southern Gaza
RAFAH, (PIC)— Israeli occupation forces wounded a Palestinian youth and kidnapped four others during an incursion into eastern Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, on Friday night, locals reported. Security sources told PIC reporter that the IOF soldiers backed by tanks and bulldozers advanced east of Rafah in Shuka town and fired at citizens. They said that Salah Abu Sneima, 18, was wounded while four other citizens were kidnapped and taken to the 1948 occupied Palestinian lands.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s71uBtmi9UVFzEQ0MEd%2fENq4cHQ7zKG1mW1zCpHEmPX99NyfrWEzLbGInebPLt9fnbQXTipN2zmXD2tGwBGsiUDenZk8VAeebaWK69aEec9TU%3d

Four beaten with rifle butts as Israel soldiers attack Al-Ma`sara protesters
Four Palestinians were beaten by Israeli soldiers during an anti-wall rally in Al-Ma’sara, near Bethlehem on Friday. The beatings came during what is now a weekly protest in the village,
condemning the building of the separation wall on village land. Hundreds participated in the rally, which ended in clashes. Several were beaten with rifle butts and four were taken to hospital. Those injured were identified as: A’zmi Ash-Shuyoukhi, 50, who sustained a head injury, Zeid Zawahrah, 12, who sustained a neck injury, Ya’qub Zawahra, 17, who sustained moderate bruising, and Mahmoud Taqatqa,21, who also sustained bruises.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36420

Rafah: Israeli fire injures 13-year-old boy
A Gazan boy was shot and injured by Israeli soldiers stationed east of Rafah city Friday, said Head of Emergency and ambulance department in the de facto Ministry of Health, Muawieyah Hasaneen. Thirteen-year-old Salah Abu Sneina was brought to hospital with moderate injuries after being shot near the Ash-Shuka area, where Israeli forces are deployed near the southern border of the Gaza Strip. Abu Sneina is the eighth Gazan to be injured by Israeli fire in the past week. [End]
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36425

Israeli soldiers shoot five demonstrators in Bil`in
Israeli forces shot five demonstrators with rubber-coated metal bullets in the West Bank village of Bil’in, which held its weekly protest against the illegal Israeli separation wall on Friday ... Recently the Israeli military issued an order to confiscate another 142 dunums of land from Bil’in and two neighboring villages. The Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements in Bi’in said that it “rejects this plan and considers it a racist policy to force Palestinians off their land.”
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36422

Israeli settlers throw stones at young children and internationals in Hebron

On Wednesday the 11th of March, a number of Hebron Israeli settlers pelted Palestinian children (aged 4 to 8 years) and two international activists with stones. The incident took place during a settler-organized dancing event close to Avraham Avinu Settlement, presumably as part of Purim festivities. The settlers became aware of the Palestinian children and internationals, who were watching from a near-by roof, and proceeded to hurl stones from the car-parking lot below, despite calls of “Stop”. The Israeli soldiers on guard at a military post within 30 meters surveyed the disturbance but provided no assistance.
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/03/5320

Israeli forces continue to brutally attack Palestinian nonviolent resistance
By Kristen Ess. "Israeli occupation forces attacked nonviolent demonstrators in Bil’in Village today.” Tens of other residents of this small but strong village suffered from noxious gas inhalation, a type of gas that is not what some in the US or Europe might refer to as “tear gas.” This is something different, but we do not know what exactly. It hits the nerves, makes me, and others, fall to the ground and shake from the inside. Nerve damage is what my doctors told me. I know tear gas from covering, as a journalist, demonstrations in Canada and in the US.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4945&Itemid=1

Four Israeli military checkpoints halt hundreds near Jenin; fire at residents
Soldiers checked each car and the belongings of each individual passing in and out of the area, checking ID card numbers on all males. Residents said soldiers were using dogs to sniff through the cars at the checkpoints, and noted hours-long wait times to travel to the area. In addition to the four checkpoints residents reported seeing “a number of Israeli soldiers deployed at the entrance of Kherbat Marka southwest of Jenin hiding behind the olive trees.” ... In several instances, villagers reported, shots were fired without any reason at all.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36428

Prisoners

Bethlehem man denied life-saving treatment in Israeli prison
Israeli prison officials have refused to release a Bethlehem man suffering from kidney failure and severe kidney stones for treatment, the Palestinian Detainees Society said Friday. According to the society and the Red Crescent, Issam Ash-Sha’er has been denied permission for proper treatment and has been forced to take only basic medications to delay the inevitable surgery on the kidney. The pills, they added, are now beginning to cause permanent damage to the man’s stomach. The Red Crescent and the Detainees Society both urge the man’s immediate release. [End]
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36416

Israeli court extends detention of Hamas leader
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)— The Israeli court of appeals has decided to extend the administrative detention of Jamal Al-Tawil, the chairman of El-Bireh municipality, for six months and rescinded a primary court decision to release him on 5/3/2009. Jawad Bulus, Tawil’s lawyer, described the ruling on Thursday as a clear attempt to weaken the morale of Tawil and his family. He noted that Tawil had served three years in jail then around 30 months under administrative custody without trial or charge.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7CnJoODjqBvQ6rFDwdQ0BN6M0hQHt3K8CfpW%2bEun341d0piQzXdLUndz%2bv0cwOTFZ%2bG9BpFwzgpFKIlnjp6NMMoBiNHsrDVnz3DYAzt8lBhQ%3d

Israel releases Gazan man after five years in prison
After spending five years in an Israeli detention center, Israeli authorities released 30- year-old Adham Salamah on Thursday, two weeks after his scheduled release date. Salamah, originally from Rafah, was detained on unclear charges in early 2003 after the Israeli army invaded the As-Sultan area of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. He was sentenced to five years in prison and was shuffled between the Ashkelon and Negev facilities. According to the Husam Prisoners’ Society, Israeli prison administration informed Salamah that he was being held as an “illegal combatant” and would remain in Israeli custody beyond the five-year term.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36424

Media bias

Washington Post buries the Tristan Anderson shooting story
The New York Times’ Ethan Bronner did an excellent job on the shooting of Tristan Anderson, getting a good-sized story on to page A7 of the Times. As for Haaretz, it refers to the story prominently on the front page of its print edition and also runs a sizable piece on the atrocity. No surprise: this is an important story. And The Washington Post? Three paragraphs on page A11. The Washington Post editorial page’s angry view that the Israel lobby is a "crackpot" conspiracy theory is undermined by the newspaper’s wretched coverage of Jim Crow in Palestine. It continually underplays or fails to cover news of the Israeli landgrab that is destroying the two-state solution and turning young Americans of conscience like Tristan Anderson and Rachel Corrie into Freedom Riders. When the history of this oppression is written, we will recognize that writers like Alison Weir and Anna Baltzer did far more than the leading newspapers to educate Americans about a simple fact: the degree of Israeli colonization of the West Bank.
http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/03/washington-post-buries-the-tristan-anderson-shooting-story.html

Resistance/Retaliation

2 Qassams hit Negev day after Hamas condemns rocket fire
Two Qassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip hit the western Negev Friday evening. No injuries or damage were reported in either incident. The rocket fire from the Gaza Strip continued Friday despite rare criticism voiced by the Gaza rulers, Hamas, on Thursday, who said that now is not the time for such attacks. The Islamic militant group has fired thousands of rockets at southern Israel in recent years. But Hamas said Thursday that it was not behind recent attacks and that it was investigating who was responsible.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1070947.html
Humanitarian Issues
Special needs law is one of the strongest in Arab countries, but still far from execution
Ibrahim Abu Hasan, Secretary of the General Union of the Palestinian Disabled in the West Bank and Gaza Strip assured PNN today that the application of this law needs a very high budget. “The necessary funding exceeds 15 billion dollars because of the high number of people with special needs in Palestine.” There are some 150,000 disabled Palestinians, a major proportion due to Israeli occupation-related injuries and conditions, including targeting the legs of young people during shootings, burying waste in Palestinian land, dumping sewage from the settlements into Palestinian farmland, and the inhalation of noxious gas by pregnant women.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4937&Itemid=1

Ministry of Health: 27.5% increase in diabetes in West Bank in 2008
The total number of people diagnosed with the disease rose to 3491 from 2220 in 2007. In a report the Health Ministry says that part of the increase may be attributed to a larger number of people being tested for the disease. Experts are linking this increase with the economic and political situation in the Palestinian territories.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36417

Moroccan medical delegation to Gaza treated over 14,000 Palestinians
Cairo - The Moroccan medical delegation, sent to war-ravaged Gaza last January, provided medical care to over 14,350 Palestinians from all ages, Professor Khalid Lazrak, head of the delegation said on Friday. The Moroccan doctors, who operated in the Al-Quds hospital in Gaza, offered 8,000 consultations, performed over 340 surgeries and provided free medicine to over 6,000 patients, Lazrak told MAP ... The Moroccan delegation, made up of 32 doctors, specialized in intensive care, anaesthesia, general surgery, psychology, orthopaedics, and paediatrics, headed for Gaza on January 26.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/last_social/moroccan_medical_del1723/view

UK Welfare Association spends 2.6 million in Gaza since Israeli offensive
The Welfare Association spent 2.6 million US dollars on immediate emergency needs in the Gaza Strip through five projects since the cessation of hostilities in the area. It is supported by donors from Europe, principally the UK. More than 100,000 needy people, mostly children, benefited from the projects, which included providing fuel for 100 hospitals and health centers, 164 donations of medical equipment for emergency departments, 10,000 food packages, 10,000 milk cans and 1,500 school uniforms for girls and 2,000 wool sweaters.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36440

UAE charity allocates 17 million US dollars to Gaza
An Emerati charity said on Friday that it will donate 17 million US dollars for three projects to help the Gaza Strip recover from Israel’s three-week war and ongoing siege ... “Three major water reservoirs will be refurbished after they sustained partial damage during Israeli offensive. Furthermore, the water network will be rehabilitated through the installment of new pipes in areas where old pipes have been completely destroyed,” said Ibrahim Bumilh. He added that 250 water wells which the Israeli offensive completely destroyed will be rehabilitated, in addition to as 53 wells that were partially destroyed. The MBRCHE will also fly 20 Gazan children injured during the war to Dubai next week for medical treatment, including artificial limbs.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36436

Negotiations/Diplomacy/Politics

Palestinian factions to end low-level dialogue
CAIRO (Alarabiya.net, Agencies) Rival Palestinian factions will suspend on Saturday low-level national dialogue as they failed to overcome obstacles in reconciliation talks held in Cairo, said Wasil Abu Youssef, secretary general of the Palestinian Liberation Front. Abu Youssef said the rival factions will end activities of five national dialogue committees which failed to bridge difference on how to form a unity government and conduct presidential and legislative elections, according to the Egyptian news agency MENA. But parties made progress in talks over the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), reconciliation committees and security, he added.
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/03/14/68406.html

Cairo talks in ’crisis’ over government, elections
Palestinian leaders working to form of a new Palestinian government are facing “a real crisis,” having failed to reach an agreement after five long days of negotiations, a participant in the talks said on Saturday. Abu Al-Walid Az-Ziq, a leader of the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front (PPSF) and a delegate to the Palestinian unity summit in Cairo, said rival Palestinian factions had reached agreements only on broad principles and failed to make progress on the specifics of a deal. Az-Ziq explained that the makeup of a government and the timing and nature of elections were the most difficult to discuss.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36437

Hamas: Power-sharing talks with Fatah are deadlocked
Hamas on Saturday said its power-sharing talks with rival Fatah faction are stuck because of disagreements over the political program of a unity government. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said Saturday that the group isn’t budging from its refusal to recognize Israel. However, the international community refuses to work with a Hamas-Fatah government without such a concession. At stake are hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid promised for rebuilding Gaza after Israel’s military offensive there. The money would only be given to an internationally accepted government. Palestinian reconciliation negotiators, however, did sign an agreement to prohibit fighting or the use of weapons to settle internal disputes, a Palestinian academic said Saturday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1070956.html

Zahhar denies deal reached on release of Shalit
CAIRO, (PIC)— Mahmoud Al-Zahhar, a prominent Hamas leader, has denied Hebrew press reports that claimed Israel had agreed to release all 450 Palestinian prisoners on the list of Hamas’s Movement in return for the release of its captured soldier Gilad Shalit. Zahhar, who is attending the inter-Palestinian national dialog in Cairo, said in a terse press statement that the news were not true. Hebrew daily ’Ha’aretz’ published on Friday quoted sources in Cairo as saying that Israel had agreed to free all 450 prisoners demanded by Hamas as a condition for releasing Shalit.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s717QUDMXuVeA3lp0yc3NQPmy9BAR5BFgVrbVf2bU2WN8SCE3lAb7s1gWxKOcRIMQbpRCsrC5rb%2f44zNYH82%2f7U6AxEQHZEkU4BNxCbFGT1ZI%3d

Report: Shalit deal hinges on prisoners’ consent to deportation
Hamas has demanded that only a minimal number of the prisoners slated to be released in exchange for Israeli captive Gilad Shalit will be deported to the Gaza Strip or abroad, and insisted that the prisoners give their consent to the move before any deal is finalized, sources involved in the negotiations in Cairo told Ynet Friday.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3685816,00.html

Europe moves toward talking with Hamas
LONDON, (PIC)— Two high-profile European parliamentary delegations were set to leave for Syria to meet with Hamas’s political leadership there as part of European moves aimed at ending isolation of the Movement. The Quds Press quoted those sources as affirming that the two delegations would land in Syria within few days, and would comprise 15 lawmakers from Britain, Scotland, Ireland, Greece, and Italy, adding that they would hold talks with the Movement’s leadership in Damascus. According to the sources, the discussion would focus on recognizing Hamas as a legitimate Movement that was duly and democratically elected by the Palestinian people in 2006 to rule them, and thus the international isolation of the Movement must end, and Europe should reformulate its relationship with the Movement.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7I%2bZP%2fL2KmLyZcnTSwjXierwHphR%2fPx3aDBJUmQjreqgfiZdzxz0uUNGrUnllzAQN4ntXWyt7R6j01Xdm4q0VIdMRZ%2b5O9OAS%2fSrrZmGuaPk%3d

Top US officials urge dialogue with Hamas
WASHINGTON - Nine former senior US officials and one current adviser are urging the Obama administration to talk with leaders of Hamas to determine whether the militant group can be persuaded to disarm and join a peaceful Palestinian government, a major departure from current US policy. The bipartisan group, which includes economic recovery adviser Paul A. Volcker and former national security advisers Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski, made the recommendation in a letter handed to Obama days before he took office, according to Scowcroft. The group is preparing to meet this weekend to decide when to release a report outlining a proposed US agenda for talks aimed at bringing all Palestinian factions into the Mid east peace process, according to Henry Siegman, the president of the US/Middle East Project
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/03/14/top_officials_urge_dialogue_with_hamas/

Nations agree plan to combat Gaza arms flow
The United States, Canada and seven European nations have agreed to try to stop the flow of weapons to Gaza by methods such as interception at sea, information sharing and diplomatic pressure. Experts from the nine nations, meeting in London, agreed on a program of action to prevent arms reaching the Palestinian enclave bordering the Mediterranean, a senior British diplomat said. But states are not obliged to join any particular action and the diplomat said that naval vessels would not use force.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/14/2516308.htm

Hamas vows to continue smuggling weapons
GAZA, March 14 (UPI) — A top Hamas leader says residents of Gaza will continue to smuggle arms despite a nine-nation NATO plan to stop the weapons trafficking. Moushir al-Masri accused the NATO countries of ignoring the Palestinian peoples’ right to resistance and predicted the plan would fail, Ynetnews reported Saturday. "The fact that the occupation is utilizing superpowers in order to stop arms from entering Gaza is yet more proof of its bankruptcy," said al-Masri, citing what he called "the tendency of the United States and most of the European nations to favor the Israeli occupation."
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/03/14/Hamas_vows_to_continue_smuggling_weapons/UPI-28981237041566/
Solidarity

Dozens of British MPs attend solidarity meeting on Gaza in House of Commons
LONDON, (PIC)— Dozens of British MPs including former lawmaker and minister Tony Benn attended a massive assembly in solidarity with Gaza held Thursday evening in the House of Commons at the invitation of friends of Palestine affiliated with the British labor party and the Palestine solidarity campaign. This special meeting was also attended by representatives of British parties, political, social and religious organizations and student and labor unions ... Rabbi Jacob Zappa condemned the British government, the EU and the Security Council for their silence towards Israel’s actions and aggression on the Palestinian people and its genocidal war in Gaza.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7duxZ2aCptJvvBysesT0vcEcCnjfImFjYjthqCn3FpZIVQnYYPlKwb0LSB9xsvS60WuOc0xAcJhdd1sA87XTJL8F%2bhsRarJBMiZzEQE6oD8w%3d

Honolulu, Hawaii event will aid Gaza nonprofits
A "Rays of Hope for Gaza" fundraiser, featuring music, songs, poetry and theater, will be from 5 to 7:30 p.m. today at the Harris United Methodist Church. Mahmoud Darwish’s poetry will be read and a video that includes peace activist Ann Wright’s recent trip to Gaza will be shown ... Proceeds support nonprofit organizations working in Gaza, including Islamic Relief USA, Middle East Children’s Alliance, and the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090314/LIFE0702/903140308/-1/RSS05?source=rss_breaking

Other News

Three injured in tunnel collapse; eight industry workers dead in last two weeks
Three Palestinians were injured after a tunnel collapsed in the Yebna area near Rafah Friday, and were brought to hospital with moderate injuries. Eight Palestinians have died in the last two weeks after tunnels collapsed while they were importing goods and repairing the areas. Since Israel’s siege on Gaza continues, the tunnels remain a lifeline for the residents of the area. They provide goods as well as employment and are one of Gaza’s only functioning industries.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36421

Border areas bombed again
CAIRO, Mar 12 (IPS) - Almost two months after the war on the Gaza Strip, the border area between the battered coastal enclave and Egypt continues to come under frequent Israeli aerial bombardment. Israeli officials say the strikes target cross-border tunnels used to smuggle weapons to Palestinian resistance factions. "Israel is still regularly launching air strikes on the border area," Ibrahim Mansour, political analyst and executive editor-in-chief of independent daily Al-Dustour told IPS. "Such attacks represent a violation of all international rules and agreements, including the Egypt-Israel Camp David peace agreement."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46088

Gaza cash crisis forces PA employees into poverty
Until recently, 70,000 Palestinian Authority (PA) civil servants were among the only people who still received a steady income in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli-led blockade has forced most industries to shut down. However, due to an Israeli ban on cash transfers to the Strip, PA employees may soon have to start selling their belongings, as they have not been able to withdraw their salaries from banks. Two weeks into March, the civil servants still have not been paid.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36442

Nasrallah: ’Hezbollah does not have any branch in Gaza’
Secretary-general of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah party, stated Friday that his party does not have any branch or formation in the Palestinian territories, especially in the Gaza Strip. In a televised speech marking the birth of the Muslim prophet Mohammad, Nasrallah said that his party supports the Palestinian resistance but only as “a brother supports his brother”. He also said that his party does not intervene in the internal Palestinian affairs, as it does not accept any interference it its internal affairs, and added that the Palestinians know what is best for them and act accordingly.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59335

Police claim major hashish seizure in Gaza
The Palestinian Drug Enforcement Administration in Gaza said it seized large quantities of hashish in Gaza City on Thursday night and arrested the alleged dealers. The police said they confiscated seven 15-centimiter square blocks of hashish. The police released a statement saying that the arrests are proof of the efforts of the de facto government in Gaza to clear away “drugs and other poisons” from the region.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36408

Palestinian lawmaker barred from leaving West Bank for third time in three months
Israel barred the deputy speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), Hassan Khreisheh, from entering Jordan through the Allenby Bridge on his way to Brussels to attend Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly on 15 March to discuss a report about the Gaza Strip. Khreisheh told Ma’an’s that the president of the EU parliament sent a message to Israeli Foreign Ministry demanding passage of Khreisheh who is the deputy chair of the political committee of the Euro-Mediterranean Assembly. He also explained that the Palestinian delegation would withdraw from the session in protest of the Israeli travel ban against him. He pointed out that it would be “unbelievable” for them to see Israeli delegates in the room while deputy chair of the political committee was unable to attend because he is a Palestinian.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36439

Campaign to boycott Israeli products takes its message to Qalqilia
The Palestinian Popular Committee for boycotting Israeli products visited the West Bank city of Qalqilia to promote its renewed campaign. The campaign recently redoubled its efforts in the northern West Bank, in hopes of convincing 50 localities to participate in the boycott. The strategy of the boycott is to deprive the Israeli occupation of economic support by refusing to buy its products.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36434

Jordan: Israel polluting shared water resources
The Jordanian government lodged an official protest with the Israeli government over pollution of the Yarmouk River, the largest tributary of the Jordan River and the body of water separating Jordan and Israel south of the Sea of Galilee.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36432

Two Palestinians detained at checkpoint ’in possession of explosives’
Israeli forces detained two Palestinian youth at the Qalandiya military checkpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem Saturday. The Israeli military reported that the youth were carrying Molotov cocktails, and that they had been planning to throw the explosives at Israeli forces in the area. The Qalandiya checkpoint is a massive vehicle and passenger terminal in the Israeli separation wall. [End]
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36438

Family demands independent probe into botched rescue
Family of Alaa Agbariya, who fell to his death from army medevac after stepping on landmine, says no IDF representative has been to see them; seeks external investigation of accident to prevent cover-up
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3685896,00.html

Israeli chief of staff travels to US
TEL AVIV - Israeli military chief of staff Lieutenant General Gaby Ashkenazi heads to the United States on Friday evening for a five-day working visit, the Israeli military said. Ashkenazi is accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, but no international warrant has been issued against him yet. He is scheduled to hold talks with National Security Advisor General James Jones and other officials, Israeli media said his talks will focus on Iran’s nuclear programme.
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=30938

Police lose evidence in ’racist’ professor probe
The State Prosecutor’s Office occasionally has to close investigative cases due to lack of evidence, lack of public interest or other legal reasons. But in the case of a University of Haifa lecturer who was suspected of racism, the case was closed because the police lost the investigative material. In January 2005, attorney Ala Khaider submitted a complaint to the attorney general against Dr. David Bukay, a lecturer in political science at the University of Haifa, on behalf of the Center Against Racism and Defamation. The complaint quoted Dr. Bukay as telling his students, "The Arabs are after money, sex and alcohol. They cannot be trusted, they are stupid and they have contributed nothing to humanity. "And also, "All the Arabs have to be rounded up, a pistol held to their head and then shot. A building in which Arabs and Palestinians live must be destroyed. " Following the submission of the complaint by student Fadi Abu Yunis, an investigation was launched against Dr. Bukay. Bachar Ouda, the director of the Center Against Racism, which recently ceased its operations, said this week that he doubted the files had been lost.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1070788.html

Israel minorities see IDF service as key to social mobility
You wouldn’t believe which unit in the IDF’s Southern Command routinely receives the highest points for Kashrut observance in its catering facilities. It’s the Bedouin desert patrol battalion. Not only does the crack unit, of which 99 percent of the soldiers are not Jewish, scrupulously uphold every prohibition on the separation of meat and dairy and only allow rabbinate-supervised products into its field kitchens, no food from outside is allowed during Pesach and Yom Kippur is a day of quiet and peace on base. "On Shabbat they all stand, their heads covered, for kiddush," says the battalion’s commander, Lieutenant Colonel Yariv Elbaz, one of only three Jewish officers in the unit, with a broad smile. No, they’re not converting to Judaism, the battalion’s soldiers are all proud of their Bedouin heritage. "This is just part of being a regular unit in the IDF," explains Elbaz, "and they don’t want to be different from any other soldiers."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1070787.html

Tel Aviv stripper gets drunk, wakes up in Ramallah
A young Israeli woman who works as a stripper was found intoxicated in Ramallah Friday morning, and returned to Israel with the aid of the Palestinian security sources. She was handed over to the police. Palestinians called the offices of the Civil Administration Friday morning and reported that an Israeli woman in her twenties was seen at the heart of town. "They said that she didn’t quite understand what was going on," said Major Shadi Seif of the Ramallah District Coordination Office ... Following the incident the IDF reiterated that Israelis were strictly forbidden from entering A territories and that entering B territories is also deemed dangerous and should be avoided. [funny, these lost Israelis don’t seem to come to any harm]
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3685902,00.html

Analysis / Opinion

Saleh Al-Naami / Stepping out, not down
Fayyad’s resignation is an attempt to get foreign powers to influence Palestinian dialogue talks, in particular to declare that they will only do business with a government he heads — Deputy head of the Hamas parliamentary bloc Yehia Moussa says that Fayyad lacks popular support because he is seen as having been involved in strikes made at the resistance. In a statement to Al-Ahram Weekly, Moussa said that Fayyad has no legitimacy granted by the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). Moussa further holds that the enthusiasm of Israel and the US administration for a person like Fayyad as head of the Palestinian government proves that he is not taking the national interests of the Palestinian people to heart. The best evidence for this charge, Moussa says, are the severe orders that Fayyad issued to security agencies for the suppression of resistance fighters and cooperation he has overseen with Israeli security agencies.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/938/re03.htm

US-Mideast: Even mixed signals mark a policy shift
Analysis by Helen Cobban. WASHINGTON, Mar 13 (IPS) - The British government has announced it will hold talks with the political wing of Lebanon’s Hizbullah. The Barack Obama administration sent two envoys to Syria to discuss steps to improve relations. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has invited Iran to take part in a conference on the future of Afghanistan. It looks as though the United States and Britain are trying to end the policy of exclusion and - where possible - regime change that the Bush administration and its allies once vigorously pursued against Iran and its regional allies. But how far-reaching have these changes actually been, and what do they mean for the Middle East in the months ahead? The picture is still mixed. There are many signs that the Obama administration has not yet taken any clear decisions on Middle Eastern issues....
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46102

US: Islamist governments not the enemy, say Mideast experts
WASHINGTON, Mar 11 (IPS) - Scores of Middle East and democracy experts released an open letter to U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday asking him to focus more of his foreign policy efforts at making reforms in the region, including boosting human rights. Signed by over 120 academics, scholars, experts and others, the letter said that previous U.S. policy had been "misguided" and "produced a region increasingly tormented by rampant corruption, extremism, and instability." The signatories, ranging from liberal Democrats to neoconservatives, called for the Obama administration to "encourage political reform not through wars, threats, or imposition, but through peaceful policies that reward governments that take active and measurable steps towards genuine democratic reforms." In doing so, the letter said the U.S. should end its "fear of Islamist parties coming to power" because most of them are "nonviolent and respect the democratic process."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46069

Mustafa Barghouthi / America must find courage to stand up to Israel, injustice
The administration can help level the playing field by taking three steps. First, insist Israel immediately stop all settlement activity. Second, reject Israel’s embrace of apartheid. One set of laws for Jewish settlers and another for Palestinians is unacceptable. Third, accept our democratic choice. I am convinced that an evenhanded mediator such as former Sen. George Mitchell will soon find that we are not the recalcitrant party. He will uphold American principles and serve American interests if he has the courage to say so. And let us hope that more American officials go see for themselves the harm Israel is causing Palestinians —- and long-term Israeli interests —- with American tax dollars.One way for Washington’s leaders to sidestep the AIPAC obstacle is to travel to Gaza. ...
http://www.ajc.com/services/content/printedition/2009/03/13/barghouthied0313.html

A coexistence-policy imperative
By Amnon Be’eri-Sulitzeanu. On the list of pressing issues crying out for the attention of the incoming Israeli government, the need for a planning policy in mixed cities and regions is among the most urgent. The traditional reality in which the Arab public - one-fifth of the population - lives within the narrow confines of the Arab villages in the Galilee, the Sharon Triangle region and the Negev, is rapidly disappearing and boundaries are fading. It would be difficult indeed to find a place in the country today that does not have some element of the Jewish-Arab amalgam, whether in terms of place of residence, employment or commerce. This process is not only evident in traditional "mixed cities," but throughout Israel. This new reality demands attention and public policy that is both focused and comprehensive.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1070813.html

Khalid Amayreh / George Galloway, the noble man
Unlike many politicians who would rather stay on the safe side, even if that means betraying their conscience, George Galloway represents a rare breed of morally-guided politicians who are willing to call the spade a spade even in the face of danger and brutality.
The British lawmaker has displayed immense courage in speaking up against crimes and injustices inflicted by Israel, the United States and their European allies in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Palestine.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd%2fF7pkgJUE53N3pZngd29EpuVGd0K0ik%2bVizujID3T6sItEx74bqFIoYpiI9sydtk8b71%2bwb7nLPwJODtXksHr%2b