Today in Palestine!

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Jerusalem subjected to comprehensive process to Judaize the land, rights and sanctities
The Christian and Islamic Front for the Defense of Jerusalem and its Holy Sites, accuse the “occupying state of conducting a campaign to Judaize the holy city, its intellectual rights, land and holy shrines.” One need only look at the situation on the ground to validate the accusation.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2962&Itemid=1

U.N. Report: Palestinians Risk Starvation
Three U.N. agencies reported that the percentage of Palestinians not getting enough to eat has grown 4 percent since 2006. The report was released Friday by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, the U.N. World Food Program and the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the Palestinian news agency WAFA said.
http://www.postchronicle.com/news/breakingnews/article_212153853.shtml

Five civilians injured in protest against separation wall in Nil’in
Ramallah – Ma’an – Five Palestinian civilians were injured by Israeli forces during a sit-in protest against land confiscation and the separation wall called by Popular Committee for Resisting the Wall in the village of Nil’in, west of Ramallah, on Sunday. Three were hit by rubber-coated metal bullets, and two were suffocated by tear gas bombs.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=30041

The Israeli army invades a village near Ramallah and kidnaps five civilians
Five Palestinian civilians were kidnapped by the Israeli army during an invasion targeting the village of Dier Abu Mish’al located near the central West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday morning.
http://www.imemc.org/article/55607

Israeli forces abduct four from village south of Nablus
Nablus - Ma’an – Israeli forces seized four Palestinian civilians during an overnight raid in the village of Ourta, south of Nablus on Sunday. Witnesses said that Israeli forces stormed a number of houses, detaining Bara’ Qussai Yahya ’Awwad, Majdi Suleiman, Mahmoud Awwad and Nadim Awwad. [end]
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=30036

Israeli forces seize two Palestinian teenagers in Jenin area
Jenin – Ma’an – Israeli forces seized two Palestinian teenagers in Zububa, a village northwest of the West Bank city of Jenin, on Saturday night. Palestinian security sources said that Israeli forces raided civilian houses, ultimately arresting 19-year-old Adnan Sha’abneh and 16-year-old Bader Nabil Jamal. Security sources also said that at dawn on Sunday, Israeli troops invaded the city of Jenin, in the northern West Bank, deploying in city streets and firing their weapons at random.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=30033

Fatah lawmaker slams political detentions in West Bank
A senior Fatah official on Monday slammed political detentions that forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah do in West Bank. “We, Fatah movement, prohibit the political detention by any side because it is a national crime and an act against the law,” said Hatem Abdel Kader, a Fatah lawmaker based in Jerusalem.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-06/23/content_8425040.htm

Soldier lightly wounded by stone-throwers near Ramallah
An IDF soldier was lightly wounded by rocks hurled at him by Palestinians in the West Bank while searching for three Israeli hikers who entered the village of Arura, near Ramallah. The three hikers were handed over to the police for illegally entering Palestinian territory.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3558959,00.html

IDF troops admit to taking bribes from Palestinians at checkpoints
Two soldiers caught red-handed during investigation into rumors they accepted bribes from Palestinians seeking to enter Israel.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3558978,00.html

Shalit family won’t drop court bid to keep Gaza crossings shut
High Court to rule Monday on petition; defense officials believe court will opt against interfering with gov’t plans.
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/995437.html

Hezbollah insists on the release of hundreds of Palestinians detainees in a swap deal
Israeli sources reported on Sunday that the Lebanon-based Hezbollah group insists on the release of hundreds of Palestinian political detainees in exchange for releasing two Israeli soldiers captured by the group in Lebanon in 2006.
http://www.imemc.org/article/55606

Hizbullah backtracks in negotiations
Nasrallah throws wrench in works of burgeoning prisoner-exchange deal by demanding Israel release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in return for kidnapped soldiers, thereby ending weeks of optimistic progress. Olmert vehemently rejects new stipulation - Hizbullah has returned to its original demand that Israel release not only several Lebanese prisoners but also hundreds of Palestinian ones in exchange for kidnapped soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, Ynet has learned.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3558886,00.html

Legal center appeals for release of oldest serving administrative detainee
JENIN, (PIC)— The Ahrar center for prisoners’ studies has urged all legal and human rights organizations to swiftly intervene and demand the release of a Palestinian detainee who has been held under administrative detention for 52 months.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7LhfZ99X1Glg5E4suajFe5q0t%2fiV8allIXBuuj1dz%2fVe5ok7f4xxH7Zfxy%2b6nPaIgOrEunOmQUezj9sqwuHWx0dNGOuKhr88qqdpJm2oa5j8%3d

Israeli courts sentenced 14 Palestinians to life in prison so far this year
Nablus - Ma’an – Israel has sentenced 14 Palestinian prisoners to life in prison since the beginning of 2008, the Nafha Society, a Palestinian human rights organization, reported on Sunday.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=30040

Occupied Palestinian Territories: Donors should press security forces to end abuse
(Berlin, June 23, 2008) – Donors to Palestinian security forces in the West Bank should condition their aid on concrete efforts to end serious abuses by all forces, Human Rights Watch said today. When providing security aid and training, donors should require the Ramallah authorities to build law enforcement institutions that are transparent, accountable and in compliance with international human rights standards.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/SHIG-7FVFL6?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P

Diskin: Cease-fire will be tested in W. Bank
The Gaza Strip cease-fire will be tested when the IDF carries out an anti-terrorist raid in the West Bank and either arrests or kills terrorist leaders, General Security Services (GSS) head Yuval Diskin told the cabinet Sunday, saying it is difficult to predict how the Gaza Strip terrorist organizations will then react.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1214132655703&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Frustration in Gaza despite slight easing of blockade
Dozens of Palestinian lorry drivers waited to load their goods in the scorching sun as Israel started to ease its blockade of the Gaza Strip on Sunday. The decision to increase the amount of humanitarian goods allowed into the besieged territory came after an Egyptian-mediated truce between Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement held for a fourth day.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jG4k-BnCXSbUprMG_-j7LwENgbMw

Hamas: if Israel violates any of the truce terms, the movement will not recognize the deal
The Hamas movement warned that if Israel implements the Israeli high court decision of not opening the border crossing with Gaza until the abducted Israeli soldier in the Strip is released; the Hamas movement will not recognize the truce deal anymore.
http://www.imemc.org/article/55608

Rice, Palestinians and Israelis to meet in Berlin
Reuters - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet Palestinian and Israeli negotiators in Berlin on Tuesday to try to move peace talks forward, Palestinian and Israeli officials said on Monday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080623/pl_nm/palestinians_israel_rice_dc

Sarkozy urges halt to Jewish settlement activity
French President Nicolas Sarkozy called on Monday for a halt to Jewish settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, telling the Israeli parliament this was the key to peace. “There can be no peace without stopping settlement,” he told members of the Knesset.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i5y__vkrAGJIxlCWbm5mX1TJNkLA

Palestinian high school students going forward with exams in spite of Israeli-imposed difficulties
Gaza / Yousef Joudeh - Secondary School students in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank show, yet again, that they have the courage and the stamina to defy Israeli occupation policies. They show that they are determined to carry out their School Graduation Exams ( Tawjihi) despite the crippling and wearing blockade on the Gaza Strip with all its repercussions and devastating effects on everyone living here.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2956&Itemid=1

VIDEO - East Jerusalem Arabs pay taxes, but have no running water
Haaretz. com/Channel 10 daily feature for June 22, 2008. Earlier this month, when Israel marked 41 years since the reunification of Jerusalem, residents of the eastern part of the city saw no cause for celebration. Like most of the Arab homes in East Jerusalem, residents of the neighborhood of A-Tur are forced to live without infrastructure, paved roads and regular garbage collection.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=995124

Ministers nix bill to move Bedouin living near toxic disposal site
The Ministerial Legislative Committee ruled on Sunday that the government would oppose a bill seeking to ban residence within a five-kilometer radius of the national hazardous waste disposal site at Ramat Hovav. The bill, submitted by MKs Ophir Pines and Yossi Beilin, also stipulates that people who would have to be relocated would be entitled either to an alternative plot of land or to financial compensation. Last week, an Environment Ministry panel unanimously recommended the evacuation of people residing around Ramat Hovav, including a 2,400-student Bedouin school situated merely two kilometers from the site. The panel was set up following a leak of hazardous chemicals in April. MK Pines said that the Ministers’ Legislative Committee decision "defies the Environment Ministry recommendations, and neglects the well-being of the population residing in the environs of Ramat Hovav.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=995117

Humiliation and Occupation; Gaza’s Dying Children
A six-year-old Palestinian girl from Gaza was killed by Israeli fire on 12 June. “Medics say the girl was decapitated by a [tank] shell,” Associated Press (AP) reported the next day. The Israeli military said the soldiers opened fire in retaliation against “militants launching rockets into Israel”. AP dispassionately elaborated that, “Gaza militants fire rockets and mortars into Israel almost daily.” The story of a few lines ended with another corroboration of the claims made by the Israeli military: “The shelling occurred near the border where militants fired 30 rockets into Israel on Tuesday.”
http://www.counterpunch.com/baroud06232008.html

Jerusalem resists Israeli uprooting of olive trees
Jerusalem / Maisa Abu Ghazaleh - Under the slogan “No to the Wall, no to Colonization” Palestinians protested yesterday afternoon in East Jerusalem. Dozens of residents of Beit Hanina demonstrated against the latest Israeli land confiscation scheme in an East Jerusalem town that has seen more than its share of attacks on its lands, homes and livelihoods. The Israeli authorities have decided to uproot hundreds of olive trees. The Friday demonstration began with noon prayers on the threatened land.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2950&Itemid=1

A window into Gaza
JERUSALEM - Sometimes, the devil’s in the details. And sometimes, when the Israeli security forces make you practice shot put in an X-ray machine rather than cross into Gaza, the smallest details are all there is to work with.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JF24Ak01.html

Stolen days in Israel
I never anticipated these problems. I asked so many people, so many questions. When I entered Israel I thought I might be questioned because of my name but not what ended up happening. When I approached the non-Israel passport stand, the woman asked me my father’s name, probably because I was born in Iran that questions started coming. When I said Mohammad Reza I was pretty sure I would be questioned further.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/06/23/stolen-days-in-israel/

Deportation: brothers, families, torn apart by Israeli military courts
Jerusalem / Maisa Abu Ghazaleh — Alyan Suhayb was offered two choices. He could remain in Israeli prison, or he could be deported to Brazil. The Jerusalem man’s mother is of Brazilian nationality, but holds a Palestinian identity card.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2955&Itemid=1

Minister Ayalon: Israeli Arabs should have ’cultural independence’
Minister Ami Ayalon said on Sunday that Israeli Arabs should be granted “cultural independence.”
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/995133.html

French President and wife to visit Bethlehem despite Israeli reports to the contrary
Bethlehem / Najib Farrag — Palestinian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Dr. Khalud Deibs, is hosting the wife of French President Sarkozy as he visits with the Israelis. The Israeli press regaled us with the news yesterday, Saturday, that the French President Nicolas Sarkozy would begin a three-day visit with the Israelis beginning on Sunday, but that he would not be visiting the West Bank’s Ramallah, the Gaza Strip, or any Palestinians. Instead his wife, a former fashion model turned singer, is in Bethlehem visiting the Church of Nativity where Jesus is thought to have been born 2,000 years ago. Wife, Carla Bruni, will be making a tour throughout occupied Palestine. The Palestinian Minster Deibs told PNN that the first visit is the Church. She will also visit the French Hospital in central Bethlehem where many Palestinian women give birth to their babies.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2957&Itemid=1

All Quiet on the Gaza Front
AND SUDDENLY: quiet. No Qassams. No mortar shells. The tanks are not rolling. The aircraft are not bombing. In Sderot, sighs of relief. Children venture out. Inhabitants who have exiled themselves to other towns return home. And the reaction? An outburst of jubilation? Dancing in the streets? Applause for the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense, who at long last have come to their senses?
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1214084739/

’To place a flower on the grave after 60 years’
Salwa Salaam-Kubati will celebrate her 60th birthday at the end of next month. As a birthday gift, she would like one wish to come true: to be able to visit the grave of her father, in what was once a Christian cemetery in the village of Malul. On the ruins of the village, next to Nazareth, the Israel Defense Forces set up a military base.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/995209.html

Poll: 77% of Israeli Arabs would rather live in Israel than in any other country in the world
A recent opinion poll conducted by Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government found that 77 percent of Israeli Arabs would rather live in Israel than in any other country in the world.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/995466.html

Can You Pass The Israel-Palestine Quiz?
In the spirit of Senator Daniel Moynihan of New York, who used to remind people that “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts,” I have designed the quiz which may lead some to reexamine their misconceived opinions. (Indeed, I will deem the quiz a success if it merely reduces the number of times I hear the common refrains of: “the land was empty before the Jews came” and “Barak made a generous offer at Camp David.”)
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20152.htm

Burnt land policy, the language of settlers with Palestinian villages
Black burn spots covered vast areas of farmlands that belong to residents of Boreen and Aseera Al Qibliyya villages, south of the northern West Bank city o Nablus; hours after Israeli settlers burnt their lands and uprooted hundreds of trees.
http://imemc.org/article/55585

David Newman: Antisemitism is not a reason not to debate Israel
David Newman: Yes, anti-Jewish sentiment remains a problem, but there is a real and hard debate about Israel that must take place.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun/23/israelandthepalestinians.race?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews

David Cesarani: A different kind of catastrophe
David Cesarani: The suffering of Jewish communities in Arab countries shouldn’t be played off against the plight of the Palestinians.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun/23/israelandthepalestinians.middleeast?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews

Iraq: At least 21 killed in another bloody day of US occupation
At least 15 people were killed and 35 wounded when a female suicide bomber blew herself up among policemen having lunch in the city of Baquba, north of Baghdad.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKANW22068320080622

Mortar attack kills 10 US-allied Sunnis
AP - Iraqi officials say a mortar attack north of Baghdad has killed 10 members of a U.S.-allied Sunni group that has joined forces with the Americans against al-Qaida in Iraq.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080623/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_mortar_attack

Women, children lured into Iraq’s suicide culture - Feature
Baghdad - Women and children in Iraq, languishing in dire economic conditions and a culture of sectarianism and marginalization, are lured by terrorist groups to become suicide bombers. The Baghdad-based Monitor of Constitutional Freedom and Bill of Rights said in a report released Monday that a recent decrease in violence in Iraq resulting from tighter security was coupled with the rise of a phenomenon of women and children becoming suicide bombers.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/214278,women-children-lured-into-iraqs-suicide-culture--feature.html

Iraq to crackdown on Qaeda stronghold
AFP - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Monday that troops will soon launch a counter-insurgency campaign in Diyala province, where 26 people were killed in a suicide bombing and mortar attacks.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080623/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrest

Iraq: Al-Sadr followers dismayed at govt crackdown
Followers of Muqtada al-Sadr accused the Iraqi government of targeting their political movement as security forces arrested 20 policemen linked to the anti-occupation cleric.
http://www.eecho.ie/news/story/?trs=mhgbgbsnojid

The Oil Majors Take a Little Sip of the Ol’ Patrimony
More than five years after the invasion of Iraq — just in case you were still waiting — the oil giants finally hit the front page. Last Thursday, the New York Times led with this headline: “Deals with Iraq Are Set to Bring Oil Giants Back.” And who were these giants? ExxonMobil, Shell, Total and BP. What these firms got were mere “service contracts” — as in servicing Iraq’s oil fields — not the sort of “production sharing agreements” that President Bush’s representatives in Baghdad once dreamed of, and that would have left them in charge of those fields. Still, it was clearly a start.
http://electroniciraq.net/news/opeds/The_Oil_Majors_Take_a_Little_Sip_of_the_Ol_Patrimony-3325.shtml

Iraq’s oil directed away from US
Ministry to give 41 foreign oil firms lucrative contracts in undeveloped oil fields.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080622113024.5rfe5v9s&show_article=1

IRAQ: Pollution causing cattle deaths in marshlands?
Source: IRIN Local officials in southern Iraq warned on 23 June that pollution in the marshlands of southern Iraq was responsible for the spread of an unknown disease which had led to the deaths of dozens of cows and buffaloes.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/ec2f0bfdbc3e71c0c94216245fec322a.htm

Deal allows U.S. to attack any country from Iraq – IAF
A Sunni legislator said on Monday that the security agreement to be signed between Baghdad and Washington would allow the latter to attack any country from Iraqi territories. “The Iraqi-U.S. agreement contains several items that impinge upon the sovereignty of Iraq, including the right of the U.S. forces in Iraq to attack any nation and raid any Iraqi house and arrest people without prior permission from the Iraqi government,” Khalaf al-Alyan, a member of parliament from the Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF), told Aswat al-Iraq.
http://66.111.34.180/look/english/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrArticle=83373&NrIssue=2&NrSection=1

New Iraqi political movement comes to light
A number of parliamentarians criticized the performance of the Foreign Ministry while discussing the Foreign Service law in the presence of Deputy Foreign Minister Labid Abbawi. On the other hand, resigned Deputy Prime Minister Salam Al Zawbai announced that a new political movement has been.
http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/Iraq-News/1-19236-New-Iraqi-political-movement-comes-to-light.html

Healing the Healer: Dr. Muhammad
Kathy Kelly writes from Jordan with an appeal for an Iraqi doctor in need of an urgent surgery. In the process, she gives us a window into the struggles of Iraq’s doctors to support even one of their own through the ongoing catastrophe, so that they can support and heal their people now and in the time to come.
http://electroniciraq.net/news/directaidinitiative/Healing_the_Healer-3326.shtml

UK uses lung-shredder to kill rebels
BRITISH troops have used missiles in Afghanistan which suck the air out of human targets, shred their internal organs and crush their bodies, according to a leading British newspaper.
http://quqnoos.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=954&Itemid=48

Leaked Israeli drill seen as U.S. pressure on Iran
A U.S. leak of an Israeli air exercise reported to be practice for possible bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites was seen in Israel on Sunday as a deliberate move to increase pressure on Tehran to halt sensitive atomic work.
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL2147745920080622?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=22&sp=true

Olmert meets secretly with planner of 1981 attack on Iraqi nuclear reactor
Bethlehem – Ma’an – Israeli press sources reported on Sunday that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert held a secret meeting on Friday with Aviam Sela, the main planner of Israel’s 1981 attack against the Iraqi nuclear reactor. The two reportedly discussed the details of a potential attack against Iranian nuclear installations.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=30044

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