Today in Palestine!

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Land theft

US furious over Israel’s demolition of East Jerusalem homes
The dispute between the United States and Israel over the razing of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem is intensifying and will likely become the first clash between the Obama administration and the government of Benjamin Netanyahu. The U.S. argues that the destruction of homes constitutes a violation of commitments made as part of the road map.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072813.html

PA: Israel to freeze demolition of 91 homes in East Jerusalem

PA Adviser for the Jerusalem Affairs Hatem Abdel Qader on Sunday said demolition orders were frozen for 27 houses in the East Jerusalem Ath-Thawri neighborhood, 11 houses in At-Tour and 16 in Sho’fat, as well as 12 in Beit Hanina, 10 in Sour Baher and 15 in Wadi Al-Gouz. Abdel Qader added that the demolition orders were frozen “for now, but no one knows whether there will be any judicial efforts to protect these houses” in the future. He added that there are new plans to protect a number of houses that threatened with demolition orders. The PA advisor also said that the decisions to freeze the demolition of houses were issued by local and central affairs courts in Jerusalem.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36615

State will not evacuate Ofra residents

Defense Minister Ehud Barak informed the High Court of Justice on Sunday that he would not order residents of nine buildings in the settlement of Ofra, which were built on Palestinian ground, to evacuate their homes ... The defense minister, through attorney Avi Licht from the State Prosecutor’s Office, said in his response to the High Court that an injunction issued by the court in June 2008 instructed the state not to populate the buildings or make any use of them and that the defense ministry indeed followed the injunction to the letter. However, he added that the injunction did not instruct the state to evacuate buildings that were already occupied before the injunction was issued, and it did not contain instructions to disconnect the houses from electricity, water or other services.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1237727507225&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[Audio] Interview with Mohammad Othman, youth organizer in Jayyous
A Palestinian village that is central to the non-violent movement in Palestine has come under attack by Israeli forces.
http://imemc.org/article/58931

Gaza now

Israeli warplanes carry sonic booms over Gaza

GAZA, March 22 (Xinhua) — Israeli warplanes carried out sonic booms in the skies of Gaza Strip Sunday afternoon, causing wide-spread panic, witnesses said. The sound of two sonic booms was loudly heard in Gaza city and northern Gaza Strip areas. Members of Hamas forces were seen running away from their headquarters when they heard the huge sound. Earlier Sunday, Israeli gunboats opened their fire at Palestinian fishing boat near the coast of Rafah city in southern Gaza Strip, damaging a number of boats.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/22/content_11052867.htm

Israel opens Kerem Shalom crossing Saturday for Gaza aid

Israel opened the Kerem Shalom crossing into the Gaza Strip on Sunday for humanitarian aid, according to a crossings official, Raed Fattouh. However, the Karni crossing is expected to remain closed on Sunday. But Fattouh told Ma’an that 115 trucks will be permitted to enter the coastal strip via Kerem, including two loaded with aid for international organizations. Some 100 truckloads of goods for the commercial-private sector will be allowed in, as well, loaded with frozen meat, flour, sugar, pasta, toilet paper and blankets, he said. Another 13 truckloads of fruit will be allowed in for the agricultural sector, Fattouh added. On Friday, Israel opened one crossing for part of the day and allowed the delivery of 80 trucks of humanitarian aid and commercial goods. On Friday, Israel opened one crossing for part of the day and allowed the delivery of 80 trucks of humanitarian aid and commercial goods
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36605

When the cupboard runs dry
By Ayman Quader, Gaza Strip. Ahmad Saud Basal is an eleven-year-old boy from Tuffah, a village in the middle of Gaza. He lives in a two room house along with five brothers and sisters, his parents and a grandmother. Times are tough, much harder than before ... Beginning early each morning, Ahmad and his ten-year sister, Hadia, go to work with their father. The three of them sell tea in the street. For an eight hour day, each of the children earns between 6-10 shekels ($2-$3.50). Added to what their father makes, the family brings in $12 dollars a day, not much when meat cost $15 a kilo and fruit, which Ahmad hasn’t tasted in a year, $3 a kilo. UNWRA food packages help but the rations, given out four times a year, are basic: 30 kilos of flour; 5 kilos of rice; 5 kilos of sugar; 3 kilos of lentils, 6 litres of oil; and sometimes, 5 250 gram cans of sardines. For a family of eight, this doesn’t go far.
http://imemc.org/article/59476

Gaza City children killed while playing with suspicious object
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) confirmed that two children were killed by a suspicious object in the Az-Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City on Saturday. It was not immediately clear whether if the object was a weapon, although the PCHR speculated it could have been unexploded ordinance left behind from Israel’s recent 22-day assault on the Gaza Strip. The boys were identified as 14-year-old Mohammed Hijji and 15-year-old Ahmed Shneiwra. They were reportedly killed instantly when the object exploded, according to medics at Ash-Shifa Hospital.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36616

War Crimes

IDF soldiers ordered to shoot at Gaza rescuers, note says

By Amira Hass. GAZA STRIP - "Rules of Engagement: Open fire also upon rescue," was handwritten in Hebrew on a sheet of paper found in one of the Palestinian homes the Israel Defense Forces took over during Operation Cast Lead. A reservist officer who did not take part in the Gaza offensive believes that the note is part of orders a low-level commander wrote before giving his soldiers their daily briefing. One of the main themes in news reports during the Gaza operation, and which appears in many testimonies, is that IDF soldiers shot at Palestinian and Red Cross rescuers, making it impossible to evacuate the wounded and dead. As a result, an unknown number of Palestinians bled to death as others cowered in their homes for days without medical treatment, waiting to be rescued.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072830.html

Amos Harel / Testimonies on IDF misconduct in Gaza keep rolling in

...On Saturday, Channel 10 showed a documentary that included a security briefing by a company commander on the eve of the Gaza invasion. "We’re going to war," he told his soldiers. "We’re not doing routine security work or anything like that. I want aggressiveness - if there’s someone suspicious on the upper floor of a house, we’ll shell it. If we have suspicions about a house, we’ll take it down."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072811.html

Gideon Levy / IDF ceased long ago being ’most moral army in the world’

. ...An army whose armored corps has yet to encounter an enemy tank and whose pilots have yet to face an enemy combat jet in 36 years has been trained to think that the only function of a tank is to crush civilian cars and that a pilot’s job is to bomb residential neighborhoods. To do this without any unnecessary moral qualms we have trained our soldiers to think that the lives and property of Palestinians have no value whatsoever. It is part of a process of dehumanization that has endured for dozens of years, the fruits of the occupation. "That’s what is so nice, as it were, about Gaza: You see a person on a road ... and you can just shoot him." This "nice" thing has been around for 40 years.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072821.html

Gaza not the first time...Israeli house-cleaning: On the looters
From Jean Said Makdisi’s (1990:190) memoir, Beirut Fragments: ...“The Israeli soldiers, wherever they had been, had defecated in choice places. On books, furniture, clothes, and carpets; on bedroom floors; near toilet seats and in bathtubs; on school desks; and in shop windows, people found the rotting feces ... “And so, after all the ruin and tragedy, after the destruction and pain, the dead and the dying, the lacerated bodies and blinded eyes, the burned and disfigured faces, the windows and orphans—after all this there was left only a great heap of excrement. The fires had died, snuffed out in a mound of dung. A ghastly joke, symbol of an overriding contempt, a cosmic stink had become the memorial to those months of agony.”"
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/03/israeli-house-cleaning-on-looters.html

Tom Segev / The makings of history / Beyond the grave
The Israel Defense Forces’ missing persons unit is searching for the remains of Alexander Rubowitz, a teenage member of the pre-state Lehi underground militia who was murdered in 1947...An American detective, Steve Rambam, claimed there is a chance that Rubowitz’s remains will be found in Wadi Kelt east of Jerusalem, in the West Bank ... When he was approximately 16 years old, Rubowitz was arrested ... in the process of distributing Lehi flyers in Jerusalem’s Rehavia neighborhood. The members of the British counter-terror unit who arrested him drove him toward Jericho. One of them, Roy Farran, beat Rubowitz to death with a rock, and his body was never discovered. ... According to Rambam, he has managed to track down several of Farran’s associates, and the law allows for trying them as war criminals. Some of his Israeli associates think such a move could "balance out," or even thwart, the attempts made in Britain, among other places, to try Israeli officers for suspected war crimes, including torture of Palestinian terrorists.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072465.html

UK backtracks on preventing war crimes charges against IDF

London will not push through changes in legislation that permits the arrest of Israel Defense Forces officers visiting Britain on war crimes, as previously promised, Jerusalem has learned. In an unofficial message to Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Britain said that as a result of the decline in Israel’s public image following Operation Cast Lead the government believes it will be unable to pass the amendment to the legislation before next year’s scheduled elections. British law permits private citizens to press charges against foreigners on war crimes charges. Once an indictment has been issued suspects can be arrested if they enter Britain.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072807.html

Haneyya legal advisor: Gov’t collecting evidence on Israeli war crimes
GAZA, (PIC)— Dr. Mohammed Abed, the legal advisor to PA premier Ismail Haneyya, has underlined that the Palestinian government was collecting evidence on Israeli war crimes in Gaza in preparation for putting those responsible on trial. Abed in statement to the PIC on Sunday said that files containing strong evidence against those Israeli war criminals should be prepared in order to be tabled with international arbitration courts.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s71Cp3GGl1cpFgwdGA%2bEH1iE2oGHtiyx2CmLkQWIZ5cEo18bN5MtyQIfm9Qdnf%2fkFkLdQn7MVTgc0ydvDB4KBo5H9vq0%2fVAL%2fLronPqO91%2b28%3d

Al Jazeera video: Cold-blooded murder of Gaza man’s daughters

"For the families of those killed in Israel’s war on Gaza, an investigation into Israeli war crimes may not heal the pain, but it could go some way in the search for justice. Khaled lost his two daughters in the conflict. They were just two and seven years old. Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel Hamid reports from the north east of the Gaza Strip. "
http://palestinianpundit.blogspot.com/2009/03/al-jazeera-video-cold-blooded-murder-of.html

Resistance

Al-Quds Brigades announce attacks in Jenin

The Al-Quds Brigades announced on Saturday night that they exploded an explosive device in an Israeli car and opened fire on the main road leading toward the Homesh settlement near Jenin. In a statement received by Ma’an the brigades said that the explosion is “a sign of the continuity of resistance and a response for assaults against the Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36602

Gaza: Armed factions shoot Israeli jeep near Beit Hanoun

The Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa brigades and Al-Aqsa Protectors (Humat Al-Aqsa) brigades claimed to have shot an Israeli jeep patrolling the Gaza borders near Beit Hanoun on Saturday. The jeep was near the memorial statue for Palestinian dead in the northern Gaza city. The two groups said in a joint statement, “this attack came in response to the Israeli attacks carried out against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.”
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36594

Restrictions on movement / Discrimination

Racist attacks against Arabs increase tenfold - report
The year 2008 saw a sharp rise in racist incidents against Arabs in Israel, the Mossawa Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens in Israel reported Saturday, estimating the increase at tenfold those recorded in 2007. The dubious honor of leading the chart this year was given to Jerusalem, closely followed by Akko ... "These attacks are not the hand of fate, but a direct result of incitement against the Arab citizens of this country by religious, public, and elected officials," the report says.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3689855,00.html

Har Adar banning movement of Palestinians

Palestinian laborers are forbidden to walk around the community of Har Adar in the Jerusalem corridor. They are allowed to work, but cannot simply roam the area. This is the local council’s policy. Some 600 Palestinian workers arrived every morning at Har Adar, a community located beyond the Green Line which accommodates many military and security officials. The laborers are forbidden to move on foot in the community, and are even not allowed to shop at the local grocery store.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3690028,00.html

Arabs to be barred from jobs as railway safety inspectors in Israel

(MondoWeiss) this item feels Jim Crow... South Africa... Raj... very yesterday— Israeli Arabs will be barred from jobs as railway safety inspectors in Israel because an Israeli army discharge certificate is now required for getting such jobs. Writes my tipster: "This reminds me of Jim Crow voting laws in the South. It’s akin to the backdoor means used to keep African Americans disenfranchised." From the piece: "We feel betrayed and discriminated against," [Assad Salame] said. "Now that they want to improve the salaries, they remembered that we didn’t serve in the army. It’s a racist, discriminatory, and outrageous decision. We feel like third-rate citizens." ’
http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/03/this-item-feels-jim-crow-south-africa-raj-very-yesterday-.html

Sports figures prevented from entering East Jerusalem

Israeli authorities prevented the entry of the head of Palestine’s football union into Jerusalem on Sunday, as well as a Kuwaiti Olympics committee official. The Palestinian football union’s Jebril Rugoub and Kuwait Olympics committee head Sheikh Fahed As-Sabbah were attempting to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, they told Ma’an on Sunday ... Rugoub said he considers the action “a message for the entire world that says that the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Resurrection Church are hostages and controlled by Israel,” and accused Israel of waging a religious war.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36610

Palestinian MK condemns Israeli ban on Jerusalem festivities

Ahmad At-Tibi, one of 13 Palestinian [’Israeli Arab’] members of Israel’s Knesset (Parliament), condemned Israel for banning a cultural festival in Jerusalem on Sunday. He described the ban, which led to the arrests of about 20 organizers of the Arab League’s Jerusalem: Capital of Arab Culture 2009 festival, as an assault on Palestinian culture, poetry, writings and novels. "The Israeli battle is against all things Palestinian, against the humanity, culture and entire population of Jerusalem and its holiness," At-Tibi said in a statement.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36609

Israeli officials prevent Arab dignitaries from flying into West Bank

Israeli border officials prevented dozens of dignitaries set to attend the Al-Quds Capital of Arab Culture 2009 events from flying into the West Bank from Amman by helicopter. The officials were forced to enter the Palestinian area via the Allenby Bridge. One delayed official was Kuwaiti dignitary Sheikh Fahad As-Sabah, who was set to receive the Jerusalem medal for his work in helping assure the rights and freedoms of Palestinians.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36593

Bethlehem celebrates Jerusalem as 2009 Capital of Arab Culture

Bethlehem hosted a second round of celebrations on Sunday for the declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Arab culture for 2009. The Palestinian Authority’s Education Ministry in Bethlehem hosted events for scouts and marches for the events, which followed rallies in Manger Square on Saturday.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36607

Hundreds of Hebronites rally for Al-Quds Capital of Arab Culture

Hundreds rallied at the Al-Hussein Ibn Ali playground in Hebron in honor of Al-Quds (Jerusalem in Arabic) as the chosen Capital of Arab Culture for 2009. Prevented from entering the capital city, Hebronites were treated to performances of traditional dance, poetry and exhibitions of handicrafts and ancient artifacts of Palestinian history. Hebron governor Hussein Al-A’raj and mayor Khaled Al-Useili spoke to the crowds, recalling the beauty of the occupied city, and reasserting the Palestinian claim to Jerusalem as capital of the future Palestinian state.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36591

Anti-Solidarity / Collaboration

UK government shuns Muslim Council over link with Hamas

The Government has severed relations with the country’s leading Muslim organisation, saying a senior member is a supporter of Hamas, the Palestinian military organisation. A letter leaked to The Independent on Sunday shows that the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Hazel Blears, wrote to the Muslim Council of Britain, calling for Dr Daud Abdullah to resign. She alleges he was one of 90 Muslim leaders from around the world who signed a public declaration of support for Hamas, the elected government of the Gaza strip in Israel, and military action against Israel.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/government-shuns-muslim-council-over-link-with-hamas-1651323.html

Video, Canada ban: Galloway faces his accuser - a Jewish Defence League (JDL) ’terrorist’

The decision to ban George Galloway from Canada seems odd, but now it emerges that the Jewish Defence League (JDL) pressured the Canadian Government to so the action takes on sinister connotations for Canada, why? Because the Jewish Defence League are according to the FBI a Terrorist Group. In its report, Terrorism 2000/2001, the FBI referred to the JDL as a "violent extremist Jewish organization". This "violent extremist Jewish organization" now it seems has power and influence over the Canadian Government."
http://palestinianpundit.blogspot.com/2009/03/video-canada-ban-galloway-faces-his.html

Egypt envoy to attend Jerusalem ceremony, despite boycott threats

Egyptian ambassador Yasser Rid on Sunday notified the Foreign Ministry that he would attend a Jerusalem ceremony marking 30 years of relations between Egypt and Israel, despite Cairo’s threat to boycott over Avigdor Lieberman’s past remarks.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072963.html

Prisoners

Gaza protest displays caged Shalit effigy

Relatives of Palestinian security prisoners held in Israel outside Gaza’s Ministry for Prisoner Affairs on Sunday, demanding their loved ones immediate release. Family members held up framed pictures of their jailed sons, and gestured towards the protest’s chief attraction, an effigy of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. Dressed in IDF fatigues, the life-sized doll fitted with
a picture of Shalit’s face was placed in a cage alongside signs written in Hebrew. The messages, aimed at the Israeli public, warned that Shalit ’won’t be the only one’ unless all Palestinian prisoners are released, and that he would never be returned ’so long as our prisoners are in jail.’
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3690292,00.html

Palestinian leaders to Shalit captors: Resist Israeli pressure

The de facto minister of Prisoners Affairs, Mohammad Faraj Al-Ghoul, called on the factions holding Shalit to “tighten their hands and minds” regarding their demands, insisting that “Israel is the one responsible for aborting the swap deal and is trying to press the factions by detaining Hamas members and placing insane prisoners within their confinements.” Meanwhile, the de facto Prisoners Affairs minister called on the international community to help free the 11,000 Palestinian prisoners still in Israeli jails.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36612

A Hamas leader voices readiness for a prisoner exchange with Israel

Exiled political leader of the Hamas party Mousa Abu Marzouq voiced his party’s readiness to conclude a prisoner exchange deal with Israel as immediately as possible. Abu Marzouq criticized the outgoing Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, for producing a list of Palestinian prisoners that does not include names on Hamas’s own list, explaining that the number wanted by the party is 450. This month, Israeli cabinet announced failure of Egyptian-mediated prisoner swap deal due to what Israel termed Hamas’s hardened position over a possible deal.
http://imemc.org/article/59487

Hamas: Israel deceived us during Shalit talks

Hamas’ exiled political leader said Sunday that the Islamist group was prepared to release abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in a prisoner swap deal, but accused Israel of refusing its gestures and complicating matters. Khaled Meshal told the Italian daily La Repubblica that Israel continued to change its conditions and pile on demands throughout the negotiations for a prisoner swap, misleading both Hamas and Egyptian mediators.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072935.html

Terror victims’ relatives vow revenge

The relatives of some Israeli terror victims are preparing for the "day after" a possible Shalit prisoner swap, in an effort to locate and target terrorists freed as part of the deal, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Monday. The new organization has already started to raise funds and held several meetings in order to formulate its "eye for an eye" policy. The initiative is being led by Attorney Meir Schijveschuurder and his brother Shvuel, who lost their parents and three siblings in the suicide bombing at the Sbarro pizza parlor in Jerusalem in 2001.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3687379,00.html

Mother dies without having seen detained son for 24 years

According to the Detainees Society in the Gaza Strip, members mourned the death of Um Ghazi An-Nems, who was prevented from seeing her son, Ghazi Jum’a An-Nims, for 24 years. He is imprisoned at the Nafha jail in Israel. The organization said in a statement that the detainee’s mother “suffered a lot waiting for Israeli authorities to allow her to visit her son,” but they nonetheless refused to ever grant her permission to see her son.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36606

Other news

Gaza: Fatah delegation distributes flowers on Mothers’ Day

The Fatah movement in western Gaza distributed three thousand flowers on the occasion of Mother’s Day. A delegation headed by Husam Abu A’jawa distributed flowers to the mothers of those killed before, during and after the Israeli assault on Gaza. Female prisoners, teachers and mothers of prisoners were also celebrated in the event.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36598

Haniyeh marks anniversary of Hamas founder’s death

The prime minister of the de facto government in Gaza announced Sunday that Hamas will remain committed to the ideals of its late founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. De facto Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said he hopes to “bring back the land and the unity and the return of Palestinian refugees,” echoing remarks by Yassin on the anniversary of his death. Yassin was assassinated by an Israeli helicopter pilot in 2004, along with nine Palestinian bystanders.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36604

Um al-Fahim on strike; extremist right-wingers still intend to march

Tuesday
Baroch Merzil and Itamar Ben Ghafir, two extremist Israeli right-wingers, stated Sunday that their planned march in Al Fahim Arab town will be held on Tuesday as planned. Arab residents in the town and their leadership declared a general strike. Extremist Israeli right-wingers were allowed to hold their procession in the Arab town after a court ruling in their favor ... The Higher Follow-up Committee in Um Al Fahim called on the Arab residents and their supporters to protest and bar the right-wingers, who do not recognize the Arab history and presence, from holding their march in the town. The Committee called on the Israeli peace groups to join them and to form with them a human chain to block the extremists from entering the town.
http://imemc.org/article/59490

Olmert: Haifa bomb attack prevented by ’miracle’

Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday that a ’miracle’ had prevented a huge bomb attack from taking place on the preceding day in the northern city of Haifa. Late Saturday, police sappers disarmed a bomb in a car outside the coastal city’s Lev Hamifratz shopping mall, thwarting a potential terror attack. In the wake of the attempted bombing, police declared on Sunday a high alert across Israel. Police said the car holding the explosive, which weighed dozens of kilograms, belonged to an Arab woman from East Jerusalem. But they added it might have been stolen and that they had no prior intelligence on the vehicle. An Israeli Arab organization calling itself the Galilee Freedom Fighters claimed responsibility, but security forces doubted the claim, saying they were unfamiliar with a group of that name currently operating in Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072730.html

Fatah official: Unity talks to resume by end of March

A senior Fatah member said on Sunday that the movement has not yet decided on a date for renewed talks aimed at establishing a Palestinian unity government. However the official, Ibrahim Abu An-Naja, a member of the Fatah movement’s delegation to Cairo’s Higher Committee, said he expected talks to resume sometime before the end of March.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36608

Hamas: New round of talks to be held later this week

Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoom announced on Sunday that there will be new round of talks between Palestinian factions in Cairo this week. The talks are aimed at ending a factional split between Hamas and Fatah in the summer of 2007, and have been held intermittently in the Egyptian city of Cairo over the past several months.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36613

Hamas leader in exile welcomes recent Obama remarks

In an interview with Italian daily La Repubblica published on Sunday, Hamas chief Khaled Masha’al also said that a new US approach to Hamas is just a matter of time. "A new language towards the region is coming from President Obama. The challenge for everybody is for this to be the prelude for a genuine change in US and European policies,” he said. “Regarding an official opening towards Hamas, it’s a matter of time," Mash’al added. His remarks were apparently in reference to a videotaped message from Obama to the leaders and people of Iran, which coincided with the Persian New Year.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36614

Jericho child killed in traffic accident; driver under investigation

A child was killed in a traffic accident in the West Bank city of Jericho on Friday while he was playing near his family home in the city. The Jericho district police department identified the boy as three-year-old Mohammed Tawfiq Jalayta, and noted that the driver who hit the boy was apprehended and is under investigation.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36596

Haredim to continue running buses segregating men, women
Ultra-Orthodox groups announced on Sunday they would continue to run a bus route segregating men and women in Jerusalem, Israel Radio reported. The announcement came despite efforts by the Transportation Ministry to prevent the operation of the publicly funded bus route that runs from the capital’s Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) neighborhoods to the Western Wall. The High Court of Justice in January told the ministry to look into problems on the bus routes, following the petition of the religious author Naomi Ragen and the Religious Action Center. The petition was submitted after a number of female passengers said they were humiliated and even attacked for not using seats reserved for women at the back the buses, or because of their clothing.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072945.html

Paganism returns to the Holy Land

Like many other soldiers who took part in the Gaza operation, Omer, 20, occasionally took a few moments to pray, but he did not pray to the Lord of Israel. Omer considers himself pagan, and has sworn allegiance to three ancient gods. During combat, he says they appeared before him, giving him strength during the most arduous moments ... Due to Jewish sensitivity to idol worship, which is perceived as a sin, most Israeli pagans reveal their beliefs only to those who share them. They usually keep religious gatherings, such as the "holiday of equality" (Vernal equinox) on March 21st, secret.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072829.html

Analysis / Opinion

Tristan Anderson: A voice for justice in Palestine

By Starhawk. As I write, my friend Tristan lies in intensive care in an Israeli hospital, shot in the head with a tear gas canister at a nonviolent demonstration in the West Bank town of Ni’lin ... March 16 marks the sixth anniversary of the death of Rachel Corrie, crushed by a bulldozer as she resisted a home demolition in Rafah. Within a few weeks, Brian Avery, another ISM volunteer, was shot in the face in Jenin, and Tom Hurndall was hit by a sniper in Rafah. But those tragedies pale beside the ever-mounting death count among Palestinians. In Ni’lin alone, four Palestinians have been killed in the last year. And that is just the body count of one village, one year. It doesn’t begin to recount the toll in the rest of the West Bank, or Gaza.
http://www.alarabiya.net/views/2009/03/22/68961.html

Uri Avnery / A judicial document

The most important sentence written in Israel this week was lost in the general tumult of exciting events ... The judicial debate concerns one of the most revolting laws ever enacted in Israel. It says that the wife of an Israeli citizen is not allowed to join him in Israel if she is living in the occupied Palestinian territories or in a “hostile” Arab country ... The answer of the Ministry of Justice lawyers let the cat out of the bag. It asserts, for the first time, in unequivocal language, that: “The State of Israel is at war with the Palestinian people, people against people, collective against collective.”
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1237674669/

Zvi Bar’el / Another 30 years like these

All Israel and Egypt want is to have the opportunity to reach another 30 years of the sort of ’cold’ peace we’ve maintained for the last 30 years.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072820.html

Moshe Elad / Time to face the truth

Failure of Israeli-Palestinian talks due in large part to Western dishonesty — ...there are several misguided terms that must be removed from the peace process lexicon. The first one is the statement that "the most important thing is that we’re talking." The second statement that raises question marks over the honesty and frankness of the negotiators is that "Mahmoud Abbas represents the Palestinian people." Indeed, he represents the Palestinians just as much as the Persian Shah represented the Iranians in the wake of the Khomeini revolution. The third statement borders on a failure to tell the truth: "The sides are discussing the issue of the right of return." Come on.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3689792,00.html

Palestinians winning the legitimacy war: an interview with UN
Special Rapporteur Richard Falk

By Corey Balsam. Professor Richard Falk is the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. He is world-renowned as an authority on international law and has authored and co-authored 20 books. Recently, Professor Falk has focused much of his attention on the Israeli massacres in Gaza, alleging that Israel’s actions are constitutive of both violations of the laws of war and indicative of crimes against humanity. This is the transcript of a phone interview with him from his home in Santa Barbara, California.
http://imemc.org/article/59422

Helena Cobban / ’Gaza First’ on the horizon?

With respect to the Egyptian-Palestinian-Israeli triangle as it manifests regarding Gaza, I’d add the following general notes: 1. Egypt and Hamas share a strong interest in preventing Gaza’s 1.5 million people from spilling out in any lasting way into Egypt. 2. The Egyptian and Israeli governments share an interest in reducing Hamas’s political power and influence as much as possible. (Hence their collaboration in maintaining the siege.) However, the Egyptian government faces significant constraints from its own citizens that prevent it from going too far to oppress/crush/exterminate Hamas. 3. However, just to further complicate matters a bit, I’d note there is also a potential for shared Hamas and Israeli interests with respect to Gaza, including— or perhaps especially— under Likud....
http://justworldnews.org/archives/003462.html

Tony Karon / Worried about apartheid? Too late, Mr Olmert, it’s already here

... Israeli government officials have spoken openly since the Gaza conflict of their growing sense of isolation. Despite their most strenuous PR efforts, the 1,417 Palestinian deaths they caused in Gaza (compared with 13 Israelis, four by “friendly fire”) made it hard to sell the idea that Israel was the victim in the conflict. Israel’s narrative did not fit the images of the Gaza clash ... Coddled in their own narrative in which they are the eternal victims, Israelis are not accustomed to finding themselves the focus of international moral opprobrium. And they see in it a mortal threat.
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090322/OPINION/714980252/1001

Philip Weiss / It’s not a lobby, it’s a philosemitic culture and it’s over
...It came to me that the verboten statement I’d made in the hall about Jewish power in establishment venues is critical; but that the lobby extends beyond that. It is a culture that has captured American life, a way of thinking, an outlook, a worldview—largely held by successful Jews, but extending to gentiles as well, and has at its root a redemptive idea of Jewish power after the Holocaust.
http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/03/yesterday-i-went-on-press-tv-to-talk-about-the-israel-lobby-with-elazar-barkan-and-dan-fleshler-whose-book-on-the-israel-lob.html