Today in Palestine!

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Land Theft and Destruction

Sheikh Jarrah residents organize in the face of mass house evictions
"We are like the roots of a tree. The Israelis may cut us in places, but we will never die. We will not be transplanted from Jerusalem. I will not leave this house," Maher Hanun tells a crowded room of Palestinian community members supported by Israeli and international solidarity activists. Jeff Pickert writes from occupied East Jerusalem.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10454.shtml

Aggression
Includes Video: Israeli forces shoot at farmers in Al Faraheen
This morning, the farmers from Al-Faraheen in the Gaza Strip persisted with their efforts to harvest the year’s crop of lentils. Volunteers with the International Solidarity Movement, and a camera crew from Press TV accompanied the farmers as they set out to work in a field about 300m from the border. Before the farmers reached the field, an Israeli jeep stopped next to the border fence several hundred metres away. A number of shots were fired in the direction of the farmers before the jeep drove away.
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/04/6048

Israeli army opens fire towards Ramattan crews southern Gaza

Gaza, April 8, 2009 (Ramattan) – The Israeli army opened fire on Wednesday at Palestinian farmers, foreign pacifists and Ramattan crews in the city of Khanyonis south of Gaza Strip.
http://english.ramattan.net/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=40171

UPDATE: Armed settlers attack, injure 38 Palestinians

Hebron – Ma’an – Thirty-eight Palestinians were injured when armed Israeli settlers, backed by soldiers, rampaged through the West Bank village of Safa, north of Hebron on Wednesday morning. According to medics at Al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron 11 Palestinians were shot with live bullets, five with rubber-coated metal bullets and another 15 were treated for the effects of teargas.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36968

27 Palestinians wounded by settlers’ and soldiers’ fire near Hebron
Palestinian medics reported on Wednesday morning that 12 residents were shot and wounded by Israeli gunfire and 15 others were treated for gas inhalation after a group of extremist Israeli settlers attacked Safa village, near the southern West Bank city of Hebron.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59833

Twelve hurt in WBank settlers’ rampage (AFP)

AFP - Twelve Palestinians were wounded on Wednesday when clashes erupted in a West Bank village after Israeli residents of a nearby settlement went on a rampage there, witnesses and medics said.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090408/wl_afp/mideastconflictpalestiniansettlerslead

Settler violence on the rise in Hebron

Violence from illegal Israeli settlers directed at Palestinian residents in Hebron is an almost everyday occurrence. Recently however, several incidents indicate that settler violence in the city is increasing. On the 4th of April at around 3pm, Shah Aiwa, a 7-year-old Palestinian boy, was injured in his head after having stones thrown at him by settler children. The stoning occurred near the boy’s home in the old city, next to Beit Romano settlement. Shah was playing with another child when two settler boys started throwing stones at them from a nearby roof. According to both Shah and eyewitnesses who gathered at the scene, incidents like this are very common, happening 5 to 6 times a week. The stone that hit Shah on the head weighed over a kilo, and the injury he received required attention by medical staff from Hebron hospital.
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/04/5903

Palestinians: Border Guard troops delayed Tony Blair

PA negotiator Ahmed Qureia slams delay of Quartet envoy’s convoy at West Bank checkpoint as ’brutal and provocative;’ Army says soldiers followed protocol on uncoordinated entry of armed security detail.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3699079,00.html

Detention

Military court orders imprisonment of Arab refuseniks
The Druze Methaq, an organization formed by Druze Refuseniks, says it has obtained a list containing the names of 13 Druze youths who have been sentenced to periods in prison ranging from 28 days to 9 months for refusing to serve in the Israeli military.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59834
http://english.ramattan.net/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=40168

IOF detains 17 Palestinians in West Bank

Ramallah, April 8, 2009 (Ramattan) – The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) arrested on Wednesday morning 17 Palestinian citizens across the West Bank, Palestinian security sources said.
http://english.ramattan.net/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=40168

Hebron: Israeli forces detain Palestinian near Ibrahimi Mosque

Hebron – Ma’an – Israeli forces detained a Palestinian man near the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron on Tuesday claiming he was armed with a knife and four Molotov Cocktails. Israeli authorities immediately sealed the iron gates leading to the mosque, and shut down the entire southern neighborhood of Hebron. The young man was arrested and his identity has not been released.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36954

Israeli forces detain three in Tulkarem area

Tulkarem – Ma’an – Israeli forces seized three Palestinian civilians from the West Bank town of Anabta, east of the city of Tulkarem, during a sweeping military incursion early on Wednesday. Najib Abd Al-Halim, 30, his brother Bara, 21, and Islam Hassan, 27, were detained by the invading forces, who withdrew later in the morning. The three are being held in an unknown location.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36967

Israeli forces seize wanted Hamas leader from Nablus area home

Janin – Ma’an – Israeli forces seized 38-year-old Hamas leader Ahmad Sawalma from the Al-Far’a Refugee Camp near Nablus on Wednesday after hunting him for two years. Local sources said that an undercover Israeli unit entered the camp in a civilian car at 2am. The Israeli agents stormed Sawalma’s home before a larger military force arrived as backup, surrounding the area and arresting the man.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36971

The Israeli military attack Nablus city and kidnaps seven civilians

Seven Palestinian civilians were kidnapped on Wednesday at dawn during Israeli military invasion targeting the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59840

Ferwana: arrests in the West Bank have become part of everyday life

Gaza / PNN - The former prisoner affairs specialist and researcher Abdul-Nasser Ferwana expressed concern about the continuation and escalation of indiscriminate mass arrests in the governorates of the West Bank without need or justification, even according to the concepts of occupation and unjust laws and false claims.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4999

Family visit to Palestinian prisoners cancelled because of Israeli closure of WB

A responsible source in the ICRC announced on Tuesday that all scheduled family visits to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation jails on Tuesday were called off.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7CKKPaOc6e%2bdwKOhKz40ZH%2fI7i2sRWWSEMV9gz4jlDLduopwjE%2b3pwhXmrDYFmXfipNYI%2f1IfkqmARdScvnpwK%2fX89iw8xhowABvIRgC%2bU1o%3d

Humanitarian Issues/War Crimes

Anti-siege Gov’t committee: Shortage of medicines will adversely affect patients
The government committee to break the siege warned that the scarcity of medicine stocks in Gaza as a result of the closure of crossings would have a negative impact on the lives of dozens of patients.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7ib63l33ThSElmGEoHLdn2zUKnFG21OI%2fGWKLfOK%2b0SRmDmHItXMcPNYE7wvVhtsFgNoRU8%2fAvavqTSlxRrVFFaFithlMkAKkILkft4vT0dQ%3d

In Gaza, farming under fire

KHAN YOUNIS, occupied Gaza Strip (IPS) - "They’re always shooting at us. Every day they shoot at us," says Alaa Samour, 19, pulling aside his shirt to show a scar on his shoulder. Samour said he was shot on 28 December last year by Israeli soldiers positioned along the border fence near New Abassan village, east of Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10455.shtml

Would they have picked a fair Muslim?: Judge named to lead Gaza inquiry is known for fairness

Richard Goldstone of South Africa, a Jew, says he will talk to all the victims, on both sides. His appointment poses a policy question for Israel’s new government. The United Nations resolution ordering the inquiry was a hot potato. It focused on alleged "grave violations" by Israel, but not on rocket fire by Palestinian militants. Several experts invited to serve on the U.N. Human Rights Council’s fact-finding mission had refused because they considered the mandate one-sided, a U.N. official said.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-goldstone8-2009apr08,0,5260353.story

De facto court sentences four to death, three to life in prison

Gaza – Ma’an – A de facto government military court in the Gaza Strip sentenced four men to death by firing squad, and three others to life in prison Tuesday. A statement from the court revealed few details of the crimes, noting only that those sentenced to death were guilty of committing premeditated murder. The decisions on the sentences were unanimous but open to appeal.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36953

Political Developments

Hamas, Islamic Jihad Call on PA to Free Resistance after Settlers’ Attack
At least 16 Palestinians were hurt, one of them seriously during clashes between dozens of settlers and Palestinians in a nearby occupied West Bank village near the settlement of Bat Ayin. One Israeli settler was wounded. The violence erupted when a group of Israeli settlers began throwing stones at Palestinians on the outskirts of the village of Safa. The Palestinians said that the settlers entered their village shooting in the air and damaging their property. Israeli occupation soldiers arrived at the scene in order to break up the clash. However, the Palestinians said that the soldiers did not prevent the settlers from firing their weapons.
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=80896&language=en

Hamas vows to escalate anti-Israel retaliatory attacks

Islamic Hamas movement’s armed wing vowed on Wednesday to escalate what it termed the retaliatory attacks on Israel in reaction to the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Palestinians in the West Bank. "The fedayee (commando) attacks against Zionist targets would escalate amid an escalation of the Zionist terrorism, mainly in Jerusalem and the West Bank," said Abu Obeida, spokesman of Hamas armed wing al-Qassam Brigades.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-04/08/content_11150678.htm

Hamas: West Bank attacks inspired from Israel’s rightist gov’t

Hamas government in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday said Jewish settlers’ attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank turned out the role of the new rightist Israeli government. "The attacks continue the role of the extremist rightist government that took office in the Jewish state last week," said Taher al-Nounou, spokesman for the Islamic movement’s administration.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-04/08/content_11151395.htm

Arab, Iranian MPs walk out of meeting during Israeli’s speech

Gaza – Ma’an – Palestinian, Arab, and Iranian members of parliament walked out of a meeting of the Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) during a speech by an Israeli politician on Monday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36972

Israeli delegation bolts lawmaker conference attended by Hamas reps

An Israeli delegation of lawmakers left a conference gathering of parliamentarians in Ethiopia which was attended by Hamas representatives.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1077200.html

Obama team warns U.S. lawmakers: Expect confrontation with Israel

In an unprecedented move, the Obama administration is readying for a possible confrontation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by briefing Democratic congressmen on the peace process and the positions of the new government in Israel regarding a two-state solution. ...However, Obama considers the two-state solution central to his Middle East policy, as he reiterated during a speech in Turkey on Monday, and he intends to ask that Netanyahu fulfill all the commitments made by previous governments in Israel: accepting the principle of a Palestinian state; freezing settlement activity; evacuating illegal outposts; and providing economic and security assistance to the Palestinian Authority.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1077222.html

Netanyahu: ’I Will Not Evacuate Any Settlement’

This weekend the Israeli daily, Ma’ariv, published an interview in Hebrew with Professor Ben Zion Netanyahu, the 99-year-old father of the new Israeli prime minister. The elder Netanyahu is known for his outspokenness and extreme right-wing views—and he did nothing to contradict his reputation. He decreed that the only solution to the conflict with the Palestinians is the use of military force. He stated that he would not return the Golan Heights to Syria because "you do not return land." He also explained that in his view it is impossible to compromise with Arabs. The Prime Minister’s father further opines that the Turks used brutal deadly force to suppress the Arab population and that should be an example to Israel in dealing with Arabs whose nature dictates that they live in a state of perpetual war.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14991

Lieberman rejects foreign ’intervention’ in Israeli politics (AFP)

AFP - Israel’s hawkish new Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told foreign powers on Tuesday to stay out of Israeli politics, in an apparent reference to the flagging Middle East peace process.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090407/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictisraelpolitics3rdlead

US hits back at Lieberman: The goal is two states

In response to divisive comments made by new foreign minister, State Department makes clear Washington fully behind two-state solution as only viable option. Opposition at home also seizes on chance to accuse FM of destroying US-Israel diplomatic ties.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3699117,00.html

’Israel holding Mideast hostage by shunning Arab peace offer’: King Abdullah II

"Israel must decide whether they want to observe this opportunity and become integrated in the region or whether they want to remain a fortress ... and keep the Middle East hostage in conflict," Abdullah said in Bucharest, during an official visit.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1076833.html

Collaborators

Cairo university in US ‘spy’ furore
A series of newspaper articles in Egypt has raised speculation that researchers at the American University in Cairo are acting as a proxy for the US Department of defence.
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090408/FOREIGN/241950879/1002/rss

Egypt arrests over 40 suspected smugglers to Gaza (AFP)

AFP - Egyptian police have detained more than 40 people suspected of involvement in weapons smuggling to the Gaza Strip, a security official said on Tuesday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090407/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictgazaegyptarrestsweaponssmuggling

Egypt arrests 7 Israeli Arabs for alleged terror ties

The internet site ’Islam Online Net’ reported that "a cell of Egyptian intelligence conducted a chase after Hamas operatives in the streets of Cairo". The report went on to say that "the cell stopped the car in which the Hamas members were riding and confiscated the money found in their possession – money intended for aid to the needy following the recent Israeli war in Gaza". The report said the amount confiscated was $7 million, meant for the reconstruction of homes lost during the fighting in Gaza. Egypt’s Interior Ministry would neither confirm nor deny the arrests.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3699114,00.html

Report: Egypt arrests 7 Israeli Arabs for spying for Hamas, Hezbollah

A prominent Islamist lawyer has told the Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera that security forces have detained about 50 Egyptians, Palestinians and Lebanese for alleged ties to the Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1077198.html

Other News

Israel bans Gerry Adams from Gaza because he plans to meet Hamas officials

A spokesman for Adams, Ted Howell, said Adams and his delegation planned to visit Gaza on Wednesday. He said, "we will meet with whoever wants to meet us."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1238562938372&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

U.S. giving Palestinian security forces top-level training

The United States has been training senior Palestinian security officials in an advanced officers course in Ramallah for top-brass, Haaretz has learned.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1077216.html

Russia to arm P.A with light arms, two armored vehicles and 2 helicopters

Russian sources reported Tuesday that the Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, approved a request by the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, to provide the Palestinian Authority with weapons. A Russian news agency reported that Medvedev told Abbas he would also grant the P.A two helicopters, and two armored vehicles.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59827

Israel transfers $12.5 mln to Gaza (AFP)

AFP - The Israeli government on Tuesday allowed the transfer of 12.5 million dollars to the besieged Gaza Strip, only a quarter of the amount needed at this stage, Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair said.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090407/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictgazaaid

Abbas ’reshuffles Fatah military posts’ in Lebanon

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has ordered the reshuffling of Fatah’s military posts in Lebanon, Palestinian sources told Al-Liwaa newspaper Tuesday. "The move follows last month’s assassination of Kamal Medhat, the deputy of Palestine Liberation Organization representative in Lebanon Abbas Zaki," Al-Liwaa said.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=100796

Israel’s punitive moves against criminals’ families only fosters more animosity

The drama that unfolded during the demolition of a Palestinian house in East Jerusalem on Tuesday aptly illustrates the futility of Israel’s renewed policy of destroying the family homes of Palestinian attackers. The Israeli supreme court had ordered police to tear down part of the family home of Husam Dweiyat, who last year went.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=17&article_id=100765

Solidarity/Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment

Sinn Fein leader visit Gaza demands siege to be lifted
The Irish Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams visited the Gaza strip on Wednesday and toured areas that was attacked by the Israeli military during January Cast Lead operation.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59841

Activists picket outside ’pro-Israel’ McDonalds

McDonalds became the latest target of the boycott campaign against pro-Israeli businesses Tuesday when a couple of dozen activists representing the Union of Lebanese Democratic Youth (ULDY) picketed outside the fast-food chain’s Hamra location across from the American University of Beirut (AUB). "People who sit there and don’t care - may they eat poison," they shouted, addressing the few customers who ignored the protesters and munched on their food inside the restaurant. "You’re being fed Palestinian meat," they continued.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=100795

FOOTBALL UNDER SIEGE
JERUSALEM (Ramattan) – More than 100 amateur football players and peace activists from all over Italy came to the occupied territories to play friendly matches against Palestinian men’s and women’s teams in a gesture of international solidarity.
http://english.ramattan.net/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=40172

The Longest Open Letter on the Wall in Palestine, 2625 Meters Long
On this site you will also find Esack’s open letter, which comprises 1998 carefully formulated words and will reach a length of 2,625 metres. Esack testifies in his open letter that the situation for Palestinians is far worse than what was experienced in South Africa under apartheid. Esack is a black South African, worked together with Nelson Mandela.
http://www.pr.com/press-release/143950

Action Alert: U.S. Weapons Delivered to Israel as Tax Day Nears

Last week, our friends at Amnesty International revealed that on March 22 the United States delivered more than 300 containers of munitions to Israel. To read the full story, click here. This weapons delivery occurred despite the fact that Amnesty International reports that the United States is reviewing Israel’s misuse of U.S. weapons during “Operation Cast Lead” in violation of the Arms Export Control Act. To download our fact-sheet about Israel’s misuse of U.S. weapons in Gaza, click here.
http://endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=1943

Civil society shows its moral strength

At a time when Western governments refrain from using their power to stop Israel’s ongoing violations of international law, many civil society organizations silently watch the moral corrosion of their governments. At the "Israel Review Conference" in Geneva this month and the Russell Tribunal slated for early 2010, however, civil society will use its power and call Israel to account. Adri Nieuwhof comments for The Electronic Intifada.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10441.shtml

Analysis/Op-ed

A Match Made in Tel Aviv: Will Netanyahu and the neocons live happily ever after?
Imagine that after Boris Yeltsin was elected president of a free post-Communist Russia in 1991, the Poles, residents of a former province of the Soviet empire, elected former Communist boss Edward Gierek as their new head of state. Then suppose that, upon entering office, he called on Moscow to forget about rapprochement with the West and prepare for military confrontation.
http://amconmag.com/article/2009/mar/23/00023/

Joseph Massad has tenure

I have a message to all the Zionist hoodlums out there: for all of you who campaigned and harassed and intimidated and who treated academic life like an aspect of Zionist thuggery, Joseph Massad has received tenure. He called me yesterday from Cairo to break the great news to me and I could not wait to report it to his enemies and mine. It is with great pleasure and gratification that I break the news to all of you. No matter what dirty tricks you (i.e. Zionist hoodlums) have resorted to, and no matter what sleazy methods you have employed and no matter what sinister propaganda you have resorted to, dear Joseph Massad deservedly received his tenure. I am looking forward to Joseph’s contribution to Middle East studies at Columbia and elsewhere. And as `Abdun-Nasser told the colonial power back in 1956, I say: if you don’t like this news please feel free to go and drink from the Mediterrenean sea.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/04/joseph-massad-has-tenure.html

Israel’s Two-Sided Coin

For Palestinians, it is hard to figure out what all the commotion is about. True, newly sworn in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is clearly not the most sympathetic person to the Palestinians’ plight. Neither is his foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman nor is the overwhelming majority of his cabinet. It is undeniable that Israel’s new government is one of the country’s most right wing governments yet. So, to the outside world, even the United States, this is ringing alarm bells, pushing panic buttons everywhere.
http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=19300&CategoryId=3

Iqbal Tamimi - Women in Sport and Journalism: the first women’s football team in Gaza played against the odds

Gaza is full of stories of brave women, under the Israeli caused rubble there are many stories of women with hopes and great expectations, pioneers in every field. Being a Palestinian journalist in exile, there was no other way to interview my people and interact with my colleagues in Palestine but through the internet. I have started a feature by interviewing the Palestinian journalist Nelly Ismail Yassin Almasry through the net because Israel’s enforced laws made it difficult for us to meet in person. Our discussions took longer than expected because electricity blackouts happened many times in Gaza where she lives and the internet connection died with it, but I was determined to write about the other side of Gaza, the side that keeps rising from under the ashes like a bird with a thousand wings because its people refuse to surrender to defeat. Nelly is the daughter of Ismail Almasry, the Football Coach of the National Football Team in Gaza and a colleague working as a sport journalist and a member of the first women’s soccer team in Gaza.
http://palestinethinktank.com/2009/04/08/iqbal-tamimi-women-in-sport-and-journalism-the-first-womens-football-team-on-gaza-played-against-the-odds/