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Source: PACUSA via El Taller International - Tunis

Today in Palestine!

Lundi, 20 avril 2009 - 13h26

Monday 20 April 2009

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Land / Jerusalem

US pressuring Israel not to evict Arabs in East Jerusalem neighborhood
The U.S. government and other foreign governments, including Turkey and a number of European countries, have asked Israel over the past few days to prevent the eviction of Palestinian families who have been living for over 50 years near the tomb of Simon the Just in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarra neighborhood. Jewish settlers have moved into the compound. During the visit of U.S. presidential envoy George Mitchell to Israel over the weekend, a U.S. consulate representative came to the area to speak to the families. The families’ attorney, Saleh Abu-Hussein, said Saturday he was told that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is closely following the matter. About six months ago, following an eviction order against one of the families, the United States lodged an official protest, asking that the eviction be stayed against that family and the others. Despite the involvement of Palestinian authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas, the family was evicted.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1079211.html

Al-Jazeera video: East Jerusalem Palestinians face eviction
Clayton Swisher met some of those threatened with the loss of their homes.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/04/2009417113725637255.html

PA slams violations of religious freedom in Jerusalem
Israeli access restrictions in Jerusalem are a violation of religious freedom, said Hatem Abdul-Qader, the advisor to the Palestinian prime minister on Jerusalem affairs on Sunday. “Israel’s violation of freedom of worship refusal to allow access to Christian and Islamic holy sites aims mainly at nullifying Jerusalem’s religious heritage — Islamic or Christian,” he said. Israeli police reportedly turned back groups of Palestinian worshipers from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday, the Orthodox Easter. Last Thursday, police imposed restrictions on prayer at the iconic Al-Aqsa Mosque, barring Palestinians from Jerusalem who are under the age of 50.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37224

PA investigates sale of land to Jews
The Palestinian Authority’s Preventive Security Service, cooperating with the PA’s general intelligence service, recently undertook intensive activities to prevent the sale of land by Palestinians to Jews in east Jersualem, Ynet discovered. In recent months, the PA investigated several real estate agents suspected of selling land in the capital to Jews, even resulting in arrests of some of the agents. PA sources said that the sales in question involved a large-scale amount of lands and properties. Among the arrested real estate agents are those holding an Israeli ID card and those holding Palestinian Authority papers. [see comment #3: "Just count the traitors!"]
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3702940,00.html

Red Rag weekly column: State plunder under racist law
By Gideon Spiro. Recently an extraordinary ceremony took place in California. Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger returned to the heirs of the Oppenheimer family of Berlin two 16th century oil paintings that had ended up in a museum in California. Jacob Oppenheimer, the owner of a gallery in Berlin, the city of my birth, was forced to ’sell’ his art collection in return for a ’mess of pottage’ in order to flee from Nazi Germany. Justice was done after 74 years. A little late. Deals of with a similar nature occur in the Occupied Territories, where land is acquired by companies and individuals of the occupying nation, from Palestinians who groaning under the yoke of Occupation. Those deals too are plunder, and the day will come when they will be annulled. The land will return to its Palestinian owners. And that too will be spoken of as delayed justice. The return of the paintings to the heirs after 74 years naturally raises the question, why not return the property that the Palestinians lost in 1948, when they were expelled by the Israeli army? Just as my family was given back a house that had belonged to my mother in Berlin, the property that the Palestinians left behind them 60 years ago should be returned.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=33017

Violence

Israeli peace activists protest murder of unarmed Palestinian demonstrator by Israeli troops
In Tel Aviv on Saturday, hundreds of Israeli peace activists held a protest to challenge the Israeli military’s actions on Friday in the West Bank village of Bil’in. In Bil’in Friday, Israeli soldiers fired a high-velocity tear gas canister directly towards a non-violent anti-Wall demonstration, hitting Bassem Ibrahim Abu Rahma in the chest and killing him. The attack comes just one month after American activist Tristan Anderson was shot by the same kind of weapon in the head, also at a non-violent anti-Wall demonstration. Anderson remains in critical condition at an Israeli hospital, and will likely suffer permanent brain damage if he lives, according to the latest medical reports ... The protests in Bil’in and the other villages have also become a testing ground for experimental weapons by the Israeli army. Over the last several years, the Israeli army has fired sewage water, toxic blue dye, sound bombs, high-potency tear gas, stink bombs, and has even tried out a ’sonic weapon’ that emits a low frequency sound to disperse demonstrators ... The following is a list of the people killed by Israeli troops at non-violent anti-Wall demonstrations over the last five years:
http://imemc.org/article/60018

IDF, PA officials jointly probe death of Arab protester in Bil`in
...The IDF has launched an investigation, and the head of the IDF’s Civil Administration, Brig.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai, has asked Palestinian security forces to take part in the inquiry. Israeli and Palestinian security officials met later on Friday to discuss the investigation. Abu Rahma is the brother of Ashraf Abu Rahma, who was shot in the leg by an IDF soldier with a rubber[-coated] bullet as he was bound and gagged in Bil’in last year. The soldier was subsequently indicted and his brigade commander, Omri Burberg, quit his post.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1239710720897&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

IDF: Protester’s death likely due to unauthorized fire
Israel Defense Forces sources said Saturday a tear gas canister that killed a Palestinian demonstrator Friday at a protest against the West Bank separation fence was likely fired in violation of orders. Bassem Abu Rahmeh, 31, was killed during a protest in the West Bank village of Bil’in, a flash point for confrontations between soldiers and anti-fence protesters ... IDF officials who investigated the incident found the Armored Corps soldier who fired the canister apparently aimed directly at Abu Rahmeh from a distance of a mere few dozen meters.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1079196.html

Deadly days for Palestinian protesters
For years, Palestinian activists and their international supporters have been taking part in weekly demonstrations against Israel’s ongoing construction of the separation barrier cutting through the West Bank. At one time, as Steven Erlanger of The New York Times noted in 2005, the demonstrations generated "more sound than fury" in what he called "one of the closest spectacles the region provides to Kabuki theater." But, in recent months, the demonstrations have become increasingly deadly for the demonstrators.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcb_jerusalem/20090419/wl_mcb_jerusalem/jerusalem200904deadlydaysforpalestinianprotestershtml;_ylc=X3oDMTB0MHFkbHZlBF9TAzIxNTExMDUEZW1haWxJZAMxMjQwMTYyMjM0

Nablus: Hamas lawmaker injured by shrapnel from PA bullet
A Hamas-affiliated Palestinian lawmaker was attacked by Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces when he was leaving a mosque in the West Bank city of Nablus on Sunday afternoon. Sixty five-year-old Sheikh Hamid Al-Beitawi, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), told Ma’an’s reporter who visited him in Rafedia Hospital in Nablus that a PA Preventive Security officer stopped him and his 30-year-old son Nasr outside of a Mosque after the noon prayer. Al-Beitawi said that the officer verbally insulted him and attempted to strike him, but his son managed to stop him. Then the officer pulled his handgun and shot at Al-Beitawi’s feet, but missed them and shrapnel hit his right foot.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37221

Israeli settler reports gunfire near Bethlehem
An Israeli settler came under fire while driving near the Palestinian village of Tuqua, southeast of Bethlehem, on Sunday evening, Israeli media reported. No one was injured in the reported shooting. The Israeli military is investigating the incident. Meanwhile, Palestinians in the village reported that Israeli border police have deployed in the area, and may be searching for the alleged attacker. Tuqua lies near an Israeli settlement with an almost identical name, Teqoa.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37229

Israel sees increase in ’popular’ West Bank attacks
The Israeli military is tracking what it sees as an increase in popular Palestinian attacks on Israeli targets in the West Bank and Jerusalem. The website of the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot quoted an anonymous military official as saying, "We see many actions in the outline of ’popular terror’, which are seemingly insignificant, but this situation may point to distress and frustration among the Palestinians, and we must ensure constantly that things do not develop in undesired directions.” These so-called “popular” actions are carried out by individuals and are not thought to be planned by any organized resistance group.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37218

PCHR: Hamas gunmen shot three men in Jabaliya
Gunmen wearing the headbands of the armed wing of Hamas shot and wounded three civilians in Jabaliya, in northern Gaza, last Thursday evening, a leading human rights organization reported on Sunday. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights’ (PCHR) investigation found that at around 9:30pm on Thursday, gunmen fired at three young men near the As-Sultan apartment building in the city of Jabaliya. One of the wounded civilians, Khaled Dardona, said that gunmen wearing on their heads signs with “Izz Addin Al-Qassam Brigades” fired at him and at his two companions from a distance of approximately five meters.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37226

Human Rights Watch accuses Hamas of Gaza killings
GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas security forces killed at least 32 Palestinian political rivals and suspected collaborators with Israel during and after the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, Human Rights Watch said in a new report. The report by the New York-based group said "unlawful arrests, torture and killings in detention" were making a mockery of Hamas’s claims to uphold the law in the Gaza Strip, territory ruled by the Islamist movement. Human Rights Watch said it based its report on interviews with victims and witnesses in the Gaza Strip and on case reports by Palestinian human rights groups. It said Palestinian authorities in the occupied West Bank, where Hamas’s main rival, the Fatah movement, holds sway have increased repressive measures against Hamas members and supporters.
http://www.kyivpost.com/world/39888

Detentions

Israeli forces raid Ramallah, seize three brothers
Israeli forces raided the industrial zone at Beitunia in southern Ramallah and detained Mohammad Abdeen and his brothers, Ibrahim and Islam, on Saturday night. Ma’an’s correspondent reported that Israeli military vehicles raided the area and stormed a plastics factory, detaining its owners.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37207

Palestinian prisoners - imprisoned for their love of freedom
By Reham Alhelsi. ...In Occupied Palestine prison and imprisonment are as common as sunrise and sunset. There is almost no family that has not been subjected to Israeli imprisonment one way or the other. Palestinians are being detained on a daily basis, making them the most imprisoned people on earth. It is difficult to estimate their number, but several sources put the number of Palestinians detained or imprisoned by Israel since 1967 at over 750,000 Palestinians, making 20% of the total Palestinian population in the Occupied Territories, and approximately 40% of the total Palestinian male population. With the outbreak of the 2nd Intifada in September 2000 until September 2008 some 65,000 men, 750 women and 7,500 children were arrested by Israel.
http://palestinethinktank.com/2009/04/18/reham-alhelsi-palestinian-prisoners-imprisoned-for-their-love-of-freedom/

Siege / Aftermath of offensive

Gaza, remember?
Israel, the world ignoring bombed-out Gaza - By Gideon Levy. Alyan Abu-Aun is lying in his tent, his crutches beside him. He smokes cigarettes and stares into the tiny tent’s empty space. His young son sits on his lap. Ten people are crammed into the tent, about the size of a small room. It has been their home for three months. Nothing remains of their previous home, which the Israel Defense Forces shelled during Operation Cast Lead. They are refugees for a second time; Abu-Aun’s mother still remembers her home in Sumsum, a town that once stood near Ashkelon ... It’s exactly three months since the much-talked-about war, and Gaza is once again forgotten. Israel has never taken an interest in the welfare of its victims. Now the world has forgotten, too. Two weeks with hardly a Qassam rocket has taken Gaza completely off the agenda. If the Gazans don’t hurry up and resume firing, nobody will take an interest in their welfare again.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1079219.html

Three months after conflict, UN official warns of dire humanitarian situation
Although the devastating Israeli military offensive against the Gaza Strip came to an end three months ago, life for Gazans remains extremely difficult, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes stressed. ’For the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip to improve, lifesaving assistance must be decoupled from the security and political agendas,’ said Holmes. The sweeping Israeli ban on the import of construction materials, spare parts for public infrastructure and the industrial sector in Gaza, along with restrictions on the entry of cash, has prevented work to start on almost all of the planned early recovery projects, according to last month’s report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on the situation in Gaza. In addition, a ban on exports, apart from a few truckloads of flowers, has exacerbated the situation by crushing Gaza’s job-creation industries, said Mr. Holmes. ’The ruin of hundreds of thousands of lives and livelihoods appears to be seen by Israel as the collective price that Gaza’s civilians must pay for the acts of a few among them.’
http://english.wafa.ps/?action=detail&id=12678

In Gaza, policewomen get back to starting out
By Eman Mohammed. The new veiled female police officers in Gaza had just begun to assume their duties last December when a concerted attack on 60 police facilities threw them into unexpected roles — Every morning Mariam Al-Bursh prepares a bottle of milk for her 1-year-old baby. Then she gets her badge and gun. In the Gaza strip, which is controlled by the Islamic resistance movement Hamas, a female police officer’s day begins, in several ways, like that of many of her counterparts around the world. But there are key differences.
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/3984/context/archive

Reporter’s Diary: The Bashir orphans
During Israel’s war on Gaza last January, Al Jazeera’s Ayman Mohyeldin was one of the only international correspondents able to cover the story from inside the Gaza Strip. He looks at the estimated 53,000 orphans in Gaza, a number that has risen by more than 2,000 since the Gaza war — As if life in Gaza was not hard enough, imagine living it as an orphan. I went to visit what remains of the Bashir family in Gaza’s Karma neighbourhood. Seventeen-year-old Saeb, 13-year-old Mosab and 10-year-old Moatesem lost both their parents and their eldest brother in Israeli air strikes on January 11.
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/reportersdiary/2009/04/200941817322303244.html

Teenage victim of Israeli war on Gaza to be treated in Dubai
Dubai: The Israeli occupation of Gaza has deprived Khoulod Al Sisi, an 18-year-old, of the right to grow up without fear like many other children around the world, and the latest Israeli war on the Strip deprived her of her leg. But neither the occupation she has had to face since she was born or the latest war which left her disabled have succeed in depriving her of the determination to live.
http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/Society/10305169.html

’Hope’ to be heading to Gaza
...The ’Hope’ convoy is expected to start its trip to Gaza in early May, and will include ten ambulances donated to Gaza hospitals and dozens of trucks filled with medical and humanitarian aid, including equipment desperately needed by residents of special needs. Abdo stated that the ambulances and aid trucks will be driving towards Milan in Italy, and then all of them will be loaded onto a ship that would sail from Milan towards Alexandria seaport in Egypt. After arriving in Egypt the convoy would then drive towards the Rafah border terminal. Several physicians, surgeons and specialists will also be accompanying the convoy to perform surgeries for sick and injured Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The convoy also includes wheelchairs, crutches, hearing aids and other urgently needed medical equipment....
http://imemc.org/article/60015

Lynch tours Gaza Strip, meets with Syrian president
19 April - Congressman Steve Lynch (D-MA) journeyed to the Middle East last week and toured the bombed-out Gaza Strip, which was left decimated after a three-week conflict with Israeli forces. Lynch also met with the president of Syria and Israeli political leaders during the three day visit. Lynch returned with a greater sense of urgency about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where some 1.5 million people are living with an area some 20 miles square. ynch said the destruction in Gaza was worse than he expected.
http://www.dotnews.com/2009/lynch-tours-gaza-strip-and-meets-syrian-president

Kerem Shalom and Nahal Oz to open Sunday, Karni closed
Crossings official Raed Fattuh told Ma’an that about 115 truckloads will enter through Kerem Shalom, including 16 to an international organization, 11 to the agricultural sector and 88 to the commercial sector. Fattuh added that Karni will stay closed, however, fuel and gas will enter through Nahal Oz.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37206

Fatah almost banned in Hamas’ Gaza
A senior Fatah leader on Sunday said the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s movement is almost banned in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. "Hamas did not leave any institution for Fatah, it seized all of them," said Ibraheem Abu al-Najja, Fatah representative in Gaza. "There is no room of freedom for Fatah to work in the Gaza Strip." [whereas Hamas has every freedom in the West Bank, of course....]
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90854/6640147.html

Talks / diplomacy

US: Palestinians need not recognize Israel as Jewish state before talks
By Akiva Eldar. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people as a condition for renewing peace talks is unacceptable to the United States, the State Department said during special envoy George Mitchell’s visits over the weekend to Ramallah and Cairo. The State Department released statements saying that the United States would continue to promote a two-state solution. In Ramallah, Mitchell met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Mitchell’s talks also seem to indicate that the United States does not accept Netanyahu’s position that the renewal of negotiations should be postponed until the Iranian nuclear threat is removed.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1079213.html

PA official: No negotiations until Israel commits to two states
The Palestinian Authority will not engage in talks with Israel until it agrees to the two-state solution principle, a senior PA official said on Saturday. Speaking with a delegation from Holland at his office in Ramallah, PA deputy Azzam Al-Ahmad said that if Israel goes along with Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s "economic peace" plan, the PA will not attend negotiations.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37205

Hamas: No recognition for Israel as ’Jewish state’
The Hamas movement on Sunday warned of dealing with Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s call for recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, describing it as “a dangerous demand, and any support for that demand is stabbing Palestinian inalienable rights.” Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum said, “Any compatibility with that demand means giving legitimacy to Israel.”
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37212

Hamas: Shalit talks broke down over jailed Palestinian-Israelis
Talks over a prisoner swap for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit broke down because Israel refused to released imprisoned Palestinian citizens of Israel, Hamas leader Mahmoud Az-Zahhar said on Sunday. He also said Hamas rejected a swap deal that would only include prisoners from inside the Gaza Strip, according to a statement released during a Prisoners Day celebration in Gaza on Saturday evening.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37215

US, Australia to boycott Durban II anti-racism meet
The State Department says the Obama administration will boycott a United Nations racism conference next week over language about Israel and the West in the meeting’s final document. Earlier Saturday, State Department Spokesman Robert Wood said that despite improvements from an earlier draft [see Final Durban II text omits references to Israel and Zionism], the changes in the final text do not address U.S. concerns of anti-Israel and anti-Western bias.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1079121.html

Britain goes against US boycott, will attend Durban II
Breaking ranks with key Western nations, Britain on Sunday said it would be participating in the upcoming United Nations-sponsored Durban II anti-racism conference. "It is the intention of the government to attend the conference," a British foreign office spokesperson told Haaretz. "We’ll have our ambassador to the UN in Geneva leading our delegation."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1079354.html

Palestinian civil society launches "Israel Review Conference" in Geneva on the eve of Durban review
Representing over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations, the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) launches its Israel Review Conference under the title: "United Against Apartheid, Colonialism and Racism: Justice and Dignity for the Palestinian People." The conference takes place in Geneva between the 17th and 18th of April 2009 on the eve of the United Nation’s Durban Review Conference. At the conference, internationally renowned legal experts, researchers, academics, and activists from five continents will discuss legal strategies to hold Israel accountable for its illegal policies and practices of racial discrimination. Participants at the conference are also scheduled to discuss strategies for linking global struggles against racism, and concrete steps to challenge Israeli apartheid within the framework of the rapidly growing global movement calling for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it complies with international law.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=583:palestinian-civil-society-launches-israel-review-conference-in-geneva-on-the-eve-of-durban-review&catid=81:world-news&Itemid=198

Hamas delegation in Egypt ahead of unity talks
EL-ARISH, Egypt (AFP)—A delegation of Hamas officials from Gaza arrived in Egypt through the Rafah border crossing Sunday, a border official said, a week before Palestinian unity talks were to resume in Cairo. The delegation was led by Salah Bardawil, one of the Islamist movement’s leaders in the Gaza Strip.
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=200904191147dowjonesdjonline000344&title=hamas-delegation-in-egypt-ahead-of-unity-talks

Egypt denies Hamas spokesman travel through Rafah
GAZA, April 19 (Xinhua) — The Egyptian authorities prevented a Hamas government spokesman from leaving the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing, Palestinian sources said on Sunday. Ihab al-Ghussein, spokesman for Hamas interior ministry, headed for the crossing point on Saturday since Egypt decided to open it for two days to allow the Gazans stranded at both sides to pass through, said the sources. The spokesman, however, returned after nearly two hours of waiting, the sources said, adding that al-Ghussein was denied travel due to earlier statements in which he criticized Egypt.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-04/19/content_11214379.htm

Egyptian connection

Israeli officials downplay Egypt’s snubbing of Lieberman
Israeli diplomatic officials aren’t quite sure what to make of the Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit’s comments that Cairo does not intend to work with his counterpart Avigdor Lieberman. Gheit said in an interview Wednesday with Russia Today TV that they are not dealing with Lieberman nor would he be welcome in Cairo unless his positions change. "We don’t know what it means at all," Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said over the weekend, concerning Gheit’s remarks. "All we know is what he said (Wednesday). We still don’t see how they are planning to work with Israel without the Foreign Ministry. We don’t know what it means in point of fact."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1239710721126&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

’Hezbollah surveyed Egyptian towns close to Israeli border’
Hezbollah mapped Egyptian towns close to the Israeli border, the London-based Arabic language newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reported Sunday. According to the report, Nimer Fahmi and Nasser Abu Umra, both suspected of being involved in a Hezbollah cell operating in Egypt, passed on information about small Bedouin settlements in the Sinai Peninsula to the Iran-backed militant organization. Asharq al-Awsat reported that Fahmi received computerized forms on which he was supposed to fill in information about the number of residents, number of schools and entrances and exits to the villages, as well as a list of the prominent people living there.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1079339.html

Egyptians mulling death sentence for head of terror cell
The investigation against Sami Shehab, head of the Hizbullah terror cell in Egypt, is about to be completed and he may be executed if convicted, the London-based Arabic-language al-Hayat newspaper reported Sunday. According to the report, Shehab will be charged with contacting a foreign agent and illegal possession of explosives ... Meanwhile, Ynet has learned about a dispute in one of Fatah’s armed groups in regards to the involvement of some of its members in the Hizbullah infrastructure in Egypt....
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3702959,00.html

Media

Al-Jazeera ’suing Palestinian media agency over Gaza war’
The pan-Arab satellite network Al-Jazeera has filed a $3m lawsuit against the Palestinian media service provider Ramattan in an Egyptian court to recover losses from the Israeli war on Gaza. The deputy director of Ramattan’s Board, Mufeed Abu Shammala, accused Al-Jazeera of putting its own interests over those of Palestinians, and of attempting to force the agency to close through a financial power play ... Ramattan decided to suspend all its operations domestically and abroad in protest of the suit beginning at 9am on Sunday. A press conference with the chair of the agency’s Board is expected later.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37220

Egypt working to remove Hizbullah TV
In the latest round between pro-establishment forces and Hizbullah representatives in Egypt, a petition was submitted to an Egyptian court asking to revoke the license of the organization’s television station - al-Manar, London-based Arabic-language al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper reported Sunday. The petition maintains that the Shiite-affiliated station recently began broadcasting false news reports about Egypt. Among these, al-Manar was said to have accused Egypt of collaborating with the United States, promoting Jewish interests and trying to "implement the Zionist agenda." The broadcasts, provided by the Egyptian satellite service ’Nilesat’, make al-Manar, along with hundreds of other Arab-language channels, available to millions in the country.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3702984,00.html

Egypt media firm wins court appeall
An Egyptian court has dropped charges against the Cairo News Company(CNC), a media firm accused by the authorities of illegally transmitting footage of anti-government protests.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/04/200941912136811710.html

Other news

Infant under house arrest in Golan Heights
He is a small child, yet he is confined to home arrest, not allowed to leave home with his parents, even for doctor visits. This is not fiction, this is politics, the child is from the occupied Golan Heights, but he was born in Syria. His mother and father are from Majdal Shams, one of the biggest villages in the Syrian Golan Heights, occupied by Israel. He was born in Syria because at that time his parents were studying at the Damascus University in Damascus. After completing their education in Syria they returned back to their village with their newborn, but were informed by the Israeli Authorities that their child cannot leave home for two years because he was born in Syria. The child, Fahid Lu’ay Shqeir, is now one year old and two months, he has to remain imprisoned in his parents’ home until he becomes 2. After that, other “legal procedures will still be needed to ensure that he will be allowed to stay in the country”.
http://imemc.org/article/59901

Official: Egypt approved hosting Fatah’s sixth conference
Egypt may host the Fatah movement’s sixth conference, according to Ibrahim Abu An-Naja, a member of the leading committee in the Gaza Strip on Sunday. He reportedly told the preparatory committee for the conference that all preparations save the date and place for the conference have been decided on. In a statement, Abu Ab-Naja explained that the Revolutionary Council had suggested several places for the conference: Egypt, Jordan or Palestine. He added that Egypt initially approved holding the conference there.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37214

Palestine’s ambassador to Norway responds to death threats
Palestine’s Ambassador to Norway Yasser An-Najjar released a statement on Sunday responding to death threats over accusations that he maintained warm relations with Israel’s ambassador in Olso. In his response An-Najjar said, “I don’t even know what Israel’s ambassador to Norway looks like, so how could I have maintained good relations with him? ... Israeli ambassador Michael Eligal allegedly thanked An-Najjar for accepting Israel’s rationale for the three-week war against Gaza. The message has been circulating on internet forums recently. The ambassador said that the threats to his life were related to the internal Palestinian political rivalry between Hamas and Fatah.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37217

Rivlin: Arabs cannot be forced to sing national anthem
Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin on Sunday chose the Arab city of Umm al-Fahm, home to the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, as his first location for a formal visit following his induction. Less than a month after fights broke out when rightists undertook the controversial ’flag march’ through the city, Rivlin went so far as to say he would not ask residents to sing the national anthem during his visit. "I can’t require non-Jews to sing ’as long as in all hearts there beats a Jewish spirit’," he said. However, "it is important not to incite against Israel," he added, alluding to repeated extreme statements made by Islamic Movement’s leader and city resident Sheikh Raed Salah.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3703101,00.html

Lieberman appoints Bedouin diplomat as Mideast advisor
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has named Bedouin diplomat Ismail Khaldi his Middle East advisor, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Sunday. Khaldi was the first Bedouin to join Israel’s Foreign Service. He currently serves as deputy consul in San Francisco, California. His appointment is said to stem from Lieberman’s’ desire to appoint someone familiar with the complexities of the region who is also fluent in Arabic. Khaldi, 38, is third of 11 siblings. His family resides in a small Bedouin village in upper Galilee. The village is said to have no electricity, no running water and neither a school nor an infirmary. Khaldi served in the IDF and worked as a political analyst for the Defense Ministry and the Israeli Police. He holds a Masters Degree in Political Science from Tel Aviv University.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3703262,00.html

Opinion / Analysis

UN protects Israel from racism charges
By Nora Barrows-Friedman. As the wreckage from Israel’s recent siege on Gaza continues to smolder, international civil society organizations are assembling this week in Switzerland to address Israel’s crimes of military occupation and racism. But any discussion on Israel’s actions in Palestine will be excluded from the formal framework at the Durban Anti-Racism Review Conference in Geneva Monday. Israel-Palestine has been deliberately eliminated from the official program, structured by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN OHCHR). Civil society groups believe that the United States, countries within the European Union and Israel pressured the UN to omit a review of Israel’s racial discrimination against Palestinians.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10470.shtml

A little red light
By Uri Avnery. Perhaps Avigdor Lieberman is only a passing episode in the annals of the State of Israel. Perhaps the fire he is trying to ignite will flicker briefly and go out by itself. Or perhaps the police investigations into the grave corruption affair of which he is suspected will lead to his removal from the public sphere. But the opposite is also possible. Last week he promised his acolytes that the next elections would bring him to power ... Is the State of Israel approaching an existential crisis – moral, political, economic – that could leave it an endangered nation? Can Lieberman, or someone who could take his place, turn out to be a demonic personality like Hitler, or at least Mussolini?
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1240086714/

The Holocaust and Israeli occupation cannot be compared
By Gideon Levy. A large part of the world’s leftists - many of whom consider themselves to be friends of Israel, some of them even Jewish - see the Israeli occupation as a manifestation of renewed Nazism. I reject that comparison with anger and contempt. It is incorrect, horrifically infuriating and harmful to the just Palestinian cause. The occupation is cruel enough, and while comparison to the Holocaust not only cheapens that historical memory, it also undervalues the crimes of the Israeli occupation ... The Israeli occupation is both brutal and cruel. Israel in 2009 is beginning to resemble 1930s Germany more and more. The dehumanization process Palestinians experience, encouraged by the media and executed by the IDF, brings to mind horrific images.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1079368.html

How many Jews would there be if not for the Holocaust?
By Ofri Ilani. If not for the Holocaust, there would be as many as 32 million Jews worldwide, instead of the current 13 million, demographer Professor Sergio Della Pergola has written in a soon-to-be published article. ...he writes: This was the destruction of a generation, and what we are lacking now is not only that generation, it is their children and their children. According to Della Pergola, while the birth rate of the Jewish population outside Israel is relatively low, the young Jewish population of Eastern Europe has great potential for growth. "What would happen if there were another 10 million Jews in Eastern Europe? It raises questions that are like science fiction - for example, would the State of Israel have come into being?" "At present, the percentage of Jews in the world is constantly in decline. Before the Holocaust, the rate was eight Jews per thousand people in the world; today it is two per thousand."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1079194.html

Recognizing the Jewish state of Israel
By Abu Yusef from occupied Palestine. Here in Palestine, we have been utterly confused as to why Israel has publicly backtracked from the Annapolis Peace Process over the last weeks, in the midst of overt US pressure to continue the broken negotiations. We understand that parties like Shas, Likud, Israel Beitenu and others in the coalition do not want to achieve any meaningful peace, and that in fact they want only to extend the Israel’s civilian and military reach into the occupied Palestinian Territories…so why would they be adverse to what had taken place since Annapolis? If anything they should be the ones eagerly promoting a return to the process, while the Palestinians should be running for the hills.
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article912

Bouncer in Jerusalem
By Sam Bahour. ... Though hawkish Benjamin Netanyahu came in second in Israel’s last elections, he was tapped by Israel’s president to form a new government. With his coalition now in place, he is off and running. But where is he running to? Netanyahu is no newcomer to Israeli politics. He has even been prime minister before, at a rather pivotal point in history. He led the government from 1996 to 1999 when a Jewish extremist assassinated Yitzhak Rabin for signing a peace agreement with the Palestinians. Many see Netanyahu as culpable in the collapse of the Oslo Peace Accords, since he had rejected them from the outset. Some even found Netanyahu culpable in Rabin’s death by inciting public fears that the peace process left Israel at risk. This time around, post-Oslo, he is making history again by joining forces with another Israeli party leader who did well in Israel’s latest elections, Moldova-born Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s David Duke.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=15030

What would Palestine want us to do?
By Mazin Qumsiyeh - Bethlehem. We now know how Nothingyahoo (Netanyahu) intends to pursue the classic Israeli policy of engaging in endless "Peace Talks" without the intention of reaching any peace based on International law. He says to US envoy George Mitchell that his government wants the Palestinians to agree to recognize Israel not just as a state but as “A JEWISH STATE” before beginning to discuss the possibility of a two-state solution. This is like South Africa under apartheid insisting that the ANC recognize South Africa as a White State before beginning to discuss the possibility of giving the blacks a state (a Bantustan).
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=15028

Olmert’s private soldier
By Zvi Bar’el. Where have all those protesting on behalf of Shalit gone? The slogans, the satire, the interviews - were they there only to serve Olmert? Was the former prime minister the only one who wanted Shalit released, but his successors are relieved of that duty? A bizarre assumption is making the rounds that Benjamin Netanyahu is not bound by Olmert’s commitment to bring Shalit home. A new government has taken over, and everything starts from zero. Netanyahu is sailing on waves of public understanding that he will not be the one to win Shalit’s release.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1079220.html

Film review: The Lemon Tree (2008)
Salma Zidane (Hiam Abbass), the proud, handsome 45-year-old Palestinian woman at the center of “Lemon Tree,” an allegory of Israeli-Palestinian strife, has the misfortune of living in the wrong place at the wrong time. Widowed for 10 years, with a son in the United States, Salma earns a meager living from a lemon grove on the Green Line separating Israel from the occupied territories of the West Bank. The grove has been in her family for 50 years. Her solitary life suddenly turns upside down when the Israeli defense minister, Israel Navon (Doron Tavory), moves into a fancy new house that abuts the grove. No sooner have Navon and his beautiful, cultured wife, Mira (Rona Lipaz-Michael), moved into the new house than Salma receives an official letter informing her that the grove poses a security threat from terrorists hiding among the trees; as a military necessity they must be uprooted. Opens on Friday in Manhattan.
http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/movies/17lemo.html?scp=1&sq=Lemon%20Tree&st=cse&em