Today in Palestine!

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Land theft / Destruction / House demolitions / Settlements

$250 million for settlements in Israel budget
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel plans to allocate 250 million dollars over the next two years for settlements in the occupied West Bank despite US pressure to halt settlement activity, army radio said. The figure is contained in the 2009-2010 budget, which passed its first reading in the Knesset parliament last week, it said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090621/wl_mideast_afp/mideastdiplomacyisraelsettlerus

Israel hands demolition order to Nablus woman
Israeli authorities notified a woman from a village south of Nablus that they intend to demolish her home due to its proximity to several settlements. The homeowner, identified as Khadija Abdel-Qader Aweis, 44, has been told that her four-bedroom home in Al-Lubban Ash-Sharqiya is slated for destruction in the coming days according to a Palestinian Authority specialist on settlements in the northern West Bank, Ghassan Dughlus. Doughlas told Ma`an that Israel is stepping up attacks on residents by issuing demolition orders to homes near settlements, particularly near Ma’ale Levona and Eli.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38710

Israeli issues demolition orders in isolated Qalqiliya-area village
Israeli authorities notified farmers in the village of Azzun Atma on Sunday that their agricultural infrastructure will be destroyed, according to Palestinian source. Azzun Atma, near Qalqiliya, is a small community cut off from the rest of the West Bank by Israel’s separation wall and wedged between two Israeli settlements. The villager’s only access to the outside world is through a military checkpoint ... The coordinator of the Agriculture Institutions Union’s project in Azzun Atma, Amjad Omar, said that the demolition orders express “the exact meaning of the wall’s concept,” which is to seize land and force those who live on it to leave.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38715

Settler boars damage neighborhoods, crops in Salfit
A herd of boars released by settlers in the northern West Bank attacked neighborhoods and farmland in Salfit on Sunday, according to witnesses. A field of grain near a carpentry area, owned by Faleh Jameel Omran, was destroyed in the incident in which boars attacked Ein Al-Qabila, broke apple trees and devoured their fruit.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38711

More settlement units, no buyers
Israeli TV aired a report on Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, and revealed that while word leaders might believe Israel had stopped the construction of settlements, more units are being built with no buyers in sight. Most of the settlement activities are concentrated in the Ramallah area and Palestinian areas in and close to East Jerusalem. Israel uses Palestinian workers, who barely can feed their families due to high rates of unemployment and poverty, to build its Jewish-only settlements on lands that were illegally annexed from the Palestinians. The report revealed that the Israeli government is also annexing West Bank mountains for future construction of settlements.
http://www.imemc.org/article/60890

Palestinian lawsuit condemns Canadian condo project as war crime
MONTREAL — Members of a tiny Palestinian farming community [Bil`in] will be in Quebec Superior Court Monday claiming two Canadian construction companies are committing war crimes by building condominiums and roads on the village’s land in the West Bank.
http://www.canada.com/news/Palestinian+lawsuit+condemns+Canadian+condo+project+crime/1717662/story.html

Activists to lecture Border Police on rights of settlers
A human rights organization devoted to protecting the rights of settlers in the West Bank will take part in lectures devoted to mentally preparing Border Policemen for service, with a focus on how to protect the human rights of settlers.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1094511.html

Violence against Palestinians / Incursions / Arrests

Settlers torch tent with Palestinians inside near Hebron
Three Palestinians from a small hamlet near Yatta, south of Hebron, on Sunday narrowly escaped death after Israeli settlers set fire to a tent while they were inside. Local residents told Ma’an that Israeli settlers from the nearby Susia settlement, which sits on Palestinian land, set fire to a large tent used as a meeting hall for the small village.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38708

Israel’s army arrests seven, injures three at Hebron protest
Israel’s army arrested seven peace activists demonstrating near the illegal West Bank settlement of Bat Ayin on Saturday, according to local sources. Witnesses also said that three people were injured after soldiers attacked the demonstration, which is a weekly sit-in gathering near the entrance of the settlement north of the Hebron-area village of Beit Ummar. The injured were identified as a photojournalist, a local resident, and an activist.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38702

Israeli forces raid Tulkarem, summon residents for interrogation
Israeli forces raided Nur Shams Refugee Camp and other areas in and around the West Bank city of Tulkarem on Sunday morning. Firing in the air, Israeli soldiers knocked down the doors of Palestinians’ houses, handing over written orders summoning residents for interrogation by the Israeli intelligence.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38714

Israeli forces invade central Gaza after mortar fire
Israeli forces invaded deep into Al-Bureij Refugee Camp in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday after Palestinian fighters launched two mortar shells at forces along the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties ... The armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, the Nasser Salah Ad-Din Brigades, claimed responsibility for launching the mortars at the Israeli position east of Al-Bureij.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38716

Israel probes website over ’murderer’ soldier image
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli prosecutors on Sunday ordered a criminal investigation into a website that it says published a picture of an soldier with the caption "murderer" and asked readers to identify him. Indymedia Israel, a news site and activists’ forum, on April 17 posted pictures taken at Bilin, a village adjacent to Israel’s West Bank barrier where a Palestinian protestor was killed by Israeli forces hours earlier ... But prosecutors claim the soldier, who they say might easily be identified from the image, had nothing to do with the incident.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090621/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictpolicedemointernet

Siege

Gaza official: List of goods permitted entry remains unchanged
No new food or commercial goods are being permitted into Gaza despite Israeli media reports claiming 20 new types of goods were approved recently, de facto government officials said Saturday. Palestinian senior official in the Ministry of Economy Naser As-Sarraj said the reports several days ago in the Israeli media are false, “until this moment the Israeli side has not approved a single new item on the secret list of things permitted into Gaza; there has been no change.”
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38700

De facto government: 22% of meds donated to Gaza Strip expired
Palestinian minister of health in the Hamas-run de facto government, Basim Na’im, said on Sunday that 22 percent of medicines donated to the Gaza Strip were either expired or refined, and were unfit for consumption. He explained that some medicines have became abundant, while others remained rare due to inappropriate selection.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38712

Israel allows first shipment of cattle into Gaza for nine months
the coordinator of activities in the territories, Amos Gilad, has allowed the first shipment of 350 head of cattle into the Strip. Sources involved in the matter said that the resumption of beef supply to the Gaza Strip is in part the result of U.S. pressure on Israel to lift all restrictions on the importation of various types of foodstuffs into the Strip. The same sources also pointed to the pending visit of Defense Minister Ehud Barak to Egypt as another impetus for the easing of the embargo.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1094436.html

Gaza’s 1.5 milion people are getting 350 calves today - the first Israeli delivery in nine months
...the Israeli military’s "Coordinator of (Israeli) Government Activities in the Territories" (COGAT) has reportedly determined — after a supposedly careful and somehow-scientific analysis redolent of other notoriously disastrous historical precedents involving social engineering experiments on a captive population — that 300 cows per week are the minimum needed in Gaza in order to avoid malnutrition, and a "humanitarian crisis" (which U.S. President Barack Obama said in Germany in early June already exists).
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/106938

Two Gaza border crossings partially open [Sunday]; Karni closed
Raed Fattouh, a Palestinian border crossings official, said that 60-71 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid and commercial goods would pass through Kerem Shalom, limited quantities of cooking gas, and industrial diesel for Gaza’s only power plant be shipped through Nahal Oz.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38705

Pride inspired by an orphanage rising out of mud bricks and rubble
GAZA CITY — On a recent hot, dry afternoon, Yasser Rihan, 30, was wrapping up the day’s work on a construction site in the southern part of Gaza City. Mr Rihan was laying the foundation for a new orphanage, the kind of institution increasingly in demand in the battered Gaza Strip and the kind of construction that is now almost non-existent in the impoverished and isolated enclave. The only reason this construction is going ahead, a “miracle”, according to Mr Rihan, is that instead of relying on modern construction materials like cement, steel and glass, the orphanage is being built from mud bricks and usable rubble from the many destroyed buildings and houses in Gaza.
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090621/FOREIGN/706209852/1011/rss

Hamas, UN open their summer camps for Gaza children
The "Summer without Boredom" program is one of the latest activities Hamas launched to permeate through the complex society in Gaza by attracting children to join its camps where they learn Qur’an, sports, basics of self defense and numerous skill ... But a few blocks down to the west of the mosque, groups of young girls rejoiced in joyful playing inside a beachside camp of bright-colored tents under a United Nations flag.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-06/22/content_11578033.htm

Aid agencies slam Gaza blockade
By Mel Frykberg. RAMALLAH, Jun 20 (IPS) - Forty international aid agencies and NGOs have released a joint statement condemning Israel’s blockade of Gaza, to mark the second anniversary of the coastal territory being hermetically sealed off from the outside world. Simultaneously, an increasingly concerned U.S. administration is pressuring Israel to change its Gaza policy and alleviate unnecessary suffering.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47302

PRC leader to marry on third anniversary of Shalit capture
Abu Mujahid says he wants his wedding day to be ’blessed as day kidnapping was carried out’ — As Israel prepares to mark the three-year anniversary of the kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, Ynet has learned that in Gaza the date will mark the wedding of Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) spokesman Abu Mujahid. The PRC is one of the organizations responsible for Shalit’s capture,
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3734815,00.html

Gaza’s two years under Hamas: order and absurdity
(AP) GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Two years after Hamas seized power, the Gaza Strip is a jumble of absurdities: an economy sustained by smuggling through tunnels, a civil service that gets paid on condition it doesn’t work, and a population no longer fearful of gangs but feeling muzzled under the thumb of Hamas. Under a border closure enforced by Egypt and Israel, the U.N. says, shampoo can come in but conditioner can’t. Nor can toys, candy or footballs.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090621/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_gaza_strange_days

Feature: Mobiles ring a bell of political belief in Gaza
by Saud Abu Ramada. Baraa, an 11-year-old boy, was building a sandy castle on Gaza city’s beach, when a ringing mobile at the adjacent summer vacationist’s tent caught his attention. "Fatah ... mother of free nations, keep your flags higher," rang the bell of the mobile. Baraa dusted the sand off his hands and dashed to his mother, whispering: "Mom, our neighbors are Fatah members! I heard their mobile." His 38-year-old mother Om Baraa was startled at these remarks, wondering how such a little boy knew about political affiliations.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-06/21/content_11577366.htm

Refugees

The agony of Iraq’s Palestinians
By Nisreen El-Shamayleh. In the past few years, the Palestinians’ 61-year-old tragedy has been given a new dimension. The Palestinian refugees of Iraq, who became victims of persecution and violence before being chased from their Baghdad homes after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, are among the world’s most vulnerable communities.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009618161946158577.html

Palestinians still cling to right of return for refugees despite Israeli denial
(Xinhua) — Palestinian politicians and intellectuals agreed unanimously to adhere to the Palestinian refugees’ right of return during a workshop held in Gaza on Saturday to mark World Refugee Day
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-06/21/content_11574488.htm

Detainees

Israeli postpones release of senior Fatah deputy
Israeli authorities have decided to postpone the release of Fatah-affiliated lawmaker Jamal Hwiel from prison, according to reports on Monday. The Fatah leader from Jenin Refugee Camp finished a seven-and-a-half-year sentence on 20 June, a Saturday.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38713

Report: violence, crowding in prisons
[Israeli prisons, Israeli prisoners!] Prisoners in Israel suffer from crowding, neglect, inadequate medical care and poor sanitary conditions that often threaten their health, the 2008 Public Defender Report released today suggests ... One prisoner told investigators that the wardens treated their charges "like animals" and that they would "beat prisoners to pulp."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1094442.html

Political developments

Palestinians predict progress in Shalit deal
Hamas, PA sources say Israel now willing to consider releasing 200 ’heavy’ Palestinian prisoners in exchange for captured IDF soldier; Hamas willing to consider their deportation from West Bank, they add
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3734413,00.html

Mashaal: Israeli obstinacy preventing Shalit deal
Hamas politburo chief attributes stalemate in prisoner exchange negotiations to Israel’s insistence on refusing to release ’quality’ detainees — Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal has denied reports that the Islamist group might soon relax its conditions and present a new list of prisoners for an exchange deal with Israel, which would secure the release of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3734294,00.html

Assad spurns Netanyahu offer to resume peace talks
Syrian President Bashar Assad rejected the offer of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a resumption of peace talks between the two countries from "point zero." In talks with Mitchell, who had relayed Netanyahu’s proposal, Assad requested that a direct line of communication be established between himself and President Barack Obama.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1094438.html

Syrian, Palestinian presidents seek unified Arab stance in Damascus
Damascus - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sought a unified Arab stance on negotiations with Israel during their meeting in Damascus on Saturday, a Palestinian spokesman said. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech last week outlining his government’s policy on the Israeli-Arab conflict had made clear the necessity of a joint Arab stance.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/274122,syrian-palestinian-presidents-seek-unified-arab-stance-in-damascus.html

Abbas in Damascus: No negotiations while settlements expand
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated on Saturday evening that he will not negotiate with Israel until all settlement activity is put to a halt. Abbas met with the exiled Secretary-General of the leftist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), Nayef Hawatmeh, in Damascus.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38718

Barak says Israel must be respected as Jewish state
CAIRO (AFP) - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said on Sunday that more needs to be done for the creation of a Palestinian state, including Arab recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. Barak was speaking after talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, intelligence chief Omar Suleiman — Egypt’s pointman for Palestinian affairs — and Defence Minister Hussein Tantawi during a brief visit to Cairo.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/5669232

Jimmy Carter: US, European Union have committed crime against Palestinians
Former President Jimmy Carter accused the U.S., Israel and the European Union on Tuesday of seeking to divide the Palestinian people by reopening aid to President Mahmoud Abbas’ new government in the West Bank while denying the same to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Far from encouraging Hamas’ move into parliamentary politics, Carter said the U.S. and Israel, with European Union acquiescence, sought to subvert the outcome by shunning Hamas and helping Abbas to keep the reins of political and military power. "That action was criminal," he said in a news conference after his speech.
http://tripolipost.com/articledetail.asp?c=1&i=919

Malta opens Representative office in Ramallah
(20 June) A Maltese diplomatic office was opened today in Ramallah in the Palestinian West Bank. An embassy will also be opened tomorrow in Tel Aviv. Both initiatives are being held jointly with Cyprus ... Foreign Minister Tonio Borg said the Government of Malta has decided that the Palestinian Territories should feature as a priority area for Malta’s Overseas Development Policy.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090620/local/malta-opens-diplomatic-representation-in-ramallah

Palestinians establish diplomatic relations with Venezuela, open embassy
(AP) ...Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki thanked President Hugo Chavez’s government for its support during the recent Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip, which prompted the Venezuelan leader to break off relations with Israel.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/world/ap/48688832.html

Other news

Palestinian Authority opens new police station in Nablus area
PA police formally announced on Sunday that they will open a new police station in Qabalan village, south of Nablus in the northern West Bank. This station will be the sixth Palestinian police station built in Nablus after Urif opened a few days ago.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38709

More cases of fatal fly disease reported in Jordan Valley
Residents of the Jordan Valley, both in Jordan and Palestine, face the threat of sand flies and a disease known as Leishmania. Studies have revealed that the fly flourishes on untreated chicken dung from farms on the Jordanian side.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38707

New Tel Aviv bar bans IDF soldiers in uniform, settlement products
The Rogatka - "slingshot" - bar was opened by an "anarchist collective" who once ran the Salon Mazal bar. The bar’s ban on soldiers in uniform and the carrying of weapons, along with its boycott on products made in the settlements, derive from what employees see as the connection between all forms of oppression, from the slaughter of animals to sexism to occupation.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1094506.html

Netanyahu promises funds to Druze sector
A number of Druze council heads met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Interior Minister Eli Yishai Sunday following a violent protest held by the Druze sector in Jerusalem, in which seven police officers were injured .. "The prime minister said he feels like a brother to the Druze people and promised that despite the difficult financial situation, a family helps its members," said the chairman of the Forum of Heads of Druze and Circassian Local Authorities, Salah Fares.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3734769,00.html

Druze rally against ’state discrimination’ near Netanhayu office
Demonstrators hurled eggs, sticks and bottles at riot police. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said two policemen and several protesters were injured in the violence. Druze community leaders say that state funding for their villages falls short of allocations for Jewish communities in Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1094529.html

Ancient Holy Land quarry uncovered, team says
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli archaeologists said on Sunday they had discovered the largest underground quarry in the Holy Land, dating back to the time of Jesus and containing Christian symbols etched into the walls.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090621/ts_nm/us_palestinians_israel_archaeology

Luxury Palestinan mall signals transformation of ’terror capital’
The skies lit up over Jenin last month, and it wasn’t tracer bullets or flash bombs but celebratory fireworks, set off to mark the occasion of the opening of Hirbawi Home Center, a new luxury establishment on the city’s outskirts.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1094441.html

Music - Ensemble ambitions in a world divided
[Listen to some of their music on the site] ...The men are a cross section of the Palestinian experience in miniature: two Muslims, a Christian and a Druse. They live in Israel, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and abroad. The West Bank member cannot go to Israel because of Israeli travel restrictions on Palestinians. The Israeli Arab cannot go to the West Bank because of Israeli travel restrictions on Israelis....
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/arts/music/21wakin.html?_r=2&ref=arts&pagewanted=all

Largest-ever kunafa to break Guinness world record in Nablus
The plate of the Palestinian delicacy will be 75 meters long and two meters wide, and will weigh 1,350 kilograms, according to Muhannad Ar-Rabi ... Ar-Rabi added that all the necessary documents from Guinness have been prepared, and that the giant kunafa will be created during the city’s annual shopping festival, which will start in mid-July.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38717

Opinion / Analysis

The Middle East in motion
By Joschka Fischer. Great speeches are all too often underestimated as being mere words. In fact, they can have powerful consequences. This is obviously the case with President Obama’s recent address to the Muslim world in Cairo, because – mere coincidence or excellent timing? – things in the Middle East have been in flux ever since.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/jun/20/barack-obama-middle-east

Israel: Road map to nowhere
By Aijaz Zaka Syed. When Benjamin Netanyahu promised his own road map, after President Barack Obama gave him those stony looks in the Oval Office with the world media watching, even the most hardened cynics began nursing hopes of peace. We thought, maybe, Israel, prodded by its faithful ally and biggest backer, finally has had a change of heart. But Israel is nothing if not consistent.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=123803&d=19&m=6&y=2009

Israeli state
By A.B. Yehoshua. ...the term Jewish state, with its attendant religious association, compels the non-Jewish citizens to emphasize in contradistinction their different religion, Muslim or Christian, as a distinguishing determinant of identity. "Israeli state," whether with the addition of "democratic" or even only alone, however, generates closeness and partnership with that state. This is because even for a Palestinian, a Druze, a Muslim or a Christian, Israeli citizenship - which is embodied also in various daily frameworks, in the Hebrew language and, of course, in a deep and shared relationship to the homeland - accords a part and even a certain partnership in historic national Israeliness....
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1094013.html