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Gaza looks for work, not aid

GAZA CITY (IPS) 30 Sept by Eva Bartlett — “The overwhelming majority of people we work with tell us, ‘We don’t want the aid, we want to have an opportunity to work and earn money’. Especially people who had a decent job but lost it in the last many years : before asking for any aid, they ask for a job.” In his work as Gaza-based communications officer with Oxfam GB, Karl Schembri interacts on a regular basis with some of Gaza’s most impoverished Palestinians, poverty he says is avoidable. “Gaza cannot be called a humanitarian situation, it’s all man-made. It’s a situation of de-development, where the infrastructure and knowhow was there and development was occurring,” he tells IPS, referring to the years before 2006 when, after Hamas was democratically elected, Israel imposed its suffocating closure of the Gaza Strip. [for photos, see here]
http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/09/gaza-looks-for-work-not-aid/

Protests continue against Egypt’s closure of Gaza tunnels

GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 1 Oct — Dozens of protesters gathered in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday as demonstrations continued against Egypt’s closure of tunnels under their border used to circumvent Israel’s blockade. Local officials, doctors and a group from the Palestine Scholars Association joined the rally near the Nasser Medical Compound in Khan Younis, a Ma‘an reporter said. Director of the health facility Jamal al-Hums noted the shortages facing the health sector in Gaza ... In a speech to the rally al-Hums appealed to the Egyptian president asking him to fulfill "the promise he made to the people of Gaza before and after he was elected." ... Speaking at Monday’s protest, Palestinian writer Fayiz Abu Shammala urged Egypt to find a solution for Gaza before demolishing the tunnels. "Closing the tunnels without finding an alternative means slowly killing the people of Gaza," he said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=525080

Morsy in Turkey : Gaza border is open, Syria repression must end

Al-Masri Al-Youm 30 Sept — The border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip will remain open, President Mohamed Morsy told the general conference of Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) Sunday. “Egyptians can never stand by helplessly when they see the people of Gaza under siege,” Morsy said in remarks broadcast on Egyptian state television. “The border crossings between us and Gaza will remain open to fulfill the needs of the people of Gaza, including food, medication, education and communication between families.”
http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/morsy-turkey-gaza-border-open-syria-repression-must-end

Gaza’s only goods [freight] crossing closed until Tuesday for holiday

GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 1 Oct — The Gaza Strip’s sole commercial crossing is closed until Tuesday because of Israeli holidays, Gaza crossing officials said. Raed Fattouh said the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing was not operating for four days, the combination of the Friday-Saturday Israeli weekend, and the Sunday-Monday holiday for the Jewish festival Sukkot.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=524917

Official : Cost of domestic-use gas to decrease in Gaza

GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 1 Oct — Prices of domestic-use gas in the Gaza Strip were decreased on Monday morning after a reduction by the Israeli supplier, an official said. Muhammad al-Abadla, a board member at the oil companies association, said that a 12-kilo canister of domestic-use gas will be reduced from 74 to 64 shekels ($16).
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=524986

Gaza official : Israel fruit ban helps ’nutritional’ local produce

GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 30 Sept — Gaza Ministry of Agriculture undersecretary Ibrahim Al-Qudra said Sunday that they are restricting Israeli fruit imports due to quality control issues, as well as protection of the local market. In recent days ministry officials announced that no fruits would be imported from Israel, with the exception of apples and bananas, to help local farmers. Al-Qudra told reporters that local products have a better nutritional value than those imported from Israel. He also noted the danger to the local agricultural sector of cheap imports.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=524754

Algerian scout group visits Gaza

GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 29 Sept — Gaza prime minister Ismail Haniyeh on Saturday hosted a delegation of Algerian scouts in the Gaza Strip, a statement from his office said. The Gaza premier applauded Algeria’s "historic role" in supporting the Palestinians, and saluted the people and government of Algeria on marking their 50th anniversary since independence from France in 1962.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=524548

Fighter killed in Gaza

IMEMC 1 Oct — The Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, reported that one of its fighters was killed, on Sunday at dawn, in what it called “a Jihadist mission”. The Brigades identified the fighter as Mohammad Abdullah Hamad, 22, from An-Nusseirat refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip.
http://www.imemc.org/article/64318

Gaza rocket hits Israel : police

JERUSALEM (AFP) 1 Oct — Gaza militants fired a rocket into southern Israel on Monday that fell on open ground near the border without causing casualties or damage, police told AFP. The last major flare-up in and around Gaza was in June, when militants fired more than 150 rockets at southern Israel, wounding five people, and Israel hit back with air strikes that killed 15 Palestinians.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Oct-01/189826-gaza-rocket-hits-israel-police.ashx#axzz285h2TThS

Gaza group says leader tortured by Hamas for firing rockets

Ynet 1 Oct — Gaza Strip, says Hamas’ security organizations arrested six of its activities, including its leader Ismail Hamid. According to organization sources, Hamas interrogated and tortured Hamid, claiming he was responsible for firing rockets on Israel.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4287263,00.html

Violence / Raids / Illegal arrests

Renewed clashes in Ras Al-Amoud in East Jerusalem

IMEMC 2 Oct — A Palestinian woman and a teenage girl were injured, on Monday evening, after Israeli soldiers broke into their home in Ras Al-Amoud neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem, following clashes that took place between dozens of Palestinian youths and Israeli soldiers. Local sources reported that the clashes erupted after a number of Israeli soldiers attempted to kidnap a Palestinian man identified as Rami Mohammad Ali, 30, from the Anata refugee camp in Jerusalem. Medical sources said that a Rania Az-Zaghal, 27, and Nadin Az-Zaghal, 13, were injured after the soldiers broke into their home and attacked them. Rania was moved to Hadassah Israeli hospital.
http://www.imemc.org/article/64327

Palestinian youth found dead near Israeli settlement

IMEMC 1 Oct — Palestinian medical sources reported that the body of a 16-year old Palestinian youth was found near Beit Arieh, an illegal Israeli settlement built on Palestinian lands that belong to residents of Aboud village, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah. Initial reports indicated that Ashraf Ali Al-Ali, 16, was killed on Sunday evening near the settlement, and that the cause of death is a sharp blow to the head likely caused by a hit-and-run accident ... The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank initiated contacts with the Israeli side in order to receive the body to conduct the needed autopsy to determine the cause of death.
The slain youth is a Bedouin living with his family and tribe near Aboud village. Further information is not yet available due to the fact that the body is still with the Israeli side.
http://www.imemc.org/article/64322

Palestinians commemorate killing of 13 protesters in Israel

TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma’an) 1 Oct — Palestinians in Israel on Monday commemorated the killing of 13 civilians by Israeli forces in 2000, calling for justice for the victims, Israeli media reported. Services were held in Umm el-Fahm, Nazareth, Kfar Kana and other Palestinian villages in the Galilee ... The Orr Commission, established following the deaths, found Israeli police incompetence and a history of discrimination against Palestinians in Israel. Rights group Adalah represented the families of the victims before an official commission of inquiry, but in 2008 the attorney general issued a decision not to indict any of the Israeli police officers responsible for the deaths. The killings took place in October 2000 during a series of Palestinian protests in northern Israel at the onset of the second intifada.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=525138

The IOF arrest four in Al-Khalil and Qalqilya, including a minor

AL-KHALIL (PIC) 1 Oct — Palestinian sources said that an Israeli military force raided in the early hours of Sunday morning, the town of Azzun east of Qalqilya, and arrested three youths, Mutassim Radwan, Ahmed Radwan and Abdel-Latif Swedan, after breaking into their homes and searching them. Palestinian security sources in al-Khalil also said that the IOF arrested, on Sunday, the child Mohammed Ghneimat, 16, from the town of Surif, northern al-Khalil while trying to enter the Ibrahimi mosque. Local sources confirmed that IOF arrested the child Mahmoud Ghanimat and took him to an unknown destination, as soldiers raided towns in the south of the city, Kharsa and Sorrah and Taramah southern al-Khalil, no arrests were registered.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

Settler violence and Israeli incitement : a culture of hatet

PNN 1 Oct — PLP’s Negotiations Affairs Department are pleased to have released the latest study entitled "Settler Violence and Israeli Incitement : A Culture of Hate." Copies of this research were distributed to heads of states during the United Nations General Debate last week. Read study here
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/national/2785-settler-violence-and-israeli-incitement-a-culture-of-hate

Land, property theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing

Even Israeli agency warns of wall’s damage to Battir, historic Palestinian village

BATTIR (IPS) 1 Oct by Jillian Kestler-D’Amours — Dating back to the late 1890s, the historical Jaffa-Jerusalem railroad winds in a U-shape at the base of the valley. Olive groves adorn the bottom of one steep hill. Further up the slope, pine trees and an Israeli army patrol road lead westward towards Jerusalem. On the adjacent hillside, a Roman-era irrigation system feeds picturesque agricultural terraces ; olive trees, eggplant, peppers and other vegetables sit among the different levels around a flowing spring. Dozens of stone houses are tightly squeezed onto the top of the hill, where a steep, winding road links this historical Palestinian village, Battir, to Bethlehem and the rest of the southern West Bank. "It’s not an issue of land only. It’s more than that ; there’s a cultural heritage that exists in the ground,” said 27-year-old Hassan Muammar, a civil engineer and Battir native who works at the Battir Landscape Eco-Museum. “The continuity of landscape and the nature will be affected very much by imposing the wall in this area.”.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/even-israeli-agency-warns-walls-damage-battir-historic-west-bank-village/11721

Occupation seizes 1,800 meters from Bab al-Rahma cemetery in Jerusalem

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 30 Sept — A Palestinian committee in occupied Jerusalem warned against the Israeli municipality of West Jerusalem decision to confiscate 1800 meters of the southern land of the Bab al-Rahma Cemetery in Jerusalem, and considered it a new aggression on Waqf and holy sites ... It said the confiscation of the cemetery’s land is an attempt to Judiaze it and establish tourist pathways and “Talmudic landmarks”, aiming to establish their alleged temple, preventing the Palestinian residents from burying their dead in this historic cemetery.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/

Occupation plans to extend Har Houma settlement

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 30 Sept — The Hebrew weekly Yorshalim newspaper reported on Friday that rightist settlers had recently erected a tent on a hill near Umm Tuba village, in southern Jerusalem. The new tent was set up on a hill near the back entrance of Har Houma settlement, close to an Israeli police station, in an attempt to create an outpost that will eventually become an extension to Har Houma settlement. The Yorshalim newspaper reported that there is no guard on the settlers residing in the new outpost which is only one street away from Umm Tuba village and that the settlers raised Israeli flags on the tent and the Star of David made of tree branches.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/

Jewish calls for storming al-Aqsa Mosque

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 1 Oct — Al-Aqsa Foundation for Waqf and Heritage warned of the consequences of calls by a Jewish organization, belonging to the ruling Likud party and led by Moshe Feiglin, for storming al-Aqsa Mosque on Tuesday, on occasion of Hebrew "Sukkot" holiday. The Jewish organization announced that the storming will start at half past seven on Tuesday morning and will include explanations that will be provided by Moshe Feiglin. The Aqsa Foundation for Waqf and Heritage stressed that al-Aqsa Mosque belongs to Muslims alone and noted that although the Israeli police have earlier prevented Feiglin from entering al-Aqsa Mosque to celebrate his success in Likud elections for fear of opposition reactions, he will likely be allowed to enter it this time...
It also noted that the number of those who have stormed al-Aqsa Mosque since the beginning of the year reached 4700 settlers, nearly 3250 soldiers and around 220 thousand foreign tourists who have entered al-Aqsa, under the occupation forces’ heavy guard.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/

The establishment of new settlements in the West Bank

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, BETHLEHEM (PIC) 1 Oct — The Settlement Subcommittee in West Bank decided to change the classification of the large land area of Jouret Alkatfeh in the town of Abu Dis from agricultural land as it was announced in the past, to land used for housing and public facilities, a prelude to grab it to expand "Kedar" settlement built on the territories of the town. This decision came in light of the Israeli confiscation and Judaization plans in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, the lawyer Bassam Bahr, Chairman of the Committee for the Defense of lands in Abu Dis, said in a statement on Sunday. He added that this Israeli scheme came in light of the plan announced by Minister of war in which he called for Israeli unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank, in order to add all the main outposts and settlements to the entity.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/

Prisoners

Ailing detainee moved to hospital

IMEMC 1 Oct — The International Solidarity Foundation for Human Rights reported that Palestinian detainees, Mohammad Rafeeq At-Taaj, 42, imprisoned at the Hadarim Israeli prison was moved to hospital due to a sharp deterioration in his health condition. At-Taaj suffers from blood oxygen deficiency (hypoxia) and asthma ; he was moved to the Kfar Saba Israeli hospital for medical checkups. His health condition deteriorated more than 10 days ago, and the Prison Administration refused to transfer him to hospital until Sunday ... At-Taaj was kidnapped by the army on November 19, 2003, and was sentenced to 14.5 years ; he is from the Tubas district in the West Bank. Last March, At-Taaj conducted a two-month hunger strike demanding Israel to treat him as a prisoner of war.
http://www.imemc.org/article/64321

Human rights organization : 1400 patient-prisoners in Israeli jails

AL-KHALIL (PIC) 30 Sept — A human rights organization said that there are one thousand and four hundred Palestinian patient-prisoners in Israeli jails, "suffering from deliberate medical neglect that is leading to the deterioration of their health." "Ansar al-Asra" Organization warned, in a report released on Saturday, of the seriousness of the prisoners’ health conditions, which has been recently deteriorating ... The organization stated that 22 patient-prisoners are being "isolated" in Ramle Hospital, which is lacking constituents of medical care and specialized medical crews.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/

Israel releases Hamas lawmakers from jail [and extends administrative detention of Natsheh]

RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 1 Oct — Israel released two Palestinian lawmakers from prison on Saturday, after over 15 months in administrative detention, a prisoners group said. Samir al-Qadi, from Hebron, was arrested on June 16, 2011 and Rahman Zeidan from Tulkarem was detained on June 2, Addameer said. Both officials are elected Hamas lawmakers.
On Thursday, Israel extended the administrative detention of Muhammad Natsheh for four months. He was arrested by Israeli forces on Jan 31.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=524716

Journalist Khalid still refuses to eat or talk for the 10th day

NABLUS (PIC) 30 Sept — Journalist and liberated captive Walid Khaled, from the village of Iskaka, entered his tenth day refusing to eat or talk in Juneid prison west of Nablus, in protest at his arbitrary political detention by the PA. Walid Khalid was arrested by PA security only two weeks after his release from Israeli occupation prisons after serving more than 16 years there.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/

PA releases Zakaria Zubeidi on jail

BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 1 Oct — Former Fatah fighter Zakaria Zubeidi was released from Palestinian Authority jail on Monday evening, his lawyer said. Zubeidi has been charged with connection to the shooting on the late Jenin governor’s house in May, attorney Farid Hawash said. Qaddura Musa died hours later of a heart attack. Hawash said Zubeidi would plead not guilty at the next hearing on Oct. 7 ... Zubeidi had been jailed without charge for more than four months, until he received the formal charge last Sunday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=525155

Prisoner has not seen mother in 12 years, says group

RAMALLAH, Oct 1 (WAFA) – A Palestinian prisoner from East Jerusalem has not seen his mother in 12 years, the Palestinian Prisoners Club said on Monday. It said Mahmoud Issa, 44, who is serving three life terms plus 46 years, was held in solitary confinement for 12 years and was only brought out of isolation following the prisoners’ strike in April. An attorney for the Prisoners Club said after visiting Issa in Gilboa prison that the Israel Prison Service has not allowed Issa’s family visitation since his placement in solitary confinement and that he has not been allowed to see his mother since then. Issa was worried he might not see his ailing mother at all if she is not given permission to visit him in prison soon.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=20777

Activism / Solidarity

Call to action for peace in Israel and Palestine

ICN 30 Sept — The discrepancy between 400 Palestinian deaths and 20 Israeli deaths over the period 2009 to July 2012 sadly highlights the injustice of the Israeli government’s military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, according to the General Secretary of Pax Christi UK. “If the Israeli government wants peace and security, the way they have approached it is irrational,” commented Pat Gaffney last Saturday, “for military occupation raises tension and conflict”. She was speaking at a study day ‘Untold Stories from Israel/Palestine – A Call to Action for Peace’, held at the Niland Conference Centre of the Dominican Sisters’ Rosary Priory in Hertfordshire. She lamented that, “it is possible for Christian pilgrims to visit the Holy Land and Holy places and not to be aware of the realities on the ground”.
http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=21152

Political / Economic News

US warns European governments against supporting Palestinians at UN

Guardian 1 Oct by Harriet Sherwood — The United States has warned European governments against supporting a Palestinian bid for enhanced status at the United Nations, saying such a move "would be extremely counterproductive" and threatening "significant negative consequences" for the Palestinian Authority, including financial sanctions. A US memorandum, seen by the Guardian, said Palestinian statehood "can only be achieved via direct negotiations with the Israelis" and urged European governments "to support [American] efforts" to block the bid. The message was communicated by officials to representatives of European governments at the UN general assembly (UNGA) in New York last week.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/01/us-warns-europe-palestinians-un

Palestinian official says Obama didn’t ask to resume Mideast talks

RAMALLAH (Xinhua) 1 Oct — The United States President Barack Obama didn’t ask the Palestinian side for resuming the peace talks with Israel, a senior Palestinian official said Monday. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Xinhua on telephone that the Palestinian side hasn’t received any official offer or proposal from anybody to resume peace negotiations with Israel.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-10/01/c_131884285.htm

Erekat : Consultations underway over UN resolution

JERICHO (Ma‘an) 1 Oct — The Palestinian Authority has started consultations with Arab countries and other geopolitical groups over phrasing a draft resolution to the UN General Assembly requesting acceptance of Palestine as non-member state, PLO official Saeb Erekat said Monday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=525011

PLO factions in Gaza back UN bid

GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 1 Oct — PLO factions on Monday backed efforts to upgrade Palestine’s status at the United Nations ... Fatah, the Popular Struggle Front, the Palestinian Liberation Front and the Arabic Palestinian Liberation Front met in Gaza City on Monday and confirmed their support for the initiative.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=525183

Qatar opens diplomatic office in Gaza

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) 30 Sept — In a boost to Gaza’s Hamas government, the Gulf state of Qatar said on Sunday it opened the first diplomatic office in the isolated territory since the Islamic military group took power five years ago. Qatari officials said the office is not a formal embassy. Instead, it will oversee hundreds of millions of dollars in aid projects Qatar is funding. Nonetheless, it is headed by an ambassador and marks a key stamp of legitimacy for Hamas, whose takeover of Gaza in 2007 has never been internationally recognized.
http://news.yahoo.com/qatar-opens-diplomatic-office-gaza-151202319.html

PA finance ministry to cut fuel prices from Oct 1

RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 31 Sept — The Palestinian Ministry of Finance announced Sunday that fuel prices are set to be reduced, a statement said. The price cuts, which will be implemented on Oct. 1, will see a liter of diesel reduced from 6.95 shekels ($1.77) to 6.70 ($1.70) ... The measures were part of a package to alleviate the economic crisis which had pushed Palestinians to the streets to protest the rising cost of living.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=524852

Electricity company : Govt bodies have not paid bills

BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 1 Oct — Some Palestinian Authority government institutions have not paid their electricity bills for more than two years, the head of the indebted Jerusalem electricity company has revealed. The company, which supplies power to Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Ramallah and Jericho, still owes its Israeli supplier around 300 million shekels ($76 million), Director-General Hisham al-Umari told Ma‘an on Sunday. The Israeli company has repeatedly postponed threats to cut power supplies.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=524912

Fatah : Gaza spokesman briefly detained by Hamas forces

GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 30 Sept — Security forces in the Gaza Strip on Saturday briefly detained Fatah’s local spokesman, the group said. Fayez Abu Aita was summoned by Hamas security services and held for several hours before being released, a statement said. He was then detained again on Sunday morning, reportedly after making comments on TV which applauded President Abbas’ recent UN speech.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=524859

UAE releases Fatah members accused of aiding Hamas murder

GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 30 Sept — Two Fatah members accused of involvement in the 2010 murder of a senior Hamas official [Mahmoud al-Mabhouh] in Dubai have been released by authorities in the United Arab Emirates, the Al-Aqsa Brigades said Sunday. Anwar Shheibar and Ahmad Abu Hasanien were freed after being held in the UAE for two years, a statement said, without mentioning an exact release date.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=524773

Other news

New hearing device developed in Gaza

MEMO 1 Oct — Renowned UAE ear specialist, Dr Mazen al-Hajri, announced in Gaza on Sunday the manufacture of a newly developed cochlea implant. Al Hajri who was awarded the 2011 OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) prize said, "The first cochlea implant operation took place in 2007 and posed significant danger to children. However, thanks to Allah, today we have been able to develop this new kind of technology to be less dangerous". He added, "It is less dangerous than before as the hearing device is now smaller and is placed via endoscopic surgery." To date, the ENT specialist has carried out over 1,122 cochlea implant operations more than 90 per cent of which have been free as Arab donors compete to sponsor these kinds of surgeries. "The whole surgery takes only 35 minutes," Dr Al-Hajri said. [Gaza has an unusual number of hearing-impaired people]
http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/4386-new-hearing-device-developed-in-gaza

Elderly represent 4.4% of Palestinian population

RAMALLAH, Sept 30 (WAFA) - Elderly people of 60 years of age and over in the Palestinian Territory represent 4.4% of the total population in mid-2012, said the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), in a press release Sunday, on the Eve of World Elderly Day on October 1st ... Life expectancy has increased about 4-7 years during the last two decades. In particular, life expectancy increased for both males and females from 67.0 years in 1992 to 71.3 years for males and 74.1 years for females in mid-2012 ... The Palestinian society is considered a young society where the percentage of youth is about half of society and the percentage of the elderly is relatively small.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=20769

31% increase in housing in Palestinian territory since 2007

RAMALLAH, Oct 1 (WAFA) - The number of housing units in the Palestinian Territory in mid- 2012 is expected to reach 919,800 units with an increase of about 31% compared to 2007, Monday said the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) In a press release on the occasion of Arab Housing Day, PCBS said that 0.9% of households in the Palestinian Territory live in a villa, 52.8% live in a house and 45.8% live in an apartment. The average housing density in the Palestinian Territory is 1.6 persons per room in 2011 ; 1.5 in the West Bank and 1.8 in the Gaza Strip. Around 10.5% of households in the Palestinian Territory live in housing units with three persons or more per room, said PCBS.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=20772

Palestinians : 2 teams to probe Arafat’s death

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) 1 Oct — Investigators from France and Switzerland will conduct parallel probes into the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Palestinian officials said Monday. His remains will be exhumed, at a date kept secret, to give each team a chance to draw samples to test for poisoning. The two teams are acting separately on behalf of Arafat’s widow Suha Arafat and the Palestinian Authority, who each had misgivings about the other’s investigation. The push to re-examine Arafat’s 2004 death come after a Swiss lab’s recent discovery of polonium-210, a deadly radioactive isotope, on clothes said to belong to the Palestinian leader. This fueled new suspicions of poisoning.
http://news.yahoo.com/palestinians-2-teams-probe-arafats-death-160445134.html

Palestinian immigrants make impressive mark in Chile

SANTIAGO (AFP) 1 Oct — In little more than a century, Chile’s Palestinian community has achieved things not possible at home : a widespread rise to prosperity, elite status and even their own football team. The summit between South America and Arab nations that starts Monday in Lima will honor the swift, surprising development of the community a long way from its homeland, on South America’s Pacific coast. Early on, mostly humble Palestinians in Chile were nicknamed “Turks” because of their Ottoman Empire passports in the early 20th century. Now, very prosperous Palestinian immigrants and their descendants number 350,000 people, and enjoy influence in all parts of Chilean society ... Two of the country’s wealthiest families are the Yarur and Said clans. And 10 percent of the Chilean senate is of Palestinian descent.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/International/2012/Oct-01/189703-palestinian-immigrants-make-impressive-mark-in-chile.ashx

Gaza ministry says asking for cheaper mobile, internet services

GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 1 Oct — Gaza’s telecommunications ministry is contacting mobile and internet companies to ask them to reduce prices and improve services, the ministry said on Monday. The ministry’s director of public relations Samir Hamtou told Ma‘an that his ministry conducted a comprehensive evaluation into the quality and prices of internet services in the coastal enclave in September. Consultations are still ongoing, he said, and some providers have already announced reduced packages.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=524950

Minister : Palestinian hotels to receive star ratings

BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 26 Sept — The Palestinian Authority tourism ministry is working to classify hotels in the West Bank according to star ratings, the minister said Wednesday ... The tourism minister said star ratings would force hotels to adhere to standards of cleanliness, room services, facilities and prices of the classification system ... Palestinian travel agencies will be able to use electronic booking systems rather than relying on Israeli middlemen, she added.
The tourism sector accounts for around 13 percent of Palestine’s GDP, and Maayeh says the ministry is working to increase this revenue. She expected a rise in tourism from October as Christmas approaches. The ministry is working to install signs at archaeological sites in Bethlehem to help tourists identify streets and sites.
A new project to renovate 18 archeological sites across the West Bank will be launched soon.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=523825

Mapping Israel one foot at a time

Haaretz 30 Sept — The Israel Antiquities Authority seeks to precisely map every historical and archaeological site west of the Jordan. The project, which began in 1964, is due to end - if at all - in a few decades — At 4:30 A.M. every Friday, archaeologist Adam Zertal leaves his home at Kibbutz Ein Shemer, drives to Megiddo Junction, picks up volunteers and continues into Samaria in the West Bank. They reach their destination and begin walking - their eyes peeled to the ground. They scour the soil until 4 P.M. The search began in 1978 near Beit She’an. One wadi after another, hill after hill, they have slowly walked southward. Today, 34 years later, they have almost reached Jericho.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/mapping-israel-one-foot-at-a-time.premium-1.467472?localLinksEnabled=false

Israel’s impossible plan for refugees is just a stalling tactic / Jonathan Cook

The National 1 Oct — In the shadow of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s theatrics at the United Nations last week, armed with his cartoon Iranian bomb, Israeli officials launched a quieter, but equally combative, initiative to extinguish whatever hopes have survived of reviving the peace process. For the first time in its history, Israel is seeking to equate millions of Palestinians in refugee camps across the Middle East with millions of Israeli citizens descended from Jews who, before Israel’s establishment in 1948, lived in Arab countries ... Israel’s goal is transparent : it hopes the international community can be persuaded that the suffering of Palestinian refugees is effectively cancelled out by the experiences of "Jewish refugees". If nothing can be done for Arab Jews all these years later, then Palestinians should expect no restitution either.
http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/israels-impossible-plan-for-refugees-is-just-a-stalling-tactic

Settler colleges in Arizona and Palestine / Gabriel Mattthew Schivone

The Nation 1 Oct — This summer, while a college in one of Israel’s largest US-funded colonies illegally built on Palestinian lands was upgraded to the status of public university, Arizona celebrated the 150th anniversary of its own territorial land-grant university, which was first established as a settler college in the heart of the Mexican-indigenous Southwest. Both items of news should strike rousing chords in people around the world who oppose settlement and military occupation of indigenous communities. On July 17, the Council for Higher Education in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories voted to certify the Ariel University Center (AUC) as Israel’s eighth public accredited university....
Just more than three weeks earlier, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer issued a state memorandum to “recognize and celebrate” the 150th anniversary of the federal act which allotted a land-grant eventually establishing the University of Arizona. In the latter half of the 19th century, the area was known as the “Arizona Territory,” a series of remote settler outposts isolated from the rest of the US due to the presence of “hostile Apache” Native Americans, the detachment from country-wide railroads, and the absence of an independent economy. The advent of a public university system was part of the territory’s turning point into an established part of the "civilized" United States.
http://www.thenation.com/blog/170254/settler-colleges-arizona-and-palestine#

A conversation with British-Palestinian writer Selma Dabbagh

Haaretz 1 Oct — Dabbagh’s first novel imagines a family in Gaza under siege from without and within — Selma Dabbagh’s life story, like that of so many other Palestinians, has been an odyssey, with a simple question about the bare-bones trajectory of her biography eliciting a good 10-minute response. Though born in Scotland and today a resident of London, Dabbagh, 42, a lawyer who has in recent years become a full-time writer of fiction, has spent long stretches of her life in Kuwait, France, Cairo and Bahrain, even as her heart has largely been focused on Palestine. Her first novel, “Out of It” ‏(Bloomsbury, 320 pages, $15, paperback‏), portrays the Mujaheds, a family not unlike hers, except that its physical base is in Gaza, and each member is forced to confront the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a very direct way. -
http://www.haaretz.com/culture/books/a-conversation-with-british-palestinian-writer-selma-dabbagh.premium-1.467660
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