A roundup of opinions from a busy week at the UN

Video: Will Palestinian statehood make a difference in Gaza?
22 Sept -- Julie Webb-Pullman: In recent days I interviewed Gazans working in an office building in Gaza City, people in the street, and some students at the Al Azhar University. I asked first what they thought of President Abbas taking the bid for statehood to the United Nations, and secondly, whether they thought it would make any difference to life in Gaza if successful.

Expert reactions to Abbas and Netanyahu speeches at UNGA
IMEU 23 Sept -- Mouin Rabbani, Diana Buttu, Omar Dajani, Ali Abunimah. Noura Erakat

Analysis: US views Abbas in a new light / Nasser Laham
NEW YORK (Ma‘an) 22 Sept -- Until 6 p.m. in New York on Tuesday, Israeli and American intelligence and most analysts regarded President Mahmoud Abbas as weak. But after US President Barack Obama demanded the end of the Palestinian membership bid in his UN speech and Abbas vowed to continue, a new image of the man is emerging in the US.

Bardaweel: PA's September statehood bid a trap to liquidate Palestinian cause
KHAN YOUNIS (PIC) 23 Sept -- Dr. Salah al-Bardaweel, a leading Hamas figure and member of Hamas bloc at the Palestinian Legislative Council, rejected Abbas’s bid to get the UN to recognise a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, as a unilateral move that concedes most of the area of historic Palestine. Bardaweel said, at a seminar organised in Khan Younis on Thursday for PA security personnel, [that] the so-called “September state bid” is an Israeli and American requirement from the start, as it is a trap aimed at liquidating the Palestinian cause by giving up 78% of the area of historic Palestine, then negotiating endlessly on the rest of the land and off course giving up the right of return of refugees.

Abu Mazen ready for historical peace -- Netanyahu made sure America can't broker it
Gush Shalom 23 Sept -- "Mahmoud Abbas has taken the excuses out of Netanyahu's hands. The State of Palestine, under his leadership, is fully ready to make peace with the State of Israel on the basis of the 1967 borders, to resume negotiations if no settlement facts are created on the land subject to negotiations - but the Palestinians are not ready to continue to live under occupation" said former Knesser Member Uri Avnery - Gush Shalom. "The State of Palestine will not arise tomorrow, and a long and hard road awaits all of us until this state becomes a reality and takes its rightful place as the Palestinians' national state and Israel's partner for peace. Still, today will be counted among the key historical dates in the history of our region. Netanyahu's answering speech was nothing but a cheap compilation of propaganda, with rejection of the Palestinian offer and intransigent refusal to end the occupation packed in "security" rhetoric and clichés.

Abu Mazen's gamble / Uri Avnery
Gush Shalom 24 Sept -- A WONDERFUL SPEECH. A beautiful speech ... A work of art. The art of hypocrisy. Almost every statement in the passage concerning the Israeli-Palestinian issue was a lie. A blatant lie: the speaker knew it was a lie, and so did the audience. It was Obama at his best, Obama at his worst. Being a moral person, he must have felt the urge to vomit. Being a pragmatic person, he knew that he had to do it, if he wanted to be re-elected. In essence, he sold the fundamental national interests of the United States of America for the chance of a second term...
THE TRAGIC hero of this affair is Mahmoud Abbas. A tragic hero, but a hero nonetheless. Many people may be surprised by this sudden emergence of Abbas as a daring player for high stakes, ready to confront the mighty US. If Ariel Sharon were to wake up for a moment from his years-long coma, he would faint with amazement. It was he who called Mahmoud Abbas "a plucked chicken."...
Nearing the end of his career, he made the big gamble. BUT WAS it wise? Courageous, yes. Daring, yes. But wise? My answer is: Yes, it was. Abbas has placed the quest for Palestinian freedom squarely on the international table. For more than a week, Palestine has been the center of international attention.

The one-sentence blunder / Juliette Kayyem
Boston Globe 22 Sept -- Did a surprising misstep by the United States help cause the UN crisis over Palestinian statehood? ... According to Abbas’s advisers, a letter given to the Palestinian leader was the final straw. The letter has not been publicly disclosed by either party, but Arab media and commentators have zeroed in on a single reported sentence. In pushing for direct negotiations with Israel as an alternative to seeking UN recognition, the letter argued that the Palestinians need to consider Israel’s rightful security needs, as well as "demographic changes"’ that have occurred since the war in 1967. Those "demographic changes" are, of course, the Jewish settlements built in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza after the 1967 war. The demographic change represents nearly a half-million Israelis.

Netanyahu targets UN and militant Islam in General Assembly speech / Mairav Zonszein
972mag 23 Sept -- Couching his speech in what he claims is the ‘truth’ as the representative of the ‘only true democracy’ in the Middle East, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a defensive, hostile and unoriginal speech at UN on Friday – my initial reactions. -- Bibi opened and closed his speech at the UN cordially on Friday afternoon, saying the word “peace” many times and making a formal invitation to Abbas to negotiate in NY. However, everything in between was saturated in hostility that did nothing to gain Israel favor with the whole world watching this international extravaganza.

Palestinian activist: Why I'm not celebrating Palestinian statehood / Diana Alzeer
972mag 23 Sept -- For the last two months the press has staunchly defended the State of Palestine on the 1967 borders. Yet, for many Palestinians refugees – who make up 70% of Palestinians worldwide – and activists on the ground, this state does not represent us.

Palestinians' UN gamble could backfire / Saree Makdisi
LA Times 22 Sept -- There is more to the cause than statehood. U.N. action on the wrong set of terms could be a setback in the Palestinians' decades-long struggle for self-determination ... At the heart of the problem is how "Palestine" might come to be defined in the U.N. ... It would be profoundly problematic, not to say dangerous, if the Palestinian U.N. bid substituted a very narrow formal recognition -- which would mean little practically, given that mere recognition would do nothing to actually end Israel's ongoing occupation of Palestinian land -- for the much broader definition of the Palestinian constituency and the array of Palestinian rights already recognized by the U.N.

The Palestinian Authority's top gun in D.C.: Benjamin Netanyahu / Alex Kane
Mondoweiss 23 Sept -- The Palestinian Authority's (PA) decision to buck the United States and ask the United Nations for statehood recognition has provoked a chorus of U.S. officials to threaten the PA with a cut-off in aid, among other consequences.  But there will likely be no U.S. aid cut-off, and that's because the PA has a powerful ally with easy access to Congress:  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ... the reality is that Israel and the PA work closely together, and that the PA functions as a subcontractor for the Israeli occupation.  Republican calls for a cut-off in aid to the PA are just posturing. Netanyahu knows that the PA, first and foremost, serves Israeli interests by preventing any Palestinian challenge to Israel's occupation regime. The UN bid won't change that.

It's the occupation, stupid / Sandy Tolan
Antiwar 23 Sept -- But whatever the Turks, Egyptians, or Americans do, whatever symbolic satisfaction the Palestinian Authority may get at the U.N., there’s always the Occupation and there -- take it from someone just back from a summer living in the West Bank -- Israel isn’t losing.  It’s winning the battle, at least the one that means the most to Palestinians and Israelis, the one for control over every square foot of ground.  Inch by inch, meter by meter, Israel’s expansion project in the West Bank and Jerusalem is, in fact, gaining momentum, ensuring that the 'nation' that the U.N. might grant membership will be each day a little smaller, a little less viable, a little less there.

Palestine statehood team a 'cause of concern'
AJE 22 Sept -- Concern mounts in lead-up to statehood bid at the UN as diaspora members criticise Palestinian officials.

Obama: America's 'first Jewish president'? / Marwan Bishara
AJE 22 Sept -- After the president's speech to the UN, our senior analyst wonders why US leaders continue to pander to a foreign power -- Obama is the "the first Jewish President". That's the title [well no, it isn't] of New York magazine's lead article, written by John Heilemann and quoting a major Obama fundraiser. Listening to Obama speak at the United Nations on Wednesday many would nod in agreement, not less in Palestine and the Arab world. The US President has embraced the rejectionist Israeli position on the question of international recognition of an independent Palestinian state. But that's not a Jewish position. It's a radical Zionist position. Many Jews, including US and Israeli Jews, do not embrace such extremist views. But the fact that Obama surpassed his predecessor George W Bush, the most radical supporter of Israel among all US Presidents, has left everyone in Israel dumbstruck. The latest Zionist US president sounded like Israel's own founding fathers.

The Palestinians are the new Jews / Gideon Levy
Haaretz 22 Sept -- The Palestinian group that is now going to the United Nations should remind Israelis of the Zionist group that turned to the same organization 64 years earlier. Yes, there are differences. And yet the similarity is captivating: Now they are the weak versus the strong, David versus Goliath, their Qassam can't help but remind us of our Davidka. They are now the ones whose cause is just in the eyes of the world. The same world that understood in November 1947 that the Jews (and the Palestinians ) deserve a state, understands in September 2011 that the Palestinians finally deserve a state. Then it was after the trauma of the Holocaust, now it is after the trauma of the occupation, without making comparisons.

And more news from Today in Palestine:

Land theft

Report: Settler official calls for speedy construction
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 23 Sept -- A settlement official on Friday called for accelerated construction of settler facilities in case the diplomatic wrangling over the Palestinian UN bid leads to a freeze on settlement building, Israeli media said. The Hebrew-language daily Maariv said the president of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc near the West Bank city of Bethlehem encouraged speedy building as the UN bid goes to deliberation.
link to www.maannews.net

The violent fear violence from others:

Jewish residents of East Jerusalem say they fear Palestinian onslaught
Haaretz 23 Sept -- Residents of Shimon Hatzadik, the Jewish enclave in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem, say they are ready to shoot at Palestinians if they try to overrun the compound in the wake of the Palestinian bid for statehood. Also since last week, two large guard dogs have been purchased for the El Ghawi house, where Jewish residents now live. The house is at the heart of the Jewish-Arab conflict in Sheikh Jarrah.
link to www.haaretz.com

Communities along Green Line beefing up civilian security
Haaretz 23 Sept -- Security forces have put together various scenarios of rioting either of West Bank Palestinians or in Israeli-Arab communities. Extreme scenario envisions a Palestinian or Israeli-Arab crowd descending on one of the small seam line moshavim or kibbutzim.
link to www.haaretz.com

Israeli police deploy as Jerusalem alert raised
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 23 Sept -- Thousands of Israeli police were set to deploy in Jerusalem on Friday, in preparation for potential demonstrations as President Mahmoud Abbas delivers a speech at the UN later in the day. An Israeli police spokesperson told Ma‘an Palestinian men under 50 years old would be prevented from accessing Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem's Old City on Friday, and troops were reinforced around the ancient city center and at entrances to the holy compound, the Haram al-Sharif. Radio Israel reported that 22,000 officers are manning main roads, areas with mixed Palestinian and Israeli populations, the "Green Line" which marks the historic boundary between East and West Jerusalem, and other locations where tensions might erupt.
link to www.maannews.net

IDF issues urgent terror warning along Israel-Egypt border
Haaretz 22 Sept --  Israeli defense officials believe Hamas planning terror attack on Israel in attempt to distract from Abbas' UN bid.
link to www.haaretz.com

Settlers - armed women and children
photo tweeted by IMEU 22 Sept
link to 82.80.203.83

...or even manufacture it

Creating a flashpoint / Amira Hass
Haaretz 21 Sept -- Testimony from a soldier in the reserves sent to disperse a demonstration in the West Bank before it even started ... "The worst thing is that, in the end, the soldier arrives on the scene and the situation is not as bad as we were prepared for. They come, fill the flak jacket with rocket launchers and gas grenades, and then in the end find a reality that in no way necessitates their use. The frustration is great, and they start to shoot without any reason. The reserve duty is very boring. There are no confrontations, no explosive devices, no shooting. And then finally on Fridays there is some action and it is possible to go there and get rid of their aggression." R. adds: "One of the guys even said to me, 'Listen, if we weren't there, nothing would have happened."
link to www.haaretz.com

Violence against Palestinians from Israeli forces

PCHR Weekly Report: 2 children dead, 2 children and 2 adults wounded by Israeli forces this week 15-22 Sept
IMEMC 23 Sept -- ...the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) found that two Palestinians, included a child, died of previous wounds in the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces continued to attack Palestinian fishermen in the Gaza Strip, and to use force against peaceful protests in the West Bank. Two Palestinian civilians, including a child, were wounded. A total of 4 Palestinian civilians, including two children, were wounded by Israeli forces and Israeli settlers ... Israeli forces conducted 38 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, during which they abducted 18 Palestinians, including 7 children and a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. Israeli forces abducted at least 4 Palestinian civilians at military checkpoints and border crossings in the West Bank ... There are approximately 585 permanent roadblocks, and manned and unmanned checkpoints across the West Bank. At least 65% of the main roads that lead to 18 Palestinian communities in the West Bank are closed or fully controlled by Israeli forces....  [details follow]
link to www.imemc.org

Israeli forces kill Palestinian in northern West Bank
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 23 Sept -- Israeli forces on Friday killed a Palestinian man and injured five others during clashes in Qusra village in the northern West Bank, medics said. Issam Kamal Odeh, 33, died after he was shot by two bullets in the neck and shoulders during confrontations after morning prayers, medical officials said. Mayor Hany Abu Murad named the dead person as Essam Kamal Badran, 35 ... Palestinian Authority settlement affairs official Ghassan Doughlas told Ma'an clashes erupted when residents of Esh Kodesh settlement raided the village carrying Israeli flags. Soldiers entered and opened fire, he said, adding that Sadeq Tayseer, 22, was shot in his neck and Jawad al-Shaer in his hand.
Meanwhile, settlers attacked Jalud village south of Nablus leading to clashes with locals, residents said. No injuries were reported. Witnesses said dozens of settlers were pelting rocks at Palestinian cars at Zatara checkpoint near Nablus. They said the checkpoint was briefly closed.
link to www.maannews.net

IOF troops raid Silwan, clash with local youth
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 23 Sept -- Violent clashes between local youth and IOF troops broke out in different streets of the Jerusalem suburb of Silwan, south of the Aqsa Mosque. IOF troops disguised as Arabs were deployed in the suburb to chase and arrest Palestinian youth. Wadi al-Helwa information centre said on Friday that the clashes were concentrate in Ras al-Amoud, Bustab, Bir Ayoub and Batin al-Hawa neighbourhoods of Salwan and Sawwana neighbourhood of the old city after IOF troops raided those areas and local youth responded by hurling stones and empty bottles at them.
link to occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com

Assaulting brutally the youth Waheed Rwaidi from Silwan
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 23 Sept -- By Maysa Abu Ghazaleh. Waheed Rwaidi a 33 youth from Jerusalem suffers from wounds and concussions [contusions?] all over his body after being attacked by the undercover units and the Israeli borders forces when he was arrested while Waheed was heading accompanied with his family to his sister’s house. The incident took place last Thursday  when he was in his private car with his wife, two children 3 yrs and his baby 9 months, heading from his house in Beer Ayoub district in Silwan on their way  to his sister’s in Abu Tour which is few kilometers away from Silwan, unfortunately, there was a mobile barrier in Beer Ayoub district  and it was stopping cars randomly, and inspecting documents and i.ds and Waheed was chosen to be arrested. Waheed tells his story.
link to silwanic.net

Settlers

Hit-and-run injures young boy in Hebron
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 23 Sept -- An eight-year-old boy sustained serious injuries after being struck by a vehicle in east Hebron on Friday morning, eyewitnesses said. Taleb Jaber was left bleeding as the Israeli-plated car fled the scene by al-Baqaa village near the army-controlled H2 area in the West Bank city's east, locals said. Israeli forces summoned an ambulance and evacuated the child to a hospital inside the settlement Kiryat Arba, they said. An army spokeswoman said this report fit with her understanding of events.  But Jaber's grandfather told Ma'an the incident was deliberate and not a car accident.
link to www.maannews.net

Settlers destroy 60 olive trees in West Bank village
NABLUS (WAFA) 22 Sept -- Israeli settles from Yitzhar, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, uprooted and destroyed 60 olive trees in Madama village, south of Nablus, according to local sources. A Madama village council member said that 10 to 15 settlers came from Yitzhar and tried to lower the Palestinian flags raised over the roof tops of Palestinian homes but village residents stopped them. He added that the settlers went to a piece of land south of the village where they tried to set fire to olive trees after uprooting and cutting down some of them before residents chased them away.
link to english.wafa.ps

Settlers burn agricultural land in West Bank village
RAMALLAH (WAFA) 22 Sept -- Israeli settlers set fire on Thursday to dozens of dunums of agricultural land in Deir Jarir, a village east of Ramallah, according to local officials. Niaz Shajaieh, head of the village local council, told WAFA that about 15 settlers came to the village land and set fire to 25 dunums of land planted with olive and fig trees. The land is located west of the village, close to Ofer settlement built on ‘Ein Yabroud village land
link to english.wafa.ps

Cop who attacked settler to face trial
Ynet 22 Sept -- Police Commander Amir Faras [Druze name?] is to face a disciplinary trial for assaulting a protester during the evacuation of the Amona settlement in 2006, Ynet learned Thursday.
link to www.ynetnews.com

Activism / Solidarity

Israel's 'Scream' fails to silence Palestinian resistance
ISM 22 Sept -- On Wednesday, demonstrators at the Qalandia checkpoint were met with a new weapon referred to as the 'Scream', an obnoxious siren that sounded once demonstrators had organized near the checkpoint in spirit of a future Palestinian state. The new sound weapon was used for the first time. It emits a painfully loud high pitched noise which forces those within a range of 100 metres to cover their ears to protect them from the deafening sound. The device was mounted on the back of a jeep and could target the noise in a specific direction so as not to affect the soldiers standing behind it. The device was used at least 15 times throughout the demonstration, usually for intervals lasting about 2 minutes
http://palsolidarity.org/2011/09/20241/

Hebron rally: 'Like everyone else, we want to be free'
ISM 22 Sept -- A huge rally for Palestinian statehood surged through the streets of Hebron all day Wednesday, mobilizing thousands and culminating in prolonged and sustained Israeli military attacks on Palestinian civilians in the narrow and crowded markets of the Old City ... The crowd then dispersed, and made its way back to Baladiya Square and the Hebron municipality, away from the borders of the Israeli-controlled H2 district of Hebron. There, under enormous banners that read ‘UN 194’ and ‘Palestinian state’, thousands of people paraded and danced in the streets, circling the square in huge groups, chanting and cheering. Trucks unloaded free bottles of water throughout the massive crowd, and men and women, boys and girls, young and old rejoiced together sharing a common hope.
link to palsolidarity.org

Dozens wounded in Bil‘in's weekly nonviolent protest
IMEMC 23 Sept -- Dozens suffered asphyxiation as a result of inhaling gas fired by Israeli soldiers against nonviolent protesters in the village of Bil‘in near the West Bank city of Ramallah Friday ...  he march started following the Friday prayer and headed to the lands that have been recently retrieved by an Israeli court ruling, carrying Palestinian flags with the number 194 printed on them, marking the number of the anticipated Palestinian state in if approved by UN. Protesters also carried an American flag with the word Veto printed on it ... As protesters attempted to go through the fence to reach their confiscated land, Israeli troops operating their showered them with concussion grenades, tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets ... The intensive use of gas bombs and concussion grenades set fire to the nearby olive trees, however the villagers managed to put it out.
link to www.imemc.org

Israeli forces use gas to stop nonviolent protests in Ni‘lin
IMEMC 23 Sept -- Dozens of nonviolent protests suffered effects of gas inhalation in the weekly nonviolent anti-wall protest in the village of Ni‘lin near the West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday. The villagers of Ni‘lin marched Friday in support of the Palestinian bid for full UN membership. The marchers also chanted slogans condemning the speech made by the US President Barack Obama at the United Nations' General Assembly meeting on Wednesday, accusing him of ignoring 60 years of the suffering of the Palestinian people.
link to www.imemc.org

Gaza activists to relaunch boat monitoring
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 23 Sept -- International and Palestinian activists in Gaza said Friday they planned to relaunch accompaniment of Gaza fishermen from Saturday. A press statement from the Civil Peace Service in Gaza said the mission will be the first since July 20, when Israeli naval boats rammed the international volunteers' vessel, the Olivia, damaging its engine.
link to www.maannews.net

Gaza: 29 years later, Palestinians march forward
ISM  Gaza 21 Sept -- For three years the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative and the International Solidarity Movement have marched into the buffer zone north of Beit Hanoun.  Tuesday, September 20th was no different.  We gathered near the agricultural college, and at 11 AM we marched north into the buffer zone.  There were about thirty of us.  The sun was hot, but spirits were high.  Over the megaphone we played Bella Ciao and chanted for a free Palestine. As we crested the hill nearest the buffer zone we were greeted with a new sight.  The tower in the wall closest to where we protest had been covered with netting used to hide snipers.  We could see the dust of tanks rising from behind the wall.  This did not deter us.  We marched into the buffer zone. We were propelled both by the horrors of the past and hope for the future.  Twenty nine years ago the world was just learning of the massacre of Sabra and Shatilla.
http://palsolidarity.org/2011/09/20247/

Tunisian press: Convoy waits for Egypt permission to enter Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 23 Sept -- The Tunisian aid convoy Karama, or Dignity, is still waiting for permission from Egyptian authorities to enter the Gaza Strip, Tunisian press reported Thursday ... The convoy is carrying medical supplies which are unavailable in the Gaza Strip. It is the first Tunisian aid convoy to set out for Gaza since the Tunisian revolution, which ousted long-term president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011.
link to www.maannews.net

Breaking - Irvine 11 found guilty on two charges for protesting Michael Oren
Mondoweiss 23 Sept -- This is a chilling decision and a very dangerous precedent. An Orange County court has found 10 Muslim students guilty of two misdemeanors for a protest they held against Israeli ambassador Michael Oren in February 2010. For background on the case see the Mondoweiss posts here, here and here. Also read Nora Barrows-Friedman's blog on Electronic Intifada, who has offered the best coverage of this case bar none.
http://mondoweiss.net/2011/09/breaking-irvine-11-found-guilty-one-two-charges-for-protesting-michael-oren.html

Detention / Court actions

Teenager arrested for violating house arrest
JERUSALEM (WAFA) 22 Sept - Israeli police Thursday arrested a teenager from an East Jerusalem neighborhood allegedly for violating a house arrest order, according to family members. They said police arrested Yasin Abu Madi, 16, from his Ras al-Amoud home and took him to the Russian compound detention center in West Jerusalem. Police claimed Abu Madi has violated an 8-month long house arrest.
link to english.wafa.ps

5 teens detained in Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 23 Sept -- Israeli police detained five Palestinian teens in Jerusalem on Friday, after thousands of officers were deployed around the city ahead of President Mahmoud Abbas's speech at the UN. Three were detained in Beit Hanina for throwing stones, an Israeli police spokesman said. Two young man were detained near Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem's Old City, he said, adding that they had tried to enter a closed-off area.
link to www.maannews.net

Israeli administrative detention punishes entire family
EI 22 Sept -- The latest Israeli administrative detention order against Palestinian nurse and ambulance officer Ayed Dudeen -- issued only two months after Dudeen was released from almost four years spent in Israeli custody without charge -- has once again highlighted the destructive and harmful impact that this Israeli policy has on Palestinian families. "It is horrible because you don’t know your head from your toes," said 20-year-old Hamza Ayed Muhammad Dudeen, Ayed’s eldest child. "At the beginning our hope rises that at any minute he will be released, but this hope fades away when the number of consecutive extensions [of administrative detention] reaches ten or 11."
link to electronicintifada.net

PASF nabs seven Hamas supporters in arrest campaign
AL-KHALIL (PIC) 22 Sept -- Palestinian Authority security services arrested Thursday morning seven supporters of Palestinian resistance group Hamas in an arrest campaign in the West Bank. Dozens more Hamas supporters were also handed summonses for questioning. Most of those wanted by the PASF have already been detained by either Israeli or the PA security forces. Separately, a PA court in the West Bank sentenced several prisoners in the notorious Juneid prison to an additional 15 days in detention. On Wednesday, the PASF arrested seven Hamas supporters in the West Bank, five of them in Al-Khalil governorate.
link to occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com

Gaza court questions accused in death of Italian
GAZA CITY (AFP) 22 Sept -- A Gaza military court on Thursday played the alleged confessions of four men accused in the April kidnap and murder of Italian peace activist Vittorio Arrigoni. Of the four men, all from Gaza, two are accused of murder, a third of having helped in the kidnap and killing, and a fourth of providing the house where the body of Arrigoni was found hanging, hours after he was snatched. The defendants appeared in Gaza City courtroom unshackled and in civilian clothes, all four sporting beards. They appeared calm and responded to questions from the court’s three judges.
The prosecution submitted four CDs purportedly containing videotaped confessions from each defendant. The judges called each of the accused to the bench to observe a portion of their alleged confession being played on a laptop, which was not visible to the court’s audience. "Is this your confession?" one of the judges asked Tamer al-Husasna, 25, who is charged with murder. "Yes, but it was taken from me by force," he replied, alleging he had been tortured by Hamas’s internal security forces.
link to palsolidarity.org

Refugees

Palestinian refugees trapped in a congressional debate
VOA 23 Sept -- The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) runs 700 schools and 137 health clinics for approximately five million displaced Palestinians who live in refugee camps spread throughout the West Bank, Gaza and three neighboring Arab states. However, a bill under discussion in the U.S. House of Representatives would cut off aid to the Palestinians and to any UN organization that supports an effort by the Palestinian Authority to request recognition as a state. If approved by Congress and the White House, the bill would cut an estimated 25 percent of UNRWA’s annual funding. That’s a step that even Israel, the Palestinian Authority’s strongest adversary, would not take, according to some observers.
link to www.voanews.com

Twilight Zone - Tragedies, not flags / Gideon Levy
Haaretz 23 Sept -- No celebrations were going on in the Jenin refugee camp this week, where families involved in the long struggle with Israel acknowledged that what concerns them now is economics - not empty declarations at the UN ... This week we visited the homes of Hamas, Fatah and Popular Front families, we spoke to bereaved parents and those whose dear ones are in prison, we sipped lots of coffee in guest rooms with the pictures of the fallen hanging on the walls, where the tribulations of their inhabitants since the early days of their refugeehood are heartrending. There is not a home here without a tragedy - and no, the United Nations doesn't interest the Jenin camp; nobody here expects anything from the organization. We didn't find a single festive flag flying in the alleys this week.
link to www.haaretz.com

Statehood bid -- news

Full official text of President Mahmoud Abbas speech at the UN GA
WAFA 23 Sept ... Abbas received a warm welcome and standing ovation when he took to the podium of the UN General Assembly to make his 40-minute long speech. Following is an official translation of the full text of the speech.
link to english.wafa.ps

Live report -- Palestinian bid for statehood: how it happened
1837 GMT: We'll conclude this Live Report with AFP's Shatha Yaish in Jerusalem, who reports that a large convoy of vehicles with enthusiastic supporters of the UN bid has set off to the Muqata‘a (the administrative center of the Palestinian National Authority) to pay respects at Yasser Arafat's grave, beeping their horns and playing patriotic songs along the way ...  1825 GMT: With the Palestinians' bid for full UN membership now formally lodged, the pace of diplomacy is picking up, with the Quartet for Middle East peace -- the United States, Russia, the European Union and United Nations -- meeting at 1830 GMT in Ban Ki-moon's conference room, according to the UN chief's spokesman.
link to www.maannews.net

Thousands cheer Abbas as Palestinian hail UN bid
RAMALLAH (AFP) 23 Sept -- Tens of thousands of Palestinians erupted into cheers of victory across the West Bank on Friday, hailing their president's historic bid for Palestinian UN membership. In central Ramallah's Arafat Square, the crowd roared its approval at the news that President Mahmoud Abbas had handed over a formal request asking the United Nations to admit Palestine as a member state ... The scene was similar in city centers across the West Bank, where massive crowds gathered in front of giant television screens to listen to Abbas urge the international community to approve the membership bid ... "Today we got back our dignity. Obama and America can go to hell. We don't need their money, we need our dignity," said Majed Hussein, a government employee who watched the speech in Nablus ... The uplifting mood was in sharp contrast to that in Gaza, where the Hamas rulers and Abbas's Fatah party had agreed that no rallies would take place.
link to www.maannews.net

'UN hall of darkness for Netanyahu'
Press TV 23 Sept -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described the UN General Assembly as a ''hall of darkness'' for Israel. Addressing the UN General Assembly shortly after acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas, Netanyahu said on Friday that Israel has been singled out for criticism during the annual convention.
link to www.presstv.ir

Abbas: No pressure will deter UN statehood initiative
NEW YORK (Ma‘an) 23 Sept -- President Mahmoud Abbas said Friday that no amount of pressure could deter him from the UN membership bid, and he was not authorized to discuss any proposals for a return to negotiations with Israelis while in New York. Abbas addressed around 200 representatives from the Palestinian community in the US at his New York hotel, just hours before he is due to speak at the UN General Assembly
link to www.maannews.net

Fatah official: Abbas seeks 'accelerated' Security Council review
UNITED NATIONS (Ma‘an) 22 Sept -- President Mahmoud Abbas has urged the UN Security Council to "accelerate" the Palestinian application for membership in the UN, a senior Fatah official said Thursday.  Muhammad Shtayyeh told Ma'an that Abbas' request will first be examined by a committee of experts before it is debated by the full council, a process that could take weeks or even months before a vote is held ... It is "not really something you can do in a few days time," Shtayyeh said. [really? South Sudan became independent on 9 July, and a UN member state on 14 July.]
link to www.maannews.net

Ban hands Palestinian bid to Security Council
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) 23 Sept -- UN chief Ban Ki-moon has handed over a request for a state of Palestine to be admitted as a full member of the UN just hours after it was submitted by President Mahmoud Abbas. A spokesman for Ban's office said Friday the letter given to the UN leader earlier had already been transmitted to the UN Security Council which will now examine the documents.
link to www.maannews.net

Fatah leader: Palestine has votes to pass Security Council
UNITED NATIONS (Ma‘an) 23 Sept -- A resolution admitting Palestine as a member state of the United Nations has the support of a majority of the Security Council, a top Fatah official said Friday. "We need the nine votes plus no veto. The nine votes are already there. We hope there will be no veto," said Muhammad Shtayyeh, speaking after President Mahmoud Abbas' address to the General Assembly. Shtayyeh said the Palestinian leadership would only make a decision on whether to take the matter to the General Assembly after the Security Council has had a chance to consider the issue. "You cannot go to two places at the same time," he said.
link to www.maannews.net

Interfax: Russia to vote for Palestinian UN membership
MOSCOW (Reuters) 23 Sept -- Russia will vote for Palestine to have full membership in the United Nations if the question of its recognition is presented to the Security Council, Interfax news agency cited a source within the Russian delegation as telling reporters on Friday.
link to www.maannews.net

Israeli intellectuals back Palestinian statehood in Tel Aviv rally
Haaretz 23 Sept -- Former MK Yael Dayan criticizes Israeli leadership for calling Palestinian bid at UN 'unilateral,' asking: 'Isn't the occupation unilateral?'
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israeli-intellectuals-back-palestinian-statehood-in-tel-aviv-rally-1.386215

Hamas to Abbas: Don't beg for a state
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 23 Sept -- Prime Minister in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh on Friday urged President Mahmoud Abbas not to "beg" for a Palestinian state at the United Nations. Speaking to reporters after morning prayers in Gaza City, Haniyeh said Abbas' bid for full membership of the United Nations "harms the dignity of the Palestinian people. "We want a state but it should have full sovereignty and not at the expense of Palestinian rights."
link to www.maannews.net

Women demonstrate in Gaza in support of UN bid
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 22 Sept  -- Dozens of women marched in support of the Palestinian bid for UN membership on Thursday, in a rally jointly organized by the General Federation of Palestinian Women and political party FIDA ... Member of the Fatah revolutionary council Amal Hamad addressed the march by reading a statement of support for the Palestinian leadership.
link to www.maannews.net

Quartet sets timetable for new Mideast talks
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) 23 Sept -- The "Quartet" of Middle East mediators proposed on Friday that Israel and the Palestinians should meet within one month to agree on an agenda for resumed peace talks. In a statement, the Quartet -- the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia -- said it wanted to see comprehensive proposals within three months on territory and security, and substantial progress within six months. The aim would be to reach a peace agreement before the end of 2012
link to www.maannews.net

Other news

Lebanon: Meeting bolsters cluster munitions convention
BEIRUT (IRIN) 22 Sept -- Over 100 children have been killed or maimed by cluster munitions in Lebanon since 2006, a senior army officer told IRIN at a recent international meeting on cluster bombs in Beirut ... In the last 72 hours of its 34-day war with Lebanon in 2006, at a time when the UN Security Council had already adopted Resolution 1701 calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities, Israel dropped four million cluster bomblets over South Lebanon. Around 40% failed to explode upon impact, according to the UN, becoming de facto landmines that could continue to threaten civilians for several decades unless cleared. According to a 2008 Human Rights Watch report, Israel’s use of the weapons was the most extensive anywhere in the world since the 1991 Gulf War. This catalyzed international efforts to ban the weapon.
link to www.irinnews.org

The Palestinian pound: a precarious history / Taghrid Atallah
Al-Akhbar 22 Sept -- With the Palestinian Authority pushing for international recognition at the UN, an elderly Palestinian historian recalls an evasive symbol of Palestinian identity – the Palestinian pound ... Al-Haj was less than 10 years old at the time but vividly recalls the design of the Palestinian pound. He describes a coin in the form of a golden disc resembling the British and Ottoman pounds. Wealthy women made chains out of holed gold coins and wore them as either jewelry over their heads or as a means to tie a head scarf.
link to english.al-akhbar.com