Settlers threaten to march into PA territory
West Bank settlers, radical rightists, prepare for ‘sovereignty marches’ into PA land to protest against UN bid, saying they ‘won’t hesitate to use live ammunition.’ Police, IDF gear for expected riots.
And more news from Today in Palestine:
Peace Now movement announced on Friday that the occupation authorities confiscated more than 100 hectares in the northern West Bank for the benefit of two settlements.
Army Tightens Measures At Two Main Roadblocks
Israeli soldiers tightened on Saturday the security measures at the Container Roadblock, 10 Km northeast of Bethlehem, in “Wadi El Nar road” (The Valley of Fire Road) and the Qalandia Terminal, north of Jerusalem.
Dozens injured in IOF crackdowns on West Bank rallies
Dozens of Palestinians and foreign supporters suffered the effects of breathing teargas after the IOF cracked down Friday afternoon on weekly anti-barrier rallies across the West Bank.
While Silwan has experienced a period of relative calm in recent months, Israeli forces have continued their campaign of child arrests in the region. Children, deemed easier targets than adults, have been taken in their dozens by undercover agents. Undercover Israeli units fired a sound bomb (when? Please specify) in Bir Ayyub neighborhood, spreading panic amongst the community. The situation escalated to clashes between local youth and Israeli forces, who then broke into several local Palestinian homes in search of wanted people. Undercover units in Silwan use Israeli settlements as strategic bases for intelligence and the launching of such operations. The occupied home of local resident Dawood Hussein in Wadi Hilweh is a well-known such base.
Attacks by extremist Jewish settlers in the West Bank against Palestinians have been on the rise lately, the latest of which was an attack on Friday against the village of Qusra.
Israeli forces carry out unprecedented drills near Al-Aqsa Mosque
Israeli military forces carried out unprecedented drills on Friday in East Jerusalem’s Arab Silwan district, south of Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Israeli forces arrested five children from throughout Silwan (when? Please give a date/time – this is very important). The five accused face charges of throwing stones, Molotov cocktails and paint at Israeli forces and settler security jeeps.
Israeli Forces Assaulted a Palestinian and Arrested Him
While the Israeli forces were building up torture barriers for traffic tickets , confrontations sparked between both Israeli forces and Palestinian youth .A passing by Palestinian was arrested and physically assaulted by the Israeli troops.
Silwan Secretary-General of Fatah Adnan Ghaith has denied claims made by Israeli authorities that he was involved in stone-throwing and incitement of local youth to engage in illegal activities. Ghaith, in an interview with Silwanic, stated that the claims lodged against him during interrogation are false, and that investigators had tried to force him to agree to a 3-month banishment sentence from Silwan at a bail of 20,000 NIS in cash. Ghaith was arrested in the Intifada and has spent years behind bars in Israeli prisons, in addition to a 6-month sentence in administrative detention. This year, the Israeli military invoked an emergency law from the British Mandate period to pass a sentence exiling Ghaith from his native Jerusalem. Then, mere hours after his return from Ramallah, he was arrested again and a new sentence of exile passed. Ghaith with his children An Israeli military jeep tries to provoke Ghaith’s supporters Ghaith holding his son after 8 months of exile Ghaith speaks to his supporters that turned out to welcome him in al-Bustan protest tent
Gaza Siege
Mahfouth Al Kabarty, head of the Palestinian Committee for Fishing and Maritime Sports in the Gaza Strip, reported that the Olivia boat, operated by international activists who accompany Palestinian fishing boat and document Israeli attacks against them, was rehabilitated and prepared to, once again, accompany Palestinian fishermen.
Protests in Northern Gaza
The Palmer Report, recently released by the United Nations, was a moral travesty. It asserted that the naval blockade of Gaza was somehow separate from the land siege of Gaza. The Palmer Report was an attempt to break up the oppression of Gaza into bite size morsels so that it could be consumed without causing one to choke on the injustice of the occupation, of the siege.
Weddings without a groom; only in Gaza, Rana Baker
The outside world, the checkpoint-less expanse, doesn’t know why wrinkles map our faces so early. Our tears are different, and so is their cause. So, too, are the causes of our moments of happiness.
Time for People Power to Open Rafah Crossing, Haidar Eid
Writing about the Rafah crossing, after the spectacular success of the Egyptian revolution in ousting Hosni Mubarak, brings back the horrific memory of the deposed dictator’s regime. There were high expectations amongst the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza earlier this year after former Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil el-Arabi described the Mubarak government’s complicity with Israel in besieging Gaza as “disgraceful.”
The ‘Opening’ of the Rafah Crossing, Lo Yuk Fai
Below is my personal observation and experience as a foreigner who have tried entering the Gaza Strip through the official Rafah crossing, but had to go through one of the tunnels in the end. With an election coming and Mubarak on trial, the curtain is seemingly being drawn for the Tahrir Revolution, and the Egyptians are cautiously looking forward to a new page in their history. At the same time, some Egyptians have hoped that there would be a change of wind for the people in Gaza as well. The Egyptian government announced in May that the Rafah crossing would be “permanently opened”, and some people thought that, the siege had finally come to an end. Unfortunately, little seems to have changed in reality.
Stop the Wall Campaign Announces This Year’s Olive Harvesting Program, Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign
This year, the olive harvest season comes with a great increase in the number of attacks by settlers on Palestinian farmers and villagers. We expect that violence will continue to escalate over the next two months. Israel feels more isolated than ever before – in the region and internationally; in response it is militarily training settlers and shoring up their supplies of weaponry of repression. We expect that revenge from the Israeli occupation and from settlers will be directed towards vulnerable farmers by preventing them from reaching their lands, burning and uprooting olive trees, and escalating the number of organized aggressive attacks.
The university students are accused of illegally disrupting a speech by Israel’s ambassador at UC Irvine last year. The defense rested Thursday in the case against 10 university students accused of illegally disrupting a speech by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren at UC Irvine last year.
US Says State Veto In ‘Interests’ of Palestinians
The United States said Thursday it would block a Palestinian drive for recognition in the United Nations Security Council because it was the only way to help Palestinians frame a genuine state.
Netanyahu: “Palestinian-UN Bid, A Foolish Move”
In response to the Palestinian President’s speech, delivered Friday evening, in which he confirmed the Palestinians will go ahead with the statehood bid at the United Nations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the statehood bid as a “foolish step”, the Maan News Agency reported.
Britain prepared to back UN vote calling Palestinian Authority a state
Britain is keen to help Mahmoud Abbas but wants to avoid a damaging confrontation with US and Israel. Diplomats often get a little carried away and assume that negotiations on intricate details can change the world. But diplomats have every right to think they will take part in dramatic events next week as Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, prepares to request recognition of statehood at the UN.
Mideast Quartet to meet in NY
Envoys to meet Sunday in last-ditch push to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, avert showdown over Palestinian statehood at UN.
AP – Romania’s foreign minister says his country will abstain on voting on Palestinian statehood if the issue arises at a U.N. General Assembly session next week.
Analysis: Palestinian U.N. bid puts Obama on defensive (Reuters)
Reuters – When President Barack Obama brokered the relaunch of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks last September and set a one-year goal for reaching a deal, few thought he would succeed where so many others had failed.
Hamas, Islamic Jihad dismiss Abbas speech
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Hamas and Islamic Jihad late Friday dismissed President Mahmoud Abbas’ UN membership initiative and criticized a speech in which he expressed hope that peace talks would resume soon. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said Abbas’ speech was an effort in marketing for a return to peace talks with Israel, while going to the UN to seek membership served the same goal.
Special report: Palestinian bid for statehood divides a people
Both men had watched the live TV broadcast in which Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas explained on Friday evening why he is defying the wishes of Israel and the US by taking his case for statehood recognition to the UN this week. But it was rapidly apparent from the vigorous argument yesterday between Subha Mahmoud Abu Hashi, 65, and Mahmoud Abu Rizel, 29, in the narrow main shopping street of the Balata refugee camp, how different their takes on it had been.
Israel/Palestine: Washington is the problem, Issandr El Amrani
Please take 15m of your time and watch this excruciating video of last Thursday’s State Dept. briefing. It shows journalists ask the tough questions about the coming fiasco of a US veto at the UN when Mahmoud Abbas asks for recognition of Palestine as a state. My favorite bit is when the AP’s Matt Lee asks (in bold):
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s Prime Minister Essam Sharaf said a peace deal with Israel was not “sacred” and could be changed for the benefit of peace or the region. His comments, made in an interview with a Turkish television channel and broadcast on state television, were the strongest yet by the new government which took over after president Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in February.
Backed by civil society movements, the Turkish government sends a message to the UN: the international community must not guarantee Israel of impunity for its crimes against international law.
U.S. think-tank: Obama should rethink military aid to Israel
Influential CSIS says current spat between leaders is more than a clash of personalities. WASHINGTON – Given the United States’ current financial straits, aid for Israel cannot be taken for granted in the future, according to a new report published by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/u-s-think-tank-obama-should-rethink-military-aid-to-israel-1.385072?localLinksEnabled=false
‘Israeli spy’ says he aided Hezbollah killing
Ayad Youssef Nueim, who is held in a Syrian prison for allegedly spying for Israel, says he was recruited by Mossad in 2006 to gather information about vehicle in which Imad Mughniyeh was assassinated.
Israel violates UNSC resolutions: UNIFIL
UNIFIL’s political director, said on Friday that the Israeli army violates Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity on an almost daily basis which is against the UNSC Resolution 1701.
Bahrain forces fire tear gas at funeral
Security forces use tear gas and rubber bullets on procession of a man who died after he himself was tear-gassed.
TIMESCAST: TimesCast | Police Apartheid in Bahrain
September 15, 2011 – Six months after Bahrain’s brutal crackdown on democratic protests, sectarian tension is brewing.
AP – The trip was intended to give Tabarak Thaer a glimpse of the world beyond Iraq’s violence and misery. Instead, it brought the 10-year-old face to face with terror when insurgents boarded the bus she was riding, forced the male passengers off, and killed them.
To the people with political disabilities blathering about whether or not Israel is a “strategic asset,” I have not noticed you commenting on this piece chock-full of quotations from US officialdom. “I have talked directly with the leadership of Saudi Arabia… and I think the relationship is in very good shape. Why? I think because it is based in shared strategic interests…We have had a relationship for 70 years based on a set of shared strategic interests. ” So says US National Security Adviser Tom Donilon. The context is Prince Turki al-Faisal’s op-ed in the NYT a couple days ago in which he perorated about how if the US does not support the Palestinian state, “Saudi Arabia would no longer be able to cooperate with America in the same way it historically has.” What changes does Faisal have in mind? An oil embargo? Except they pretended to do that in 1973 except no production was actually cut off. Will they stop buying American weapons? Or is Faisal just posturing for his people and the surrounding Arab populations? I go with the latter.
A revealing comment lays bare the casual racism of Charley Levine, the business partner of New York Times Jerusalem bureau chief Ethan Bronner.
Israel’s advocates in the UK cosy up to Christian Right, Ben White
Faced with the increasingly difficult task of ‘selling’ Israeli policies to the UK public, Israel’s supporters in this country are cementing relationships with some strange bed-fellows. Israeli embassy officials are happy working with groups like ‘Mordechai Voice’, a new addition to the Christian Zionist scene in the UK.
