Researcher: More than 75,000 Palestinians arrested by Israel since Sept. 2000

Israeli Violence / Raids / Illegal arrests

Report: ‘More than 75,000 arrests made by army since Sep. 2000’
IMEMC 27 Sept — Former Political Prisoner, Palestinian Researcher, Abdul-Nasser Farawna, issued a report marking the 12th Anniversary of the Al-Aqsa Intifada (September 28 2000), and said Israeli soldiers conducted more than 75.000 arrests, and deported hundreds of residents. Farawna said that more than 9000 children were kidnapped by the army in addition to nearly 940 women, including four who gave birth in prison; the army also kidnapped dozens of disabled and wounded Palestinians, in addition to dozens of elected legislators, ministers and officials.  Israel also issued more than 22.000 Administrative Detention orders to forcibly imprison thousands of Palestinians without charges.  He added that, currently, there are 4500 Palestinians who are still imprisoned by Israel including 198 children, eight women, 14 legislators, 115 Administrative detainees and hundreds of ailing and disabled Palestinians.
http://www.imemc.org/article/64308

Two injured in northern Gaza
IMEMC 29 Sept — Palestinian medical sources reported Friday that Israeli soldiers, stationed across the border, opened fire at several Palestinians hunting birds with slingshots in a land located north of Beit Lahia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. One of the two wounded residents was shot in his arm while the second was shot in his leg, both were moved to a local hospital for treatment.
Israeli soldiers repeatedly target Palestinian residents and youths who work in areas close to the border fence separating between Gaza and Israel. Dozens of day laborers were injured in previous attacks carried out by the army; some were even killed by military fire. Soldiers target any resident who approaches the border fence area despite the fact that dozens of families have lands in that area and need to access their lands to plant them.
http://www.imemc.org/article/64311

Occupation arrests two citizens in Ramallah and Nablus
RAMALLAH (PIC) 28 Sept — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) arrested at dawn Thursday a young man and a child from Ramallah and Nablus in occupied West Bank, and transferred them to the Israeli Shin Bet’s interrogation center.
The IOF arrested in the early morning hours of Thursday the liberated captive Ashraf Abu Arram from Ramallah. According to his brother, Ayman, a large force of occupation army raided the house of his elder brother Ashraf, and abused him before arresting him and transferring him, handcuffed, to an interrogation center.
Meanwhile, a large number of Israeli occupation soldiers raided al-Quds Street near the Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus. Local media sources said that the IOF stormed the camp and arrested 16-year-old Abdullah Omar Salama, a pupil in the tenth grade after breaking into his house.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7n4ukHadgXIEoivwWZQTcGCMajBt3jT2OfipqJ4Dkv6xr8DVeqcE3AExxAV6LpeRyLvhnsCwv4kfz2raP%2ff%2fiisvwbbv5lQmCxtsbh5HZC6M%3d

Israeli occupation arrests two Palestinians, assaults another in Hebron
PNN 28 Sept — …Israeli forces arrested Thursday evening, two Palestinians from al-Tabaka village, southwest of Durah village, and assaulted another Palestinian in Hebron. Local sources said that Israeli forces raided the village, confronted with a group of Palestinians and arrested Sameh Salim Abu Atwan and Mohammad Abdullah Nassar and transferred them to an unknown location. The sources also said that the Israeli forces severely beat Amin Issa Hamad Abu Atwan and [he] was transferred to Hebron government hospital for treatment.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/politics/2773-israeli-occupation-arrests-two-palestinians-assaults-another-in-hebron

IOF arrests a student at Aqsa and threatens to ban others
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 28 Sept — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) arrested on Thursday a Jerusalemite student and forced six others to leave al-Aqsa Mosque. “Al-Aqsa Foundation for Waqf and Heritage” reported in a statement that the IOF arrested the Palestinian citizen Saher Ghazzawi, a Jerusalemite student and activist, and threatened six other students to ban them from the al-Aqsa mosque for long periods of time. For his part, Hekmat Na’amna, head of “Amarat Al-Aqsa” society, denounced the arrests and pursuits campaigns targeting the students, noting that “the occupation authorities have been systematically pursuing the students who frequently visit al-Aqsa, either through arrest or deportation.”
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7cpuP4fLrcu%2bk5d73hDeRvCc8i4oDtcnHu3PrmFhDjnsv7JwOwLykuYijpQ%2bfeocVvI%2fRgV6TEoOQkfzi3IX3sZjY1WK%2fS88N96K1uvoGPmA%3d

Occupation imposes house arrest on the mother of two Jerusalemite prisoners
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 28 Sept — The occupation authorities imposed house arrest on mother of two Jerusalemite prisoners arrested three days ago during her visit to them, Palestinian human rights sources confirmed. The Jerusalem Prisoners’ Families Committee stated, in a statement on Thursday, that the Israeli Court in Beersheba, in southern occupied Palestine, released the citizen Siham Nimer, 52, from the village of Sur Baher, southern Jerusalem, and imposed on her house arrest for several days, in addition to paying five thousand shekels bail (about $1,300). The Israeli authorities arrested the mother of the two prisoners Murad and Ahmed, Haja Siham Nimer, 52, under the pretext of her intention to smuggle a mobile phone to her son Ahmed.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7JscRBnK6%2fLjFknex1mkvPs1PDioUV7TCvF4O0ISjsxpPupxOd8VDENh2XnQvjsAoaYDqKzw60%2fVGKzT9MoWQOdZ5SlHaXhqJMNLgh9VFtAk%3d

Land, property theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing

Settlers uproot olive trees near Nablus
NABLUS, Sept 27 (WAFA) – A group of Jewish settlers Thursday uprooted around 60 olive trees in Burin, a village south of Nablus, according to a local activist. Ghassan Douglas, in charge of the settlements file at the Palestinian Authority in the northern part of the West Bank, told WAFA, that a number of Jewish settlers attacked an area east of the village, uprooted around 60 olive trees belonging to one of the residents and confiscated them. He added settlers have been lately stealing the olive trees from several areas in Nablus city.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=20756

Abbas accuses Israel of ethnic cleansing
UNITED NATIONS (AP) 27 Sept — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of ethnic cleansing Thursday for building settlements in east Jerusalem. “It is a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people via the demolition of their homes,” Abbas said in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly. Shortly after, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rebuked Abbas in his own address to the assembly. “We won’t solve our conflict with libelous speeches at the U.N.,” Netanyahu said.
http://news.yahoo.com/abbas-accuses-israel-ethnic-cleansing-172143638.html

The deterioration of the Palestine situation
PNN 26 Sept — PLO’s Negotiations Affairs Department said in a press release that after 45 years of Israeli occupation, the daily reality in the Occupied Palestinian Territory including East Jerusalem (OPT), continues to deteriorate to the point where the two-state solution is almost inconceivable. The statistics below (from September 2011 to September 2012) bear witness to the fact that Israel has no interest in meaningful negotiations. ..
…the Israeli settler population living in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem (OPT), grew by over 20,000 settlers. There are over half a million settlers living in the OPT today.
… Israel planned, in different stages (tendering, approvals), at least 11,096 housing units and hotel rooms for settlements in and around Occupied East Jerusalem. The new housing units, if approved, would house around 44,000 new Israeli settlers.
…991 separate incidents of terrorist acts by Israeli settlers living illegally in the OPT were recorded, including shootings, physical assaults, arson attacks, murder of livestock, and the destruction of property and vehicles. At least 60 of these attacks were against Christian and Muslim religious institutions. [and much more – see article]
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/national/2751-the-deterioration-of-the-palestine-situation-september-2011-september-2012

Gaza blockade

Gaza tunnel-traders say network at 10 percent capacity
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 28 Sept — Just 10 percent of the tunnels under Gaza’s border with Sinai are still in operation, after Egypt moved to close the underground network in recent weeks, tunnel owners said Friday. The tunnel trade, which operates with oversight from the Hamas government in Gaza, is now placed under strict regulations, they told Ma‘an. Both Egyptian and Palestinian authorities are insisting on clear identification of people using the tunnels for passage, as well as regulating the quality of goods passing through, one owner, who gave his name as Mahmoud, told Ma‘an. The operation of the tunnels depends on the security situation in Gaza and Egypt’s Sinai, he added. When security conditions permit, fuel and construction materials are allowed to freely pass into Gaza, Mahmoud said.
Last week, Gaza’s ministry of national economy said monthly imports of basic foodstuffs had fallen 31 percent and construction materials had declined by 45 percent since the tunnel closures.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=524273

Egypt officially rejects proposals for free trade zone with Gaza
MEMO 28 Sept — Official Palestinian sources have confirmed that Egypt has formally rejected proposals for the establishment of a free trade zone on its border with the Gaza Strip as a means of solving Gaza’s economic problems. The sources state that during Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh’s visit to Cairo last week, he was informed by the Egyptian authorities that their decision was based on the fact that such a move would isolate the Gaza Strip from the rest of the Palestinian territories as an independent entity. The sources also pointed to Egyptian fears that a Gaza Strip made economically independent through the establishment of a free trade zone with Egypt would be exploited by Israel. It would be forcibly annexed to Egypt as a means of solving the demographic problem in the sector, at Egypt’s expense. Gaza would then be used to accommodate Palestinians returning from abroad, such as Palestinians fleeing the Syrian conflict and those returning from Lebanon.
http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/4380-egypt-officially-rejects-proposals-for-free-trade-zone-with-gaza

Egypt still considering free trade zones on Gaza border, says official
Al-Masry Al-Youm 28 Sept — The Cabinet is still considering the creation of three free trade zones in Sinai along the Gaza border, said Sinai Development Authority chairman Major General Mohamed Shawky on Friday, contradicting recent reports that the government had rejected the proposal. The zones would be established in Rafah, Nuweiba and Arish, and the Cabinet would make a final decision on the matter in the 2012/13 fiscal year, Shawky added. The Investment Ministry is leading studies to determine the economic feasibility of the project.
http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/egypt-still-considering-free-trade-zones-gaza-border-says-official

Gaza bans Egypt livestock over foot-and-mouth concerns
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 28 Sept — Officials in Gaza have banned the entry of livestock from Egypt due to concerns about foot-and-mouth disease, but meat levels are being sustained through imports via Israel, government officials said Friday. Tahseen al-Saqa, a representative of Gaza’s ministry of agriculture, said livestock had been prevented from entering Gaza through the underground tunnel network for the past five months.
He assured that there would be sufficient animals available in Gaza for next month’s Eid al-Adha holiday, when families slaughter sheep, goats, cows and camels to commemorate Prophet Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail on God’s command.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=524245

Egypt and Gaza: A honeymoon that wasn’t
The Economist 29 Sept — Egypt’s new Islamist leaders have so far failed to embrace their Gazan brothers — ABOVE Gaza’s parliament hangs a tableau of two smiling Islamist leaders. Muhammad Morsi, the new president of Egypt, and Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of the neighbouring Gaza Strip, which is run by Hamas, the Palestinians’ dominant Islamist movement. The two men are raising their hands together, hailing a regional dawn against a backdrop of Cairo’s pyramids. The billboard’s message is that the new Egypt, under a Muslim Brother, recognises Hamas, originally a Brotherhood branch, as its new ally — and as the legitimate authority in Palestine. But Hamas’s smiles, so gleeful after Mr Morsi’s election in June, have turned to frowns since Mr Haniyeh’s latest visit to Cairo. An expected meeting with Egypt’s president never happened. A 20-man Hamas delegation that presented plans to upgrade Gaza’s connection to Egypt’s electricity grid, speed up the transfer of fuel donated by Qatar and open a free-trade zone on their common border returned with nothing nailed down … Instead, it all sounded much like the old Egypt.
http://www.economist.com/node/21563776

Hunger strikers / Prisoners

Israeli authorities ‘prevented Red Cross visit to hunger striker’
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 28 Sept — Israeli prison guards prevented a critically ill prisoner on hunger strike from seeing a Red Cross representative, a lawyer said Friday. Samer al-Issawi is in a critical medical condition after 59 days on hunger strike, said Loai Akka, a lawyer for the Palestinian Prisoners Society who visited him in Nafha jail. The meeting was delayed because al-Issawi had fainted, Akka said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=524309

Palestinian Authority in the service of Israel

PA security extend detention of 12 political prisoners, continue torture
WEST BANK (PIC) 28 Sept — PA courts extended detention of 12 political prisoners, arrested during PA’s campaign launched last week, while human rights sources confirmed that a number of these detainees were tortured. The Magistrate’s Court extended the arrest of four brothers from Urif in Nablus for additional 15 days, accusing them of being responsible for what it claimed was a secret underground prison.
The same court also extended for 15 days the detention of 3 liberated captives, Citizen Khalid Sawalmeh from Assira and journalist Mohammed Anwar Mona, who had been held at the Preventive Security Service’s jail since four days.
PA Courts extended the detention of two citizens from the town of Qarawat Bani Hassan in Salfit and a student at al-Najah University for 15 days.
PA security’s courts rejected the request to release liberated captive and journalist Walid Khalid, from the town of Iskaka near Salfit, and his brother Abdullah on bail.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7cimigopva0sU9BI6kHx6N7AadVNXxBbjZgmioiCDR1Fm4l43ve8Nm%2b5jr%2fv41Km0B8%2fU2VOhGdXIx9bBw88I8m69bUtmHsg6tEPJ5q2SITk%3d

PA forces besiege the house of Urif’s detainees for five days
NABLUS (PIC) 28 Sept — Hajja Um Anwar Shehadeh, the mother of four detainees by PA preventive security in the city of Nablus, confirmed that the PA security are still surrounding their house in the village of Urif since dawn Sunday. Um Anwar stated, in a telephone call to the Aqsa TV on Wednesday evening, that a large force of Preventive Security Service had raided the family home early Sunday and brutally arrested her four sons, Anwar, Wael, Nihad, and Zia. Regarding her sons’ health conditions, she confirmed that her son Nihad is at the National Hospital in Nablus, where he is suffering from blood pressure and his health worsening, while Zia suffers back pain. “They are soldiers of Islam and Palestine, and they should be honored rather than imprisoned in PA jails,” she said … The public prosecutor in Nablus had extended the arrest of her four children yesterday afternoon for an additional 15 days, where reports confirmed that some faced severe torture, noting to the continued deterioration of Nihad’s health condition.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7dfuTgM1OCU2eZxDLH9WFPmI4gOnx5Sh8ALrsvURqA7B8oevGhGn0v1JJCxn1420s7cvfGEmTRYHOoulqUWOp9UhQQ75ZQTq48QDaEfCwjsE%3d

24 civil society organizations condemn PA arrests of journalists in the West Bank
RAMALLAH (PIC) 28 Sept — The Palestinian civil society coalition condemned the PA arrest campaign against journalists in West Bank. The Coalition to defend freedom of expression in Palestine lamented the continued violations and abuses of freedom of opinion and expression, including the arrest of several journalists for their political views in social networking sites, calling for the protection of freedom of speech and the Palestinian journalists, and to enable them to perform their mission in good conditions. The coalition … includes twenty-four Foundations and NGOs concerned with media freedom and the rights of journalists and freedom of expression
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7%2fw%2f7kfo%2bl2Uc4N0rC0zya%2b3u6IF2v7flVZxAUuxusQU6rVpo%2bTE8QALe2DBDSk%2fqWSNTe%2fo05DYP0yFxAadYH08IRGAmzO09nGP3j0bd8fM%3d

Political / Economic / Other News

Palestinians shrug off Abbas bid for statehood at UN
RAMALLAH (Reuters) 28 Sept — Palestinians who were galvanized a year ago by the launch of a campaign for statehood in the United Nations were left cold on Thursday by a watered-down bid from their leader President Mahmoud Abbas …Citizens seemed wary of investing hope in the new plan. “To tell the truth, we see it as all talk, and we know it will have no concrete results,” said Hussein Izzat, a construction contractor, lighting a cigarette as cars and pedestrians clogged squares which last year hosted euphoric rallies and a live broadcast of Abbas’s address. In a speech to the UN General Assembly,
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=524225

Political leaders react to Abbas speech at UN
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 27 Sept — …the Hamas government spokesman Taher al-Nunu called Abbas’ speech desperate, and said it reflects the failure of his political plan. “We are surprised that he is determined to continue the absurd negotiations,” he told Ma‘an. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said it considered Abbas’ speech an announcement of the failure of the “delusions” of negotiations … Meanwhile, the president’s Fatah party called the speech “historic” and said the leader had clarified to the world its responsibilities to the Palestinian people … The Palestinian People’s Party also praised the president’s address, saying it “expressed the determination of the Palestinian people to achieve their national legal rights and it reflected the dignity of the people.”
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=524199

References to Palestine in the UN general debate
PNN 27 Sept — PLO’s Negotiations Affairs Department issued in a press release a compilation of statements made by various countries and the United Nations during the first day of the UNGA General Debate (67 Session). All  countries that did not make direct reference to the situation of Palestine have been omitted.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/national/2769-references-to-palestine-in-the-un-general-debate-second-day

China ‘deeply concerned’ about Palestinian-Israeli talks
Xinhua 28 Sept — …”China is deeply concerned about the stalled Palestinian-Israeli peace talks and the economic and humanitarian difficulties facing the Palestinian people,” [Foreign Minister] Yang said … “Turbulence in the region should not divert international attention from the Palestinian issue,” Yang said. “China supports the Palestinian people in establishing, on the basis of the 1967 borders, an independent Palestinian state that enjoys full sovereignty with East Jerusalem as its capital.” [how pleasant to see ‘Palestinian’ written before ‘Israeli’ for a change…]
http://english.cri.cn/6909/2012/09/28/53s724691.htm

Women on ballot in Palestinian city’s first election in decades
HEBRON, West Bank (NBC News) 27 Sept — “By Participating, We Can!” that slogan has made a group of women in Hebron who are challenging male dominance the talk of their famously conservative Palestinian city. Hebron, the West Bank’s largest city with 250,000 Palestinian residents, will go to the polls to choose city officials for the first time since 1976 on Oct. 20. And it will be the first time that one of the candidate lists on the ballot is made up entirely of women – teachers, civil-servants, business women and volunteers. The road taken by these women has not, however, been easy. They have faced tremendous opposition from the local community, including comments directly to the women such as “you are wasting your time.”  But Maysoun Qawasmi, leader of the bloc, and a 43-year-old mother of three sons and two daughters, remains undaunted.
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/27/14125846-women-on-ballot-in-palestinian-citys-first-election-in-decades

PA reports progress on resolving electricity debts
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 27 Sept — The Palestinian Authority is close to reaching a solution to electricity problems in the West Bank, the government spokeswoman said Thursday. Nour Odeh said serious discussions had been held between the government and the Jerusalem Electricity Company, which had accumulated hundreds of millions of shekels in debt to its Israeli supplier … The Israeli and Palestinian electricity companies had earlier reached an agreement to keep power flowing in the occupied West Bank through the end of September, while the PA looked for a solution to the shortfall.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=524119

World Bank praises performance of Palestine Monetary Authority
RAMALLAH, Sept 27 (WAFA) – The World Bank praised in report the performance of the Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA) saying the Palestinian banking sector continues to show good performance under the supervision of the PMA, which continues to strengthen its institutional capability and build the required capacity for the establishment of a Palestinian central bank, according to a press release published Thursday.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=20758

PA: 3.5 million visits to West Bank, Gaza since January
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 27 Se[t — The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics and Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said 3.5 million visits were made to the occupied territories from January to August 2012. Releasing the statistics on the occasion of World Tourism Day, the PCBS and ministry recorded 1.7 million inbound visitors and 1.8 million domestic visits to gardens, parks and other sites.  Most visitors, 44 percent, went to Bethlehem, which was followed by Jericho and Jenin with 28 percent … Most visitors were Palestinian citizens of Israel, 45 percent, followed by Russia with 12 percent and 5 percent each from the US, Italy and Poland . Most visitors (33 percent) stayed in Jerusalem, while the besieged Gaza Strip welcomed just 1 percent of the total. The rest stayed overnight in cities in the West Bank.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=523956

Palestinian Jerusalem hospitals fear financial crisis
AFP 28 Sept — A group of six medical facilities serving Palestinians in east Jerusalem warned Friday of an “unprecedented financial crisis” because of unpaid bills owed by the Palestinian Authority government. In a statement, the East Jerusalem Hospitals Network said they are owed more than 67.5 million shekels ($17 million, €13.3 million) for the treatment of Palestinians whose bills are supposed to be covered by the West Bank government. “In order to maintain their operations, several of the hospitals are reviewing running costs including staff levels, to find areas for reductions,” the statement said. “Some hospitals have already taken extraordinary measures such as releasing staff, reducing number of admissions and curtailing services.” The PA Ministry of Health regularly refers Palestinians to hospitals in east Jerusalem for procedures that are not available in the West Bank and Gaza.
http://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/palestinian-jerusalem-hospitals-fear-financial-crisis-154847331.html

Urgent appeal: Financial distress at the East Jerusalem hospitals
PNN 27 Sept …The EJHN has played a critical role in providing health services to the Palestinian people for decades, especially for the poor. In addition to patients referred by the MOH, 20% of the patients who access care at the EJHs are social cases without insurance or sufficient resources. In 2011, over 22,000 West Bank and Gaza patients were referred by MoH to East Jerusalem, representing almost 40% of all MoH referrals, and more than half of the EJHN caseload. There is growing concern that the vital services provided by the hospitals could be jeopardized if financial assistance is not provided soon and the debts continue to escalate … The EJHN is seeking urgent financial assistance to sustain the services of the six hospitals. It is calling on donors to support the PA to meet its obligation towards the EJHs – and requesting that funds be donated directly to the PA to be used specifically for paying down their debts to the EJHs.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/human-rights/2765-urgent-appeal-financial-distress-at-the-east-jerusalem-hospitals

Clinton: US will push to help Palestinians with fiscal crisis
(JTA) 27 Sept — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the Palestinian and Jordanian that Washington is ‘looking at every means possible’ to alleviate the Palestinian financial crisis. According to a  senior State Department official, Clinton made the comments Wednesday in New York during a one-hour working lunch with Jordan’s King Abdullah and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who were there for the U.N. General Assembly. The Obama administration currently has an assistance package on Capitol Hill that includes a $200 million direct budget request for the PA. The World Bank said last week that action was needed “urgently” to prevent a “deepening financial crisis” in Palestinian areas.
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/09/27/3108026/clinton-makes-israeli-paestinian-peace-push-priority

The Popular Committees accuse Fayyad of normalizing
RAMALLAH (PIC) 28 Sept — Secretary-general of the Palestinian popular committees against the wall and settlements, Azmi al-Shyoukhi, accused head of Ramallah government Salam Fayyad of “deliberately causing differences and divisions” within the committees and dragging them toward normalization with the occupation under the banner of the Popular Resistance.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7P%2bN3OAhyC%2fLIP7tYXzh6XBTY1WJ%2b3lMAs0OqIv0rZRK8IxkFEkGxgSQlKZU6Uv3vY4cxpTFyGi95wOht2eobJ3gcfXIEsnILBKnuktwkUfo%3d

How I fell in love with Nablus
Mondoweiss 28 Sept by Alexandra Vaughan — …Many people, foreigners and Palestinians, perceive Nablus to be a cultural capital of sorts. While Ramallah seems to be a black hole for aid money and investments, with new cafes and bars opening weekly to entertain the multinational population of aid workers, Nablus has remained truer to its “roots.” … Nablus hosts one of the largest refugee populations in Palestine, numbering upwards of 60,000. Within the limits of the city there are no less than four refugee camps: Al-Ein, Old and New Askar, and finally, the largest and oldest, Balata. While the camps are fully integrated into the city, there is a stark contrast between the open streets of the municipality and the sunless alleys of the camps, barely wide enough for one person to pass. As the families of the refugees grew over the decades, the hastily cobbled-together buildings rose quickly, often with one apartment housing families of 10 or even 20. The lack of privacy simultaneously brings the community together as a united front while also having the lasting, and oftentimes negative, effect of separating them from other camps and the rest of Nabulsi society.
https://mondoweiss.net/2012/09/how-i-fell-in-love-with-nablus.html

Palestinian children receive back-to-school kits
BURJ AL-BARAJNEH, Lebanon (Daily Star) 27 Sept — Palestinian children celebrated Wednesday the receipt of special back-to-school kits at the Yarmouk school in the Burj al-Barajneh refugee camp. The kits, which include stationery and a set of copybooks, were distributed by two U.N. agencies, the United Nations Relief and Work Agency and the United Nations children’s fund (UNICEF), as part of an initiative funded for the third year by UNICEF’s national committee in Italy. Under the $280,000 project, some 33,000 students in 69 UNRWA schools across Lebanon will receive school supplies that their families would otherwise find difficult to provide. According to UNRWA and UNICEF, two-thirds of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon subsist on less than $6 per day, while a 2010 study conducted by the agency in conjunction with the American University of Beirut found that only one-third of Palestinians take the national Brevet exam at the end of ninth grade.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2012/Sep-27/189343-palestinian-children-receive-back-to-school-kits.ashx

Opinion / Analysis / Interviews

Palestine conditions ‘more brutal’ than in US South of 50 years ago, says author Alice Walker
Democracy Now 28 Sept — We continue our conversation with the legendary poet, author and activist, Alice Walker, who has also been a longtime advocate for the rights of Palestinians. Last summer, she was one of the activists on the U.S. ship that attempted to sail to Gaza as part of the Freedom Flotilla aimed at challenging Israel’s embargo of the Gaza Strip. Alice Walker also serves on the jury of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, an international people’s tribunal created in 2009 to bring attention to the responsibility other states bear for Israel’s violations of international law. Walker describes her upbringing in the segregated South, then goes on to discuss today’s segregation in the Occupied Territories. “The unfairness of it is so much like the South. It’s so much like the South of 50 years ago, really, and actually more brutal, because in Palestine so many more people are wounded, shot, shot, killed, imprisoned. You know, there are thousands of Palestinians in prison virtually for no reason,” Walker says. [includes rush transcript]
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/9/28/palestine_conditions_more_brutal_than_in

How the BBC denies Israel’s occupation / Amena Saleem
EI 28 Sept — There is international law, and there is the world as Israel and the BBC see it. And if Israel claims the whole of Jerusalem as its territory, contrary to international law, then it is not for the BBC to dispute this — or so its coverage would have us believe … Israel’s claim to an undivided Jerusalem is not the only area where BBC terminology privileges Israeli occupation and colonization. However, just as BBC reporting consistently fails to mention the fact of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land, it is similarly coy about spelling out the criminality of its settlement building, despite UN Security Council Resolution 446’s clear definition of settlements as a “serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East.”
http://electronicintifada.net/content/how-bbc-denies-israels-occupation/11713

History
A Wake-up Call / Stuart Littlewood
Editor’s Note : Radio Free Palestine (2007) was written by Stuart Littlewood with Foreword by Jeff Halper of ICAHD and poems by Phillip Vine. It tells the plight of the Palestinians under Israeli occupation and throws light on the truth that’s obscured by media bias and the constant barrage of ‘hasbara’ disinformation … My Catbird Seat (MCS), and Veterans News Now (VNN), have decided to serialise the opening chapters of “Radio Free Palestine” (now out of print). These include: A Wake-up Call; A Story of Betrayal; One Land, Two Peoples, Three Religions
http://mycatbirdseat.com/2012/09/a-wake-up-call-stuart-littlewood/

In The Nation, Birmbaum says Netanyahu has exposed Jews to dual loyalty charge (and Dennis Ross is an Israeli agent) / Philip Weiss
Mondoweiss 28 Sept — There has been more pushback against Netanyahu from Jewish Democrats. Barney Frank and Henry Waxman are appalled by his intervention in our political process. Netanyahu’s error was exposing American Jews to a dual loyalty charge. American Jews don’t want that suspicion; but Netanyahu’s appeals to Jewish voters created it. There is a fascinating piece up at The Nation in which Norman Birnbaum, sociologist and Georgetown University prof emeritus, accuses Netanyahu of recklessness in exposing American Jews to such charges. Birnbaum lays out the basis for the concern: Zionism is a transnational ideology, dependent on a foreign power, and therefore on Diaspora Jews. And though Birnbaum is obviously troubled by the Israel lobby’s role in U.S. politics, he chooses his words carefully, as if people are about to be accused. He says the lobby is hardly representative of American Jewry; it calls on the most “ethnocentric” of Jews. He says that Protestants are a “pillar” of the lobby, but also that Protestants are about to walk away.
https://mondoweiss.net/2012/09/in-the-nation-birnbaum-says-netanyahu-has-exposed-jews-to-dual-loyalty-charge-and-dennis-ross-is-an-israeli-agent.html

US taxpayers paid more to Israeli defense budget than Israelis / Alison Weir
Intifada-Palestine 23 Sept — The Israeli army’s chief of staff states that in the past three years, “US taxpayers have contributed more to the Israeli defense budget than Israeli taxpayers,” according to a report in the Jerusalem Post, a prominent Israeli newspaper. According to the report, Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi made the statement during a speech on September 11th. In it he emphasized: “We must preserve ties with the United States. I believe this is a security necessity.” American taxpayers give Israel over $3 billion per year (over $8 million per day), more than to any other nation, despite the fact that Israel is smaller than New Jersey and is in the top 30 richest countries in the world.
http://www.intifada-palestine.com/2012/09/us-taxpayers-paid-more-to-israeli-defense-budget-than-israelis/

Anti-Muslim film puts Christian TV in global spotlight
LA Times 27 Sept — Unrest in the wake of ‘Innocence of Muslims’ has shed light on U.S.-based, Arabic-language satellite TV stations whose programming is aimed at converting Muslims to Christianity … Though little noticed in the English-speaking world, the stations’ programming had been controversial among Middle Eastern Christians and Muslims — both in the U.S. and abroad — long before the low-budget movie popularized their message …  “All kinds of Christians have gotten in on the action, and some of them are quite horrific in the way they do attack the Islamic faith,” said Terence Ascott, the chief executive and founder of SAT-7 …
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-satellite-20120928,0,6912233.story

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