Israel to the international community: ‘This is not a pipe’

Israel says newly approved homes ‘not settlement’
JERUSALEM (AFP) 28 Sept — Israel on Wednesday rejected international outcry over its plans to build 1,100 new homes in Gilo in annexed Palestinian east Jerusalem, insisting the area was “not a settlement.” “Gilo is not a settlement, nor a settlement outpost. It is a neighborhood which constitutes an integral part of the center of Jerusalem,” a senior Israeli official told Agence France-Presse.  The move, which was signed off by Israel’s interior ministry on Tuesday, drew a sharply worded response from the Palestinian Authority, and a chorus of condemnation from Europe, the US and China. Gilo lies in the part of Jerusalem which Israel captured along with the West Bank from Jordan during the 1967 Six Day War and later occupied and annexed in a move not recognized by the international community. Israel considers both halves of the Holy City its “eternal, indivisible” capital.

PA, US, EU condemn Gilo housing plan
Ynet 27 Sept — Palestinian PM’s Office blasts decision to build 1,100 housing units in east Jerusalem as ‘blatant unilateral step.’ EU says decision ‘disappointing’; US labels it ‘counterproductive’

Expert says new settlement to divide West Bank
RAMALLAH (WAFA) 28 Sept — Israel’s approval of a plan to build new 1100 housing units in the East Jerusalem settlement of Gilo is a prelude to an Israeli project to build a new settlement that will separate the south of the West Bank from the Palestinian villages bordering Jerusalem, Wednesday said Khalil Toufakji, a Palestinian expert on Israeli settlements. He told Voice of Palestine radio that a new residential area that would ultimately house thousands of Israelis, to be known as Givat Yael, will be constructed on land that belong to the village of al Walaja, northwest of Bethlehem, and will extend to the west of Gilo.

And  more news from Today in Palestine:

Building a Palestinian-free kingdom
Haaretz 28 Sept — While international leaders are drafting a Palestinian country, Yehuda Etzion is planning a Torah-centric state and the Third Temple. No, Palestinians and democracy are not part of this scheme … Etzion, a resident of the settlement Ofra, has a draft master plan for Jerusalem, which he is preparing with a team of Ofra residents and an architectural firm. The plan centers around the Third Temple: where a ring road will pass, where pilgrims will park, where observation points will be located. The Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem will be demolished. They are not part of the plan. The plan, which is supposed to be published in a book this year, is part of Etzion’s work to establish the Kingdom of Israel, which will put an end to all the talk of a Palestinian state. Etzion, 60, is among the founders of Ofra. In the 1980s he was an activist in the Jewish underground and planned to blow up the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, but he was arrested before the plot could be carried out.
http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/building-a-palestinian-free-kingdom-1.387179

Locals: Israeli forces hand Bethlehem village confiscation orders
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 28 Sept — Israeli forces notified villagers near Bethlehem that their land will soon be confiscated, local residents said Wednesday.  Land owned by 40 families in Battir village — 148 dunams of vegetable, fruit and olive groves — is earmarked for confiscation, villagers told Ma‘an. According to the notices received by villagers, the area is close to the train line to Jerusalem and next to the East Jerusalem settlement of Gilo, in which Israeli authorities approved the building of 1,100 new homes on Tuesday, sparking international condemnation.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=424350

Israel decides to build settlement road seizing 800 dunums of Beit Ummar
HEBRON (WAFA) 28 Sept – The Israeli authorities Wednesday notified the municipality of the town of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron in the southern West Bank, of its decision to build a new settlement bypass road that threats to seize more than 800 dunums of the town’s land, according to Spokesman of the National Committee against the Wall and settlement, Mohammed Awad. He said that the Israeli authorities handed a military decision to build a bypass road that starts from the settlement of Etzion and passes through the town of Beit Ummar and seizes lands that belong to an agricultural school. According to the decision, the building of the road will start next week, leaving the Palestinian residents with no time to appeal before Israeli courts.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=17574

Israeli forces escalate measures against school in East Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (WAFA) 27 Sept – Israeli forces escalated on Tuesday measures against the Khan al-Ahmar elementary school ‘School of Tires’, in East Jerusalem, by denying entrance of Palestinian cars to school grounds and by the decision threatening to demolish the school in two weeks. In a statement the Palestinian Ministry of Education condemned the Israeli occupation practices against more than 70 Bedouin children in the area and denying them their educational rights….
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=17550

International report calls for immediate end of Israeli demolitions
GENEVA (WAFA) 27 Sept — Three United Nations independent experts Tuesday called for an immediate end to the Israeli demolitions of Palestinian owned-houses and other structures in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which have seen a dramatic increase since the beginning of the year, according to a press release by OHCHR.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=17548

Lift of bizarre visa requirement to help promote Palestine tourism / Imtiaz Muqbil
BangkokPost 26 Sept — The Palestinian bid for statehood has opened the way for the international travel & tourism industry to demand the right to visit Palestine without undergoing the humiliating and intrusive process of applying for a visa at an Israeli embassy. The Israeli occupation of Palestine has forced millions of people all over the world, especially Christian pilgrims seeking to visit Bethlehem and Muslims seeking to pray at the Al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest shrine in Islam, to seek a visa from a country they “do not want” to visit in order to visit a country they “do want” to visit. By any standards of international relations, this should be totally unacceptable. Due to the wave of global support emerging for an independent Palestine, the people of all the countries backing the Palestinian bid are now well placed to demand that their governments take all necessary diplomatic steps to remove this bizarre requirement.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/economics/258291/lift-of-bizarre-visa-%20requirement-to-help-promote-palestine-tourism

Israel closes West Bank crossings for Jewish holiday
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 28 Sept — The Israeli army announced its closure of the West Bank from midnight Tuesday until midnight Saturday, a statement said late Tuesday. The Allenby Crossing between the West Bank and Jordan will also operate under reduced hours on Wednesday and Thursday, as Israeli Jews celebrate Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year … No Palestinians will be permitted to leave the West Bank during the holiday period, except patients cleared to receive medical care in Jerusalem or Israel, according to the release.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=424250

Israel authorities grant Palestinian bishop Jerusalem residency
Reuters 27 Sept — Jerusalem’s Anglican bishop, Palestinian Suheil Dawani, receives permit after months of wrangling; as a non-Israeli, Dawani is required by Israeli authorities to obtain a temporary residence permit.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-authorities-grant-palestinian-bishop-jerusalem-residency-1.387016

Israeli occupation court extends detention of Palestinian MP Ahmed Attoun
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 27 Sept — An Israeli occupation magistrate court judge in Jerusalem ruled Tuesday afternoon to extend the detention of Palestinian lawmaker, Ahmed Attoun, till next Monday, his charge was “illegally entering Israel.” Fadi Qawasmi, one of lawyers representing MP Attoun … added that MP Attoun suffered bruises during his violent kidnapping on Monday and that he was taken on Monday evening to the Maskoubeyya clinic, then to Bakour Holim hospital before being returned to the Maskoubeyya detention and interrogation centre. An Israeli Border Guard unit, dressed as Arabs, kidnapped MP Attoun on Monday from the Red Cross compound.
Link to Palestinian Information Center

Israeli troops brutally assault a youth and attack medics
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 28 Sept — Numerous Israeli troops assaulted the youth Hamdi Jaber from the Middle Neighbourhood while he was passing by. These troops assaulted him brutally, contrary to all human standards, neglecting his cries of pain. His screams expressed the brutality of those troops. One of the witnesses mentioned that Jaber was screaming out because of pain in his arm saying, “Help me for God’s sake, my hand is broken.” During the assault the Israeli troops assaulted medics and everyone who tried to help Jaber, then he was chained and arrested.
http://silwanic.net/?p=20717

Kidnapping a youth from Al Bustan neighborhood
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 28 Sept –  Israeli troops kidnapped Ahmad Naeem Taha, 16, From al Bustan Neighbourhood without any reason. This act happened while the neighbourhood was quite calm
http://silwanic.net/?p=20715

The graffiti battle of Sheikh Jarrah
[photos] ISM 28 Sept — While Palestinian families continue to defend their right to reside in their homes in East Jerusalem, and while illegal Israeli settlers attempt to overtake whatever home or land to feed their colonial appetite, a different struggle is taking place on the walls of Sheikh Jarrah. As international activists and Palestinians use graffiti to express Palestinian resistance, Zionists scribble over the artful proclamations in reactionary stick images and symbolism of the Zionist agenda. As more walls are built or demolished by Israel, the artwork in Sheikh Jarrah  reflects the struggle of Palestinian identity and resistance, despite the overbearing  nature of Zionists who try to manipulate the meaning of  Palestinian resistance, Palestinians and international activists are taking back the identity of Palestinians through street art.
http://palsolidarity.org/2011/09/20350/

Settlers

Israeli military conceals information about possible nerve agent used by illegal, violent settlers
ISM 26 Sept — On Sunday, September 25th, Riyadh Abu Armile was assaulted by settlers and the army in Hebron,causing for an open investigation by human rights groups as evidence suggests that settlers may have used an unidentified nerve agent during the assault. On the night of the attack hundreds of settlers from around  Al Khalil (Hebron) arrived in the H2 area, in the centre of the city for the funeral of Asher Palmer and his son from Kiryat Arba who died in a car crash on Friday. Despite the fact that an investigation into the deaths is yet to reach a conclusion about the cause of the crash, soldiers on the scene echoed the proclamations of Israeli media sources, which labeled the incident as a ‘terrorist attack’ because of speculation that the crash was caused by Palestinians throwing stones. A dangerously volatile situation was then created by the decision to hold the funeral in a Palestinian area of Hebron rather than the Kiryat Arba settlement where the deceased lived.
http://palsolidarity.org/2011/09/20340/

Elderly Palestinian attacked by settlers in Bethlehem
BETHLEHEM (WAFA) 27 Sept — ‘Atsion’ settlers attacked on Tuesday Salem Eid, 65, from Jurat ash-Sham‘’a, in Bethlehem, while on his way to his agricultural land [to pick grapes, acc. to Ma‘an]. Hussien Zawahreh, coordinator of the popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements, in the West Bank, stated that those called the ‘settlement’s security members’ arrested the old man, while another number of settlers attacked him and beat him up
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=17555

Settlers under Israeli soldiers’ protection gather on outskirts of Taqo‘a
BETHLEHEM (WAFA) 27 Sept — Large numbers of settlers gathered Tuesday on the outskirts of Taqo‘a [or Tuqu‘, Arabic تقوع  – hard to transliterate], a village east of Bethlehem, according to local sources. Taqo‘a’s mayor, Tayseer Abu Mifleh, told WAFA that great numbers of settlers, under the protection of Israeli soldiers, gather on the west entrance of the village, and the settlement ‘Maali Amous’, set on the village’s land.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=17556

Guard committees deter Israeli settlers’ attack
IMEMC 28 Sept — The local guard committees foiled on Tuesday night an attack by Israeli settlers that targeted the residents of Palestinian residents of Tel Rumeideh, in Hebron. Around one hundred settlers gathered and toured from al-Shuhada’ street, and other neighborhoods in Hebron and headed to Tel Rumeideh. Dozens of Palestinian volunteers gathered to stop the settlers, however the settlers fled the scene.
http://www.imemc.org/article/62132

West Bank settlers spurning UN vow growth while army trains
Bloomberg 28 Sept — Shaul Goldstein has been building West Bank settlements as a contractor and politician for 20 years. He plans to continue no matter what Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas achieves in his bid for statehood. “I saw his speech at the United Nations and it doesn’t change anything,” said Goldstein, mayor of the cluster of settlements south of Jerusalem known as Gush Etzion. “We live here and we’re not going away.” … Now he is promoting a 10-year plan to expand Gush Etzion to a population of 90,000.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-09-28/west-bank-settlers-spurning-un-vow-growth-while-army-trains.html

Extremist settler attacks shepherd and brutally abuses flock
[photos] ISM 28 Sept — On the 17th of September Israeli colonists attacked a shepherd near Sha’ab el-Butom, resulting in several sheep injured and the arrest of the young shepherd. Sha’ab el-Butom is a small Bedouin village in South Hebron Hills not even mentioned in most maps, a village that faces daily harassment from the surrounding illegal settlements and outposts composed by the most ideological settlers in the West Bank … Aburem then tried to explain to them that he had permission from the military and the police to stay there and go around with his sheep. It was not a good answer for the settler. With ideology based on extreme interpretation of Judaic law, his reaction was to start beating Ahmad’s sheep with stones and sticks. 3 sheep lost their eyes, one died, another one was pregnant but lost her kid, and four others tried desperately to escape.
http://palsolidarity.org/2011/09/20334/

Israeli agency urges funding to be cut from extremist settler college / Donald Macintyre
Independent 28 Sept — Israel’s domestic intelligence agency is urging the government to stop funding a religious college in a Jewish West Bank settlement after warning that its senior rabbis are encouraging students to attack Palestinians. The intelligence agency, Shin Bet, pressed a month ago for an immediate block on the annual £226,000 grant for the religious college, or yeshiva, in the notoriously extreme settlement of Yitzhar, near Nablus. The Education Ministry has reportedly yet to take a decision despite two meetings with Shin Bet. Residents of the nearby Palestinian village of Asira El Qbilya say the masked, club-wielding teenage settlers who invaded it last week came from Yitzhar.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israeli-agency-urges-funding-to-be-cut-from-extremist-settler-college-2362052.html

Israeli forces

Israeli army invades Jenin and arrests citizens
PNN 28 Sept –  The Israeli army invaded Jenin and Hebron this morning, declared curfew and started invaded houses where they arrested several citizens. Security resources reported that the Israeli Army arrested 40-year-old Mahmoud Abdel-Razeq Jarar, after invading and searching his parents’ house in Al-Jdida village.
Villages of Al-Zawiyeh, Mithlon, Seryis, Sanour, and Msaliyeh were also invaded
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10712&Itemid=64

IDF probe finds serious shortcomings in incident that led to Palestinian man’s death
Haaretz 28 Sept — Serious shortcomings have been found in Israel Defense Forces soldiers’ handling of an incident in which a Palestinian was shot to death by troops in the West Bank village of Kusra on Friday, an army investigation has revealed. Prior to the shooting on Friday a group of about 15 settlers went down into the dry riverbed near Kusra to pray, although a brigade commander in the area had identified the location as a potential flash point in advance and moved troops to the area. Despite the fact that the commander had the authority to declare the valley next to Kusra where the settlers were headed a closed military zone, he did not do so and allowed the settlers to come close to the edge of the village.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/idf-probe-finds-serious-shortcomings-in-incident-that-led-to-palestinian-man-s-death-1.387100

Palestinian children woken in night to be photographed with soldiers / Harriet Sherwood
Guardian 28 Sept — Youngsters in West Bank village were forced out of bed for Israeli military ‘mapping’ exercise … The Nabi Saleh protests have been reported extensively. But a conversation I had with one of the villagers highlighted a practice of which I was previously unaware. Bilal Tamimi (many of the village residents are part of the extended Tamimi family) said that soldiers often come to arrest villagers — including children — at night, a practice documented by B’Tselem, Defence for Children International – Palestine and other NGOs. But he said that, earlier this year, the army also came at night to photograph and record the identity details of children. He described what happened in his family:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/view-from-jerusalem-with-harriet-sherwood/2011/sep/28/palestinian-territories-israel

Gaza

Envoy: Egypt ‘not responsible’ for tunnel deaths
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 28 Sept — The Egyptian ambassador to the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Othman, said Wednesday that Egypt is not responsible for the recent deaths of three Palestinians in smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border … Three Palestinians were pronounced dead on Tuesday morning after Egyptian authorities pumped sewage inside a smuggling tunnel under the Gaza border on Sunday, medics had said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=424493

Gaza war injured to receive treatment in Slovenia
JERICHO (Ma‘an) 27 Sept — A group of Palestinian children who were injured during Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in 2008-9 were transferred Tuesday from the West Bank en route to Slovenia for treatment, officials said. Medhat Taha, an advisor to President Mahmoud Abbas for medical cases, said the 10 children were injured during Israel’s assault on Gaza. The delegation includes 10 cases of amputation and paralysis. Meanwhile, the Salama charity association for rehabilitation of disabled and wounded arranged paperwork so eight other children could depart Gaza via the Erez crossing to join the delegation receiving care abroad.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=424164

A Gaza boy newspapers omitted
PressTV 26 Sept — “Both of Ibrahim’s arms were cut off. He had a hole in his lung. Parts of his legs were missing. His kidney was in a bad condition…we need people to stand with us.” These were the words of an exhausted man as he described the condition of his dying son in an interview with The Real News, an alternative news source. Ibrahim Zaza was merely a 12-year-old boy. He and his cousin Mohammed, 14, were hit by an Israeli missile in Gaza, fired from an unmanned drone as they played in front of their house. The story started on August 18. The next day, the British Telegraph reported: “Israel launches fightback after militant attack on Egypt border.”
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/201214.html

2 rockets hit western Negev
Ynet 27 Sept — Two projectiles fired from northern Gaza explode in Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council. No injuries reported, power line sustains damage … The fire is the first in the past few weeks
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4128833,00.html

Shalom threatens incursion in Gaza Strip to stop rocket fire
PNN 28 Sept — In an interview with the Israeli Channel 7, in light of the Jewish New Year, the Israeli Deputy Prime Minister, Silvan Shalom, expressed his frustration regarding continued rocket fire from the Gaza Strip into Israel. He warned that the Israeli army will not hesitate to enter into a ground battle against the Gaza Strip to stop the rockets.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10713&Itemid=64

Rights group: Fatah leader barred from leaving Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 27 Sept — The internal security the government in the Gaza Strip has forbidden Zakaria al-Agha, 71, from traveling to the West Bank through the Erez crossing north of Gaza, a rights group said. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights condemned the action in a statement and demanded that the interior ministry in Gaza respect freedom of movement according to international standards of human rights. The interior ministry denied al-Agha permission to leave saying he lacked appropriate permits.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=424182

Gaza foreign press restrictions imposed by Hamas
BBC 27 Sept — The Islamist movement which governs the Palestinian territory says journalists must now apply five days in advance in order to work there. A senior Hamas official told the BBC that there appeared to have been a misunderstanding. The new rules are not being strictly implemented yet but a BBC correspondent had trouble entering Gaza … Some other foreign reporters said they had also been asked to sign forms saying that if any news items critical of Hamas were published, local Palestinian journalists they work with would be held responsible.   
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15076118

Detention

28 prisoners transferred to unknown destination to break their hunger strike
GAZA (WAFA) 27 Sept –  Israeli prison’s administration Tuesday at dawn transferred 28 Palestinians prisoners from Naqab prison to an unknown destination to break up their open hunger strike.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=17542

HaSharon prison rejects visitation appeal by longtime separated couple
NABLUS (PIC) 28 Sept — It was a day of disappointment for Ukrainian native Irena Sarahna after Israeli prison authorities denied her the right to visit her husband Ibrahim Sarahna, 41, as the couple, being held in separate prisons, have been banned from visits by other loved ones in the framework of additional punitive measures.
Link to Palestinian Information Center

Statehood bid

Council takes first step on Palestinian UN bid
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) 28 Sept — The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday took its first step on the Palestinian application to join the United Nations by handing it to a committee that will review and assess it in the coming weeks. The standing committee on the admission of new members to the world body is comprised of all 15 council members. Normally, the review period for a membership application is a maximum of 35 days, but Western diplomats say this limit can be waived and the process could theoretically drag on.
http://my.news.yahoo.com/council-takes-first-step-palestinian-u-n-bid-165026289.html

Fatah study Quartet initiative, PLO to respond Thursday
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) -28 Sept — President Abbas chaired a meeting on Wednesday with Fatah’s central committee to discuss the Middle East Quartet’s initiative for resuming negotiations with Israel … During the meeting, Fatah’s central committee discussed ways to mobilize additional diplomatic support for the UN bid, as well as measures to implement a national reconciliation deal.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=424525

EU’s Ashton expects negotiations to resume within 4 weeks
STRASBOURG, FRANCE (WAFA) 28 Sept — European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Tuesday that she expects Palestinian-Israeli negotiations to start within four weeks — “We expect both sides to agree to come to negotiations within four weeks,” said Ashton, calling on the EU, including the European Parliament, to play a central role in that process. “We are well placed and I will stay personally involved,” she said. The EU chief said that it has become clear that the EU role is now “a player and a payer,” explaining that the EU’s financial commitment is now matched by its political strength.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=17564

Israel’s cabinet fails to reach consensus on Quartet plan for talks with Palestinians
Haaretz 28 Sept — Mideast Quartet proposal calls for renewal of direct talks within a month, with end of 2012 as deadline for final agreement; many expected Netanyahu to support the initiative — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the eight senior cabinet members were unable to reach an agreement regarding the Quartet’s initiative for renewed talks between Israel and the Palestinians, despite prolonged discussions lasting until 2:00 A.M. on Wednesday.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-s-cabinet-fails-to-reach-consensus-on-quartet-plan-for-talks-with-palestinians-1.387164

Other news

UNRWA workers union to strike on Thursday
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) 28 Sept — The workers union of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees announced on Wednesday that they will hold a general strike in all UNRWA schools on Thursday. Secretary of the union Yousef Hamdooneh said that the group will meet on Thursday to escalate their protests against the dismissal of the union chief Suheil al-Hindi in September, a statement said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=424457

Hamas, Fatah leaders meet ahead of Cairo talks
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 28 Sept — Leaders from Hamas and Fatah have met in the West Bank to discuss reconciliation efforts, Ma‘an has learned. The meeting, held recently in Nablus, took place in the home of Nasser al-Shaer, a former deputy to prime minister in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh. Representing Fatah in the meeting were Azzam al-Ahmad, head of the national dialogue team, and Mahmoud al-Aloul, a member of Fatah’s central committee.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=424422

90.3% of Palestinian exports are to Israel
RAMALLAH (WAFA) 28 Sept — Palestinian exports to Israel represented 90.3% of total exports in July 2011, while imports from Israel represented 60.0% of total imports to the Palestinian Territory in the same period, Wednesday said a press release by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS).
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=17560

S610.7 million deficit value of current account
RAMALLAH (WAFA) 27 Sept — The deficit value of the Current Account in the Palestinian Territory amounted to US$610.7 million (29.9% of the GDP in current prices for the second quarter of 2011), decreasing by 0.4% compared to the previous quarter, according to a joint report published Tuesday by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) and Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA).
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=17538

PADICO closes its first corporate bonds issuance with $85 million
RAMALLAH (WAFA) 28 Sept – The Palestinian holding company, Palestine Development and Investment Company (PADICO), Wednesday announced the successful closure of its bonds issuance with an oversubscription of USD$ 85 million, with a USD$ 15 million surplus on top of the initial USD$ 70 million original offering. Most of the bond holders are banking institutions operating in Palestine and the Palestinian Monetary Authority, the equivalent of the Central Bank in Palestine.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=17572

Turkey,  Egypt, Lebanon / Israel

Report: Israel mulls alternative locations for embassy in Cairo
Ynet 27 Sept — A team of five Israeli diplomats, headed by Consul General to Egypt Yaakov Dvir, visited Cairo for a few hours on Tuesday, in search of possible new locations for the Israeli Embassy, Germany’s DPA news agency reported.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4128776,00.html

Egyptian FM backs treaty with Israel
AP 27 Sept — Mohamed Amr asserts Egypt will always respect 1979 Camp David accords with Israel, adds Cairo seeking to strengthen ‘strategic relationship’ with Obama administration
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4128314,00.html

Israel raises alarm over Sinai-Gaza cooperation
Daily Star 28 Sept — JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak both warned in interviews published Wednesday that the situation in Egypt’s Sinai poses a “very troubling” threat to Israel … Israel says a deadly attack on its south last month was staged partly from Sinai, and Netanyahu warned that forces hostile to peace between Egypt and Israel were exploiting the security vacuum in the area.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2011/Sep-28/149927-israel-raises-alarm-over-sinai-gaza-cooperation.ashx

US presses Egypt to on Israel, democracy
Agencies 28 Sept — Washington pushes wary Mideast ally to bolster ties with Israel regardless of coming elections’ results
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4129017,00.html

Turkey helps Israel foil infiltrators’ arrival
Ynet 28 Sept — Israeli authorities cooperate with Turkey to thwart arrival of 97 illegal immigrants from Ivory Coast
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4128842,00.html

Report: Lebanon arrests 3 people suspected of spying for Israel, trespassing
Haaretz 27 Sept — Al-Hayat reports that Lebanese intelligence interrogated Arab-Israeli man arrested on suspicion of trespassing, after he arrived in Lebanon from Israel via the sea … According to the report, an Egyptian citizen and his wife were arrested on suspicion of spying, and an Arab-Israeli man was arrested on suspicion of trespassing.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/report-lebanon-arrests-3-people-suspected-of-spying-for-israel-trespassing-1.387033

Analysis / Opinion / Human interest

Border Control / Mideast peace can provide all the security Israel needs / Akiva Eldar
Haaretz 27 Sept — The main, if not the only, innovation in the prime minister’s address at the UN General Assembly was the demand that the Palestinians house [Israeli] military bases inside their new state. This, of course, in addition to the need for “defensible borders,” that is a result of Israel’s narrow middle. In order to illustrate the sensitivity of this shape, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “disclosed” to the world that a fighter jet could cross the width of the country in just three seconds … The Council for Peace and Security therefore believes that Israel has the appropriate military responses to the most serious scenarios. In their opinion, the strategic advantages of a peace agreement outweigh the minor benefit of continuing to control the Jordan Valley and Western Samaria. They agree with the argument that the main threat is not from a land attack that will eat away at Israel’s territory, but from an erosion of the spirit of the people and of Israel’s standing in the world.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/border-control-mideast-peace-can-provide-all-the-security-israel-needs-1.386923

Stripping geography from the conflict / Musa Hamideh
[with maps] Mondoweiss 28 Sept — While Mahmoud Abbas was attempting to use legal and bureaucratic means to forge borders for a potential homeland, Israel was busy forcibly relocating its Bedouin population and revoking residency status from East Jerusalemites.  Even maps that aim to highlight the fragmentation of Palestinians often present Israel as permanent, as opposed to a dynamic entity with no recognized borders.  To paraphrase the late Edward Said, this discourse serves to strip the actual geography from the most geographical of conflicts.  It enforces the erroneous notion that the Nakba has ended, and the conflict has become a protracted border dispute. This program of ethnic cleansing has merely shifted its focus from violent means to bureaucratic ones as Israel has adapted to the popularization of human rights discourse and occupation law.
https://mondoweiss.net/2011/09/stripping-geography-from-the-conflict.html

Perfect match: Bob Bernstein uses settler sources for racist anti-Arab WaPo op-ed / Adam Horowitz
Mondoweiss 28 Sept — Robert Bernstein has an Op-Ed in today’s Washington Post that shows just how truly desperate Israel’s cheerleaders have become. Bernstein, a founder of Human Rights Watch who now seems to hate human rights, responds to the push for Palestinian statehood by recycling the tired argument that it is Palestinian words that are driving the conflict, not the Israeli boot on their necks.
https://mondoweiss.net/2011/09/perfect-match-bob-bernstein-uses-settler-sources-for-racist-anti-arab-wapo-op-ed.html

Sidelined: US fails for the second time in Quartet discussions on ‘Jewish state’ / Alex Kane
Mondoweiss 27 Sept — While the Diplomatic Quartet scrambled to avert action on Palestine at the Security Council, the Obama administration was reportedly busy lobbying to commit the Quartet to affirming Israel’s Jewish character.  That the Quartet statement’s purpose was not achieved and that the Obama administration’s efforts failed further highlights the death of the Oslo era and the decreasing relevance of the U.S. in a fast changing Middle East.  
https://mondoweiss.net/2011/09/sidelined-u-s-fails-for-the-second-time-in-quartet-discussions-on-%E2%80%98jewish-state%E2%80%99.html

Israeli journalist visiting Vancouver has tough words for home country
VANCOUVER 27 Sept — Amira Hass, a reporter and the daughter of Holocaust survivors, doesn’t pull any punches in her description of Israeli-Palestinian relations in the West Bank. “You have a policy of ethnic cleansing in vast areas of the West Bank….It’s very open,” she said. Hass is a reporter and columnist for the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz. She says she is the only Israeli Jewish journalist living and working in the Palestinian territories. Now based in the city of Ramallah, she has lived in the West Bank since 1997 and in Gaza for four years before that.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Israeli+journalist+visiting+Vancouver+tough+words+home+country/5466852/story.html

Observations from Hebron daily life
ISM 28 Sept — … A settler funeral was going on in a Jewish cemetery half way up the hill.  Although the procession only took about two hours, Checkpoint 56 at the bottom of the hill was closed for five hours. Palestinian women on the bus chat happily and endure the wait it takes to fill the bus from Bethlehem to Hebron. A young Bedouin woman with a small child does not miss the opportunity to try to make a sale. She shows the lone tourist on the bus some exquisitely woven money bags and pillow shams. Everyone hustles: it is called survival. Whether it is olive soap, scarves, kaffiyas, watches, Kleenex packages, or bread, Hebron Palestinians hawk their wares daily.
http://palsolidarity.org/2011/09/20342/

Hebron: “We have been waiting more over 60 years for this”
ISM 21 Sept — Atta and Rudaina Jeber’s farm is situated upon a hill. The area is called Sheik Sherah, in the Beqa‘a Valley in the outskirts of Hebron, or Al-Khalil.  Atta’s family has owned the land since the Ottoman Empire was in power, and he explains that he is part of about 19,000 Palestinians who originally settled the hills when they came from the lands now called Jordan, some 800 years ago. He will also show you the caves where many of his ancestors were born.
http://palsolidarity.org/2011/09/20269/

South Africa should support boycott of Israel
AJE 27 Sept — Zuma’s government should be in an ideal position to recognise Israeli apartheid – and to lead the boycott against it.
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/09/2011924135852569124.html

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