UN: Settlers grab Palestinian water springs (Reuters)
NABI SALEH (Reuters) 19 Mar — Jewish settlers have seized dozens of natural springs in the occupied West Bank, barring Palestinians or limiting their access to scarce water sources, a United Nations report said on Monday. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said it had surveyed 530 springs in the West Bank and found that 30, mostly in areas where Israel retains military control, were taken over by the settlers. It added that Palestinians currently had limited access to 26 other springs where settlers had moved in and threatened to take control. The report said settlers had not encroached on 474 remaining springs surveyed … It added that settlers had turned dozens of springs into tourist sites and some were used for swimming. “Settlers have developed 40 springs as tourist sites, deployed picnic tables and benches and given them Hebrew names … It is generating employment and revenue for the settlements and it is a way of promoting or advertising settlements as a fun place,” OCHA researcher Yehezkel Lein said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=469383
Israel bars Palestinian MP from going to Geneva to attend UN conference
RAMALLAH (PIC) 19 Mar — The Israeli occupation authority and its forces refused on Sunday to allow Hamas lawmaker Ibrahim Dahbour to travel abroad. MP Dahbour was on his way to Geneva to join a Palestinian parliamentary delegation invited by the international network for rights and development to participate in a conference, sponsored by the UN human rights council, on Israel’s violations against Palestinian lawmakers. The lawmaker told the Palestinian information center (PIC) that Israeli soldiers at Al-Karama crossing informed him that he was banned from travel for security reasons.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk/
In Photos: Qalqiliya’s checkpoint for workers
AIC 19 Mar — What divides the residents of Qalqiliya from their work and land stuck on the other side of the Separation Wall is not even a checkpoint; Israeli authorities call it a ‘crosspoint’, a gate under the military control and reserved for the few Palestinians who hold a permit to work in Israel.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/component/content/article/28-news/4223-in-photos-qalqiliyas-checkpoint-for-workers-
Home demolitions in Jordan Valley: Thoughts behind the camera / Maria Fortunato
AIC 18 Mar — My hands were trembling while I attempted to film the bulldozers demolishing the home. I didn’t want to film. It felt like I was stealing a private and intimate moment. I looked at the Israeli soldiers, stuck in their positions, holding guns and protecting the bulldozer. The official of the Israeli Civil Administration, wearing a yellow jacket, was giving orders to the machine. I then heard that noise which froze the blood in my veins. That noise which I had heard numerous times before in documentaries, but hearing it live is something entirely different. The bulldozer, after reversing for several meters, rolled forward and destroyed one of the walls of the house. Then the entire home rolled up onto itself and crumbled … The soldiers were protecting the bulldozer with malicious smiles on their faces. Maybe they think it’s just a video-game, that destroying a home helps you earn points. My friend Ibrahim is shocked, like me. “Aren’t they human beings? Do they realize what they are doing? “
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/topics/opinion/4217-home-demolitions-in-jordan-valley-thoughts-behind-the-camera
Bavaria strengthens its support for Israeli national parks
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 17 Mar– The Minister of Environmental Protection, Gilad Erdan met with the Environment and Public Health Minister of the German state of Bavaria Dr. Marcos on Wednesday, 14 March. The two discussed possibilities for mutual cooperation in conservation and national parks initiatives, as well as exchange in environmental services, specialists and training. The Bavarian federal government has had an existing environmental agreement with Israel since 1993, with the government supporting Israeli national parks. Israeli environmental parks serve a key role in state control of annexed Palestinian land.
http://silwanic.net/?p=25408
Israeli forces
Witnesses: 2 people injured in Hebron army raids
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 19 Mar — Two people were injured in Hebron during a raid by Israeli soldiers on Sunday, witnesses said. Israa Salaymah, 16, sustained a head injury after soldiers pushed her violently after raiding her family’s home. Mustafa Abu Sleima sustained bruises after soldiers assaulted him in his home, witnesses said. Both were taken for treatment to a hospital in Hebron. The military conducted overnight raids in the Tel Rumeida area and in al-Shuhada street, evacuating residents from their homes, locals said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=469152
Suspect in Palestinian’s roadside death case accused of harassing witnesses
Haaretz 19 Mar — Rehovot police officer on trial for allegedly leaving man on side of the road without food, water or medical assistance, also being investigated for obstruction of justice.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/suspect-in-palestinian-s-roadside-death-case-accused-of-harassing-witness-1.419433
Human rights group condemns Israeli use of police dogs
GENEVA (WAFA) 18 Mar — The Euro-Mediterranean Observatory for Human Rights (EMOHR) Sunday strongly condemned in a statement the Israeli soldiers’ use of police dogs against peaceful protesters in the Palestinian Territory, considering it a blatant violation of the international and humanitarian law … EMOHR documented the Israeli soldier giving a signal to one of the dogs to attack 24 year-old Ahmad Ishtewi, which caused severe bleeding in his thigh and hands.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=19312
27 laborers injured in road accident
QALQILIYA (Ma‘an) 18 Mar — Twenty-seven Palestinian laborers were injured in a West Bank road accident on Sunday, witnesses said. An Israeli military jeep hit a vehicle carrying the laborers near Qalqiliya, causing it to flip over, one of the workers told Ma‘an. The military jeep intentionally hit the vehicle, he added. The victims have been transferred to a hospital in Qalqiliya and are said to be in a moderate condition.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=469054
IOF carry out military exercises in Jenin
JENIN (PIC) 19 Mar — The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) initiated at dawn Monday large-scale live fire drills and maneuvers in the plains of Ya‘bad town, southeast of Jenin city, and nearby mountains. Local sources reported that the IOF used live ammunition and caused havoc in vast tract of Palestinian cultivated land. During the exercises, the IOF also cut off the road from Araba junction to Ya‘bad town, set up barriers and stopped Palestinian vehicles for many hours.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk/
Christian leaders: Israeli ambassador ‘masks reality’
19 Mar — Kairos Palestine, a group of Palestinian Christians, denounces Michael Oren’s recent op-ed “Israel and the Plight of Mideast Christians,” published in The Wall Street Journal. In this inaccurate and manipulative text, Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the US, blames the plight of Palestinian Christians on oppression at the hands of Palestinian Muslims — rather than at the hands of the illegal Israeli occupation itself, as is our reality … We are particularly troubled by Oren’s attribution of migration within the Palestinian Christian community to ill-treatment by Palestinian Muslims. This damaging analysis willfully ignores the underlying political oppression that afflicts Christians and Muslims alike. In the case of Bethlehem, for instance, it is in fact the rampant construction of Israeli settlements, the choke-hold imposed by the separation wall, and the Israeli government’s confiscation of Palestinian land — largely Christian-owned land in the Bethlehem area — that has driven many Christians to leave. At present, a mere 13 percent of Bethlehem-area land is left to its Palestinian inhabitants.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=469295
Settlers
Israeli settlers target water springs in West Bank, says UN agency
JERUSALEM (WAFA) 19 Mar — A total of 56 water springs across the occupied West Bank were the target of Israeli settler activities in 2011, a United Nations agency official said Monday … OCHA presented a report titled “The Humanitarian Impact of the Takeover of Palestinian Water Springs by Israeli Settlers” … Palestinians have been deterred from accessing the springs by acts of trespass; intimidation and physical assault; stealing of private property; construction without a building permit; de facto annexation of spring areas to the settlements; as well as threats and violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers in most of the spring areas, said the report.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=19319
Operation Dove: Settlers attack Palestinian shepherd north of Hebron
HEBRON (WAFA) 18 Mar — Five Israeli settlers from the illegal outpost of Havat Ma’on south of Hebron attacked on Saturday a Palestinian shepherd from At-Tuwani village, south of Yatta, while grazing on Meshaha Hill, Sunday said a press release by Operation Dove … The settlers, shouting and imposing themselves physically, pushed the shepherd away until the bottom of the hill, where one of them chased and threatened an International volunteer who was accompanying the shepherd … While escaping the volunteer dropped two mobile phones, which were immediately picked and smashed with a rock by the settler … This is the third attack perpetuated by the settlers in the last week in Meshaha, said Operation Dove, adding that it registered 25 acts of intimidation carried out by the settlers living in the illegal outpost of Havat Ma’on in the area around At-Tuwani since the beginning of 2012.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=19309
[Settlers attack Palestinians in Tal Rumaida, Al-Khalil]
PIC 19 Mar — …In another incident, Jewish settlers battered a Palestinian young woman and a Palestinian youth in Tal Rumaida in downtown Al-Khalil, locals told the PIC reporter. They added that other settlers attacked civilian homes in the same area and chased children. They said that the settlers detained one of the children for an hour.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk/
Gaza
Israeli troops ‘wound boy in Gaza’
AFP 18 Mar — Israeli troops wounded a six-year-old Palestinian boy on Sunday when they opened fire east of the town of Rafah, in southern Gaza, Palestinian medical sources said. “A six-year-old Palestinian child was wounded by Israeli army gunfire near the Kerem Shalom crossing, east of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, which is where the family lives,” emergency services spokesman Adham Abu Selmiya told AFP. “He is in moderate condition and was shot with live fire in his thigh,” he added … The shooting occurred near the Israeli border, where the military maintains an exclusion zone that extends several hundred metres inside the Gaza Strip, which it says is necessary to prevent infiltrations into the Jewish state. Troops regularly open fire on Palestinians who enter the area, including children working or playing in the zone.
http://news.yahoo.com/israeli-troops-wound-boy-gaza-092236519.html
Medics: 2 workers injured in Gaza smuggling tunnels
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 19 Mar — Two workers were injured on Monday after falling into a smuggling tunnel in Rafah, south Gaza, medics said. Medical spokesman in the Gaza Strip Adham Abu Salmiya said that one worker sustained serious injuries and the other was moderately wounded after falling into the opening of a smuggling tunnel under the border with Egypt. Over 170 residents of Gaza have been killed in tunnel accidents.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=469169
Workers stage sit-in at Rafah crossing protesting power cuts
RAFAH (PIC) 19 Mar — Dozens of Palestinian workers and citizens staged a sit-in at the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt on Sunday demanding an end to the power crisis in the enclave. Sami Al-Amassi, the chairman of the general union of Palestinian workers that called for the sit-in, said that the power outage had affected all industrial, health, agricultural, and educational sectors. He said that the power crisis forced the closure of 90% of the 3900 factories in Gaza and added 7000 workers to the long queue of unemployed. Amassi pointed out that the transportation sector was also affected due to shortage of fuel as hundreds of trucks and buses were paralyzed. He warned that hundreds of patients were in danger as a result of the power outage and thousands of agricultural workers were out of work and greenhouses were badly affected.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk/
Domestic gas shortage follows Gaza power blackouts
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 18 Mar — The ongoing electricity crisis in the Gaza Strip has led to a shortage in domestic-use gas for heating and cooking, as residents exhaust limited supplies permitted into the blockaded coastal strip.Muhammad Al-Abadlah, a member of the board of gas companies association in Gaza, told Ma‘an the gas shortage had worsened after Israel announced maintenance work on gas pipelines at the sole goods crossing from Israel.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=468961
Long power outages cripple daily life in Gaza Strip
PressTV 19 Mar – Power outages and all-out blackouts of up to 18 hours a day have crippled the lives of 1.7 million people residing in the Tel Aviv-blockaded Gaza Strip, Press TV reports. The long blackouts have been affecting the Israeli-besieged territory’s population for three weeks now, a Press TV correspondent reported on Sunday.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/232376.html
Othman: Egypt to provide fuel to Gaza Strip
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 18 Mar — The Egyptian ambassador to the Palestinian Authority said Sunday that Egypt will provide fuel to Gaza in the next few days, despite an energy crisis of its own. Egypt is currently importing diesel from abroad to fill a deficit in local consumption, Yasser Othman told Ma‘an. Egypt will provide the Gaza energy authority with fuel from the imported supplies.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=469124
Army: Gaza rocket lands in Israel
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 19 Mar — A rocket fired from Gaza landed in the southern Negev region of Israel on Monday, the Israeli army said. No injuries or damage were reported,
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=469234
Hamas chief: Israel using Gaza as guinea pig for military testing
Haaretz 18 Mar — After meeting with Turkish officials, Khaled Meshal vows to continue fight against Israel in ‘political, diplomatic and media fields’, Turkish newspaper Today’s Zaman reports — Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshal on Sunday accused Israel of using the Gaza Strip as a “guinea pig” for its testing its missile capabilities amidst rising tensions with Iran, the Turkish newspaper Today’s Zaman reported. Meshal claimed that Hamas rocket attacks on Israel were self-defense, asserting that rockets are only fired from Gaza in response to Israeli strikes.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/hamas-chief-israel-using-gaza-as-guinea-pig-for-military-testing-1.419411
Hanaa’ al-Shalabi / Other political detainees / Court actions
Israeli court to hold Shalabi hearing Tuesday
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 19 Mar — …Lawyer Jawad Boulos said Ofer military court will hold an administrative hearing on Tuesday at 10 a.m. to examine developments in negotiations between the defense and military prosecutor on Shalabi’s case. He said the hearing will be “useless”, as these negotiations have already failed. Shalabi, whose health has deteriorated after 33 days without food, will not be present at the hearing, he added. Bolous said the hearing is being held at his request in order to move to a decision on resuming Shalabi’s trial. There will be another hearing after Tuesday to decide on Shalabi’s case, he said, noting his frustration with “procrastination over making a decision.”
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=469242
Lawyer: Hana Shalabi’s health is deteriorating
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 18 Mar — Sherine Iraqi, a lawyer for the Palestinian prisoners society, said that Shalabi can no longer stand, has very low blood pressure and has lost a lot of weight. The lawyer had earlier met with the representative for female Palestinian prisoners Lina Jarbouni. Physicians for Human Rights will visit Shalabi on Monday to examine her and try to get her admitted to hospital, Iraqi added. Detainee Lina Jarbouni called on all human rights institutions and the Palestinian leadership to intervene to help Shalabi.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=469061
‘Media pay no attention to Palestinian hunger strikers’
PressTV 19 Mar — Press TV has interviewed Maath Musleh, who also experienced hunger strike for the Palestinian cause, in the program ‘Remember Palestine.’ Musleh shares his insight and knowledge of Hana Shalabi’s situation, who is held without charge in solitary confinement in Israel, and draws attention to the fact that there are other Palestinians in Israeli prisons, who are also on hunger strike, but getting no media attention.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/232430.html
Shalabi supporters join hunger strike, boycott courts
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 19 Mar — Thirty Palestinian prisoners have joined the hunger strike of Hana Shalabi, who has consumed only water for 33 days, the head of the Palestinian Prisoners Society said Monday. Prisoners in jails across Israel have designated different day-long strikes in addition to the continuous hunger strikers, Qadura Fares told Ma‘an. Shalabi, who has been held without trial since Feb. 16, is protesting Israel’s practice of administrative detention.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=469288
Zionist occupation forces arrest 75 Palestinian in West Bank last week
RAMALLAH (PIC) 19 Mar — The Zionist occupation forces arrested during last week 75 Palestinians from West Bank cities including two Palestinian girls, two freed captives in “Wafaa Al-Ahrar” exchange deal and three PA security prisoners.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk/
Israeli forces arrest six Palestinians in West Bank
RAMALLAH (WAFA) 19 Mar – Israeli forces Monday arrested six Palestinians from across the West Bank, according to local sources. They said Israeli forces arrested two Palestinian teens, 17 and 18 years, from the town of Azzoun, east of Qalqilia, after raiding their family homes and tampering with their contents. In the old city of Jerusalem, Israeli police along with intelligence officers arrested a 22 year-old Palestinian after raiding his house and took him to the Russian compound detention and interrogation center in West Jerusalem. Forces also arrested three 20-year-old Palestinians from the Hebron area.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=19315
Israeli occupation detains Jerusalemite youth, seven minors
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 19 Mar — Israeli intelligence agents arrested a 22-year-old youth from his home in the Old City of Jerusalem on Monday. Eyewitnesses said that the agents were in the company of policemen and soldiers when they ‘savagely’ stormed the home of Fadi Al-Juba and took him to Maskobeh detention center. Israeli occupation police had arrested seven Palestinian minors in Tur suburb in occupied Jerusalem from their homes, for yet undeclared reasons, on Sunday.
linkk to www.palestine-info.co.uk/
IOF soldiers arrest Palestinian, attack others in Al-Khalil
AL-KHALIL (PIC) 19 Mar — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) arrested a Palestinian man near the Ibrahimi mosque in Al-Khalil afternoon Monday. PIC reporter in the city said that IOF soldiers detained Louay Adi, originally from Beit Ummar village to the north of Al-Khalil, after offering Asr (afternoon) prayers in the Ibrahimi mosque. They said that the soldiers beat him up before taking him away. Meanwhile, the reporter quoted eyewitnesses as saying that IOF soldiers assaulted another man from Al-Khalil village of Tarqumiya inside the green line.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk/
Israeli intelligence extorts Palestinian ex-detainee to work for them
AL-KHALIL (PIC) 19 Mar — A newly released Palestinian prisoner said an Israeli intelligence officer blackmailed him and threatened to send him back once again to jail if he did not work as an informer for Israel. The ex-detainee told the Palestinian information center (PIC) on condition of anonymity that the Israeli officer renewed the request and gave him one week to accept it or else he would be reimprisoned. He explained that Israeli soldiers broke into his house a few days ago after his release and handed him a summons from the Israeli intelligence telling him to attend an interrogation session at a military post near Addahirya village south of Al-Khalil on Thursday.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk/
AIC video: Palestinian children ex-detainees
19 Mar — It is estimated that 8,000 Palestinian children, including some as young as 12-years-old, have been arrested and detained by the Israeli authorities since 2000. According to a report released in early March by Save the Children and the East Jerusalem YMCA Rehabilitation Program, 98 percent were subjected to physical or psychological violence during their arrets and detention, and 90 percent suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) upon their release. The AIC spoke with YMCA Rehabilitation Program Director Nader Abu Amsha about the human rights violations Israel commits in arresting Palestinian children, the challenges the children face when they are released from prison, and what needs to be done to improve the situation.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/component/content/article/28-news/4221-aic-video-palestinian-children-ex-detainees
PA outlines legal case against prison DNA test
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 18 Mar — The Palestinian Authority detainees ministry said Sunday it considers Israel’s use of DNA tests on Palestinian prisoners as a violation of international law, and will argue so in a case at Israel’s high court. PA lawyers have filed a complaint with Israel’s Supreme Court to demand the end of forced DNA tests for Palestinians jailed by Israel. A report released by the ministry on Sunday outlined the basis of the complaint. Palestinian prisoners should not be included in a 2011 Israeli legal amendment which permits DNA tests on criminal detainees on specific grounds, as under international law they should be treated as political detainees, the report says.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=468939
Enforced disappearances are a stain on the Palestinian Authority / Philip Luther
17 Mar — “Life is hard without him,” says Shereen Ayash, who has lived without knowing the fate of her husband Ismail Ayash since he disappeared from Palestinian Authority custody in 2002. Their daughter Jihan was three months old at the time; she is 10 now. She has no recollection of visiting him in prison as a baby. Shereen and Jihan are not alone: the families of five other men await with growing desperation any news of their sons, brothers, fathers and husbands who all disappeared on that day 10 years ago from Salfit Detention Center in the northern West Bank … Before they disappeared, these men had been detained on the basis of unsubstantiated allegations that they had collaborated with the Israeli intelligence services, at a time when the Israeli army was conducting devastating military operations to suppress the second intifada. They were never tried. During visits to the detention center, the families noticed marks of beatings and burns on the men’s bodies.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=468739
Activism / Solidarity / BDS
The Israeli apartheid week launched in Hebron and Bethlehem
19 Mar — The grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign and the BNC organized a documentary presentation about the Israeli apartheid regime in Hebron and Bethlehem cities. Mohammad Basheer, youth activist in Stop the Wall campaign and the independent youth movement (Herak Shababi), said that the activities started there and will continue in Ramallah, Salfit, Tulkarem, Tobas, Nablus added to the weekly protests in the west bank.
http://stopthewall.org/2012/03/19/israeli-apartheid-week-launched-hebron-and-bethlehem
Soldiers raid Nabi Saleh, witnesses say
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 19 Mar — Israeli forces raided the village of Nabi Saleh overnight Sunday, witnesses told Ma‘an. Soldiers threatened to raid the village every night unless residents stopped their popular resistance campaign and weekly protests, locals said. Troops filmed the raid and took photos of residents. They also raided several homes in the village. Last Friday, eight Palestinians were reported injured in Nabi Saleh during weekly Friday demonstrations against a nearby settlement’s encroachment toward lands owned by the village.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=469159
BDS trial: France demands prison sentence as example
AIC 18 Mar — The French prosecution is requesting exemplary sentences against local BDS activists. The many activists (some 200 inside and outside the tribunal — see the video here) who had taken the day off work to come and support the four BDS activists – Maha, Olivia, Mohammed and Ulrich – at Bobigny Magistrates Court on March 15, 2012, activists accused of racist discrimination and incitement to hatred and violence for having participated in or having posted on their website boycott actions against the Israeli occupation, were not to be disappointed!
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/topics/economy-of-the-occupation/4215-bds-trial-france-demands-prison-sentence-as-example-
Refugees
Lebanese army bolsters security after protests at south refugee camp
SIDON, Lebanon (Daily Star) 19 Mar -: The Lebanese Army bolstered Monday its security presence with anti-riot police at the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp near the southern coastal city of Sidon in response to protests by some 300 Palestinians at the camp … The Palestinians were protesting the tight measures introduced by the Lebanese Army around the camp, following an army request for the surrender of Tawfiq Taha, who is accused of heading a subversive cell that penetrated army ranks and is reportedly holed up in Ain al-Hilweh …The protests come a day after some 200 Palestinians demonstrated against Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, following remarks he made suggesting that the camp could be turned into another Nahr al-Bared. On Thursday, Geagea told Voice of Lebanon “if we are forced to wage a battle similar to the one at Nahr al-Bared, so be it,” adding that “the army should enter the Ain al-Hilweh camp and arrest the head of the takfiri network,” referring to Taha.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2012/Mar-19/167221-lebanese-army-bolsters-security-after-protests-at-south-refugee-camp.ashx
Political developments
Hamas clinging to Gaza as unity remains elusive
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) 19 Mar — Efforts to reunify the Palestinians behind one leadership appear to have hit a dead end: Hamas leaders ruling the Gaza Strip have concluded that subordinating themselves to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would be wasting a golden opportunity offered by the Arab Spring. The thinking, as revealed in interviews with top Hamas officials, is that the regional rise of political Islam in the wake of the past year’s uprisings means this is the time for their Islamic militant group to dominate. As part of that hard line, some say Gaza – abandoned by Israeli settlers and soldiers in 2005 – should steer Palestinian politics instead of the West Bank, where Israel holds far more sway.
http://news.yahoo.com/hamas-clinging-gaza-unity-remains-elusive-183401050.html
PA calls on donors to invest in Area C
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 19 Mar — The Palestinian Authority on Monday published recommendations to a meeting of donors on Palestine this week. The position paper for the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee meeting in Brussels on Wednesday says the PA will focus on development of Area C, the 62 percent of the West Bank under full Israeli control. Palestinians “cannot simply wait for the conclusion of peace negotiations to reverse this de-development and destruction of livelihoods’ by the Israeli occupation,” the report says. It calls on donors to support this effort and to “employ all tools at their disposal at the diplomatic level to enable development beyond ‘Area A’ and ‘Area B'” — the limited areas of PA control under the 1993 Oslo Accords.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=469233
PA: Austerity measures to continue
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 19 Mar — The Palestinian Authority will continue with its austerity plan in order to reduce the ongoing financial crisis, an official said Monday. “Austerity measures will continue, and if donor countries will not fulfill their pledges, the PA will take further austerity steps to try and reduce effects of the crisis,” adviser to PA premier Salam Fayyad Omar al-Ghoul told Ma’an.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=469300
Shaath: PA faces halt in bank lending
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 17 Mar — Senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath said on Saturday the Palestinian Authority is facing a severe financial crisis, as avenues to borrow cash from banks are cut off. Two new reports by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank this week warned that the Palestinian government’s economic crisis will have an impact on state-building efforts and will force the country to cut public wages and social benefits. An IMF report released on Saturday, prepared for a donor meeting on Palestinian aid in Brussels next week, estimated a financing gap of about $500 million.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=468811
Fatah official: Ongoing Cairo meetings with Hamas on govt
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 18 Mar — Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmad said on Sunday he is meeting with Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzouq to try to resolve obstacles to a deal between party leaders for a unity government. Al-Ahmad said he met Abu Marzouq in Cairo on Wednesday, and another meeting in the Egyptian capital is scheduled for two to three days time, in comments to PA radio station Voice of Palestine. The official, who heads Fatah’s dialogue team, said he expects implementation of the new government to “take a while” due to internal dissent within Hamas.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=468952
Abu Zuhri: Elections linked to allowing free political activity
GAZA (PIC) 19 Mar — Hamas spokesman Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri has called on Fatah faction, which is controlling the West Bank, to abide by recommendations of the freedoms committee and to stop political arrests in order to prepare the atmosphere for holding elections. He told the PIC in a statement on Sunday that providing free atmosphere, without pressures and arrests, was a must in order to move on to elections.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk/
Leftist Palestinian group in Syria visits Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 19 Mar — Leaders of a leftist Palestinian faction in Syria are visiting the Gaza Strip for talks with several political groups, a politician with the faction said on Monday. Senior officials of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine — General Command in Damascus arrived in Gaza on Tuesday, PFLP-GC member in Gaza Luay al-Qiruti told Ma‘an … The delegation is briefing factions on the plight of Palestinian refugees in Syria, especially in light of recent unfortunate events, he added.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=469274
Arafat’s widow considers role in politics to continue legacy
Independent 16 Mar — Suha Arafat says Palestinians miss the democratic rule implemented by her husband — The widow of the late Yasser Arafat has said the resistance leader sacrificed their marriage and a relationship with the couple’s only daughter for the Palestinian cause.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/arafats-widow-considers-role-in-politics-to-continue-legacy-7574467.html
Ashqar asks for international fact-finding committee
GENEVA (PIC) 19 Mar — Palestinian MP Ismail Al-Ashqar has called on the UN Human Rights Council to send a fact-finding committee to look into the conditions of Palestinian lawmakers detained by Israel. Ashqar, who arrived in Geneva on Sunday, asked the council in his speech on Monday to recommend the fact-finding committee to the UN Security Council. He added that an international resolution must bind Israel to release all “kidnapped” Palestinian lawmakers topped by speaker Dr. Aziz Dweik and to revoke its decision to banish Jerusalemite officials and to respect human rights.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk/
Israel protests Hamas lawmakers’ visit to UN
GENEVA (Daily Star) 19 Mar — Israel has protested the visit of a lawmaker from the Palestinian group Hamas to the United Nations office in Geneva. Israeli Ambassador Aharon Leshno-Yaar says he wrote to U.N. officials urging them to deny Ismail al-Ashqar access to the U.N.’s European headquarters because of Hamas’ advocacy of violence against Israel. U.N. officials confirmed Monday that the protest letter was being examined. Al-Ashqar spoke Monday at an event about Israel’s arrest of Palestinian lawmakers held on the sidelines of the U.N. Human Rights Council.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Mar-19/167192-israel-protests-hamas-lawmakers-visit-to-un.ashx
Other news
Israeli Arab farmers brought into state quota system for first time
Haaretz 19 Mar — For the first time in the history of the state, 12 Arab dairy farmers and 24 Arab poultry farmers received state quotas to sell eggs and milk on the regulated market. Both the egg market and the dairy market are state regulated. This means that farmers receive a fixed price for selling their eggs and milk.
http://www.haaretz.com/business/israeli-arab-farmers-brought-into-state-quota-system-for-first-time-1.419454
Third of woman exposed to violence in Palestinian territory, says statistics
NABLUS (WAFA) 19 Mar – A total of 37% of ever-married women were subjected to some type of abuse in the Palestinian Territory in 2011, the head of the Division of Gender Statistics of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics Ashraf Hamdan said Monday. He said that 55.1% of women experienced economic violence, while 58.6%, 54.8%, 23.5%, 11.8% of women were subjected to psychological, social, physical and sexual violence respectively. In a meeting held in Nablus to view the results of the national survey on violence in the Palestinian society in 2011, Hamdan said that half of the households were subjected to direct violence by Israeli forces and settlers. [compare the U.S:. One in every four women and one in every seven men have experienced severe physical violence by a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend. http://onforb.es/xy5R4J]
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=19321
Waiting for the Messiah: Netanyahu addresses Evangelical Christian gathering in Jerusalem
Haaretz 19 Mar — Head of Christians United for Israel, largest pro-Israel lobby in U.S., compares PM to Moses and King David … “I’m proud that in Israel Muslims are free to practice their religion,” said Netanyahu, to more wild applause. “At a time when Christians are under siege in so many places and so many lands, Christians are free to practice their faith,” in Israel. More rousing applause.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/waiting-for-the-messiah-netanyahu-addresses-evangelical-christian-gathering-in-jerusalem-1.419432
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