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www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=17416
Arab-Israelis mourn bus-rampage victims
Daily Star 8/6/2005
Security forces brace for possible violent backlash after attack — SHFARAM, Israel: Israeli Arabs vented their anger at what they called a culture of racism as they paid their last respects to four victims mown down by a Jewish gunman seeking to scupper the Gaza Strip pullout. Security forces, braced for a possible violent backlash, kept a low profile during a mass funeral on the streets of this Arab town as the military faced awkward questions over how Eden Nathan Zada, 19, was able to keep hold of his weapon despite being identified as a potentially dangerous extremist.
www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13088&Itemid=1
Army invades Beit Fajjar town arrests 17 residents
International Middle East Media Center 8/5/2005
Troops invaded Beit Fajar town, near Bethlehem, on Friday at down, and arrested 17 residents during wide-scaled searches carried out in the town. A local source in Beit Fajjar reported that the army arrested the 17 residents after invading the town with jeeps, and several military vehicles. The arrested residents were among a crowd of people who gathered on Friday to attend four weddings in the town. [end]
www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/VBOL-6EYGMB?OpenDocument
Pullout awakens Palestinian fears of ‘Gaza first, Gaza last’
ReliefWeb 8/5/2005
GAZA CITY, Aug 4 (AFP) – Palestinians may be preparing to celebrate the end of Israel’s presence in the Gaza Strip but remain deeply wary that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will try to use the pullout from the lesser part of their promised future state to silence calls for a withdrawal from the larger West Bank. Sharon has made clear that he sees the pullout from Gaza as an opportunity to strengthen his hold on West Bank settlement blocs where the vast majority of the 245,000 settlers live. But Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas said recently that Sharon would show he is not really interested in lasting peace if he tries to limit the withdrawal to Gaza — reflecting a long-standing fear that Israel’s real strategy is ‘Gaza first and Gaza last’.
www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13083&Itemid=1
Weisglass: Israel will keep 180,000 settlers in West Bank PDF
International Middle East Media Center 8/5/2005
Israel will be able to keep at least 180,000 settlers out of the 240,000 currently residing in the West Bank, with American blessing, a senior advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Thursday. This statement, by Dov Weissglass, comes shortly before the evacuation of 9000 settlers from the Gaza Strip and from four minor settlements in the northern West Bank, under the disengagement plan. Washington had praised the plan, regarding it as a step towards resuming peace efforts between the Palestinians and the Israelis, although there is no mention of future withdrawals from other areas in the West Bank. In exchange for the planned evacuation of the Gaza settlements, Israel managed to get U.S. recognition of four major settlement blocs in the West Bank for any final status agreement.
english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/19DF3F45-CB95-4FBA-9C6A-B8F1BA8ACC57.htm
Palestinian factions vie for Gaza credit
AlJazeera 8/5/2005
With less than two weeks left before Israel evacuates the Gaza Strip, Palestinian factions are gearing up for celebrations with publicity campaigns that are equally intended to win Palestinian votes. The Palestinian Authority (PA), which is spending an estimated $1.7 million on withdrawal celebrations, kicked-off its campaign on Thursday with an event it called a liberation and evacuation festival, held in front of Gaza city’s Legislative Council. Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, also called Abu Alaa, addressed the crowd, calling upon the Palestinian people to preserve national unity and fight against “all acts which harm our people and cause dissipation”.
news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050806/ap_on_re_us/presbyterians_israel
Presbyterians: Firms Foster Mideast Woes
Yahoo! News 8/5/2005
A Presbyterian committee accused five companies Friday of contributing to “ongoing violence that plagues Israel and Palestine” and pledged to use the church’s multimillion-dollar stock holdings in the businesses to pressure them to stop. The move follows a vote last year by leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to put economic pressure on companies that profit from Israeli policy in the West Bank and Gaza. The vote had outraged Jewish groups, who said the strategy was biased and failed to recognize Israel’s right to defend itself, and the tensions worsened after other Protestant bodies adopted similar tactics. Jewish leaders are deeply disturbed that the campaigns threatening divestment essentially borrow from the 1980s movement against South African apartheid.
www.palestinemonitor.org/nueva_web/updates
_news/updates/wall_devastate_communities.htm
Anata and Shaufat Refugee Camp Encircled, their land stolen
Palestine Monitor 8/3/2005
Israeli Wall Continues to Devastate East Jerusalem Communities — Israel is surrounding Anata and the Shaufat Refugee Camp, two communities in the western part of East Jerusalem, with concrete Walls on all sides. The Wall’s route will isolate the communities both from Jerusalem and from the community’s own land. Anata used to be one of the largest Palestinian villages, its 24,000 dunams (8,000 acres) of land stretching from Jerusalem to the Jericho district. An Israeli settlement has already been built on much of Anata’s land, and the Wall will isolate even more land for Israeli settlement use, leaving Anata with only 1,000 dunams (250 acres) of built-up area trapped and surrounded by the Wall. The Wall in this area will isolate about 40,000 Palestinians, approximately 30,000 of whom hold blue Jerusalem IDs. This will destroy their economic and social life, which depend heavily on Jerusalem.
www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13099&Itemid=1
Resident arrested in Hebron, three homes occupied
International Middle East Media Center 8/5/2005
Israeli soldiers arrested on Friday one resident in the West Bank city of Hebron, broke into dozens of homes using two of them as military posts and monitoring towers. The WAFA news agency reported that soldiers arrested Mohammad Khaleel abu Turk, and took him to an unknown destination. Abu Turk was stopped by the soldiers near Keryat Arba‚ settlement in Hebron; eyewitnesses reported that soldiers severely punched and clubbed the resident before arresting him. Also, soldiers broke into dozens of homes in the old city of Hebron, searched them and used two homes and military posts and monitoring towers. In the neighboring village of Doura, Israeli soldiers broke into a number of homes, detained and interrogated several residents.
stopthewall.org/latestnews/981.shtml
Kafr Thulth and Azzun Lands Stolen for Settlement Annexation via the Apartheid Wall
StopTheWall.org 8/4/2005
In order to annex the settlement blocs of what is called the “Ariel Finger‰ in northwest West Bank, more Palestinian lands have been seized through the path of the Apartheid Wall. Since August 2nd, Occupation bulldozers have uprooted 240 dunums and 300 olive trees in the villages of Kafr Thulth and Azzun, aiming to isolate1250 dunums behind the wall upon its completion. The Apartheid Wall will isolate 46% of the total West Bank area, 2.1% (123 km2) to facilitate Occupation plans for the “Ariel Finger‰ settlement bloc alone. Its strategic path will cut 22km into the West Bank, tearing through Palestinian lands in Qalqiliya and Salfit districts to reach the borders of Nablus city. On the western side of the “finger‰, near Ma`ale Shamron settlement, Occupation Forces are razing and destroying lands on a daily basis to complete the second phase of the Wall.
www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/ACIO-
6EYQC6?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR
OPT: Gaza pullout will take place under fire – chief of staff
ReliefWeb 8/5/2005
JERUSALEM, Aug 5 (AFP) – The Israeli chief of staff said Friday that the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip due later this month will take place under fire from armed Palestinian groups. “This possibility was a working hypothesis, I think that it will become a reality, and we will take care of it,” General Dan Halutz told Israeli public television. Deputy defence minister Zeev Boim warned in July that Israel would respond with a massive ground offensive if militants open fire on soldiers or settlers during the pullout from the occupied territory. “In the case of fire, we will stop the pullout and strike a big blow in an operation at division level, “ Boim told public radio.
www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13100&Itemid=1
Five injured, 17 arrested in Anti-wall protest in West Bank
International Middle East Media Center 8/5/2005
At least five civilians have been injured in an anti-wall protest organized by the resident of Bil’in village near the West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday, Eyewitnesses a Palestinian source reported. The source also said that at least 17 International and Israeli peace activists were arrested in the protest. Abdullah Abu Rahme, coordinator of the public committee for the resistance of the settlements and the wall in the village, said a large force of the Israeli army and police forcefully dispersed the protest using live ammunition and tear gas. Abu Rahme said five were injured; three Palestinians, one Israeli and one Indian were injured in the attack. He added that the police arrested the internationals and the Israelis and took them to the nearby Giva’at Zeve settlement.
www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13084&Itemid=1
Polluted water in al-Damoun detention facility
International Middle East Media Center 8/5/2005
Lawyer of the Palestinian Prisoners Society, Raed Mahameed, said that several detainees in al-Damoun detention facility contracted diseases of the kidney and other health problems as a result of the polluted drinking water provided in Israeli detention. Mahameed stated that he visited several detainees recently who informed him that the water includes a high concentration ofchlorine, in addition to small stones and bugs. Several detainees contracted kidney infections. Detainee Ala‚ Sarhan, from Tulkarem, told lawyer Mahameed that prison administration is not doing anything to distil the water, which forced the detainees to buy their drinking water from the prison canteen for high prices.
www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13092&Itemid=1
Bishara demands a probe in Shfa-Amr shooting
International Middle East Media Center 8/5/2005
After details were reveled about Natan-Zada, 19, the Israeli settler-soldier who carried out the Shfa-Amr shooting, Arab member of Knesset Azmi Bishara said that the Israeli military established news that the assailant is a terrorist, carries terrorist ideologies against the Arabs, and a well known right-wing extremist. “The Israeli media reported that Nata-Zada is an extremist and a member of the outlawed Kach terrorist movement‰, Bishara said, “yet they kept him in the army, and gave him an automatic rifle‰. The Israeli security service, Shabak, did not attempt to locate the soldier after he deserted the army and joined extremist settlers in Tapuah settlement, in the West Bank.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=609179
Shfaram killing probe reveals failure in intelligence sharing
Ha’aretz 8/6/2005
The investigation into the killing of four Israeli Arabs by a Jewish Israel Defense Forces soldier who went AWOL has revealed major failures in the coordination between the different security services that may have led to his early location and arrest. Eden Natan-Zada, 19, opened fire inside an Egged bus as it made its way through a neighborhood of the Arab town of Shfaram in the Galilee, killing four and wounding more than a dozen others. He was then killed by the mob that swarmed the bus after the shooting. The joint investigation by the IDF, the Shin Bet and police showed that although a large amount of information existed on Natan-Zada, 19, there was no integration of the intelligence reports between the three bodies that could have led to the ‘piecing up’ of the puzzle.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3123190,00.html
Hamas vows to avenge Shfaram attack
YNetNews 8/6/2005
Terror group says Israel will be punished for Thursday‚s terror attack: We hold Zionist entity fully responsible and fear cooperation between Israel and settlers may result in even worse crimes — Hamas has threatened to respond to the terror attack in Shfaram, stating the Œmassacre‚ would not pass without punishment. “Whatever harms our brothers in the territories that have been occupied since1948 harms us, because what is painful to them is painful to us, “ the terror group said in a statement. “Regardless of the circumstances, we will remain brothers and one nation, in one country. The threats of the Zionist occupation and its government since 1948 will not remain unanswered. We hold the Zionist entity fully responsible for this crime…‰
www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1543822,00.html
Government blamed for bus shooting
The Guardian 8/6/2005
Israeli soldier’s killings result from ‘policy of vilification’ — Leaders in the Arab-Israeli town where an orthodox Jewish soldier murdered four people on a bus before being lynched, have said the killings resulted from years of official discrimination and vilification of Arabs. As the four victims – two Muslim and two Christian – were laid to rest in Shfaram yesterday, Israeli authorities expressed their disgust at the killings by refusing to allow the man responsible, 19-year-old Private Eden Nathan Zaada, to be buried in a military cemetery or the graveyard of his home town. Amid anger and distress in Shfaram, there was division over why Zaada chose the town of about 35,000 Arabs as his target, particularly as it has a large Druze population that serves in the Israeli army.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3123091,00.html
3 youths detained in wake of attack
YNetNews 8/5/2005
Police arrest youngsters in West Bank settlement of Tapuah; publication ban imposed on details of investigation — TAPUAH ˆ Investigation under way: Police detained three youngsters aged 15-17 in the West Bank settlement of Tapuah Thursday evening in connection with the bus attack in Shfaram, which left four people dead. The three were expected to be brought before a judge Friday and their remand extended. Meanwhile, a publication ban has been imposed on all details related to the police investigation in Tapuah. Notably, the terrorist who carried out the bus attack, Eden Natan Zada from Rishon Lezion, has been living in Tapuah for the past two weeks.
www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/EVIU-6
EYHE4?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR
Israeli Arabs fear Gaza pullout row will blow up in their faces
ReliefWeb 8/5/2005
SHFARAM, Israel, Aug 5 (AFP) – Israel’s Arab community voiced fears Friday of being caught in the crossfire of a row over the controversial Gaza pullout, a day after a Jewish extremist opposed to the withdrawal went on a deadly shooting spree. A teenage extremist who quit the army over his opposition to this month’s planned evacuation of settlers from the Gaza Strip mowed down four Israeli Arabs with his rifle in a bus late Thursday, before being lynched by a mob. The anger and sorrow that descended on the northern Israeli town of Shfaram concealed a fear that Israel’s 1.2-million-strong Arab community would become victims of resurgent Jewish extremism. “The Arab community is reaching a boiling point. The anger is not directed specifically and only against the attacker but more towards the Israeli state in general,” said Mustafa Namarneh, a cousin of two sisters, Hazar and Dina Turki, killed in the shooting spree on bus 165.
www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13085&Itemid=1
Soldiers close al-Tuffah checkpoint
International Middle East Media Center 8/5/2005
A source at the Palestinian District Coordination Office reported on Friday morning that Israeli soldiers closed al-Tuffah checkpoint, west of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. A local source in Khan Younis said that soldiers barred the residents from crossing, forcing them back after waiting for several hours. Al-Tuffah checkpoint is the installed on the only road which al-Mawassi residents can use in order to reach Khan Younis and other parts of the Gaza Strip. Al-Mawassi was completely surrounded since the beginning of the Intifada in 2000, causing very harsh living conditions to its 9000 thousand residents who are also facing repeated attacks by the settlers in the area. Also on Friday, Israeli soldiers closed Salah ed-Deen road, which is the main link between the northern Gaza Strip areas with the south.
www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13090&Itemid=1
Salah: “Israeli incitement led to the terrorist attack in Shfa-Amr “
International Middle East Media Center 8/5/2005
Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement in Israel said that the terrorist attack carried out by an Israel soldier on Thursday is a natural result of the Israeli incitement against the Arab residents of Israel and the Palestinians in the occupied territories. Two young women, an elderly man, and the bus driver were victims of the attack, which took place as the Route 165 bus drove inside the Druze town of Shfa-Amr. The victims of the attack, which was carried out by a soldier-settler from Tapoah settlement, slated for evacuation, were identified as two sisters, Hazar 23, and Deena Torkey, 21, Nader Hayek, 55, and Michael Bahhouth, 56 years old, at least ten residents were injured.
www.forward.com/articles/3764
Peres Asking U.S. Jewry To Push Aid For Galilee
Forward 8/5/2005
TEL AVIV ˜ As Israel prepares for the Gaza pullout and presses Washington for an unprecedented $2 billion supplemental aid package to help develop its outlying regions, Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres is urging American Jews to support his government on both fronts. In an interview with the Forward, Peres said that Israel’s plan to shift its priorities from building Gaza and West Bank settlements to developing the Galilee and the Negev ˜ Israel’s respective northern and southern peripheries ˜ signifies a recognition of past misguided policies and a return to the original Zionist vision. Israel, he said, is “waking up from baseless dreams to a new reality” that requires rolling back the Jewish settlement enterprise in the territories.
www.forward.com/articles/3768
U.S., Israel Backtrack on Iran’s Nukes
Forward 8/5/2005
After years of dire warnings about Iran’s impending nuclear threat, Israeli and American officials abruptly backtracked this week, injecting a new level of uncertainty into delicate negotiations between European countries and Tehran. The Jerusalem Post reported Monday that Israel had reviewed its assessment of Iran’s nuclear progress and now believes that Iran will have a nuclear bomb by 2012 and the capability to build one in 2008. Until now, Israeli officials had been warning that Iran would develop an atomic weapon between 2007 and 2009. The next day, The Washington Post reported that a comprehensive American intelligence review concluded that Iran is about a decade away ˜ double the previous estimate ˜ from manufacturing highly enriched uranium, the key ingredient for a nuclear weapon.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=609195
Junta officials: Mauritanian ties with Israel to remain intact
Ha’aretz 8/6/2005
Unnamed officials close to the junta which took power in a bloodless coup in Mauritania on Wednesday said Friday that Col. Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, the country’s new strongman, met the Israeli ambassador in the capital of Nouakchott and assured him diplomatic relations between the two nations would not change. Mauritania opened full opened full diplomatic relations with Israel six years ago, becoming one of only three Arab League nations to do so. Top Mauritanian opposition politicians urged coup leaders on Friday to cut ties with Israel, voicing long-standing anger among the country’s Arabs at the ousted president’s friendly relations with the Jewish state.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3123139,00.html
Sharon: Extremists threaten me as well
YNetNews 8/5/2005
Phones Arab MKs to express his disgust, shock over Shfaram terror attack; MKs in response, ŒWe saw it coming, killer got his inspiration from right-wing politicians;‚ say Yesha Council encourages terror — Prime Minister Ariel Sharon phoned a number of Arab Knesset members Friday to express his disgust and shock following the terror attack in Shfaram, saying he too is threatened by extreme right-wing activists. Knesset Member Talab El-Sana (United Arab List) told Ynet, “Sharon said he gave out orders to thoroughly examine the details of the terror attack. I asked him to disarm the settlers and forbid their entry into Arab towns. If they hurt innocent civilians, they will not hesitate to attack the Temple Mount.‰
news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/200
50805/wl_mideast_afp/mideastisraelsharon
Sharon sleeps with loaded pistol under pillow: report
Yahoo! News 8/5/2005
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sleeps with a loaded handgun under his pillow because of the threat of an assassination attempt by Jewish extremists opposed to the Gaza pullout, a newspaper said.”Although his personal security has never been tighter, Sharon likes to keep his pistol,” the Maariv daily reported. The Shin Beth internal security services have reported unspecified threats against Sharon from ultranationalist Jewish groups vehemently opposed to the evacuation of all 8,000 settlers from the Gaza Strip later this month. A group of around 20 radicals held a ceremony last month to cast a death curse, known as a pulsa dinura, on Sharon as retribution for his disengagement plan.
news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/usatoday/200
50805/ts_usatoday/palestiniantroopsfacebiggesttestduringpullout
Palestinian troops face biggest test during pullout
Yahoo! News 8/5/2005
Capt. Hisham Kariri watches as Palestinian National Security Forces cadets carefully hack one another with choreographed karate chops in a rock-strewn Gaza City parade ground. Kariri’s men, some with graying beards and paunches, are among the 7,500 troops the Palestinian Authority intends to deploy along with tens of thousands of police and militiamen to help secure Israel’s evacuation of 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank starting Aug. 15. The Palestinian Authority has committed to thwarting Palestinian militants from launching rockets on Jewish settlers and Israeli soldiers during the pullout. The authority also will try to curb looters expected to swarm on the settlements, says Palestinian Cabinet Secretary Samir Huleile.
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArt
icle/ShowFull&cid=1123121937114&p=1078027574097
Netanyahu: Pullout will endanger West
Jerusalem Post 8/5/2005
Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu believes that in the aftermath of Israel’s upcoming departure, “Gaza will betransformed into a base for Islamic terrorism adjacent to the coast of the State of Israel.” In an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, Netanyahu said the terror threat that would develop in a post-withdrawal Gaza would be a danger not only for Israel but for the Western world in general. “This it isn’t just our problem,” he claimed. “It’s the West’s problem as well because forces that are controlled, deployed and cooperate with Iran – and today Hizbullah and Hamas are controlled in a significant way by Iran – will receive an additional base of operations not only in close proximity to Israel’s cities but also on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea not far from Europe.”
www.palestine-pmc.com/details.asp?cat=6&id=77
Joint Press Conference of James Wolfensohn, Shimon Peres: August 3, 2005
Palestine Media Center 8/3/2005
Source: Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Communicated by the Vice Premier’s Media Adviser — Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres met with Special Quartet Envoy for the Disengagement James Wolfensohn today. During their one-hour meeting, the two discussed the civilian and economic issues related to the disengagement with a focus on the passages, transfer of assets and economic development. At the press conference following the meeting, Vice Prime Minister Peres stated: “There is an understanding that the need to coordinate civilian and economic issues is as burning if not more, than security issues, in relation to the disengagement. We must think about the way we shall depart from Gaza and the ‘day after’.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3123111,00.html
Terror threat at sea
YNetNews 8/5/2005
Four Israeli cruise ships heading to Turkey diverted to Greece, Cyprus due to concrete terror warnings; about 3,500 people reportedly on board ships — TEL AVIV ˆ Terror at sea? Transportation Minister Meir Sheetrit instructed four Israeli ships en route to Turkey and carrying about 3,500 Israelis to change course Friday morning as a result of a concrete terror threat. As a result of the stern warning, related to possible plots by international Islamic terrorists, the ships were instructed to head for ports in Greece and Cyprus. Transportation Ministry officials refused to reveal the source of the warnings, but noted the information was a result of “Israeli-Turkish cooperation.”
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=609178
Thousands attend funerals of victims of Shfaram shooting
Ha’aretz 8/5/2005
Tens of thousands of people attended the funerals Friday of the four victims killed in a shooting attack carried out by a Jewish gunman on a bus in Shfaram on Thursday. The victims of the attack were identified as bus driver Michel Bahus, 56; passenger Nader Hayak, 55; Hazar Turki, 23, and her 21-year-old sister Dina. Following midday prayers, Hazar and Dina Turki’s funeral procession set out from their home and headed toward the town’s Muslim cemetery as the entire town came to a standstill. Residents of the town, as well as Arab sector leaders, including municipality heads and Israel Arab Follow-Up Committee officials, attended the funerals.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=609194
U.S. Presbyterian Church targets five companies with Israel links
Ha’aretz 8/6/2005
A Presbyterian committee accused five companies of contributing to “ongoing violence that plagues Israel and Palestine” and pledged to use the church’s multimillion-dollar stock holdings in the businesses to pressure them to stop. The move Friday follows a vote last year by leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to put economic pressure on companies that profit from Israeli policy in the West Bank and Gaza. The group named heavy equipment manufacturer Caterpillar, communications giant Motorola, military contractor United Technologies, and electronics manufacturer ITT Industries – all of which are firms who have been contracted to supply the Israel Defense Forces. The Church also listed international banking conglomerate Citigroup…cited..for “having moved substantial funds from charities later seen to be fronts funneling money to [Palestinian] terrorist organizations…”
www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13086&Itemid=1
Detainees receive 4th consecutive administrative detention order
International Middle East Media Center 8/5/2005
Detainee Ahmad Sameeh Fashafsha, 19, from Jaba‚ village near the West Bank city of Jenin received his fourth consecutive detention order without any charges or trial. The Palestinian Prisoners Society reported that the administration at the Negev detention renewed his detention period for additional six months. Fashafsha was arrested three years ago and placed in administrative detention with charges or trial.
www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=3&article_id=17396
Palestinian lobbyist urges Lebanese government to drop work restrictions
Daily Star 8/6/2005
A Palestinian lobbyist urged the government to drop working permits and allow Palestinians residing in Lebanon to practice any profession. “We are currently working with the government so that the Palestinian workers get to be treated like any Lebanese,” the president of the Syndicates’ Union of Palestinian Workers in Lebanon, Abu Youssef al-Adawi, told The Daily Star. He stressed that Palestinians’ earnings, contrary to those of other workers, are kept inside the country and are redistributed to the economy, a clear reference to more than 300,000 Syrian laborers who worked in Lebanon before Syrian troops pulled out of the country.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4748063.stm
Art prankster sprays Israeli wall
BBC 8/5/2005
Secretive “guerrilla” artist Banksy has decorated Israel’s controversial West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side. The nine paintings were created on the Palestinian side of the barrier. One depicts a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. Banksy’s spokeswoman Jo Brooks said: “The Israeli security forces did shoot in the air threateningly and there were quite a few guns pointed at him.” Another picture shows the head of a white horse appearing to poke through, while he has also painted a ladder going over the wall. The 425-mile (680-kilometre) long barrier, made of concrete walls and razor-wire fences, is still being erected by Israeli authorities.
www.forward.com/articles/3767
Israel Denies Orthodox Allegations of Profiling
Forward 8/5/2005
Israel is denying claims that it has adopted a policy of ethnic profiling aimed at Orthodox Jews. In a July 28 letter to leaders of the New York-based Orthodox Union, the deputy chief of mission of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, Rafael Barak, said that he “can say with full confidence that the State of Israel does not tolerate any policy of discrimination.” Barak was responding to a July 21 letter from O.U. leaders to Israeli Ambassador Daniel Ayalon. The O.U. letter, which was made public by the organization last week, pointed to several recent news reports suggesting that Israeli security forces were curbing the rights of religious opponents to Israel’s Gaza pullout, which is set to begin August 15.
www.palestine-pmc.com/details.asp?cat=2&id=1016
WFP Hails Largest Donation So Far To New Food Plan For Palestinian Territory
Palestine Media Center/UNWFP 8/2/2005
The United Nations World Food Programme today announced the largest donation so far to its new operation in the occupied Palestinian territory, •8 million (about $10 million) from the European Union (EU) to provide food aid for almost half a million poor Palestinians. WFP welcomes the very timely donation of the EuropeAid Cooperation Office of the European Union. It will enable us to purchase food before our new operation starts,” WFP’s Country Director Arnold Vercken said. In September the agency will launch a new two-year operation aimed at providing 154,000 tons of food assistance to 135,500 Palestinians in the Gaza strip and 344,500 in the West Bank. The fragile Palestinian economy has been crumbling under strict Israeli security measures and the erection of a barrier around the majority of the West Bank.
www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/VBOL-6EYA
RN?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR
Remote settlement coming to grips with Gaza pullout
ReliefWeb 8/5/2005
NETZARIM, Gaza Strip, Aug 5 (Reuters) – After years of ferrying passengers in a bullet-proof bus to the most isolated Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, Yitzhak Levy will soon be out of a job. The pistol-packing driver, survivor of repeated Palestinian attacks on the road from Netzarim to Israel’s border, will have to abandon his regular, 10-minute route because Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Gaza pullout plan leaves him no other choice. With 12 days to go before the start of Sharon’s planned evacuation of all settlements in occupied Gaza, Levy and his fellow Netzarim settlers are increasingly resigned to it, even as they try to keep up the appearance of life as usual.
www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/VBOL-6E
YGMV?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR
Good morning evacuation wake-up call for Gaza settlers
ReliefWeb 8/5/2005
JERUSALEM, Aug 4 (AFP) – A knock on the door by a police officer at breakfast will herald the start of Israel’s evacuation of all 8,000 settlers from the Gaza Strip on August 17, following a near four-decade occupation. “Good morning, I’m here to implement the law voted by parliament. I am asking you to accompany me and board the bus that will evacuate you”. Such will be the polite, but firm doorstep greeting from police to families living in the 21 doomed Gaza settlements when Israel begins its first pullout from a complete Palestinian territory in 13' days time. “If you need help with your things, we are happy and ready to assist,” the obliging officer will add. An Israeli transport company container mounted on the back of a truck will stand nearby, ready to be packed with the family’s possessions.
www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/VBOL-6EYH
E5?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR
OCHA Weekly Briefing Notes 27 July – 2 Aug 2005
ReliefWeb 8/2/2005
Of note this week: Violence continued this week. Three Palestinians, including two minors, were killed ˆ including one by Palestinian militant activity. During the week, 41 homemade rockets, mortar shells and anti tank missiles were fired from different locations inside the Gaza Strip toward Israeli settlements and nearby Israeli towns, IDF installations and Karni (see sections 1 and 6). Male Palestinians aged from 16 to 35 years are prevented from leaving the Gaza Strip, including those who have medical referrals. (see section 4). IDF requisition orders for more than 1,000 dunums (100 hectares) of Palestinian land were issued or received (see section 3). [includes graph] Casualty Incidents Include: 27 July: A Palestinian youth, aged 17 years, was killed by the IDF following clashes between Palestinian gunmen and stone throwers and the IDF in Jenin city. The clashes erupted after the IDF surrounded a house in search of a wanted man. Fifteen Palestinians and two IDF soldiers were injured. 27 July: The IDF opened fire in the direction of Al Brazil quarter in Rafah, the Gaza Strip; a 5-year-old girl was shot in the head and seriously wounded while she was at home…
www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/VBOL-6EYH
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OCHA Weekly Briefing Notes 20 – 26 July 2005
ReliefWeb 8/5/2005
Of note this week: During the week, a total of 43 homemade rockets, mortar shells and anti tanks missiles were fired from different locations inside the Gaza Strip toward Israeli settlements and nearby Israeli towns, IDF installations and Karni (see section 6). A 12-year-old Palestinian boy was killed and a 10-year-old boy was injured when a mortar shell fired by Palestinian militants missed its target, the Israeli settlement block of Gush Katif, and landed in a Palestinian house in Khan Younis, the Gaza Strip (see section 1). Among the requisitions for Palestinian land this week were: 93 dunums (9.3 hectares) of agriculture land belonging to Palestinian farmers in areas adjacent to the Israeli settlements of Kiryat Arba‚ and Kharsina, Hebron Governorate; and cover 448 dunums (44.8 hectares) and 155 dunums (15.5 hectares) of agriculture land belonging to Palestinian farmers in Bethlehem (see section 3). [includes graph]
www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/VBOL-6EYH
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OPT: OCHA Weekly Briefing Notes 13 – 19 Jul 2005
ReliefWeb 8/5/2005
Of note this week: There were approximately 107 casualties this week, including 15 Palestinian deaths, two of which were children; and one Israeli female. (Section 1). 257 homemade rockets and mortar shells were fired during the week by Palestinian militants toward Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip and toward Israel (Section 1 and 6). [includes graph] Casualty Incidents Include: 13 July: An IDF unit entered the western part of Nablus city, surrounded and entered one building in search of a wanted Palestinian. The Palestinian tried to flee and was shot dead by the IDF. 13 July: At 3am, the IDF launched a military operation in Tulkarm city and refugee camps in a response to the suicide attack in Netanya on 12 July. One Palestinian PA security officer on duty at a checkpoint was killed by IDF fire…
www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/VBOL-6EYH
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PNIC: Seven killed and 17 wounded during 24th week of ceasefire
ReliefWeb 7/28/2005
GAZA, Palestine, July 28, 2005 (IPC) – A report prepared by the State Information Service (SIS) revealed that Israeli forces have killed seven Palestinians and wounded 17 others as well as committing 354 violations of the ceasefire declared after Sharm Al Sheikh summit. The report, released by the SIS’ Palestinian National Information Center (PNIC) asserted that between July 19 and July 25, 2005 Israeli forces shot Palestinians dead, injured others, arrested dozens and carried out many violations varying between house shelling, raids, incursions, land bulldozing and curbing of free movement.
www.forward.com/articles/3771
Left Coast Liberals Fume as Charity Taps Former Aipac Man for Top Post
Forward 8/5/2005
OAKLAND, Calif.˜ In a move that has left some Bay Area anti-war activists fuming, San Francisco’s Jewish Federation has tapped a former director of America’s pro-Israel lobby, and a supporter of both Iraq wars, to serve as its CEO. Thomas A. Dine, 65, will take the federation’s reins in early November when he travels from the radio agency’s Prague headquarters to meet the federation’s board for its first-ever meeting in Jerusalem. Dine has been credited for playing a key role in transforming the American Israel Public Affairs Committee into a lobbying powerhouse before an embarrassing flap over comments about ultra-Orthodox Jews led to his resignation in 1993. For the past eight years he has headed Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=609193
Israeli convicted of transferring nuclear technology to Pakistan
Ha’aretz 8/6/2005
WASHINGTON – An Israeli businessman who conspired to ship controlled nuclear technology to Pakistan was sentenced to three years in federal prison. U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina on Thursday imposed the sentence on Asher Karni, who pleaded guilty last year to helping ship devices that could be used to test, develop and detonate nuclear weapons. Karni, who was based in South Africa, admitted routing sophisticated oscilloscopes and high-speed electrical switches through South Africa to avoid raising authorities’ suspicions. The scopes and the switches were then shipped to Pakistan.
www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=17413
UN rights body urges probe on missing Lebanese in Syria
Daily Star 8/6/2005
BEIRUT: The UN Human Rights Committee has asked Damascus to investigate the disappearances of Lebanese nationals in Syria and the practice of arbitrary detention, a Paris-based rights group said. Syria “should … take immediate steps to establish an independent and credible commission of inquiry into all disappearances,” said a UNHRC statement published by a group called Support for Arbitrarily Detained Lebanese (SOLIDE). Syria “should give a particularized account of Lebanese nationals and Syrian nationals, as well as other persons, who were taken into custody or transferred into custody in Syria,” said the committee during its annual meeting in Geneva, which ended July 29.
www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=17412
Border crisis with Syria shifts to northern passage
Daily Star 8/6/2005
BEIRUT: The Higher Lebanese-Syrian Council Secretary General Nasri Khoury reported that though the economically damaging border crisis on one end had been resolved, the northern Abboudieh-Dabbousieh road was still experiencing severe traffic congestion. Khoury, speaking after a meeting with Public Works and Transport Minister Mohammad Safadi, said that in order to solve this new problem, he and Safadi agreed to increase working hours, adding the road should be widened and improved. They also said it was necessary to expand the area to provide space for the vehicles during inspection.
www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=17392
U.S. presses Syria and Iran to do more to stop Iraq attacks
Daily Star 8/6/2005
UN condemns terrorist insurgency in country — U.S. Ambassador John Bolton, in his debut in the UN Security Council, pressed Syria and Iran to do more to stem the flow of terrorists, arms and funding into neighboring Iraq. His comments came as the 15-nation council unanimously adopted a U.S.-drafted resolution condemning a recent surge in violence in Iraq that has killed hundreds, including Algerian diplomats, U.S. Marines and a Sunni Arab helping to draft a new Iraqi constitution. The resolution “condemns without reservation and in the strongest terms the terrorist attacks that have taken place in Iraq, and regards any act of terrorism as a threat to peace and security.”
english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/978305DA-36E2-4431-8C23-67E3748C2302.htm
Iran: EU nuclear offer unacceptable
AlJazeera 8/5/2005
Iran says European Union proposals are unacceptable, rejecting a broad package of trade and technology incentives.”The proposals are unacceptable,” nuclear negotiator Hossein Moussavian said, describing them as a “clear violation” of agreements between Iran and the European Union. “They negate Iran’s inalienable right,” he said. EU negotiators have called for an emergency meeting of the UN watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which could refer Iran’s nuclear dossier to the Security Council for possible sanctions. But a defiant Iran said it would also stick by its plans to resume uranium conversion, a preliminary stage in the nuclear fuel cycle, despite warnings that it would trigger an international crisis.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4126288.stm
US supports EU Iran nuclear plan
BBC 8/6/2005
The US says it backs a European proposal to allow Iran to develop a civilian nuclear programme if it stops its uranium enrichment activities. Under-Secretary of State Nicholas Burns said the US hoped Iran would take the proposal seriously.He also said he hoped Iran would not carry out its threat to resume nuclear activities next week, which have beensuspended since last November. Iran is due to respond to the offer on Sunday, but is expected to reject it. A BBC correspondent in Washington says the US government’s move on the Iranian nuclear issue is highly significant.
english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/12398BF2-41A7-498E-BB4E-7492FA5BE581.htm
Iraqi constitution talks delayed
AlJazeera 8/5/2005
A crucial meeting on Iraq’s constitutional stalemate has been postponed due to an emergency session of the Kurdish parliament amid sustained attacks by anti-US and US-backed Iraqi government fighters. The two-day delay came against a backdrop of relentless violence that has seen at least 40 US soldiers die in the past 10 days, putting the overall death toll for US soldiers at 1818 since the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. US President George Bush vowed to “stay the course” in Iraq despite the killings and a new aAl-Qaida threat on Thursday warning the United States and Britain of more death and destruction. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said the meeting to end the deadlock on drafting a new constitution and resolving outstanding questions was postponed for Kurdish leader Massud Barzani.
www.islam-online.net/English/News/2005-08/04/article07.shtml
Mauritania’s Junta∑Pro-France Colonels
Islam Online 8/4/2005
NOUAKCHOTT, August 4, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) ˆ With no Islamic or nationalist movements represented in the military junta, which carried out a successful military coup against President Maaouya Ould Taya’s regime, Mauritania’s military council is formed of a group of pro-France, liberal and tribal leaders. A 17-member junta, the Military Council for Justice and Democracy, carried out a successful coup d’etat against Taya Wednesday. Dominating the main government buildings in the capital, the council said Col. Ould Mohammed Vall, director of Mauritania’s national security, was declared head of the junta. Col. Vall is seen as a pro-France figure and a staunch supporter of disseminating the French culture and language in the oil-rich country at the expense of the Arabic language, according to IOL Correspondent.
www.guardian.co.uk/guantanamo/story/0,13743,1543787,00.html?gusrc=rss
Guantánamo prisoners to be held in home countries
The Guardian 8/6/2005
The United States is negotiating the transfer of nearly 70% of the prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay back to their home countries in an attempt to dramatically reduce the number of “enemy combatants” in US custody, it emerged yesterday.Earlier this week the Bush administration formally agreed to the transfer of 110 detainees from the prison camp in Cuba to Afghanistan, and the US is pursuing similar agreements with Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The deal with Afghanistan also includes handing over 350 detainees being held by the US at Bagram air base near Kabul. Pierre-Richard Prosper, the US ambassador-at-large for war crimes, agreed the deal in a meeting with Afghan president Hamid Karzai, who demanded custody of his countrymen during a visit to Washington this year.
Articles
weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/754/op33.htm
Onus on Gaza
By Mustafa Barghouti, Al-Ahram Weekly on-line 8/4/2005
Factionalism equals disintegration, and internecine strife is precisely what Sharon wants
The Palestinian reaction to the Gaza crisis has been a panicked scramble for cosmetic solutions rather than an attempt to confront real challenges. There is no denying the gravity of the spectre of a Palestinian civil war which Sharon has vowed will erupt as soon as he redeploys his forces from Gaza. Regardless of the motives Palestinian factions might have for lashing out against each other nothing can justify a slide into internecine warfare and the catastrophe this will wreak upon the Palestinian people and their future. But nor, at this crucial moment, should we allow the spectre of civil war to blind us to the strategic choices we must make.
The foremost challenge is to determine how Palestinian national rights can best be secured given that current balances of power — military, economic, propagandistic — are so heavily tilted in Israel’s favour. Should the PA confine itself to administering and regulating the affairs of the people whenever and wherever Israel permits and have nothing to do with the forces, mechanisms and aims of the Palestinian national liberation movement?
Sacrifice for the national cause — demonstrating against the separating wall, resisting occupation, getting locked up in prison, defending the rights of detainees, suffering harassment at checkpoints — cannot be the duty of some while running the economy, administering the PA budget, entering into negotiations and representing the Palestinians diplomatically remains the prerogative of others. Such separation of responsibilities makes no sense. How is it possible to wage a successful campaign against the racist wall, the occupation and the Judaisation of Jerusalem when the forces and energies of the Palestinian people are so divided?
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=608980
End of an era
By Avraham Burg, Ha’aretz 8/5/2005
So routine has the term “disengagement plan” become that it is blurring our understanding of what is involved. So the truth must be told: the government of Israel does not have a true plan; and worse the government has nothing with which to cover the huge pit that is now taking shape in the Israeli psyche. This is not a genuine plan, because it was a momentary caprice of the prime minister. The “non-plan” acted as a magnet for Israeli political opportunism at its finest: by the elders of the Labor Party, who are driven by the power of a personal biological clock and do not live according to slower political time; individuals who thirst for power; and a few other innocents who simply don’t understand what it’s all about.
The process by which the plan was approved smashed to smithereens what little remained of Israel’s political culture and doomed us to many more years of disabled, crippled democracy, conducted in the shadow of the anarchy of this period. The prime minister gave the boot to every political convention and simply led everyone down the garden path. Just as there is no capital market without a stock exchange and no family without partners, so there is no democracy or politics without parties. The disrespect shown by the prime minister and his associates for resolutions passed by his own party – their contempt and utter disregard – destroyed the basic concept of political life.
But the plan is bad not only because of the defective processes of its authorization; it is bad mainly because of its content. It has no partner and no vision. It does not look a millimeter past its own nose. And any looking that there is portends only calamity. It is a vast fraud: sacrifice of the unimportant and insignificant settlements in Gaza and in the Sinai approaches in return for perpetuating the wrongs and perversions of the Israeli soul in the heart of Hebron, at Yitzhar, at Beit El and in patriarchal tombs that have become altars for binding living sons.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=609105
Abu Mazen’s surprise
By Akiva Eldar, Ha’aretz 8/5/2005
Abu Mazen’s last visit to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon convinced him that at best, Sharon doesn’t care whether Hamas gains control of the Gaza Strip. — “The Israelis didn’t expect you would enter into a confrontation with Hamas,” said United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice when she met briefly with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) two weeks ago. “You didn’t expect it either,” replied Abu Mazen, and Rice smiled: “You’re right. We too were surprised.” Abu Mazen’s advisers grinned at one another in satisfaction. The attack on the members of the Hamas Qassam unit who were on their way back from a launch into Israel from the northern part of the Gaza Strip had achieved its aim.
Eight days before Rice’s plane landed at Ben-Gurion International Airport, Palestinian Interior Minister Nasser Yusuf received an order to put his offices into operation against anyone who violates the cease-fire. The operational summation of the confrontation, which began with exchanges of fire with the people from the Iz al-Din al-Qassam brigades and ended with rocket hits on three Palestinian National Security armored vehicles, would not have aroused admiration – three youths killed and 45 wounded, among them 15 from the Palestinian Security services – but from Abu Mazen’s perspective, the aim of the operation was to prove to the Americans that they are dealing with a serious, determined and courageous leader.
Washington’s attitude toward Ramallah in recent weeks indicates the Americans got the message. A short time after Nasser Yusuf left the Defense Minister’s Bureau in Tel Aviv, American envoys David Welch and William Ward received a telephone report from the Palestinian minister’s aides that Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz had again refused a request to allow the entry of ammunition into the Gaza Strip. This is the first time since the brief honeymoon period between the late Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat and former president Bill Clinton that the PA people have had the mobile phone numbers of senior American officials.
weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/754/re5.htm
Through the looking glass
By Graham Usher, Al-Ahram Weekly on-line 8/4/2005
Don’t be fooled by appearances — it is Abbas rather than Sharon who is in trouble
Two weeks before D-day (Israel’s disengagement from Gaza and four settlements in the northern West Bank), Israel and the occupied territories are a looking-glass world. On 2 August 30,000 Israeli soldiers and police were again mobilised in and around Israeli border town of Sederot to prevent anti- disengagement Israelis from reaching the Gaza Strip. On 29 July the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian factions apparently closed a bloody page in their history by agreeing to “work together” to ensure Israel’s Gaza withdrawal was a Palestinian “success”.
So there you have it. On the Israeli side, trauma and dissension: on the Palestinian, agreement and unity. It is of course an illusion — a looking glass.
Israel’s Gaza and West Bank withdrawals will certainly be traumatic and perhaps violent. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Israeli Jews willing to fight for the “land of Israel” in the teeth of the “state of Israel’s” attempt to disgorge those parts of territory it now deems dispensable to the Zionist project. But it is no less true that Ariel Sharon has managed to fragment the opposition to the disengagement.
…Hamas…says it has preserved the calm for the last four months and that its right to retaliate to Israeli aggression was initialed by Abbas, Egypt and the factions in Cairo. The real problem with the declaration was not the ambiguity of its language but the PA’s refusal to honour any of its terms other than the calm, say Hamas spokesmen. For example: the failure to hold parliamentary elections on their agreed date of 17 July; the absence of any real effort to reform the PLO institutions so that Hamas and Islamic Jihad can participate within them; and the very real sense that Fatah is not prepared to share power in any meaningful way.
The result is simmering crisis of faith between the PA and its main political opposition that Cairo-like agreements can contain but not resolve.
weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/754/re7.htm
After the party
By Erica Silverman, Al-Ahram Weekly on-line 8/4/2005
While preparations are underway in Gaza to claim victory once Israel withdraws, much work will be required to rebuild the shattered Strip
Israel has de-developed the Gaza Strip for 57 years but as their mid-August scheduled date for withdrawal approaches, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon continues to complain about the chaos the Israeli occupation is leaving behind.
Israel’s unilateral strategy for withdrawal has created a collective fog for the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Palestinians alike. The uncertainty emanates from Israel’s refusal to disclose their logistical plan for the month-long procedure, which has hindered the PA’s ability to prepare and has generated a sense of fear amongst Palestinians in Gaza concerning conditions both during and after disengagement. Sabha Abu Rabea, who lives with her paralysed mother opposite the slated for evacuation Netzarim settlement, has had her home levelled once without warning by the Israelis. She has real cause to fear an outbreak of violence.
What will Gaza look like the day after disengagement? Will the checkpoints be closed? Will Israel allow for the movement of goods and people between the West Bank and Gaza? Will Palestinians issue their own identity cards (an important question for a population living under the confines of over 900 barriers and checkpoints)? Will Israel seal off Gaza from the rest of the world? In short, the PA has no idea.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3121397,00.html
Withdrawal won‚t end with Gush Katif
By Sever Plocker, YNetNews 8/2/2005
For Sharon, the Gaza disengagement is the first course, a mere dress rehearsal
Statesmen, just like CEO‚s, rarely admit to failure when it comes to their life‚s enterprise ˆ even when they blame the failure on circumstance, chance or human nature.
Therefore, the lack of interest in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon‚s statement regarding the failure of the Jewish settlement enterprise outside the Green Line is surprising.
During his recent trip to France, Sharon said, “If one million Jews would have settled in the territories, Israel could have conducted a different policy,‰ virtually admitting that after all the land confiscations in the West Bank, the construction, both the legal and illegal expansion and the populating of the 120 Jewish settlements, the settlement movement is facing a hopeless situation.
While it is true that some 25,000 Jews live outside the Green Line, 150,000 of them reside in what are known as the “large settlement blocs,‰ situated in close proximity to the border established after the 1967 Six-Day War. This is where Israel ends.
Minimizing the damage: Should you travel a few kilometers to the east, you will encounter the failure Sharon has been referring to in all its blatancy: Small Jewish settlements – more like villages or neighborhoods – dispersed among a sea of hostile Palestinians.
These settlements can in no way change the demographic, geographic or security-related balance.
weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/754/re6.htm
Between freedom and fear
By Khaled Amayreh, Al-Ahram Weekly on-line 8/4/2005
With two weeks to go, Gazans are looking ahead to a life free of military occupation — they hope
With its nearly 1.4 million tormented souls — thanks to decades of institutionalised Israeli repression — the Gaza Strip is readying itself for the upcoming Israeli withdrawal, slated to begin in two weeks. The public mood is far from euphoric, Gazans navigating between cautious hope for a better tomorrow and nagging apprehension about a future that is increasingly fraught with unpredictability and danger.
For many ordinary Gazans, like Omar Salameh of the Khan Younis refugee camp, freedom from the spectre of death by random Israeli bullets fired by trigger-happy soldiers manning nearby watchtowers, represents the ultimate good riddance. “Reality has taught us the hard way to keep our dreams modest and realistic. We are not dreaming of miracles in this part of the world. All we want is to be able to live our lives quietly and safely,” he told Al-Ahram Weekly.
“And to be able to earn our daily bread and feed our kids. If we achieve this, we will be the happiest people on earth,” Salameh added.
Salameh’s modest aspirations are in the minds of many. The suffering and pain meted out to most Gazans by a sustained Israeli blitz decimated the psychological health of the bulk of Gaza’s citizenry. Hence, most are not entertaining grand dreams about the post- withdrawal period, such as Gaza becoming the Singapore of the Middle East. In fact, ordinary Gazans who talked to the Weekly are merely looking forward to simple, even petty, things which people in the rest of the world take for granted, such as being able to travel to the next town or outside the country freely, and having a job with a stable income.
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