www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=633759
Shin Bet nabs 117 Hamas members in West Bank
Ha’aretz 10/11/2005
The Shin Bet security service has recently uncovered three Hamas networks in the West Bank that are suspected of responsibility for a series of terror attacks over the past two months, the Shin Bet said Monday. The security service has arrested 117 Hamas members suspected of involvement in the three networks, which the Shin Bet says are located in the Ramallah area, north of Hebron and southwest of Hebron.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4325922.stm
Abbas-Sharon summit ‘postponed’
BBC 10/10/2005
An Israeli-Palestinian summit has been delayed after the failure of preparatory talks to agree an agenda, Palestinian Authority officials say. Although several days of talks were not able to break the deadlock, the atmosphere is still described as good. “We cannot attend the meeting without adequate preparation,” Israeli PM Ariel Sharon told his weekly cabinet meeting.
www.pchrgaza.org/files/PressR/English/2005/115-2005.htm
3 Palestinians, including 2 children, Killed by IOF
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights 10/10/2005
Over night, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) shot dead 3 Palestinian civilians, including 2 children, when they attempted to enter Israel through the border in the central Gaza Strip to search for jobs. The victims were not armed as IOF claimed, so IOF could have arrested or used less lethal means against them…The three civilians were wounded, but IOF did not offer them any medical aid and left them to bleed to death.
www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/VBOL-6
H2JCW?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR
Israel reopens passage on Gaza border
ReliefWeb 10/10/2005
GAZA, Oct 10, 2005 (Xinhua via COMTEX) — Palestinian security officials said on Monday that the Israeli army re-opened the Sofa Crossing on the border between southeastern Gaza and Israel after an over three- week shutdown. Palestinian Crossings chief Salim Abu Safeya told reporters that the Israeli decision to reopen the crossing came after a joint meeting between the two sides. Praising the meeting as fruitful and friendly, Abu Safeya said Israel promised to reopen most passages and crossings on the Gaza- Israel border.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=633561
Ministers approve tougher conditions for security suspects
Ha’aretz 10/10/2005
The Ministerial Committee for Legislation decided Sunday to accept the request of the Shin Bet security services on a bill to toughen conditions for noncitizens being held on suspicion of security infractions. The bill proposes to permit a suspect to be held for 96 consecutive hours without being brought before a judge. The bill would amend the Arrests Law, under which detainees must be brought before a judge within 24 hours of their arrest…Another clause in the bill would all for the possibility of preventing security suspects from seeing legal counsel for up to 50 days (as opposed to the present Arrest Law, which allows for the prevention of suspect-attorney meetings for up to 21 days).
english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=enews&id=4268
Official Statistics: 9.5% of Palestinian Houses without Water Network
WAFA 10/9/2005
RAMALLAH, October 9, 2005, (WAFA)- Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said Sunday that 9.5% of households in the Palestinian Territory (56,544 households) are living in housing units that are not connected to water network. In a press release on the Results of Environmental Household Survey, 2005 PCBS revealed that 81.3% of households in the West Bank consider the water quality as good, where 6.2% of households in Gaza Strip consider it as good quality..
english.wafa.ps/body.asp?id=4274
Israeli Soldiers Arrest 5 Citizens, Storm Ibrahimi Mosque
WAFA 10/10/2005
HEBRON, October 10, 2005, (WAFA)- Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) closed Sunday the Holy Ibrahimi Mosque and arrested five citizens in the West Bank (WB) cities of Hebron and Bethlehem, witnesses said. They told WAFA that Israeli soldiers launched a house-to-house search campaign in Beit Amra village south of Hebron and broke into Ra’id Deis and arrested him. In the meantime, IOF closed Ibrahimi mosque in the city of Hebron in the face of Muslims and prohibited them from praying.
www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14359&Itemid=1
Settlers grab lands near Bethlehem
International Middle East Media Center 10/10/2005
Settlers of Nave Daniel settlement, which was constructed on Palestinian confiscated lands which belong to residents of Al Khaader village near Bethlehem, grabbed farmlands which belong to the family of Ismail Mousa. A local source in the village reported that the settlers grabbed 18 Dunams, bulldozed part of it and starting preparing for the foundations of the new settlement. “Soldiers were present in the area‰, the source stated, “but they did not attempt to stop them‰.
www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=11090
IOF Murders a Member of Fateh’s Military Wing in Nablus
International Press Center 10/9/2005
NABLUS, Palestine, October 9, 2005 (IPC) —The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) lynched today morning a member of Al Aqsa martyr brigade, the military wing of Fateh, in a shootout in the vicinity of IOF military checkpoint (17) installed between Nablus and Assera Al Shamalyia town. IPC correspondent reported that medics at Raphedia hospital in Nablus city said that Mu’taz Helal Abu Za’rour, 24, was gunned down by a fatal gunshot in the head resulting in his death instantly.
english.wafa.ps/body.asp?id=4276
Addameer: Temporary Order Prevents Separating Prisoner Mother from her Two-year-old Child
WAFA 10/10/2005
RAMALLAH, October 10, 2005, (WAFA)- Prisoners’’ Support and Human Rights Association “Addameer”, said that it succeeded in pulling out a temporary order prevent the Israeli prison authorities from separating a mother from her two-year-old child. In a press release issued Monday, Addameer revealed that according to the order the separating of the two at this time is illegal, adding that we hope the immediate release of the mother and her child as soon as possible.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=633762
Israeli gunfire wounds Negev man along Egyptian border
Ha’aretz 10/11/2005
The gunfire that wounded an Israeli man Monday night at the Sinai border came from Israel’s security forces, and not from Egyptian border police as orginally suspected, Israel Radio reported Monday. Israeli troops wounded the man, a Bedouin resident of the Negev, apparently after firing a gunshot warning to suspected smugglers crossing into Egypt. Initially, Israeli rescue officials had said the man was shot by Egyptian police firing on suspected smugglers along the border.
www.pchrgaza.org/files/PressR/English/2005/116-2005.htm
Some Relief for Gaza‚s Fishermen
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights 10/10/2005
After two weeks, of being completely prevented from accessing the sea, Gaza‚s fishermen have been allowed back out to the sea, under the watchful eye of Israeli military air and sea crafts.
From Saturday the 24th of September until, Saturday the 8th of October Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) did not allow Gaza‚s fishermen access to the sea.Consequently the civilian population were completely denied access to Gaza‚s most wealthy natural resource.
english.wafa.ps/body.asp?id=4278
Watchful Eye of Israeli Military Air and Sea Crafts Monitor Gaza’’s Fishermen
WAFA 10/10/2005
GAZA, October 10, 2005 (WAFA)- Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) said on Monday after two weeks, of being completely prevented from accessing the sea, Gaza’’s fishermen have been allowed back out to the sea, under the watchful eye of Israeli military air and sea crafts. In a press release, PCHR said the closure of the sea coincided with Israeli imposed closures across the Gaza strip, including at Rafah international crossing point, Beit Hanoun (Erez) Checkpoint and al Mentar (Karni) commercial crossing point.
www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14354&Itemid=1
Soldiers attack 30 residents near Nablus
International Middle East Media Center 10/10/2005
Israeli soldiers attacked 30 residents of Sorra village, south west of Nablus while they were heading towards the nearby village of Tal. Radwan Abdullah, a social worker at the Ministry of Education said that soldiers severely attacked and punched the residents and forced them to lie on the ground. “Several residents were injured‰, Abdullah said, “soldiers barred them from reaching hospitals or clinics.
www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14349&Itemid=1
Army invades village near Nablus
International Middle East Media Center 10/10/2005
Israeli soldiers invaded on Sunday at night, Beta village, north of the West Bank city of Nablus and fired rounds of live ammunition and gas bombs. A local source in the village reported that soldiers imposed curfew over the village barring the residents from leaving their home, and surrounded a mosque forcing the residents who were praying there out of the mosque, and interrogated them.
www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14336&Itemid=1
Tel Aviv Court indicts three Arab residents of planning attacks
International Middle East Media Center 10/9/2005
An Israeli source reported that the Tel Aviv District Court indicted on Sunday three Arab residents of Israel of planning to place explosives on a railway tack near Netanya. Two of the three defendants confessed to planning the attack, the source said, “They also discussed the possibility bombing the Azrieli Center skyscrapers, in Tel Aviv‰. The three were identified as Amin Zayouti, Mojahed Dukan and Sofian Nosseirat, residents of Taibeh. There confession was part of a plea bargain, and are expected to receive a maximum sentence of 15 years.
english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=enews&id=4267
I00 Palestinian Houses Destroyed in Jerusalem in 2005
WAFA 10/9/2005
JERUSALEM, October 9, 2005, (WAFA)- At least 100 Palestinian houses were demolished by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) in the occupied East Jerusalem during the year 2005, local sources revealed. The Arab Studies Society said in a press release that the destruction of Palestinian houses, seizure of the Palestinian land and the Apartheid Wall in Jerusalem, are part of Judaizing the city. It added that Israeli authorities intentionally reduces the population of the Palestinians and increase the number of Jews in Jerusalem.
www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14334&Itemid=1
Child injured, arrested in Surif village, near Hebron
International Middle East Media Center 10/9/2005
Israeli soldiers shot and injured a Palestinian child, on Saturday at night, in Surif village, northwest of Hebron. A local source in Hebron reported that soldiers arrested Wa‚ad Arafat Al Hadmi, 13, after firing at him, and took him to Kfar Atzion detention facility, north of Hebron. The mother of Al Hadmi said that soldiers fired at her son while he was standing near Surif ˆ Al Jab‚a junction, north of the village. Soldiers claimed that the child intended to hurl a Molotov cocktail at a military vehicle. [end]
www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14332&Itemid=1
Soldiers arrest shepherds east of Tubas
International Middle East Media Center 10/9/2005
Israeli soldiers arrested on Sunday at noon, several shepherds in Wadi Al Malih area, east of the West Bank city of Tubas.Aref Dharaghma, head of the Wadi Al Maleh projects committee, said that soldiers chased dozens of shepherds and arrested some of them. The shepherds wee herding their cattle at a mountain near Wadi Al Malih area. [end]
www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14322&Itemid=1
Settlers‚ sewerage destroys farmlands near Qalqilia
International Middle East Media Center 10/8/2005
Sewerage waste became a nightmare threatening the farmlands of the Palestinian residents north of the West Bank city of Qalqilia. Farmers in this area say at the start of each guava and tangerine season, settlers from Zufim and Sur-Igal adjacent to the northern district, open the sewage pipes towards the neighboring fields. This causes an environmental disaster with hoards of insects that attack the fruit. The farmers say they have no defense mechanism to save their harvests except racing with time and picking the fruit even if it is not completely ripe.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=633761
Israel, U.S. to renew strategic talks after three-year freeze
Ha’aretz 10/10/2005
The United States will resume its strategic dialogue with Israel after a hiatus of close to three years, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Monday after meeting with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch in Jerusalem. The first round of the renewed dialogue is scheduled for the second week of November. The Israeli team will be coordinated by Tzachi Hanegbi, minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, and Foreign Ministry Director General Ron Prosor. The American team will be coordinated by U.S. Under Secretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3153618,00.html
Abbas, Qureia reconcile differences
YNetNews 10/10/2005
Palestinian leaders call a truce, following months of strained relations and discord; a new Palestinian government will now be assembled to serve until general elections scheduled for January — Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia have reconciled, following weeks of discord and strained relations. Palestinian sources said Monday that the two Palestinian leaders mended their differences during a meeting.
www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=11111
President Abbas: Forming New Government is under Debate
International Press Center 10/10/2005
RAMMALLAH, Palestine, October 10, 2005(IPC+Agencies)— The President Mahmoud Abbas announced Sunday night that the Palestinian leadership is still deliberating over the formation of a new government, heeding the attention that to this moment no idea has been crystallized on the issue.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3153349,00.html
Families of dead gain access to riots files
YNetNews 10/10/2005
Attorney General responds to demand by families of those killed in October 2000 riots, hands over investigative material assembled by Police Investigation’s Unit to relatives; Mazuz calls for new inquiry to be taken out of Unit’s control, which he described as ‘flawed’ — Families of those killed in the October 2000 riots will gain access to the material assembled by the Police Investigation’s Unit in the course of its investigation into the disturbances, in which 13 Israeli-Arabs were killed, the Attorney General, Menachem Mazuz, ruled on Monday.
english.wafa.ps/cphotonews.asp?num=892
Prisoners’ Families Calls for Releasing their Sons
International Press Center 10/10/2005
GAZA, October 10, 2005 (WAFA)- Prisoners’ families called on Monday all international organizations to pressurize Israel to release the Palestinian prisoners from the Israeli jails. During a sit-in before the office of the International Red Cross Society in Gaza Strip (GS), the families demanded to stop the Israeli violations against their sons, and to allow them to visit them in these jails. They called on the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to put the prisoners’ issue on the top of their priorities, hoping the immediate release of them.
english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=enews&id=4271
Cancer Patient Between his Disease’s Hammer and Israeli Lands Department’s Anvil
WAFA 10/9/2005
NEGEV, October 9, 2005 (WAFA)- Nayef al-Athameen 19, from the unrecognized village of Khashm Zanna in the Negev desert, is between the hammer of cancer and the anvil of Israel’’s Lands department. Al-Athameen built a brick house so as to move to after submitting to spinal cord transplant operation, but Israel’’s Lands department issued orders to tear down the house. Now, Nayef and his father are living in a metal hut and they can hardly meet their needs, for both of them, are jobless.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=633297
Sources: IDF kills 3 Palestinians crawling along Gaza border
Ha’aretz 10/10/2005
Israel Defense Forces soldiers shot dead three Palestinians near the Israel-Gaza frontier on Monday, Palestinian medics and military sources said, while internal violence in Gaza intensified as militants and policemen engaged in a gunfight. The border incident coincided with warnings by security forces that terror organizations planned. The army said troops spotted three Palestinians crawling near the Gaza border fence, with one carrying a bag…According to the Palestinians the bodies were of three unarmed youths.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=633657
Israel eases restrictions on Palestinians during Ramadan
Ha’aretz 10/10/2005
Israel on Monday announced a series of measures to ease restrictions on the Palestinian population during the holy fast month of Ramadan, which began last week. The steps include granting permission for up to 4,0000 Muslim worshippers over the age of 45 to visit the mosques on the Temple Mount for Friday prayers “without the need for permits.” Israel has also authorized admission to East Jerusalem for 450 members of the Muslim clergy, as well as 150 Christian and 400 Muslim educators.
english.wafa.ps/body.asp?id=4275
PM Qurei: Launching Credible Peace Process Necessary
WAFA 10/10/2005
RAMALLAH, October 10, 2005 (WAFA)- Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei stressed on Monday the necessity to launch a credible peace process that gives hope to the Palestinian people. Qurei said, in a press release following seperate meetings with French Consul General in Jerusalem Alain Remy, the Swedish Consul General in Jerusalem Nils Eliasson and the UNRWA Commissioner General Karin AbuZayed, that the situation is very dangerous due to the Israeli practices which aim at turning the Gaza Strip into a big prison.
www.palestine-pmc.com/details.asp?cat=1&id=1012
Abbas Refuses Public Relations Summit with Sharon
Palestine Media Center 10/9/2005
Erakat, Weisglass Meet Sunday amid Deadlock — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday insisted that a Jordanian-mediated summit with the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon be a meeting of “content‰ and not a PR, ahead of a last meeting on Sunday between the chief Palestinian negotiator and Sharon‚s top adviser to lay out the ground for the summit.
www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14323&Itemid=1
Shalom: “We will not recognize the Pal. Elections if Hamas participates‰
International Middle East Media Center 10/8/2005
Israeli Foreign Minister, Sylvan Shalom said that if Hamas participates in the upcoming Palestinian legislative elections Israel and the international community will not recognize the results of these elections. In an interview with the Israel Radio on Saturday morning, Shalom said that Israel informed the Palestinian Authority that “it will not allow Hamas to participate in the elections‰. “If they do, Israel and the international community will not recognize these elections‰, he added.
english.wafa.ps/cphotonews.asp?num=891
President Abbas Meets Welch
International Press Center 10/10/2005
RAMALLAH, October 10, 2005, (WAFA)- President Mahmoud Abbas met Monday with the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Abbas and Welch discussed the latest developments in the OPT especially after the Israeli evacuation from the Gaza Strip (GS). They also discussed the imminent visit of President Abbas to Washington. Following the meeting, Welch told reporters that the meeting was successful.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=633778
Sources hope Israel will gain from Security Council rotation
Ha’aretz 10/10/2005
NEW YORK – The Israeli delegation to the United Nations was cautiously optimistic Monday that the UN’s selection of five new rotating members of its Security Council could bode well for Israel. UN members on Monday elected the Congo Republic, Ghana, Peru, Qatar and Slovakia to two-year seats on the 15-nation UN Security Council, the world body’s most powerful organ. Although Qatar is a Muslim country, sources in the Israeli delegation said its selection could be good for Israel because Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom has established close ties with senior members of the Qatar government, and Israel’s envoy to the UN, Dan Gillerman, has friendly relations with Qatar’s UN ambassador.
www.palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20051010033552500
Kuwaitis Quietly Breach a Taboo: Easing Hostility Toward Israel
Palestine Chronicle 10/10/2005
“Supporters of engagement insist they are not seeking to abandon the Palestinian cause but in fact hoping to enhance it..” — Kuwaiti newspapers in recent days have floated the idea that the country could take steps to reduce hostility toward Israel as a means of helping the Palestinians, prompting a quiet debate about Kuwait’s decades-old strategy of isolating Israel. The discussion breaks long-held taboos and brushes at an emotionally explosive subject for Kuwaitis, who had long considered themselves among the standard-bearers for the Palestinian cause.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=633786
Turkey transfers Ottoman land records to Palestinian Authority
By Danny Rubinstein, Ha’aretz 10/11/2005
The Turkish government on Sunday gave the Palestinian Authority a copy of the Ottoman archive containing all documents pertaining to land ownership in pre-state Israel through 1916. The PA requested the records to support Palestinian land claims. The Palestinians say that these documents reflect the “true” ownership of the land. One year later, in 1917, Britain drove the Ottomans out of the country and issued the Balfour Declaration, expressing support for the establishment of a Jewish state in what was then called Palestine.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=633754
Min. Sheetrit appoints panel to probe Japan maritime accident
Ha’aretz 10/10/2005
Transportation Minister Meir Sheetrit on Monday appointed a special inquiry committee to investigate the collision of an Israeli ship and a Japanese fishing boat, which led to the deaths of seven Japanese fishermen. The Zim Asia, owned by the Zim shipping company, collided with the Japanese boat two weeks ago, some 40 kilometers off Japan’s coast. The inquiry committee was asked to submit its findings no later than October 26, and to include immediate recommendations for the correction of flaws it reveals during the investigation.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=633743
PM say Israel to fight violence like terror, but limits funding
Ha’aretz 10/10/2005
The government will combat violence just as it does terror, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pledged Monday during a meeting of the ministerial committee for the prevention of violence, headed by Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra. “Violence is a form of terror, and it has to be dealt with just as terror is dealt with. This phenomenon [of violence] is unacceptable and we will stop it,” Sharon said, adding, however, that the financial resources to be allocated to the fight against violence will be limited.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=633846
Poll shows Peres can’t clinch Labor chair in first round
Ha’aretz 10/11/2005
A poll conducted for Haaretz by Dialog among Labor Party members last Saturday show Vice Premier Shimon Peres winning the party’s November 9 primaries for party chairman with a comfortable 40.5 percent of the vote. Histadrut labor federation head Amir Peretz, MK, is in second place with 22 percent of the vote; Minister Matan Vilnai is third, with 12 percent; and MK Benjamin Ben-Eliezer comes in last with 10.8 percent. Peres’ lead, however, does not ensure his victory in the first round.
web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE150512005
Prolonged closure of the Gaza-Egypt border and arbitrary restrictions to freedom of movement should be lifted
Amnesty International 10/7/2005
Amnesty International is concerned at the continued closure of the Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, as a result of which some one and a half million Palestinians who live in the Gaza Strip are denied the possibility to travel. The closure restricts the access to health and education of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and constitutes an arbitrary restriction of the right to freedom of movement and of the right to leave and return to one’s own country. Since the Israeli army redeployed its troops from inside the Gaza Strip on 12 September 2005, Israel has imposed a closure on the Rafah crossing.
web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE150502005
High court ban on army’s use of “human shields” is a welcome development
Amnesty International 10/7/2005
Amnesty International welcomes the banning, by Israel’s High Court, of the use of Palestinians as “human shields” by the Israeli army. The long-awaited High Court ruling of 6 October 2005 came in response to a petition filed in May 2002 by several Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations seeking a ban of the practice, which endangered the lives of the Palestinians who were used as “human shields” and violated international law, notably Article 51 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
www.pchrgaza.org/files/PressR/English/2005/114-2005.htm
PCHR Welcomes and Meets Key Delegations
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights 10/9/2005
In the past few days PCHR staff have met and briefed key delegations from Christian Aid, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and the UN Special Representative on Human Rights Defenders. PCHR continues to welcome key delegations to the Gaza Strip and to brief key decision makers in the UN system on the current situation faced by Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=4&article_id=19194
Ahmad al-Khatib brings Palestine to the Medina
Daily Star 10/11/2005
BEIRUT: Playful yet serious, romantic yet unflinching, Ahmad al-Khatib and his oud brought politics, art and humanity effortlessly together in music at the Medina Theater here on Saturday evening. Performing with percussionist and fellow Palestinian Nassir Salameh at a concert organized by Freemuse (an NGO based in Denmark that works on music and censorship around the world) and the Heinrich Boll Foundation to mark the closing of a conference on music and censorship in the Middle East, the Palestinian exile’s nimble fret-work mesmerized an audience in sympathy with Khatib’s plight.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3153616,00.html
Nobel winner: I’m no expert in economics
YNetNews 10/11/2005
Israel Aumann, who won the economics Nobel Prize Monday says his colleagues in Israel deserve the prize as much as him; Sharon telephones Aumann to congratulate him on the win — Prof. Israel Aumann, laureate of the Nobel economics prize was very excited Monday, after his winning was announced…When asked what his great discovery was, Aumann laughed and said “I really don’t know. You will have to ask other people.”
www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=4&article_id=19164
Nazar – Stories in pictures from the Arab world
Daily Star 10/10/2005
New York gallery exhibits powerful images of the true face and reality in the region — NEW YORK: Powerful, striking, heartbreaking, symbolic and most of all discreet are the images taken by 18 Arab contemporary photographers on show in “Nazar: Photographs of the Arab World” at the Aperture Foundation’s gallery in New York. Images that reflect on everything from the political to the documentary to portraits – urban landscapes and cityscapes subtly mirror the elusive and traditional yet contradictory life of the Middle East for a Western audience.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=633583
Israel to lease Kinneret shore land to Evangelicals
Ha’aretz 10/10/2005
Along the northeastern edge of Lake Kinneret, the landscape is quiet, the wind blows gently and the Korazim River meanders tranquilly, much as it did in the time of Jesus, but this undisturbed vista may not last much longer. Plans are underway to develop an evangelical Christian center in the area – a mini-Israel of sorts and perhaps a biblical theme park.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3153586,00.html
Qatar: USD 6 million to Arab soccer team
YNetNews 10/10/2005
MK Ahmad Tibi’s contacts with Qatar’s government bear fruit. At first stage, donation to go to building Sakhnin’s stadium — MK Ahmad Tibi and Mayor of the Arab town of Sakhnin Mohamed Bashir met Monday in Doha with Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrehman al Thani, Secretary General of the Qatar National Olympic Committee. During the meeting, al Thani agreed to an initial donation of USD 6 million to finance the building of the Sakhnin soccer stadium.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=633582
Israel Aircraft Industries chief at center of police graft probe
Ha’aretz 10/10/2005
The president and CEO of Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI), Moshe Keret, is at the center of an investigation by the police International Crimes Investigation unit, it emerged on Monday. The police investigation began following a report on corruption at the IAI by the State Comptroller. Investigators are checking suspicions that top brass at the state-owned defense company accepted bribes from an IAI agent in the former Commonwealth of Independent States (formerly the USSR).
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3153017,00.html
10% of publicly traded firms at risk
YNetNews 10/9/2005
Dun and Bradstreet estimates ten percent of Israeli companies traded on Tel Aviv stock exchange at risk of close down, about a third will face financial difficulties in coming year — Ten percent of Israeli companies traded on the Israeli stock exchange face the danger of closing down, according to a Dun and Bradstreet report. Meanwhile, about a third of the companies face the risk of financial trouble, the report stated. Overall, 648 companies are listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, including 582 stock companies and 66 bond companies.
www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=19219
Fadlallah insists Hizbullah constitutes reserve army
Daily Star 10/11/2005
BEIRUT: Senior Shiite cleric Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah said Hizbullah’s Islamic Resistance force in the South constitutes a reserve army to protect Lebanon whenever it is threatened by Israel. Fadlallah’s comments came on Monday during his meeting with the UN’s Secretary General Representative in South Lebanon Gere Pederson. The meeting focused on the UN’s role in consolidating internal stability through protecting Lebanon from greater Israeli influence in the country and other attempts at foreign intervention.
www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=19217
Students flock to Martyrs’ Square to denounce security situation
Daily Star 10/11/2005
Families of assassination targets join demonstration — BEIRUT:”Enough of assassinations, explosions, crimes, terrorism, oppression,” chanted some 100 students as they protested in Martyrs’ Square Monday to denounce the failing security situation in the country. The protesters were drawn from 13 political parties and movements who organized the Kafa, or “Enough,” campaign, which was launched in response to the assassination attempt on prominent television presenter May Chidiac.
www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=19216
SOLIDE reports successful two-week trip to U.S. to plead detainees’ case
Daily Star 10/11/2005
Aad says sit-in demonstration had desired effect — BEIRUT: Ghazi Aad, president of the Support of Lebanese in Detention and Exile (SOLIDE) organization, has returned to Beirut from a two-week trip to the United States, where he and a small delegation had gone to plead the case of Lebanese detainees in Syria before the UN and the U.S. State Department. Emerging jetlagged but upbeat from the plane, Aad declared the trip a success…”Terje Roed-Larsen was very frank…He suggested we talk directly with America and France, which drafted 1559, in hopes of it being amended to demand the release of the detainees.”
english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9804ACAA-CF8E-4774-BC27-4297D3B1AA43.htm
Tri-nation talks discuss Iraq, Syria
AlJazeera 10/11/2005
The leaders of Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain met in Cairo on Monday in a mini-summit concerning Iraq and Syria. No joint statement was issued after the talks among Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak, Jordan’s King Abd Allah II and the king of Bahrain, Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. But Egyptian presidential spokesman Suleiman Awwad told reporters that the three leaders held “a common understanding” on the need to help the Iraqi political process succeed.
www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=19220
Gunmen attack Arab League convoy in Iraq
Daily Star 10/11/2005
Delegation gets cold reception in Baghdad for failure to condemn terrorism — An attack on Arab League envoys underscored a growing campaign of insurgent violence five days before Iraqis vote on a new constitution that has sharply divided Shiites and Kurds from Sunni Arabs. Six Interior Ministry commandos were wounded in the attack on an Arab League convoy headed toward the headquarters of the Committee of Muslim Scholars, the main Sunni Arab religious body in Iraq, a ministry source said.
Articles
www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=19207
With no secular leadership, Palestinians turn to Islam
By Mahdi Abdul Hadi, Daily Star 10/11/2005
Five years ago, this present intifada was sparked by a highly provocative intrusion by Ariel Sharon, then Israeli opposition leader, into the Al-Aqsa Mosque. That Jerusalem should have been the source of five years of heavy fighting seems almost impossible to comprehend now that the city has fallen in a way I have never witnessed before. Physically, psychologically, socio-economically and demographically, Jerusalem has been divided and subjugated in a way that even its actual occupation in 1967 did not achieve. Settlements in and around Jerusalem are expanding at pace ; the wall has separated the city from its West Bank hinterland and some of its own communities; and city planning within the Israeli-defined municipal borders is separating the remaining communities from each other.
What is happening in Jerusalem today is, in fact, more similar to what happened in 1948. The city is being cleansed of its population, and the remaining population is being relieved of its rights. The Absentee Property Law is being invoked again, and those who find themselves outside the wall, but with property in Jerusalem, stand to lose that property to the Jewish state, just as those who fled or were forced to flee the fighting in 1948 saw their property confiscated according to this law, which barred them any recourse to law.
…There is only one thing that gathers people and which might draw them out into the street, and that is religion. Islam has become a new focal point, and this is true in general of this intifada. The role of Islam, both rhetorically and politically, has increased in power and allure even as the focal point of the last intifada, nationalism, has seen its star wane.
electronicintifada.net/v2/article4234.shtml
Hurricane Gaza
By Yacov Ben Efrat, Electronic Intifada 10/9/2005
As a unilateral act, Israel’s disengagement from the Gaza Strip raises basic questions for both sides in the conflict. For Israel, there is the question of how to define its deed: “Should we declare that the occupation of Gaza is over?” No less important are the questions Palestinians are asking: “Is this a victory? If so, who should get credit?”
Suppose that Israel’s withdrawal had taken place in the context of an agreement with the Palestinian Authority (PA). Then the two would have reached a single definition for the status of the evacuated area. But because Israel acted alone, it believes it has the right to decide. Israel’s National Security Council and Justice Ministry propose calling the withdrawal “the end of occupation.” Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Foreign Ministry fear that this definition would expose them to demands that they “un-occupy” the West Bank too. As an alternative, they opted for the phrase, “the end of Israeli responsibility.” In the spirit of Oslo, they stress that responsibility has passed to the PA.
Both conceptions are inadequate. The fourth Hague Convention (1907) establishes that occupation is over only when the occupying power stops controlling air, sea and land. Israel is far from doing that. According to the Disengagement Plan, it will continue to cruise Gaza’s airspace and territorial waters. It demands that the Rafah Crossing between the Strip and Egypt, while open to people, must be closed to shipments of goods; instead, these are to cross through a terminal within Israeli territory, at Kerem Shalom, so that Israel can supervise.
usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/21070
A View from Jerusalem: Challenges for Palestinian Health Care
By Sonia Nettnin, Media Monitors Network 10/9/2005
At the Chicago Sabeel Conference Dr. Tawfiq Nasser spoke about the restrictions of Palestinian access to health care caused by Israel‚s wall and military occupation.
Nasser is the CEO/Director-General for Augusta Victoria Hospital, the second largest hospital situated on the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem. He is in charge of managing the clinical outreach program of the Lutheran World Federation. AVH is the largest hospital that serves Palestinian refugees through a contract with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
The six major hospitals in the West Bank face many challenges in providing humanitarian services to patients who must travel through checkpoints and roadblocks to receive medical care.
“One of the major issues we are facing on the ground with this whole restriction of access is that the civil society is being punished indiscriminately,‰ Nasser said. “We live the reality of segregation and annexation wall.‰
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=633842
Once again the olive orchards will become closed military zones
Ha’aretz 10/11/2005
Yesterday marked seven months since the cabinet decision approving the report prepared by attorney Talia Sasson on illegal outposts. In the decision, a black line was drawn beneath the words, “Six outposts can today be evacuated immediately,” after all legal proceedings were exhausted. To this day, not a single outpost has been dismantled.
According to that same cabinet decision of March 10, 2005, Israel is committed to the road map peace plan, which stipulates that Israel must dismantle unauthorized outposts built since March 2001. The Sasson report lists the names of 24 illegal outposts set up since the cutoff date.
…President Bush, who put forward the road map, is in no hurry. The government has time and the Labor Party has primaries to deal with.
It’s only the Palestinians’ olives that insist on ripening every year in the same season, right around now. They have now patience to wait until Ariel Sharon instructs the IDF to evacuate – with determination and sensitivity – the outpost dwellers, the ones who transform the olive harvest from a traditional celebration into something approaching a national trauma.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=633541
Not yet a civil war
By Danny Rubinstein, Ha’aretz 10/10/2005
With each passing day, there are increased signs that the general elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council – the parliament of the Palestinian Authority – will not be held on schedule. The election was set for the end of January, three and a half months from now, and the Palestinian government is currently in great tumult. If the election is put off yet again (the latest postponement was this past July), the current council, elected nearly 10 years ago, will continue to serve. It fails to reflect the considerable political changes that have taken place since then. This means the functioning of the Palestinian Authority will continue to deteriorate, and there will be fewer chances to renew the diplomatic process. The alternative of holding the elections on schedule is liable to be no less terrible, because Hamas has a good chance of emerging victorious. What’s to be done?
The Palestinian political discourse has in recent days become especially violent. It is not yet a civil war, but the two sides – the Palestinian Authority (and the governing party, the Fatah movement) and, opposite it, Hamas – have stepped up their interfactional conflict, both in words and in deeds. In spite of their declarations that the violence between them has been halted, it may be assumed that the violent incidents will continue…
electronicintifada.net/v2/article4235.shtml
Outgunned: The PA’s Security Challenges in Gaza
By Peter Muller, Electronic Intifada 10/9/2005
Bethlehem – “At least give us enough bullets to protect people and protect our stations,” exclaimed a Palestinian police officer after he stormed the parliament building in Gaza City on the afternoon of October 3rd. He was one of approximately 40 officers from the Shati refugee camp who raided the in-session parliament to protest the Palestinian Authority’s reaction to fierce clashes between PA forces and Hamas militants in Gaza City on the night of October 2nd. One policeman and two bystanders were killed and 43 others were wounding in six hours of intense street fighting throughout the city.
It appears that the clashes erupted when four Hamas militants opened fire on Palestinian police who attempted to confiscate their weapons. The skirmish quickly escalated with armed members of the Fatah movement joining the police and Hamas sympathizers rushing to bolster the opposing front. Before the fighting subsided, police stations in the Sheikh Redwan and Shati neighborhoods had come under intense rocket-propelled grenade and automatic weapons fire by Hamas operatives.
usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/21143
Regarding the Presbyterian Divestment Process
By Assaf Oron, Media Monitors Network 10/10/2005
[Based on a talk in a panel at Seattle Wedgwood Presbyterian, given September 17, 2005]
Thanks for inviting me here. Just to make sure my looks and style don’t mislead you: I’m 39 years old, going on 40 soon. My mini-talk will have 3 parts.
Before starting I’d like to join my panel colleague Rabbi Laytner in urging the church to consider “selective investment” in Israel/Palestine besides divestment. I’ve been involved in grassroots joint collaboration efforts between Israelis and West Bank Palestinians. In fact, your invitation to me here was accompanied (per my request) with a donation to one of these efforts (via www.cirr.org). So in a modest way, you have already started this “selective investment”. However, in contrast to Rabbi Laytner, I do not rule out divestment. My personal opinion on divestment is not so relevant (as will be explained below); but I do think this type of steps should be considered by international civil society in order to end the Occupation regime.
I tried to find out on the web what all this is about, and boy are you guys in over your head. Seems like the entire American Jewish community is up in arms against you.
You’re being called Anti-Semites, idiots, and everything in between. Your leadership is labeled as a bunch of out-of-touch radicals, as opposed to the common-sense rank and file members. In short, you’re on the right track. Welcome to the club.
|