english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A69E0F32-E58F-4203-A521-788DCB78B09C.htm
Israeli checkpoint bombing kills four
AlJazeera 12/29/2005
A bomber has blown himself up at a military checkpoint in the northern West Bank, killing an Israeli army officer and two Palestinian bystanders. An Israeli army spokesman said three other Israeli soldiers were wounded, one seriously, in the attackon Thursday at the checkpoint near Tulkarem which had been set up to prevent the bomber from crossing into Israel and causing much greater carnage. “We know that in addition to the soldier and bomber, two Palestinian civilians were also killed,” the spokesman said. The Palestinian victims were the driver of the taxi that the bomber had been travelling in and another passenger.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=663447
Deputy PM Olmert: No limitations in Sharon’s war on Qassams
Ha’aretz 12/29/2005
Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, dismissing contentions that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s hands were tied in fighting Qassam rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, said Thursday that there were no limits to Sharon’s freedom of action, and that the disengagement had increased the military’s flexibility of response. The Israel Defense Forces shelled six Qassam rocket launch sites in the northern Gaza Strip before dawn Thursday morning, hours after senior military sources told Haaretz that despite the beefed-up Israeli response, the Qassam rocket fire is unlikely to stop.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=663557
Quartet: Hamas should not be part of new Palestinian Cabinet
Ha’aretz 12/29/2005
The four international supporters of the Middle East peace process said Wednesday that the next Palestinian Cabinet should not include members of Hamas or other militant groups committed to violence. The statement by the so-called quartet did not name Hamas, but said a future Palestinian Cabinet “should include no member who has not committed to the principles of Israel’s right to exist in peace and security and an unequivocal end to violence and terrorism. “
www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1675137,00.html
Frantic search for aid worker and parents as gang fails to make contact
The Guardian 12/30/2005
Relatives voice concerns over safety of missing trio · Growing anarchy in area after Israeli withdrawal — Palestinian investigators and British consular officials were last night urgently trying to make contact with the Palestinian group who abducted a British aid worker and her parents in the Gaza Strip, more than 24 hours after they disappeared. Unlike previous kidnappings of westerners in Gaza, usually resolved within hours, the kidnappers made no contact with the authorities to make demands or arrange for the release of Kate Burton, 25, and her parents Hugh and Helen.
www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=9247&CategoryId=5
Israeli Settlers Start Wave of West Bank Outposts
MIFTAH 12/28/2005
Efrat, West Bank – Jewish settlers set up 13 makeshift outposts in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday in a show of strength ahead of Israeli elections that could swing on the growing debate over the territory. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has vowed to keep major West Bank settlements but has said that some isolated communities may one day have to be dismantled as a way of ending decades of conflict with the Palestinians.
english.wafa.ps/body.asp?id=5028
Mock Air Raids on Gaza Continued, 2 Citizens Arrested in WB
WAFA 12/29/2005
GAZA, December 29, 2005 (WAFA)- Israeli F 16 jet- fighters resumed night mock air raids on the Gaza Strip, causing global damages to windows and shops as well as spreading a state of panic and fear among children and women.. Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes and artilleries continued, for the third running day their “Blue Skies” wide scale attack at the North of the Gaza Strip. Two missiles were dropped near Palestinian security police, west of Beit Lahiya town and a third missile on Al-Berak area opposite to Balsam hospital.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3191624,00.html
Sheikh: J’lem land was Muslim grave
YNetNews 12/28/2005
Sheikh Raed Salah says land for Museum of Tolerance is site of ancient Muslim cemetery: ‘You are committing a historic and religious crime against all human values of major religions’ — A Muslim Israeli-Arab leader on Wednesday lashed out at Israel plans to build the Museum of Tolerance on what he claims are the ruins of Muslim graves in Jerusalem. Sheikh Raed Salah, the head of the Islamic Movement held a joint press conference with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Akrama Sabri, Wednesday evening.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3191593,00.html
Court halts fence building near Arab village
YNetNews 12/28/2005
Following petition filed by Azaria residents, who claimed village will be imprisoned by separation fence, court issues interim order partially halting construction works — The High Court of Justice on Wednesday issued an interim order partially halting the building of the separation fence in the area between Jerusalem and the town of Maale Adumim. The order was issued following a petition filed by the Azaria Village Council, in which residents claimed that the fence will encirclethe Arab village from three sides and will thus imprison its residents and prevent the village from developing in the future.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3192166,00.html
J’lem: Israeli stabbed, moderately injured
YNetNews 12/29/2005
Initial investigation reveals man was stabbed by Palestinian while waiting at bus stop; stabber flees scene; large police forces launch search — A Palestinian stabbed an Israeli at the Atarot industrial zone, near Jerusalem. The Israeli sustained moderate injuries to the neck in the stabbing, which police believe was a terror attack. According to the initial investigation, the Palestinian lunged at the Israeli as he was waiting at a bus stop.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=663581
Fatah files united list just minutes before PLC deadline
By Amira Hass, Ha’aretz 12/29/2005
Some 20 minutes before the cut-off time yesterday for registering candidates in the upcoming elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council (the parliament), Fatah representatives submitted their united list to the offices of the Palestinian Central Elections Commission. The list has yet to be officially published, and the matter has become a cause of concern among members of the party’s new guard faction. A senior domestic-Fatah activist who is included on the list told Haaretz that he feared the crisis in the movement had yet to pass, because it was not clear how people would react on publication of the list in full.
www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/DPAS-6KHD
NJ?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR
Gaza electoral offices open, gunmen end siege
ReliefWeb 12/28/2005
GAZA CITY, Dec 28 (AFP) – All electoral offices were re-opened Wednesday for candidates to register for next month’s Palestinian parliamentary polls after gunmen ended sieges across the Gaza Strip, an official said. “We have reopened all the offices,” said a senior source in the central electoral commission (CEC), adding that the ruling Fatah party was expected to submit a revised list of candidates for the January election shortly. “Gunmen have ended all sieges. There were clashes in Gaza city that left one policeman wounded. He is being treated in hospital,” said the CEC source.
www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=12685
PPS Reveals Israel’s Gross Maltreatment of Prisoners
International Press Center 12/28/2005
GAZA, December 28, 2005 (IPC + Agencies) – – The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) said that the Prisoners health conditions in the Israeli jails have deteriorated because the Israeli Prisons Administration deprived prisoners form medical services. PPS said that Israeli services in the jails of al-Negev, Ofra and Beer Sheba don’t provide the prisoners with enough blankets, clothes and heating stuff. PPS added that the Prisons Administration follows medical ignorance policy which raised the number of the serious health conditions of various diseases.
electronicintifada.net/v2/article4368.shtml
Al Mezan calls for immediate relase of kidnapped worker and family in Gaza
Electronic Intifada/Al Mezan 12/29/2005
www.%20mezan.%20org/
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights expresses its great concern upon kidnapping of Kate Burton and her parents and calls upon the PNA to exert efforts to secure their release. One day has passed since Kate Burton was kidnapped and at the time the PNA [Palestinian National Authority] is still unable to identify the place of kidnappers. Kate Burton is British of 24 years old; she has been working as International Coordinator at www.%20mezan.%20org/
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights for the last three months.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=663903
PA fears large scale IDF response to suicide attack
Ha’aretz 12/30/2005
Security sources reported the Palestinian Authority fears a large scale Israel Defense Forces retaliation in Tul Karm following Thursday’s suicide attack in which an IDF officer and two Palestinians were killed. The sources said the PA and its Fatah party closed its offices in Tul Karm early ahead of a possible IDF response. Palestinian police officers that were uniformed before the attack reportedly changed to civilian clothes. The three victims were killed Thursday morning when a suicide bomber blew himself up at an IDF checkpoint set up in the West Bank in response to warnings of an impending terrorist attack.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=664080
Mofaz orders police, IDF, Shin Bet probe of felled olive trees
Ha’aretz 12/30/2005
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz on Thursday called for the establishment of a panel to investigate the felling of olive trees owned by Palestinians in the West Bank. The team will be comprised of officials from the police, Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security service. The announcement comes in the wake of several incidents over the past month in which more than a thousand olive trees were cut down, mainly from areas near Jewish settlements adjacent to the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=664126
Suicide bomber was planning attack at kids’ Hanukkah party
Ha’aretz 12/30/2005
The suicide bomber who killed an Israel Defense Forces officer and two Palestinians at an army checkpoint near Tul Karm yesterday was apparently planning to blow himself up at one of the many children’s events taking place in Tel Aviv during this week’s Hanukkah holiday, army sources said. Had the bomber not been stopped at the checkpoint, the attack would have been far more deadly, said the sources. Three soldiers and seven Palestinians were wounded in the bombing.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=663447
IDF shells northern Gaza as it imposes buffer zone
Ha’aretz 12/29/2005
The Israel Defense Forces shelled two Qassam rocket launch sites in the northern Gaza Srip before dawn Thursday morning, hours after senior military sources told Haaretz on Wednesday night that despite the beefed-up Israeli response, the Qassam rocket fire is unlikely to stop. According to the sources, until now, the defense establishment has had trouble when it comes to deterring Islamic Jihad, which is responsible for most of the rocket fire. Unlike Hamas, the sources said, Islamic Jihad is not in the habit of considering the consequences of its actions on the lives of the Palestinian population.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3191598,00.html
Video: IDF bombards northern Gaza
YNetNews 12/29/2005
Air Force hits six northern Gaza access roads leading to Qassam rocket launching sites overnight; earlier, army launches operation ‘Blue Skies’, bombards targets in newly established buffer zone — (VIDEO) Operation “Blue Skies” underway: The Air Force struck at six northern Gaza access roads leading to Qassam rocket launching sites early Thursday. Army officials said the raids were meant to hamper ongoing rocket attacks on Israeli targets.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=664051
Gunmen fire at Abbas’ Gaza home as PA policeman is killed
Ha’aretz 12/29/2005
GAZA – Gunmen fired at the Gaza house of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday. Palestinian police later said that the shooting was not the result of fighting and that the gunfire had died down. A Palestinian official said Abbas was in Jordan. Police said shooting erupted near Abbas’s home during the funeral for a policeman who was killed in clashes earlier on Thursday. The police officer and a civilian were killed during a shootout that erupted between two rival families.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3192172,00.html
Al Qaeda claims missile attack on Israel
YNetNews 12/29/2005
Al Qaeda in Iraq says in Islamic website statement it had launched missiles at Israel from Lebanon. ‘The lion sons of al Qaeda launched… A new attack on the Jewish state by launching 10 missiles… From the Muslims’ lands in Lebanon on selected targets in the north of the Jewish state,’ statement says — Al Qaeda in Iraq said it had launched missiles at Israel from Lebanon as part of a “new attack” on the Jewish state, a statement posted on the Web said on Thursday.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=664070
Iraq al Qaeda claims Tuesday’s missile attack on northern Israel
Ha’aretz 12/29/2005
Sources in the Israel Defense Forces said it was difficult to determine the announcement’s reliability. — Al Qaeda in Iraq said it had launched missiles at Israel from Lebanon as part of a “new attack” on the Jewish state, a statement posted on the Web said on Thursday. “The lion sons of al Qaeda launched… a new attack on the Jewish state by launching 10 missiles… from the Muslims’ lands in Lebanon on selected targets in the north of the Jewish state,” said the statement, attributed to al Qaeda and posted on an Islamist Web site. It did not give the date of the attack.
www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15765&Itemid=1
Army seals the southern entrance of Jenin
International Middle East Media Center 12/29/2005
The Israeli army sealed, on Thursday, the southern entrance of the West Bank city of Jenin, and installed four military checkpoints at Jenin-Nablus road and Arraba road junction, south of Jenin, local sources reported. Troops installed several checkpoints in Jinat area and Al Shouhada’ area, south of the city, and barred the residents and vehicles from crossing. Also several military armored vehicles closed the entrance of Borqeen village, near Jenin, and stopped dozens of residents. [end]
www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15763&Itemid=1
Army invades Jenin
International Middle East Media Center 12/29/2005
The Israeli army invaded, on Thursday, the West Bank city of Jenin, local sources reported. Troops entered the city backed up by several military armored vehicles, and closed the road between the city and the West Bank city of Nablus. Also, soldiers searched several vehicles, which led to a traffic jam, the source added. No arrests were reported. [end]
www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15745&Itemid=1
Three residents, including a child, injured in Beit Lahia, Jabalia
International Middle East Media Center 12/29/2005
An Israeli helicopter fired a missile, on Wednesday evening, at a group of residents in Beit Lahia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, one resident was injured. One child and two residents were also injured in a previous shelling carried out by the army Beit Lahia and the Jabalia refugee camp. The Palestinian News Agency, WAFA, reported that a military helicopter fired at least one missile at residents near Al Shaima’ school, in Beit Lahia, injuring one resident. The injured resident was transferred to Kamal Adwan Hospital, in Beit Lahia. In a Separate incident, one child was moderately injured when a military apache fired a missile at an area in Beit Lahia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=12699
PNIC: Five Killed, 32 Wounded and 98 Arrested by 46th Week of Ceasefire
International Press Center 12/29/2005
GAZA, Palestine, December 29, 2005 (IPC) – – A report prepared by the State Information Service (SIS) revealed that Israeli forces have killed five Palestinians among were one extra-judicially assassinated and wounded 32 others as well as committing 746 violations of the ceasefire declared on 8 February after Sharm Al Sheikh summit. The report, released by the SIS’ Palestinian National Information Center (PNIC) asserted that between December 20 and December 26, 2005 Israeli forces shot 5 Palestinians dead, injured 32, arrested 98 others, and carried out many violations varying between house shelling, raids, incursions, land bulldozing and curbing of free movement. PNIC showed that Israeli forces committed 87 shooting incidents and 32 arrest campaigns in which 98 residents were arrested during 55 raids, as well as establishing 121 mobile roadblocks and closing roads and military checkpoints 244 times.
www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15762&Itemid=1
Army arrests two in Hebron
International Middle East Media Center 12/29/2005
Israeli soldiers arrested two residents from the West Bank city of Hebron; one of the residents is from Al Fawwar refugee camp, in Hebron, while the other is from Al Thahiriyya village south of the city, local sources reported on Thursday. Troops stationed at a military checkpoint near Doura village arrested on late Wednesday night Ayyoub Abu Awad, 30, from Al Fawwar refugee camp in the city.
english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D344FA16-8F08-4DE4-B21D-A8846D28CE89.htm
Israel bombards Gaza buffer zone
AlJazeera 12/28/2005
The Israeli army bombarded an uninhabited area of the northern Gaza Strip with artillery as a deadline expired for Palestinians to leave a new security zone, witnesses and the army said. An army spokeswoman confirmed that troops on Wednesday had opened fire in open fields in the so-called “no-go zone” after a missile was fired from the area shortly before the 1600 GMT deadline came into effect. “It’s in direct response to that,” said the spokeswoman, describing the artillery fire as “slightly larger scale” than previous bouts of firing.
www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=15331
Israel air raids target Palestinians in Lebanon, Gaza
Middle East Online 12/28/2005
Israeli warplanes on Wednesday bombed Palestinian militant targets near Beirut and in the Gaza Strip in response to a series of rocket attacks in the north and south of the Jewish state. At least two members of the PFLP-GC, a radical pro-Syrian faction headed by the veteran Ahmed Jibril, were wounded in the air strikes to the south of the Lebanese capital although there were no reported casualties in Gaza. Both were injured in a missile strike “which blew a hole in a concrete armoured protection wall in Noueyma,” south of Beirut, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command spokesman Anur Raja said.
www.palestinemonitor.org/nueva_web/updates_news/updates/outposts_for_hanukkah.htm
New outposts for Hanukkah holidays
Palestine Monitor 12/28/2005
Israeli army radio broadcast today that the Israeli right-wing activist group called ‘Teens of the Hill’ set up 8 new outposts in West Bank and intends to build a total of 25 by the end of the Hanukkah holidays on 2 January 2006. According to the Israeli publication Yediot Ahronot, these settlers want to set themselves up near existing settlements to help their expansion. The newspaper said the group vow to put up a better fight than that in Gush Katif, and quoted one of the activists as saying “If Sharon wants withdrawal from the West Bank, he should remove the Palestinians, not the Israelis. “
www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15739&Itemid=1
Palestinian resistance shells a military post east of Beit Hanoun
International Middle East Media Center 12/28/2005
Palestinian resistance fired, on Wednesday, three RBJ shells at a military post east of Beit Hanoun area in the Gaza strip. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of Fateh, clamed responsibility for the attack in a press release that was circulated in the strip. The brigades also stated in the press release that its activists shelled the army post with two RBJ shells hitting an armored personal carrier and third one at military jeep. No injures but damage to the post were reported. [end]
www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15737&Itemid=1
Army invades Ertas village near Bethlehem
International Middle East Media Center 12/28/2005
Israeli Army units with invaded the village of Ertas south of the West Bank city of Bethlehem. Troops broke into several homes in the village and searched them. Among the owner of the attacked homes, the following names were reported; Maher Jaber, Mahmoud Shahin, Jamal Ayish, Jameel Ayish, Ahmad Rabaiah Mohamed Jaber and Mahmoud Shahin, no arrests were made or damage to the houses, local sources reported.
www.palestine-pmc.com/pdf/24-12-05a.pdf
PMG Special Report: Israeli and Palestinian Attacks in the Gaza Strip, 12 – 19 December 2005 (PDF)
Palestine Media Center 12/21/2005
Between 08:00 12 December and 08:00 19 December, the Israeli military carried out 96 separate airand ground attacks against Palestinian targets in the Gaza Strip, including firing 45 missiles from F16combat aircraft, 5 missiles from UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), over 95 tank shells, and opening firewith live ammunition on 25 separate occasions. 1 The majority of these attacks occurred in the NorthernGaza Governorate. 2 During the same period, Palestinian individuals carried out a total of 24 attacksagainst Israeli targets, including firing 31 unidentified mortars towards the Green Line.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=663890
PA forces step up search for three Britons abducted in Gaza
Ha’aretz 12/29/2005
Palestinian security forces set up roadblocks throughout the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday as they stepped up a search for three British citizens abducted by Palestinian gunmen, the latest in a wave of kidnappings of foreigners in the chaotic area. Kate Burton, a 25-year-old worker at the Palestinian rights group Al Mezan, was showing her visiting parents around the chaotic southern border town of Rafah when they were kidnapped by gunmen on Wednesday afternoon. Around seven kidnappers, armed with automatic rifles, intercepted a car the three Britons were traveling in, pulled them out and pushed them into a white vehicle that sped away.
www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1674775,00.html
Three Britons kidnapped in Gaza amid poll tensions
The Guardian 12/29/2005
Tense negotiations were under way last night to try to secure the release of a British human rights worker and her parents, who were abducted in the Gaza Strip. The 25-year-old woman, identified as Kate Burton, was showing her parents around the town of Rafah near the Egyptian border when they were bundled into a car and driven off. Foreigners have frequently been kidnapped in Gaza, but they have never been harmed or held for more than a couple of hours. Police sources said officials were in touch with the kidnappers in the hope of securing an early release.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=663578
It’s a Katyusha that doesn’t make a lot of noise – but hits hard
Ha’aretz 12/29/2005
… Ella and David Goldfeld walk among the ruins of their kitchen and living room, still amazed that they have survived without a scratch. In the stairwell, the neighbors are analyzing the performance of the Katyusha. “It’s quieter but more destructive than the old kind,” says one man authoritatively. “Notice the small entry hole in the roof. It’s a Katyusha that doesn’t make a lot of noise but causes more damage,” another adds… “The major general doesn’t give answers,” adds Yossi Hamo. “What could he say to my wife this morning? She’s afraid to leave the house. “
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=663587
Analysis / Collision course in the north
By Amos Harel, Ha’aretz 12/29/2005
Iran’s potential to create a nuclear bomb and Palestinian Qassams top the political agenda, and too little time is being spent on another threat. Under certain circumstances it might have greater impact on the elections in Israel: Katyusha rockets coming from Lebanon. The bombardment of Kiryat Shmona and Shlomi on Tuesday are worrying reminders. The launchers were assumed to be Palestinian (and the Israel Air Force retaliated by attacking a base of Ahmed Jibril’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) but there is almost no doubt that the real perpetrator was Hezbollah.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3191985,00.html
Army chief: Iran strike not in cards
YNetNews 12/29/2005
Israel is not facing an imminent Iranian threat, IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz said Thursday, but added that circumstances would change should the Islamic republic obtains a nuclear bomb. “Israel does not currently face an existential threat. Until Iran has nuclear weapons, this term is irrelevant,” Halutz said in interview with Army Radio Thursday. On the practical level, “the IDF is professionally prepared to utilize its maximum capabilities,” the chief of staff said, “but I do notbelieve the IDF will need to operate against Iran in the near future. “
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3191909,00.html
IDF: Hizbullah uses Russian rockets
YNetNews 12/29/2005
Intelligence chief slams Russia, says weapons sold to Syria end up in terrorists’ hands — Oh, those Russians: Hizbullah has been using Russian-made RPG rockets purchased by Syria to target Israel, outgoing IDF Intelligence Chief Aharon Zeevi-Farkash charged in a special interview with Israel’s leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. In his farewell interview, Farkash chose to blast the Russians for their contribution to the war waged by Hizbullah terrorists against Israel.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3191710,00.html
Lebanon condemns rocket attack on Israel
YNetNews 12/29/2005
Prime Minister Fuad Saniora slams katyusha barrage fired into northern Israel, while U. N. envoy urges Lebanese government to assert control over tense border region to prevent future attacks on Israel — Lebanon’s prime minister on Wednesday condemned a rocket barrage fired a day earlier into northern Israel, while a U. N. envoy urged the Lebanese government to assert control over the tense border region to prevent future attacks on the Jewish state.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=664099
Arab MK: Israel, U.S. are spiders creating Syrian-Lebanese crisis
Ha’aretz 12/29/2005
“It is in the clear interests of the big spider, the United States, and the little spider, Israel, to create a crisis between Syria and Lebanon,” said MK Mohammed Barakeh (Hadash-Ta’al) in Nazareth on Thursday. Barakeh spoke in a pro-Syrian rally before an audience of 500 residents of Arab and Druze villages in the Golan Heights, as well as Arab MKs and public officials. The participants from the Golan Heights entered the conference hall singing Syrian songs and waving Syrian and Palestinian flags and pictures of former Syrian president Hafez Assad.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3192263,00.html
Arab MK: Syria will hasten Palestinian J’lem
YNetNews 12/30/2005
Arab Knesset Member Mohammad Barakeh (Hadash-Ta’al) expressed his support of Syria on Thursday, claiming that “a strong and resistant Syria will bring closer the day in which Jerusalem will become Palestine’s capital. “ Barakeh, who spoke during a rally of solidarity with Syria in Nazareth, added that “we can clearly see the cobwebs of the big spider, the United States, as well as the cobwebs of the small spider, Israel, who are trying to drive a wedge between Syria and Lebanon in order to devour Syria after what happened in Iraq. “
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=664018
Greek patriarch skips Katsav’s Xmas bash in church feud
Ha’aretz 12/29/2005
JERUSALEM -The new Greek patriarch of the Holy Land stayed away from the annual Christmas gathering at President Moshe Katsav’s residence Thursday because the church’s ousted former patriarch also was invited, a spokesman said. “The church cannot have two patriarchs,” said the Greek Orthodox church secretary, Archbishop Aristarchos. The current patriarch, Theofilos III, replaced Irineos I after he was ousted in May amid allegations of leasing church property in Jerusalem’s Old City to Jewish settler groups. Israel has not recognized Irineos’s removal or the church’s election of Theofilos.
www.palestine-pmc.com/details.asp?cat=1&id=1068
Quartet Dictates to PNA Conditions for Parliamentary Candidates
Palestine Media Center 12/29/2005
‘PNA Should Codify in Law Renunciation of Violence, Recognition of Israel’ — In a new blow to Palestinian national consensus as stipulated in the inter-Palestinian Cairo Declaration early this year, the Quartet of the US, UN, EU and Russia in a statement on Wednesday demanded the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) “take immediate steps” to ensure that “all participants” in the January 25 legislative elections “renounce violence, recognize Israel’s right to exist, and disarm,” and to move “expeditiously to codify” these principles in a law.
www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/HMYT-6KH
QYC?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR
Quartet statement on Palestinian Legislative Council elections
ReliefWeb/Middle East Quartet 12/29/2005
The Quartet welcomes the upcoming Palestinian Legislative Council elections as a positive step toward consolidation of Palestinian democracy and the goal of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Quartet calls on the Palestinian Authority and the Central Elections Commission to ensure a free, fair, and open process in accordance with Palestinian law. The Quartet noted the continued importance of security in this regard, and calls on the Palestinian Authority to take immediate steps to ensure law and order, prevent terrorist attacks and dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism…
english.wafa.ps/body.asp?id=5031
Dr. Ereikat Calls on Quartet to Ensure all Palestinians Participation in Elections
WAFA 12/29/2005
JERICHO, December 29, 2005 (WAFA) – Dr. Saeb Ereikat, Head of the PLO Negotiations Affairs Department, called Saturday on the US Administration and the other members of the Quartet to save no effort to enable all the Palestinians from participating in the forthcoming elections. Dr. Ereikat asserted, during his meeting in Jericho with Jacob Walles, the American Consul General in Jerusalem, that the palestinain security forces are able to enforce law and protect the electoral process in the Gaza Strip And the West Bank.
www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=15340
Sell-by date looms for shaky Palestinian truce
Middle East Online 12/28/2005
A shaky truce that has marked a huge drop in Israeli-Palestinian violence during 2005 appears unlikely to be renewed at the year-end with armed factions accusing Israel of doing nothing in return. Transgressed repeatedly by the most radical Palestinians and endangered frequently by Israeli military operations, the de facto ceasefire has nonetheless put the brakes on a deadly cycle of violence since September 2000.
www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/KHII-6KJ7
Z5?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR
Minister of State Lenihan announces emergency and recovery package of more than €12 million
ReliefWeb/Government of Ireland 12/29/2005
Conor Lenihan T. D. , Minister of State for Development Cooperation and Human Rights, today announced details of a humanitarian and recovery aid package of over €12. 8 million for Africa and the Middle East… €2. 75 million is being provided in assistance to Palestine, including €1. 5 million for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). This money will be used for the provision of basic services, and in the education and rural development sectors. The total assistance provided to Palestine this year will be over €4 million.
english.wafa.ps/body.asp?id=5032
President Abbas to Start Saturday Official Tour to Gulf States
WAFA 12/29/2005
RAMALLAH, December 29, 2005 (WAFA) – President Mahmoud Abbas to start Saturday an official tour to the Arab Gulf States. Spokesperson of Presidency Nabil Abu Rdeneh said President Abbas will to brief the leaders of Gulf states on the latest developments in the Palestinian Territories and the preparations for the upcoming legislative elections. Abu Rdeneh said that President Abbas will ask the Gulf States to support the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in reconstructing the Gaza Strip and Gaza Strip.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3191659,00.html
Kadima uncertain on depth of concessions
YNetNews 12/28/2005
Political chapter of party’s platform, officially approved Wednesday, does not define depth of withdrawal from PA territories; according to platform, Jerusalem will remain united, while new Palestinian state will be responsible for refugee problem — Ever since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon established his new party Kadima, the polls have predicted that it would gain a decisive victory in the elections. The party’s platform, however, remained unknown… The platform creates a precedent when determining that the expected Palestinian state (which is also part of the platform) will be responsible for the refugee problem.
www.palestine-pmc.com/details.asp?cat=1&id=1067
Sharon Wants to ‘Annex’ Settlements, Peretz to ‘Lease’ Them
Palestine Media Center 12/28/2005
HRW hrw.%20org/english/docs/2005/12/27/isrlpa12346.%20htm
Urges Bush to Use US Influence to Stop Israeli Colonization Drive — Kadima, Likud and Labor political parties are in consensus on “keeping” the Jewish colonies Israel built on Palestinian land it occupied in 1967, while the Israeli government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is diverting attention away from a settlement expansion drive in the West Bank to the action and reaction to the Palestinian primitive home-made rockets in the Gaza Strip that have so far done little or no harm to the Israelis.
www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=12690
Health and Interior Ministries Condemn Israeli Aerial Sound Raids over Gaza Strip
International Press Center 12/28/2005
GAZA, Palestine, December 28, 2005 (IPC) – – The Ministry of Interior and National Security condemned today the Israeli escalation over Gaza Strip; asserting that these acts will push the area to the circle of violence. The ministry said that the Israeli decision to enforce the no-go zone northern Gaza Strip would not serve the peace process. The ministry added that these Israeli violations against the Palestinian lands prove the continuation of the Israeli aggressive policy and considered this escalation as a breach to all international laws.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3191559,00.html
Wiesenthal Center slams Norway’s Israel boycott
YNetNews 12/28/2005
Center describes Norwegian Provincial Government of Sor-Trondelag resolution to boycott Israeli products as “an act of anti-Semitism in the spirit of Hitler’s ‘Don’t buy from Jews’ campaign of the 1930's; center’s director for international relations: ‘Boycott an embarrassment to Norwegian foreign policy’ — In a letter to Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, described the Norwegian Provincial Government of Sor-Trondelag resolution to boycott Israeli products as “an act of anti-Semitism in the spirit of Hitler’s ‘Don’t buy from Jews’ campaign of the 1930's. “
www.palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=122805115145
Fatah Reunites for Elections, Israeli Attacks Persist
Palestine Chronicle 12/29/2005
Mohammed Dahlan made the announcement at a news conference shortly before Abbas was expected to submit a new united list of candidates for the elections. — GAZA CITY – The Palestinian Authority and resistance factions have agreed to join forces for a successful legislative election next month as Israeli carried on Wednesday, December 28, with its air strikes on Gaza and further took them near the Lebanese capital Beirut. In a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday, December 27, Palestinian factions and the Palestinian Authority (PA) agreed to set up a steering committee chaired by the Palestinian leader to ensure a trouble-free and successful legislative elections due on January 25.
www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=9252&CategoryId=5
Sharon Party wants to Fix Borders of Israel
MIFTAH 12/28/2005
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s new centrist party is committed to setting the permanent borders of the state of Israel should it win a March election, a leaked copy of its manifesto said. “The supreme goal of the government led by Kadima is to maintain the existence of the State of Israel as a safe national home for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel,” the Maariv daily quotes the Kadima manifesto as saying. “The Kadima party views the promotion of the peace process with the Palestinians as a central goal… to lay the foundations to shape the permanent borders of the State of Israel and reach peace and quiet,” it continued.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=663552
Haaretz poll: Livnat, Naveh, Sa’ar favorite choices for Likud list
Ha’aretz 12/29/2005
Members of the Likud Central Committee who select the list of party candidates for the March Knesset elections want the top posts (after Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, whose no. 2 spot is guaranteed) to go to MKs Gideon Sa’ar, Danny Naveh, Limor Livnat, Uzi Landau and Gilad Erdan, in that order. The findings are from Tuesday’s Haaretz-Channel 10 Dialog poll, conducted by Professor Camil Fuchs among 406 committee members.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=663882
Shinui MK Poraz: All of our voters have moved to Kadima
Ha’aretz 12/29/2005
Responding to a Geocartographia survey released by Army Radio on Thursday, MK Avraham Poraz (Shinui) said that all of his party’s voters have shifted to Kadima. According to the poll, the secular-centrist Shinui party might fail gain enough votes to have any seats in the next Knesset. “It is very possible that Shinui will not clear” the threshold of two percent of the total vote required by law for a party to enter the parliament, said pollster Avi Dagani, who conducted the Geocartographia survey on Wednesday night.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=663563
Labor unveils campaign slogan: ‘Because the time has come’
Ha’aretz 12/29/2005
The Labor Party kicked off on Thursday its new temporary campaign aimed at stopping its slide in recent public opinion polls, and which will run under the slogan “Labor – Because the time has come. “With its new campaign, Labor is abandoning earlier plans for a campaign attacking Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in favor of one with a more positive flavor that will inspire party activists. The campaign, which will end with the January 17 party primaries, also seeks to boost Labor activists on the ground.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3191698,00.html
Meretz party gays: Labor light years behind
YNetNews 12/29/2005
Chairman of Meretz party’s gay forum says, ’Just recently I saw Peretz avoid direct questions on the homo-lesbian issue during a TV interview. Labor, despite the liberal platform it tries to present, is still light years behind’ — Labor Chairman Amir is a closed-minded man leading a closed-minded party that is disguised as a modern one, Aviv Neter, the chairman of the Meretz party’s gay forum said Wednesday. “Labor wanted to make cynical use of us to gain more votes,” Neter said. “It is an insult to our intelligence. “
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=663588
Police: Evidence backs obstruction of justice charges against MK Hazan
Ha’aretz 12/29/2005
Fraud squad investigators believe they have compiled enough evidence to charge Likud MK Yehiel Hazan with stealing old voting panels from the Knesset with the intention of obstructing justice in the double-voting trial currently underway against him. The fraud squad has passed on its findings to the Jerusalem office of the state prosecution, which will decide whether to file an additional indictment against the lawmaker.
stopthewall.org/latestnews/1072.shtml
Villages in South Hebron isolated between the Apartheid Wall and fortified Jewish-only road
StopTheWall.org 12/29/2005
This week, Occupation Forces have confiscated 53 dunums of land from the villages of Yatta, Dhahriya and Sammu to continue the isolation of these villages in the southern Hebron district. The aim of the Occupation in this area is to fortify the Jewish-only settlement road #60 with a wall on either side. This wall will begin in Suseya settlement, southeast of Yatta, and stretch to the settler road crossing at the Karmel settlement, 8 km to the northeast. The Jewish-only settlement road has already stolen parts of the villages’ lands and has obstructed connections between the villages isolated south of it and the rest of the Hebron districts.
stopthewall.org/worldwideactivism/1071.shtml
‘Don’t buy fruits of Occupation’
StopTheWall.org 12/29/2005
Activists remove Apartheid Israel goods from supermarket shelves — In Flanders, Belgium, the Flemish Palestine Solidarity Committee has stepped up its boycott campaign of Israeli goods. At the beginning of December, a coordinated action to remove Israeli goods from the shelves grabbed the attention of consumers and supermarket directors in some of the largest Flemish cities. Belgium is one of Israel’s biggest trading partners and a lot of Israeli goods are sold in its supermakets.
www.iwps-pal.org/en/articles/article.php?id=856
Legal Palestinian “Outpost” Removed
International Womens’ Peace Service 12/29/2005
December 22, 2005 – see www.%20palsolidarity.%20org/main/2
005/12/22/legal-palestinian-%e2%80%9coutpost
ISM pictures — Just after 7:15 PM on Thursday evening, 150 Israeli soldiers violently evacuated the Palestinian “outpost” established Wednesday by the village of Bil’in on the village’s land isolated west of Israel’s Annexation Wall, and detained a number of Palestinian and Israeli protesters. In marked contrast, only 100 meters away, the Israeli government has failed to take any action against large-scale, illegal Israeli settlement construction. In that location in the settlement of Matityahu East, Ha’aretz Daily has reported that Israeli settlers have built 750 new housing units illegally, with no permits whatsoever. Commenting on this situation, Israeli human rights attorney Michael Sfard said: “This is called apartheid. “
www.iwps-pal.org/en/articles/article.php?id=857
Demonstration Against the Illegal Wall in Rantis
International Womens’ Peace Service 12/29/2005
Today, December 22, At 14:00, a demonstration will take place in the village of Rantis on the West Bank. Villagers supported by Israeli and international activists will protest the devastating effects of the illegal Israeli apartheid wall, that has caused the main road leading to the village to be blocked for the last five years. The fence on the western side of the village is already built, and another part of the wall is planned on the eastern side. If the building of the wall is completed, there will be virtually no way in or out of the village.
www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15756&Itemid=1
Visitations barred in Galboa’, Shatta detention facilities
International Middle East Media Center 12/29/2005
Israeli Prison Authorities barred visitations of detainees imprisoned in Galboa’ and Shatta detention facilities, and informed the Red Cross of the decision without providing any further details. Families of dozens of detainees protested in Ginsafut village, near Jenin, after waiting for several hours, since early dawn on Thursday, before they were informed that the prison administration barred all visitations. The families appealed the Red Cross and Human Rights organizations to stop the Israeli procedures and violations against the rights of the detainees and their families.
www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15753&Itemid=1
Workshop on Media and Nonviolence in Bethlehem
International Middle East Media Center 12/29/2005
The International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC) in cooperation with Palestine News Network (PNN) held a workshop on Wednesday on the role of media in nonviolence in conflict areas. The workshop is part of the activities of the International Conference on Nonviolence organized by US-based Nonviolence International and the Holy Land Trust in Bethlehem. Several journalists and nonviolent activists from different parts of the world were present. The participants of the workshop pointed out that media people are interested in covering violent activities much more than nonviolent activities.
stopthewall.org/worldwideactivism/1069.shtml
Christmas Solidarity: Activists, Media and Churches Unite with Palestinian People and Boycott Apartheid Israel
StopTheWall.org 12/28/2005
Christmas celebrations around the world were this year used by solidarity activists to remind the public of the dramatic and ongoing ghettoization of Bethlehem and the rest of Palestine. Journalists wrote countless features describing the imprisonment of Palestinians in Bethlehem, and Church leaders used their Christmas sermons and services to call for justice for the Palestinian people and to urge international solidarity with those under Occupation and imprisoned behind the Apartheid Wall.
www.palestinemonitor.org/nueva_web/articles/eyewitness/bethlehem_not_israel.htm
‘No thanks, Bethlehem is not in Israel’
Palestine Monitor 12/26/2005
The message was nice enough; it was the location that was shocking. — On the night of the 24th December 2005, I made my way to Bethlehem to celebrate the night of Christmas for Catholics in the biblical town where Jesus was born. I passed the horrific Qalandia checkpoint – in fact it’s more than a checkpoint, a daily reminder of the occupation, control, humiliation and inequality imposed by Israelis on Palestinians – and made it to Occupied East Jerusalem. From there I took a bus to Bethlehem, stopping at another flying checkpoint, before reaching the concrete gates of Bethlehem: the new checkpoint marking the entrance to the city. As I approached the ID check, two women handed me a bag full of sweets and a card, “Thank-you for coming… Signed: Israel Ministry of Tourism”
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=663545
Iraq-born Israelis plan to visit, hope to approach home town
Ha’aretz 12/28/2005
A group of Israeli Jews who were born in Iraq are planning a springtrip to the Kurdish-controlled zone, an organizer said Wednesday, and they hope to at least approach Mosul, the city where many of them lived. Anti-Jewish violence that erupted with creation of Israel in 1948 put an end to centuries of relatively peaceful Jewish life in Iraq. Most Jews left for Israel, unable to even think about returning to visit until the U.S. -led assault toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=663536
32-year-old Ramle woman murdered in suspected honor killing
Ha’aretz 12/28/2005
Police are investigating a possible honor killing in Ramle, after a 32-year-old woman was found dead by her sister Wednesday afternoon, with her throat slashed. Honor killings involve the murder of a female family member for perceived sexual promiscuity. According to police reports, the dead woman’s sister initially thought that she was asleep, and only realized that she had had her throat cut when she tried to wake her up. The police have questioned the victim’s brothers, but currently have no suspects.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4566762.stm
Holocaust survivors ‘in poverty’
BBC 12/29/2005
A Holocaust survivor’s support group has said 40% of survivors in Israel are living below the poverty line, Israel Radio has reported. Most of the 170,000 people affected emigrated from the former Soviet bloc and now get little financial help. Zeev Factor, the chairman of the Holocaust Survivors’ Welfare Fund, says many survivors get no pensions and have to live off $390 a month. Israel officially sets the poverty line at an income of $400 a month.
www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/KHII-6KJ47H?OpenDocument
Middle East: Interview with Middle East water expert
ReliefWeb/IRIN 12/29/2005
DUBAI, 28 Dec 2005 (IRIN) – Water availability in the Middle East will continue to remain problematic and a potential source of conflict, according to water expert Dr Walid Saleh. Dr Saleh has worked with the United Nations University/International Network on Water, Environment and Health in Abu Dhabi since 1996. In excerpts from an interview with IRIN, he said while some efforts were ongoing to improve supplies, better water management was essential.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3191558,00.html
‘Israeli high-tech may not survive’
YNetNews 12/28/2005
Competition with Far East creates difficult structural problem, which can only be solved by reorganization, Discount Investment Corporation CEO says — The competition with the Far East creates a difficult structural problem for Israel’s high-tech industry, for which simple solutions cannot be found offhandedly, Discount Investment Corporation CEO Ami Erel said Wednesday… “We are competing with intelligent, diligent, disciplined and hungry people. In my opinion, the reason for the fact that the industrial exports in 2005 grew by 4. 5 percent only compared to a 17-percent growth in 2004 is the competition with the Far East,” Erel said.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=663867
Number of foreign workers deported in 2005 drops sharply
Ha’aretz 12/29/2005
Christian tourism increases — The number of foreign workers taken into custody by the immigration police and deported from Israel by the Interior Ministry has declined dramatically compared with 2004, according to an end-of-the-year report released by the Population Administration. In 2004, 18,669 foreign workers were deported. The figure was 6,526 in 2005. This year, the Interior Ministry was only able to deport 75 percent of the illegal workers served with deportation orders, as opposed to 87 percent last year.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3192213,00.html
Olmert: Reality proves Bibi was wrong
YNetNews 12/29/2005
Finance Minister launches new attack on predecessor, says Netanyahu thought if government is privatized poverty problem would solve itself — I plan on continuing to serve as finance minister for a long time, Finance Minister Ehud Olmert said Thursday during the annual meeting of the Manufacturers Associations of Israel. “In the next few months we will begin negotiations on new wage agreements with the Histadrut (labor federation), and I estimate that these agreements will bear fruit around April,” Olmert said.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3192206,00.html
Did they really say that?
YNetNews 12/29/2005
Politicians and celebrities babbled, contradicted themselves, overdid it and ended up looking daft this year. Ynet has collected some of the best, most outrageous expressions of the year. 2005 in review — “Peretz’s North African militias infiltrated the party and took over”:After Amir Peretz was elected to head the Labor party, Gigi Peres, brother of the deposed chairman, attacked both Peretz and “fascist” former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, saying, “It’s like crabs at sea that go into shells – you don’t know if it’s a snail or a crab. “ The next day, following harsh criticism, he repented – “I am truly sorry that it sounded like racism. I cannot be a racist; all my grandchildren are North Africans. I am quite shocked by my own remarks. “…
www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=15347
28 people killed in Iraq violence
Middle East Online 12/29/2005
BAGHDAD – Fourteen Iraqis, both men and women, were machine-gunned to death Thursday while travelling in a minibus south of Baghdad, local police said. The attack took place on a small road in Latifiyah, 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of the capital. Those killed were Shiites from nearby Mahmudiyah who reportedly left their home Thursday morning and whose bodies were found later in the day. There was no immediate indication as to who was responsible for the attack.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4568066.stm
Death threats cut Iraq oil flow
BBC 12/29/2005
Iraq’s largest oil refinery has been shut down following death threats to tanker drivers, jeopardising supplies of electricity across northern Iraq. The threats followed a steep rise in the price of petrol earlier this month, ordered by the government. The oil ministry said the shutdown at Baiji was costing $20m (£12m) a day. The ministry said it hoped the refinery, which has been out of action since the weekend, would be back up and running within days. “Efforts are being made to convince the drivers to return to work,” a spokesman said.
english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/DC0E1199-3CD3-479B-949D-C622431C6828.htm
New al-Hariri inquiry chief chosen
AlJazeera 12/29/2005
The UN secretary-general has nominated a Belgian prosecutor to lead the next stage of an investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri. Kofi Annan, the United Nations chief, picked Serge Brammertz, a deputy prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, to replace Detlev Mehlis, UN officials and diplomats said on Wednesday… Also on Wednesday, a newspaper reported that a pro-Syrian group that claimed responsibility for killing a Lebanese editor threatened to kill the next head of the al-Hariri inquiry.
english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/59E5C8ED-1D04-4A60-A30F-E051820854D6.htm
Al-Sharaa remark angers Hariri allies
AlJazeera 12/29/2005
A Lebanese cabinet minister has urged a UN commission to summon Syria’s foreign minister for comments in which he suggested that the slain Lebanese statesman Rafiq al-Hariri had lied about being threatened by the Syrian president. Marwan Hamadeh, Lebanon’s telecommunications minister, also said on Thursday that Farouk al-Sharaa, the Syrian official, should stand trial, accusing him of misleading the commission that is investigating al-Hariri’s assassination. At a press conference on Wednesday, al-Sharaa had suggested al-Hariri lied to Lebanese politicians when he told them he was threatened by Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, at a meeting on 26 August 2004.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=663559
Report: Tueni’s killers threaten incoming Hariri probe chief
Ha’aretz 12/29/2005
A pro-Syrian group that claimed it killed a Lebanese editor has threatened to kill the next head of the UN commission investigating the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the editor’s newspaper reported. Syria, meanwhile, promised Wednesday to fully cooperate with the new UN investigator, but repeated its demands for an agreement with the UN commission defining the terms of its cooperation. Al-Nahar newspaper reported Wednesday that it had received a statement signed by “The Strugglers for the Unity and Freedom in al-Sham,” the group that claimed responsibility for the death of the paper’s general manager Gibran Tueni with a car bomb on December 12.
www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=15330
Bloodshed in attempted breakout from Iraq prison
Middle East Online 12/28/2005
BAGHDAD – Nine Iraqis died in a failed jailbreak after storming the armory at a high-security prison Wednesday as the country’s dominant Shiites and Kurds tried to reach a deal on forming the next government. Sixteen detainees, held at the facility next to an Iraqi army base in north Baghdad, stormed the prison armory and seized a number of weapons, according to a US military statement. Four Iraqi prison guards, one interpreter and four prisoners were killed in the ensuing firefight, while one US soldier and five prisoners were wounded, the US military added.
english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E823151E-5DFD-4708-9786-1D028C2E73C2.htm
Talks begin on Arab League reform
AlJazeera 12/29/2005
Foreign ministers and diplomats from 21 Arab countries and the Palestinian Authority have met in Cairo to begin talks on reforming the 60-year-old Arab League and rewriting its charter. Opening the talks on Thursday, Abdul-Ilah al-Khatib, Jordan’s foreign minister, urged colleagues to improve decision-making process in the League, which has long been seen as ineffective. The league’s rules state that decisions should be taken by consensus, and many member states want that to be changed.
english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/23F2C01B-F7E6-4D4C-BC0F-F0BD15A7C1BF.htm
Iran, Russia to hold nuclear talks
AlJazeera 12/29/2005
Top Iranian and Russian officials have agreed to hold talks on a Russian proposal aimed a resolving Tehran’s nuclear standoff with the West, Reuters reports quoting an Iranian diplomat close to the talks. The proposal, which is backed by Washington and the European Union, involves the creation of a joint Iranian-Russian company to enrich uranium in Russia. The plan has been put forward by Moscow in a bid to allay international concerns that Iran could manufacture highly enriched uranium on its own soil to build atomic weapons.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4567940.stm
Row deepens over Danish cartoons
BBC 12/29/2005
Arab foreign ministers have condemned the Danish government for failing to act against a newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. At the Arab League conference in Cairo, they said they were “surprised and discontented at the response”. Islam forbids any depiction of Muhammad or of Allah. The Jyllands-Posten newspaper published a series of 12 cartoons showing Muhammad, in one of which he appeared to have a bomb in his turban. The Arab League’s ministers council said the cartoons were an insult to Islam.
Articles
stopthewall.org/photos/1070.shtml
The struggle against the Wall in the eyes of Palestinian children
StopTheWall.org 12/29/2005
[Includes many drawings and writings about the Wall by Palestinian children ]
The images and words below show the beliefs and experiences of Palestinian children facing the Apartheid Wall and Israeli Occupation. The statements of the children of Nazlet Issa, who have created the drawings and given their testimonies, are one of the most genuine expressions of our people’s suffering and determination to obtain liberation. It shows how deeply our souls are rooted in this land and in the struggle for freedom and justice.
Nazlat Issa is located in the North of the West Bank next to the Green Line.
The village has been divided since 1948, but the communities kept alive the ties within the village until today. In an attempt to disrupt this unity among Palestinians on both sides of the Armistice Line, the Wall has been built right down the middle of the village, separating families and neighbors, shopkeepers and customers from their markets, people from their work, and children from their schools. 216 shops and houses have been demolished close to where the Wall has been built. 600 out of the previously existing 1,200 shops had to close.
The devastating effects of these actions are felt everywhere. The village’s children have been deprived of their childhood and their lives have changed forever.
www.palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=122805235311
Little Town of Bethlehem
By Phyllis Bennis, Palestine Chronicle 12/29/2005
On the eve of Christmas the Palestinian city is walled off, hemmed in, and virtually empty of tourists or visitors. Manger Square is barren, the few sad-looking Christmas stalls unfinished, souvenir shops bare of customers. The ancient road linking Bethlehem to Jerusalem, which is only two or three miles away, is blocked by Israel’s so-called Separation Wall, whose 24-foot high concrete slabs virtually encircle the city.
The once-cosmopolitan and relatively wealthy people of Bethlehem are now isolated, increasingly impoverished, and imprisoned within a land area of only a few square kilometers. Many are leaving.
Media excitement is focusing on political changes inside Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Elections loom in both. In Israel, Ariel Sharon’s abandonment of the right-wing Likud and his new “centrist” party caused shockwaves. The selection of a new trade union-based leader of the Labor Party raised hopes of potential changes. In the occupied territories, Hamas’ decision to join the election process, challenges within the mainstream Fatah movement, and new independent slates of candidates, all raise interesting possibilities.
Some of these changes may bode well for some indeterminate time in the future. But for now, for ordinary Palestinians, life is getting harder.
www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=9249&CategoryId=5
Transformation of the Palestinian Political Culture
By Ziad Asali, MIFTAH 12/28/2005
The political culture in Palestine, and in the rest of the Arab world, was defined and shaped in the 20th century by the unifying principle of Arab nationalism, which was anti-Western, anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist.
Palestinian culture was Islamic without being very religious, adhering mostly to pragmatic and secular principles.
By mid-century, Palestinian and Arab political culture, which in essence was anti-Western, also became clearly anti-Zionist and anti-Arab regimes. These attributes defined the three pillars of patriotism (al wataniyyah).
These pillars, with a heavy dose of anti-capitalism and a quest for national unity, have defined the parameters of political correctness in the Arab world for decades. This political culture holds as true today as it did half a century ago.
The crushing military defeat of 1967 at the hands of Israel, the fall of the Soviet Union and the emergence of political Islam, have virtually decimated Arab nationalism but have made little change in the political culture that identified the West and its surrogates as its principal adversaries.
www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=9244&CategoryId=11
Good Old Gaza
Editorial, MIFTAH 12/27/2005
It can never be enough to merely highlight the events taking place in the recently liberated Palestinian Territory of Gaza. Gaza was freed of its illegal settlers and military installations only three months ago on August 15. Sadly however, since the eviction of settlers and army installations the situation in Gaza has not improved, nor does it seem to be heading in the right direction. Yesterday, following an incident where Qaasam rockets were fired into southern Israel the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, along with his Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz, proposed a plan to establish an Israeli controlled buffer zone that Palestinians will be barred from entering. Since the Qassam incident, which injured nobody, the Israeli army has launched multiple air assaults that are ongoing to this very minute.
According to Israeli Ministerial sources, “The defence minister has ordered the army to apply from Monday evening a decision taken last Thursday setting up a limitation on Palestinians circulating in the northern Gaza Strip.” This potentially means (and Israel has set many precedents) that any Palestinian straying into the no-man’s zone, the extent of which will be determined by Israel, could be shot by troops from across the border.
stopthewall.org/maps/1068.shtml
Judaizing Jerusalem – the Ethnic Cleansing of the Palestinian Capital
StopTheWall.org 12/27/2005
[Includes excellent map of the rtoute of the wall in and around Jerusalem] The Apartheid Wall is almost completed in Jerusalem, snaking around Palestinian communities and shutting them out of the city. Settlements expand and new colonies emerge on the Palestinian lands left isolated behind the Wall. A railway project seeks to integrate the illegal settlements into the city.
In the Palestinian capital – like the rest of Palestine – life and existence is suffocated into ever-smaller ghettos and expulsion an imminent threat.
For over a thousand years the city has been a hub of cultural, religious and social activity. It reflected a diversity of cultures, a rich ethnic diversity.
However, enormous changes since 1948 threaten not only to destroy the unique fabric of the city, but the rights of the Palestinian people to reside in their capital. Jerusalem has always been a central demand of Zionist ideology and leaders who wished to see it cleansed of Palestinians for Jewish settlers.
That demand is now becoming a reality.
The Judaization of Jerusalem since 1948: Destruction in the Old City directly after the 1948 saw the demolition of the Maghariba Quarter containing 125 houses for a plaza for the Western Wall. Meanwhile, West Jerusalem was cleansed of its Palestinian residents in the first half of 1948. Its Judaization was secured by the forced expulsion of approximately 80,000 Palestinians from their homes and properties.
www.palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=12290505114
East Jerusalem, Ethnic Encroachment and Exclusion
By Ishtiaq Ahmed, Palestine Chronicle 12/29/2005
All sensible people are agreed that a resolution of the conflict should make the whole world more peaceful and safe than if it were to linger on and on.
Ethnic encroachment means a gradual usurpation or annexation through legal subterfuges of space belonging to others by a group or state authority, which fills it with its own members. Ethnic exclusion is a set of policies and procedures applied systematically to deny entry to bona fide residents of an area and thus reduce their numbers
The world has quickly and correctly condemned the outrageous call of the new Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadnejad, to “wipe Israel off the map”. All sensible people in the world are agreed that a resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict should make the whole world more peaceful and safe than if it were to linger on and on. Such people can also easily agree that the only workable solution under the present circumstances is to create an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. The call given by the Iranian president is only the standpoint of extremists.
The two-state formula is now accepted not only by the mainstream Palestinian leadership but also by Arab states. A Saudi plan based on such thinking was put forward a couple of years ago and the then Israeli president was willing to travel to Saudi Arabia to discuss it. Elsewhere in the Muslim world, too, the two-state formula enjoys wide acceptance. The same is true of progressive Israelis and Jews. But that is not true of several Israeli governments. Israeli governments have been evasive and inflexible. The Bantu-land type of arrangement, which President Clinton and Ehud Barak had agreed to, virtually made a mockery of the idea of a viable state. It was therefore no fair solution.
www.palestinemonitor.org/nueva_web/articles/features/telling_it.htm
Telling it like it isn’t
By Robert Fisk, Palestine Monitor/Los Angeles Times 12/27/2005
I FIRST REALIZED the enormous pressures on American journalists in the Middle East when I went some years ago to say goodbye to a colleague from the Boston Globe. I expressed my sorrow that he was leaving a region where he had obviously enjoyed reporting. I could save my sorrows for someone else, he said. One of the joys of leaving was that he would no longer have to alter the truth to suit his paper’s more vociferous readers.
“I used to call the Israeli Likud Party ‘right wing,’ “ he said. “But recently, my editors have been telling me not to use the phrase. A lot of our readers objected.” And so now, I asked? “We just don’t call it ‘right wing’ anymore.”
Ouch. I knew at once that these “readers” were viewed at his newspaper as Israel’s friends, but I also knew that the Likud under Benjamin Netanyahu was as right wing as it had ever been.
This is only the tip of the semantic iceberg that has crashed into American journalism in the Middle East. Illegal Jewish settlements for Jews and Jews only on Arab land are clearly “colonies,” and we used to call them that. I cannot trace the moment when we started using the word “settlements.” But I can remember the moment around two years ago when the word “settlements” was replaced by “Jewish neighborhoods” — or even, in some cases, “outposts.”
Similarly, “occupied” Palestinian land was softened in many American media reports into “disputed” Palestinian land — just after then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, in 2001, instructed U.S. embassies in the Middle East to refer to the West Bank as “disputed” rather than “occupied” territory.
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