More material available from Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel – www.vtjp.org/
To subscribe to News Links, please e-mail us your request: jamiedb@attglobal.net
Occupied Palestine and Israel: News and Articles
News
english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9BC1CEE3-0361-44BE-8703-201C8475A2B2.htm
Three dead, many injured in Rafah onslaught
Al-Jazeera 8/3/2004
At least three Palestinians have been killed and 16 injured in an Israeli aerial attack on the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah. The Palestinians were shot in an early morning raid on Rafah's Yibna refugee camp, located along Gaza's border with Egypt. Israeli Apache helicopters, backed by armoured tanks and bulldozers, fired three missiles at a residential quarter of the camp, killing 18-year-old Muhammad Abu al-Nada, 19-year-old Masira Abu Sanima, and 31-year-old Akram al-Habibi in the process.
www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_e/ipc_e-1/e_News/news2004/2004_08/027.html
Eight Internationals Wound In Tulkarem, A Women And Child Wounded In Beit Hanoon
International Press Center 8/3/2004
GAZA, August 3,2004 (IPC+WAFA)---Eight international solidarity internationals including a journalist working at EBA news agency were shot and suffocated when the Israeli occupying troops fire tears canisters at a peaceful anti -Apartheid Wall demonstration in Al Shewek outskirt, north of Tulkarem city of the West Bank…n Beit Hanoon, north of the Strip, an 11- year -old Mohammed Yousef Nasser was shot and wounded at afternoon by the Israeli firing in Al Seka area, west of the town. Our correspondent reported that the Israeli troops positioned west of the town opened its heavy shooting in the direction of the civilians‚ houses…
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/459233.html
U.S. increases pressure on Israel to halt settlement activity
Ha'aretz 8/3/2004
The United States Undersecretary of State for Near Easterns affairs William Burns met Tuesday with Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Daniel Ayalon, to discuss Israel's plan to increase the number of homes in the West Bank settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Tuesday that the U.S. is “having discussions with the Israelis, and we'll stay in close touch with them on their commitments to end settlement activity. They are, I think, aware of our concerns.”
www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_e/ipc_e-1/e_News/news2004/2004_08/026.html
Israeli Troops Invade Nablus and Bethlehem
International Press Center 8/3/2004
NABLUS, Palestine, August 3, 2004 (IPC + WAFA)— Israeli troops continued their assault on Nablus City in the West Bank, entering civilian houses, demolishing one residence and three water reservoirs. Witnesses said that a large Israeli contingent invaded several neighborhoods this morning, in Rafidiyya, Rass Al Ein and the old town, in which three civilians were arrested. In Balata refuge camp of Nablus, the Israeli soldiers forced their way into civilian houses.
www.palestine-pmc.com/details.asp?cat=1&id=1390
Israel Expands Maale Adumim, Gush Etzion Colonies for Annexation
Palestine Media Center 8/3/2004
PNA, US, UK Urge Sharon to Drop Settlement Expansion Plan — The Palestine National Authority (PNA) condemned Israel‚s decision to expand the illegal Jewish settlement of “Maale Adumim‰ east of occupied Jerusalem as a “total defiance of the roadmap… and a total defiance of [US President George W.] Bush‚s vision,‰ while the United States and Britain urged the Israeli government to drop the plan and to freeze all settlement activity, including what it calls the natural growth of existing settlements.
electronicintifada.net/v2/article2978.shtml
Red Cross and Red Crescent assist over 2,500 Palestinians at Rafah Terminal
Electronic Intifada/ICRC 8/2/2004
The Egyptian Red Crescent Society (ERCS), with assistance from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), is providing tents, food parcels, hygiene installations and fans to over 2500 people stranded on the Egyptian side of the closed Rafah Terminal, on the southern border of the Gaza Strip. At the same time the ICRC is making representations to the relevant Israeli and Palestinian authorities to allow the people, who have been blocked at Rafah for up to 12 days, to cross into the Gaza Strip as soon as possible.
www.pchrgaza.org/files/PressR/English/2004/102-2004.htm
PCHR Condemns ongoing IOF military operations in Beit Hanoun
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights 8/3/2004
PCHR is gravely concerned about the serious consequences of the current Israeli military operation in the northern Gaza Strip, particularly in Beit Hanoun. PCHR calls upon the international community to immediately intervene.PCHR further requests that they pressurize the Israeli occupying authorities to lift the siege imposed on the area for 35 days. According to information available to PCHR, since the beginning of the Israeli military operation on 29 June 2004, 16 Palestinians, including 4 children and one woman, have been killed, and 119 others, including 57 children and 4 women, have been wounded.
www.pchrgaza.org/files/PressR/English/2004/101-2004.htm
PCHR Condemns attack and killing of prisoners from Gaza Central Prison
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights 8/3/2004
PCHR strongly condemns the attack committed by a number of armed Palestinians against a number of high-security prisoners in Gaza Central Prison. The prisoners were being held for collaborating with Israeli occupying forces.PCHR is also dismayed by subsequent developments, when a number of gunmen shot dead 2 prisoners inside Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, where the two prisoners were receiving medical treatment as a result of the attack.These attacks reflect a state of lawlessness, the misuse and proliferation of small arms and the failure of the Palestinian National Authority and law enforcement officials to provide necessary protection for prisoners.
www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=459563&contrassID=1&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y
U.S. 'deeply concerned' about stranded Palestinians
Ha'aretz 8/3/2004
WASHINGTON – Washington said on Monday it is deeply concerned that thousands of Palestinians are stranded because Israel has closed a border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, in an apparent rare rebuke of the Jewish state. Although Washington avoided blaming any side and urged Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, as well as Israel, to find a way to allow Gazans to return home, it emphasized the Palestinians' suffering and worried the closure could hurt peacemaking.
rafahtoday.org/news/todaymain.htm
Rafah: Dead, wounded lie in the streets
Rafah Today 8/3/2004
3 August 04 — 11.30 a.m.: Heavy incursion again in Rafah and many people still don‚t have the ability to go to hospitals. The injured and the dead are still lying bleeding everywhere, and journalists left the area after Reuter's cameraman was injured during the Apache shelling. 3 human shreds just arrived the hospital. >From minute to minute, the number of the dead keeps changing because the Apaches are continuing their shelling, and for the first time since the last incursion, 8 and 25 tanks bulldozers began anincursion that targeted civilians houses.
english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9B36E602-9F27-4564-92AC-EF4245E660CD.htm
Gaza attack kills fighters, wounds civilians
Al-Jazeera 8/3/2004
Three Palestinian fighters have been killed in shelling by Israeli occupation forces which attacked the Rafah refugee camp, our correspondent reported, quoting witnesses. A large number of Israeli forces and tanks attacked Yibna and Block O in Rafah refugee camp early on Tuesday. The shells landed in an area where a large number of Palestinian resistance fighters of different groups, journalists and ordinary people had gathered.
rafahtoday.org/gazanews/gazamain.htm
Gaza divided in three, Palestinians forced into the sand
Rafah Today 8/2/2004
The Israeli military forces divided Gaza Strip into three parts with a new military point that is closed with sand near Netzarim settlement. Walking on the thick sand on Gaza beach is the only way for thousands of people to move around instead of the main road which is blocked.. People are getting really frustrated walking nearly 5 Kilometers to get from one place to the next. The sand is very thick, and it was very difficult to run when the apaches came and shot at people as they walked on the beach of Gaza.
www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1274092,00.html
Israel's border closure traps 6,000 in Egypt
The Guardian 8/2/2004
About 6,000 Palestinians are trapped in Egypt by Israel's two-week closure of the border crossing into Gaza. As many as 2,000 people, including many returning after medical treatment, are stuck at the Rafah border post, where they are sleeping rough or in tents. The rest are staying close to the border or remaining in Cairo. Israel says it has shut the crossing because of a “security threat” and will reopen it once the threat is reduced.
www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4382371,00.html
Israeli Panel Finds Security Lapses
The Guardian 8/3/2004
JERUSALEM (AP) – Many of Israel's most sensitive installations, including its main airport and a large army base, are vulnerable to terror attacks, the author of a classified report on security lapses said Tuesday. Lawmaker Ephraim Sneh, a former Israeli general, said the report examined about 60 strategic sites in Israel and found many of them open to attack, though the overall picture is not so bleak.
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/459321.html
Sharon pressures UTJ to join coalition
Ha'aretz 8/3/2004
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon intends to apply massive pressure on United Torah Judaism to join the government after Shinui announced yesterday its willingness to be part of a coalition with the ultra-Orthodox party. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon intends to apply massive pressure on United Torah Judaism to join the government after Shinui announced yesterday its willingness to be part of a coalition with the ultra-Orthodox party.
www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_e/ipc_e-1/e_News/news2004/2004_08/020.html
3 Killed, 16 Wounded in Rafah
International Press Center 8/3/2004
RAFAH, Palestine, August 3, 2004 (IPC + WAFA)— Israeli helicopter missiles claimed the lives of three civilians and wounded 16 this morning in Yebna refugee camp in Rafah, south of Gaza Strip. Medics identified the victims as Mohammed Abu Al Nada, 18, Akram Al Habibi, 30, and Maysara Abu Selmyia, 19. Two of the bodies were barely identifiable. Our correspondent reported that Israeli warplanes fired three missiles at civilians‚ houses in the aforementioned camp, with 10 of the wounded also residents in the buildings as well as the three dead.
www.palestine-pmc.com/details.asp?cat=1&id=1391
Elderly Woman among 7 Palestinians Killed Since Sunday
Palestine Media Center 8/3/2004
British Foreign Office ŒExtremely Concerned‚ about Israeli ŒExcessive Actions‚ — Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed at least three Palestinians and wounded sixteen more in an air strike launched by US-made Apache helicopters early Tuesday on the densely-populated Yubna refugee camp, raising the Palestinian death to seven since Sunday and to more than 3,436 since the Intifada (uprising) against the Israeli occupation broke out some four years ago.
www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_e/ipc_e-1/e_News/news2004/2004_08/024.html
Israeli Extremist Officers Seek to Smuggle LAW Rockets to Attack Al Aqsa Mosque
International Press Center 8/3/2004
GAZA, August 3, 2004 (Agencies)— Israeli intelligence services have voiced concerns that extremist officers in the occupation army have smuggled 'LAW' rockets to extremist Jewishgroups such as those alleged to be plotting attacks against the holy Al Aqsa Mosque. Israeli security sources elaborated, suggesting that extremist soldiers were seeking to smuggle LAW rockets from military bases and dispatch them to extremist rightist parties.
www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=459703&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y
Abdullah slams PA indecisiveness, failure to stick to stance
Ha'aretz 8/3/2004
Jordan's King Abdullah said Tuesday that the Palestinian Authority had made too many “surprise” concessions in peace talks with Israel, and needed to take a clearer stand to enlist the support of Arab states. Palestinian officials responded almost immediately. PA Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia offered to send a delegation to the king to clarify his position, while the armed Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade faction of Fatah condemned the king outright, telling him to deal with the refugee problem in his country before commenting on the PA's position.
www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_e/ipc_e-1/e_News/news2004/2004_08/025.html
Cairo: New Round of Inter-Palestinian Talks
International Press Center 8/3/2004
GAZA, Palestine, August 3, 2004 (IPC + Al Jazeera)— A new round of talks between Palestinian factions is due to start today, according to official sources. This round of talks, sponsored by the Egyptian government, came as part of Cairo's efforts to bring different factions together, in order to assist the Palestinian National Authority overcome the current deadlock and present a unified stance.
english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/75EA1749-562A-4E87-AF33-5EB7E7148282.htm
EU criticies Israel colony expansion
Al-Jazeera 8/3/2004
The European Union has criticised Israel's plans to expand an illegal Jewish colony on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank. Maale Adumim, the largest of the West Bank settlements situated close to Jerusalem, is home to 28,000 Jewish residents. The new units are expected to house a further 2000 colonists. In a brief statement released on Tuesday, the Dutch EU presidency said such plans ran counter to both “the letter and the spirit of the road map for peace that Israel has accepted”.
electronicintifada.net/v2/article2982.shtml
WFP extends emergency assistance to Palestinians
Electronic Intifada/WFP 8/3/2004
ROME — Amid continuing violence and conflict in the Palestinian Territories and the resulting deprivations on the lives and livelihoods of the population, the United Nations World Food Programme announced today that it will extend its emergency operation in the Territories for a further 12 months. Under the previous emergency operation, which ended last month, WFP provided food to more than half a million people in the Territories at a cost of US$29 million.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/459769.html
PM rejects Shinui's terms for sitting in coalition with UTJ
Ha'aretz 8/3/2004
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Tuesday rejected the demands put forward by Shinui as a condition for the secular party to sit in the coalition together with the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party. Shinui had demanded that UTJ would not have a minister in the cabinet and that none of its members would take over as head of the Knesset Finance Committee.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/459771.html
Deputy UN ambassador named as Israel's consul general in NY
Ha'aretz 8/3/2004
The appointments committee charged with approving posting to the diplomatic corps, on Tuesday named Israel's current deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Aryeh Mekel, as the new consul general in New York. The outgoing consul general, Alon Pinkas, has sent a scathing letter to Foreign Ministry employees attacking Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, to whom he previously attributed his decision to resign.
www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=459632&contrassID=1&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y
Palestinian arrested for trying to stab soldier in Hebron
Ha'aretz 8/3/2004
A Palestinian was detained Tuesday after attempting to stab an Israel Defense Forces soldier in the West Bank city of Hebron, close to Beit Romano. The soldier was not wounded, Israel Radio reported. Police searching for a Palestinian terrorist suspected of trying to make his way from the West Bank into Israel set up roadblocks Tuesday afternoon around Umm al-Fahm in the Wadi Ara region east of Hadera…Hamas video threatens rocket attack on Sderot – The Palestinian militant group Hamas issued a video on Tuesday threatenning daily rocket attacks on the southern town of Sderot.
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/459312.html
IDF private gets life sentence amid accusations of a cover-up
Ha'aretz 8/3/2004
A military court yesterday sentenced an Israel Defense Forces private to life imprisonment for the murder of an army captain in March 2003. The Northern Command court last month found Private Rolan Yudov guilty of murdering Captain Niv Ya Durban in Tel Aviv, and of attempted car theft.
english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/EEFBD5A1-B731-457D-812E-A6D5CCFD51E7.htm
US troops destroy Iraq's ancient past
Al-Jazeera 8/3/2004
Irreplaceable historical sites and religious artefacts are being destroyed by the US-led occupation forces, says Iraq's interim culture minister. Sites including Babylon, one of the world's most renowned archaeological treasures, are being damaged by the occupation forces, according to minister Mufid al-Jazairi. The minister also said on Sunday the US-led forces needed to leave the area as soon as possible to avoid further destruction. Heavy equipment, helicopters and other machinery used by Polish-led forces based at Babylon, 100km south of Baghdad, are causing irreparable harm, he said.
Articles
www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1273982,00.html
The mask of altruism disguising a colonial war
By John Laughland, The Guardian 8/2/2004
Oil will be the driving factor for military intervention in Sudan — If proof were needed that Tony Blair is off the hook over Iraq, it came not during the Commons debate on the Butler report on July 21, but rather at his monthly press conference the following morning. Asked about the crisis in Sudan, Mr Blair replied: “I believe we have a moral responsibility to deal with this and to deal with it by any means that we can.” This last phrase means that troops might be sent – as General Sir Mike Jackson, the chief of the general staff, immediately confirmed – and yet the reaction from the usual anti-war campaigners was silence.
Mr Blair has invoked moral necessity for every one of the five wars he has fought in this, surely one of the most bellicose premierships in history. The bombing campaign against Iraq in December 1998, the 74-day bombardment of Yugoslavia in 1999, the intervention in Sierra Leone in the spring of 2000, the attack on Afghanistan in October 2001, and the Iraq war last March were all justified with the bright certainties which shone from the prime minister's eyes. Blair even defended Bill Clinton's attack on the al-Shifa pharmaceuticals factory in Sudan in August 1998, on the entirely bogus grounds that it was really manufacturing anthrax instead of aspirin…
…The absence of anti-war scepticism about the prospect of sending troops into Sudan is especially odd in view of the fact that Darfur has oil. For two years, campaigners have chanted that there should be “no blood for oil” in Iraq, yet they seem not to have noticed that there are huge untapped reserves in both southern Sudan and southern Darfur. As oil pipelines continue to be blown up in Iraq, the west not only has a clear motive for establishing control over alternative sources of energy, it has also officially adopted the policy that our armies should be used to do precisely this. Oddly enough, the oil concession in southern Darfur is currently in the hands of the China National Petroleum Company. China is Sudan's biggest foreign investor.
electronicintifada.net/v2/article2981.shtml
Report: Americans Want a New Policy Towards Israel
Electronic Intifada/CNI 8/3/2004
A new Zogby International poll commissioned by CNI found that half of all likely American voters agree that Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry “should adopt an entirely new policy, different from the present administration, towards Israel.‰
The poll, conducted during the Democratic Convention, showed that 51% of likely voters somewhat or strongly agreed that a policy change was necessary. Only 34% strongly or somewhat disagreed. The number who supported Kerry adopting a new policy towards Israel was even higher among Democrats: 70% of Democrats, Kerry‚s voter base, supported such a change.
Experts agree that turnout by independent voters, which could make up as much as a quarter of the likely voters in November, will be a crucial determinant in the outcome of this year's presidential election. A plurality of independent voters agree (50% to 35%) that there should be a change in U.S. policy towards Israel. It appears that one of the obvious strategies for the Kerry ticket to win the election would be to demonstrate a sharp turn away from the Bush policies on the Middle East, especially with regard to Israel.
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/459334.html
War of the weak
By Danny Rubinstein, Ha'aretz 8/3/2004
Top-ranking Palestinians describe the current crisis in various ways. Hussein al Sheikh, considered one of Mohammed Dahlan's people in the West Bank, said last Saturday on Al Jazeera TV that the violence in Jenin and Nablus, where Palestinian Authority offices were torched and three foreigners briefly kidnapped, shows that the crisis in the PA and Fatah leadership is serious and far from over.
Yasser Arafat, on the other hand, is trying to play down the severity of the crisis. One of the PA chairman's visitors this week heard him say over the weekend that “Ariel Sharon is pouring out millions to create havoc in Gaza.” Arafat thinks the crisis is artificial and not at all terrible, and that the Israeli government is trying to fan the flames. What's the truth? The split between the two camps in Gaza appears impossible to bridge. Dahlan, who meanwhile is overseas, has rallied around him loyalists with power bases in the Preventive Security force (Rashid Abu Shbak) and the Fatah movement (Samir Mashrawi). He also has a known strong-arm on the ground, Nabi Tamus, who gets involved in violence. But no less important, as far as Dahlan is concerned, is the political backing he's getting from other Fatah leaders, especially Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen).
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/459333.html
A first step
By Yuli Tamir, Ha'aretz 8/3/2004
After managing to tilt the scales in the Likud referendum, more than 100,000 opponents of the disengagement plan lined up along the roadsides of Israel and in an impressive public display, created a human chain between Gush Katif and the Western Wall. Opposite the cries of the opponents, reverberates the silence of the supporters. Why are the supporters of disengagement refraining from taking to the streets? Maybe because many of them do not regard the disengagement as part of an overall move meant to lead to military calm and political hope, but rather as a partial political step, motivated by lack of choice, frustration, disappointment and despair…
…A real counterweight to the right will be created only when the peace camp rises up on its feet, returns to its values and to itself, supports the disengagement but does not see it as the be-all and end-all, is not ashamed to speak in favor of negotiations with the Palestinians as the only way to manage the conflict and advance the political process, and offers its supporters the hope that one day there will yet be peace here.
electronicintifada.net/v2/article2979.shtml
Documentary film review: “News from the Holy Land”
By Victor Kattan, Electronic Intifada 8/2/2004
”There is a huge distortion in the media here. Actually, they are looking for violence only, they are looking for bloodshed and they are looking for headlines. They don't go behind the headlines; they don't want to know the roots of the problem. They are not concentrating on the daily living of 3 million Palestinians, suffocated by the Israeli sanctions.” — Abdul Barry Atwan, Editor, Al-Quds Al Arabi
News from the Holy Land: Options and Consequences is a film that shows how journalists can improve their coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict. It is geared towards aspiring journalists (although veteran journalists could learn a thing or two from it), introducing creative ways of covering the conflict. The film stresses that it is the lack of context in mainstream reporting of the conflict that leads to a process of polarization. This is partly because the media are only interested in violence and not the underlying processes which lead to the violence. As veteran Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery points out in the film, “the real influence of the media is in the way the news is written, its terminology, the angle of reporting … if you don't kill somebody you're not news.”
In the mainstream media there is little explanation offered as to why things happen the way they do. Little account is taken of the historical, cultural, and political processes which have led to the present impasse. Rarely do the media make any attempt to delve into issues behind the headlines, such as Israel's illegal 37-year military occupation of Palestinian territory, its ongoing settlements policy, and the restrictions on Palestinian movement. There is hardly any explanation of, or background to, the Palestinian refugee problem or the rise of political Zionism and political Islam. For this, people have to rely on the occasional documentary (which is never enough).
More material available from Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel – www.vtjp.org/
To subscribe to News Links, please e-mail us your request: mailto:jamiedb@attglobal.net