More than 40 British Members of Parliament (MPs) signed several Early Day Motions (EDM) slamming Israel’s offenses on Palestinians in the occupied Territory as well as its continued violation of international law.
Meanwhile, a British Labor MP, visiting Abu-Dhabi to deliver a lecture said several members of the House of Commons consider Ariel Sharon a war criminal for the crimes perpetrated against the Palestinian people.
Delivering a lecture on British policy towards Iraq at the Zayed Centre for Co-ordination and Follow-up, MP Tam Dalyell said, “public opinion in Europe is discontent with the acts perpetrated by Israeli forces in the occupied Palestinian territory.”
Three of the motions signed highlighted Israel’s military onslaughts and settlement activities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They were put forward to the House of Commons by Labor MP Johan Austin, who also chairs CAABU, the Council for Advancement of Arab-British Understanding.
The London-based NGO had launched a campaign to encourage Britons, Arabs and other supporters of the Palestinian cause to write to their MPs to join the signatories to influence UK policymaking on the Middle East.
One of the EDM’s highlighted the deteriorating health situation in the occupied territory.
It said that as a result of continuous Israeli roadblocks, curfews and closures, “child malnutrition in Gaza now is similar to that of the sub-Saharan Africa.”
“This house notes that Israel’s right to self defense does not absolve it of its own obligations under the international humanitarian law and the United Nations resolutions and that the British government should insist that Israel abide by these obligations, including stopping land expropriation and settlement-building, ending collective punishment of Palestinians and a full withdrawal from the OTs.” The motion added.
Article 203 of the motion meanwhile stipulated that since February 2001 “there have been 44 new settler outposts,” and further noted that these “are in direct contradiction to any notion of a two-state solution and violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Security Council resolutions.”
It also stressed that importing products made in illegal settlements built on Palestinian territory at preferential rates is “in violation of the EU-Israel Trade Association agreement” while urging the British government to raise these issues within the UN and the EU.
The final motion, EDM 218, condemned the murder of 53-year-old Ian Hook, a British UN relief official gunned down by the Israeli army in Jenin refugee camp on November 22 as well as the shooting of Irish volunteer and peace activist Caoimhe Butterly in the same area.
False Washington Times report convinces Canada to ban Hizbullah
Nigel Parry, The Electronic Intifada, 13 December 2002
On Wednesday 11th December 2002, the social arm of Lebanese resistance group Hizbullah was one of three organisations to be added to Canada's official list of "terrorist entities".
Hizbullah's military wing has been banned in Canada since 2001 but up until Wednesday, it was still legal to contribute to the social arm of the organisation.
"This decision is made on the basis of sound criminal and security intelligence information and in no way is due to political pressure from anywhere," insisted Wayne Easter, Canada's Solicitor General.
Easter felt compelled to put it this way for the very reason that adding Hizbullah to lists of "terrorist" organisations has long been a noisy and overt goal of pro-Israeli groups in North America.
Indeed, pro-Israeli organization B'nai Brith Canada had launched an action last week in the Federal Court of Canada in a bid to force the government to declare Hezbollah a terrorist organization.
Prior to the ban, Canada's official position has long been that the social/political wing of Hizbullah was doing good, charitable works in the Middle East. Few dispute the beneficial nature of the massive network of medical, educational, and charitable services provided by Hizbullah in some very desperate areas with no other sources of social support.
Indeed just ten days earlier, on 1 December 2002, Easter commented to CTV News in an interview on CTV's Question Period that "If I came forward with listings just basing it on headlines and not doing the proper research, you people would be asking me 'What about civil liberties, what about due process?' and you'd be right to do that." ("Cdn Jewish, Arab groups at odds over Hezbollah", ctv.ca, 2 December 2002)
So what "sound criminal and security intelligence information" surfaced and what process took place in the ten days between December 1st and December 11th?
None did. Apparently a single, initial media report on December 4th was sufficient.
Many Canadian newspapers and politicians -- and indeed international media organisations including Reuters and the Associated Press -- have widely cited the ultimate deciding factor for Canada's policy change towards Hizbullah to be statements by its leader Hassan Nasrallah last month in which he allegedly urged Palestinians to undertake additional suicide bombings in and outside of Israel/Palestine, in locations around the world.
To read more of the details go to:
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article971.shtml
Is it too much to ask Israelis to take a look, even a glimpse, at what's going on in their backyard? Are we even capable of dropping our relentless preoccupation with primaries and the battle between Tnuva and Strauss over cottage cheese, to pay attention to what is happening in the territories under our occupation?
A foreigner who happened to find himself here wouldn't believe his eyes: A few weeks before the general elections - a period that is supposed to be marked by an airing and sharpening of views - Israel continues to close its eyes, not to see, not to hear and not to know what it is doing to three million people who live less than an hour from our homes. If this crass disregard is hard to accept in normal times - the approach being that what doesn't interest me doesn't exist - on the eve of elections that are considered (as always) critical, it is nothing short of criminal.
Here are a few updates from the past few days: Five unarmed Palestinians, probably desperate workers who were using a ladder to enter Israel from the Gaza Strip to find work, were shelled by a tank and killed on Thursday. On Monday, soldiers killed a Palestinian who was mentally handicapped. On Sunday, soldiers shot two women and three children in Rafah, on the border with Egypt. One of the women, a mother, was killed along with her two children, aged four and 15, and the other woman suffered serious injuries. The soldiers said they thought the women and children were terrorists.
A week ago Friday, 10 people were killed, including one woman and two employees of UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, in a failed liquidation operation in Al-Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Earlier that week, a 95-year-old woman who was traveling in a taxicab near Ramallah was shot to death by a soldier. And a couple of days before that, soldiers demolished a building, burying under the rubble a 70-year-man who was inside. All told, more than 30 Palestinians were killed in the first 10 days of December, at least half of them innocent civilians. What was once an "anomaly" has become a daily event, and what the army used to investigate, it no longer even reviews.
Does anyone care? Innocent victims - women, children, the aged - exist only on our side. Most Israeli media outlets report these events cursorily, if at all, and no politician makes any reference to them. To this bloody harvest we need to add the mass arrests. According to data of the IDF Spokesman's Office, 3,094 Palestinians are currently incarcerated in military facilities alone; 932 of them have been placed in administrative detention (arrest without trial). In other words, there are nearly a thousand individuals detained for a six-month period without any prospect of trial, many of them in two makeshift detention facilities, Ketziot and Ofer, in which the conditions are apparently particularly difficult. Otherwise, it is hard to explain why the IDF has prevented reporters from visiting these sites for months.
These are facts and statistics that should be of great concern to public opinion, even if the public in question is constantly threatened by terrorism. Daily killing of innocent people and mass arrests without trial are issues that should at least be the subject of public discussion, but here no one takes an interest, as though the matter doesn't have a decisive influence not only on the victims themselves, of course, but also on security and on the character of the regime and society in Israel.
But that is not enough. If the acts of killing and the arrests are marginally reported by the media, the imprisonment of the entire Palestinian people is continuing uninterrupted and unreported. Whole cities, parts of which lie in ruins, are under almost unceasing curfew; an entire population is unable to move from one village to the next or from city to city without the authorization of the occupation army - but within the Israeli public there is not even an echo of this. No one asks why, or for how long, or whether this state of affairs does not induce terrorism rather than prevent it. The security experts say in an appallingly uniform voice that this is the only way, and hardly anyone protests. It is more than likely that the majority of the public doesn't know (and couldn't care less) whether the Palestinians are now under curfew or just closure or maybe encirclement.
The focus is exclusively on our own difficulties and pain, which are certainly grave enough. Are Israelis afraid to sit in cafes? It's been a long time since Palestinians could even dream of that. Is it scary to travel on a bus in Israel? There is no longer any such travel in the territories. Afraid to fly? Most Palestinians have never flown. Unemployment is rising? That is nothing compared to the malnutrition and near hunger in the territories, where the great majority of the residents are not terrorists.
A few weeks remain before the elections. No one is mentioning the responsibility of Ariel Sharon, Shaul Mofaz and Benjamin Ben-Eliezer for the killing and destruction. The Labor Party leader, Amram Mitzna, talks a lot about separation and about what's good for Israel's security - but not a word about morality or justice. Perhaps Meretz will take a more cogent stand on these issues now that Yossi Beilin and Yael Dayan, former Labor stalwarts, have joined the party. As for Hadash and the Arab parties, which try to talk about what is actually going on in the territories - no one listens to them.
This is a very serious state of affairs. No terrorist threat, however murderous, is grounds for a wholesale annulment of values; no suicide bombing can justify the daily killing of innocent people or the large-scale incarceration of others without trial; and nothing, but nothing, can justify the absence of a public discussion and the total disregard of what's going on in our backyard, especially on the eve of general elections.
Did Saddam's army test poison gas on missing 5,000?
Robert Fisk
13 December 2002
Why didn't Tony Blair and George Bush mention Saddam Hussein's most terrible war crime? Why, in all their "dossiers", did they not refer to the 5,000 young men and women who were held at detention centres when their families – of Iranian origin – were hurled over the border to Iran just before President Saddam invaded Iran in 1980?
Could it be because these 5,000 young men and women were used for experiments in gas and biological warfare agents whose ingredients were originally supplied by the United States?
Just months before his September 1980 invasion of Iran – in which tens of thousands of Iranian soldiers died an appalling death by gas burns and blisters – Saddam's Interior Ministry issued directive No 2884, dated 10 April 1980, stating that "all youths aged between 18 and 28 are exempt from deportation and must be held at detention centres until further notice".
Most, though not all, of the young men and women affected by this order were Kurds. None of their families ever saw their loved ones again, but they have since been told that the detainees were killed during experiments in gas and chemical warfare centres in Iraq.
Among the most terrible war crimes committed during the Second World War were the Japanese experiments with chemicals and gas on prisoners at Harbin, in occupied China. US officials ensured that the principal culprits got away in return for the results of their experiments. The Nazis ran medical tests on Jews in extermination camps in Europe, some of whose "doctors" also escaped punishment.
As always in Iraq – and elsewhere in the world – there is no proof. Kurdish families to whom The Independent has spoken pleaded with us not to reveal their names, in the pathetic hope that their sons and husbands and daughters might still be alive. They include the father of a young man who was taken from his family home in Baghdad, and the father of a man who was allegedly sent to the front line during the Iran-Iraq war and who died as a "martyr" months after his death during a medical experiment.
With the encouragement of President Bush Snr, the US Department of Agriculture sent Iraq samples of chemicals that could be used to protect crops and other agricultural produce, with pesticides that were later developed for chemical warfare, despite repeated warnings from American officials that the cultures could be of use against human beings.
Just before the September 1980 invasion of Iran, the detentions began. At least 5,000 "Kurdish youths", according to one Iraqi refugee interviewed by The Independent, "vanished into thin air".
According to one Iraqi dissident, whose refusal to ally himself to the Iraqi opposition is much to his credit in the picture that is emerging, a large if unknown number of young detainees may have perished as a result of being used as guinea pigs for Saddam Hussein's research programmes at various chemical, biological and nuclear warfare laboratories. According to the same source, Iraqi scientists who have since defected to the West have given hints of the biological warfare testing programme but have refused, for obvious reasons, to incriminate themselves. Iraqi-Iranian Kurdish families who have received appalling information about the fate of their relatives have refused to keep quiet. One father of five missing boys gained an audience with an Iraqi vice-president who allegedly told him that one of his sons had been imprisoned for opposing President Saddam but had then had an "awakened conscience". The boy had decided to fight in the war against Iran and had died in combat, his body being "lost".
According to an Iraqi Kurdish refugee in Lebanon who regards the official Washington- supported Iraqi opposition as fifth columnists, Western intelligence has long known the fate of the 5,000 or more "detainees". "It is now clear," he says, "that during the war with Iran many of the young detainees were taken to secret laboratories in different locations in Iraq and were exposed to intense doses of chemical and biological substances in a myriad of conditions and situations. With every military setback at the front causing panic in Baghdad, these experiments had to be speeded up – which meant more detainees were needed to be sent to the laboratories, which had to test VX nerve gas, mustard gas, sarin, tabun, aflatoxin, gas gangrene and anthrax." In the early stages of the Iran-Iraq war, Iranian troops stormed across the Baghdad-Basra highway and almost cut Iraq in half – to the great concern of Washington.
But not one of the many accusations levelled against Saddam Hussein's regime by London and Washington mentions the missing 5,000 young people "detained" by Iraq just before the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war.
This could, of course, reflect the West's embarrassment at its support for Iraq during that war. Or it could be an attempt to avoid any inquiry into how President Saddam obtained the means to wage chemical warfare against his opponents.
Blessed is the Fruit of Thy Womb…
a real-life, modern-day nativity story
12/12/2002
Sean Hawkey for the Palestine Media Center- (PMC)
When Nahed Fawaregh became pregnant earlier this year she and her husband felt blessed, she was due to give birth in the first days of December and would travel to the nearby maternity hospital in Bethlehem.
Nahed and her family live in a small village called Ma’sarah (meaning Olive Press) where the countryside is spotted with olive groves and vineyards. There is no maternity clinic in Ma’sarah so she would travel to nearby Bethlehem to give birth. While many of the villagers drive small herds of goats and sheep, Nahed’s husband drives a taxi, so getting to the hospital wouldn’t be a problem.
Nahed, who just turned 20, was the subject of family affection as her baby grew, friends gave her small gifts, old ladies knitted little jumpers and everyone made sure she ate what she wanted. Nahed was a radiant picture of health and happiness.
At midday on November 27 Nahed went into labour. She had already prepared a bag and she set off with her husband in the taxi for Bethlehem. They went on the only road that isn’t dug-up and blocked-off with piles of earth and rubble by Israeli bulldozers. But only certain people are allowed on this road: Jewish people who live in the heavily guarded settlements.
The innocuous term “settlements” doesn’t accurately describe the expanding colonies: cities and towns built on the highest land, taken by military force and inhabited by some 400,000 people, many of them east-European immigrants. The local people are left with the ever-diminishing gaps between the colonies and the roads that join them up, the water they need for irrigation diverted to the Israeli occupied land.
The Fawareghs knew they were forbidden to travel on the Jewish-only road but it was an emergency. They prayed that they wouldn’t run into an Israeli patrol, but they did.
A jeep with four soldiers of the Israeli occupation forces caught them and held them at gunpoint. The soldiers said nothing even though it was obvious that Nahed was in pain. Her waters broke and Mr. Fawaregh pleaded with the soldiers, they told him to shut up. Nahed began to bleed but the soldiers still said nothing, they just kept them waiting. Finally, after two hours, they let them go.
This was neither a mistake nor an isolated case. This is part of the routine persecution of the Christian and Muslim people of Palestine; it is Israeli policy. In fact, this is so common that the Israeli occupation forces are being issued with medical kits to deal with women who “choose to give birth at checkpoints”.
Bethlehem is under curfew, the streets are patrolled by tanks. “This is a prison” explains Mitri Raheb, a resident priest: “if you leave your house you will be shot”. Tank crews shout through loudhailers as they roar past the houses: “don’t come out, you animals”. The afternoon that Nahed arrived in Bethlehem a Mr Rabayia, who had gone to get some bread for his family, was shot dead by occupation troops. He was shot in the back of the head with an explosive bullet. Often such murders are reported as crossfire, people here explain in despair “that means that
we cross and they fire”. Helplessly, I watched his mother and wife gnashing their teeth and tearing at their hair and clothes with grief.
In Bethlehem, a statue of the Virgin Mary stands above the entrance of the maternity hospital called the Holy Family. She is riddled with Israeli bullets. When Nahed finally arrived at the hospital, it was clear that the long delay had been critical. Her baby boy was dead.
Nahed tells me her story quietly, she is full of grace. “I offer up my suffering to God” she says. As I look at her I can’t help thinking that you can see the whole story in her face, not just her own story but Palestine’s story.
Peace Group Slams Israeli Plans to Demolish Hebron Houses
10/12/2002
Palestine Media Center- (PMC)
The Israeli peace group Gush Shalom demanded that their government halt plans to demolish dozens of Palestinian houses in the West Bank city of Hebron, warning that it would constitute a “war crime”.
The Israeli left-wing group sent a letter on Saturday to Israeli attorney general Elyakim Rubinstein saying there were no true “military needs” behind the demolition orders.
“It seems that [Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF)] have turned into a tool which carries out the demands of the most extreme settlers,” wrote Gush Shalom founder Uri Avineri.
Avineri called on Rubenstein to advise Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, his ‘defense’ minister Shaul Mofaz and the head of the IOF central command Moshe Kaplinsky that the move was “illegal”.
Avineri warned the demolitions would likely be considered a “war crime” and added, “through (this act), the army is taking the risk that those carrying out the decision will be one day brought to justice before an international court.”
The Gush Shalom letter comes after Israel ordered Monday the demolition of 15 Palestinian houses to secure “territorial continuity” between the illegal Israeli settlement of “Kiryat Arba” and the Jewish settler enclave piercing the heart of Hebron’s Old City.
The Palestinian leadership slammed the Israeli decision, warning that Sharon is planning to “Judaize” Hebron.
“These buildings, dating back to the Mameluke and Ottoman eras, are considered an integral part of the cultural heritage of Hebron City, which international conventions and agreements have called for safeguarding,” Palestinian Minister of Culture and Information, Yasser Abed Rabbo, said Monday in a letter of protest to Mr. Koichiro Matsuura, the Director-General of the UNESCO.
Gush Shalom have in the past slammed the Israeli government as well as IOF’s policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The group threatened in August to press war crimes charges against reserve army officers before the newly-founded International Criminal Court (ICC), triggering Sharon’s anger, who ordered an investigation into the activities of Gush Shalom.
However, the 600-member group responded that collecting information on human rights violations was not a crime.
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) shot and killed a Palestinian mother and wounded her three children on Sunday as they were leaving their home in the Tel Sultan refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian hospital sources said.
Palestinian witnesses said the mother and her children came under machinegun fire from tanks positioned near the neighboring illegal Israeli settlement of “Rafiah Yam”.
Dr. Ali Moussa, director of the Rafah hospital near the Egyptian border, told The Independent that the mother, Nahla Akel, 41, was hit in the neck and soon after reaching the hospital she died.
Her two sons aged four and twelve, and a 15-year-old daughter were being treated for shrapnel wounds. Their lives were not in danger, Dr. Moussa added.
The daughter, Niveen, said they had set out to visit her grandfather.
“There was no shooting, no unusual movement by the army,” she recounted. “We felt safe. Then suddenly the soldiers started shooting at us.”
A second woman aged 28 was shot in the head, Dr. Moussa said.
Israeli military sources claimed that IOF troops spotted a group of armed men approaching the settlement. The soldiers were said to have identified the infiltrators, then opened fire on them, wounding four.
Palestinian sources, however, denied that the soldiers were exchanging fire with armed intruders.
Dr. Moussa said no men were brought in for treatment.
A Palestinian witness, Samir Abu Shahin, said, “the woman and her family were walking in the middle of the street, and I saw her fall, and blood covering her body, and not far from her, the two children also fell.”
About 7,000 Israeli settlers live in heavily guarded illegal settlements in the Gaza Strip, which is also home to 1.2 million Palestinians.
The Palestinian leadership reacted in anger, slamming the murder as another example of Israeli “state terrorism”.
“We condemn this ugly crime which was carried out against Mrs Aqel and her children,” chief Palestinian negotiator Sa’eb Erakat told AFP.
Erekat said the crime “reflects the fact that Prime Minister Sharon is not out there fighting terror as he claims but is out there fighting the Palestinian people.”
“This is part of the state terror practiced by Israel against the Palestinian people,” he further pointed out.
Earlier, IOF demolished a two-story house a few hundred yards from the illegal Jewish settlement of Netzarim in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian witnesses said.
On Israel’s northern front, a roadside bomb wounded two Israeli soldiers patrolling the border with Lebanon in the first such attack on Israeli forces in the area in four months.
Israel accused the Lebanese resistance guerrilla group Hizbollah of responsibility for the ambush. Hizbollah officials denied any involvement.
<h4><center>Palestinians Meet their Doom during Religious Festivity<br>
Tarnished with Blood</h4></center>
<br>
<b>06/12/2002</b>
<p><br>
Palestine Media Center- (PMC)
<p>
As Muslims of the world rejoiced Eid El-Fitr, the festivity marking the
end of the holy month of Ramadan, Palestinians marked it with a salty
aftertaste of tears and the spinablled blood of their loved ones.
<p>
While the men, women and children of Gaza slept, columns of Israeli tanks
thrust into the womb of Al-Bureij refugee camp under a barrage of heavy
gunfire from Apache gunships backing up the military sweeping, killing ten
Palestinians and injuring at least dozen others after the US-made
helicopters shelled the crowded neighborhoods overnight Friday.
<p>
Medical sources say the high death toll was attributed to a missile
slamming into a two story-house in the camp. Four members of the same
family were killed in that particular house while three others were killed
when they left their houses fearing the bombing.
<p>
A doctor at the local hospital said the nine Palestinians killed included
two pairs of brothers. An official at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City said a
tenth person, a woman, died of injuries. All the dead were men in their
20s and 30s.
<p>
Hospital sources said all of the dead and wounded suffered from gunshot or
shrapnel wounds. Palestinian security sources said that all the casualties
in the camp were civilians.
<p>
Later, Isreli tanks fired several shells at Palestinian homes wounding
five people.
<p>
Ahmad Rabah, director of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby village of
Deir Al-Balah said Israeli occupation forces (IOF) prevented ambulances
from reaching the camp to evacuate the injured, adding that at least five
of the victims “could have been saved if they were evacuated but IOF
soldiers left them bleeding to death.”
<p>
Moreover medical sources said at least twenty people were injured, five of
whom are in critical condition, including women and children.
<p>
Meanwhile, witnesses said that IOF soldiers dynamited the house of an
activist known as Ayman Shushniya. The explosion, which sent fumes of
smoke rising, damaged at least ten houses nearby.
<p>
“It was as if the doors of hell were opened in our camp by the helicopters
and the tanks. They have made this a bloody Eid,” said 20-year-old
resident Mohammed Al-Maqadama, referring to the Eid Al-Fitr holiday that
marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
<p>
Hassan Safi, 49, said he was 300 yards away in his home when the tank
shell hit.
<p>
“I rushed with my sons to the place, which was all destroyed. I myself
took out two people. The helicopter was firing with machine guns at us,
making it difficult to move,” he said.
<p>
The renewed Gaza massacre and the timing of the assault, which was
oblivious to the holy Muslim festivity, added fuel to the fire already
enraging Palestinians as more and more citizens fell dead to the daily
Israeli aggression.
<p>
“Sharon’s crimes against the Palestinian people will not go unpunished,”
said Ahmad Abdel Rahim, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s advisor,
describing Sharon as “a vampire.”
<p>
“The massacre in Bureij is a message to every Palestinian that resisting
the Israeli occupation and settlements is a duty for everyone.”
<p>
Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli helicopter gunships fired three missiles at
a building in central Gaza City, killing one person and wounding six
others.
<p>
Concurrent with the onslaught on Gaza’s refugee camp was another IOF raid
on Jenin, its refugee camp and another village in the early morning hours.
<p>
Witnesses said IOF soldiers raided several homes looking for what they
labeled “wanted” Palestinians. At least two men were detained during the
incursion.
<p>
<h4><center>Nablus’ Citizens Mark Gloomy Eid by Mourning Death of
Teenager</h4></center>
<p>
As Nablus marked its one hundred and sixty seventh day under
Israeli-imposed curfew, people spent the Muslim festivity known as Eid
El-Fitr at home.
<p>
Despite the fact that festivity is celebrated with people visiting family
and friends, Nablus citizens spent it at home. Tire, scared and feeling
helpless, many did not even have the money to buy their children any
presents in celebration of the end of the holy month.
<p>
Others marked the festivity with tears.
<p>
Shadi Awni Mansour, 14-year-old boy, was shot and critically wounded while
he was playing with a fake gun (a toy). Shadi now lies in hospital, brain
dead on the eve of the feast.
<p>
Israeli sources reported that IOF shot an armed man. They did not add that
the child was deaf and could not speak.
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Everything you'll ever need on one web page
from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts
http://uk.my.yahoo.com
Thanks a lot May for telling me, I have just realized that they've removed
the page, so I'll send it to all of you as a zip file. Once you receive
it, download it, and then right click, then select Extract?
Thnaks!
Shadi
--- May Habib <mtn200@...> wrote: >
> I can't access the e-mail shadi
> May
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Everything you'll ever need on one web page
from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts
http://uk.my.yahoo.com
GAZA CITY (AFP) - The Palestinians lashed out at the overnight US vote against a UN general assembly resolution condemning the annexation of east Jerusalem by Israel.
"The US vote is a worrying indication of the extent of the alliance between (US President George W.) Bush and (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon," top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP.
During a ritual UN general assembly vote on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the United States for the first time voted against a resolution saying Israel's Basic Law -- which proclaimed Jerusalem as the eternal and indivisible capital of the Jewish state -- is "illegal and therefore null and void and has no validity whatsoever."
"The United States has decided to directly support Israel state terror, war crimes, occupation and settlements, at the expense of justice and rights," Erakat said Wednesday.
"This vote comes at a time when the roadmap for peace in the Middle East is being discussed and after the United States downgraded the PLO representation in Washington," he added.
On Monday, Bush temporarily downgraded and then reinstated the status of the Palestine Liberation Organization's office in the United States, in a symbolic gesture to increase the pressure on Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority.
The roadmap for peace in the region drafted by the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia is due to be finalised during a meeting of the quartet of diplomatic players on December 20.
Israeli Tanks Shell Gaza Neighborhoods, Injure Four Civilians
Three citizens were injured, including a child, when Israeli occupation soldiers opened fire on Al- Amal residential neighborhood, west of the city of Khan Younis on Tuesday.
Medical sources at Naser hospital in Khan Younis said that Jamal Abu Abdo, 10, was injured in the abdomen, Shadi Abu Madi, 29, sustained wounds in the back, and Maha Abu Lobna, 30, was shot in the thigh, adding that all were in front of their houses.
Eyewitnesses said that a tank thrust at least 100 meters into the Palestinian-controlled territory, and randomly opened fire.
Earlier today, medical sources in Rafah said that a Palestinian citizen, Shadi Al Soufi, 22, was injured by IOF gunfire in Al Qassas area, south west of the city of Rafah.
The sources added that Al-Soufi was injured in his left foot, when Israeli occupation tanks opened heavy random fire on Al Qassas area and Yebna refugee camp, located south west of Rafah.
Number of Palestinian Civilians Killed By IOF: (1960)*
Number of Palestinians Wounded by IOF: (> 21,117)*
UN Body, EU Demand Investigation, Compensation for Food Aid Destroyed by IOF ! ! !
03/12/2002
Palestine Media Center- (PMC)
The UN World Food Program (WFP) and the EU slammed Israel on Monday for the weekend demolition by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) of an UNRWA warehouse containing food stocks for 40,000 destitute Palestinians, and called for an investigation and compensation for the loss of 500 tons of food aid.
"The food, which was ... clearly marked as WFP property, mainly comprised donations from the European Commission and Sweden and was to be distributed by the Ministry of Social Affairs to some 41,300 destitute people affected by the ongoing humanitarian crises in the Gaza Strip," said the WFP’s Jean-Luc Siblot.
The aid included 413 tons of wheat flour, 107 tons of rice and 17 tons of vegetable oil, the agency said.
"This act has been carried against basic humanitarian principles," Siblot said.
"WFP is asking the government of Israel to conduct a thorough investigation of the incident and take full responsibility for the losses incurred by the agency," which he put at more than 270,000 dollars (273,000 euros).
At the UN headquarters in New York, a UN spokesman said a concerned United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan supported WFP’s call for an investigation.
"The secretary-general once again calls on the Israeli authorities to live up to their commitments and obligations to facilitate emergency humanitarian assistance in the occupied” Palestinian Territory, chief UN spokesman, Fred Eckhard said.
More than 500 tons of food aid stored in a WFP warehouse in the Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip was destroyed during an incursion by IOF backed by tanks and helicopters on Saturday night. The IOF blew up the warehouse in the Gaza Strip’s Jabalya refugee camp during the incursion.
"The fact that WFP was not permitted to remove the food is worrisome," said Siblot.
The European Commission’s (EC) Jerusalem head Jean Breteche also slammed Israel and said the EC will formally protest “this unjustified destruction by the Israeli army."
"The army dynamited a building on whose bottom floor was a World Food Program (WFP) storage warehouse although soldiers had thoroughly searched the premises beforehand with sniffer dogs and knew what it contained," Breteche said.
He said the building was easily identifiable as it bore large WFP stickers and had a UN flag.
The IOF acknowledged their men struck the warehouse during the overnight raid, in which military engineers also blew up the family homes in nearby Beit Lahiya of three Palestinians allegedly behind suicide attacks on Israelis.
"We are still investigating the circumstances of why the warehouse was hit," an IOF spokeswoman said.
She said Israeli liaison officials in Gaza had not been informed of the warehouse's existence and had therefore not known they should steer clear of the building.
Last month Iain Hook, a British official from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, was killed by Israeli soldiers in a clash in the West Bank city of Jenin. Israel said its troops probably mistook Hook for a gunman.
An outraged Annan wrote to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last week urging his government to identify and punish its soldiers responsible for Hook's death.
IOF said their troops shot Hook “by mistake” as they returned fire aimed at them from Palestinian gunmen inside the compound of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
Reaction on this planet would be very different ! ! !
The Palestine Monitor
A PNGO Information Clearinghouse
UPDATE
3 December 2002
Israeli soldiers near Ramallah murder 95-year-old woman; oldest known victim of the Intifada
Israeli soldiers shot to death a 95-year-old Palestinian woman in an attack
on a minibus near Ramallah earlier today, making her oldest known victim of
the current Intifada.
Fatima Mohammad Hassan Abeid, from Attara village, was traveling to Ramallah to buy gifts for her 19 grandchildren ahead of the Eid holiday marking the end of the Ramadan holy month.
Because Israeli forces had closed Surda, the main entry point to Ramallah
from her village, Fatima was forced to take a detour through the Jawwal
crossing in order to reach the city.
According to eyewitnesses, Israeli forces stationed at the Jawwal crossing
violently attacked the minibus she was traveling in, smashing the windshield with the butts of their guns. They then shot randomly at the vehicle, with the full knowledge that the van was packed with civilians. Fatima was shot in the back by one or two live bullets at close range.
Another passenger, Kifaya Rafat, 41, was shot in the thigh and is now in the hospital. Another unidentified woman was slightly injured in the attack.
For more information contact: The Palestine Monitor
+972 (0)2 298 5372 or +972 (0)59 387 087
www.palestinemonitor.org
I agrtee with you and I always try to be carefull not
top make it ethnic or religious issue as much as right
vs. wrong issue. I guess I was not carefull enough
this time arround. We need to always be carefull to
say that the conflict is between israely state and
palestinian people and not between "Izraelis and
palestinians" as media here likes to say.
And you are right when you say that we need the help
of all the good people including jews. Many jews are
the most outspoken criticizers of Izrael.
--- zshreif@... wrote:
> I just want to comment on this conversation. I
> always feel angry when
> people talk about the palestenian issue as if it's
> Jews against
> Muslims. This is not true. It's Zionism against
> Humans. Please
> remember this. In Palestine there is still a lot of
> non-muslims that
> are also paying the price and being humilated as
> much as their fellow
> muslims. Anyone who cares about human rights (he
> good be even jewish)
> should be against Zionism.
> -------------------
> > I disagreeIzrael and US or Palestinians
> >
> >
> > --- Shadi Fadda <f_shadi@...> wrote:
> > > My advise, start with with similar mailing list,
> and
> > > inform as many people
> > > as possible with daily action "in a non-zionist
> > > way"! I guess that it
> > > would be very good for begining from you a
> person!
> > >
> > > Concerning your view about "Any palestinian
> leader
> > > that agrees to any
> > > negotiations"! That's world politics, you must
> at
> > > least act as if being
> > > for peace, and make it harder for Israel to put
> you
> > > on Terrorist list!
> > > There have been lots of negotiation with
> Israelis
> > > since the begining of
> > > Intifada "but no
> > >
> agreements"!................Politics..............
> > >
> > > --- ba meho <hamo_bu@...> wrote: > We
> must
> > > not accept any
> > > negotiations or compromise with
> > > > the palestinian rights or teritory. Any
> > > palestinian
> > > > leader that agrees to any negotiations should
> be
> > > > declared a traitor and dealt accordingly.
> > > >
> > > > In adition to that Muslims in US (like me)
> must do
> > > > more to let american people know what is
> really
> > > going
> > > > on in Palestine. Does anyone have any
> sugestions?
> > > > --- Shadi Fadda <f_shadi@...> wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > >
> __________________________________________________
> > > Do You Yahoo!?
> > > Everything you'll ever need on one web page
> > > from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts
> > > http://uk.my.yahoo.com
> > >
> >
> >
> > __________________________________________________
> > Do you Yahoo!?
> > Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up
> now.
> > http://mailplus.yahoo.com
> >
> > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> > f_shadi-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
> >
> >
> >
> > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
> http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
__________________________________________________
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I just want to comment on this conversation. I always feel angry when
people talk about the palestenian issue as if it's Jews against
Muslims. This is not true. It's Zionism against Humans. Please
remember this. In Palestine there is still a lot of non-muslims that
are also paying the price and being humilated as much as their fellow
muslims. Anyone who cares about human rights (he good be even jewish)
should be against Zionism.
-------------------
> I disagreeIzrael and US or Palestinians
>
>
> --- Shadi Fadda <f_shadi@...> wrote:
> > My advise, start with with similar mailing list, and
> > inform as many people
> > as possible with daily action "in a non-zionist
> > way"! I guess that it
> > would be very good for begining from you a person!
> >
> > Concerning your view about "Any palestinian leader
> > that agrees to any
> > negotiations"! That's world politics, you must at
> > least act as if being
> > for peace, and make it harder for Israel to put you
> > on Terrorist list!
> > There have been lots of negotiation with Israelis
> > since the begining of
> > Intifada "but no
> > agreements"!................Politics..............
> >
> > --- ba meho <hamo_bu@...> wrote: > We must
> > not accept any
> > negotiations or compromise with
> > > the palestinian rights or teritory. Any
> > palestinian
> > > leader that agrees to any negotiations should be
> > > declared a traitor and dealt accordingly.
> > >
> > > In adition to that Muslims in US (like me) must do
> > > more to let american people know what is really
> > going
> > > on in Palestine. Does anyone have any sugestions?
> > > --- Shadi Fadda <f_shadi@...> wrote:
> >
> >
> > __________________________________________________
> > Do You Yahoo!?
> > Everything you'll ever need on one web page
> > from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts
> > http://uk.my.yahoo.com
> >
>
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now.
> http://mailplus.yahoo.com
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> f_shadi-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>
>
I disagreeIzrael and US or Palestinians
--- Shadi Fadda <f_shadi@...> wrote:
> My advise, start with with similar mailing list, and
> inform as many people
> as possible with daily action "in a non-zionist
> way"! I guess that it
> would be very good for begining from you a person!
>
> Concerning your view about "Any palestinian leader
> that agrees to any
> negotiations"! That's world politics, you must at
> least act as if being
> for peace, and make it harder for Israel to put you
> on Terrorist list!
> There have been lots of negotiation with Israelis
> since the begining of
> Intifada "but no
> agreements"!................Politics..............
>
> --- ba meho <hamo_bu@...> wrote: > We must
> not accept any
> negotiations or compromise with
> > the palestinian rights or teritory. Any
> palestinian
> > leader that agrees to any negotiations should be
> > declared a traitor and dealt accordingly.
> >
> > In adition to that Muslims in US (like me) must do
> > more to let american people know what is really
> going
> > on in Palestine. Does anyone have any sugestions?
> > --- Shadi Fadda <f_shadi@...> wrote:
>
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Everything you'll ever need on one web page
> from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts
> http://uk.my.yahoo.com
>
__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now.
http://mailplus.yahoo.com
My advise, start with with similar mailing list, and inform as many people
as possible with daily action "in a non-zionist way"! I guess that it
would be very good for begining from you a person!
Concerning your view about "Any palestinian leader that agrees to any
negotiations"! That's world politics, you must at least act as if being
for peace, and make it harder for Israel to put you on Terrorist list!
There have been lots of negotiation with Israelis since the begining of
Intifada "but no agreements"!................Politics..............
--- ba meho <hamo_bu@...> wrote: > We must not accept any
negotiations or compromise with
> the palestinian rights or teritory. Any palestinian
> leader that agrees to any negotiations should be
> declared a traitor and dealt accordingly.
>
> In adition to that Muslims in US (like me) must do
> more to let american people know what is really going
> on in Palestine. Does anyone have any sugestions?
> --- Shadi Fadda <f_shadi@...> wrote:
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Everything you'll ever need on one web page
from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts
http://uk.my.yahoo.com
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Everything you'll ever need on one web page
from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts
http://uk.my.yahoo.com
We must not accept any negotiations or compromise with
the palestinian rights or teritory. Any palestinian
leader that agrees to any negotiations should be
declared a traitor and dealt accordingly.
In adition to that Muslims in US (like me) must do
more to let american people know what is really going
on in Palestine. Does anyone have any sugestions?
--- Shadi Fadda <f_shadi@...> wrote:
>
>
> Annan Calls For ‘Third Party Involvement’ in
> Mideast Peace Process02/12/2002
>
> Palestine Media Center- (PMC)
> United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, said in
> a report released Monday at the New York-based UN
> Headquarters that third party involvement is
> essential to putting an end to the ongoing deadly
> cycle of violence in the Middle East.
> “Surely we need no further reminder of the ultimate
> futility of the present course than the hundreds of
> deaths, thousands of injuries and tens of thousands
> of grieving families and friends of the victims of
> this conflict,” Annan wrote.
> “The parties are on a path leading to further pain
> and suffering — a path that will bring neither
> closer to achieving its stated goals,” he added.
> “It is a matter of particular regret to me that so
> little remains of the mutual trust that had been so
> painstakingly built between the parties,” he pointed
> out, calling for “regular and consistent third-party
> involvement and encouragement” to help find a way
> forward.
> The Secretary General further welcomed the efforts
> of the diplomatic Quartet of peace mediators– the
> UN, United States, Russian Federation and European
> Union – which is focused on reaching an end goal of
> two democratic States, Palestine and Israel, living
> side by side in peace and security.
> While the details of the Quartet ‘roadmap’ to
> achieve a comprehensive settlement are still being
> worked out, the Secretary-General said he is “very
> encouraged by the growing involvement of the parties
> and neighboring Arab States in a direct dialogue
> with the Quartet.”
> Annan also recalled his past proposal to deploy a
> multinational force to help provide security for
> Israeli and Palestinian civilians, and to promote an
> environment conducive to the resumption of
> negotiations.
> The report also calls for action to address the
> “devastating” humanitarian conditions in the
> occupied Palestinian territory.
> While underscoring the need for a long-term solution
> to the conflict, the Secretary-General urged donors
> to fund the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine
> Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which is
> providing critical humanitarian aid to thousands of
> Palestinian refugees.
> “For its part,” he pledged, adding that “the United
> Nations will continue to support the resumption of a
> meaningful peace process and will remain at the
> forefront of efforts to alleviate the severe
> economic and social hardships of the Palestinian
> people.”
>
>
--------------------------------------------------------
>
> Israel Snubs Statements by its UN Ambassador,
> Chief of Staff on Palestinian State02/12/2002
>
> Palestine Media Center – (PMC)
> Israel’s PM Ariel Sharon and FM Benjamin Netanyahu
> were preoccupied Sunday with an embarrassing denial
> of on-record and off-record statements made in
> Washington and New York by their senior diplomatic
> and military subordinates to the effect that the
> Jewish state supports the creation of a Palestinian
> state.
> Israel's ambassador to the UN Yehuda Lancry was
> reported on Friday to have gone on record and told a
> UN General Assembly session that Israel accepted the
> principle of "two states living side by side in
> peace and security."
> Meanwhile, Israeli ‘Defense’ Forces Chief of Staff
> Moshe Ya'alon was reported to have told off-record a
> closed session of a Washington-based Middle East
> research institute that "at the end of the day, most
> of the settlements will be evacuated" and a
> Palestinian state will be established, Israel Radio
> reported Monday.
> "Sharon and Netanyahu stressed that the ambassador
> was not authorized to make such a declaration, which
> does not reflect the government's position," Israeli
> Finance Minister Silvan Shalom told reporters after
> a cabinet meeting.
> Netanyahu ordered the Foreign Ministry Sunday to
> issue an announcement according to which the
> statement made Friday by Israel's ambassador to the
> UN General Assembly on Israel's acceptance of the
> vision of "two states living side by side" was made
> on his own volition, and did not represent Israel's
> stand.
> Netanyahu coordinated the publication of the
> announcement with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on
> Sunday.
> Both the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister
> told ministers at Israel’s weekly cabinet meeting
> Sunday that the Yehuda Lancry's statement that
> Israel accepts the vision of "two states living side
> by side in peace and security" as a basis for a
> peace deal with the Palestinians, was not made with
> their agreement.
> Sharon said he did not know who had authorized
> Lancry to speak to the matter, and he asked
> Netanyahu to look into the issue. The foreign
> minister said he had ordered his people to begin a
> probe.
> Lancry's on-record announcement was the first time
> any official Israeli representative had explicitly
> used the "two states for two peoples" formula.
> Hitherto, Israeli officials have always said merely
> that they accept the principles outlined in US
> President George Bush's June 24 speech, but without
> elaborating on these principles.
> Lancry made the statement during the General
> Assembly's annual debate on the Palestinian issue on
> Friday, and his remarks were included in the UN's
> official protocols.
> A spokesman for Israel’s foreign ministry confirmed
> Lancry's declaration, adding that the ambassador had
> merely reiterated Israel's support for US President
> George W. Bush's position on the conflict, AFP
> reported on Sunday.
> Bush has repeatedly said since a key policy address
> last June that his administration backs the creation
> of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
> But Israel has not yet officially formulated its
> position on a US-backed ‘roadmap’ for peace that
> envisions the establishment of a Palestinian state
> alongside Israel by the end of 2005.
> While Sharon has voiced his support for the creation
> of a Palestinian state, albeit only on part of the
> Palestinian territory occupied by Israeli since
> 1967, the Jewish state has ruled out endorsement of
> the US-backed plan at least until after its January
> 28 general election.
> Netanyahu, for his part, is firmly opposed to any
> Palestinian state.
> Lancry, a former ambassador to France, was appointed
> to represent his country at the UN in 1999 by the
> then center-left Labor government.
> Refuting the off-record statements made by the
> Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon was left to
> Israel’s army.
> “Senior IDF officials rejected Monday the statements
> made by Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon before a closed
> session of a Washington-based Middle East research
> institute on the evacuation of settlements and
> establishment of a Palestinian state,” Israel Radio
> reported Monday.
> Ya'alon said that both the Israelis and Palestinians
> know that "at the end of the day, most of the
> settlements will be evacuated."
> Ya'alon's statement, made last week during a
> discussion at the Washington Institute for Near East
> Policy, came during a question-and-answer session.
> It did not include details about the future he
> expected for the settlements or the political
> circumstances surrounding the evacuations.
> Sharon’s determination to deny on record and
> publicly the statements by his top diplomatic and
> military subordinates contradicts his own recent
> statements supporting the creation of a Palestinian
> state and goes contrary to US President Bush’s
> vision of a two-state solution to the
> Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> With Yahoo! Mail you can get a bigger mailbox --
> choose a size that fits your needs
>
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Annan Calls For ‘Third Party Involvement’ in Mideast Peace Process
02/12/2002
Palestine Media Center- (PMC)
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, said in a report released Monday at the New York-based UN Headquarters that third party involvement is essential to putting an end to the ongoing deadly cycle of violence in the Middle East.
“Surely we need no further reminder of the ultimate futility of the present course than the hundreds of deaths, thousands of injuries and tens of thousands of grieving families and friends of the victims of this conflict,” Annan wrote.
“The parties are on a path leading to further pain and suffering — a path that will bring neither closer to achieving its stated goals,” he added.
“It is a matter of particular regret to me that so little remains of the mutual trust that had been so painstakingly built between the parties,” he pointed out, calling for “regular and consistent third-party involvement and encouragement” to help find a way forward.
The Secretary General further welcomed the efforts of the diplomatic Quartet of peace mediators– the UN, United States, Russian Federation and European Union – which is focused on reaching an end goal of two democratic States, Palestine and Israel, living side by side in peace and security.
While the details of the Quartet ‘roadmap’ to achieve a comprehensive settlement are still being worked out, the Secretary-General said he is “very encouraged by the growing involvement of the parties and neighboring Arab States in a direct dialogue with the Quartet.”
Annan also recalled his past proposal to deploy a multinational force to help provide security for Israeli and Palestinian civilians, and to promote an environment conducive to the resumption of negotiations.
The report also calls for action to address the “devastating” humanitarian conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory.
While underscoring the need for a long-term solution to the conflict, the Secretary-General urged donors to fund the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which is providing critical humanitarian aid to thousands of Palestinian refugees.
“For its part,” he pledged, adding that “the United Nations will continue to support the resumption of a meaningful peace process and will remain at the forefront of efforts to alleviate the severe economic and social hardships of the Palestinian people.”
Israel Snubs Statements by its UN Ambassador, Chief of Staff on Palestinian State
02/12/2002
Palestine Media Center – (PMC)
Israel’s PM Ariel Sharon and FM Benjamin Netanyahu were preoccupied Sunday with an embarrassing denial of on-record and off-record statements made in Washington and New York by their senior diplomatic and military subordinates to the effect that the Jewish state supports the creation of a Palestinian state.
Israel's ambassador to the UN Yehuda Lancry was reported on Friday to have gone on record and told a UN General Assembly session that Israel accepted the principle of "two states living side by side in peace and security."
Meanwhile, Israeli ‘Defense’ Forces Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon was reported to have told off-record a closed session of a Washington-based Middle East research institute that "at the end of the day, most of the settlements will be evacuated" and a Palestinian state will be established, Israel Radio reported Monday.
"Sharon and Netanyahu stressed that the ambassador was not authorized to make such a declaration, which does not reflect the government's position," Israeli Finance Minister Silvan Shalom told reporters after a cabinet meeting.
Netanyahu ordered the Foreign Ministry Sunday to issue an announcement according to which the statement made Friday by Israel's ambassador to the UN General Assembly on Israel's acceptance of the vision of "two states living side by side" was made on his own volition, and did not represent Israel's stand.
Netanyahu coordinated the publication of the announcement with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Sunday.
Both the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister told ministers at Israel’s weekly cabinet meeting Sunday that the Yehuda Lancry's statement that Israel accepts the vision of "two states living side by side in peace and security" as a basis for a peace deal with the Palestinians, was not made with their agreement.
Sharon said he did not know who had authorized Lancry to speak to the matter, and he asked Netanyahu to look into the issue. The foreign minister said he had ordered his people to begin a probe.
Lancry's on-record announcement was the first time any official Israeli representative had explicitly used the "two states for two peoples" formula. Hitherto, Israeli officials have always said merely that they accept the principles outlined in US President George Bush's June 24 speech, but without elaborating on these principles.
Lancry made the statement during the General Assembly's annual debate on the Palestinian issue on Friday, and his remarks were included in the UN's official protocols.
A spokesman for Israel’s foreign ministry confirmed Lancry's declaration, adding that the ambassador had merely reiterated Israel's support for US President George W. Bush's position on the conflict, AFP reported on Sunday.
Bush has repeatedly said since a key policy address last June that his administration backs the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
But Israel has not yet officially formulated its position on a US-backed ‘roadmap’ for peace that envisions the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel by the end of 2005.
While Sharon has voiced his support for the creation of a Palestinian state, albeit only on part of the Palestinian territory occupied by Israeli since 1967, the Jewish state has ruled out endorsement of the US-backed plan at least until after its January 28 general election.
Netanyahu, for his part, is firmly opposed to any Palestinian state.
Lancry, a former ambassador to France, was appointed to represent his country at the UN in 1999 by the then center-left Labor government.
Refuting the off-record statements made by the Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon was left to Israel’s army.
“Senior IDF officials rejected Monday the statements made by Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon before a closed session of a Washington-based Middle East research institute on the evacuation of settlements and establishment of a Palestinian state,” Israel Radio reported Monday.
Ya'alon said that both the Israelis and Palestinians know that "at the end of the day, most of the settlements will be evacuated."
Ya'alon's statement, made last week during a discussion at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, came during a question-and-answer session. It did not include details about the future he expected for the settlements or the political circumstances surrounding the evacuations.
Sharon’s determination to deny on record and publicly the statements by his top diplomatic and military subordinates contradicts his own recent statements supporting the creation of a Palestinian state and goes contrary to US President Bush’s vision of a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
UN Demands Israel Punish Soldiers Responsible for Relief Worker’s Killing
30/11/2002
Palestine Media Center – (PMC)
Israeli relations with the UN faced a further downslide, as the world organization demanded the Jewish state punish soldiers responsible for the killing of one of its top relief officials in the West Bank town of Jenin.
Iain Hook, a 53-year-old British national was shot dead by Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in Jenin refugee camp last Friday. Hook was working for UNRWA, a UN body responsible for aiding Palestinian refugees, on a project to rebuild the Jenin refugee camp, which was almost totally leveled by IOF during an April onslaught.
In a letter over the killing of Hook sent to Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, said he “expected Israel to carry out a rigorous investigation of the incident, share its results with the United Nations and hold accountable those responsible,” a UN spokesman said on Friday.
Israeli officials claimed clashes erupted between IOF soldiers and Palestinian gunmen shooting from inside the UN compound. The UN refuted that claim saying no one without proper authorization was allowed inside the clearly marked compound surrounded by gates.
Israel also previously said a preliminary inquiry showed that Hook was killed by mistake, when he emerged out of his tailor carrying what a soldier mistook for a gun. Israel then said the soldier thought it was a hand grenade. The gun and hand grenade turned out to be nothing but a mobile phone hook was using to evacuate his staff.
IOF Bury elderly Man under Rubble of his House in Renewed Gaza Strip Raid
01/12/2002
Palestine Media Center- (PMC)
Amidst tears and sorrow over the deaths of a Palestinian child and a toddler killed in cold blood by Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in Gaza City and Hebron, columns of tanks and armored personnel carriers thrust into the Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia overnight, killing two Palestinians and injuring at least a dozen others.
Backed by two Apache helicopter gunships, IOF soldiers stormed the town at mid-night and killed two Palestinians, security sources said Sunday.
A 32-year-old man, Mahmoud Saleh Al Narani, was shot dead when IOF raided the northern Gaza Strip town under a barrage of indiscriminate, heavy gunfire. Medical sources at Shifa Hospital in Gaza said than man’s body was riddled with bullets.
Witnesses reported machine-gun fire and firing from helicopters, which were dispersed across residential neighborhoods, causing alarm amidst civilians to say the least and causing damage to several homes. It also knocked out the town’s power transformer, swallowing entire neighborhoods in total darkness.
An elderly man was meanwhile found dead under the rubble of his home, which IOF dynamited while he was still inside, Palestinian medical sources said.
Ashur Salem Deeb, a 70-year-old with speech and hearing impairment, was found crushed under the debris of his home by Palestinian civil emergency workers and neighbors after the army blew up three buildings Israel says belong to activists, sources said.
The elderly man was inside his 6- story house when IOF threatened to demolish it. Sources say the man was not given enough time to evacuate the building. It was leveled to the ground with him inside. Neighbors speculated he had not heard the army call over loudspeakers for people to vacate their homes.
Meanwhile, IOF dynamited another two houses, which it says belonged to Palestinian activists, who had carried out attacks on Israelis.
Wires reported dazed residents gazing at the rubble, most barefoot and in pajamas in the dust, some sobbing.
Human rights groups have repeatedly denounced this policy as collective punishment since it renders entire families homeless.
Hours before the deadly Saturday-night incursion, IOF shot dead a 16-year-old Palestinian boy on his way home from school in Gaza City, Palestinian medical sources said.
The sources said Hatem Al-Ajla was struck in the back by bullets fired by IOF soldiers.
Earlier on Thursday, a three-year-old toddler was killed by IOF in the city of Hebron, south of the West Bank.
Eyewitnesses said the victim, identified as Abbas Al-Atrash, was standing near the window of his house in the Abu Sneineh neighborhood when Israeli occupation troops opened heavy gunfire, wounding the boy in the abdomen and killing him instantly.
Three other Palestinians were lightly wounded by Israeli fire in the town of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, according to medical sources.
The Palestine Monitor,
A PNGO Information Clearinghouse
Last week in Palestine #1
22-28 November 2002
The events of the past week in Palestine vary little from the previous
weeks. Israeli forces have continued to invade towns and villages in the
Gaza Strip and those surrounding the larger cities in the West Bank,
randomly opening fire on, and killing civilians, demolishing homes,
razing agricultural land, and collectively punishing an entire population with a suffocating closure, and continuous curfews.
More than 30 tanks and 70 armoured vehicles, bulldozers and helicopters
invaded Bethlehem on the 23rd of November, with residents of that city
andthe outlying towns of Beit Jala, Beit Shaour and the villages of
Al-Khader, Irtas and Al-Doha placed under curfew. Several houses were blown up in the invasion, leaving dozens of people homeless.
Israeli soldiers killed nine Palestinians, including three children who
were shot in the head or chest. Another victim was 24-year-old Palestinian,
Jihad Muhammad Musallam An-Natour from Askar refugee camp in Nablus. He was
walking through the camp waking the inhabitants so they could eat before
the daily fast of the holy month of Ramadan began. According to residents the area was quiet and not under curfew – when at about 3am they heard
Jihad calling and then immediately after heard gunshots. He too died from
shots to his chest and head.
Troops also invaded several areas of the Gaza Strip, with residential
areas such as Deir Al-Balah, and parts of Rafah and Khan Younis. This
aggression was mirrored in invasions of the villages in the Nablus area.
The military uses these invasions as opportunities to destroy agricultural land and appropriate land. Villagers from Azmout east of Nablus, near the illegal Israeli settlement of Allon Moriah, report a five-kilometre ditch was dug under military protection. The newly dug ditch, which is four meters wide and three meters deep will meet another ditch which was made around the villages of Salam, Beit Dajan, Deir Al-Hattab and Beit Fouriq.
This occurs while Israeli construction of the separation wall continues –
two examples of Israel’s continuing land appropriation, creating more
“facts on the ground” and dispossessing thousands of Palestinians of their
lands and livelihood.
Palestinians killed this week: 9
Total number of Palestinians killed since September 2000: 2044
For more information contact The Palestine Monitor +972 2 2985372 or
+972 (0)59 387087 and see www.palestinemonitor.org
Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2002 3:05 PM
Subject: GEORGE W. in the OVAL OFFICE
Playwright Jim Sherman wrote this today after Hu
Jintao was named chief of the Communist Party in China.
HU'S ON FIRST
By James Sherman
(We take you now to the Oval Office. "W" meets with Condolisa Rice)
George: Condi! Nice to see you. What's happening?
Condi: Sir, I have the report here about the new leader of China.
George: Great. Lay it on me.
Condi: Hu is the new leader of China.
George: That's what I want to know.
Condi: That's what I'm telling you.
George: That's what I'm asking you. Who is the new leader of China?
Condi: Yes.
George: I mean the fellow's name.
Condi: Hu.
George: The guy in China.
Condi: Hu.
George: The new leader of China.
Condi: Hu.
George: The Chinaman!
Condi: Hu is leading China.
George: Now whaddya' asking me for?
Condi: I'm telling you Hu is leading China.
George: Well, I'm asking you. Who is leading China?
Condi: That's the man's name.
George: That's who's name?
Condi: Yes.
George: Will you or will you not tell me the name of the new leader of
China?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir? Yassir Arafat is in China? I thought he was
in the Middle East.
Condi: That's correct.
George: Then who is in China?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir is in China?
Condi: No, sir.
George: Then who is?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir?
Condi: No, sir.
George: Look, Condi. I need to know the name of the new leader of China.
Get me the Secretary General of the U.N. on the phone.
Condi: Kofi?
George: No, thanks.
Condi: You want Kofi?
George: No.
Condi: You don't want Kofi.
George: No. But now that you mention it, I could use a glass of milk. And
then get me the U.N.
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Not Yassir! The guy at the U.N.
Condi: Kofi?
George: Milk! Will you please make the call?
Condi: And call who?
George: Who is the guy at the U.N?
Condi: Hu is the guy in China.
George: Will you stay out of China?!
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: And stay out of the Middle East! Just get me the guy at the U.N.
Condi: Kofi.
George: All right! With cream and two sugars. Now get on the phone.
(Condi picks up the phone.)
Condi: Rice, here.
George: Rice? Good idea. And a couple of egg rolls, too. Maybe we should
send some to the guy in China. And the Middle East. Can you get Chinese
food in the Middle East?
__________________________________________________
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Fact-finding Peace Activists Banned from reaching Settlements in Hebron
28/11/2002
Palestine Media Center- (PMC)
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) prevented Wednesday a group from the Israeli anti-settlement movement Peace Now from visiting an area in the West Bank city of Hebron where Jewish settlers are building new outposts in violation of international law.
According to organizers of the visit, 25 anti-settlement activists were met by a large number of Israeli police at the “Gush Etzion” junction, who prevented them from continuing their trip.
The fact-finding panel wanted “to inspect the facts on the ground built virtually overnight by the settlers in Hebron,” according to a Peace Now statement issued on Tuesday night.
“The settlers have openly declared that they were taking matters in their own hands and implementing (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon’s proposal to expand the Hebron settlements,” the statement added.
Earlier this month, Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon told the army in Hebron to oust Palestinians and establish what he called demographic “territorial [Jewish] continuity” between the illegal settlement of “Kiryat Arba” and the small Jewish settlement enclave piercing the heart of the Old City.
In effect, Sharon had called for a de facto annexation of Palestinian land to link the area colonized by Jewish settlers in the Old City with the nearby illegal settlement in the West Bank City of Hebron, to include Al-Haram Al-Ibrahimi, which Jews refer to as the tomb of the Patriarchs.
The international community regards all Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as illegal and rogue outposts are also considered illegal under Israeli law.
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed a Palestinian civilian near Bethlehem City on Wednesday. IOF also shelled several neighborhoods located in the Gaza strip, damaging a number of citizens’ homes.
Citizen Killed by IOF in Bethlehem
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) shot dead Wednesday a Palestinian civilian east of the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Palestinian security sources said.
Palestinian medical sources confirmed that Atiyya Rabaya, 33, was killed on Wednesday after being shot in the head with a live bullet.
Israeli occupation soldiers stationed at a checkpoint near Al-Ebedeyyeh village, east of Bethlehem, opened fire at Rabaya while he was traveling in a car, eyewitnesses said.
Israeli soldiers opened machine gun fire on a civilian car, killing Rabaya who was setting in the back chair, eyewitness spoke on a condition of anonymity.
Rabaya was shot in the head and bled intensively. Israeli soldiers held the ambulance, which came to evacuate Rabaya, an eyewitness added.
Two Civilians Wounded in Ramallah
In the city of Ramallah, one Palestinian civilian was injured on Wednesday as Israeli occupation soldiers critically beat them at Qalandia roadblock, Palestine News Agency (WAFA) reported.
Witnesses said Israeli soldiers assaulted the citizen, Mohammed Abu Makhu, who was trying to pass the checkpoint with his family.
A Palestinian medical source said Abu Makhu was injured in the scalp and suffered bruises due to severe beating.
IOF Shell Gaza Homes
According to Palestinian security sources, IOF shelled several neighborhoods, located in the Gaza Strip city of Beit Lahia on Thursday.
Sources added that the intensive Israeli shelling caused severe damage to a number of homes. Fortunately, there were no casualties, they added.
A similar attack took place east of Deir Al-Balah city as Israeli tanks fired several shells at residents’ homes located in Al-Mazraa and Al-Mahata neighborhoods.
The Israeli shelling damaged a number of homes and terrified the residents, witnesses added.
Number of Palestinian Civilians Killed By IOF: (1952)*
Number of Palestinians Wounded by IOF: (> 21,117)*
To sell gas masks to Kuwait for civilian distribution
By Amnon Barzilai, Haaretz Correspondent
Israel is prepared to sell 2 million gas mask to Kuwait, which will be distributed to its citizens in case of an Iraqi attack on the country, the Defense Ministry has decided after consolations with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Foreign Ministry.
If the $ 82 million deal comes through, the Shalon company from Kiryat Gat will supply the gas masks.
The contacts for the gas mask deal were carried out by mediators and Kuwaiti businessman who approached the Shalon company – the sole manufacturer of Symplex gas masks provided to all Israeli residents. The security exports department of the Defense Ministry allowed Shalon to sell gas masks to Kuwait after a series of talks.
Kuwait’s interest in gas masks is due to its fear of being attacked with chemical weapons by Iraq in case of a U.S. attack on Baghdad.
Defense Ministry officials said that gas masks are considered as weapons only if they are used by military forces, bus because Kuwait will distribute the masks to civilians, the masks will be considered to be civilian equipment.
Ha’aretz discovered that it is doubtful whether Shalon will be able to supply the masks to Kuwait on time. The Home Front command recently received a special budget to buy 300,000 gas masks to prevent a shortage of masks in the command’s emergency stores, and Shalon had to hire additional manpower to manufacture this amount.
Sources in the company said the deal was not secured, and that it is possible that Shalon will manufacture only some of the masks and Kuwait will have to find other sources of supply.
Palestine is Still The Issue
by Don't Let It Go • Friday November 15, 2002 at 07:01 AM
The war of Iraq is actually partially a cover to get people to "forget"
about Palestine, to get distracted about the crimes against humanity that
are happening everyday to the Palestinians by the Zionist Jewish Israelis,
courtesy of our US tax dollars.
Remember when every single time you turned on the the news, there were
debates going on about is happening in Palestine-Israel? And there were
news shows that actually showed some footage of what kinds of things the
Israeli Defense Force aka the Israeli Destruction Force, were doing?
Bulldozing homes, dropping bombs on full apartment buildings, killing
Palestinians indiscriminately?
Guess what? All that massive destruction and abuse of human rights is
still happening every day to the Palestinians at the hands of the
Israelis. It has not stopped. Obviously, the news networks not only are
under pressure from Jewish Zionist groups not to highlight the Jewish
Zionist Israeli crimes against humanity, but perhaps they think it is
getting a bit ho-hum. After all, it is the same old, same old.
This is part of the strategy of the Jewish Zionists. They relentlessly
continue on their path of destruction, relentlessly lying about it along
the way, just to wear everyone down so that eventually everyone will be
weary of the whole thing and throw their hands up in apathic despair. And
guess what? This strategy has worked for 54 years, thanks to people being
so afraid of being called "anti-semitic" and worse. However, Pandora's box
has been opened. The can of worms has been opened.
The Palestine issue is not going back into the box. We all have to make
sure of that.
American Jews should renounce their right to return to Israel until all
the Palestinian refugees are allowed their right to return as according to
UN Resolutions, international law and world opinion; and they must be
allowed equal rights. Jewish supremacism is just as bad as white
supremacism.
__________________________________________________
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ATTENTION!!!!!!!!
IF YOU DON’T USUALLY READ MY MESSAGES,TRY READING THIS ONE……
Note that you have to be 100% Lebanese to understand.
From some 2 months 3,I recognized a girl in the tooth of the elephant.
She was other look and like the moon! Burn her religion what beautiful. I tried to touch her pulse to see if there is space and it appeared that she is interested.
The first day I talked her on the phone and the second day she invited me on the lunch.
I asked her "what she kitchenized?",she said "some of his mother’s yoghurt on the walking". I liked her project and before I arrived to her ,I went to the Milker and bought some lady’s arms and some "eat and say thank you".
She opened me the door and when she saw the handsome in my hands she said "yiiiiiii! Your hands be safe, why torture yourself my uncle?.
While we are eating ,rang the doorbell. She opened the door and entered her old boyfriend. He asked her "who is he?", she said "not your entry".
I knew straight he wanted to problemize it.
He said "my eye on you and on him,I will count god not create you!" .
I said "look,my head does not carry me , break the evil before the gypsy milk goes up huh! Go page the sea and bleach from my face now!"
The man felt on his blood and left the room . in the truth ,he poisoned my body very much, but the girl gave breakfast to my nerves. She said "don’t carry worry, my life don’t carry worry, put your hands in cpld water".
I told her "like my foot,don’t get a mind,tell me,are you empty tonight?"she said "yes,I emptify myself for you?.
I told her "thank you my love, you are very digestable".
ADC Press Release:
ADC Urges President Bush to Reject Israel's Request for More Aid
Washington, DC, November 26--The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination
Committee (ADC) today urged the Bush Administration to deny a new
request by the Sharon government for $14 billion in additional military
assistance and loan guarantees. Dov Weisglass, Sharon’s bureau chief,
and Ohad Marani, director general of the Israeli Finance Ministry, made
the Israeli request yesterday in a meeting with National Security
Advisor Condoleezza Rice. The aid request by Israel includes $4 billion
in military assistance and $10 billion in U.S. loan guarantees.
ADC President Ziad J. Asali and Executive Vice President Khalil E.
Jahshan expressed deep concern to President Bush over news reports that
the Administration is rushing through its evaluation of the Israeli
request without serious consideration of its negative political
implications for the U.S. national interests. Israeli sources stated
today that the Administration promised Prime Minister Sharon to quickly
approve his request “with minor changes.”
Asali and Jahshan took issue with the Administration’s rationale for
recent increase in U.S. aid to Israel based on threats emanating from
the proliferation of arms in the region and risks undertaken by the
Sharon government in the pursuit of peace. The ADC officials described
Israel as “the most serious violator in terms of the proliferation of
both conventional arms and weapons of mass destruction throughout the
region.” They quoted from today’s Ha’aretz about Israel’s decision
yesterday not to join the “new International Code of Conduct aimed at
blocking proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic
missile technology.”
The ADC letter also challenged the Administration’s assessment that
Sharon has taken substantial risks in the pursuit of peace. Asali and
Jahshan reminded President Bush that Sharon has persistently rejected
the President’s appeals to withdraw Israeli troops from Palestinian
cities, ease up restrictions on Palestinian civilians, freeze illegal
Jewish settlement activity, and transfer to the Palestinian Authority
tax revenues withheld by the Israeli government. They reminded
President Bush that rewarding Sharon’s hard-line policies at this
critical juncture “will not contribute to your vision of two independent
states living side by side in peace and security.”
=================================
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
4201 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Suite 300
Washington, D.C. 20008, U.S.A.
Tel: (202) 244-2990, Fax: (202) 244-3196
E-mail: adc@...
Web : http://www.adc.org
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The Palestine Monitor
A PNGO Information Clearinghouse
UPDATE
25 November 2002
Eight-year-old boy murdered by Israeli soldiers
Jihad Tahsin al-Faqeh , 8 years old, was murdered by Israeli forces in
Nablus today while on his way back from school. Jihad was shot in the
head,
killing him instantly, while he was with children who were throwing stones
at Israeli tanks.
Another 13 people were injured today during clashes in several parts of
Nablus. One of them was Mohain Renawi, 20, who was shot in the head and is
now in critical condition.
Israeli forces have now killed 383 children since the start of the current
intifada in September 2000, in complete contravention of international
law.
For more information contact: The Palestine Monitor
+972 (0)2 298 5372 or +972 (0)59 387 087
www.palestinemonitor.org
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*****************
HEAR PALESTINE
*****************
Sunday, 17 November 2002
**Israeli Soldiers Kill Palestinian Shepherd in Cold Blood, Qalqilya
**Wide-Scale Military Operation in Hebron, 7 Homes Demolished
**Israeli Helicopters Strike Khan Younis at Dawn
**Israeli Army Invades Jenin Residential Areas
**2 Homes Demolished in Balata Refugee Camp, Nablus
**Hundreds of Dunums of Land Bulldozed North Qalqilya
**5 Civilians Wounded in Tulkarem
*********************************************************************
Following a tour to the location of the exchange of fire that took
place in Hebron the night before last, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon and Israeli Minister of Defense Shaoul Mofaz held a meeting
yesterday to discuss security measures before the weekly Israeli
ministerial meeting (that took place today).
The Israeli daily newspaper 'Yediot Ahronot' reported that Sharon
told military officers in the area during the tour that the
opportunity must be taken advantage of in order to link 'Kiryat
Arba'' settlement to Hebron. The Israeli Prime Minister was quoted as
saying, "It is better to have less Palestinian presence in the area
as little as possible in order to offer more security to the
Jewish residents."
Israeli Defense Minister Shaoul Mofaz held an emergency meeting with
military officers to discuss ways for retaliation.
'Yediot Ahronot' quoted Israeli political sources as saying that no
pressure is being exerted by the United States on Israel to prevent
it from military operations in the Palestinian territories and that
no conditions or limitations are imposed on Israel.
Mofaz approved last night the demolition of homes of all those
related to the operation as well as all homes that "impose a security
threat along the road used by Jewish worshipers". Mofaz also ordered
the enforcement and the widening of the road used by Jewish settlers
in the area.
In other words, the Israeli Prime Minister and Minister of Defense
gave the green line for 'ethnic cleansing' and 'transfer' in Hebron.
Major military reinforcements were carried out in Hebron yesterday,
where a curfew continued to be imposed on the residents. Over 50
people were arrested during home raids and searches. 7 homes have
been demolished so far and an unidentified number of Palestinians
were wounded in random Israeli military attacks, while ambulances are
prevented from movement. The Israeli military operation in Hebron is
expected to continue for several days.
At the same time, groups of extremist settlers under the protection
of soldiers brutally destroyed Palestinian property in the city last
night as well as looted shops, banks and the jewelry market.
*********************************************************************
*Israeli Soldiers Kill Palestinian Shepherd in Cold Blood, Qalqilya*
Israeli occupation soldiers shot dead Mousa al-Maharik (65 years old)
last night after raiding the shepherd's tent near Azoun town, to the
east of Qalqilya.
Occupation soldiers shot the shepherd from a short distance for no
reason, wounding him critically and then left the elderly man to
bleed for over one hour, which led to his death, according to
medical sources.
******************************
*Wide-Scale Military Operation in Hebron, 7 Homes Demolished*
The Israeli occupation army began a wide-scale military operation in
Hebron last night supported by dozens of tanks and armored machinery.
Residents in the city reported that Apache helicopters took part in
the invasion, which came under intense heavy fire from tanks directed
at residential areas near 'Kiryat Arba'' settlement.
Dozens of people are left without refuge after occupation military
forces blew up their homes in Hebron and Yatta town, south of Hebron.
The Israeli army demolished 7 homes so far:
- The home of Nour Jaber in Jaber residential quarter
- The home of Muhammad Sidir in Qaizoun area'
- The home of Misbah al-Haimouni in Wadi al-Hariya
- The home of Abdel Mu'ti al-Muhtasib in Wadi al-Karam
- The home of Thiyab al-Muhtasib in Wadi al-Karam area
- The home of Amer al-Muhrasib in Wadi al-Karam area
- The home of Khalil Abu Arim in Yatta town
Occupation military forces also carried out a campaign of random
arrests during home raids and searches. At least 50 people were
arrested.
The residents of Hebron are placed under a tight curfew.
Dozens of armed settlers walked through the streets of Hebron last
night repeating racist slogans and waged attacks against homes and
property in the city as well as carried out acts of theft under the
protection of Israeli soldiers.
The residents in the city fear an escalation by the settlers in the
coming days.
The Israeli army handed over 3 Palestinians killed in the city the
day before last. Two were identified:
- Akram al-Hanini (20 years old)
- Walaa Surour (21 years old)
******************************
*Israeli Helicopters Strike Khan Younis at Dawn*
Israeli Apache helicopters waged an attack on two industrial
workshops in residential areas in the city of Khan Younis, south Gaza
Strip, after midnight.
The helicopters fired 8 rockets at 2 workshops that belong to
residents in the area. One of the workshops owned by the Farina
family was shelled twice in 3 months.
Electricity was cut off in various parts of the city as a result of
the attack.
Several workshops were shelled in the past few days in the Gaza
Strip. 3 were demolished in Gaza City.
Palestinian observers confirmed that the pretexts used by Israel to
target civilian workshops in the Gaza Strip are imaginary and come
within the continuous Israeli attacks waged against the Palestinian
people, their property and infrastructure.
******************************
*Israeli Army Invades Jenin Residential Areas*
The Israeli army tightened the imposed closure on Jenin city today,
preventing all movement to and from the city. Military reinforcements
were carried out on roads and junctions surrounding Jenin city.
Israeli tanks this morning invaded al-Zahraa residential quarter in
the city and intentionally caused destruction to property and the
infrastructure. The residents reported that Israeli military forces
continue to invade the residential quarter on an intermittent basis.
Israeli soldiers later in the day arrested 3 residents from the
eastern residential quarter in the city during a raid of a block of
flats.
******************************
*2 Homes Demolished in Balata Refugee Camp, Nablus*
The occupation army at dawn today demolished 2 homes in Balata
refugee camp. The homes are those of the deceased Isma'il Atallah and
Khaled Sawalhi.
The city of Nablus continues to be placed under tight curfew for the
second week running with a heavy Israeli military presence
throughout the city.
Several homes continue to be occupied and transferred into military
bases, while the inhabitants are either forced out of their homes or
into small spaces without food, water or electricity.
******************************
*Hundreds of Dunums of Land Bulldozed North Qalqilya*
The Israeli occupation army today bulldozed hundreds of dunums of
agricultural land north of Qalqilya city for the sake of the
establishment of what is referred to as the "Security Wall".
Dozens of citrus trees and green houses were demolished on a strip 3
kilometers long and 100 meters wide.
6000 dunums of the most fertile land have been confiscated under the
same pretext so far as well as 19 water wells.
******************************
*5 Civilians Wounded in Tulkarem*
5 Palestinian civilians were wounded last night in the city of
Tulkarem when Israeli military forces opened machine gun fire towards
a civilian car and at residents in the center of the city.
----------------------------------
Hear Palestine is a free press service offering daily mailings from
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