Palestinian unity deal signed in Egypt, but questions remain

Mondiweiss

by Kate on May 3, 2011

Palestinian factions sign unity deal in Cairo

CAIRO (AFP) 3 May -- Palestinian factions gathered in Cairo on Tuesday signed a reconciliation deal that will pave the way for elections within a year, an AFP correspondent said. Representatives of 13 factions, including President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party and its rival Hamas, as well as independent political figures inked the deal following talks with Egyptian officials. A formal signing ceremony will be held on Wednesday, and will be attended by Hamas chief Khalid Mash‘al and President Mahmoud Abbas ... "We signed the deal despite several reservations. But we insisted on working for the higher national interest," said Walid Al-Awad, a politburo member of the leftist Palestine People's Party ... The deal largely maintains the status quo, leaving Hamas in control of the Gaza Strip and the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority ruling the West Bank ... Commenting on the nature of the new union, Fayyad said sides had already determined that violence should not be used as a means of struggle against Israel's occupation.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad pledge to honor truce with Israel under unity government

(AP) 3 May -- Hamas officials said Monday that the Islamist militant group would honor an unofficial truce with Israel after forming a new unity government with Palestinian rivals from the West Bank ... Officials also said that Islamic Jihad, which has fired barrages of rockets and mortar shells at Israel in recent years, had agreed to honor the truce as well ... Although Hamas has insisted it will not change its stance on recognizing Israel, security officials from the organization said on Tuesday that militants have agreed to hold their fire after the new government is formed. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the cease-fire is not officially part of the deal.

Smaller Palestinian factions endorse reconciliation deal, prompting Israeli warning

CAIRO - Fifteen Palestinian factions, including militant Islamic groups, endorsed a reconciliation deal Tuesday meant to end a four-year rift between the two major Palestinian political movements, Hamas and Fatah. The declaration paved the way for the two groups to sign the agreement on Wednesday, then form a unity caretaker government to prepare for national elections next year. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a last-minute appeal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to cancel the impending unity deal, which he called a "hard blow to the peace process."

Text of the agreement between Fatah and Hamas

Pal. Monitor 3 May -- Translated by Al Mubadara, the Palestinian National Initiative, this document is currently in the process of being signed by all of Palestine’s factions and parties.

but...

PA rounds up 4 Hamas men in West Bank, summons dozens

WEST BANK, (PIC) 3 May -- Palestinian Authority security forces rounded up four Hamas men and summoned dozens for questioning including women as Fatah and Hamas politicians near the signing of a national reconciliation deal in Cairo. PA security chiefs have openly rejected the agreement between parties ruling Palestine and vowed to continue targeting Hamas in the West Bank, as it sees the group as a security threat to the Israelis.

In a related development, security agencies in Nablus have brought 19 men in Al-Juneid prison to a military tribunal where it was ruled that their trials would be postponed until June 12.

Abunimah: "Text" of Hamas-Fatah deal emerges and it doesn’t look good

Palestine Monitor, the website affiliated with the Al Mubadara movement of Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, has published what it says is the “Text Of The Agreement Between Fatah And Hamas” to be officially signed in Cairo this week. If this text is genuine – and while the source is trustworthy there is no way to verify that it is genuine – then it shows the questions I raised about the agreement when it was first announced last week are no closer to being answered.
And more news from Today in Palestine:

PM urges Abbas to cancel Hamas agreement

Ynet 3 May -- Netanyahu continues to press Palestinian president day before formal signing of Fatah-Hamas reconciliation deal

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4064061,00.html

Netanyahu to lobby UK, France over Palestinian state

JERUSALEM (AFP) 3 May -- When Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu visits Britain and France this week, he will point to a Hamas-Fatah reconciliation deal as part of his fight to head off UN recognition of a Palestinian state.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=384449

Palestinian PM's future uncertain as Hamas and Fatah move toward unity

AP 3 May -- The ouster of internationally respected Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad could cost the Palestinians millions of dollars in aid; Hamas claims Fayyad is a tool of the West ... Both Fatah and Hamas don't want Fayyad as prime minister, said Hani Masri, a Palestinian independent who has been mediating between the factions. Nothing is impossible in politics, but so far Fayyad is not the preference of either side. .
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/palestinian-pm-s-future-uncertain-as-hamas-and-fatah-move-toward-unity-1.359582

Palestinian government workers face pay cuts after Israel freezes tax money

Reuters 3 May -- Israel withholds transfer of $105 million in customs duties and other levies it collects on behalf of the PA, fearing the money would fall into the hands of Hamas; PM Fayyad says PA won't be able to pay wages unless Israel releases the funds ... But many believe the surprise agreement between President Mahmoud Abbas' secular Fatah faction and Hamas Islamists in Gaza will be worth the price if it brings statehood closer.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/palestinian-government-workers-face-pay-cuts-after-israel-freezes-tax-money-1.359595?localLinksEnabled=false

Land, property, resources theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Apartheid / Settlers

IOA exiles Jerusalemite woman from Sheikh Jarrah zone for 5 days

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC) 3 May -- The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) decided on Monday to exile a Jerusalemite woman called Maysoun Al-Ghawi from Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood for five days on allegation of assaulting Jewish settlers. The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) had detained Ghawi at Qalandiya checkpoint, north of occupied Jerusalem, as she was with her three-year old daughter and a relative on her way back home after a visit to a relative of hers in Kafr Akeb [Kafr ‘Aqab] town.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcO

Settlers set fire to Huwwara prayer hall

NABLUS (Ma‘an) 3 May -- Ultra-orthodox Jewish Israeli settlers raided the northern west Bank town of Huwwara in the early hours of Tuesday morning and according to residents set fire a prayer hall in the local school ...

Locals reported the incident after hundreds of settlers entered the northern West Bank city of Nablus heading to Joseph's Tomb for prayer.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=384221

Coordinated Joseph Tomb visit ends in riots, stoning

Ynet 3 May -- Under heavy IDF escort relatives of Itamar massacre victims Ben Yosef Livnat visit Joseph's Tomb in Nablus but infiltration of settler youths, refusal to leave tomb lead to riots
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4063729,00.html

Witnesses: Hebron settlers attack construction workers

HEBRON (Ma‘an) 3 May -- Dozens of Israeli settlers assaulted a group of Palestinian construction workers in Hebron's city center on Tuesday, residents said. Nayef Da'na told Ma‘an that settlers attacked him and other workers as they restored a home near Ash-Shuhuda street, an area long closed down due to settler violence and military patrols.
The owner of the home, Mufeed Ash-Sharabati, said the altercation began with insults being thrown by settlers at the workers, who responded in kind, and escalated into physical violence.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=384376

IOA prevented call for prayers at Ibrahimi Mosque on 68 occasions in April

AL-KHALIL [Hebron], (PIC) 3 May -- The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) banned the call for prayers at the Ibrahimi mosque in Al-Khalil city on 68 occasions during the past month of April. Director of Awqaf in the city Zeid Al-Jabari said in a statement on Monday that the step was made at the pretext that the call for prayers was annoying settlers in the occupied sector of the mosque.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2

IOF soldiers damage Palestinian land in Jordan Valley

JORDAN VALLEY, (PIC) 2 May -- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) destroyed tens of dunums of cultivated land in Wadi Al-Malih in the northern Jordan Valley on Sunday evening, local sources said. They added that the solders deliberately destroyed 30 dunums owned by Mahmoud Anis, adding that the soldiers this time each year damage the crops in the same area in the hope to convince farmers not to cultivate their land again. The sources noted that the troops did not leave the area after destroying it since last night. Farmers in Wadi Al-Malih's Burj area are the constant target of attacks by the IOF soldiers and Jewish settlers who systematically burn or destroy their crops.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bc

Seven piles of rubble

[with photos] Sad Oranges blog 27 Apr -- Last night we drove to Lod, another Israeli city where Jews and Arabs apparently co-exist. Except that the municipality doesn’t invest in the Palestinian areas and doesn’t recognise the local villages ... To our right was the unsecured train track which has been built through unrecognised Palestinian villages, resulting in child injuries. To our left was a wall separating this painful reality from a very different one. As in so many parts of Israel, the Jewish community is able to pass through life without ever having to look at what its society is doing to the Palestinians ... On 13 December 2010, Israeli police and bulldozers arrived in this area, installed a roadblock and demolished seven buildings. The families were not allowed access, not allowed to remove their belongings, not given compensation. 74 innocent people, 54 of them children, remain homeless. 
http://www.sadoranges.co.uk/diary/seven-piles-of-rubble/

Zeita Jamma‘in

[with photos] Words from Palestine blog 29 Apr -- Yesterday we went to the village of Zeita Jamma‘in. By the way the crow flies it is a short distance from Deir Istiya. However, the 'Settler only' roads can increase the travel time fourfold. Fortunately, our driver knows narrow back roads that skirt the settlements. We have been called there because settlers have began laying claim to upwards of 150,000 dunums of Zeita Jamma‘in’s land. Representatives from popular committees all over the West Bank have gathered to plan a resistance. They quickly decide they need to draw up a detailed map, build a road that makes it easy access for farmers to plant this land (it has up until now been used for animal grazing by villagers from around the area and nomadic Bedouins) and get media support for their cause. Then we are off to see the land. OMG! An expanse of rolling hills, pristine… covered with native trees and flowers every way you look… unless you look to the top of the hills. There you see the settlements. They are already illegally occupying Palestinian land, and yet they want more…. Always more. After about half an hour walk we come across the ruins of a very ancient village, perhaps predating Roman times, so at least 2000 years old or older ... It is this ancient village that the settlers are trying to lay claim to. It is the usual story. They claim it is a religious heritage site, the area becomes a closed military zone and soon (very soon) an 'outpost' appears, and then of course another illegal settlement.
http://wordsfrompalestine.org/?p=627

Netanyahu suspends East J'lem construction plan

Ynet 3 May -- PM orders discussion on massive east J'lem construction projects to be taken off planning committee's agenda - ahead of US trip ... One project is a plan to build 930 homes at the neighborhood of Har Homa, and the other is slated to see the construction of dozens of units in Pisgat Ze'ev.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4064026,00.html

State: Fallen solder's outpost home to be spared

Ynet 3 May -- State tells High Court Eli home of Major Eliraz Peretz, who was killed in Gaza, will not be razed pending alternative housing solution for his family
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4063922,00.html

Army incursions

Witnesses: Army raids Nabi Saleh

RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 3 May -- Israeli forces closed the village of An-Nabi Saleh on Monday night, shutting down entrances with roadblocks and restricting movement of residents, witnesses said. Israeli troops were deployed throughout the village for unknown reasons, leading to clashes with teenagers, witnesses said. An Israeli military spokeswoman said there was no military activity in the area overnight. Military jeeps remained stationed at the entrances to the village well into Tuesday morning, local residents told Ma‘an, saying they feared several pending home demolition orders were about to be executed.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=384199

When Israeli soldiers came to arrest my father / Hanin Ahmad Qatamesh

EI 2 May -- Last week, on 21 April, Israeli soldiers invaded my home in Ramallah, held hostage all those present, and forced me at gunpoint to call my father, a writer and human rights advocate, in order to demand his surrender. This is common operating procedure for Israeli occupation forces. This time, however, they had taken hostage an American citizen willing to speak out. And I will not be silent ... Last Wednesday night, just past midnight, my mother and I were chatting when we suddenly heard pounding on the door and someone shouting in chillingly familiar broken Arabic, “iftakh bab!” (open the door). We looked carefully from behind the slit-open curtain to realize that many Israeli occupation soldiers were surrounding the house, heavily armed and in combat formation. Shortly afterwards, they broke in and occupied the house.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/when-israeli-soldiers-came-arrest-my-father/9901

Detention

Ofer military court sentences Palestinian boy to month in prison

RAMALLAH, (PIC) 3 May -- The Israeli Ofer military court near Ramallah city has sentenced 14-year-old Palestinian boy Yazin Jamal Dandan to thirty days of actual prison time in addition to USD 600 in fines. Dandan's father was forcefully removed from the courtroom when he attended Tuesday, the Palestinian Prisoner Society said. Dandan was arrested Nov. 1 and has since been detained at the Rimonim prison in the northern 1948-occupied Palestinian territories.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%

Troops arrest 7 Palestinians; residents clash with settlers

IMEMC 3 May -- Israeli troops arrested on Tuesday morning seven Palestinian civilians among them two children during invasions targeting a number of West Bank communities. In Bethlehem city, southern West Bank, Israeli forces invade Aida refugee camp and arrested Firas al-Haj, 27. Another youth, Malik Hassan, 20, was arrested when troops searched homes in Bethlehem city ... in northern West Bank, two Palestinian civilians were also arrested by Israeli soldiers during house to house search they did in Salfit city.
http://www.imemc.org/article/61167

Prisoner strike secures eye surgery for inmate

GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 3 May -- A successful prisoners strike saw a Palestinian detainee in Israel receive eye surgery, which friends and relatives said was long overdue, Hussam Detainees' Center said. Sufian Al-Zibda, from Gaza City, had an operation on his left retina at the Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, the center said. A prison doctor had reportedly said the detainee needed urgent surgery but Israel's Prison Service had refused to allow his treatment. Prisoners launched a strike in protest of the decision.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=384277

Israeli forces detain PLC member in Jericho

JERICHO (Ma‘an) 3 May -- Israeli forces detained Palestinian Legislative Council member Ali Romanin from his home in Al-Ouja [Al-‘Awja] village north of Jericho on Tuesday morning, officials confirmed. The legislator, elected with Hamas' Change and Reform Bloc, was released in October 2010 after more than four years in an Israeli prison.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=384288

Targeted assassinations / Killing of bin Laden

Mofaz urges Israel to boost assassinations of Hamas leaders

NAZARETH, (PIC) 3 May -- Shaul Mofaz, former minister of Israel's military, has called on Netanyahu's government to increase assassinations against the leaders of Palestinian resistance forces after the US successfully killed Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Ladin in Pakistan. "If terrorist attempts continue in the Gaza Strip, Hamas leaders must know that they represent a target for liquidation," Mofaz, also a member of the Israeli Knesset, threatened. "This bears unquestionable legitimacy." Separately, another Knesset member from the Kadima party has stated that the United States had adopted Israel's strategy in the bin Ladin hit, which is to target leaders of alleged terrorist organizations, "a strategy proven efficient throughout the years."
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2b

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood rejects assassination as a tactic and affirms the legitimacy of resistance

MEMO 3 May -- The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt has rejected assassination as a tactic in a response to the killing of Osama Bin Laden by US troops. The group also confirmed that while it rejects violence it supports legitimate resistance against foreign occupation of any country ... According to the statement, the Muslim Brotherhood is against the use of violence in general and assassination in particular. "We support fair trials for criminals, no matter what kind of crime they have committed."
http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/news/middle-east/2293-egypts-muslim-brotherhood-rejects-assassination-as-a-tactic-and-affirms-the-legitimacy-of-resistance

Should bin Laden have been captured and tried?

BERLIN, May 3 (Reuters) - While many world leaders applauded the U.S. operation that killed al Qa‘eda leader Osama bin Laden, there were concerns in parts of Europe that the United States was wrong to act as policeman, judge and executioner ... "It was quite clearly a violation of international law," former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt told German TV. "The operation could also have incalculable consequences in the Arab world in light of all the unrest."
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/should-bin-laden-have-been-captured-and-tried

Dozens of Palestinians pay tribute to bin Laden in Gaza

Haaretz 3 May -- Some two dozen Palestinians gathered in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday to pay tribute to slain al-Qa‘ida leader Osama bin Laden. About 25 people holding pictures and posters of bin Laden rallied outside a Gaza City university. The crowd included al-Qa‘ida sympathizers as well as students who said they opposed bin Laden's ideology, but were angry at the U.S. for killing him and consider him a martyr. Hamas police did not interfere with the demonstration
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/dozens-of-palestinians-pay-tribute-to-bin-laden-in-gaza-1.359607

Al-Aqsa spokesman denies bin Laden statement

GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 3 May -- The spokesman of Fatah's military wing on Tuesday denied issuing a statement marking Osama bin Laden's death. Abu Uday of the Al-Aqsa Brigades said the group did not and had no plans to comment because bin Laden's death was unrelated to Palestine ... Palestinian reactions to the death of bin Laden have been mixed. Salam Fayyad, the premier in Ramallah, said it increased chances for peace, while Gaza-based prime minister Ismail Haniyeh condemned it as an extension of American's foreign policy based on killing.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=384458

No dignity at Ground Zero / Mona Eltahawy

Guardian 3 May -- As a US Muslim I abhor the frat boy reaction. We should be celebrating the Arab spring, not this ... It was minutes after President Obama's announcement that Osama bin Laden had been killed, and I was heeding a friend's suggestion that we – both Muslims – take candles and stand in vigil where the World Trade Centre stood before Bin Laden's foot soldiers took it down. So it was a shock to find hundreds of others had turned that hallowed ground into the scene of a home crowd celebrating an away victory they hadn't attended, the roots of which they were probably not there to experience or were too young to remember.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/03/no-dignity-ground-zero-frat-boy

Siege

Siege brings Gaza's garment industry to a halt

EI 3 May -- Near an abandoned sewing factory in Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, Mohammad Khamis Hamdan runs a small travel agency dedicated to serving pilgrims to the Saudi Arabia city of Mecca, Islam’s holiest site. Hamdan opened the travel agency after being forced to shut down the sewing factory following Israel’s imposition of a devastating blockade on the Gaza Strip in June 2007. Hamdan, 50, a father of 14 children and married to two women, said he lost hope of returning back to the cycle of production at his Hamdanco garment factory, which he owned along with two of his brothers.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/siege-brings-gazas-garment-industry-halt/9904

Gaza's sole operating crossing partly open

GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 3 May -- Around 260 truckloads of goods in addition to limited amounts of cooking gas will be permitted into Gaza by Israel's crossings authority on Tuesday, a Palestinian liaison officer said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=384192

Racism

Case of Arab man accused of raping Jewish woman brought to Supreme Court

Haaretz 3 May -- The Supreme Court heard an appeal on Monday by an Arab man who was convicted of rape last July for having consensual sex with a Jewish woman who believed him to be Jewish ... Kashur, who was indicted for forcible rape, a charge later reduced to rape by deception as part of a plea bargain, was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He was also convicted of performing an indecent act on the woman, who had sex with him shortly after they met two years ago. When she discovered Kashur, who presented himself as a bachelor named "Dudu," wasn't Jewish, she filed a police complaint.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/case-of-arab-man-accused-of-raping-jewish-woman-brought-to-supreme-court-1.359500

Other news

Marking World Press Freedom Day in Palestine

RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 3 May -- Palestinian journalists were oppressed during the past year, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said marking the annual World Press Freedom Day. According to the syndicate, there were 280 violations of journalists’ rights during the past year 179 of which were by Israeli forces and settlers while the other 101 by security forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=384424

Egypt wants Palestinian students to prove good conduct

GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 3 May -- Palestinian students from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank who are enrolled in Egyptian universities have been asked to proof of a background check for security-related issues. As they have only one week left before deadline, they appealed to President Mahmoud Abbas and officials in Cairo to look into their case and try to work out a solution for the problem.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=384305

US immigration separates Palestinian mother from her 4 children / Sameh A. Habeeb

2 May -- ...On Friday April 13, 2010 ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) invaded my home at about seven thirty in the morning. My mother, Faten Hakim, was preparing her usual work on a normal day in Ramadan. A very loud noise like banging on the door had awoken me. I was surprised at the noise but brushed it off thinking it was one of our neighbors. All of a sudden my mother came into my room to wake me and said “Wake up the police is here to take me.” My heart dropped. What could they want from my mother? I was shocked. My mother had been in the US illegally for about 22 years. I never thought there would be a day where she would be asked to leave. Out of the millions of illegal immigrants in the United States, I never thought my mother would be caught. She gave birth to me and my three siblings in the United States.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/palestine/palestinian-refugees/9059-us-immigration-separates-palestinian-mother-from-her-4-children.html

From slave to IDF officer: a Guinean's story

Ynet 3 May --  At just 15 Avi Be'eri was sold to slave traders who smuggled him into Israel from Guinea, he managed to turn his life around and will now become an IDF officer [doesn't look as if he was ever actually a slave, just an illegally trafficked immigrant, but it's an interesting good-luck story anyway]
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4063352,00.html

Analysis / Opinion / Interviews / Reviews

Guardian editorial: Fatah and Hamas: Tectonic plates start to shift

2 May -- A future environment composed of free Egyptians, Jordanians and even possibly Syrians could well fashion Israel's borders ... There are three chief reasons why, after four years of bitter and violent conflict between the rivals, Fatah acceded to all of Hamas's political conditions to form a national unity government.The first was the publication of the Palestine papers, the secret record of the last fruitless round of talks with Israel. The extent to which Palestinian negotiators were prepared to bend over backwards to accommodate Israel surprised even hardened cynics. The Palestinian Authority found itself hemorrhaging what little authority it had left. The second was the loss to the Palestinian president, Abu Mazen, of his closest allies in Hosni Mubarak and his henchman Omar Suleiman. While they were still around, Gaza's back door was locked. But the third reason had little to do with either of the above: Abu Mazen's faith in Barack Obama finally snapped.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/29/fatah-hamas-tectonic-plates-editorial

Love during Wartime: the Israel-Palestine conflict. within a marriage

Atlantic 1 May -- A conversation with Gabriella Bier, whose new documentary explores the relationship between an Israeli woman and her Palestinian husband
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/05/love-during-wartime-the-israel-palestine-conflict-within-a-marriage/238108/

Book review: Palestinian Women: Narrative histories and gendered memory

By Fatma Kassem -- Based around a series of interviews with a group of Palestinian women, who lived through the horrific events of the 1948 Nakba (catastrophe) and then found themselves living in the state of Israel itself, this is a fascinating text.
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/104187

http://www.theheadlines.org/ (archive)

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Hundreds of settlers raid Yousuf's Tomb in Nablus

[ 03/05/2011 - 05:42 PM ]

NABLUS, (PIC)-- Hundreds of Jewish settlers infiltrated Monday night Yousuf's Tomb in the West Bank city of Nablus under the protection of the Israeli occupation forces.

Among those present was Israeli Knesset member and minister Limor Livnat.

They entered after coordinating with the IOF and then prayed at the tomb in memory of Ben-Joseph Livnat, the nephew of Minister Livnat, who was shot dead after trespassing on the site a week back without prior coordination with the army.

Locals reported dozens of settlers tried to stay after prayers were finished, but the soldiers proceeded to evacuate them.

Palestinian youth hurled stones at the settlers injuring one of them as clashes erupted in the area.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Jewish settlers burn mosque

[ 03/05/2011 - 11:45 AM ]

Burnt copies of the Holy Quran in a previous arson attack by settlers in the W.B village of Yasuf

NABLUS, (PIC)-- Jewish settlers set a small mosque on fire in Hawara school near Nablus at dawn Tuesday, local sources said.

The sources told the PIC reporter that a group of settlers sneaked from the nearby settlement of Yitzhar into Hawara village and set its school's mosque on fire.

They said that villagers rushed to extinguish the fire as the settlers fled back to their settlement, adding that big the mosque was badly damaged.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Jewish settlers raid Kifl Hares in bid to claim shrine

[ 30/04/2011 - 07:49 AM ]

SALFIT, (PIC)-- Thousands of Jewish settlers raided Friday the West Bank town of Kifl Hares north of Salfit to perform traditional prayers at what they have claimed is the tomb of Joshua the son of Nun.

Israeli Radio put the number of settlers that raided the site from Thursday night to Friday morning at 15,000. They were protected by Israel occupation forces (IOF).

Among the worshipers were Rabbi Yona Metzger and Israeli minister Yuli-Yoel Edelstein and four members from the Israeli Knesset.

The IOF banned Palestinians from roaming or mobilizing as Jews made prayers at the tomb.
According to a fresh report by the PIC, there are three Islamic shrines in Kifl Hares, Dhul-Kifl, Dhul-Nun, and a shrine built by Sultan Saladin, which Israelis wish to convert into a biblical site, naming it the shrine of Joshua, who led Moses' army into Palestine from Jericho.
Palestinians fear Israel wants to hijack the shrine in the center of the village and add it to the alleged Jewish heritage list, as was done with Ibrahimi and Bilal Ben Rabah mosques.
The Sultan Saladin shrine lies amid the town's old houses and has such Islamic features as a dome and green prayer niche facing Makkah.
The place was built by Sultan Saladin. Locals say they saw inside the date of construction etched in a rock alongside a Quranic verse.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Aqsa foundation accused IOA of facilitating settlers' desecration of Aqsa Mosque

[ 29/04/2011 - 02:04 PM ]

Occupied Jerusalem, (PIC)-- The Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage (AFEH) has accused Thursday that Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) of helping and protecting Israeli settlers desecrating the Aqsa Mosque.

According to sources in AFEH, a group of Israeli female soldiers were seen roaming the plazas of the Mosque under tight protection from tens of Israeli occupation soldiers Thursday.

AFEH added that a group of Israeli engineers carrying maps of the alleged Third temple were also seen strolling inside and searching certain parts of the Mosque, warning that the IOA exploits Jewish festivals to give legitimacy to such provocative desecration measures.

The organization further said that the Palestinian people in Jerusalem and in the 1948-occupied Palestinian land would protect the Mosque at all costs, describing the foundation's activities in the Mosque as the safeguard against those Israeli measures.

"The IOA is trying to create facts on the ground by bringing those settlers into the Aqsa Mosque during Jewish religious occasions in order to create an atmosphere of acceptance in the Palestinian community that those practices are normal," AFEH pointed out.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

New Israeli plan to build 386 settlement units in Sheikh Jarrah revealed

[ 28/04/2011 - 02:54 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- An Israeli municipal source revealed that the district committee for planning and building would discuss next Tuesday a plan to build 386 housing units in place of Palestinian homes in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem.

The source affirmed that the Zionist real estate agent known as Arieh King in cooperation with the association of Jewish right-wingers submitted this plan to the district committee for approval.

Palestinian sources warned that if this plan was implemented, more than 30 Palestinian families comprised of about 280 individuals would be displaced from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

The families started to receive notices ordering them to leave their homes before they are knocked down.

According to the plan, the Palestinian homes on eight dunums of lands near Kubaniyet Umm Haroun in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood will be demolished before building 386 housing units, a school, a kindergarten and a synagogue.

This settlement outpost is part of five big settlement projects in the holy city and will be encircled with a tall wall heavily guarded by private security men.

In a related context, Youth for Jerusalem association strongly denounced the escalating Israeli violations against the holy city and the Aqsa Mosque.

In a press release on Wednesday, the association said the attacks waged by Israeli troops and settlers on Jerusalem and its natives have become more aggressive and intensive during this month.

It noted to the recent arson attack by settlers on trees inside the Aqsa Mosque compound, the repeated break-ins of its courtyards and the attempts to uproot the Palestinians from their holy city.

Youth for Jerusalem also condemned the Arab and Islamic nations for their silence towards Israel's violations in Jerusalem and their preoccupation with their internal affairs.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

IOF troops raid southern Gaza, round up 6 West Bankers - Savage Jewish settlers burn commercial stores in Al-Khalil old city

IOF troops raid southern Gaza, round up 6 West Bankers
[ 27/04/2011 - 10:27 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) raided eastern Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip, on Wednesday morning amidst indiscriminate shooting at Palestinian residential quarters and agricultural land.

Local sources said that three IOF tanks escorted six bulldozers and advanced amidst random firing then bulldozed citizens' land.

Earlier at dawn Wednesday, IOF soldiers rounded up six Palestinians in various West Bank districts.

Locals said that soldiers broke into two homes in Tobas and questioned their inhabitants after searching them.

IOF soldiers also stormed Awarta village, southeast of Nablus, firing live bullets and sonic bombs in the process. They searched the homes of relatives of Amjad and Hakim Awad who were charged by Israel with killing five settlers in the nearby Itamar settlement in mid March before withdrawing from the village.

Savage Jewish settlers burn commercial stores in Al-Khalil old city

[ 27/04/2011 - 10:50 AM ]

Al-KHALIL, (PIC)-- Armed Jewish settlers attacked at dawn Tuesday Palestinian commercial stores with Molotov cocktails in Kazazeen souk (market) in the old city of Al-Khalil burning down four of them and all goods inside them.

Owners of these stores are Shaban Hashlamoun, Mohamed Al-Shalloudi, Atta Al-Shweiki and Abdelhameed Al-Natsha.

Firefighters from Al-Khalil municipal council tried to enter the old city to extinguish the fire, but the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) blocked their way at the pretext the area was a closed military zone.

Eyewitnesses said they saw armed Jewish settlers in Kazazeen souk dancing in circles, singing and shouting racist chants against Arabs before culminating their revelry with an arson attack on the stores.

"We know the settlers torched our stores in order to expel us from our old city and fully take it over, but they can never achieve that and we are staying in the city even if we get killed," one of the Palestinian store owners said.

"They offered us huge amounts of money to sell our stores, and one of their leaders told us, 'You have an open check,' but we kicked them out and we told them to leave along with their lackeys because our [Palestinian] land is more precious than our blood and they cannot take a grain of its soil," he added.

• IOA to build new settlement outpost in OJ

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

PA must not give in to Israeli blackmail following Nablus incident

[ 25/04/2011 - 09:38 PM ]

News analysis by Khalid Amayreh

The fatal shooting of a fanatical Jewish settler near Nablus on Sunday, ostensibly at the hands of a Palestinian policeman, is being taken advantage of rather excessively by the Zionist regime.

The settlers themselves, who always portray themselves as perpetual victims, went on a rampage of violence and terror against innocent Palestinian civilians in several localities in the West Bank . A Number of Palestinians are reported to have been injured, some seriously.

Other settlers in other parts of the West Bank have vowed to carry out acts of terror against innocent but unprotected Palestinian villagers and travelers.

Israeli government officials from the prime minister to the lowest ranking cabinet minister have lost their composure, claiming that whoever shot the fanatical settler must have been a terrorist dressed in a military uniform. The Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu urged the Palestinian Authority (PA) that it ought to take "harsh steps" against whoever fired at the settler.

Speaking in a threatening tone, and apparently seeking to placate genocidal settlers, Netanyahu demanded that the PA take serious and swift steps against "the terrorists who committed this criminal act."

Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the certified war criminal who carries on his hands tons of innocent Palestinian blood, also spoke in threatening tones, ignoring the fact that thousands of Palestinians have been killed by the Zionist killing machine.

The weak PA regime is apparently caving in to Zionist pressure. The PA governor of Nablus Jebril Bakri said a thorough investigation into the incident would be carried out soon. He stopped short of saying that the police officer accused of shooting the settler would be prosecuted.

It is hoped that the PA will not succumb to Zionist pressure and blackmail. After all, it was the settler and his fellow terrorists and fanatics who stormed an area that is supposed to be under full PA security control. The fanatical and genocidal terrorists did so in violation of even outstanding instructions by the Israeli occupation army which bars settlers' entry into Nablus without prior coordination with the PA and without government escort.

Hence, one could argue convincingly and logically that the Palestinian police officers in the area behaved in accordance with instructions under existing circumstances.

Indeed, how else a Palestinian police officer should have behaved, watching a group of armed and fanatical settlers about to storm a heavily-populated Palestinian neighborhood? Should he have allowed the settler to proceed, perhaps to carry out acts of terror and murder against innocent women, men and children as the arch-terrorist Baruch Goldstein did at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron in 1994?

More to the point, it is well known that the settlers are really para-military terrorists awaiting an opportune time to murder Palestinians, steal their land, and vandalize their property.

Indeed, even without having a dead settler at hand, the settlers would still attack Palestinians with or without a reason. It is well known, for example, that the settlers have torched several Mosques in various parts of the West Bank as part of the so-called "price tag policy" whereby Palestinians and their property would be attacked every time the Israeli occupation army moved to dismantle a settler outpost.

Interestingly, the Israeli occupation army has consistently failed to provide the unprotected Palestinians with protection against settler violence, terror, and savagery.

In the final analysis, a snake wouldn't bite its own tail and the settlers themselves wouldn't wage their organized terror against the legitimate people of the land without a certain level of coordination or connivance with the army.

The settlers, whether we like or not and regardless of Israeli propaganda, are the Judeo Nazis of our time, as they have been labeled by some Jewish intellectuals. Imagine how these supremacist thugs relate to Palestinians and you will realize that decent Jews wouldn't want to live with them, not only in the same neighborhood, but in the same town.

It is well known that the settlers, these inherently racist Judeo Nazis, are indoctrinated in a hateful ideology they say is based on teachings of the Talmud and Torah. This virulent doctrine, which is rejected by many decent Jews but adopted rather blindly and zealously by a majority of Israeli Jews, gives non-Jews in occupied Palestine the choice between enslavement to Jews, as symbolized by the Biblical terms water carriers and wood hewers, and violent deportation or expulsion. If these two alternatives didn’t work, then the third alternative would be genocide.

Unfortunately, these thugs are not a small minority in Israel . One can argue rather candidly that they now represent the mainstream in Israel as the Israeli Jewish society continues to drift to a kind of Jewish fascism and jingoism that is reminiscent to Germany in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

More to the point, it is crystal clear that the settlers and their supporters are the main and central obstacle to any prospective dignified peace deal between Jews and Arabs in occupied Palestine.

Hence, one exaggerates very little by saying that unless the government of Israel seriously reins in these thugs, there will be more and more bloodshed and violence and terror, because the Palestinian people will not allow themselves to be intimidated or terrorized by the settlers.

Once again, we hope the PA won't budge to Zionist arrogance and insolence. After all, settler blood is not more precious than Palestinian blood which has been spilt superfluously in Gaza recently.

Succumbing to Zionist dictates, God forbid would only underscore PA subservience to the will of the Israeli occupation.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

One Israeli Killed, Two Injured in WB

Local Editor
At least one Israeli has been killed and two others injured in a shooting attack at a shrine in the West Bank city of Nablus.

"The body of one person who was killed and two others wounded were brought to an army base (outside Nablus)," a military spokesman said.

The Israeli army claimed the attack occurred at a site known as 'Joseph's Tomb' and that the assault was likely carried out by Palestinian fighters. A spokesperson, however, added the military was "investigating other options" as well.

Meanwhile, a Tel Aviv security officer told the Israeli public radio that the casualties mostly included a group of ultra-Orthodox Hassidic Jews.

"They went into Joseph's Tomb to pray for just a few seconds," he said.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews frequently defy a military ban on entering the shrine that is in Palestinian-controlled territory.

The incident came in the wake of Israeli forces' Friday attack on a group of Palestinian and international activists protesting Tel Aviv's separation barriers built on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.

At least 13 demonstrators were injured on Friday when Israeli soldiers clashed with protesters in the town of Bil'in, near the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Elsewhere, three Palestinians were wounded in separate incidents after Israeli troops attacked the blockaded Gaza Strip on the same day, according to medical sources.

Turkish ambassador to the UN - Ertugrul ApakanTurkey

Turkey
In politics, the Turkish ambassador to the UN, Ertugrul ApakanTurkey has expressed support for the unilateral Palestinian declaration of independence and has urged the international community to help Palestinians "live in peace and with dignity."

Turkey joined the list of countries backing the Palestinian Authority's quest to gain UN recognition for an independent state, Today's Zaman reported in an article published on Saturday.

“Through their state building efforts, the Palestinian Authority has proven to all the skeptics that they deserve to attain their decades-long target of internationally recognized statehood, even though they continue to suffer under occupation,” Turkey's UN ambassador, Ertugrul Apakan, said on Thursday.

If Palestinians prove objectively ready to move from the current observer status at the UN into full statehood, the international community “must not turn a blind eye to their just and legitimate appeal,” the English-language daily quoted Apakan as saying at a Security Council session on the Middle East.

“The time has come to show solidarity with the Palestinians and help them to live in peace and dignity,” the Turkish diplomat stated.

Apakan also insisted that the needs of those who live in the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip must be urgently addressed.

Al-Quds
Tens of thousands of Christian pilgrims from around the world annually flood the “Old City” of al-Quds during Holy Week (the week preceding Easter,) to pray at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, an ancient structure built over the spot Christians believe to be the tomb of Jesus Christ and one of the most sacred spots in Christendom.

This year, however, a heavy Israeli police presence has prevented the vast majority of Christian pilgrims, including West Bank-based Palestinian Christians, from reaching the church to pray and attend the ceremonies within.

Christian pilgrims anxious to reach the Church of the Holy Sepulcher were met instead by a phalanx of Israeli police check points -- both at the gates of the Old City, and inside.

The Israeli checkpoints, manned by at least a thousand Israeli policemen, imposed even more restrictions than usual on the crowds of worshippers, preventing many of them from attending the ceremonies.

Israel has denied free access to holy places of worship to both Christians and Muslims, on several important religious occasions.

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PA orders its security elements not to open fire at Israelis in self-defense

[ 25/04/2011 - 06:53 PM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- The Fatah-controlled Palestinian authority (PA) in Ramallah issued strict instructions to its security apparatuses in the West Bank not to open fire at Israeli troops or settlers even if it was in self-defense.

The source affirmed that the leaders of the PA security apparatuses told their cadres that they would not be lenient with anyone of them shooting at Israeli troops and settlers under any reason, even if it was for self-defense because such act would be detrimental to the higher national interests and only serve the occupation as they said.

He noted that the PA intelligence apparatus embarked on Sunday morning on interrogating all policeman and security elements who were present in the area where the attack on some settlers happened.

Widespread popular outrage is prevailing in Nablus city because of the shameful and cowardly attitude of the PA security forces towards the killing of one settler at Yousuf's Tomb east of Nablus.

As the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stormed Nablus without prior notice following the incident, the Palestinian citizens saw all the PA security forces, even the traffic policemen, leaving their posts, disappearing from the streets and shutting down their headquarters and institutions.

Eyewitnesses told the PIC that the PA security men stationed near Yousuf's Tomb left their posts and vanished quickly when the IOF entered the eastern part of Nablus city, but later they appeared after the IOF withdrew.

They affirmed that after the withdrawal of the invading Israeli troops from the scene following violent clashes with Palestinian young men, a large number of angry citizens poured into the Tomb and set fire to it.

The Israeli investigations showed that one of the PA national security men opened fire at a group of Israelis after they refused to comply with orders to evacuate the Tomb because there was no prior coordination with the Israeli side.

An eyewitness affirmed to the PIC that he heard the sound of gunfire from an Israeli automatic weapon, M16, and it was followed by the sound of shooting from a Kalashnikov gun which is used by all PA security men.

He expressed his belief that one of the Jewish settlers visiting Yousuf's Tomb started to open fire at the PA national security men who responded in self-defense to the settler.

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Hundreds of settlers attack Palestinian cars in Nablus

[ 24/04/2011 - 10:23 PM ]

NABLUS, (PIC)-- Hundreds of Jewish settlers attacked Sunday the cars of Palestinians south and east of the West Bank city of Nablus.

The aggression came just hours after a Jewish settler was killed and four others injured, one of them critically, during a shooting by a Palestinian policeman near Yousuf's Tomb in the city.

Angry settlers blocked the roads entering the city of Nablus and hurled stones at cars driven by Palestinians, witnesses reported. Several car windows were broken.

The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) closed the Hawara checkpoint south of Nablus following the settler attacks.

Settlers gathered at the intersection of the Burin village and at the Beit Fourik checkpoint near Nablus and attacked Palestinians, witnesses added.

A Palestinian man and his son aged 11 were injured after Jewish settlers struck their vehicle with rocks near the Hawara checkpoint south of Nablus. They were transported to hospital.

The same day, following the Nablus shooting, Knesset member Michael Ben-Ari made calls to the Israeli government to regain control of Yousuf's Tomb, where the incident took place. He urged for an immediate establishment of a Yeshiva there.

Rep. Tzipi Hutobli said the deadly shooting proves that freedom of safe access to the tomb cannot be guaranteed without Israeli control of the site. She said she sees no reason why the Tomb should be less important to Israelis than the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, the IOF has tightened measures at permanent and random checkpoints in the northern and central West Bank, causing traffic jams and obstructing movement.

Witnesses said soldiers have been stopping and searching cars and checking the identification of their passengers without report of arrest.

Security has been tightened on the Hawara checkpoint south of Nablus because of the movement of Jewish settlers into the area after the shooting Sunday morning.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Jihad: Death of settler natural result to occupation's aggression

[ 24/04/2011 - 05:10 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Daoud Shihab, spokesman for the Islamic Jihad movement, said that the killing of a Jewish settler in Nablus on Sunday was a natural result to the continued provocation on the part of those settlers against the Palestinian people and land in the occupied West Bank.

Shihab said that the problem is in the presence of the Israeli occupation forces and settlers who daily commit crimes against Palestinian citizens, farmers and their land.

He warned that the growing popular unrest in the occupied Palestinian land could lead to an explosion the repercussion of which could not be controlled by anyone.

The spokesman said that it was only natural for the Palestinians in the West Bank to resist the occupation of their land.

He hoped the PA in Ramallah would not contribute in quelling the people just to maintain the defeatist settlement process.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian