Occupied Palestine and Israel: News and Articles
News
Rights groups: Israel imprisons, abuses Palestinian youths
Ha'aretz 5/10/2004
More than 300 Palestinian teens are routinely subjected to physical and psychological abuse in Israeli prisons now, two human rights groups charged Monday. The Israel Defense Forces denied the allegations. The Geneva-based Defense for Children International and Save the Children, headquartered in Sweden, said that as of May 2004, 373 Palestinians under 18 were being held in Israeli detention centers and prisons. At least three of the detainees are under 14, they said. The groups charged that the treatment of Palestinian child prisoners by Israeli authorities amounts to a pattern of violence that has gone unchecked for years.
Israeli raid targets Gaza City
Al-Jazeera 5/11/2004
Israeli occupation forces backed by tanks and helicopter gunships have raided the Zaitun quarter of Gaza City. Witnesses on Monday said at least four resistance fighters were wounded in heavy exchanges of fire in an attempt to repulse the attack. They also reported several explosions.
U.S. to impose sanctions on Syria this week
Ha'aretz 5/11/2004
WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush this week will levy economic sanctions against Syria for supporting terrorism and not doing enough to prevent militant fighters from entering neighboring Iraq, congressional and administration sources said Monday.The sanctions, which the White House will impose as early as Tuesday, are being ordered because the administration believes Syria has aggravated tensions in the Middle East by supporting militant groups.
Gaza raids 'leave 1,000 homeless'
BBC 5/10/2004
Israeli military raids in Gaza this month have left 1,100 Palestinians homeless, a United Nations agency says. About 130 homes have been razed in what the UN agency for Palestinian refugees says is one of the most intense periods of destruction for years. The group says Israel is meting out illegal collective punishment after the killing of a settler and her four daughters in Gaza a week ago.
Qurei: "We are Constantly in Touch With the U.S. Administration
International Middle East Media Center 5/10/2004
The Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei told Palestinian reporters that dialogue between the Palestinian leadership and the U.S. officials never stopped. "We are constantly in with the U.S. administration. Secretary of State Collin Powel had contacted me five times and there have been sever American delegations of high ranking officials, including William Burns, Steve Hudly ad Eliot Abrams. Moreover, we are also in a direct touch with the Consul General in Jerusalem."
Gaza Today: 2 Killed, 22 Wounded, 30 Houses demolished
Rafah Today 5/9/2004
In a new incursion today morning into the Refugee Camp of Khanyounis, two citizens were killed and 22 others wounded besides 30 houses were demolished. Palestinian medical sources of Khanyounis announced that Jameel Abu Mustafa, (16 years old) and Belal Hamdan(25 years old) , were shot dead by the shrapnel of a missile hit by the warplane �Apache� towards a group of people , besides, 22 others were wounded, three of them critically.
Israeli minister calls for attacks on damascus
Daily Star 5/10/2004
JERUSALEM: Israeli Transport Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who heads the National Union Party in the governing coalition, said Sunday that the military should bomb "strategic targets" in Damascus to put an end to attacks by the Syrian-backed Hizbullah militia. "In order to put an end to Hizbullah's attacks, it is necessary to attack strategic targets in Damascus, such as the army headquarters, the central electricity board, the telephone exchange, the public broadcasting house or the Presidential Palace, even if this last site has a more symbolic character," Lieberman told army radio.
Israeli link possible in US torture techniques
By Ali Abunimah, Daily Star 5/11/2004
In exchange for interrogation training, did Washington award security contracts? -- CHICAGO, Illinois: The head of the American defense contracting firm implicated in the torture of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison has close ties to Israel and visited an Israeli "anti-terror" training camp in the occupied West Bank earlier this year. Jack London, chairman, president and CEO of CACI International Incorporated, traveled to Israel in January this year as part of a high-level delegation of US Congressmen, defense contractors and pro-Israel lobbyists, sponsored and paid for in part by the Jerusalem Fund of Aish HaTorah, a pro-Israel lobbying and fundraising group, and Greenberg Traurig, LLP, a prominent Washington law and lobby firm.
Palestinian Authority to Hold Local Vote
The Guardian 5/11/2004
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - The Palestinian Authority decided Monday to hold its first local elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, bowing to pressure to end chaos and corruption plaguing many Palestinian towns. The increasing anarchy persuaded a reluctant Yasser Arafat to allow the vote, the first electoral test of his government in eight years, officials said, despite fears that his opponents, particularly the violent Islamic Hamas, could gain ground.
Video: "Israeli bulldozers have been in action virtually every day"
BBC 5/10/2004
The BBC's Richard Forrest - "Israeli bulldozers have been in action virtually every day" More than 17,000 made homeless in the Second Intifada
PLO Urges Non-Aligned Movement to Boycott Israel
Palestine Media Center 5/10/2004
NAM�s Ministerial Committee to Meet in Malaysia May 13 -- The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is set to ask the ministerial committee of the 118-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to suspend trade ties with Israel when the committee meets in Putrajaya in Malaysia, NAM�s current chairman, on May 13. PLO political chief Farouk Al-Kaddoumi will lead the Palestinian delegation, the Palestinian ambassador to Malaysia Ahmad Al-Farra told Malaysian New Straits Times daily on Sunday.
Palestinians: 1 person killed, 9 hurt in IDF operation in Gaza
Ha'aretz 5/11/2004
Hospital officials in the Zeitoun neighborhood in Gaza City said that one Palestinian was killed and nine others were wounded, four of them gunmen, after Israel Defense Forces troops entered the area early Tuesday. IDF soldiers took up positions on the roofs of three houses, surrounding one of them, and traded gunfire with armed Palestinians. Residents said the houses belonged to Islamic militants who led attacks on nearby Jewish settlements.
Rami Al Wawi found his chicken after very hard work under his demolished house
Rafah Today 5/9/2004
Rami Al Wawi found his doves dead in the rubble. -- In a new attack aimed to demolish Al Brazil and Al Shaer area in Rafah Refugee Camp with the new weapons and bulldozers, 17 houses were demolished partially and/or completely, tens of olive trees were damaged also. Rami Al Wawi (9) was wearing a red football shirt, his face was marked with clear sadness and worry and his eyes indicated that he hadn't slept the night before. He sat down in the rubble of his damaged house and said he could hear the sound of his chicken.
19 year-old Palestinian youth shot dead in Abu Dis, houses destroyed in El Qarara
Palestine Monitor 5/10/2004
A 19 year-old Palestinian youth was shot dead last night by Israeli troops during an invasion of the village of Abu Dis near Jerusalem. Faadi Shalan Bahar was walking with friends in central Abu Dis at around 9.30 pm when Israeli jeeps entered the village in what has become a routine daily invasion. Faadi and his friends tried to run away but the soldiers fired on them. Faadi was shot in the head and killed. Witnesses say it took an ambulance over half an hour to reach Faadi�s body due to the wall, which has now isolated the village.
8 Palestinians hurt in Hamas-Fatah gunfight
Ha'aretz 5/10/2004
Activists from rival groups clash during university election campaign-- At least eight Palestinians were injured yesterday in the center of Nablus when a gunfight broke out between Hamas and Fatah activists. It is believed to be the first incident of its kind since the start of the intifada. The gunfight took place against the backdrop of elections to the student council of the Open Al-Quds University, based in the city's Rafadiyeh neighborhood.
Lieberman: No point in approving plan before U.S. elections
Ha'aretz 5/11/2004
There is no point in approving a diplomatic plan until after American presidential elections in November, National Union chairman Avigdor Lieberman said he told Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Monday during talks on the prime minister's new diplomatic plan."I told the prime minister that there is no point at the moment in bringing a diplomatic plan for a government decision until the end of elections in the United States," Lieberman told Israel Radio.
Palestine Fact Sheets - Israeli Weapons of Mass Destruction
Palestine Monitor 3/1/2004
Israel is believed to be the sixth nation in the world and the first in the MiddleEast to have developed and acquired nuclear weapons. For the past forty years, Israel has maintained an ambiguous position regarding its weapons stockpile, neither confirming nor denying its existence, however, most experts and non-proliferation analysts agree (1) that Israel has somewhere in the region of 100 to 200 nuclear warheads. In addition to this the country is believed to posses a stockpile of chemical weapons and has an active biological weapons program, which has developed several weapons agents. [See also:The Israeli Poison Gas Attacks Ed.]
Respect outcome of the referendum, Netanyahu tells PM
Ha'aretz 5/10/2004
A diplomatic plan is not a pair of socks, to be changed every other day, finance minister says-- Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Prime Minister Ariel Sharon yesterday that he will oppose a unilateral separation plan based on the disengagement proposal that was roundly defeated by Likud members in last week's referendum.
Sharon Tells Cabinet He Will Present New Withdrawal Plan
Washington Post 5/10/2004
JERUSALEM, May 9 -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told cabinet ministers Sunday that he was devising a new plan to withdraw Israeli troops and Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip and expected to present it to the government in about three weeks, the officials and their aides said. Sharon's announcement reportedly set off fireworks in the weekly cabinet session between ministers who threatened to leave the government if the Gaza settlements were not evacuated and those who have vowed to quit if they are.
WOMEN'S DEMONSTRATION AGAINST THE WALL IN BIDDU TOMORROW
International Solidarity Movement 5/10/2004
Second Nonviolent Women's Demonstration in Biddu in the Last Three Weeks -- [Biddu, NW Jerusalem] Tomorrow, May 11, 2004 at 11:00 am Palestinian, Israeli and International women will gather at the Municipal council of Biddu and march to the worksite of the Israeli separation barrier to protest the continued construction of thebarrier and the destruction of their land. This will be the second women's demonstration in Biddu in the last three weeks.
Number of poor families rises 5%, now comprise 18.5% of all families in Israel
Ha'aretz 5/11/2004
Following four years of stability, the number of poor families in Israel apparently grew last year by more than five percent and stood at 18.5 percent of the families in the country. This means that some 15,000 families joined the cycle of poverty to bring the number to approximately 340,000.
3 Israeli Arabs charged in soldier's killing get house arrest
Ha'aretz 5/10/2004
MK Ahmed Tibi (Hadash) said the case raised "serious questions" about the interrogation techniques of the Shin Bet and the police. -- The Nazareth District Court yesterday released to house arrest three Israeli Arab residents of Kafr Kana who are charged with last July's murder of Corporal Oleg Shaichat. Police said that developments in the investigation into an April 18 shooting at a Border Police patrol by two young men near the Beit Rimon junction, adjacent to Kafr Kana, had "led to the possibility that the suspects be released to house arrest."
Committee to consider plight of Jerusalemites on far side of fence
Ha'aretz 5/10/2004
Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski has established a committee to consider how municipal services are to be provided to East Jerusalem residents who are cut off from the city by the separation fence. The committee will consider how garbage is to be collected on the other side of the fence, and it will deliberate about the number and functions of health and educational institutions to be created for residents who are unable to cross into the city on a routine basis....The panel will consider the possibility of installing special gates in the separation fence that would be opened in the morning and evening to allow the passage of schoolchildren.
Analyst says Hizbullah stronger for 2005
Daily Star 5/11/2004
Municipal success in Bekaa Valley gives party 'more muscle' -- Beirut: Sunday's victory for Hizbullah in the municipal elections of the Bekaa Valley marks a new distribution of power and is a foretaste of the 2005 parliamentary elections, political analyst Nizar Hamzeh said. "Whatever has been said about municipalities not being political is not true. I believe all the players in these elections were in fact testing the waters for 2005," he said.
Daniel Barnbaum Slams the Israeli Policy
Ha'aretz 5/10/2004
President Moshe Katsav and Education Minister Limor Livnat last night responded angrily to conductor Daniel Barenboim's sharp criticism of Israeli policy toward the Palestinians during his acceptance speech for the Wolf Foundation Prize, which he received at the Knesset yesterday. "With pain in my heart, I ask today whether a situation of conquest and control can be reconciled with Israel's Declaration of Independence?," Barneboim said.
Statement of Daniel Barenboim on the occasion of receiving the Wolf prize
Palestine Monitor 5/9/2004
Israeli Knesset May 9 -- I am asking today with deep sorrow: Can we, despite all our achievements, ignore the intolerable gap between what the Declaration of Independence promised and what was fulfilled, the gap between the idea and the realities of Israel? Does the condition of occupation and domination over another people fit the Declaration of Independence?
Three years in jail for Jordanians convicted of planning attacks on US, Israeli tourists
Al-Bawaba 5/10/2004
A Jordanian military court on Monday convicted three men of planning to carry out attacks on American and Israeli tourists in Jordan and sentenced each to three years in jail. According to The AP, Col. Fawaz Buqour, the presiding judge at the military State Security Court, said the main defendant, Omar Sayel al-Khalayleh, 19, was influenced by the ideology of his uncle, the al-Qaeda-linked suspect Ahmad Fadhil al-Khalayleh, who is better known as Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi.
Hendel Accuses Mofaz with encouraging Terrorism
International Middle East Media Center 5/10/2004
Mofaz: Gaza Settlements, A Historical Mistake -- Israeli Deputy Education Minister and right wing National Union member Zvi Hendel slammed Monday Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz for saying that the Gaza Strip settlements were a historical mistake and that the area was not the land of the Jews' forefathers. Hendel told Israel Radio Mofaz was "encouraging terrorism while Jews are dying."
Two Palestinians shot dead as at least 11 houses destroyed in Gaza Strip
Al-Bawaba 5/10/2004
Israeli forces killed on Monday a Palestinian in the Gaza Strip town of al-Qarara, north of Khan Younis city, medics and witnesses said. Palestinian medical sources told WAFA that Nahed Abu Haddaf, 22, was killed with live gunshots in different parts of his body. Locals said that Israeli soldiers backed by tanks and armoured vehicles moved into the town and opened heavy machine gunfire at Palestinian houses.
UN official sees end to Israeli occupation
Daily Star 5/11/2004
Roed-Larsen holds talks with Berri, Hariri -- BEIRUT: United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Terje Roed-Larsen said that Israel's withdrawal from Gaza would lead to a full end of the occupation that started in 1967 and the establishment of a Palestinian state. Road-Larsen spoke Monday after a meeting with Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, in the first leg of his three-day trip to Lebanon and Damascus.
Remittances to Jordan play key role in economy
Daily Star 5/11/2004
BUSINESS COMMENTARY -- Remittances of Jordanians working abroad have played a key role in the Jordanian economy, compared to other sources of foreign exchange revenues such as export of services, tourism receipts and investment income. Remittances reached $2.2 billion (JD1. 56 billion) in 2003, compared to $1.54 billion in 1998, growing during this period at an average annual rate of 8.4 percent.
Articles
The Israeli Torture Template
By Wayne Madsen, CounterPunch 5/10/2004
Rape, Feces and Urine-Dipped Cloth Sacks -- With mounting evidence that a shadowy group of former Israeli Defense Force and General Security Service (Shin Bet) Arabic-speaking interrogators were hired by the Pentagon under a classified "carve out" sub-contract to brutally interrogate Iraqi prisoners at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, one only needs to examine the record of abuse of Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners in Israel to understand what Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld meant, when referring to new, yet to be released photos and videos, he said, "if these images are released to the public, obviously its going to make matters worse."
According to a political appointee within the Bush administration and U.S. intelligence sources, the interrogators at Abu Ghraib included a number of Arabic-speaking Israelis who also helped U.S. interrogators develop the "R2I" (Resistance to Interrogation) techniques. Many of the torture methods were developed by the Israelis over many years of interrogating Arab prisoners on the occupied West Bank and in Israel itself.
Suicide bombers driven more by politics than religious fundamentalism
By Riaz Hassan, Electronic Intifada 5/7/2004
ELIMINATING, LESSENING GRIEVANCES BEST WAY TO ADDRESS ATTACKS -- ADELAIDE, Australia -- At a time when the Western world worries about weapons of mass destruction in terrorist hands, a more basic device has emerged as the weapon of choice - a life itself. This use of life as a weapon - now exercised mainly by Islamic youths - is frequently presented as the manifestation of Islamic fanaticism. But studies by serious scholars and recent surveys show that the spate of suicide attacks in the Middle East is linked more to politics than to religion.
Data shows that the incidence of suicide attacks has increased from 31 in the 1980s to 98 in 2003 alone. The war in Iraq and escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have led to such an increase. Also, US foreign policy may be contributing to an acceleration of this trend.
Letter to Bush informs of P10K intent to bring 10,000 Western citizens to Palestine
By Ken O'Keefe, Electronic Intifada/P10K 5/7/2004
Aloha George,
It is my great honour to inform you of the P10K Force; a true peace keeping force without weapons, which has been created in order to fill the void left by inept and/or corrupt nation/state governments and the United Nations (UN). As you are surely aware, numerous public and legal requests by the Palestinian people through their democratically elected leaders in accordance with established legal channels have been made for an International Peacekeeping Force and/or International Observers to mobilize in Palestine in order to protect them against ongoing loss of life inflicted by the occupying power, Israel.
These requests have been made due to conclusively documented human rights violations, including legitimate claims of mass murder in Jenin and other locations within the occupied territories that remain uninvestigated at Israel's (the accused party's) insistence. Despite these repeated requests, no satisfying action has been taken by western governments nor the UN, atrocities continue to be alleged and it is this inaction which has necessitated the formation of the P10K Force.
They shouldn't probe themselves
Editorial, Ha'aretz 5/11/2004
The prosecution today is apparently going to drop all charges in the Nazareth District Court against three Israeli Arabs - Yusuf Sabih, Sharif Eid and Tarek Nujeidat, of Kafr Kana - who were indicted for the murder of IDF soldier Oleg Shaichat last year. The prosecution decided to indict the three on the basis of recommendations from the Northern Police District and against the position of the Shin Bet, which interrogated the accused, but doubted the credibility of a confession and crime reenactment made by one of the defendants. Three months ago, Supreme Court Justice Esther Hayut ruled the three could be held by police until the end of the legal proceedings against them. She based her ruling on statements made by Nujeidat during the reenactment, and on what she called "a detailed and orderly version of the events in which he incriminated himself and his friends."
Fortunately, three weeks ago, other suspects in the Shaichat case were arrested. If the trial of the three had ended in conviction, it would have become another case in which defendants were convicted of murder based on confessions made after the application of inappropriate methods.
More material available from Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel - www.vtjp.org
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