:icon_sadangel2: Palestine Peace a dream?

Last update - 07:42 02/07/2009
ANALYSIS / Loudmouthed rabbi reflects IDF's religious bent
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: religious Zionism

Most Israel Defense Forces generals act like they have taken vows of silence. And then there's the army's chief rabbi, Brig. Gen. Avichai Ronski, the last big mouth at IDF headquarters. Ronski is increasingly perceived as someone who causes himself trouble, particularly on matters that other senior officers have been ordered to avoid by Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi.

Over the past two years, the public has heard Ronski's views on a range of subjects, including some on the fine line between army and religion, or army and politics.

For example, the army rabbinate gave soldiers serving in Gaza a booklet that stated not a millimeter of the Land of Israel could be given up. Ronski says this happened without his knowledge.
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The army also has let the right-wing organization Elad preach to soldiers about the Judaization of Jerusalem. And Ronski has said religious soldiers are better fighters than their secular colleagues. Now, Haaretz reporter Anshel Pfeffer has revealed that Ronski opposes drafting women.

All of this is happening as settlers and right-wing rabbis are becoming more involved with the army rabbinate.

In spite of this, Ronski can take credit for some very positive developments. He clearly reestablished the connection between the rabbinate and combat soldiers, after years when the rabbis were met with skepticism. Further, religious women serving in the army have said Ronski's rabbinate is much more supportive than those of his predecessors. It should also be remembered that the army rabbinate's wide-ranging activities are taking place in the face of a major vacuum left by the education corps.

A significant change is occurring within the IDF, and it has not yet been sufficiently analyzed. The face of the army, especially the middle ranks, has become more religious over the last decade. It's not just a matter of counting skullcaps at graduation ceremonies at Training Base 1, where religious soldiers account for 30 percent of infantry officer course graduates. The same process is playing itself out in most of the fighting units. As a result the IDF, and not just its chief rabbi, is speaking with a different, more religious voice.

Ronski was appointed by Dan Halutz, the immediate predecessor of Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, who wanted to bring the IDF closer to the sectors of the public that opposed the Gaza disengagement. Now, four years later, the disengagement seems to have pushed religious youth to apply themselves more within the army, in part due to the belief that their influence will be greater from within.

Haaretz

Even Haaretz Is Reporting, and Most of the Muslim Ummah is still sleeping?

Last update - 06:09 02/07/2009
Amnesty: Israel's actions during Gaza op amount to war crimes
By The Associated Press
Tags: Gaza, IDF

Israeli forces killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians and destroyed thousands of Gaza Strip homes in attacks that amounted to war crimes, Amnesty International charged Thursday, in the first in-depth human rights group report on the recent war in Gaza.

Amnesty called on Israel to publicly pledge not to use artillery, white phosphorus and other imprecise weapons in densely populated areas. And it urged Gaza's militant Hamas rulers to stop rocket fire against Israeli civilians - attacks it also described as war crimes.

Amnesty - which first accused Israel of war crimes shortly after the fighting ended on Jan. 18 - said disturbing questions remain about why high-precision weapons like tank shells and air-delivered bombs and missiles killed so many children and other civilians.
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The group also deplored Israel's use of less-precise artillery shells and highly incendiary white phosphorous in densely populated areas. It also accused Israel Defense Forces of using Palestinians as human shields and frequently blocking civilians from receiving medical care and humanitarian aid.

"The pattern of Israeli attacks and the high number of civilian casualties showed elements of reckless conduct, disregard for civilian lives and property and a consistent failure to distinguish between military targets and civilians and civilian objects," Amnesty International charged.

More than 1,400 Palestinians, including more than 900 civilians, were killed during the three-week offensive, according to Gaza health officials and human rights groups. Israel puts the death toll closer to 1,100 and says the vast majority of the dead were militants, though it has refused requests to provide a list of the dead.

Amnesty says some 300 children and hundreds of other unarmed civilians were among the dead. Thirteen Israelis also were killed, including three civilians who died by rocket fire.

The IDF did not respond to requests for comment. But in the past, it has blamed Hamas for civilian casualties, accusing the Islamic group of using mosques, schools and residential areas for cover to stage attacks.

The Geneva Conventions ban using white phosphorous as an incendiary weapon against civilian populations and in air attacks against military forces in civilian areas.

During the Gaza conflict Israel categorically denied that its use of phosphorous weapons was illegal. The IDF says its internal investigations concluded it did not violate international law during the Gaza war.

The 117-page Amnesty International report was based on physical evidence and testimony that a team of four researchers, including a military expert, gathered from dozens of attack sites in Gaza and southern Israel during and after the war.

The detailed report broke little new ground, concentrating on issues, cases and problems that have been dealt with in other frameworks.

Among the Gaza cases cited in the report were the well-documented shelling of a house where a family took refuge on soldiers' orders before 21 people were killed; an Israeli artillery attack near a UN school that killed dozens; and the shelling of a house that killed three daughters of a Gaza doctor who has worked in Israel for years and is a champion of coexistence.

"Israel did not respond to Amnesty Internatqonal's repeated requests for information on specific cases detailed in the report and for meetings to discuss the organization's findings," said Donatella Rovera, who headed Amnesty's field research mission.

She said investigators were able to operate freely in Gaza, without any intervention by Hamas security forces.

"This was a fierce, one-sided war in which all means of killing and destruction were employed," said Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of Hamas' Gaza government. "We believe that the leaders of the occupation state must be tried for these crimes."

The UN is examining the conduct of both sides to the conflict. Hamas allowed veteran war crimes investigator Richard Goldstone and his team into Gaza last month, but Hamas security often accompanied them, raising questions about the ability of witnesses to freely describe the militant group's actions.

Israel has refused to cooperate with the probe, claiming the UN council overseeing the investigation is biased.

Israel conducted its own internal investigation earlier this year and cleared the military of wrongdoing. Human rights groups criticized the probe as a whitewash.

The Amnesty report denounced Hamas for firing rockets into towns and villages in southern Israel.

"Five months on, neither side has shown any inclination to change its practices and abide by international humanitarian law, raising the prospect that civilians will again bear the brunt if fighting resumes," Rovera concluded.


haaretz

Last update - 08:06 02/07/2009
Israel endangered by secular failure to confront ultra-Orthodox
By Meirav Arlosoroff, TheMarker Correspondent
Tags: Israel News, Sabbath

The ultra-Orthodox protests against the operation of the Safra parking lot in Jerusalem on Shabat remind one of things forgotten. We've all been there before, in the '70s and '80s, and we all know how it ends. Very well, as far as the Haredi community is concerned.

Even though the Safra parking lot is in the city's east and serves visitors to the Old City; although there is no need to cross religious neighborhoods to get there; even though the Haredi community has no right to complain about it - it makes no difference. The battle was won by the Haredi community from the onset, because nobody's standing against them. The other side capitulated in advance. Jerusalem has been captured by the Haredim. They have absolute control.

Coincidentally, Jerusalem has a secular mayor, but he leans on a Haredi coalition. In any case, his tenure is temporary. A good secular mayor who seeks development and growth for the city is doomed to fail; he will have no more voters for a second term. The city's secular residents have been fleeing the city since the 1970s and moving to Tel Aviv.
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The secular residents grew tired of the battles with the Haredim over good municipal governance and fled. The question is what will these secular citizens do once they discover that Tel Aviv is also under threat from a growing Haredi minority. Where will they go next?

Israelis who believe in the future of Israel as a modern, developing and democratic state, whether they be secular, national religious or Arab, may well become the minority in the future. In fact, it's a sure thing, as sure as the prediction of the 1970s that if secular Israelis didn't fight for Jerusalem's identity, it would be left to the Haredim. Thirty years later, the prediction has come true.

The future for Tel Aviv is no more promising. Why should Tel Aviv's situation be any different from that of Jerusalem in 30 years if secular residents and proponents of a democratic Israel won't lift a finger to protect Israel's identity?

A case in point is the Haredi bill that would drive another nail into the coffin of secular education in Israel - and that of Israel's future along with it. The bill brings the ultra-Orthodox one step closer to capturing Israel's budget, in order to finance, foster and promote non-Zionist and non-democratic education that does nothing to encourage integration into the modern workforce.

Already, one in five children beginning first grade attends Haredi schools, and the total number of Haredi students is on the rise, while the number of students in the public school system, and particularly religious public schools, declines. Adding in Arab schoolchildren, one could say that nearly a half of all Israeli pupils today are students whose identification with the state and its Zionist, democratic, modern values are in question. The Israeli pro-democracy public sees, and is silent.

Of course, there is no connection between tolerance, openness and democracy and the ostrich-head-in-the-sand policy that the state is maintaining on the issue of Haredi education. It is the ultra-Orthodox community's right to conduct their chosen lifestyle, but it is also Israel's right, as a democratic nation that seeks to develop and grow, to protect itself. In fact, it is not a right, but an obligation to do so.

By this way of thinking, no democratic state should allow private schooling to exist if these schools are not fully under state regulation and do not educate for democracy and integration into the workforce. The duty to include a basic curriculum most certainly applies to private schools that receive no state financing at all.

Certainly no democracy finances private, unregulated schools that do not educate for democracy and good citizenship. They know it would be suicidal to the state. It's a strategy based on destruction economics and democracy. Obviously, no state would do such a thing, except for one. The State of Israel.

Any way you look at it, Israel's policy on Haredi education is suicidal. If existential necessity requires decisions in a certain direction, the government regularly takes the opposite course. The fact is, the Ministerial Legislative Committee approved a bill that will increase budgeting to Haredi education, instead of taking the opposite tack, making sure that not a single shekel reaches Haredi schools that fail to incorporate core curriculum. This would ensure the future of the state.

But no such decision is being made. The government, short-sighted and concerned only with its own survival, sacrifices Israel's future on the alter of coalition stability. Proponents of democracy here - secular, national religious and Arab - see the future of the state growing dim and do nothing to prevent it.

It is exactly like the 1970s, when the fighters preferred to flee instead of joining battle. Again rational Israel currently prefers to flee from its own future. Today's apathy and shoulder shrugging, while there is still a rational majority capable of instigating a change, will translate into a sure loss within a few decades. If the current trend continues, its only a question of time before Masada falls as well, just as Jerusalem did.

Haaretz

Amnesty details Gaza 'war crimes'
Israel attributed civilian casualties to collateral damage in legitimate action

Israel committed war crimes and carried out reckless attacks and acts of wanton destruction in its Gaza offensive, an independent human rights report says.

Hundreds of Palestinian civilians were killed using high-precision weapons, while others were shot at close range, the group Amnesty International says.


The Israeli military says its conduct was in line with international law.

Israel has attributed some civilian deaths to "professional mistakes", but has dismissed wider criticism that its attacks were indiscriminate and disproportionate.

Amnesty says some 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the 22-day Israeli offensive between 27 December 2008 and 17 January 2009, which agrees broadly with Palestinian figures.

More than 900 of these were civilians, including 300 children and 115 women, or non-combatant police, it says.

In March, Israel's military said the overall Palestinian death toll was 1,166, of whom 295 were "uninvolved" civilians.

Pattern

The 117-page report by Amnesty International says many of the hundreds of civilian deaths in the conflict "cannot simply be dismissed as 'collateral damage' incidental to otherwise lawful attacks - or as mistakes".


GAZA CIVILIAN DEATHS
Palestinians search for bodies in rubble of destroyed house of Hamas senior leader Nizar Rayan after an Israeli missile strike in Jabaliya refugee camp on 1 January 2009
Children: 300
Women: 115
Men over 50: 85
Civilian men under 50: 200
Non-combatant police: 240
Total: 940
Source: Amnesty International


It says "disturbing questions" remain unanswered as to why children playing on roofs and medical staff attending the wounded were killed by "highly accurate missiles" whose operators had detailed views of their targets.

Lives were lost because Israeli forces "frequently obstructed access to medical care," the report says. It also reiterates previous condemnations of the use of "imprecise" weapons such as white phosphorous and artillery shells.

The destruction of homes, businesses and public buildings was in many cases "wanton and deliberate" and "could not be justified on the grounds of military necessity", the report adds.

"All of those things occurred on a scale that constitutes pattern - and constitutes war crimes," Donatella Rovera, who headed the research, told the BBC.

The document also gives details of several cases where it says people - including women and children posing no threat to troops - were shot at close range as they were fleeing their homes in search of shelter.

Human shields

The Amnesty report says no evidence was found that Palestinian militants had forced civilians to stay in buildings being used for military purposes, contradicting Israeli claims that Hamas repeatedly used "human shields".

However, Amnesty says Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups had endangered Palestinian civilians by firing rockets from residential neighbourhoods and storing weapons in them.

It says local residents had in one case told researchers that Hamas fighters had fired a rocket from the yard of a government school.

The Israeli military has repeatedly blamed Hamas for causing civilian casualties, saying its fighters operated from buildings like schools, medical facilities, religious institutions, residential homes and commercial premises.

In the cases it had investigated, Amnesty said civilian deaths "could not be explained as resulting from the presence of fighters shielding among civilians, as the Israeli army generally contends".

However, Amnesty does accuse Israel of using civilians, including children, as human shields in Gaza, forcing them to remain in houses which its troops were using as military positions, and to inspect sites suspected of being booby trapped.

It also says Palestinian militants rocket fire from the Gaza Strip was "indiscriminate and hence unlawful under international law", although it only rarely caused civilian casualties.

Thirteen Israelis were killed, including three civilians, during the offensive, which Israel launched with the declared aim of curtailing cross-border rocket attacks.

BBC

Know BBC was forced report this story...


Israelis intercept Gaza aid ship
Free Gaza Movement member hangs Palestinian flag on the boat
The ship left the Cypriot port of Larnaca on Monday

Israeli forces have boarded a ship trying to carry aid and pro-Palestinian activists to the Gaza Strip in defiance of Israel's blockade of the territory.

The 20 passengers include former US congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Nobel Prize winner Mairead Maguire.

The activists also include some Britons, campaigners said.

Ms McKinney described it as "an outrageous violation of international law", as the boat was on a humanitarian mission and was not in Israeli waters.

The Israeli military said the boat was trying to enter Gaza illegally.

The US-based Free Gaza Movement has breached the blockade five times since August 2008.

Two other attempts by the activist group were stopped by Israeli warships during Israel's three-week military offensive in Gaza in December and January.

Israel keeps a tight hold on Gaza, which is ruled by the militant Palestinian group Hamas.

The Israeli military said the passengers and crew of the Greek-registered ship Arion would be handed over to immigration authorities in Ashdod, and its humanitarian aid cargo would be taken to Gaza by road after a security check.

"An Israeli navy force intercepted, boarded and took control of the cargo boat Arion... as it was illegally attempting to enter the Gaza Strip," a military spokesman said.

Reconstruction

The British Foreign Office said on Tuesday it was aware of the situation and was trying to clarify the facts.

"We would be concerned if the stories of the Israeli Navy boarding the boat in international waters were true," a spokesman said.

"We have made it clear to Israel that we are very concerned for the safety of British nationals."

The mission is the latest by the Free Gaza Movement, which has renamed the ferry Spirit of Humanity.

"This is an outrageous violation of international law against us. Our boat was not in Israeli waters, and we were on a human rights mission to the Gaza Strip," said Ms McKinney in a statement.

"President [Barack] Obama just told Israel to let in humanitarian and reconstruction supplies, and that's exactly what we tried to do. We're asking the international community to demand our release so we can resume our journey."

On Monday, a report by the International Committee of the Red Cross described the 1.5 million Palestinians living in Gaza as people "trapped in despair", unable to rebuild their lives after Israel's offensive.

Donors have pledged $4.5 billion for reconstruction and rehabilitation in Gaza following the 22-day offensive which left more than 50,000 homes, 800 industrial properties and 200 schools damaged or destroyed, as well as 39 mosques and two churches.

BBC

Arabs shouldn’t live alongside Jews: Shas minister
Mohammed Mar’i | Arab News


RAMALLAH: Arab members of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) on Friday lashed out at Israeli Construction and Housing Minister Ariel Attias after he said that Arabs should not live with Jews.

Speaking at the Israel Bar Association headquarters in Tel Aviv late Thursday, Attias said Israel was in danger of “losing the Galilee” if the Israeli-Arab population continued to “spread” in the north, and mentioned in particular the Wadi Ara area, where he said Haredim, an ultra-Orthodox community, planned to construct houses that could help “stop the expansion.”

“Arabs buy apartments in places with a Jewish nature, which causes unwanted friction,” Attias, who is a member of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, said. “We can all be bleeding hearts,” said the minister, “but I think it is unsuitable (for Jews and Arabs) to live together.” Attias cited the Jewish-Arab clashes last year in Acre to explain his point. “Mayors don’t want mixed cities. We all saw the riots in Acre, we saw how dangerous it was. We can’t toy with that. The reality is that different sectors do not necessarily get along. The many Arabs in Wadi Ara make it an undesirable place to live.”

He said he would push forward the long-planned Harish project in order to “save” the Wadi Ara area — which has seen “illegal Arab expansion” — by populating the region with Haredim, “who are the only ones willing to live there.”

Nazareth Mayor Shimon Gapso decided last week to build a new ultra-Orthodox settlement in the coming year on land expropriated from Arabs to counter the demographic situation in the northern city that has an annual emigration rate of 0.5 percent and a growing Arab population of 14 percent. Parliament member Ahmed Tibi of the United Arab List party said Attias’ statement was shocking, especially when coming from a minister in a government that should be distributing resources equally. He said his statement clearly is incitement to racism.

Afou Aghbaria of Hadash party slammed Attias’ statement, saying it threatened to disturb the delicate relations between Jews and Arabs in the area. “I suggest he go see a doctor as soon as possible, to find out if he has been infected with the Lieberman strand of racist flu,” he said.

Arab News

The story told in Fatenah is based on a true case
By Mohammed Harmassi
BBC Arabic

A woman from Gaza stands at an Israeli check-point. We can only see her back but it is clear that in shame she opens her top to a female Israeli soldier to show that her breasts have been removed in an attempt to beat cancer. Despite this, she is refused entry to Israel on security grounds.

This is the climactic scene from the first major Palestinian attempt at an animated movie and it is based on a true story.

But this is not and anti-Israeli rant.

There are good and bad characters on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide.

The heroine of the movie is called Fatenah.

She is a Gazan woman whose dream of finding love and leading a normal life is torn apart by cancer and the conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

"Usually Palestinians are treated as numbers, but this is not the case here," said Saed Andoni, the film's producer. "Behind each number there is a long story and that is why we focus on this one individual."

True story

The animation tells of Fatenah's fight against cancer; the removal of both her breasts, Palestinian doctors who delayed her diagnosis and Israeli soldiers who delayed her treatment.

It also tells of a rare friendship between the Gazan and an Israeli woman, Dafna.

The animation is threaded together by a love story between Fatenah and a Gazan man.

The depiction of the impoverished coastal strip is condensed into harshly coloured scenes in the 30-minute animation; an Israeli checkpoint, crowded buildings and the sea.

Fatenah has large eyes and a small mouth - symbolic of a woman "compelled to a bitter existence but not empowered to speak", says director Ahmad Habash.

Fatenah's struggle and friendship with an Israeli woman is based on the real-life story of a Gazan woman named Fatma.
Fatenah
Fatenah shows one woman's lonely battle to get treatment for breast cancer

Her fight against breast cancer was told by the Israeli group "Physicians for Human Rights" in a 2005 report after the disease killed her.

"The report was so unbelievable, that when you read it you feel like it is fiction. It is absurd. You cannot believe that these things happen even though we as Palestinians live in this situation," says Mr Andoni.

Health care in Gaza is poor - a legacy of poor training, corruption and shabby equipment.

A blockade tightened after militant group Hamas seized power of Gaza in June 2007 has sealed people in, and kept many medical supplies out.

But Israel says it continues to allow in humanitarian goods despite the blockade.

Seriously ill residents must find treatment in Egypt, Israel, or cross from there to the West Bank or Jordan.

But it can take weeks for Palestinian bureaucrats to organise referrals and for Israel to approve entry.

Physicians for Human Rights says 12 residents have died unnecessarily from their illnesses after Israeli officials refused their applications to enter since Hamas took power.

Aggressive cancer

In 2004, 28-year-old Fatma felt a lump in her breast - Palestinian doctors said her cure was in having children or switching bras.

Months later they diagnosed aggressive cancer but refused to make a referral for her to be treated in Israel.

Fatma defiantly sent her medical report to an Israeli hospital where doctors said she needed immediate care.

Israeli activists lobbied defence officials to allow her to enter Israel, but she was frequently delayed and turned back by soldiers.

Sometimes, her ambulance was forced to return to Gaza because of fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants.

The report says the climatic scene in 'Fatenah,' where she is ordered to disrobe before an Israeli woman soldier took place in real-life in September 2004.
Fatenah
Fatenah struggles with Palestinian and Israeli bureaucracies

In the animation, Fatenah's back is to the camera, but she ashamedly reveals a bare shoulder, suggesting she is naked under her long Muslim robe.

In reality, Fatma wore a tee-shirt and a stuffed bra because her breasts were removed to try to halt the cancer.

She was lying on the floor because she was too weak to stand, and an Israeli soldier yelled at her to dress.

The report said she was then sent back into Gaza for failing a security check.

Sullied reputation

The film makers are at pains to say the animation is inspired by Fatma's story, but it isn't about her.

That nuance was lost in deeply conservative Gaza, where Fatma's family say it has sullied their deceased daughter's reputation because of Fatenah's innocent romance - there isn't any kissing or hand-holding - and the brief scene where her animated breast is shown in the movie.

The film took almost two years to make in the West Bank city of Ramallah on a budget of $60,000 (£36,400) provided by the World Health Organisation.

It will be sent to film festivals around the world and Mr Andoni said he hopes it lays the foundation for what will become a burgeoning Palestinian animation industry.

BBC

A seventeen-year-old Palestinian girl has reportedly been killed and four others have suffered wounds in Israeli tank fire in the Gaza Strip.

According to the Palestinians who said they witnessed the incident, Hyam Ayash lost her life after an Israeli tank fired a mortar toward a target near the al-Bureij refugee camp at a central area in the impoverished strip. Medical workers meanwhile said that one of those wounded in the attack is in critical condition.

The Israeli military account of the incident was that its forces had come under fire by Palestinian fighters in the area.

The incident took place after the London-based human rights group Amnesty International announced on Thursday that Israeli army soldiers picked and used Gazan children as human shields during the latest major Israeli military operation in the besieged Gaza Strip.

In its 117-page report on the offensive, the rights group leveled accusations of war crimes against Tel Aviv, saying Israeli forces inflicted "wanton destruction" in attacks that targeted civilians.

Based on the report, Israeli troops forced Palestinians to stay in one room at their home while turning the rest of the house into a base and sniper positions, effectively using the families, both adults and children, as human shields and putting them at risk.

There have been intermittent skirmishes between Israeli troopers and Palestinian fighters in the Gaza-Israel border region after Israel brought its three-week war on Gaza to a halt.

Three weeks of Israeli air strikes and a ground incursion resulted in the death of over 1,500 Palestinians and the injury of about 5,450 people in the Gaza Strip. Most of the victims were civilians. The offensive also inflicted more than USD 1.6 billion of damage on the economy in the Gaza Strip.

MP/AA

Former US lawmaker Cynthia McKinney and several other human rights activists remain in an Israeli prison after refusing to sign a deportation form that they claim is self-incriminating.

In a press release from McKinney's Green Party, she said the form states that the their relief boat carrying 21 activists, medial supplies, cement, olive trees and children's toys en route to Gaza, was violating the Israeli blockade and trespassing its territorial waters.

She, however, insists the Spirit of Humanity, the Greek-flagged relief boat, was in international waters.

"We were in international waters on a boat delivering humanitarian aid to people in Gaza when the Israeli Navy ships surrounded us and illegally threatened us, dismantled our navigation equipment, boarded and confiscated the ship," she said in a statement, adding that they were immediately taken into custody."

"Immigration officials in Israel said they did not want to keep us, but we remain imprisoned," she said.

On Tuesday, The Israeli Navy detained McKinney and 21 other human rights activists on board a relief boat outside Israel's territorial waters as they were heading to Gaza on a humanitarian mission.

Meanwhile, the 54-year-old former US congresswoman has accused Tel Aviv of violating the international law by seizing an aid vessel in international waters.

"State Department and White House officials have not effected our release or taken a strong public stance to condemn the illegal actions of the Israeli Navy of enforcing a blockade of humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians of Gaza, a blockade that has been condemned by President Obama," McKinney said.

Richard Falk, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in the Palestinian territories, said Thursday that the seizure of the boat was unlawful.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has warned of dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, saying 1.5 million Palestinians living in the coastal sliver are 'trapped in despair' due to the continuing Israeli blockade on the territory.

The humanitarian agency said that seriously ill patients were not receiving the treatment they needed and thousands of Gazans whose homes were destroyed during Israel's three-week Christmas war were still without shelter.

HRF/MD

Israel's two-year blockade of the Gaza Strip is a continuing crime against humanity, and its seizure of a ship carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza was "unlawful", says a UN human rights investigator.

Richard Falk, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, said Thursday that the blockade restricted vital supplies such as food, medicine and fuel to "bare subsistence levels."

His remarks came after Israeli authorities on Tuesday seized a ship carrying relief aid for the strip. The vessel was also carrying 21 pro-Palestinian international activists.

Irish Nobel peace prize laureate Mairead Maguire and former US congresswoman Cynthia McKinney were among those aboard.

Tel Aviv said the ship would not be permitted to enter Gaza coastal waters because of security risks in the area and its existing naval blockade.

Falk, an American expert on international law, said the move was part of Israel's "cruel blockade of the entire Palestinian population of Gaza" in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibiting any form of collective punishment against "an occupied people".

"Such a pattern of continuing blockade under these conditions amounts to such a serious violation of the Geneva Conventions as to constitute a continuing crime against humanity," Falk was quoted as saying by Reuters.

In response, Israel's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Aharon Leshno-Yaar, rejected the remarks and accused Falk, a Jewish American expert on international law, of being anti-Israeli.

He said Falk was "known for his bias against Israel and anti-Israel statements."

AGB/MD

A Palestinian woman who was carrying a toy gun has been injured after being shot by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers near a Nablus-area checkpoint.

The Israeli soldiers claimed that they shot the woman at the Bekaot checkpoint on Friday morning because she ignored their request to stop.

According to the soldiers, they discovered that she was carrying a toy gun after shooting her.

The Palestinian woman was rushed to hospital for treatment as she sustained wounds to her legs.

The IDF also said that it had no responsibility in the death of the 17-year-old Palestinian girl in the Gaza Strip a day earlier.

On Thursday, the Palestinian teenager Hyam Ayash lost her life and four others were injured after an Israeli tank fired a mortar toward a target near the al-Bureij refugee camp at a central area in the impoverished strip.

HRF/MD

An adviser to former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon blames the current administration for creating a bigger dilemma by refusing to endorse the peace roadmap.

Dov Weissglas, Sharon's bureau chief, told Jerusalem Post that Netanyahu has made a mistake of refusing to advocate the roadmap, arguing that his acceptance of the plan from the very beginning of his government could have allayed the international community's concerns as well as winning the US satisfaction.

Insisting that Netanyahu should call for the implementation of 'every clause and condition' of the roadmap, the former adviser went on to say that the roadmap also included the two caveats raised by Netanyahu -- that Palestine be demilitarized and recognize Israel as a Jewish state. He added the plan could best serve Israeli interests.

Weissglas, who played a central role in the formulation of the road map, added that the roadmap was "a management plan" that could ensure that Palestine could only come to be established in a context that would not threaten Israel.

The 2003 peace roadmap is a plan to resolve Israeli-Palestinian conflict proposed by a quartet of international entities namely the US, EU, Russia and the UN.

In exchange for statehood, the road map requires the Palestinian resistance fighters to lay down arms. Israel, for its part, must support and accept the emergence of a Palestinian government and halt settlement expansion.

The former adviser, meanwhile, warned Netanyahu that if he continues to reject the plan, the US administration might move to shelve the plan for a permanent accord- - a reference to the third phase of the roadmap.

Under the third phase of the roadmap, the quartet will convene an international conference to launch a process leading to a permanent status agreement which solves all historical issues on the basis of UN Security Council Resolutions 242, 338 and 1397.

Such conference would also support progress toward a comprehensive Middle East settlement between Israel and Lebanon and Israel and Syria.

The warning comes as Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Thursday that Tel Aviv would not make further concessions when dealing with the Israeli-Arab conflict.

Suggesting that past concessions have not had positive results, Lieberman said "taking responsibility does not mean always making concessions … even though we are always loved when we make concessions."

Meanwhile, the hardline Israeli minister added that Tel Aviv would always enjoy the support of its main ally, the US, despite differences of opinion.

"Israel has no greater friend than the United States," Lieberman said, "which will remain Israel's most faithful and important ally, even when there are differences of opinion."

The two allies are at loggerheads over the issue of Israeli settlements. Despite repeated US calls for a complete halt to the activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, Prime Minister Netanyahu has rejected the request, saying the 'natural growth' of existing settlements should be enshrined in any peace deal.

Palestinians refuse to hold talks with Israel as long as the regime continues its illegal settlement activities.

AR/MD

A public-opinion survey has barely given a passing grade to the administration of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who approaches his first 100 days in office.

The survey, conducted by Tel Aviv University to gauge the premier's popularity, found that Israelis believe the Netanyahu government is not leading Israel in the right direction.

The respondents gave his cabinet a barely passing grade of 5.6 points -- out of 10.

The survey also indicated that the Israelis have more favorable opinion toward Netanyahu than toward opposition leader Tzipi Livni.

When asked who was better suited to be the Israeli prime minister, 52 percent of the respondents said Netanyahu, while only 34 said Livni.

HRF/MD

Israeli intelligence operatives violate the religious site of Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem (al-Quds), detaining a journalist who documented the intrusion.

Plainclothes Israeli agents intruded into the compound and took picture of its different corners Friday, Palestinian Ma'an news agency reported, quoting the Al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and (Preservation of Muslim) Heritage.

The police force accompanying the undercover agents reportedly detained the organization's journalist, Mahmoud Abu Atta, who had caught the intrusion on camera.

Israeli agents seized the memory card of Atta's camera before releasing him.

The Haram al-Sharif (Holy Sanctuary), located in the Old City of Jerusalem (al-Quds), houses the Islamic shrine of Qubbat As-Sakhrah (the Dome of the Rock) as well as Al-Aqsa Mosque -- the third holiest Islamic site.

Religious activists, Palestinians and Arab Israelis blame Israel for commonly disrespecting the compound.

The groups accuse Tel Aviv of arranging high-profile visits to the site in order to insult the sanctity of the holy mosque and provoke riots.

In 2000, former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon attended the site sparking the second Palestinian uprising, the Al-Aqsa Intifada. Recently Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, accompanied by police officials and guards, toured Haram al-Sharif's courtyard.

Ultra-orthodox Jewish groups also lead occasional rampages around the Mosque causing damages and destruction in the absence of intervention by the Israeli police.

HN/MB/MMN

Israel deports five Bahraini activists among the Gaza-bound humanitarian convoy it had earlier seized on charge of violating its 'territorial waters'.

On Friday, the five, who allegedly include a reporter for the Doha-based satellite TV channel, al-Jazeera, were taken out of Israel custody to be taken back to their homeland via the Ben Gurion airport south of Tel Aviv, the Palestinian Ma'an news agency reported.

They had traveled to the blockade-stricken coastal sliver among the international Free Gaza Movement aid convoy.

Earlier in the week, Israeli battleships circled the movement's Greek-flagged vessel, Spirit of Humanity which was sailing in international waters.

Israeli marines then took hold of the ship capturing its 22 crewmembers who included former US lawmaker Cynthia McKinney, Irish Nobel peace prize laureate Mairead Maguire and several other human rights activists.

"They kidnapped all on board, they tore the Greek flag off the boat then incarcerated them. To say we are angry would be an extreme understatement," the movement's spokesman Greta Berlin told The Cyprus Mail.

The vessel was carrying medial supplies, cement, olive trees and children's toys to Gaza which has weathered nearly two years of all-out Israeli-imposed siege which has deprived it of all necessities.

Tel Aviv says it is to eventually deport most of the group. The members, though, have refused to sign deportation forms put forward to them saying it was equal to agreeing to the Israeli charges that they were violating the blockade and trespassing territorial waters.

HN/MP/MMA