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Thread: :icon_sadangel2: Palestine Peace a dream?

  1. #1001
    BBC

    Gaza sewage 'a threat to Israel'


    The UN's Maxwell Gaylard made his appeal by one of Gaza's sewage lakes
    The UN and international aid agencies say Israel must relax its blockade of the Gaza Strip to allow urgent repairs to the water and sewage systems.
    In a joint appeal, the bodies say the hazards to health and the environment threaten not only Gaza but Israel too.
    More than 13m gallons (50m litres) of raw or partially treated sewage flows into the sea every day from Gaza because of a lack of treatment plants.
    The cross-border aquifer is low and raw sewage floats back to Gaza and Israel.
    Deadly flash flood
    The UN says about 10,000 Gazans have no access to a water network - while about 60% of the 1.4m population receive water only intermittently.
    Water consumption in the Strip is less than a third of that of Israelis living just a few kilometres away.
    Israel, and Egypt on its south-western side, have kept Gaza largely sealed since a violent takeover of the territory by the Islamic militant Hamas group in 2007.
    Israel says it is trying to weaken Hamas, end its rocket attacks against Israeli towns and get back an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, who was captured and taken to Gaza in 2006.
    "The deterioration and breakdown of water and sanitation facilities in Gaza is compounding an already severe and protracted denial of human dignity in the Gaza Strip," said UN humanitarian co-ordinator in the Palestinian territories, Maxwell Gaylard.
    Mr Gaylard and other humanitarian workers and officials launched the appeal with a news conference near one of northern Gaza's sewage lagoons to highlight the problem.
    In 2007, one of the lagoons overflowed and five people were killed by a flash flood of sewage.
    Aid agencies said Israel's bombardment in December and January worsened an already bad situation.
    Israeli officials had no immediate comment to the appeal on Thursday.

  2. #1002
    Settlement expansion as 3,000 settlers arrive amid seizure of 550 more dunams of Jerusalem


    08.09.09 - 10:38
    Jerusalem / PNN – After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that settlement expansion would continue, Israelis celebrated laying the foundation stone of a new settlement.

    Mvseri Adumim is now part of occupied Jerusalem's 'E1' section at the existing Ma'ale Adumim Settlement bloc.

    At the same time, it was announced that another 204 Jewish settlers coming from North America are being received by the Israeli, bringing number of this summer's arrivals to 3,000. This is occurring as Palestinians are being openly driven from their homes and land.

    Today the head of the Palestinian President’s Office on the issue of Jerusalem, lawyer Ahmed Al Robi announced a new Israeli scheme to seize more Palestinian land. Al Farouq in the Mount Scopus area is being overtaken. The confiscation of dozens of acres is part of the plan that Al Robi describes as an Israeli attempt to control the land and real estate in Jerusalem, particularly the Old City and its environs: Sheikh Jarrah, Wadi Joz, Silwan and Mount Scopus.

    The Israeli Land Administration Fund issued a plan, Number 10188, for control of 550 dunams in the district of Al Faruq in the Mount Scopus neighborhood.

    With the rabid takeover of Jerusalem, Al Robi still said that this is the most serious of Israeli schemes to have been made in recent years. It includes a vast area within a few meters of the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City.

    The plan itself is not getting much attention as it has been published only in Hebrew language newspapers. Citizens of the threatened region have yet to be informed that they are about to lose their land. Under the Israeli-controlled Jerusalem Municipality the period for submitting objections expires on the twenty-second of the month.

    A town meeting was held with representatives of the Al Farouq district, particularly families who are threatened with eviction and home demolition if the scheme is approved. Neighborhood representative and lawyer, Sami Irsheid is responsible for monitoring the submission of the objections. He is also working to uncover the reality of dangers facing myriad dimensions of the future of the city. Several other lawyers and professionals attended the meeting aimed primarily at organizing a strategy for resistance.

    From the President’s Office, Al Robi said that the situation is very serious, especially since the region is close to others under assault and is part of a ring that is forming around Al Haram Al Sharif, the Al Aqsa Mosque compound.

    The presidency and the nonviolent resistance both are attempting to stop the seizure with meetings and demonstrations in the works.

  3. #1003
    A human rights group says the deadly Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip killed at least 773 Palestinians who had not taken part in any military activities.

    Based on the report released by B'Tselem, the figure includes 252 children under 16, and 111 women among the victims of the 2008 offensive -- a shocking revelation contradicting Israel's claims.

    The Israeli military had earlier put the figure of children killed in the offensive at 89 and that of women at 49.

    According to the report, 68 Palestinian teenagers aged 16 to 18 who did not take part in the fighting were also killed by the Israeli army.

    Nineteen teenagers who took part in "hostile activities" against Israeli troops were also killed in Operation Cast Lead, the report added.

    "The extremely heavy civilian casualties and the massive damage to civilian property require serious introspection on the part of
    Israeli society," a B'Tselem statement said.

    Israel launched the massive offensive against the Gaza Strip in December 2008 in what Tel Aviv calls as a means to stop rocket fires from the area.

    The operation, however, left many civilians dead or homeless with the Israeli army targeting many civilian areas including a UN school.

    SB/MD

  4. #1004
    Over the past three months, Israeli forces have increased nocturnal raids on Palestinian towns, breaking into civilian houses and kidnapping non-combatants.

    The Israeli regime says the abducted individuals are on its 'Wanted List' while hypocritically repeating that the Palestinians must stop the non-violent resistance once and for all.

    In the latest of a series of raids, the occupying forces attacked the village of Bil'in at 2:30 am on the morning of September 8, allegedly searching for 16-year-old Hamaza Bornat, a relative of the head of the Popular Committee Against the Illegal Separation Wall, Eyad Bornat. It is not clear if Hamaza was arrested or not.

    Bil'in, a farming town of 1,700 people located in Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate and under Israeli occupation since 1967, has become a focal point for the non-violent resistance movement in Palestine, where residents have held protests every Friday for the last four years, joined by Israeli peace activists who cross the Apartheid Wall 'illegally' each Friday to lend support with their presence.

    In response, and to halt the protests, Israeli troops attack the protesters with potentially-lethal anti-riot and experimental weapons, but the protests have continued without fail.

    Although the village won a legal case in the Israeli High Court in 2006 ordering the Israeli army to re-route the internationally-condemned 'Annexation Wall' dividing the village, the re-routing has never happened, and the Palestinian villagers have no other legal means available than to hold non-violent protests, despite the recent provocations by Israeli forces.

    In March, the Israeli troops fired a high-velocity tear gas canister directly at the head of US peace activist Tristan Anderson, critically injuring him. He remains in the hospital and is unlikely to ever fully recover from his injuries.

    In the following month, the troops again aimed a high-velocity tear gas canister directly at the chest of non-violent activist Bassem Abu Rahme, this time killing their target.

    Since August, the Israeli army has raided the village in the middle of the night several times a week, terrorizing the villagers and keeping them awake for hours while firing randomly and searching houses.

    FTP/ZAP/HGL

  5. #1005
    Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has cancelled a planned visit to the occupied West Bank due to Israel's opposition to his entrance via Gaza.

    A senior Israeli diplomatic official reported the decision on Tuesday night, highlighting Tel Aviv's policy not to hold meetings with diplomats who met with Hamas leaders in Gaza during the same trip.

    "If they go directly from Gaza and meetings with Hamas to Jerusalem and meetings with Israeli leaders, it creates the impression that we are legitimizing those visits," the Jerusalem Post quoted the unnamed official as saying.

    Earlier this month, Norway's special Mideast envoy, John Hansen-Bauer, met with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Damascus before arriving for talks with Israeli officials.

    The move infuriated Israeli sources who complained the Norwegians did not inform Tel Aviv of the meeting, which led to cancellation of high-level talks between the Israeli and Norwegian sides.

    Turkey, Norway and Russia all maintain contact with the Gaza-based Hamas despite pressures from the West against any relations with the Palestinian resistance group, which refuses to recognize Israel.

    Meanwhile, a Norwegian security official has met Hamas leaders in Gaza recently to talk about the issue of a prisoner swap for captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

    The last week talks were focused on the number of Palestinian prisoners that Israel would expel to some European countries including Norway, Xinhua news agency reported.

    Hamas and Israel remain at odds over the prisoner exchange with Tel Aviv asking for a number of the security prisoners it would release to be deported -- a call Hamas has reportedly rejected.

    MRS/AKM

  6. #1006
    A 56-year-old Palestinian farmer was brutally attacked Thursday by Israeli settlers from the West Bank outpost of Gilad Farm. According to the man's family, the settlers also stripped him.

    According to available details, Ibrahim Tawil was on his way to his village, which is adjacent to the outpost, when he was jumped by group of Israeli settlers.

    His account tells of seven assailants. "He said that there were seven of them, all masked and that they beat him and kicked him and hit him with a mace and a belt. You can still see the bruises," said one of his sons.

    Bashar, another one of Tawil's sons, added that once the beating was over, "They stripped him and made him come back to the village in his underwear. The humiliation is worse than the beating." Ibrahim Tawil was hospitalized at the Qalqilya hospital.

    This is not the first time settlers residing at Gilad Farm have been accused of attacking the neighboring Palestinians.
    ¬
    Source: AJP

  7. #1007
    BBC

    Israel organs claim row deepens


    The Swedish article said Israeli soldiers had taken organs from dead prisoners
    A Palestinian minister and an Israeli Arab member of parliament have stoked a row over allegations that Israel has taken organs from dead Palestinians.
    Issa Qaraqae said Israel was hiding the bodies of dead Palestinian prisoners to disguise evidence of organ trafficking.
    Israeli Arab MP Mohammed Barakei said he would believe the organ-removal claims unless Israel disproved them.
    Israel has angrily denied the allegations, first made in a Swedish newspaper, calling them "outrageous".
    Mr Qaraqae said Israel was "hiding the bodies of Palestinian martyrs to remove the proof of their crimes, including organ trafficking".
    He was speaking at a meeting in the West Bank city of Nablus to demand the return of the bodies of Palestinians killed by the Israeli army.
    At the same meeting, Mr Barakei, chairman of the Hadash party in the Israeli Knesset, said it was the right of Palestinians to ask "what Israel's reasons are for keeping the bodies of martyrs".
    "Have the bodies been mutilated? My answer is yes, barring proof to the contrary. Have their organs been stolen? My answer is yes, barring proof to the contrary," he said.
    'Outrageous' claim
    Mr Barakei later told Israel's Yediot Ahronot newspaper: "Seeing as there is no worse way to punish a man and his family than with his death, the question is why Israel continues to hold the bodies."

    Mr Netanyahu said the claims were reminiscent of medieval 'blood libels'
    "The burden of proof falls on Israel, and as long as it refuses to say what the status of the bodies is or return them, it is hiding something awful," he said.
    The organ harvesting story was first published in August in Aftonbladet, Sweden's biggest-selling daily newspaper.
    It claimed that in incidents dating back as far as 1992, Israeli soldiers snatched Palestinian youths and returned their dismembered bodies a few days later.
    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged the Swedish government to condemn the article, saying the accusations were "outrageous".
    Mr Netanyahu compared the claims to medieval "blood libels", which alleged that Jews used the blood of Christian babies during religious ceremonies.
    But Sweden's foreign minister Carl Bildt has said he would not condemn the article because freedom of expression is part of the Swedish constitution.

  8. #1008
    After being attacked in Old City by Jewish extremists, members of the Armenian clergy face expulsion


    08.09.09 - 16:55
    Jerusalem / Maisa Abu Ghazaleh for PNN - A group of Jewish extremists attacked on Sunday afternoon two young Armenians and destroyed a cross near the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in East Jerusalem’s Old City.

    Israeli settlers such as these have attacked for years members of the clergy in the Armenian Quarter. Today the Armenians who were assaulted Sunday are not being protected, but rather expelled.

    The Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights today denounced the attack, just prior the Israeli-controlled municipality issuing orders to shut down the center for another year.

    A spokesman for the Armenian Patriarchate said Tuesday that the two men who were attacked are still being held. The attackers are free. Israeli police arrested the men after they resisted the extremists. Now the occupying Israeli administration may expel the Christians under the pretext they carry Armenian nationality.

    The Armenian Patriarchate sent an urgent message to Israeli President Shimon Peres and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urging them to nullify the expulsion decision.

    The spokesman for the Patriarch confirmed that incidents of abuse and provocation of young Armenians by Jewish fundamentalists are “constantly repeated.” He denounced the expulsion order that was issued quickly and without trial.

    The two young men are students studying religious teachings. They are just 18 years of age.

    The Jerusalem Center said today that the Israeli police that occupy Jerusalem should have stopped the Jewish extremists who continue to attack the clergy in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City. “These attacks have been going on for years, but the Israeli police have done nothing to stop them despite the seriousness of the attacks which take place as part of the wider issue of religious racism.”

  9. #1009
    New reports have surfaced on the arrest of yet another Jewish organ trading gang in the United States involved in the abduction of Algerian children.

    Dr. Mustafa Khayatti, the head of the Algerian National Committee for the Development of Health Research, revealed on Sunday that the New York city police have arrested members of a Jewish gang who abducted Algerian children for their organs.

    Khayatti said the arrests came after Interpol found that children in western Algeria were abducted and taken to Morocco to have their kidneys harvested.

    Their organs were later trafficked to the United States and Israel and sold for $20,000 to $100,000 each.

    The group is said to be connected to Israeli rabbi Levi Rosenbaum, who was recently arrested in New Jersey for the direct involvement in importing human organs.

    Following Rosenbaum's arrest, US authorities detained some 44 others, including rabbis and mayors in New Jersey, who were prosecuted for money laundering and human organs trade.

    Last month, a report published in the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, accused Israeli soldiers of kidnapping Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip for their organs, indicating a possible link between the Israeli military and the mafia of human organs detected in the US.

    Some Arab countries have called for an international inquiry into the allegations.

    FF/AKM

  10. #1010
    Israel 'understated' Gaza deaths


    A new report says more civilians were killed in Gaza than Israel admits
    An Israeli human rights group says many more Palestinian civilians were killed in the Israeli military's campaign in Gaza than the army admits.

    BBC

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