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Thread: :icon_sadangel2: Palestine Peace a dream?

  1. #101
    IOF Kidnaps Girl in Nablus Date : 14/2/2009 Time : 15:08

    NABLUS , February 14, 2009 (WAFA)- Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) arrested, Saturday, a 19 year-old girl from Nablus among three Palestinians.



    Palestinian Security Sources said that IOF has kidnapped Rima Nafe’ Abu Eisha (19) after surrounding her family’s house in Beit Wazn Village near Nablus and took her to an unknown destination.



    Sources added that IOF also attacked the village of Salem east of Nablus and arrested Ali Shtayyeh (24).



    Meanwhile, IOF surrounded Nablus city and arrested Abdulla Aker (23) from his house in Assira Street .
    Source: AJP

  2. #102
    Israel's forgotten Palestinians
    By Ahmed El Amraoui

    Palestinian women and girls are the most disadvantaged sector of the Israeli population [EPA]

    The rising mistrust of Israelis towards the Palestinian citizens of Israel raises the question of what will happen to the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine, who already suffer discrimination.

    While they used to make up the majority of the population of Palestine before the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, only 150,000 out of 950,000 native Palestinians remain within what is now known as the state of Israel.

    After this tragic war and the forced expulsion of the people – known by Arabs as al-Nakba, or the Catastrophe - Israeli forces occupied 213 villages and expelled more than 400,000 refugees before the British mandate ended on May 15, 1949.

    After the defeat of Arab forces in December 1948, Israel confiscated nearly 85 per cent of the territory. Most of this land was taken from about 800,000 Palestinians from 531 villages, cities and tribes, who were thrown out or fled in fear of their lives.

    Those who remain

    Today, the Palestinians who remain in Israel account for less than 20 per cent of the population, roughly numbering 1.4 million of a total population of 7.3 million.

    As part of its longstanding effort to "divide and rule", Israel identifies them as "Arab Israelis" rather than the Palestinian citizens of Israel to separate them from their kin in occupied territories.

    The majority of them live in all-Palestinian towns and villages located in three main areas: in Galilee in the north, in the "little triangle" in the centre, and in the Naqab, or Negev, as it is referred to in Hebrew.

    By referring to the desert area of Naqab as Negev, Israel tries to achieve a fait-accompli to erase what remains for the natives - a name.

    Up to 220,000 indigenous Palestinians are displaced within Israel and not allowed to return to their homes, while 43 villages, where more than 70,000 Palestinians live, are not recognised by Israel.

    All citizens are equal?

    Israel identifies itself as a state "Jewish in essence and democratic in character".

    Azmi Bishara, a Palestinian citizen of Israel and a former member of the Knesset, says it is unrealistic and prejudiced for Israel to be both Jewish and democratic.

    "I would call it trivial democracy. It is a democracy for Jews," Bishara told Al Jazeera.

    He called for a fair and impartial state for all Israeli citizens, taking into account the sizeable non-Jewish community.

    "The Israeli state was established in 1948 on the ruins of the Palestinian people. Now if you want, in the language which will be known probably in Australia or America or even in South Africa, we are indigenous people, the natives of the place," Bishara said.

    "And Israel was built on our ruins. We did not immigrate to Israel in order to become Israelis, like many French people would like the Algerians to integrate into France or to be accepted as equal citizens.

    "We did not choose to be Israelis. Israel came to Palestine, destroyed Palestine and emerged from the ruins of Palestine.

    "We are Arab Palestinians. Israeli identity does not exist even according to Israel - they insist their identity is Jewish. There is no such thing as Jewish Israeli identity.

    "Our Israeli citizenship was forced upon us. Now we use it as a framework for work to demand equality."

    Racism and discrimination

    Discrimination favouring "Jewish nationals" pervades nearly all walks of life, depriving Palestinians from enjoying their social, civil, cultural, political and economic rights.

    Negatively indentified as "non-Jews" in Israeli statistics, and subdivided into groups according to religious affiliation rather than nationality, Israeli law establishes Jewish nationality status as well as Israeli citizenship as differentiated levels of civil status.

    The theocratic character of the Israeli legal system is shown by the fact that the enjoyment of full rights is determined by faith.

    In depth


    Al Jazeera's coverage of the Israel elections
    Palestinian women and girls are the most disadvantaged sector of the Israeli population. They are the lowest paid and least educated segment, subject to legal abuse and inadequate judicial protection.

    Every year, Israel demolishes dozens of houses belonging to Palestinian Bedouin in unrecognised villages in Naqab, leaving dozens of families without shelter.

    "Most Palestinians in Israel live in discrimination in all walks of life. They cannot go back to their villages. They become internal refugees, living 5km from their villages, from which they were driven away, and cannot go back to their properties," he said.

    "There is a phenomenon called 'unrecognised villages'. Villages that should not be there, although they were there before the state of Israel emerged. So, it is a severe case of discrimination."

    Figures and statistics

    According to a report released by the Israel Democracy Institute in June 2007, about 56 per cent of the Jews in Israel publicly voice their opposition to full equality for the Arabs.

    As many as 78 per cent of them reject the idea Arab parties should join the government or any crucial political decision-making body.

    Other Israeli statistics show that half of Israel’s non-Jewish population is defined as "poor".

    Among non-Jewish citizens, 51.2 per cent of the families were poor as opposed to 15.4 per cent of the Jewish families in 2006, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics.

    As stated by the Law of Return, relatives of Palestinian citizens of Israel abroad cannot return to Israel, while Jews automatically qualify for citizenship.

    Most worryingly, 66 per cent of Jews do not trust Palestinian citizens of Israel and 55 per cent of them think that they should leave Israel.

    Government prejudice

    Tzipi Livni, the current foreign minister of Israel and a frontrunner in the race to become the next prime minister, told a group of secondary school students in Tel Aviv on December 11, 2008, that Palestinian Israelis should not remain in Israel once a Palestinian state is eventually created.

    "My solution for maintaining a Jewish and democratic state of Israel is to have two distinct national entities," Livni was quoted by army radio as saying.

    "And among other things I will also be able to approach the Palestinian residents of Israel, those whom we call Arab Israelis, and tell them: 'Your national aspirations lie elsewhere,'" Livni said.

    Another party leader who advocates Livni's plan is Avigdor Lieberman, whose party Yisrael Beiteinu seems set to become the third-largest in Israel.

    Lieberman also wants to strip citizenship from Palestinian citizens of Israel, whom he considers to be disloyal to the "Jewish state".

    The rising popularity of Lieberman reflects the general mood of the Jews towards the indigenous population.

    Such discrimination does not exist against Jews in Arab countries. In Morocco, for instance, Jews are well integrated in the society and Andre Azoulay, a Moroccan Jew, is a senior adviser to King Mohammed VI.

    Israel is not accountable for such prejudiced measures, but if such things happen to Jews anywhere in the world, they will be considered anti-semitic.

  3. #103
    Hamas says Israel is using the issue of detained Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit as a pretext to stall the Egyptian-brokered truce negotiations.

    Osama Hamdan, a Hamas representative in Lebanon, told Qatar-based satellite channel al-Jazeera that Israel was raising the issue as part of "a programmed operation to make the [truce] deal fail."

    The remarks were made after outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that the regime will not open Gaza's border crossings unless Shalit is released.

    Shalit was captured by Palestinian fighters during a cross-border operation in 2006. Hamas has conditioned Shalit's freedom to the release of some 1,400 Palestinian prisoners.

    "We consider that this kind of Israeli procrastination is for the aim of achieving more objectives and wasting more time and effort. But our position is still as it was, and what was agreed has to be implemented fully. Otherwise Israel will bear the consequences of any failure," Hamdan said.

    Taher al-Nono, another Hamas official, told Reuters that they were trying to overcome the obstacles created by Israel, saying Israeli obstruction has been delaying the announcement of an agreement.

    In Gaza, a Hamas spokesman blasted Israel's stonewalling of the ceasefire negotiations. "We condemn any attempt by the Zionist enemy to link the truce with the Shalit issue," said Mushir al-Masri.

    The Islamic movement further reiterated that Shalit will be released only if certain number of Palestinian detainees are freed by Israel. Currently there are over 11,500 Palestinian prisoners, including woman children, held in Israeli jails.

    Egypt has been negotiating a long-term truce agreement between Hamas and Israel to replace a temporary ceasefire which ended the recent Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip.

    SB/MMN

  4. #104
    GAZA CITY — The traditional wedding celebrations are absent at Sohad Abdou's house. "Gaza is still bleeding," Abdou, a Gazan bride, told IslamOnline.

    "We can't celebrate while grieve is everywhere."

    As joy is absent from the faces, silence prevailed among the guests.

    "What happened was very cruel and we need years to perceive it," said the Gazan bride, referring to the deadly 22-day Israeli offensive in Gaza, which killed more than 1,400 people and wounded 5,450.

    Gaza Alphabet…A for Apache, B for Blood "Israel Wiped My Village off Map" Bleeding Gaza Schools "How can we play music and celebrate in such conditions?"

    Many Gazan new weds share the same view.

    Eman has a sober wedding party.

    "Grieve prevails in every inch in Gaza," the 22-year-old bride says with a deep sigh.

    "I would feel like committing a crime if I celebrated my wedding."

    Eman and her groom postponed their wedding when Israel launched its deadly war in Gaza.

    "We had many plans for the wedding, but our dreams were dashed" recalls the young bride.

    "There are thousands of martyrs and injured. It is unacceptable to celebrate."

    Broken Gaza

    Um Adel could not believe that she was not invited to her neighbor's wedding.

    "Only family members attended the wedding," Um Adel's daughter explains to her mother.

    "They celebrated the wedding in silence."

    Many Gazans feel broken since the deadly Israeli war.

    "I dreamed of the most fascinating wedding party for you my baby," Abou Ghada tells his daughter. "But our wounds are very deep."

    "I would never accept to celebrate while Gaza is grieving," replies the daughter.

    Sameh has no plans to celebrate his next week's weeding party.

    "Concealing our joy is the least thing we can offer for Gaza," he says.

    Many Gazans have even postponed marriage plans after the Israeli onslaught.

    "We have decided to postpone our wedding," Khadija Mattar tells her friend.

    Yasser, another Gazan would-be groom, has also put off his marriage plans.

    "I would feel guilt if I invited people for my wedding in these conditions."

    Hosni El-Sawwaf has also postponed his wedding.

    "How can I celebrate while my neighbor was killed and my relative injured," he says.

    "I would feel ashamed if we celebrated while Gaza is grieving."

    Source: IslamOnline

  5. #105
    The Israeli military has launched fresh attacks on the northern Gaza Strip using gunboats and warplanes in pounding the coastal region.

    Witnesses said Israeli gunboats attacked Al-Sudaniah region in the northern strip early Saturday morning after military jets struck two targets near a refugee camp overnight.

    There were no reports of injuries in the Saturday's attack.

    The overnight raid which struck two targets in the Jebalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip wounded at least six people.

    The military confirmed the attacks on northern Gaza, saying the airstrikes destroyed two Hamas-related arms facilities.

    On Friday, a Palestinian was killed and three others wounded in another attack on the southern town of Khan Yunis.

    Palestinian fighters in response fired two Qassam rockets at western Negev later in the day.

    The rocket attacks which hit the city of Sderot and an open area in the Eshkol region caused no injuries.

    Despite a ceasefire after a three-week Israeli onslaught on the densely-populated Gaza Strip in January, Tel Aviv continues its attacks on the beleaguered territory.

    The all-out war which lasted 23 days claimed almost 1,400 Palestinian lives and left vast swathes of the besieged strip in ruins.

    SB/MD

  6. #106
    Gaza war: A project to test Israeli radars
    Mon, 16 Feb 2009 19:01:25 GMT
    Tel Aviv's recent war on the Gaza Strip was part of an ongoing project to develop an anti-missile radar system, Israeli officials claim.

    The defense officials, who were speaking on condition of anonymity, revealed that Israel launched Operation Cast Lead to gather data for the development of the 'Iron Dome' system which is currently under construction, The Jerusalem Post reported Monday.

    They said that Tel Aviv sent its weapon-development teams to gather information about rockets fired into Israeli towns from the Gaza Strip.

    During the offensive against the populated coastal strip, which lasted 23 days, the teams collected data on how the homemade rockets and the military-grade Katyushas fired from Gaza behaved in different weather conditions and how they were traced by Iron Dome's radar, which is already online, the officials said.

    The Iron Dome, designed to intercept the rockets that might be fired from southern Lebanon, is set to go operational in 2010. The system will work by tracing incoming rockets and firing an interceptor missile in response.

    Israel had also used several new combat systems for the first time during its all-out war, which claimed almost 1,400 Palestinian lives in the strip.

    According to the officials, two Namer vehicles, armored personnel carriers based on the Israeli-made Merkava IV tank, were used by Golani Brigade members in the populated sliver.

    The Namer is scheduled to eventually replace the 1960s-era US M-113, which is still used by most Israeli infantry units.

    The military fitted its tanks with the Wind Coat system, designed to detect anti-tank rockets and intercepts them in midair. The system was mounted on tanks during the Gaza onslaught, however, it was not actually fired, the officials added.

    They said the Wind Coat tested in the Gaza War was developed after Israel's 33-day war against Hezbollah in summer 2006.

    Israel faced a defeat in its war against Lebanon and its military campaign in the Gaza Strip failed to weaken Hamas' rocket-firing capability.

    Palestinian factions continued their rocket attacks on Israeli towns until the last day of the war.

    SB/MMN

  7. #107
    RAMALLAH, West Bank: Israel declared some 1,700 dunams of Palestinian land in the northern part of Efrat settlement as state land last week, paving the way for the West Bank settlement to start the process of seeking government approval to build there, a report said yesterday.

    The daily Haaretz said that the Israeli Civil Administration issued the declaration this week after rejecting eight appeals by Palestinians from Bethlehem area against the move. A ninth appeal was accepted, and the land covered by this appeal was consequently removed from Efrat’s jurisdiction.

    However, construction is still a long way off. First, the Civil Administration must formally allocate the land to the Israeli Housing Ministry, which, under new rules adopted by Ehud Olmert’s government, cannot be done without approval from both the prime minister and defense minister.

    Then the Housing Ministry must give Efrat’s local council a permit to start the usually long planning process, which involves securing permits from various agencies. Only then can the work of building some 2,500 housing units in the Givat Ha’eytam neighborhood begin.

    Since the outcome of the Israeli general elections makes it likely that the next government will lean more to the right than the current one with the expected naming of Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu to form a coalition with the support of right-wing parties, Efrat plans to wait until the new government takes office before submitting its request.

    Efrat, with around 9,000 residents, is the largest settlement in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, and Givat Ha’eytam is the last unbuilt hill of the seven within the town’s jurisdiction. Despite being the hill nearest Jerusalem, Ha’eytam lies outside the planned route of the separation wall, which has yet to be built in this area.

    Gush Etzion is one of the settlement blocs that all Israeli governments have said they want to retain under any final-status agreement with the Palestinians.

    The development came as Israeli sources said that the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and US envoy George Mitchell will focus during their next visit to Israel on efforts to preserve the West Bank under the control of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

    The sources said that the Americans would demand that the new Israeli government avoid creating new facts on the ground that may burden achieving an agreement in the future. Toward this end, the US administration is preparing to put heavy pressure on the new government to freeze all settlement construction and keep its promises to lift roadblocks. A freeze on settlement activity will be a higher priority than removing illegal outposts. ¬
    Source: Arab News

  8. #108
    srael strikes two targets in Gaza Strip
    Wed, 18 Feb 2009 02:07:30 GMT
    A Palestinian man rests outside his destroyed house in the northern Gaza Strip.
    The Israeli military has confirmed that its aircraft have hit two targets in the southern Gaza Strip, causing some damage, but no casualties have been reported.

    Local Palestinian residents as well as Hamas security officials said Israel fired two rockets at Gaza targets in violation of an informal truce on Wednesday.

    Residents said one of the air strikes hit an already bombed-out compound in the town of Khan Younis.

    Israel says the strikes came in response to the firing of a mortar round by Gaza militants into Israel on Tuesday evening, but did not give any further details.

    Israeli air strikes continue as officials from Hamas and Israel are trying to cement an Egyptian-brokered deal for an extended ceasefire, the opening of Gaza's border crossings, and a prisoner swap between the two sides.

    Following Israel's 23-day onslaught on the Gaza Strip that ended with a ceasefire on January 18, Israeli leaders said that they would respond very harshly to any firing of rockets or mortar bombs into Israel.

    Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will convene his security cabinet later on Wednesday to discuss the outline of the truce deal and possibly vote on it.

    FTP/HGL

  9. #109
    A convoy of 100 vehicles of humanitarian aid with a group of peace activists has arrived in Spain on its way to the besieged Gaza Strip.

    The convoy, including 12 ambulances and a fire engine, left London on Saturday and will travel 8,000 km (5,000 miles) through France, Spain and North Africa, crossing from Egypt into Gaza through Rafah border-crossing in early March.

    "There is an intifada sweeping Britain. It is a massive and peaceful movement in support of the beleaguered population of Gaza and Palestine," Britain lawmaker George Galloway, who will help drive the convoy, told Press TV Tuesday.

    The humanitarian convoy, which is bearing more than USD 1.4 million (GBP one million, EUR 1.1 million) worth of aid, was organized by the Viva Palestine umbrella group.

    "We will lead the biggest convoy of British vehicles across North Africa" since World War II, Galloway added.

    Yvonne Ridley, a Press TV presenter and political analyst is also among the activists.

    The convoy is to get to the Gaza Strip amid a tight Israeli blockade, which has been in place for over 19 months - even during Tel Aviv's three-week-long all-out war against the territory.

    * To read Yvonne's intriguing account of her experiences en route to Gaza check out the Features and Reflections section of Gaza Under “Siegefireâ€.

    SB/MMN
    Source: Press TV

  10. #110
    Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reiterated on Tuesday that the blockade of Gaza will be lifted only after captive soldier Gilad Shalit is released, a condition Hamas again rejected. "We want first to resolve the Shalit issue and then will look into the reopening of crossings and the rehabilitation of the Gaza Strip," Olmert claimed.

    His demand was, however, swiftly rejected by Hamas's choef Khaled Meshaal, who again accused Israel of backtracking on the terms of a proposed long-term truce by linking the lifting of the blockade to the soldier's release.

    "Israel is responsible for blocking Egypt's efforts to broker a truce by adding a new condition at the last minute," Meshaal said after Damascus talks with Arab League chief Amr Mussa.

    "A truce can come about only in exchange for a lifting of the blockade and the reopening of the crossing points. It is unacceptable to combine the truce issue with the question of Israeli prisoner Gilad Shalit," Meshaal said.

    Egypt, which has been acting as intermediary in separate negotiations for a Gaza truce and for an exchange of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails for Shalit, has also said that the two issues should be kept separate. "Egypt will not change its position on the truce - the matter of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is a separate issue which can in no way be linked to the truce negotiations," the state-owned Egyptian daily Al-Ahram quoted President Hosni Mubarak as saying.

    Hamas has repeatedly insisted that Shalit, captured in a cross-border raid from Gaza in June 2006, will be freed only as part of a separate prisoner exchange deal.
    ¬
    Source: AJP

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