:icon_sadangel2: Palestine Peace a dream?

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RAMALLAH — As foreign donors ready to pour their billions to rebuild war-ravaged Gaza, expert believe that politics will have a deciding voice in the rebuilding of the Palestinian territory hard hit by Israel’s war and long-chocked by its stifling siege. "Donors' money is political money," Mohammed Shtayyeh, who heads the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction (PECDAR), told Agence France Presse (AFP) on Sunday, March 1.

Some 80 donor countries will meet in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheik On Monday to pledge close to three billion dollars in aid to Gaza which was shattered by a 22-day Israeli assault.

Many countries have already made their pledges, with Saudi Arabia promising $1 billion and the US $900 million.

But experts believe vows in the high-profile meeting will be all about politics.

Shtayyeh, whose council is tasked by the Palestinian Authority to supervise donor-financed projects, affirms donors will be eyeing the situation between rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah while making their promises.

"Donors also come to support the peace process, and this will emerge from Sharm el-Sheikh," he added.

Major donors are expected to pledge their billions only if the enclave's ruler Hamas -- which agreed with Fatah in Egyptian-sponsored talks on Thursday to work together towards setting a unity government -- plays no role in spending the cash.

"I would like to insist that the mechanism used to deploy the money is the one that represents the Palestinian Authority," EU foreign policy supremo Javier Solana said on Saturday after meeting Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

Washington - which blacklists Hamas as a terror group - also said it will work only with Abbas’s Fatah.

"I will be announcing a commitment to a significant aid package, but it will only be spent if we determine that our goals can be furthered rather than undermined or subverted," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said while on her way to the Middle East Sunday.

In a report to Monday's conference, the World Bank listed a number of institutions for international financial support for Gaza to go through that belongs either to the PA or independent Gazan groups, but none of the institutions run by Hamas.

Israel's deadly onslaught, which ended on January 18, after killing some 1,300 Palestinians and injuring thousands others, caused damaged estimated at 1.95 billion dollars in the impoverished enclave according to PECDAR.

No less that 5,000 homes were destroyed and 20,000 damaged, in addition to extensive damage to infrastructure.

Crippling Siege

Not only politics, Israel’s chocking siege on Gaza is to influence every prospect of rebuilding the ravaged territory.

"All the pledges of aid this conference is expected to produce will be worth next to nothing if the donors do not demand that Israel open the borders to commercial goods as well as humanitarian essentials," Keh Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, told Reuters.

Even before the offensive, and despite international criticism, Israel refuses to open Gaza commercial crossings, locked up since November 4.

human rights groups and experts agree that no matter how much money is offered for Gaza, it will make little difference if the Israeli blockade persists.

Shtayyeh, of the PECDAR, says his council has 56 architects and engineers in Gaza and was "ready to carry out any project it is given."

He insists, however, that reconstruction would not be possible unless the blockade is lifted.

"Today one can't find a single bag of cement or steel bar in Gaza."

The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) also stressed on Sunday that efforts ending the crippling siege should be the first step to end the sufferings of Gazans.

"The first and most urgent measure should be to end the isolation of Gaza, particularly by lifting restrictions on the movement of people and goods," said ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger.

Around half of Gaza’s 1.6-million population depend on United Nations handouts.

The economy of the overcrowded sliver of land was brought to its knees by the blockade imposed by Israel from the time Hamas was elected to power in 2006.

Source: IslamOnline

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Israel to double up West Bank settlers
Tue, 03 Mar 2009 00:27:12 GMT
Israel's housing ministry is reportedly busy making plans to double the number of Zionist settlers in the occupied territories of the West Bank.

"The ministry of construction and housing is planning to construct at least 73,000 housing units in the West Bank," the anti-settlement group Peace Now disclosed Monday in a report based on the analysis of Israeli government data.

The group added, "At least 15,000 housing units have already been approved and plans for an additional 58,000 housing units are yet to be approved. Out of the units already approved, nearly 9,000 have been built."

Once the plans are carried out, the number of settlers in the territories will be doubled. The completion of these projects will make the plan of creating a Palestinian state next to Israel totally 'unrealistic'.

There are currently more than 280,000 Israeli settlers living in some 121 settlements in the West Bank. Another estimated 200,000 live in east al-Quds (Jerusalem).

Under an internationally drafted 'roadmap for peace', Israel is committed to dismantle all settlements built since March 2001.

Nevertheless, construction in Israeli settlements jumped 60 percent in 2008.

MP/MMA

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Int'l donors want Gaza borders opened
Tue, 03 Mar 2009 03:13:56 GMT
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit says donors at an international confab have asked for the 'unconditional' opening of Gaza borders.

“Participants at the international conference to rebuild Gaza called for the immediate, total and unconditional opening of all of Gaza's borders with Israel,” Abul Gheit stated.

Israel has kept the territory under a humiliating blockade for nearly 19 months despite repeated warnings by the UN and international aid organizations of the dire humanitarian condition in Gaza that has deteriorated by Israel's recent onslaught on the strip.

This is while Egypt itself has in various occasions shut down the main Rafah border crossing to Gaza and during Israel's 23-day offensive against Gazans, Egyptian border guards sealed off the Gaza-Egypt Rafah crossing and prevented hundreds of thousands of defenseless Palestinians to flee the war.

Humanitarian groups have said that reopening Gaza borders is essential to allow vital supplies into the territory. Israel and Egypt have so far only allowed a small quantity of humanitarian supplies into the strip.

Israel has linked the reopening of the crossings into Gaza to the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit who was seized in June 2006 in a cross border raid.

Israel began its 23-day Operation Cast Lead on the indigent enclave on December 27, killing over 1,300 Gazans - mostly women and children. At least 5,450 others were also wounded in the onslaught.

The fighting came to halt on January 18 following a ceasefire declared separately by both sides.

MP/MMA

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CAIRO — International donors pledged on Monday, March 2, almost 4.5 billion dollars for the reconstruction of the bombed-out Gaza Strip and the Palestinian economy and called for the "unconditional" opening of all Gaza's borders. "We have gathered today 4.481 billion dollars, in addition to previous pledges," Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said, reading from a final statement issued at the end of an international donor conference in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.

He said the pledges were new and would be paid over the next two years.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged $300 million for Gaza reconstruction and $600 million to support the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority's budget shortfalls, economic reforms and security and private sector projects run by the PA.

She was adamant that none of the money, which has to be agreed by the US Congress, would go to Hamas.

"We have worked with the Palestinian Authority to install safeguards that will ensure our funding is only used where and for whom it is intended and does not end up in the wrong hands."

The European Commission pledged 440 million euros ($554.1 million) for Gaza and Palestinian Authority reforms.

Oil powerhouse Saudi Arabia pledged $1 billion and Qatar said it would pay $250 million.

Britain also said it would pay $43 million to rebuild Gaza's economy.

The Palestinian Authority had hoped to raise $2.78 billion at the event, including $1.33 billion for Gaza.

The one-day conference was called by Egypt after Israel's deadly 22-day war in Gaza, which killed more than 1,300 people, mostly civilians, and wounded 5,450.

The offensive also left a trail of destruction in the sealed-off coastal enclave, home to 1.6 million people.

According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 4,100 homes have been totally destroyed and 17,000 damaged.

About 1,500 factories and workshops, 30 mosques, 31 government buildings and 10 water or sewage pipes were also damaged.

Open Crossings

Abul Gheit said international donors had called for the "unconditional" opening of all Gaza's borders with Israel.

The UN and aid agencies insist rebuilding the coastal enclave was a daunting task so long as border crossings with battered Gaza remained closed.

"The situation at the border crossings is intolerable," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told the meeting earlier in the day.

"Aid workers do not have access. Essential commodities cannot get in.

"Our first and indispensable goal, therefore, is open crossings."

Israel tightened its grip on Gaza's border crossings after Hamas took control in June 2007, refusing the entry of materials such as cement and steel it says could be used to build rockets.

Egypt, which also borders Gaza, refuses to open its Rafah crossing, Gaza's only window to the outside world, for normal traffic.

"Gaza should not actually be a prison with open skies," French President Nicolas Sarkozy told the conference.

Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair called Sunday for reopening Gaza crossings and lifting the 20-month crippling blockade on the overcrowded strip.

"A blockade of all the Gazan people does not work," he told reporters during his first visit to Gaza.

The US and Israel led an international campaign to impose a crippling siege on Gaza since Hamas swept Palestinian legislative elections in 2006 and came to power.

"I think there is a recognition that we have got to change our strategy towards Gaza," Blair said.

Source: IslamOnline

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OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Defying international calls to halt settlement expansion and dealing a new blow to the two-state solution, Israel will double Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. "The Ministry of Construction and Housing is planning to construct at least 73,300 housing units in the West Bank," the Israeli anti-settlement organization Peace Now said in a report issued on Monday, March 2.

"At least 15,000 housing units have already been approved and plans for an additional 58,000 housing units are yet to be approved."

Out of the units already approved, nearly 9,000 have been built, according to the report, based on data on the official Israeli government website.

"If all the plans are realized, the number of settlers in the territories will be doubled."

The new settlement expansions would nearly double the number of Jewish settlers in the occupied Palestinian territory.

The estimated number of additional settlers will reach some 300,000, an average of 4 persons in each unit.

Since 1967, Israel has built more than 150 Jewish-only settlements on the occupied West Bank, inhabited by as many as half a million settlers.

Most of the residents are classified as "ideological settlers," who believe that the West Bank is the "Biblical Land of Israel" which must never be given up even in return for a lasting peace with the Palestinians.

Larger Scheme

The Peace Now group insists that the new plans are only part of a larger scheme for settlements expansion in the occupied Palestinian territory.

"The Ministry of Housing plans that are included in this report represent only a small part of the total number of the plans existing in the settlements."

The group said the new plans will make the next Israeli government, which hawkish Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu has been assigned for form, has a wide choice of projects for settlement expansion.

"There are other thousands of housing units in plans of the local authorities, private initiators and other public authorities," said the report.

It added that about 19,000 units would be built in settlements beyond the construction path of the separation wall in the West Bank.

The UN and international community do not recognize Jewish settlements built on occupied Palestinian territories.

Many observers believe that no Israeli government will be able, even if willing, to dismantle these large settlements which have become well-established demographic realities in the West Bank.

At the same time, there is a near unanimity that without the dismantling of at least the bulk of settlements and removal of most settlers, the goal of Palestinian statehood will be utterly unachievable.

"The completion of these projects will make the plan of creating a Palestinian state next to Israel totally unrealistic," complains Peace Now head Yariv Oppenheimer. Click to read the report in full.

Source: IslamOnline

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Israeli soldier opens fire on Hezbollah mural
Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:21:06 GMT
An Israeli soldier opened fire on a Hezbollah mural painted on a wall in Lebanon.
An Israeli soldier has opened fire on a Hezbollah mural painted on a wall near the entrance of the Aadaisseh village in southern Lebanon.

"A soldier got out of his vehicle and deliberately fired at the wall bearing the inscriptions," some 20 meters (yards) from the border, a Lebanese Army spokesman told AFP on Tuesday.

He said five bullets had hit the inscription which shows the "hand of resistance", a reference to the "divine victory" Hezbollah achieved over Israel during the 33-day war Tel Aviv waged on southern Lebanon.

Israel launched an offensive against Lebanon to destroy the Hezbollah resistance power in the summer of 2006; it however was forced to eventually leave the region without achieving any of its objectives.

A statement issued by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) described the incident as a violation of UN resolution 1701 which ended the 2006 war.

Meanwhile, an Israeli army spokeswoman said "a soldier mistakenly fired his rifle" and that the military was "investigating the incident in order to prevent similar events in the future."

SB/DT

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US Israel support 'unshakeable'
Hillary Clinton with Israeli President Shimon Peres
Mrs Clinton expressed "unrelenting" commitment to Israel's security

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has restated "unshakeable" support for Israel, whatever type of government emerges from current coalition talks.

Mrs Clinton is on her first visit to the region as the top diplomat of Barack Obama's US administration.

Right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu, who opposes some key US policies, has been asked to form Israel's next government.

Mrs Clinton also announced two senior US officials would head for Syria, Israel's long-time foe, for talks.

"We are going to be sending two officials to Syria. There are a number of issues that we have between Syria and the US, as well as the larger regional concerns that Syria obviously poses," Mrs Clinton said.

Syria had engaged in indirect negotiations with the outgoing Israeli government on the fate of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The US has kept Damascus at arms length for several years, accusing it of supporting terrorist groups and destabilising its Arab neighbours.

However, analysts say recent diplomatic moves could be a prelude to restoring a US ambassador in Damascus.

Democratic will

Mrs Clinton arrived in Israel from Egypt, where the US and other international donors pledged almost $4.5bn (£3.2bn) for rebuilding Gaza.

I know this is a sensitive time in Israeli politics as the process of forming a new government unfolds. This is a matter for the Israeli people
Hillary Clinton

She has held talks in Jerusalem with the mainly ceremonial president, Shimon Peres, before going on for a meeting with outgoing Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

She is also due to meet Mr Netanyahu and the caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

On Wednesday, she will enter the West Bank for more talks Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who was present Monday's Egyptian-hosted aid conference in Sharm el-Sheikh.

Hillary Clinton: 'This is a sensitive time in Israeli politics'

After meeting Mr Peres, Mrs Clinton said it was important to underscore the "unshakeable, durable and fundamental" US support for the state of Israel… [and] our "unrelenting commitment to Israel's security".

"We will work with the government of Israel that represents the democratic will of the people of Israel," Mrs Clinton said.

Mrs Clinton has repeatedly said the new US administration is committed to the establishment of a Palestinian state as the best way to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Mr Netanyahu has not endorsed this view, and he campaigned on pledges to concentrate on economic development of the Palestinian territories, which were occupied by Israel in the 1967 war, rather than political deals.

"I know this is a sensitive time in Israeli politics as the process of forming a new government unfolds. This is a matter for the Israeli people to decide under Israeli law," she added.

Potential clashes

The BBC's Middle East correspondent Tim Franks says the relationship between the US and Israel may become a little less warm than it was under the Bush administration.

American diplomacy may sound a new tone with stronger condemnation of Israeli settlement building in the West Bank, as well as greater pragmatism in dealing with the reality of Hamas's control of the Gaza Strip, he adds.


Hillary Clinton at the Gaza reconstruction conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, on 2/3/09

Clinton's delicate Mid-East tour
Palestinians pledge era of unity
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During Mrs Clinton's visit, Israeli warplanes bombed smuggling tunnels on the border between Gaza and Egypt, injuring six people according to Palestinian medical sources.

On Monday, a rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip at the city of Ashkelon. There were no reports of injury or damage.

Also on Monday, the Israeli government lodged an official complaint with the United Nations about the continued rocket fire from Gaza.

"The government of Israel will continue to safeguard its citizens and will do everything in its power to ensure that the situation in the south will not go back to what it was before December 2008," the letter read.

"Israel will not endure and will respond in kind to attacks against its citizens."

The Israeli military says 130 rockets and mortars have been fired from Gaza since each side adopted unilateral ceasefires in January.

Israel has launched a series of bombing raids on alleged arms smuggling operations and has kept tight curbs on the entry of goods into the heavily-populated coastal strip.

Israel launched a major military offensive on Gaza in December and January, in which about 1,300 Palestinians were killed, of whom 412 were children, and which destroyed thousands of homes and businesses. Thirteen Israelis were killed during the three weeks of violence.

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Senior Palestinian commander killed in Gaza
Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:55:50 GMT
Israeli jets fired a missile at a vehicle near a mosque in the town of Beit Lahiya.
A senior Palestinian commander has been killed in an Israeli air strike carried out in cooperation with Shin Bet in northern Gaza.

Khaled Kharb Khalad Shaalan, a senior commander in the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, was killed and his second-in-command Hamzia al-Najah was in a critical condition, AFP reported on Wednesday.

An Israeli army spokesman confirmed the attack, saying it had "targeted and killed" Shaalan whom the army claimed was involved in recent rocket attacks on Israel.

According to Palestinian medics, five bystanders were also wounded in the attack which came on a vehicle near a mosque in the town of Beit Lahiya.

Meanwhile an Islamic Jihad spokesman said the two members of the group were hit as they drove through the Jabaliya refugee camp near Gaza City and vowed to "avenge this aggression."

Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli jets launched another attack on the southern Gaza Strip wounding four Palestinians.

Israel continues its attacks on the Gaza strip on a regular basis although it announced a ceasefire after three weeks of an all-out war on the populated territory.

The military offensive which carried out in January, left over 1,300 people killed and thousands of others wounded.

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Israeli soldiers hit Palestinian teen
Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:51:11 GMT
A Palestinian teenager has been critically wounded when Israeli soldiers opened fire on demonstrators near the West Bank city of al-Khalil.

Mahdi Abu Ayash, 16, was hit in the head when the soldiers fired live and rubber bullets to disperse a demonstration by Palestinians, AFP reported citing medical sources.

The Israeli Army did not comment on the incident.

The West Bank has been the scene of demonstrations held to protest Israel's construction of its security barrier despite calls by international bodies to halt the operation. The barrier will destroy a vast area of the Palestinian farmland.

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Palestinian health care 'ailing'
Palestinian woman and child in Gaza hospital (file photo)
The report said death rates of children and expectant women had not declined

Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza suffer from an "ailing landscape" of health services, a new study claims.

The Lancet medical journal report highlights how 10% of Palestinian children now have stunted growth.

The paper describes the healthcare system in the Palestinian territories as "fragmented and incoherent".

Experts from Birzeit University say death rates among children and expectant mothers have failed to decline in recent years.

The plateau is in spite of good ante-natal care and high rates of child immunisation.


The trend for stunting among children is increasing, and the concern is about the long-term effects
Dr Hanan Abdul Rahim
Birzeit University

Dr Hanan Abdul Rahim said: "There are gaps in care. There's a low level of post-natal care and often it's not given in a timely manner.

"Mortality rates among infants and under-fives haven't declined much. This is unusual when compared with other Arab countries that used to have similar rates but have managed to bring them down.

"The trend for stunting among children is increasing, and the concern is about the long-term effects. It is caused by chronic malnutrition, and affects cognitive development and physical health.

"There are pockets in northern Gaza where the level of stunted growth reaches 30%.

"It's very important that women and children have access to quality care."

Dr Rahim's paper mentions a previously published report from the UN, which says more than 60 Palestinian women have given birth at Israeli checkpoints and 36 of their babies have died as a result.

Another paper says the Palestinian health system fails to be effective and equitable.

'Heartbreaking'

The conditions of military occupation are blamed, but so is the political instability of the Palestinian Authority - which has appointed six health ministers in three years.

The lead author, Dr Awad Mataria, also from Birzeit University, said: "Political havoc is one of the reasons for the failure of the health system - but this has been exaggerated and perpetuated under occupation.

"Also, the policies of foreign aid donors can be fragmented and contradictory."

Dr Mataria's paper note that the Palestinian Authority has received $10bn in recent years - mostly donated by the European Union.

But he and his colleagues say health programmes have focused on relief and emergency, rather than on long-term development.

In an editorial accompanying the series, the Lancet's editor Richard Horton said: "Our series is not about Arab politics, the status of Israel, or existing conventional diplomatic efforts to broker peace."

He added: "The latest storm of violence to engulf Gaza has been heartbreaking to watch, especially for those who have seen first hand the predicaments faced by health professionals trying to maintain a rudimentary, but ultimately failing, health system there."------BBC