:icon_sadangel2: Palestine Peace a dream?

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QALQILYA, West Bank: Six people were killed yesterday when forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas raided a Hamas hide-out just days after he promised in Washington to fulfill his security commitments.

The violence erupted when police encircled a house in the West Bank town of Qalqilya where a top Hamas field commander, Mohammad Samman, and his deputy Mohammad Yasin had taken refuge, witnesses and security officers said. Samman has been on Israel's wanted list.

Both Hamas men and the homeowner died in the shootout, along with three policemen. Dozens of bullet holes in walls and furniture in the home attested to the ferocity of the fighting.

Qalqilya, which elected a Hamas mayor in 2005, was tense. Women gathered near the scene, heaping insults on policemen. Sporadic gunfire erupted in other areas of town and police said the shots came from Hamas loyalists targeting officers. There were no reports of injuries. A curfew was imposed on the town near the border with Israel.

It was the bloodiest internal Palestinian clash in the occupied West Bank since Abbas launched a security drive and revived peace talks with Israel in 2007 after breaking with Hamas over its takeover of the Gaza Strip.

Samman and Yasin ignored calls to surrender, witnesses said. Palestinian security forces spokesman Adnan Damiri said police had tried to negotiate a peaceful end to the standoff. "Thousands of shots were fired at the security forces," Damiri said, adding that large quantities of explosives were found in the Hamas hide-out.

"The Palestinian security forces will strike with an iron fist against anyone harming the interests of the Palestinian people," Abbas, who described the Hamas men as "outlaws," was quoted as saying by the Palestinian WAFA news agency.

Abbas aide Nabil Abu Rudainah said going after militants is key to one day setting up a Palestinian state. "To build our country and our state, we need to have one authority, one gun, one law," he said.

Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas' military wing, threatened "tough and harsh reprisal."

At a news conference in Gaza, a Hamas spokesman described Abbas and his forces as agents of Israel. "There is no difference between the occupation which shoots and the people who carry out their missions for them," he said.

The deep-seated rivalries between Hamas and Fatah boiled over in June 2007 when Hamas violently seized control of Gaza, causing a split in Palestinian ranks that has become a key stumbling block in efforts to reach Middle East peace. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said there was no chance of further reconciliation talks with Fatah after the "escalation by security services of Abu Mazen and Fatah against Hamas and its leaders in the West Bank."

"Fatah should choose: Dialogue with us or doing the dirty work of the Zionist enemy," Barhoum said.

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Source: Arab News

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While Israel may be snubbing Washington's demands to freeze its settlements expansion, the country's appetite for the latest US arms remains as strong as ever.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak will hold talks with US officials in the US on Monday in a move which Tel Aviv says is aimed at healing a rift between Washington and the Israeli government.

Barak's talks in Washington is originally planned to focus on military ties, but Israeli and US media say that Barak is expected to devote a lot of time to ease tensions between the two sides.

During the three-day trip, the Israeli minister is expected to meet Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, National Security Adviser James Jones and President Barack Obama's special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell.

Barack is expected to voice Israeli's request to buy up to 75 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters (JSF) in a deal worth up to $15.2 billion, plus other advanced weapon systems, AFP quoted a senior official as saying.

Depending on the variants, F35 fighters could take off conventionally (F35A), or operate as a Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) aircraft (F35B).

Israel - the largest recipient of US military aid - has been reported to be interested over 100 of the aircraft in a mix of configurations.

Earlier this week, Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev declared that the regime will continue its settlement expansion because "normal life" in Israeli should be allowed to continue.

The Israeli government refuses to adopt a positive stance to international calls to stop settlement activities which is among key issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

MGH/ZAP/DT

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A UN team headed by South African judge Richard Goldstone has begun its fact-finding mission to probe "war crimes" committed by Israel during the war on Gaza.

The four-member committee is tasked with investigating reports on war crimes committed by Israeli troops during the last December military operation in the Gaza Strip.

"We have come here to see, to learn, to talk to people in all walks of life; ordinary people, governmental people, administrative people," Goldstone told reporters.

Israel said it would not cooperate with the four-member team, headed by the South African jurist, which entered the Gaza Strip via Egypt.

"We have come here to see, to learn, to talk to people in all walks of life; ordinary people, governmental people, administrative people," Goldstone told reporters.

The human rights investigators will spend a week in the Gaza Strip and file a report on their findings in August.

The mission, however, sparked outrage among Israeli officials who accuse the UN team of taking sides in favor of Palestinians.

The Israeli government believed the committee was determined "to find Israel guilty even before the investigation begins," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor was quoted by Ynet as saying.

The report comes after the Israeli daily Haaretz confirmed the practice of killing Palestinians through close-range shooting.

The right group Mezan reported that at least 93 Palestinians out of more than 1,600 victims of the Gaza war were killed by shooting at them from a close distance.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accuses the US of making 'unreasonable' requests, vowing to continue the settlement expansion in defiance of Washington.

In response to the Obama administration's calls for a halt in all settlement construction activities in the occupied territories, Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel would not put the construction in the West Bank Jewish communities on hold, Haaretz reported.

"There are reasonable demands and demands that are not reasonable," he told the Knesset.

The remarks reinforce assumptions that a gap between Tel Aviv and Washington is deepening. They also hint at a rift between Netanyahu and his left-wing allies in the government as the Israeli Army evacuated an outpost in the northern West Bank on Monday.

Israeli officials had earlier promised not to evacuate the 26 illegal outposts in the West Bank. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak had personally vowed that he would not to bow to US pressure regarding the illegal settlements -- which are in direct violation of three UN Security Council Resolutions.

Netanyahu is facing global pressure to respect Washington requests, with more countries condemning the settlement activities and calling on EU to side with the US on the issue.

On the other hand the hawkish premier is facing domestic outrage over the army's move to evacuate the outposts, with Gershon Mesika, head of Shomron Regional Council vowing to rebuild the destroyed structures.

"The nation of Israel elected a government that is supposed to care for the settlements and not destroy them, using hypocritical legalities as an excuse," he said.

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Israeli officials have dismissed reports that the US might condition its support for Israel in the UN to a halt in settlement expansion in the West Bank.

The reaction by Israeli officials came a day after The New York Times reported that Washington is mulling over measures to force Israel into heeding to the US demand that all construction works in the occupied West Bank be halted.

The paper added that such measures could include dropping support for Tel Aviv in the UN.

According to the report, Washington might also refrain from vetoing anti Israeli resolutions in the Security Council and make use of "Mr. Obama's bully pulpit to criticize the settlements."

The Obama administration has been at odds with the new Israeli government over the issue of the West Bank settlements. While the White House is demanding a complete freeze in the construction work, Israel insists that it keeps the construction projects to meet the needs caused by "natural growth" in the settlements.

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that his government does not intend to heed Washington's demands.

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Tel Aviv has voiced disdain over the United Nations' authority to look into Israel's three weeks of military onslaught through the Gaza Strip.

"We don't approve of the mandate the committee was given to investigate war crimes," Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Ehud Barak told UN's Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday, Jerusalem Post reported.

"I do not think Israel has to or will cooperate with this investigation," the minister added.

He also accused the four-member team, appointed by the UN's Human Rights Council for the purpose, would not be able to get far in investigating, what he called, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas' 'terrorist operations' - an excuse which Israel used to subject the strip to continuous land and air assaults in late 2008 and early 2009 killing more than 1,400 Palestinians.

Hamas in the meantime made clear its preparedness to cooperate with the UN "to unveil the truth and bring out all the hidden details of what took place during the war, hoping to show the entire world the truth," the movement said in a statement, the Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported.

The statement added that "the Israeli rejection of dealing with such committees proves that they committed crimes in Gaza and they want [the truth] to be hidden."

The head of the committee, South African jurist and former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, Richard Goldstone, said his team "will work and cooperate with all parties."

"We came here to investigate, to listen and to watch everything related to violations that happened here and harmed the human rights and the international conventions."

The team also boasts professor of international law at the London School of Economics, Christine Chinkin, Pakistani human rights advocate Hina Jilani and Desmond Travers, a former officer in the Irish Armed Forces with expertise on international criminal investigations.

The team is currently in Gaza and is to make field visits to the war-stricken areas over the next five days.

The international body had previously promised to help end the humanitarian crisis caused by Israeli raids. UN shelters -- teeming with refugees -- were also targeted three times during the attacks, prompting the body to commission a report on the atrocities.

The organization has, however, refused to release the findings of the report. Member states have, meanwhile, accused the UN Security Council's conventions on the so-called Middle East peace process of being unproductive.

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Abu Rdeina: Former US-Israeli Understandings on Colonies Illegal Date : 25/5/2009 Time : 15:38

RAMALLAH, May 25, 2009 (WAFA) – The Palestinian Presidency Spokesperson Nabil Abu Rdeina said, Monday, that the understandings between former Israeli Government and US Administration regarding the continuity of colonies construction are 'illegal and violate the international Law.'

“Colonization activities should be stopped once and forever to pave the way for the resumption of negotiations which might come up with real results,” Abu Rdeina said, commenting on media reports that Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is seeking an understanding with the current US Administration to let Israel keep its colonies’ 'natural growth'.

He also stressed the necessity that Israel must stop activity including what Israel calls the natural growth in all colonies, including those in Jerusalem.

Abu Rdeina said that President Abbas would demand a halt of Israeli colonial activities during his meeting with US President Barack Obama, calling for an urgent intervention from the US if it is seriously determined to achieve an acceptable and just solution.
Source: AJP

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An Israeli gunman has shot dead one Palestinian and wounded another in a shooting spree in central Jerusalem (al-Quds).

The male suspect of Jewish origin aged in his 30s was arrested shortly after an Arab man was found on Hanevi'im Street in central Jerusalem (al-Quds) shortly after 3 am alive but with bullet wounds in the chest, the Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported.

"There were two incidents; the first occurred close to 3:15 am, in which a shooting victim lay in the middle of the road," a paramedic told Israeli Army Radio. "He was evacuated in serious condition to Ein Karem [Medical Center]. Later in the morning, there was a second victim, near the Old City wall."

The suspect told the police that he had shot dead another man at a location close to the Old City. He also told them that he attempted to shoot a third person during the incident, but apparently failed to hit him.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said investigators were considering all motives.

"The suspect was questioned by police at the scene and said he had killed a man in central Jerusalem, we cannot rule out any motives including nationalism," Rosenfeld said.

Racist oppression against Palestinians, the natives of the land, has dramatically increased in recent years. Rights groups and Arab activists say the Israeli government treats Arab residents as second-class citizens under apartheid conditions.

The most significant racist attack came in August and September of 2008 when hundreds of right-wing Jewish hardliners repeatedly attacked Palestinians in al-Khalil (Hebron), hurling rocks at the people and vandalizing Palestinian homes.

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Israeli settlers, angered by a governmental decision to evacuate illegal outposts in the West Bank, have attacked residents in the Palestinian territories.

Masked settlers living in Ramat Gilad, an outpost located near the northern West Bank settlement of Karnei Shomron, blocked roads and attacked Palestinian cars near Karnei Shomron, Kedumim and Yitzhar.

Settlers had reportedly obstructed road access by placing boulders in the roadways. The attackers then assaulted drivers who tried to move the stones out of the way.

Palestinians responded by throwing rocks. Four Palestinians were injured in the clashes.

Settlers also torched olive groves and fields in the Palestinian village of Burin, located near Yitzhar. Firefighters seeking access to the areas were also attacked by the settlers.

Although the hard-line administration of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to Washington's demands to stop the construction of new settlements, it has refused to end building within the confines of established settlements.

This could mean more houses within settlements, which critics argue contributes more broadly to settlement growth.

This is while Palestinians living in the West Bank have essentially been denied permits to build houses in their lands.

The United Nations and Amnesty International say attempts by Palestinians to legally obtain planning permission from the Israeli authorities to build properties in the West Bank is "almost impossible."

"Usually, the applications are complicated, expensive, take a long time to process and then are refused," Amnesty Canada says on its website.

Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now in early 2008 reported that from the beginning of 2000 until September 2007, "94% of requests submitted by Palestinians were denied by the Civil Administration."

This is while "for every construction permit granted to a Palestinian,... 18 other buildings are destroyed and 55 demolition orders are issued," the group further explains.

During the same period, over 1,663 Palestinian buildings -- as opposed to 199 homes in the settlements -- have been razed to the ground by Israeli bulldozers.

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An expert study concludes that Israel is policing Palestinian territories with an apartheid system that resembles the one which almost fragmented South Africa.

On Monday, the Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa (HSRC) reported that its research into more than 60 years of Israeli encroachment upon the Palestinian lands has proven that the occupation "has become a colonial enterprise that implements a system of apartheid," the Ma'an news agency reported.

The investigation, conducted by legal scholars and practitioners from South Africa, the United Kingdom, Israel and the West Bank, was launched last year into Middle Eastern politics relevant to South African foreign policy.

Using the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (OHCHR) as its baseline, the research had affirmed that the apartheid South Africa and the current Israeli regime "can be defined by similar dominant features."

Earlier in the month, an executive summary of the examination said the study has proven that Israel's practices in the occupied Palestinian territories (OPT) share the 'pillars' of the apartheid namely "fragmenting the OPT for the purposes of segregation and domination."

The post-World War II military-propelled occupation of the territory of what is now called Israel has been followed by incremental disregard for Palestinian rights and the enforcement of segregation along racial lines.

"Israel has denied the indigenous population the right to self-determination and indicated clear intention to assume sovereignty over portions of its land and natural resources," the summary had said.

"A policy of apartheid is especially indicated by Israel's demarcation of geographic 'reserves' in the West Bank, to which Palestinian residence are confined, unable to leave without a permit," it added.

The area has been dotted with Israeli-built dividing walls and checkpoints that severely restrict the Palestinian people's access to different parts of the West Bank while completely closing off 38 percent of it to them.

In 2002, Israel started erecting a 723-km separation barrier in the West Bank village of Ni'lin, arrogating vast expanses of Palestinian land under the pretext of 'protecting' Israeli settlers. In comparison, the Berlin wall was 155 kilometers in length.

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