:icon_sadangel2: Palestine Peace a dream?

[Shades]

CAIRO — As the sun sets over Al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem), Rajai Sandouka lights a fuse and steps away from his decades-old rusty cannon. A big boom is heard, marking the end of the day’s Ramadan fast.

"All across the Old City people are happy when they hear the blast and know it is iftar," Sandouka, 48, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Within seconds of the bang, “Allah Akbar” resonates from the Holy City’s minarets.

Streets are deserted as Muslims sit down for the iftar meal, a joyous celebration that brings together family and friends.

Sandouka, who is the latest in a long line of family members who have been entrusted with the duty for decades, is the last to sit down for the iftar.

The Jerusalemite, who hopes his son Nabil, 24, will one day inherit the job, first has a 15-minute drive home after performing his daily Ramadan duty.

But he doesn’t mind.

"I'm keeping a tradition alive," he says as he hurries down a dusty path towards his car.

The tradition dates back to Ottoman times when Ottoman governor Khosh Qadam accidentally fired a cannon in Egypt he was given as a gift 200 years ago.

The resulting bang echoed through the streets of Cairo.

Sandouka’s 1918 cannon is positioned at the top of a Muslim cemetery nestled next to a bustling Al-Quds shopping street, overlooking the walls of the Old City.

The ageing cannon bears a plaque identifying it as a 75mm artillery piece manufactured by the Pennsylvania company Bethlehem Steel in 1918. Such guns were widely used for training in Britain after World War I.

Jordan donated the gun after the Ottoman period, which Sandouka's grandfather used to fire, and it was retired and transferred to the museum of Islamic art at the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound, about 500 metres (yards) away.

Good Old Days

As the setting sun bathes the Old City's limestone buildings in a reddish glow, Sandouka recalls the good old days of firing the cannon.

In the past, a man would signal from Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest shrine, when it was time to fire the gun.

The signal would then be relayed to Sandouka's grandfather by another man standing atop the Old City walls.

Now, Sandouka simply consults a small card that shows the times of sunrise and sunset during Ramadan, and looks at his watch.

He makes sure both of his lighters are working, while Nabil double-checks the time on his cell phone.

Eventually, Sandouka lights the fuse, sending a rocket bursting into the sky with a thunderous boom that reverberates through the narrow, winding streets.

He performs the same ceremony to mark sunrise and the start of the daytime fast.

Much to his regret, the explosives he uses now consist of tightly packed fireworks shot from a tube attached to the side of the vintage gun.

"It is no longer possible to get gunpowder," says Sandouka, as the factory in the West Bank city of Ramallah where he used to buy his gunpowder shut down several years ago.

Sandouka laments Israeli restrictions that caused the traditions to die off in cities across the occupied Palestinian territories.

"I've been doing this for about 30 years. All of a sudden, two years ago, they said I should take explosives training,” he said, referring to the Israeli government.

“They think of that after all these years..."

Israel captured Al-Quds in the 1967 six-day war and later annexed the holy city, in a move not recognized by the international community.

Since then, Israel has been seeking to judaize the city through a series of restrictions to create new demographic realities on the ground.

During the height of the 2000 Palestinian intifada the Ramadan cannons fell silent across the occupied West Bank. But Al-Quds still had its daily booms, thanks to Sandouka.

"I continued to fire the gun," he says proudly before abruptly ending the conversation, eager to break the fast with his family.

Source: IslamOnline

[Shades]

The Obama administration has agreed to Israel's request to remove occupied East Jerusalem from negotiations on the impending settlement freeze. According to both Israeli officials and Western diplomats, U.S. envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell has recognized the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cannot announce a settlement freeze in occupied East Jerusalem. The officials said the U.S. will not endorse new construction there, but would not demand Tel Aviv publicly announce a freeze.

Netanyahu presented a proposal on Wednesday for resolving the ongoing Israeli-American dispute over construction in the settlements. In a meeting with Mitchell, Netanyahu suggested a temporary freeze, reportedly for nine months, on construction in the West Bank, a government source said.

Netanyahu also said that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' reported willingness to meet with him was "a positive first step."

The Americans are slated to respond to Netanyahu's proposal at a meeting in Washington next week between Mitchell and two Israeli officials: Netanyahu's envoy, attorney Yitzhak Molcho, and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak's chief of staff, Brig. Gen. Mike Herzog.

Mitchell himself will return to Tel Aviv in the second week of September with the goal of finalizing an agreement.

The new Israeli proposal will exclude some 2,500 housing units on which construction has already started.

Additionally, in special cases where it is necessary to keep "normal life," Netanyahu wants to be able to erect public buildings in the settlements - mainly kindergartens and schools.

Finally, Israel wants the freeze to have a clear "exit plan." In Israel's view, the freeze is a confidence-building measure that must be matched by reciprocal steps from the PA and Arab states. If these fail to materialize, Israel wants an American guarantee that it will not oppose renewed building.

Following their meeting, Mitchell and Netanyahu issued a brief joint statement saying that "good progress" had been made, and the talks would continue.

However, the statement also included that the two "agreed on the importance of restarting meaningful negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians and working toward a comprehensive peace, and that all sides need to take concrete steps toward peace."

At his press conference, Netanyahu reiterated that good progress had been made at the meeting, but said some issues remained unresolved. The goal, he said, is "to strike a balance" that would meet the settlers' basic needs while also enabling peace talks to resume.

Responding to Palestinian reports that Abbas had expressed willingness to meet with him at next month's UN General Assembly session in New York, Netanyahu said that if Abbas "is behind this declaration, that would be progress. This is a positive thing, a positive first step."

Until now, Abbas has refused to meet with him unless he first imposes a total freeze on settlement construction.

Netanyahu said he is willing to discuss all the well-known final-status issues, such as occupied Jerusalem, borders and the refugees, but also intends to raise issues of his own - primarily the demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state and that any agreement explicitly declare the conflict over and bar any further claims. "We also have core issues, and the issue of recognition is core, in my view," he said. "If we insist on the recognition, there will be a peace agreement."

LIKUD MK HOLDS ANTI-NETANYAHU CONFERENCE
Meanwhile, Knesset Member Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) held a conference in the Knesset Wednesday for the heads of Judea and Samaria settlers, in order to create a united front against Netanyahu's plan to freeze construction in settlements.

Officials said the freeze may create problems for the Israeli prime minister with rightists in the coalition. However a refusal to halt construction may harm relations with the Labor Party.

The gathering was attended by 20 leaders of settlements in the occupied West Bank. They agreed that over the next month more pressure should be placed on Netanyahu to renege on the decision to freeze.

Noam Arnon, of the leaders of the Israeli settlement in al-Khalil, said the settlers must limit Netanyahu as his government could not legitimately halt construction. "We can't have a government that behaves worse than that of Olmert," one speaker said. "We won't allow a construction freeze; we won't allow him to break left."

Some said the Israeli prime minister was deviating from the policy that had won him his position. "People need to be faithful to what they promised during the elections," the speaker said.

The anti-Netanyahu sentiment demonstrates a departure from the settlers' policy of attacking Defense Minister Ehud Barak for their grievances. "Barak is no longer the only address. We need to put pressure on the prime minister," the Yesha Council stated.
¬
Source: AJP

[Shades]

Tel Aviv is seeking USD 7.5 million from the Swedish Aftonbladet daily over an article that claims that Israeli troops kill Palestinians to steal their organs and sell them on the black market.

According to a report published by International Middle East Media Center, the Israeli lawsuit against the paper was filed by a lawyer named Guy Ohpir, who filed the lawsuit in a Manhattan Court asking for $7.5 million as compensation.

The lawyer says the paper's article is anti-Semitic, racist and blood-libel and that the article should be considered incitement against the Jews and Israeli soldiers.

Ohpir allegedly filed the lawsuit in New York because the paper is distributed there and because Donald Bostrom who wrote Our sons plundered for their organs made a connection to the recent scandal of organ trade in which New York Rabbis, Jewish figures and officials were involved.

Donald Bostrom says his article about the Israeli army stealing the organs of young Palestinian men it killed in 1992 during the first Palestinian uprising originates from claims made by Palestinian families.

"The article is not accusing the (Israeli) army of snatching organs. The Palestinian families, the Palestine mothers, say that they think or they are sure that someone took organs from their young men," the Swedish freelance journalist told Press TV on Monday.

The article published last week in Aftonbladet sheds light on the case of Bilal Ahmed Ghanem, a 19-year-old Palestinian man, who was shot dead in 1992 by Israeli forces in the West Bank village of Imatin.

Bostrom, who witnessed the man's killing, stated that Ghanem's body was then abducted and returned several days later by the Israeli military with a cut from the stomach to the neck that had been stitched up.

Bilal's brother, who was 15 years old at the time, recounts the shooting incident in the article.

"A number of (Israeli) soldiers ambushed (the Palestinians) and opened fire. The first shot hit (Bilal) in the chest, the second in the leg. We believe that he was still alive after sustaining the two bullet wounds," he said.

The mother, Sadija, told Aftonbladetthat Israeli troopers could have arrested him but instead decided to kill him.

According to the family, the Israeli army demanded NIS 5,000 (about USD1,300) to return the body.

"It was the middle of the night. The soldiers caused an electrical power outage in the entire village. Bilal was returned in a black bag; he had no teeth. The body was stitched from the neck all the way down to the abdomen," the Swedish newspaper quoted the mother as saying.

When asked what happened to the body, the soldiers told Bilal's family that he had undergone an autopsy in Tel Aviv. The family, however, claims that his organs had been stolen.

After the incident, at least 20 Palestinian families told Bostrom that they suspected that the Israeli military had taken the organs of their sons after they had been killed by Israeli forces and their bodies were taken away.

MP/AA

[Shades]

The Israeli navy opens fire on Palestinian fishing boats just off the northern Gaza's shore, killing a fisherman and injuring another.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that Mohamed al-Attar, 25, was killed on Thursday after an Israeli shell "separated his head from his body."

The Israeli army denied the claim by the Palestinian ministry saying, "having checked, it became clear the allegation is false. Our forces fired no shells."

Navy vessels, enforcing Israel's blockade of the Palestinian territory, regularly open fire on Palestinian fishing boats to prevent them from venturing more than a few kilometers from the shore.

FTP/SME/MMN

[Shades]

Unknown assailants have attacked the office of a human rights group in the Gaza Strip, incurring damage and stealing personal laptops, a statement says.

The Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights organization said that the stolen computers contained statements and complaints filed by residents of Gaza City, the Ma'an news agency reported late on Thursday.

The commission said that it had filed a complaint with the Hamas police department regarding the Thursday incident.

Hamas police officers launched an investigation into the incident, it added.

The group also called on all relevant organizations to implement the law and bring the perpetrators to justice.

FTP/SME/MMN

[Shades]

Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Navy Adm. Mike Mullen has promised the regime in Tel Aviv more of Washington's unconditional support.

Mullen said that the US would always stand by Israel while attending a farewell party for Tel Aviv's military attaché Major-General Benny Gantz, Ynet news reported.

A number of other senior American officials, including the head of the Middle East desk at the US National Security Council Dan Shapiro, and Undersecretary of Defense Michele Flournoy accompanied Mullen at the ceremony.

Mullen said the attendance of top US military officials showed that Tel Aviv and Washington shared strong ties.

Interestingly, military attachés from Egypt and Morocco were also sighted at the party, which was held in honor of a man who is returning to Tel Aviv to assume the second most high-ranking post of the Israeli military.

Gantz will officially replace the Israeli military's Deputy Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Dan Harel on October 1.

The Israeli military's Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Gadi Shamni is expected to fill in his position in Washington.

MJ/DT

[Shades]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says Israeli settlement building in Palestinian territories must stop before peace can be established in the Middle East.

"Stopping the settlements, the building of further settlements, is I think of crucial importance. There needs to be progress there," said Merkel at a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Berlin Thursday.

"This is why I welcome the talks with Mr. [George] Mitchell that took place yesterday. These talks will be continued, and I said that on behalf of the German government, we feel that time is running out now. It's getting urgent," she added.

Israel has continuously violated the UN Security Council Resolution 446, which prohibits the construction of Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories.

Merkel's comments came after US President Barack Obama's special envoy to the Middle East held a four-hour meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in London on Wednesday to discuss a settlement freeze.

During the meeting, however, Netanyahu refused to heed international calls for a complete end to the expansion of settlements on Palestinian land.

Furthermore, Israeli officials and Western diplomats said after the talks, Mitchell had recognized that Netanyahu could not announce a settlement freeze in East Jerusalem (al-Quds).

They said Washington would no longer demand that Tel Aviv make a public announcement about freezing settlement building in the occupied holy city.

MJ/DT

[Shades]

Addressing a long-standing debate over Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, former US president Jimmy Carter calls for the removal of all settlements from the occupied land.

"This is not Israel," said the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, pointing to a building settlement during his Thursday visit to the separation wall in the West Bank village of Bil'in.

"This is Palestine and settlements must be removed from Palestinian land so that justice will be restored in the area," he urged.

Carter described a freeze on the Israeli settlement expansion on confiscated Palestinian land as the first step to lasting peace in the region, echoing Washington's favored two-state solution which envisages the creation of a Palestinian homeland next to Israel.

Keeping his company on his West Bank listening tour was Archbishop Desmond Tutu who encouraged the Palestinians' weekly Friday gatherings to protest the construction of the Israeli 'apartheid wall'.

The South African Nobel Prize winner dismissed remarks made by Israeli hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday in Germany in which he maintained that the lesson of the Holocaust is that Israel should always defend itself.

"The lesson that Israel must learn from the Holocaust is that it can never get security through fences, walls and guns," he noted. "In South Africa, they tried to get security from the barrel of a gun. They never got it."

On their Bil'in visit, Carter and Tutu were accompanied by their colleagues from the 'Elders' delegation, including a number of former world leaders, renowned human rights activists and businessmen.

The residents of the West Bank village have been struggling against the annexation of more than 50 percent of their farmlands and the construction of the apartheid wall in the area.

The construction of the wall in Bi'lin continues despite an Israeli Supreme Court ruling in September 2007 that the current route of the wall in Bi'lin is illegal and needs to be dismantled.

MRS/CS

[Shades]

As Washington and Tel Aviv fail to agree on a US-demanded freeze on illegal West Bank settlements, more Israelis find President Barack Obama taking side with the Palestinians.

A recent opinion poll conducted by Smith Research center shows a meaningful drop in the number of Israelis who approve of President Obama's policies in favoring Israel's interests.

A mere four percent of Israelis consider the Obama administration's stance on the Palestinian issue as pro-Israeli, according to the survey published by The Jerusalem Post.

The poll results also indicate that 51 percent of Jewish Israelis consider the Obama administration more pro-Palestinian than pro-Israeli.

Thirty-five percent of the participants consider the White House not taking any sides and 10 percent declined to take part in the poll.

The opinion poll was conducted on Monday and Tuesday among 500 people representing a statistical model of the Jewish Israeli population with a margin of error of 4.5 percent.

An earlier survey in mid-June did not show a much better popularity for Obama's policies among the Israeli population, but a noticeable 36 percent said the policies were neutral.

This is while his predecessor, George W. Bush, was viewed by some 88 percent of Israelis as pro-Tel Aviv with just 2 percent deeming him as pro-Palestine.

Questioned on whether or not they agreed with a year-long freeze on settlement construction as part of a US-brokered deal, 50 percent of the voters answered negative, while 41 percent said 'yes' and 9 percent did not express an opinion.

MRS/CS

[Shades]

Egypt has called on Israel to freeze settlement activities in occupied East Jerusalem (al-Quds) before the resumption of any peace talks with the Palestinians.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit told reporters in Stockholm that the Arab world expects Israel to include Jerusalem in a moratorium on settlements.

"Jerusalem is Arab and it will continue to be so," said the foreign minister.

"We have to receive an indication that Israel is ready to apply a very strict moratorium for an extended period of time on not building settlements as to cope with the idea of having a time frame for the negotiations," said Abul-Gheit.

The remarks were made while the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refuses any freeze on settlement activity in Jerusalem saying the city "is not a settlement. It is the sovereign capital of Israel, and we accept no limitations on our sovereignty."

The status of Jerusalem has been among the thorny issues in the stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, with the Israelis claiming the city as their 'eternal, undivided capital' -- a position not recognized by the international community.

SB/SME/MMA