:icon_sadangel2: Palestine Peace a dream?

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Hamas ready for reconciliation with Fatah: Meshaal
Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:44:40 GMT

Hamas political chief Khaled Meshaal said Monday that the movement is ready for reconciliation with the rival Palestinian Fatah party, calling on Egypt to host a meeting on the issue.

Meshaal urged Cairo to arrange a meeting to strike a deal between the two sides, Ma'an news agency reported.

"We will go to reconciliation in God's will and we will give everything for the sake of reconciliation, this is a promise," said Meshaal.

"Gather us in Cairo with whomever you choose and you will find true reconciliation. This is simply the way. This is my message to my brothers in Egypt," said the head of Hamas political bureau.

Last month, Meshaal said that significant progress was achieved in reconciliation talks with Fatah but added that some points still needed to be resolved in the Egyptian proposal.

Egypt has been mediating between the two rival parties which virtually severed ties in June 2007, when Hamas took over the Gaza Strip — allegedly in response to an attempt by Fatah to stage a coup against the group.

Abbas in response dismissed the government of Hamas leader Ismail Haniya who had come to power after winning election in 2006.

SB/MMN

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January 19 set as International Gaza Day
Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:08:01 GMT

Iran's Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani says that Muslim countries have agreed to his proposal to name January 19th as the International Gaza Day.

Larijani made the announcement upon his return from the sixth session of the Islamic Inter-Parliamentary Union.

Larijani returned to Tehran on Monday after an eight-day visit to Kuwait and Uganda.

In Uganda, Iran's parliament speaker met with the country's President Yoweri Museveni and Parliament Speaker Edward Ssekandi.

During his visit to Kuwait and Uganda, head of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Broujerdi accompanied Larijani.

HSH/HGH/MMN

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Hamas calls for legal action against Israel at ICC
Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:43:33 GMT

Hamas called for the prosecution of Israeli leaders at the International Criminal Court (ICC), after Tel Aviv admitted the use of phosphorous munitions against Palestinians during the Gaza war.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said the international community should take legal actions against Israeli the leaders who authorized the use of white phosphorous bombs during the Israeli offensive on Gaza last January.

In an official report to the United Nations, Israel admitted that its military forces fired shells that contained incendiary white phosphorus at a UN Relief and Works Agency compound in Gaza.

"It's a clear recognition that Israel committed war crimes in the Gaza Strip", said Barhoum.

"So according to this clear recognition by Israel, there should be practical steps taken by the international community to start prosecuting the leaders of the Zionist enemy as war criminals," he added.

A report released by a UN fact-finding team headed by South African Judge Richard Goldstone in September 2009 accused Israeli military forces of war crimes during the offensive which killed more than 1,400 people in Gaza.

Israel had initially boycotted the report, describing it as inaccurate.

However, the regime issued document titled "Gaza Operation Investigations: An Update" on Friday, facing a threat by Goldstone to refer war crimes suspicions to an international court unless Israel and the Palestinians launched investigations into the war.

Palestinians also submitted their report on the war to UN on Friday.

SB/MMN

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Berlusconi eyes Israeli membership in EU
Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:36:04 GMT

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (R) Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at the Kind David Hotel in Jerusalem, al-Quds
Italian Prime Minister says Israel should join the European Union, in a u-turn from his earlier remarks criticizing Israel's settlement policy as an impediment to peace.

"My greatest desire, as long as I am a protagonist in politics, is to bring Israel into membership of the European Union," said Silvio Berlusconi at the beginning of a three-day visit to Israel on Monday.

Eight Italian ministers accompanying Berlusconi will hold joint cabinet meetings with their Israeli counterparts.

The latest remarks come as the Italian premier criticized Israel over its settlement policy last Sunday, calling it "a mistake."

"It will never be possible to convince the Palestinians of Israel's good intentions while Israel continues to build in territories that are to be returned as part of a peace agreement," Berlusconi had said only a day earlier.

While Israel's relations with some European nations have soured over the conflict with the Palestinians, its ties with Berlusconi's government have grown much warmer.

RZS/MB

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Israeli police who put US man in coma get off scot-free
Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:27:55 GMT

American activist Tristan Anderson, 38, of Oakland, Calif. is seen severely wounded after the clash, AP photo.
Israeli authorities have cleared the police of the charge of inflicting coma-inducing head injury to an American during a protest against the erection of an Israeli barrier.

The officials claimed that there was no criminal intent on the part of the police, said The Washington Post, reporting on the follow-up to the March 2009 incident in the West Bank in which the 38-year-old Tristan Anderson was hit in the head with a high-velocity tear gas canister.

The victim has finally emerged from a months-long coma and can only communicate with basic sounds.

After the incident, the Israeli government said that the law enforcement agents could not be held responsible for the crime as the victim was injured at a demonstration against the Israeli-built apartheid wall in the West Bank village of Ni'lin.

Tel Aviv has also labeled the protest in question as 'an act of war' although Anderson's head injury was sustained during a peaceful demonstration.

The family members of the peace activist have vowed to file a lawsuit against Tel Aviv.

Andersons' lawyer, Michael Sfard, has argued that branding a civil demonstration as an 'act of war' could only mean that Israel is at war with civilians. "International law identifies the incident as a clear case of human rights abuse,” he said. “We will pursue this matter and take the government of Israel to court."

The Post also reported that the rally Anderson attended was sponsored by the International Solidarity Movement, which has had legal battles with the Israeli regime, and two of its members have been killed in unrelated incidents involving Israeli forces in recent years.

HN/MB

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Barak predicts Syria war in absence of talks
Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:00:11 GMT

Israeli Defense Minister says it is crucial to clinch a peace deal with Syria before too late, saying otherwise Tel Aviv could find itself at war with Damascus.

Addressing an annual gathering of senior army officers on Monday, Ehud Barak highlighted the significance of opening negotiations while Syria perceived Israel as being strong, the Jerusalem Post website reports.

Barak described the coming year as one of many challenges but expressed optimism about opportunities to make peace with Syria and the Palestinians.

"In the absence of a deal with Syria we could reach an armed conflict that could develop into a full-fledged war," he warned.

"As is in the Middle East, immediately after the war we will sit down and negotiate exactly what we have been talking about for the past 15 years."

Damascus and Tel Aviv remain at adds with each other over the Golan Heights, which Tel Aviv occupied during the six-day war of 1967 and later annexed, ignoring international opposition.

Syria, an outspoken critic of Israel, has preconditioned any peace negotiation with the Tel Aviv regime with a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from the strategic region.

MRS/JG/DT

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Hamas leader survives attempt on life
Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:59:36 GMT

A local Hamas leader in the southern Gaza Strip has escaped an attempt on his life which damaged nearby homes and left two children wounded.

The incident happened on Monday night when a car belonging to Yussef Sarsur exploded overnight, leaving its apparent target unscathed, AFP quoted witnesses as saying.

The car was reportedly parked in front of the Sarsur home in the southern town of Khan Yunis when it detonated, ripping into nearby houses.

Two children were wounded by broken glass, hospital officials said.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the explosion.

The incident comes days after the Palestinian movement blamed Israel for the killing of its senior military commander, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was assassinated in Dubai.

Damascus-based Hamas officials said the co-founder of the Hamas military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, was killed by Israeli agents on January 20.

According to one of his brothers, initial results of a joint probe by Hamas and the United Arab Emirates showed Mabhuh was killed with an electric appliance held to his head.

Hamas has vowed to avenge the murder of one of its leaders.

MRS/JG/DT

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Hamas:Shalit talks stopped on grounds of Mabhouh's assassination

2010-02-02 11:18:19

Occupied Jerusalem-PalPress-A Hamas prominent leader stated that Shalit swap talks will stop for an unlimited period of time on grounds of the assassination of Hamas prominent leader “Mahmoud Al Mabhouh” in Dubai’s hotels on January, 20.

A senior Hams official , who spoke to the Saudi daily r “Ukaz” on condition of anonymity , said that swap talks have temporarily stopped, pointing out that deal is currently going through a negative crossroads.

He also held Israel completely responsible about the failure of the swap deal until now.

The assassination, he said, was a "coward move which aimed to punish Hamas for its firm stance on the prisoner swap deal," confirming that the Israeli Spy agency “Mossad” was behind Mabhouh’s s assassination.

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Israeli warplanes bomb Gaza supply tunnels
Wed, 03 Feb 2010 03:24:35 GMT

Israeli warplanes have targeted and attacked a number of supply tunnels in the Gaza Strip in what the Israeli military said was retaliation for Palestinian rocket fire into southern Israel.

Witnesses and medics said nine air raids struck supply tunnels on the border between the blockaded coastal sliver of Gaza and Egypt. The aerial assaults wounded at least three people and damaged homes in the area.

Gaza continues to suffer from the aftermath of the massive Israeli military offensive from December 2008 to January 2009. More than 1,400 Palestinians were killed during three weeks of Israeli land, sea, and air assaults in 'Operation Cast Lead '. The offensive also inflicted $1.6 billion damage to the Gazan economy.

Most of the damage in Gaza has not been repaired due to an Israeli blockade that has prevented construction materials from entering the territory.

MP/HGL

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Fayyad sounds conciliatory towards Israel
Wed, 03 Feb 2010 07:35:54 GMT

Caretaker Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad addresses the annual conference on security in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv, February 2, 2010.
The Palestinian Authority calls for an end to Israel's settlement construction and its incursions into Palestinian areas to assure an end to the occupation.

In a rare speech to an Israeli audience, Palestinian caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said that Israel's settlement expansions in the West Bank are swallowing up the territory where the Palestinians hope to build a state.

"The Palestinian state is supposed to emerge precisely where settlements are expanding," Fayyad told the 10th Herzliya Conference.

Fayyad also noted Israel's inability to freeze the construction of settlements, raising doubts as to whether Tel Aviv intends to implement a future agreement.

"The political question I have is how confident can we be that once relaunched, the political process is going to be able to deliver that which needs to be delivered on the permanent status issues, on the key question of ending the occupation?" he asked.

Fayyad called on Tel Aviv to stop incursions into the Palestinian territories and demanded formal security presence of Palestinians in other population areas outside the part currently controlled by the Palestinian Authority, saying it would give Palestinians confidence that Israel really intended to end the occupation.

Fayyad reiterated the Palestinians' right to East Jerusalem Al-Quds — occupied by Israel in 1967 and illegally annexed later — and noted that the territory was no less than the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

He also emphasized an end to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and the acceptance of Palestinian statehood as the solution for easing tensions in the region.

The official repeated the Palestinian Authority's commitment to its "recognition of Israel's right to peace and security" and expressed 'sympathy' with the Israelis for the "pain" they have suffered throughout their history.

"Like you, we Palestinians have our own history. Right now we are going through lots of pain and suffering. And we have one key aspiration, and that is once again to be able to live alongside you in peace, harmony and security," he asserted in a conciliatory tone.

Observers note that Fayyad's submissive statements in the face of continuing abuses against the Palestinians by the Israeli occupiers are certain to induce major protests among the Palestinian population and resistance leaders.

MRS/MB