:icon_sadangel2: Palestine Peace a dream?

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A Palestinian taxi driver has been brutally beaten by Israeli soldiers at the entrance to the West Bank city of Qalqilya, a report has revealed.

The Palestinians said Rabi'a Shubaki was in his cab in line at the checkpoint set up at the entrance to the West Bank city, when Israeli soldiers aboard a military jeep called him over and beat him.

"We were standing in line. The soldiers asked us, 'Why aren't you standing properly in line?' Rabi'a responded saying we were standing in line."

"The soldiers asked us to go back to the end of the line, and when we reached a distance of four vehicles from the checkpoint, the soldiers called Rabi'a, asked him to get out with his identification card and go to them," said one of the taxi's passengers.

The passenger also noted, "Rabi'a approached the jeep and suddenly we heard him shouting, 'Stop, stop'. He fell to the ground and kept screaming. We got out of the taxi and tried to help him, the soldiers threatened us to stay away."

An ambulance from Qalqilya's Nazal hospital arrived to treat Shubaki and transferred him for treatment in the city. After an initial examination, Shubaki was transferred to a special hospital in Nablus due to the head injuries sustained. The Israeli army says the matter is being examined.

"The District Coordination and Liaison Office received a complaint in the matter and it is being examined. If it proves to be true, it will be dealt with," an Israeli army spokesperson claimed.

The Monday incident comes as violent crimes against Palestinians and damage to Palestinian property by Israeli troops and Zionist settlers have at times been photographed and videotaped. The United Nations however has shown little or no reaction to the flagrant violations.

MP/SME/HAR

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Israel has issued construction tenders to build more settlements in the West Bank, just days before its premier was to hold talks with the US president.

Israel's hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Washington on Sunday on his official visit to the US and he is expected to hold talks with the US President Barack Obama on Monday.

Tenders to build 20 new housing units in the Maskiot settlement in the north of the occupied West Bank were issued after a green light from the defense ministry, The News reported.

The construction in Maskiot, site of a former Israeli military base, was authorized by the government in late 2006 in part to resettle Israelis who had been removed from settlements in the Gaza Strip in 2005.

The move by the Israeli government is considered as a clear disregard to the repeated international calls to halt construction of new settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

More than 280,000 Israeli settlers currently live in the occupied West Bank and some 200,000 live in settlements in east Al-Quds, where they harass the Palestinian majority everyday.

Sari Al-Khalil, Press TV correspondent in the West Bank city of Al-Khalil says the move by the Israeli government is mainly aimed at showing the Israeli control over the area in the West Bank.

He added that the ultranationalist policies being pursued by Netanyahu has put him on a collision course with Obama who has called for an end to the construction of new Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories.

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The result of a new Israeli poll reveals that some 40 percent of Israeli Arabs believe that the Holocaust never happened.

The poll, conducted by the University of Haifa, shows that the figure is up from 28 percent in 2006.

It also shows that only 41 percent of the Israeli Arabs believe that the country should exist as a Jewish state, down from 65.5 percent in 2003.

Some 53.7 percent of Israeli Arabs believe that Israel has a right to exist as an independent country, down from 81 percent in 2003.

The poll surveyed some 700 Israeli Arab men and women.

Professor Sami Samocha, who conducted the survey, has been monitoring Arab-Jewish relations for 35 years and says the sensitive ties have seen ups and downs that are closely related to Israeli policies.

"The figures are a derivative of what we've known in recent years," Samocha said, and pointed to the Gaza blockade and the 33-day war against Lebanon in 2006 as exacerbating factors.

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OCCUPIED AL-QUDS ? Palestinians are sounding the alarm that Israel's continuing excavation works beneath the Haram al-Sharif (Noble sanctuary) in Al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem) is posing a "real and immediate" danger to its Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest shrine. "Israeli excavations and continuing digging right beneath the Haram al Sharif?s esplanade have already caused irreparable damage to the stability of Al-Aqsa Mosque?s foundations," Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the Islamic Movement, told IslamOnline.

Salah, who has been closely monitoring Israeli excavations in the Old City of Al-Quds for over 25 years, says Israel is paying no attention to protests by Arab and Muslim countries over the perils its digging poses to Islamic holy places.

IslamOnline's Al-Quds Awareness Campaign Al-Quds Ailing City (Special Page) In recent years, the Israeli government, in coordination with powerful settler groups, began digging an extensive tunnelwork throughout the Old City. Israel describes the tunnels as "tourist projects" that pose no threat to Islamic holy places.

However, Palestinians and some Israeli organizations, including the Israeli Committee Against House Demolition, believe that the ultimate goal is to create a subterranean access route to attack Al-Aqsa and other Islamic shrines in the area.

Last year, an Israeli lawyer representing the anti-settlement group, Ir Amin, revealed that government-funded settlers were trying to establish "irreversible facts" as part of a takeover scheme.

"I have no doubt that the Aqsa foundations have been greatly weakened due to these tunnels and other excavations," maintains Sheikh Salah.

"You don?t have to be a great architect to realize this. We have already seen holes and cracks all over the area."

A section of the Aqsa Mosque?s yard caved in last year as a result of Israeli excavations underneath.

The collapse happened near the Qaitbay fountain in the western section of the mosque.

The one-meter deep hole was viewed as an ominous harbinger for things to come.

A school in Silwan neighborhood also partially collapsed due to Israeli excavations in the area.

Demolishing Al-Aqsa

Sheikh Salah says he is completely certain Israel wants to destroy Al-Aqsa Mosque. "They want to do it in a way that would appear as is happening as a result of natural causes, such an earthquake."

Salah says that Israel has a "diabolical plan" and is acting on it while Muslims are still just watching and contenting themselves with verbal protestations.

"Verbal reactions won?t stop Israeli designs against Islamic holy places, especially the Aqsa Mosque," he stressed.

"We need a proactive stance by Muslim peoples and governments. Muslims must send an unmistakable message to Israel and its supporters that Islamic holy shrines in Al-Quds are red lines."

Al-Aqsa is the Muslims? first Qiblah direction Muslims take during prayers and it is the third holiest shrine after Al Ka`bah in Makkah and Prophet Muhammad's Mosque in Madinah, Saudi Arabia.

Its significance has been reinforced by the incident of Al Isra'a and Al Mi'raj ? the night journey from Makkah to Al-Quds and the ascent to the Heavens by Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessings be Upon Him).

Israeli religious leaders, including Knesset members, are making no secret of their schemes regarding Al-Aqsa.

The Temple Mount Faithful, an extremist fanatical group, is dedicated to the demolition of Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

The Temple Mount Institute, another extremist Jewish society, had prepared detailed plans for the rebuilding of the alleged Solomon Temple on the rubble of Al-Aqsa.

It has a large prototype of the temple, special clothes for its rabbis, special places for sacrificial offerings, incense chalice, copper vessels for meal offerings, silver vessel for wine libation and other offering implements.

No Exaggeration

In recent years, the Israeli occupation authorities have allowed Jewish extremists to pray inside the Haram al Sharif esplanade. Muslim Waqf (religious endowment) officials have warned that allowing Jews to pray at the Haram is only part of the larger scheme to usurp the Islamic shrines.

"I think they want to secure a foothold, which they would later use to consolidate and expand Jewish presence," maintains Sheikh Muhammed Hussein, Head of the Supreme Muslim Council which oversees the Haram al Sharif.

"This is why Muslims all over the world, people and governments, must protest loudly this brazen and provocative aggression on the sanctity of Islamic sanctuaries."

Sheikh Raed Salah, who has dedicated himself to exposing Israeli schemes in Al-Quds, says Muslims around the world should realize that his repeated warnings are not at all exaggerated.

"When will Muslims come to realize that the dangers are real? When the Mosque is destroyed and the news of its destruction appears on Al-Jazeera?"

He had one clear message to Muslims and those who care about Al-Quds and Al-Aqsa.

"Only a genuine and fast awakening by Arabs and Muslims can help, and this is exactly what we are trying to effect."

Source: IslamOnline

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The head of a UN inquiry into human rights abuses committed during the three-week Israeli war on Gaza has been disappointed over Tel Aviv's lack of cooperation.

"I'm disappointed, and the members of the mission are disappointed, that we've had no positive response from the Israeli government," Richard Goldstone told reporters in Geneva on Wednesday.

The South African Jewish jurist, who heads a four-member fact finding mission to Gaza, said despite his direct appeal to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the group's request to enter Israel has to date been met with a wall of silence.

"But we've really received no official response. There've been media reports of noncooperation but I regard those as unofficial. It would be good to get an official response and I would hope a positive response," he explained.

Goldstone went on to express his determination to go ahead with the inquiry even if Tel Aviv fails to cooperate on the issue.

The team is obliged to submit a report by Aug. 4 on the conduct of both sides during Israel's Operation Cast lead.

This is not the first time echelons in Tel Aviv deny a United Nations fact finding mission entry into the Gaza Strip, impoverished by a 22-month Israeli imposed siege on its inhabitants and constant military operations.

Human rights investigator Richard Falk was denied entry into the coastal territory at the onset of the military aggression in December.

The UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories believes Tel Aviv is shirking all investigations in fear of the abundant amount of evidence that shows its violation of international laws of warfare in Gaza.

"The real reason is that the facts overwhelmingly support allegations that Israel is understandably concerned that any objective inquiry would indeed confirm the allegations and create a situation in which the international community would be obliged to seek some kind of procedure for accountability," said Falk in an exclusive interview with Press TV in late April.

Tel Aviv claimed in late December that it had unleashed Operation Cast Lead upon the territory of 1.5 million Palestinians in "retaliation for Palestine rocket attacks on Israel".

The three-week Israeli offensive on the tiny coastal strip killed nearly 1,350 Palestinians and wounded around 5,450 others -- most of them civilians.

The onslaught cost the Palestinian economy at least $1.6 billion, destroying some 4,000 residential buildings and damaging 16,000 other houses.

The Israeli use of controversial flesh-eating weapons against civilians and UN buildings has also prompted universal condemnation and calls for war crime charges to be brought against Tel Aviv.

MT/AA

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CAIRO – Israel's systematic policies of neglect and discrimination against the Arab Palestinian inhabitants of Al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem) have led to a social and economic collapse in the holy city, with children being the hardest hit.

"66.8% of Palestinian families in Jerusalem (as opposed to 23.3% of the city's Jewish families) live below the poverty line," concluded the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI).

"A large majority of East Jerusalem residents do not receive, and cannot afford to buy, the most basic services."

The aged, the disabled, and children are the most affected, says the ACRI, Israel's oldest and largest human rights organization. "74% of Palestinian children in East Jerusalem are beneath the poverty line, as opposed to 47.7% of the city's Jewish children," reads the report.

"Over 94,000 children in East Jerusalem live in a perpetual state of poverty."

The ACRI asserted that the chronic state of poverty has had serious social ramifications, including a decline in the functioning of children, reflected in high rates of school dropout and early entrance into the job market; crime; drug use; and health and nutritional problems.

According to Central Bureau of Statistics CBS 2007 data, the number of Palestinian inhabitants of Al-Quds is approximately 260,522.

Israel captured and occupied Al-Quds in the six-day 1967 war, then annexed it in a move not recognized by the world community or UN resolutions.

The holy city is home to Al-Haram Al-Sharif, which includes Islam's third holiest shrine Al-Aqsa Mosque, and represents the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Palestinians insist the city will be the capital of their future independent state.

* Discrimination

The ACRI report presents an alarming picture of Israel's systematic discrimination along with routine and deliberate violation of the political, social and economic rights of the Palestinian residents of Al-Quds.

"Life in Jerusalem can be described as a continuing cycle of neglect, discrimination, poverty and shortages."

It noted that the city was for centuries the urban hub for services, trade, and culture in the West Bank.

"The recently constructed Separation Barrier completely severed Jerusalem from the surrounding area, and the impact on the economy and culture of East Jerusalem residents has been severe."

The ACRI report highlighted Israel's policies of discrimination against Al-Quds residents in almost every walk of life.

"Since 1967 the Israeli government has not budgeted resources for strengthening and developing East Jerusalem—resources that are essential for meeting the physical needs of the area and the needs of the population at its natural growth rate," it stressed.

"Israel’s policy for the past four decades has taken concrete form as discrimination in planning and construction, expropriation of land, and minimal investment in physical infrastructure and government and municipal services."

The report asserted that as a result, the Palestinian inhabitants of Al-Quds suffer severe distress, and their conditions are worsening.

The Israeli human rights group asserted that the aim of these discriminatory policies is to secure a Jewish majority in Jerusalem and push Palestinian residents outside the city's borders.

"The only logical explanation for this discrimination is that it is a deliberate effort by 35 government authorities to push Palestinian residents of Jerusalem outside the city's borders as a means of maintaining a Jewish majority over the long term."

Source: IslamOnline

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Israelis add their voices to a protest against eviction orders issued to two Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah district of east Jerusalem (al-Quds).

Israeli watchdog Ir Amim on Tuesday condemned the orders issued by an Israeli court on Sunday as part of development plans aimed at creating a ring of Jewish settlements around the Old City and its holy sites.

"On May 17, two Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of east Jerusalem received court orders to vacate their homes by July 19, 2009," the group said.

The group revealed that the houses will be turned over to settler organization Nahalat Shimon International, which seeks to demolish the existing Palestinian neighborhood and build a 200-unit settlement in its place.

The NGO warned that the actual and pending evictions of Palestinian families would "threaten to spark a dangerous escalation of the conflict in the city" and would also raise "international controversy".

"Israeli authorities claim that Palestinian residents have lost their rights as protected tenants due to delinquency in rent payments, while Palestinians maintain that Israeli ownership claims are baseless."

According to Ir Amim, five to six buildings in the area are now being lived in by Israeli settlers, while active court cases threaten four Palestinian extended families.

Israel occupied east al-Quds (Jerusalem) during the 6-day war of 1967 and illegally annexed it later in spite of international opposition, settling at least 190,000 Israelis in the area home to some 270,000 Palestinians.

Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with US President Barack Obama in Washington, where the White House urged the hawkish premier -- in vain -- to stop the expansion of Israeli settlements.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry said on Tuesday that he frankly brought the issue forward during talks with visiting Netanyahu.

The West Bank settlers' umbrella organization Yesha Council says the Netanyahu government will definitely allow settlers to continue their activities in the West Bank.

Under a 2003 US-backed peace "road map", Israel is required to stop settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territories.

MRS/JG/AA

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Israel: 'No need to finish' W Bank barrier
The barrier Israel built through the West Bank
Israel began building the barrier several years ago

The head of Israel's security service has said there is no security reason for continuing construction of Israel's barrier through the West Bank.

Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin told a parliamentary committee that Israel had enough capabilities to prevent attacks from the Palestinian territory.

Since building began years ago, Israel has maintained that it is a security measure to keep out attackers.

Palestinians reject this, seeing it as a land grab.

The UN has criticised Israel, citing an advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice that parts of the barrier built inside Palestinian territory in the West Bank - 90% of the route - are contrary to international law.

Gaza attacks

Meanwhile, Israeli police say a rocket fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza has landed in the town of Sderot, causing damage but no casualties.

Several people were treated for shock after the rocket struck the backyard of a house.

It was one of very few rockets launched from Gaza in recent weeks.

Israeli security officials have said the Hamas movement, which controls Gaza, is trying to maintain a truce so it can re-arm following Israel's offensive earlier this year.

Later, Israeli forces were reported to have bombed an area on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, hours after the Sderot attack.

It was apparently targeted at tunnels which Israel says are used to smuggle weapons into Gaza.
BBC

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As Israel seeks to cope with deep differences with the Obama administration, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he is ready to allow peace talks with Syria and the Palestinians.

After his arrival from the US on Wednesday, the Israeli prime minister said he has assured US President Barack Obama that Tel Aviv would engage in immediate peace talks.

He, however, insisted that negotiations must focus on Israel's security.

"I said I was ready to immediately open peace talks with the Palestinians, by the way, with the Syrians as well, of course, without preconditions," Netanyahu told reporters at Ben-Gurion Airport. "But I made it clear that any peace settlement there must find a solution to Israel's security needs."

Netanyahu also said that he was ready to begin peace talks with Arab states. Currently only two Arab nations --Egypt and Jordan-- have diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv.

The hardliner and hawkish government of the Netanyahu has so far refused to endorse a two-state solution and to freeze settlement activities in the West Bank in spite of mounting US calls.

The expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied lands is believed to be the main reason behind the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

On negotiations with Syria, Tel Aviv has refused to withdraw from the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau that it occupied in 1967 during the Six-Day War.

Israel says the are is strategically too important to be returned. The Golan Heights gives Israel access to the Sea of Galilee -- main source of fresh water for the Israelis.

Syria says that the peace talks would only continue after Israel fully withdraws from the occupied area.

Source: Press TV

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The Shin Bet chief acknowledges the separation wall that Israel is building in the West Bank is not a precautionary measure against possible Palestinian attacks.

Yuval Diskin, the head of Israel's security service, known as Israel Security Agency (ISA), underscored that there is no security reason for continuing construction of what is widely viewed as Israel's apartheid wall in the region.

Speaking to a parliamentary committee, Diskin said Israel had enough capabilities to prevent mortar and home-made rockets fired by the Palestinian fighters.

Israel has been citing security considerations to dampen outcries from Palestinian and international activists and organizations who condemn the move as a blatant land grab.

The United Nations' International Court of Justice (ICJ) has also denounced the construction of the barrier wall, 90 percent of which passes through villages and town inhabited by the Palestinians, as contrary to international law.

Israel began the construction of the apartheid in 2002 and Palestinians and International protesters have since held weekly Friday demonstrations in the West Bank village of Nilin, near the city of Ramallah, and neighboring Bilin.

The protesters are usually faced with Israeli troops who attempt to disperse the crowed by firing 'rubber-coated bullets and tear gas'. However, there are reports that the troops use live rounds on occasions.

There have been also incidents in which protesters were killed as a result of gun shots fired at them during peaceful demonstrations.
Source: Press TV