June 30 2004

Israeli troops besiege Gaza town, kill Palestinian
The 16-year-old was killed as he tried to plant a Palestinian flag on a mound of earth as dozens of other youths pelted Israeli armour and soldiers with stones.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L30377163.htm


Analysis: Change the fence route in northeast J'lem too
However, the court also considered the hardship caused to Palestinians, stating that if these hardships are unacceptable, the fence must be moved. Now the verdict must also be applied to the route of the fence in northeast Jerusalem, before life in the area is completely disrupted.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=445786&contrassID=1&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Israeli supreme court orders changes to West Bank barrier route
"The court ruled that the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) Commander should reduce the infringement upon the local inhabitants, even if it cannot be totally avoided, by altering the path of the fence in most areas complained of in the petition."
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/93020/1/.html


West Bank barrier should be torn down: Palestinian PM
"It is not about changing the route or not," Qorei told reporters in the West Bank town of Ramallah. "It's a wall, a separation wall which is being built on the Palestinian territories. It's a racist separation wall and therefore it should fall. There is no other alternative."
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/92967/1/.html


West Bank villagers sceptical of barrier changes
"But we don't trust the Israeli authorities," said Abia Hassan. "They will just find a way around it." Unusual in a case against the barrier's routing, the villagers were joined by 30 Israelis from a nearby Jerusalem suburb who feared it would destroy good historic relations with their Palestinian neighbours.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L30210050.htm


Israel won't allow return of Nativity Church deportees
The thirteen men were originally exiled to Europe for one year. According to EU reports, their stay in European countries has already been extended twice, and cannot be legally extended a third time.
http://web.israelinsider.com/bin/en.jsp?enPage=ArticlePage&enDisplay=view&enDispWhat=object&enDispWho=Article%5El3802&enZone=Security&enVersion=0&


Latest Israeli Invasion of Beit Hanun Leaves 21 Citizens Wounded and Massive Destruction
military invasion of the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanun continued, as medical sources reported 21 citizens wounded, in addition to several journalists and an ambulance crew, due to the heavy and random Israeli gunfire...
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_e/ipc_e-1/e_News/news2004/2004_06/185.html


6 Civilians, including Child, Wounded by Two Incident of Booby-Trap Explosion
Medics at al-Khalil Hospital reported that six civilians were differently wounded when a bobby-trap, left by Israeli soldiers, exploded. The wounded suffered from burns allover their bodies as a result of the blast.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1135


Israel to build new wall in Gaza: diplomatic sources
They said Israeli army planned to stay in the town for three weeks to stop Palestinian militants firing al Qassam homemade rockets at Israel and to build the new wall as well
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-06/30/content_1557572.htm


Palestinian Prisoners Face Torture, Harsh Conditions in Israeli Jails
The PPS sources added that the young prisoners, in Biniamin prison, confessed some accusation under torture. The sources added that insects cause dermatitis for tens of prisoners.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1128


Palestinian gunman attacks Israeli guards
forces and the gunman traded fire for several minutes, said Adi Klein, a spokeswoman with the Israeli Airports Authority, which oversees border crossings. No one was injured in the attack, and the gunman apparently fled...
http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/lateststories/index.ssf?/base/international-15/108860126037200.xml


Palestinian resistance blasts Zionist army tank in the Strip
Both military wings issued a joint communiqué, a copy of which was handed to the PIC, explaining that an explosive device was blasted in the tank before the Mujahideen fired an RPG at it scoring a direct hit. It affirmed that the tank was seen ablaze as Zionist tractors dragged it into a nearby settlement.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/am/publish/article_6388.shtml


IOF Opens Fire at Journalists in Beit Hanoun
Hatem Mussa, said that Israeli soldiers opened heavy fire at an armoured car, which was carrying some journalists working for the American Associated Press News Agency, while covering events of Israeli soldiers' incursion into the town.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1131


IOF Destroys Civilian Facilities in Beit Hanoun
Palestinian municipal sources reported that the campaign of destroying the city infrastructure inflicted a grave damage to further number of civilians facilities; they deliberately destroyed water pies and the sewage service.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1137


New Zealand increases aid to Palestinian homeless
New Zealand on Wednesday slammed Israel's recent destruction of Palestinian homes in the occupied territories and donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to a UN organization helping the Palestinian refugees.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=445710&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


NIS 150m earmarked to secure settlements beyond fence
The Knesset Finance Committee authorized a transfer Wednesday of NIS 150 million to create security zones around 40 West Bank settlements. The budget was given to create special security zones to secure settlements that will remain beyond the West Bank separation fence.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/445847.html


Israeli violations of Palestinian rights at record levels: rights group
Troops operating in the Gaza Strip had killed dozens of innocent civilians while the building of the West Bank separation barrier was in violation of both human rights and international law, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) said.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=7&u=/afp/20040630/wl_mideast_afp/mideast_israel_rights_040630150456


French FM meets Qureia
"We think that this situation should come to an end because he is the legitimate and elected president of the Palestinian people, and this is another aim of my visit," said Barnier, who expressed support Tuesday for a multinational force in Gaza.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=445430&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


PNA to implement security plan within five weeks: official
Hindi told reporters that "the PNA security plan is based on the principle of the supremacy of law and regulations and will be implemented within five weeks after the Israeli evacuation of the strip."
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-06/30/content_1557147.htm


PCHR Condemns Israeli Aerial Attack on a Press Office in Gaza
According to PCHR's preliminary investigations, at 00:02 on Tuesday, 29 June 2004, Israeli helicopter gunships launched 4 missiles at al-Jeel press office owned and managed by journalist Mustafa al-Sawaf on the third floor of al-Shawa and Husari building at al-Wihda Street in the center of Gaza City.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2852.shtml


Annan appeals to Israelis and Palestinians to fulfil Road Map obligations
At the same time, "the Palestinian Authority should take decisive action to halt all acts of terrorism against Israeli civilians. It should also take steps to reform Palestinian security forces and empower the position of Prime Minister," he added in a statement...
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=11198&Cr=palestin&Cr1=


It's only a choir
For all Palestinians, Ramallah, Jerusalem and Bethlehem are now three separated, closed-off entities, with a sea of Israeli obstacles and bans separating them. For Christian Palestinians, these three cities were once one unit connected by familial and economic ties, with religious rites and services provided by Christian communities.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/445469.html


Don't Call it a Wall
A year ago, I urged readers to forget about President Bush's "Road Map to Peace" – on which so much attention was wasted at the time, by now a dead letter – and concentrate on the real map of Palestine, radically changed by the construction of Israel's Apartheid Wall, which was virtually ignored by the international media.
http://www.antiwar.com/hacohen/?articleid=2898


More than a million bullets
We'll hit the Palestinians until the recognition of their weakness vis-a-vis Israel's might is burned into their consciousness. This is the only way they will understand that they are best off coming to terms with their inferiority and accepting Israel's demands.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/444992.html


Population trend takes a negative turn in Israel following 2000 intifada
"For the first time Israelis are discovering new nationalities. There is an increasing trend of taking foreign passports, the idea of a way out, of an escape route if things get really bad," says Michael Shalev, a sociologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=5746


How Arafat was tarred by faulty Israeli intelligence
Though Arafat did seek to turn the intifada to his advantage once it had started, it was, in essence, a spontaneous, popular revolt against Israel's continued occupation, and the realization that Oslo could never end it. It was also, implicitly, directed against Arafat and his insistence that Oslo could end it.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=5744


Ralph Nader Calls Israel a "Puppeteer"
Israeli puppeteer travels to Washington. The Israeli puppeteer meets with the puppet in the White House, and then moves down Pennsylvania Avenue, and meets with the puppets in Congress. And then takes back billions of taxpayer dollars.
http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=64895


Report: $20B of Iraq's Oil Revenue Unaccounted For By U.S.
The Bush administration handed over power to Iraq without properly accounting for what it has done with some $20 billion of Iraq's own money. This according to a new report published Monday by Christian Aid - a leading British charity.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/06/30/1514255


Flood of small arms in Iraq threatens region-study
More than 8 million small arms fell into private hands in Iraq when the U.S.-led invasion ousted Saddam Hussein, creating a threat to regional stability for years to come, a new study said on Wednesday. "What used to be a typically armed Middle East society has become one of the more heavily armed places in the world,"
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N29557795.htm


Saddam handed to Iraqis to face trial
Iyad Allawi, Iraq's interim Prime Minister, said that Saddam Hussein would be charged along with 11 former members of his regime on Thursday although the trial might be months away. The former Iraqi leader will be charged with the massacre of Kurds in Halabja in 1988, the invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the Iran-Iraq war said Salem Chalabi...
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=536625


Army announces emergency call-up of 5,600 former soldiers for Iraq duty
For the first time in more than a decade, the Army is forcing thousands of former soldiers back into uniform, a reflection of the strain on the service of long campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/182/wash/Army_announces_emergency_call_:.shtml

June 29 2004

Industrial Estates Along the Wall
The farmers of Irtah, a village near the West Bank market town of Tulkarem, can still see their land. But they haven’t had access to it for more than a year because the trenches, walls and barbed wire of Israel’s "security fence" lie between their hilltop homes and the fields. Now the Israeli army is threatening officially to confiscate the 500 dunams they are forbidden to access (1).
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=22&ItemID=5735


Israeli Soldiers Attack Peace Activists in Salfeet
Tens of Palestinian and foreign peace activists suffered suffocation, and others arrested, as Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) fired "tear-gas" canisters at a peaceful march organized in Salfeet against the Israel's Apartheid Wall, witnesses said.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1010


Palestinian stage prayers, protests against Israel barrier
A few miles further west, around 600 Palestinians from the village of Iskaka also prayed on their land and demonstrated against the confiscation of their olive groves. Hundreds of hectares (acres) will fall on the Israeli side of the barrier being built in this area to protect the Jewish settlement of Ariel, one of the largest in the West Bank.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayArticle.asp?col=&section=middleeast&xfile=data/middleeast/2004/June/middleeast_June516.xml


The occupier is not convinced
Gaza's isolation from the West Bank is a geographic fact. But the process of disconnecting Palestinian areas from each other within the West Bank constitutes a brutal change in both the natural geography and the political geography determined by the Green Line.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/439549.html


Egypt and Jordan under pressure to take role in occupied territories
Zachariah Zubaidi, the articulate young commander of al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade in Jenin, was roused from one of his hiding places a week ago with the news that a mysterious group of strangers was in town. They turned out to be Jordanians - Amman later said they were inspecting Jordanian-funded facilities in the West Bank city.
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1087373111487&p=1012571727172


IOF Destroys House and Arrests 2 Citizens in Gaza
Israeli troops besieged several houses and destroyed the houses of Abu Thaher, they also arrested two citizens from the same family. The bulldozers razed arable land also, witnesses said.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1009


Arafat refugee climbdown stuns Palestinians
Furthermore, the Palestinian leader told the paper that the PLO had dropped an Arab summit resolution, calling for a just solution of the Palestinian refugee problem based on UN General Assembly Resolution 194.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/099302D3-6D30-487D-BD86-B796CC3E6A71.htm


A Jewish state? `Definitely'
A solicitous host and lively raconteur, he apparently feels he must still hold some cards close to his chest for that last, fateful hand that he plainly believes he alone will yet play, one day, with Ariel Sharon or another Israeli leader.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/440479.html


Stop the Wall Caravan Kicks Off in Leiden, Netherlands
On June 5th, and 6th, in remembrance of Naksa day, and the complete occupation of Palestine, including the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, the Stop the Wall group in the Netherlands launched a national project entitled, "Stop the Wall Caravan!"
http://stopthewall.org/worldwideactivism/585.shtml


IAF helicopter fires missiles in Gaza Strip
The first strike hit a metal workshop with three missiles. Israel had targeted the workshop several months before. The second strike hit another empty building that had been destroyed in a previous Israeli raid into the neighborhood. The third strike, which came just minutes after the first one, hit a second metal workshop with two missiles.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/440750.html


Two-mile Gaza moat to foil tunnels to Egypt
The defence ministry invited companies yesterday to bid for the contract. The ditch will be between 15 and 25 metres deep and stretch for two and a half miles. The Israeli army has demolished thousands of houses and dozens of Palestinians have died in Rafah in raids the army says are aimed at uncovering the tunnels.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1241572,00.html


Israel Plans 'Remote Control Border'
The Israeli army envisions a "remote control" border with the Gaza Strip after a troop withdrawal, including unmanned patrol cars and computerized observation posts that would automatically spot and kill attackers, a military official said Friday.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=1312&e=1&u=/ap/20040618/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians_6


Report: Palestinians fire new type of rocket at Sderot
The more sophisticated rocket, called a Nasser 3 rocket, carries more explosive material and has a longer range than the type of Qassam that Palestinians usually use in attacks, according to the report.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/440750.html


Washington post Daily: Israel Tortures Palestinian Prisoners
In a report “Israel’s Example” published by the Washington post today, the newspaper wrote “ the Palestinian prisoners are being exposed to harsh torture measures including being  forced to keep standing on their foot for days, tied with no-backs chairs, listen to very loud music, placed in cold or sun-heat and  disallowed to use toilets”.
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_e/ipc_e-1/e_News/news2004/2004_06/108.html


UN urges Iraq to protect Palestinians living in Baghdad
Saddam's government rented apartments for Palestinians, paying as little as $1 a month to landlords afraid to object. UNHCR has estimated that thousands of Palestinians were evicted from their homes in Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/440800.html


Qureia: Palestinians drafting deal on post-pullout Gaza rule
The Palestinian Authority and militant groups in the Gaza Strip have begun drafting an agreement on how to run the territory jointly after an Israeli withdrawal, officials said Friday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/440227.html


French FM Barnier leaves Sunday on first Middle East trip
In line with long-standing policy, Israel has said it is opposed to Barnier's meeting Arafat. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has made clear he will not receive any foreign visitor who also sees the Palestinian leader.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=10&u=/afp/20040618/wl_mideast_afp/france_mideast_040618155352


Israeli Closure Leaves Palestinian Economy Paralyzed
by closing the main commercial crossing into Gaza Strip. Israeli occupation forces have closed the four-kilometer Al-Muntar crossing, an economic lifeline for transporting 95 per cent of the strip’s exports and imports on a daily basis, for over three months now.
http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2004-06/18/article05.shtml


IDF suspends unit charged with death of crippled Palestinian
An Israel Defense Forces unit responsible for killing a handicapped Palestinian man in the West Bank has been removed from the West Bank and stripped of all its operational tasks, in accordance with an order issued Wednesday...
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=440742&contrassID=1&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Arab-Americans meet Powell; Group assails US Mideast policy
"We need to have the administration show a balance in their foreign policy," Oakar said. She added that there is no hope for peace in the Middle East as long as the United States is not perceived as an equal partner."
http://www.arabtimesonline.com/arabtimes/world/Viewdet.asp?ID=2741&cat=a


UN agency says despite security concerns, refugees still returning home to Iraq
Elsewhere in the region, 170 Palestinians who fled Iraq last year have now left the Jordanian border and returned to Baghdad, Mr. Janowski told a press briefing in Geneva. “The refugees said they had given up hope of finding a new home in the Middle East and preferred to return to Baghdad.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=11086&Cr=iraq&Cr1=


Palestine: Perception and Reality
What ended Apartheid was the Anti-Apartheid Movement's excellent and powerful campaign, with really high quality design, packaged and speaking in the language of the society it was aimed at. You couldn't walk down a high street and not see a FREE SOUTH AFRICA T-Shirt on someone.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2827.shtml


A poetics of return
The refugee camp on the edge of Jericho where I grew up wasn't home. Home was in Palestine: "There, on that mountain peak" where "our houses stand from ancient times", in the words of a poem I memorised in grade school. There, "my eyes behold their playground/ but my feet cannot seek it."
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/695/op32.htm


Terms and timing
Other senior Labour figures, however, say "most of the details have been agreed upon" for Labour joining the coalition following "secret talks" in recent weeks between Sharon's people and Peres. "The problem," says one Labour Party source, "is that Sharon doesn't have a majority in the Likud Knesset [parliamentary] faction."
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/695/fr2.htm


France and Germany to Open a Cultural Centre in Ramallah
France and Germany will inaugurate Saturday in Ramallah (Palestinian territories), a French-German cultural centre built by Palestinian architects, the French Foreign Ministry announced Friday.
http://www.aps.dz/an/pageview.asp?ID=65416


Amstaff dog who killed girl will be used by security forces
The American Staffordshire dog that killed a four year old girl in Tel Aviv on Thursday night will not be put to death, as originally thought, but rather will be used by security forces for its operations.
http://www.maarivintl.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=8732


China Opposes U.S. War Crimes Immunity, Imperiling UN Measure
China plans to reject continued immunity of U.S. citizens from prosecution by the International Criminal Court, because of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, according to the country's United Nations envoy. The stance may align a majority of the Security Council against the protection.
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=artt7lvxaV0Y&refer=us


With great Diligence, in Iraq
Big money is being made in Iraq by American and British security firms, some of them headed by former senior officials, among them George Bush senior. Among those who sign up as security personnel are drug and arms dealers, as well as former servants of dark regimes of the past.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/440463.html


Kurdish leader says Turkey now accepts autonomy for northern Iraq
"A Turkish delegation visited us on June 9 and told us of an extremely positive policy under which Turkey will not oppose an autonomous status for Kurdistan within a federal Iraq," Barzani told the Arabic satellite television channel Al-Jazeera.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=6&u=/afp/20040618/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_kurds_turkey_040618174622


US holding thousands in secret jails
Among the detention camps that the US government refuses to disclose but have been reported to Human Rights First by "multiple sources" are a centre in Kohat, Pakistan, near the Afghan border; al-Jafr Prison, a US Central Intelligence Agency interrogation facility in Jordan; and a facility on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia...
http://www.khilafah.com/home/category.php?DocumentID=9709&TagID=2

June 28 2004

Download the Campaign Call to Action for the ICJ Ruling on July 9th
Please download the Campaign Call to Action, and distribute it to activist and solidarity networks, as well as any meetings or events you hold around the ICJ ruling. You can also view the Call to Action in our Worldwide Activism section.
http://stopthewall.org/activistresources/606.shtml


July 9 & 10: Days of Action: "We Demand Justice for Palestine Now!"
The foundation of Israel in 1948 has resulted in the destruction of over 400 Palestinian villages, dozens of massacres of Palestinians at the hands of Israeli Forces and the destruction and theft of massive amounts of land. Today, the Apartheid Wall is condensing all of the crimes of Israeli Occupation into one project.
http://stopthewall.org/worldwideactivism/605.shtml


200,000 people out of bounds
Salayme and his colleagues, the neighboring council heads, say that Israelis who are in favor of the separation fence neither know nor understand what is currently happening in these neighborhoods. Were they to visit there they would be astounded - it's simply madness...
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/444251.html


Update on Four Palestinians Arrested in A-Ram on Saturday, 26 June 2004
The Israeli security services are claiming that these two men and two children are a `security threat', and are seeking to continue holding them for an indefinite period of time to `finish' interrogating them.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/palmedialert/message/203


Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory Request for advisory opinion
Opinion to be rendered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), principal judicial organ of the United Nations, in the case concerning the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (request for advisory opinion), will be transmitted in full, live, on the Court’s website (www.icj-cij.org) on Friday 9 July 2004, from 3 p.m.
http://www.icj-cij.org/icjwww/ipresscom/ipress2004/ipresscom2004-26_mwp_20040625.htm


Israeli Bulldozers Demolish 15 Palestinian Houses and Factory
The said houses located near al-Matahen checkpoint. The owners were scattered and became homeless, witnesses said. Palestinian security sources said that Israeli bulldozers and tanks moved into al-Qarara and destroyed the said houses.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1107


Israeli Military Escalation in Rafah, Civilian Shot Dead, another Wounded
Medics at Nasser Hospital confirmed that al-Bateekh was shot dead with a number of live bullets allover the body. The dead body was found stony as he was left bleeding for long hours by the Israeli soldiers.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1105


Palestinian Rockets From Gaza Kill Two Israelis
Today, the rockets claimed two lives just yards from a small kindergarten building — a 3-year-old boy on his way to the kindergarten with his mother, and a 50-year-old Bukharan immigrant from the former Soviet Union sitting on a sidewalk bench nearby.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/28/international/middleeast/28CND-MIDE.html


3 Palestinians Killed and a Number of Houses and Civilian Facilities Destroyed
IOF killed 3 Palestinians, including an 11-year-old child, and wounded 7 others, including another child, in Khan Yunis. Israeli helicopter gunships also attacked and destroyed 2 civilian facilities in Gaza City.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2845.shtml


Civilian Wounded, 3 Others Arrested in WB
Palestinian medical sources in Jenin said that a 16-year-old boy, Jihad al-Sa'di, was shot in the leg with live bullets. Witnesses said that al-Sa'di was shot inside his home when IOF indiscriminately opened fire at houses in Jenin.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1099


Israeli outpost blown up
Palestinian militants dug a tunnel under an Israeli army outpost in the heart of Gaza and exploded a huge bomb there yesterday, collapsing a concrete building and wounding at least five soldiers. The army declined comment on reports that soldiers were also killed in the attack...
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/CalgarySun/News/2004/06/28/517238.html


Israeli Copters Launches Two Missile Raids in Gaza
In the first strike, the Israeli helicopters fired three missiles at the metal workshop belonging to the citizen Mossa Abu Sha’ban, setting it on fire. The same metal workshop was pounded by IOF missiles a fortnight ago. Shortly afterwards, IOF copters fired nine missiles towards a metal foundry
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_e/ipc_e-1/e_News/news2004/2004_06/172.html


Israeli army blows up two Palestinian ministry buildings
The two buildings, each had five stores, had been deserted since the beginning of the Palestinian Intifada (Uprising) almost four years ago after the Israeli army established a military base and lookout posts to observe the nearby crossroad.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-06/29/content_1552453.htm


Rights groups back Palestinians
Mr Gold's organisation, the Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, was among a number of rights groups trying to raise awareness last night in Tel Aviv of what they say is an increasing and systematic use of torture on Palestinian prisoners.
http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,9972141%255E1702,00.html


Israel shuts down all terminals and passage around Gaza
The Israeli army has divided the Gaza Strip into three isolated areas and prevented Palestinians from having access inside the Gaza Strip...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-06/28/content_1550193.htm


Major measles immunization campaign launched in OPT
UNICEF launched a major measles immunization campaign in the West Bank and Gaza Strip today, aimed at providing more than 540,000 children aged 9 – 59 months with a safe injection of measles vaccine and a doses of Vitamin A.
http://www.unicef.org/media/media_22021.html


IDF expected to launch large-scale operation in Gaza
Following the consultations between Sharon and Mofaz it was estimated that as opposed to previous attacks, the IDF will not make do with aerial bombings and will launch an operation in the Gaza Strip that will likely last several days.
http://www.maarivintl.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=9159


PCHR calls for Amendments to the Electoral Law of Local Councils
PCHR hoped that latest decisions taken by the Palestinian Cabinet with regard to elections of local councils would be implemented, especially the 10 May 2004 decision to hold the elections in stages next August, beginning in Jericho.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2847.shtml


Mbeki to Address the United Nations African Meeting
South Africa is hosting the two-day conference, which is hoped will find solutions to the ongoing violence in the Middle East. The meeting will focus on promoting support for international efforts to stop the deteriorating situation in occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200406280933.html


Israel's Sharon narrowly beats no-confidence vote
Labour had offered him a "parliamentary safety net" to support the Gaza plan and is widely expected to discuss joining a new national unity government, but introduced a no-confidence motion on Monday for the first time since the Gaza plan passed.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L28253830.htm


Israeli Labor lawmaker resigns
Burg, who served in the Knesset for more than 16 years, has become embittered by a number of party colleagues, particularly those who favor joining a unity coalition led by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Burg has rejected requests from Labor Chairman Shimon Peres...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-06/28/content_1550097.htm


New Website Developed on the Issue of Christian Zionism
Both, Gary Burge & Don Wagner, are members of the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation's Advisory Board, and have a long history & experience in dealing with the issue of Christian Zionism.
http://www.unobserver.com/layout4.php?id=1772&blz=1


The Illegality of South Africa's Occupation of Namibia
Subsequent International isolation, economic sanctions and diplomatic pressure supported the South African Anti-Apartheid Movement in its struggle against a racist and colonialist regime and have brought South African Apartheid to an end. What follows is the complete ruling, as issued by the ICJ on 21 June 1971.
http://stopthewall.org/internationallaw/607.shtml


The Deafening Noise in the Occupied Territories
Here I find myself benefiting from a bloody conflict, from the reality of an on-going ruthless Israeli occupation and an apartheid sort of domination that my state, Israel, excercises over the Palestinians, a domination which robs them of their chances of free human development, and endangers the normal future of my people, the Israelis.
http://www.counterpunch.com/hass06282004.html


US: Anti-Islam hatred at new high
Death threats against American Muslims have risen and mosques have been vandalised. "Since 9/11, every time there is an incident overseas attributed to Muslims or Arabs, we go on orange alert ourselves," said immigration solicitor Sohail Muhammad.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/834641A5-3F08-49A0-90D2-885EFE28FF97.htm


Family of soldier killed in Gaza outpost blast slams IDF
"The army says they don't know what happened yet? The Palestinians filmed it. The army should go to them and see it," he added. "My son is gone and I want to know that his loss is not for nothing," cried Nissim's father, Aharon.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=444774&contrassID=1&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Israel among 7 countries offered NATO 'partnership'
The partnership with Israel, Jordan, Egypt and other countries in the region will enable these states to strengthen military relations with NATO, and ensure that invitations are sent to foreign ministers and defense ministers, along with top military figures, to NATO meetings.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=444504&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Israeli policy harms world Jews interests
The first annual report of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute (JPPPI) said Israeli government does not take into consideration world Jewry when making policy, accusing it of not thinking about the possible result of its actions.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-06/28/content_1550105.htm


Roundup: Iraqis react differently to power handover
"No one would imagine the existence of the largest American military deployment in the world having no reflection on the geo-political balances of Iraq and the neighboring countries," said the professor.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-06/29/content_1552412.htm


$20m 'hole' in Iraqi funds held by US-led authority
"What has the coalition got to hide by not making such information available? Is it putting the cash to the best use for the people of Iraq? Or is it rewarding US companies with lucrative contracts? All this sets a bad precedent for the incoming Iraqi government."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=535744


Saddam-Era Flag Remains Iraq's Symbol
The proposed new flag, approved by the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, sank in public esteem faster than a stone in the Tigris river after a firestorm of criticism that the new banner ignored the country's Islamic and Arab character — and looked too much like the Israeli flag.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=540&e=20&u=/ap/20040628/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_saddam_s_flag


British soldier killed, two wounded in southern Iraq
"I can confirm, unfortunately, that one British soldier has been killed and two have been injured," a Ministry of Defence (MOD) spokeswoman told AFP without giving any information on the extent of the injuries." What we believe so far is that it was an improvised explosive device used against a mobile patrol," she said Monday.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=9&u=/afp/20040628/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_britain_toll_040628155536

June 27 2004

Court halts construction of fence near A-Zawiya
The court will discuss in the coming days the villagers' petition against the constriction of the fence, which they claim cuts through their lands and separates them from areas that are an integral part of their lives...
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1088305772742


Five Palestinians, Four Israelis Arrested in A-Ram Protest
All nine were taken into custody between 4:30 and 5:30 PM. At approximately 8 PM, the Israeli activists were given an offer to be released, the Jewish Israeli activists refused to be set free in solidarity with the Palestinian detainees who were not only being treated much more violently...
http://www.palsolidarity.org/pressreleases/PR_26Jun04_22_44_50JerusalemISMMediaOffice.htm


Palestinians, Internationals and Israelis Come Together to Oppose the Apartheid Wall in Faqqua
Israeli, Palestinian and international peace activists joined together in the northern West Bank village of Faqqua to illustrate their steadfast opposition to the Israeli Apartheid Wall. At 11:00 AM, approximately 200 Palestinians and internationals – the majority of them wearing numbers on their chests to symbolize the imprisonment caused by the Wall...
http://www.palsolidarity.org/reports/writings/26Jun04_20_36_45JeninISMJenin.htm


Qaffin Nonviolently Attempts to Reach Land Isolated behind the Apartheid Wall
Approximately 6,000 dunams consisting of 1,010 olive trees lie trapped behind the Apartheid Wall, which is built one to four kilometers in from the Green Line in the area of Qaffin. This isolated land represents 60% of the total land belonging to Qaffin, and another 500 dunams were destroyed for construction of the Wall.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/reports/writings/26Jun04_20_29_04TulkaremISMTulkarem.htm


Israeli Soldiers Use Poisonous Gas against Peaceful Demonstration
The committee said, in a press release, that Israeli soldiers used a poisonous gas against protestors of the yesterday demonstration against the Apartheid Wall in Jerusalem. This gas has dangerous effects on nerves, and causes severe conditions of suffocation and unconsciousness...
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1095


Khalid Al-Salfiti from Jerusalem & Salfit: Wherever I Go, the Occupation and its Wall Will Follow
I don't know what we will do. We live in Ar Ram, just before the Kalandia checkpoint, and the Occupation is building the Wall right now and will close off that whole area. How will my grandchildren get to school? One of my grandkids' schools is meters away from the house, but with the Wall it will take hours to go through checkpoints for him to get there.
http://stopthewall.org/communityvoices/603.shtml


Weekly Report on Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories
Israeli occupying forces have perpetrated more violations of human rights against Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs). Human rights violations perpetrated by Israeli occupying forces included willful and extra-judicial executions, incursions into Palestinian areas, indiscriminate shelling and house demolitions.
http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/W_report/English/2004/24-06-2004.htm


Dozens of injuries in Gush Katif
Five Israel Defense Forces soldiers were injured Sunday evening after an explosion went off at an army outpost located near the Gush Katif Junction in the Gaza Strip. Two additional soldiers were said to be trapped under the rubble of the outpost.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=444106&contrassID=1&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Two Palestinians shot dead
TWO Palestinians, one a 13-year-old boy, were shot dead by Israeli troops today in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical and security sources said. They were killed after troops manning an observation post near the settlement of Neve Dekalim opened fire, the sources said.
http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,9975774%255E1702,00.html


Israel continues military actions in Palestinian lands
the Israeli forces broke into Al-Qarara area amid intensive shooting and started razing vast areas of agricultural lands in addition to storming into a Palestinian national security post and ransacking its contents.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-06/27/content_1549769.htm


PPS: Prisoners Subjected to Sever Torture
Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) said Sunday that Palestinian prisoners of "al-Maskobya" and "Askalan" Israeli detention centers are subjected to torture and maltreatment by Israeli jailers...
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1090


Four Citizens Arrested as Israeli Settlers Continue Rampage
Municipal sources in the town of Beit Foreek said that the mayor of the town was arrested and led to the nearby "Ari'el" illegitimate Israeli settlement, as three more citizens were arrested and Israeli settler militias continued their rampage in Hebron.
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_e/ipc_e-1/e_News/news2004/2004_06/169.html


IOF Bars Medical Teams From Helping The Palestinians
IOF stationing at the steel gate erected at the entrance of the West Bank town of Azoun Atma, Qalqielia, barred today a vehicle boarding a medical team belong to the Ministry of Health from entering the town to be back to work at its clinic.
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_e/ipc_e-1/e_News/news2004/2004_06/171.html


Palestinians vow revenge
Tens of thousands of mourners paid their last respects Sunday to seven Palestinians, including three senior militant commanders, killed during a major Israeli operation in this West Bank town. About 30 000 people packed the streets of Nablus chanting demands for revenge...
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1548809,00.html


Court orders peace activist deported for trying to cross into Gaza
O'Keefe served in the Marines in the 1991 Gulf War and in Iraq, where he said his experiences had turned him into a peace activist. He said he had organized hundreds of Americans and citizens of other Western countries to act as "human shields" in Iraq.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=444102&contrassID=1&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Peaceful March Welcomes Freedom Summer 2004 to Western Ramallah
Today’s demonstration began western Ramallah’s participation in Freedom Summer 2004, and more activities will be held in all villages of this area to join with all Palestinians in their effort to highlight the legitimate Palestinian freedom struggle being silenced and violently crushed by the Israeli Occupation.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/reports/writings/26Jun04_20_32_56RamallahISMRamallah.htm


Slain Palestinian Militant Had Stood Up to Arafat
"Abu Sharkh had threatened Arafat that if the Brigades' demands for democratization were not met, the armed groups which form the bulk of the younger generation would leave Fatah or carry out elections in defiance of the old guard," a senior Fatah official said.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=5522678


French FM risks ire of Israel by meeting besieged Palestinian leader
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, having declared Arafat an absolute obstacle to peace, has been trying to persuade European Union governments to follow the United States' lead and cut off all contacts with his long-time enemy. While his Italian and German counterparts Franco Frattini and Joschka Fischer both chose not to meet Arafat on recent trips to the region...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=10&u=/afp/20040627/wl_mideast_afp/mideast_france_040627131339


Occupation forces end Nablus raid as Palestinian PM says killing is part of Israeli policy
The PM stressed that the Israeli crime in Nablus is a strong message to the Quartet, UN, and the international community, adding that Israel is either a state above the law or it has to be stopped. He affirmed that if Israel did not end its aggression the chaos will prevail in the region.
http://www.albawaba.com/news/index.php3?sid=279812&lang=e&dir=news


Health Minister Calls on WHO to Dispatch Inquiry Committee to OPT
Palestinian Health Minister Dr. Jawad al-Tibi called Saturday on the World Health Organization WHO to immediately dispatch an inquiry committee so as to inspect facts on the ground in the Occupied Palestinian Territories OPT.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1086


Karni reopens for shipping between Israel, Gaza
In response, the PA announced that fruit shipments from Israel into Gaza would be ceased until full transport was restored on both sides. According to the Agriculture Ministry, Israeli farmers suffered some NIS 71 million in losses, a figure expected to reach NIS 100 million by the time full trading is restored
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/444077.html


Annan: UN can't prevent Israel from destroying Palestinians' homes
"I don't have an army and there is no way we can force the Israeli government to behave humanely toward the Palestinians." Annan didn't explain UN powerlessness vis-à-vis the Palestinian plight. He refused to answer questions on the role of the United Stats, Israel's guardian-ally, in preventing the international organization from giving justice to the Palestinians.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/am/publish/article_6319.shtml


Barak says 'factual inaccuracies' in Clinton autobiography
rejecting assertions by Bill Clinton that Barak bore major responsibility for the breakdown of Israeli-Syrian peace talks in January, 2000, said Sunday that the former president's account of the negotiations was based on "factual inaccuracies on the simplest of levels."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/444063.html


Gov't okays anti-radiation pills for Dimona residents
Israel Defense Forces soldiers will distribute the pills house-to-house to some 100,000 residents of Dimona, Yeruham, Arad, Yavne and a number of Bedouin settlements. The distribution will take place within two months.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/444059.html


ElBaradei: Israel should talk about nuclear-free Mideast
MOSCOW - Israel should start talking seriously about ridding the Middle East of nuclear weapons, whether it admits to having them or not, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Sunday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/444036.html


Pathology meets Peace
Amira Hass knows what she is talking about. She means that Israel does not only suffer from insecurity, but also, from a pathology that allowed its government to use brutality, killing, and destruction to a terrifying degree. Israel suffers from the disorder of the untreated victim who suddenly possesses power and much power.
http://www.amin.org/eng/eyad_elsarraj/2004/jun27.html


As some Gaza Israelis seek exit, others dig in
"I love this place, but I'm ready to go," said Arieh Sheetrit, who moved to Nisanit in 1991, and who lives in an elaborate 2,000-square-foot home with fruit trees in the yard and with what neighbors describe as the greenest lawn in the community. "The sooner it happens, the better," the 58-year-old settler said.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2004/06/27/as_some_gaza_israelis_seek_exit_others_dig_in/


New Iraq PM promises amnesty for insurgents
Days before he is installed as Iraq's interim Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi has expressed understanding for Iraqis who have acted against the US-led occupation "out of a sense of desperation", and says that he plans to offer them an amnesty.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=535599


Attacks on Iraqi pipelines, oil installations, and oil personnel:
1. June 12 [2003] — attack along the 600 mile (960km) pipeline that carries crude oil from Iraq's northern fields near Kirkuk to Turkey's port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean Sea...
http://www.iags.org/n062604.htm

June 26 2004

Yedioth camerman beaten by Border Police at fence protest
Gush Shalom chairman Uri Avnery said that the protest had been quiet and included several MKs and Palestinian clerics. Participants had walked down the main road in A-Ram and along the fence route, Avnery said, when "suddenly, without prior warning, the police began throwing dozens of stun grenades."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/443608.html


Anti-Wall Nonviolent Protests in Tulkarem and Jenin
Over 800 Palestinians including around 45 Israeli and International peace activists marched together in the village of Qiffin north of Tulkarem in protest against building the separation wall in the West Bank.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/June/week4/062604/ism-anti-wall.htm


The Apartheid Wall in Anata: Targeting Workers, Targeting Houses
Occupation plans are to turn Anata into a canton linking between the northern and southern Palestinian ghettos which will be created by the Wall. Anata will be surrounded by the Wall from all sides, together with the Shu'fat Refugee Camp and Dahiyat Assalam.
http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/601.shtml


World court to rule on Israel's West Bank barrier on July 9
The United States, the European Union and Russia -- co-sponsors of the roadmap with the United Nations -- also did not attend hearings saying the ICJ was the inappropriate venue for the case. However, both the United States and the EU have vehemently objected to the barrier
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1512&ncid=1312&e=5&u=/afp/20040625/wl_afp/mideast_icj_barrier_040625113621


Israeli soldiers shoot at Christian Aid observers
Two days later a group of British MPs and peers also came under fire in the same place. Much of the section, called the Brazil area of Rafah, has been demolished by Israeli tanks and bulldozers. People who have lost their homes are living with relatives or in rough tents slotted in between the wreckage.
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/480fa8736b88bbc3c12564f6004c8ad5/e7d264d130d3927a85256ebe00748de2?OpenDocument


Child Prisoner Petition / Adopt a Child Prisoner
While international law states that child imprisonment should be used as a measure of last resort, the Israeli occupation forces view it as a matter of routine, arresting around 750 minors in 2002. When children are arrested they are usually taken to adult military detention centres and interrogation centres.
http://www.dci-pal.org/prisonweb/childprisoners.html


Six Palestinians Found Dead in Nablus-Witnesses
Palestinian medics who checked the bodies said they had been riddled with bullets. Earlier on Saturday Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian gunman who military sources said had confronted soldiers (Israeli Occupation Forces)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=5521136


Two Palestinian youths killed as Israeli army continues Nablus operation
Sporadic overnight violence in the northern West Bank has left two Palestinian youths dead and several others wounded as UN human rights experts called for an international protection force to be set up in the Palestinian territories.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=17&u=/afp/20040626/wl_mideast_afp/mideast_unrest_040626073609


A Rafah Citizen Dies of Wounds, IOF Demolishes Homes
The officials mentioned also that three other civilians have been shot and wounded near the Palestinian-Egyptian borders, after the Israeli soldiers, manning the border line, opened heavy gunfire on the nearby houses in both Albarahma and Yebna neighborhoods.
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_e/ipc_e-1/e_News/news2004/2004_06/160.html


50,000 Palestinians Sealed off in Israeli Siege of Nablus
completely isolating at least 50 thousand people, bombing houses and blowing up doors and making detentions en masse, as they shot dead two teenagers and wounded at least 12 others, during the biggest military onslaught in the Casabah district of the northern West Bank city.
http://www.palestine-pmc.com/details.asp?cat=1&id=1351


IOF Detains Dozens, Turns Houses into Military Barracks in Nablus
IOF soldiers turned the old city into a real big jail as they occupied more than 20 houses, turning them into military barracks. They added that the Israeli troops turned a center of “Khan al-Tuja into a military barrack where the Israeli soldiers detained more than 30 civilians, including women and children.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1079


American Woman Detained at Israeli Airport Resists Deportation
“Can you believe the Israeli government is threatened by a 5’4” tall 110 pound designer with asthma simply because during my vacation I planned to cross the border and see the Israeli occupation with my own eyes?” says Petter.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/palmedialert/message/202


MP out to promote peace process in visit to Gaza
The conference, organised by the Palestinian Council on Foreign Relations, will bring together Palestinian women leaders and female European Parliamentarians who will contrast their different experiences of public life.
http://w3.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge/story.asp?StoryID=56971


Official Spokesman Calls for Protecting the Palestinian People from Israeli Aggression
The Palestinian official spokesman held the Israeli Government responsible for the ongoing military escalation in the Palestinian cities, calling for dispatching international observers to protect the Palestinian people from the Israeli aggression and racism.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1068


Burns: U.S. will do utmost to help disengagement plan succeed
"I stressed President Bush's determination to do everything that the United States can to help seize the opportunity presented by the Israeli initiative," he said. The undersecretary is currently conducting a tour of the region to mobilize support for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=443541&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Israel must implement its security obligations: PNA official
"The PNA is wandering how could Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon's unilateral evacuation plan be implemented as part of the roadmap plan and we asked the US administration to answer that," Erekat said.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-06/26/content_1548742.htm


Arafat's chief of staff may be appointed PNA interior minister
According to the same source, Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman did not ask Arafat to appoint Rahim as interior minister but urged Arafat to designate someone who can assume security responsibilities.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-06/26/content_1548753.htm


Powell dismisses likening Iraq situation to Israeli occupation
On the Middle East peace process, Powell repeated his country's commitment to the road map, adding that President George Bush "planned to do everything he could to move forward" with the Israeli plan to pull out from Gaza.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=443561&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Syria's Assad cuts short China visit to avoid meeting Olmert
The sources added that Chinese leaders wish to take part in the international diplomatic efforts concerning the Middle East, and have therefore tried to arrange a meeting between the Syrian leader and the Israeli deputy prime minister.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=443589&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


UN: Palestinians need protection
"We would urge the (UN) Security Council to authorise an international protection force in the occupied Palestinian territories to ensure that human rights violations cease," UN officials, monitors and independent experts said in a statement following a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/57E36CEE-79BE-44E3-99CE-4F5F4EF490B8.htm


Palestinians manufacture first ever firefighting vehicle
The commander also underlined that it cost only 30,000 dollars while importing a similar car cost around 200,000 dollars. The project took four months, he said, noting that his command was also improving ambulance and rescue vehicles in a project that cost 270,000 dollars offered by the Italian government and the UN program.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/am/publish/article_6282.shtml


Arafat commits to truce during Olympics
"I announce our commitment and respect of the Olympic truce," Arafat said. "We hope that the revival of this ancient, noble tradition will help create a world that enjoys peace, justice and security for coming generations."
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L2652081.htm


What Vanunu knows
If Vanunu were free to talk, he might remind the world that the greatest threat to Middle East peace comes not from Baghdad but from Tel Aviv. And if he were free to leave the country he might inspire a campaign in the west to disarm the only rogue nuclear state in the Middle East.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/comment/0,10551,1247081,00.html


Potent bid to thwart Gaza pullout
A rising political figure, Moshe Feiglin is pushing a Bible-influenced vision for Israel's future... "The disengagement has no logic, either military, demographically, or otherwise," Feiglin says, before heading to a lobbying session at the Knesset. "It is simply a desire to disengage from Israel's Jewish identity."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0625/p06s02-wome.html


Removing Arafat from Palestine
Blaming Israel only for deciding to send Yasser in exile will not do. Israel as a state may clearly be termed a terrorist state, while the Palestinians are terrorists individually for their just cause.
http://nation.ittefaq.com/artman/publish/article_10277.shtml


Congress to Sharon: Take All You Want
This was not just another "pro-Israel" (or, more accurately, "pro-Israeli right") resolution, but an effective renunciation of the post-World War II international system based upon the premise of the illegitimacy of the expansion of a country’s territory by military force.
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/zunes.php


Palestine Participates in Frankfurt International Book Fair 2004
Palestinian participation in the fair includes an exhibit-show about holy Jerusalem, showing four films and a poetic evening by the Palestinian famous poet Mahmoud Darweesh, as well as a special show for the artistic band of Ramallah, a show for plastic arts and another for photos.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1073


Paris To Name Street After Herzel
The proposal immediately triggered an outcry from pro-Palestine organizations, saying the measures flies in the face of thousands of Palestinians who fell victim to his Zionist doctrine.
http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2004-06/26/article06.shtml


Syrian daily highlights China's supports in Mideast peace process
The official daily newspaper Syrian Tishreen on Saturday listed China "on top of the states" that supported the Arab cause and Syria's efforts to achieve peace based on the land-for-peace formula.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-06/27/content_1548962.htm


The American Conservative Interview
I distinguish the people from the government. Washington has been supporting despots, dictators, and oligarchs in many countries those states for a variety of purposes. Washington supported in weaponry and money Saddam Hussein. He was the US's anti Communist dictator until 1990.
http://www.votenader.org/why_ralph/index.php?cid=73


Bush to meet NATO with EU backing on Iraq
US President George W. Bush won the European Union's unconditional backing for Iraq's new leaders just four days before they take power, as well as its support for NATO to train the fledgling Iraqi security forces. "I think the bitter differences of the war are over," Bush said...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=5&u=/afp/20040626/wl_mideast_afp/eu_us_summit_040626163930

June 25 2004

The Court will render its Advisory Opinion on Friday 9 July 2004, at 3 p.m.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ), principal judicial organ of the United Nations, will render its Advisory Opinion in the case concerning the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (request for advisory opinion) on Friday 9 July 2004.
http://www.icj-cij.org/icjwww/ipresscom/ipress2004/ipresscom2004-23_mwp_20040625.htm


Standing against the Claws of the Wall
Along the route of the separation barrier in the West Bank, a new culture is springing up: on one side, soldiers and bulldozers; on the other, Israelis and Palestinians embracing the land and the trees, trying to save them both.
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=22&ItemID=5783


Dozens of Residents Wounded in Salfit during Anti Wall Protests
Tens of Palestinians were wounded, Thursday, during protests against the construction of the Separation wall which is continuously swallowing the Palestinian land.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/June/week4/062504/anti-wall.htm


The Christians and the separation fence
The West Bank separation fence is seriously damaging the 'Christian Triangle' in the Bethlehem area. Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian Christians in the United States are trying to breach the wall of evangelical support for Israeli policies.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=443449&contrassID=1&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


"ONE PALESTINE, NO BANTUSTANS, RIGHT OF RETURN FOR ALL PALESTINIAN REFUGEES NOW"
Yet the post-apartheid ANC government has strengthened trade and diplomatic links with Israel, which is itself a racist and apartheid regime. The ANC continues to allow Jewish mercenaries to flout our laws and fight in the Israeli Occupation Forces, and has publicly declared their support for Israel's Bantustanisation, or 2-state solution, of Palestine.
http://southafrica.indymedia.org/news/2004/06/6217.php


Using Dogs Against Prisoners is Not a Secret Anymore
The American newspaper “Washington Post” revealed lately methods used by the Israeli army against the Palestinians detainees, and said that “it in fact exceeds the brutal methods used by American soldiers in Abu Gharib prison in Iraq”.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/June/week4/062504/using-dogs.htm


Day to Day: Life in Occupied Palestine
Whatever its bias, mainstream press coverage of the middle east overwhelmingly ignores the daily life of people living under occupation. But without understanding the conditions that Palestinians deal with every day, how can a coherent account of the situation and its attendant crises be attempted?
http://dominionpaper.ca/features/2004/06/25/day_to_day.html


Palestinian shot dead by Israeli troops in West Bank, others wounded in Gaz
Meanwhile, two Palestinian teenagers and a 12-year-old boy were wounded by Israeli gunfire in the Brazil refugee camp in Rafah... Meanwhile, two Palestinian teenagers and a 12-year-old boy were wounded by Israeli gunfire in the Brazil refugee camp in Rafah...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=6&u=/afp/20040625/wl_mideast_afp/mideast_unrest_040625191657


Israeli Soldiers Wound 3 Palestinians in Nablus
"The IOF took over a number of Palestinians' homes in the old city of Nablus and demolished a house, while paramedics were not able to reach the said area to evacuate the injured", local sources said.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1066


2 Civilians Arrested, House Blown up in WB
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF arrested Friday a civilian in Jenin, another in Ramallah and dynamited a house in Bethlehem, witnesses said.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1065


Losing control over the outposts
Various terms and interpretations are used to describe the outposts. There are illegal outposts and there are unapproved outposts. There can be a legal outpost, parts of which have not been approved. The Americans are asking how it's possible to build a synagogue and public buildings on an unapproved outpost.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/443159.html


Israel: 'Torture: It Won't End Until We Speak Up'
On 26 June is the International Day for Support of Victims of Torture. Amnesty International-Israel Section, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, Treatment and Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture in Ramallah, Defence for Children International/Palestine Section, the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel...
http://www.unobserver.com/layout5.php?id=1768&blz=1


UN human rights investigators denounce Israeli actions
In a joint statement issued after a weeklong annual meeting, about 30 special rapporteurs urged the Security Council to deploy an international protection force to stop the "abuses".
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/443561.html


Protest planned for Palestine meeting
It would also join "social movements" and the Muslim Judicial Council in a march on the United States consulate, the coalition said in a statement on Thursday. It said it believed the South African government had betrayed the Palestinian struggle and its own history of fighting for freedom.
http://iafrica.com/news/sa/130734.htm

Palestinians: Israel is using "sinister chemical gases" to disperse demonstrators
According to Bassam Abu Madhi, head of Salfit Health Department, the gases used by the Israeli police against demonstrators on Tuesday caused "serious involuntary convulsions." "This shows that the gases have a certain effect on the central nervous system."
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/am/publish/article_6269.shtml


Fatah military wing opposes truce with Israel
A leaflet noted that "the brigades oppose any projects of trucewith the Zionist enemy until it (Israel) commits to theinternational legitimacy and peace process through specific termsand accords that meet with Palestinians' aspirations."
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-06/25/content_1545840.htm


Turkey To Send Humanitarian Aid To Palestine
Turkey will send humanitarian aid, worth of one million U.S. dollars, to Palestine. The aid, aiming at improving living conditions of Palestinians, and contribute to the economy of Palestine, covers various areas extending from food to health and infrastructure to education.
http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=21547


If properly managed, Gaza pull-out could spur peace process, Annan says
"If it is done in the context of the Road Map and it is a total withdrawal from Gaza, to be followed by similar steps in the West Bank, it could re-energize the peace process," he said. "The international community should be prepared to work with both parties to manage the withdrawal in order to avoid a situation where the withdrawal leads to even further chaos,"...
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=11155&Cr=middle&Cr1=east


Palestinians must control Gaza assets, says World Bank
The report was yesterday delivered to Yasser Arafat in Ramallah and to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem. It proposes that the legal framework establishing the agency be established before the Israeli withdrawal begins and that the agency report to the Palestinian Legislative Council.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/443151.html


Eitam plans to present a bill preventing soldiers from evacuating settlements
Israeli MK Effi Eitam, from the National Religious Party, said Friday that he plans to present a bill to the Knesset, which according to Eitam, if passed could prevent soldiers form participating in any evacuation of settlements.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/June/week4/062504/Eitam.htm


Israel's withdrawal plan for Gaza will not benefit local economy, World Bank warns
The international quartet - the US, United Nations, European Union and Russia - is expected to cite the report's findings to persuade the government of Ariel Sharon, Israeli prime minister, to do more to end the economic isolation of Gaza.
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1087373262465


Mofaz meeting Burns
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and US envoy William Burns are currently meeting to discuss the implementation and security implications of the disengagement plan.
http://www.maarivintl.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=9051


Noam Chomsky
The two brutal regimes were Saddam Hussein's and the US-British sanctions, which were devastating society, had killed hundreds of thousands of people, were forcing people to be reliant on Saddam Hussein. Now the sanctions could obviously have been turned to weapons rather than destroying society without an invasion.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/3732345.stm


Nasrallah: 'Mistake' led to deaths of 3 IDF soldiers
"A mistake was made," Nasrallah said. "We expected the Israeli vehicles to be armored." The explosive device used against the IDF vehicle in which the soldiers were traveling, Nasrallah said, was too strong for an unarmored vehicle.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/443440.html


Bush, Chirac, Sharon named 'Islamophobes' of 2004
The Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) selected the three in their annual "Islamophobia Awards" to highlight what they described as growing anti-Muslim prejudice. "It is with great sadness that we reveal this year's winners," the group said in a statement.
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/443553.html


US military launches another Iraq strike targeting suspected Zarqawi hideout
"This operation employed precision weapons to target and destroy the safe house," he added. A senior military official said 20 to 25 people were killed in the attack... The total death toll from the three raids is 59 to 64 people...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=1&u=/afp/20040625/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_us_040625201045


Firebrand Iraqi preacher slams hostage beheading but also blames Bush
Radical Iraqi Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr denounced the beheading of American hostage Paul Johnson by Islamists in Saudi Arabia, saying the execution had cast a slur on Islam's reputation.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=8&u=/afp/20040625/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_us_shiites_sadr_040625180818


U.S. Soldier's Lawyer Says Iraq Abuse Widespread
Senior military officers were aware of widespread abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers, and lower-ranking troops should not be made scapegoats, the lawyer for an accused female soldier said Friday.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5516889


EU-US Summit: End the EU's embarrassing silence on US torture
The Open Letter says President George W. Bush should not leave Ireland without a clear message from the EU: that torture and ill-treatment must never be encouraged, condoned or ignored, and that the EU therefore expects its single-most important partner to abide by the absolute ban on torture laid down in international law.
http://news.amnesty.org/mav/index/ENGEUR016242004