October 31 2004

Residents of Budrus March to Resist the Wall
In spite of a court order to build on 56 dunums of land that belongs to the families of Budrus, construction is on-going on 150 dunums of their land. The farmers and their families will voice their opposition to the construction of the Wall as well as the violation of a court order by the military. Monday, November 1 at 1:00PM
http://www.palsolidarity.org/DesktopModules/Articles/ArticlesView.aspx?TabID=0&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en-US&ItemID=578&mid=10400


The International Court and the Wall: An Alternative Road Map
Turning to the obligations of other states, the ICJ recommended that they should neither recognize the wall nor provide aid or assistance to maintain the circumstances created by its construction; prevent any impediment, created by the wall's construction, to the exercise of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination; and, ensure Israel's compliance with international humanitarian law.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3273.shtml


Olive Picking season threatened by settlers and soldiers attacks
Mayadma described the attacks carried out by the settlers as direct violations and provocative assaults. Moreover, Eyad Abu Omar, head of Borqa Village Council, said that settlers burnt several days ago more than 150 Olive trees near the main road which links Homish and Shafeh Shomrom settlements.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/103104/olive%20season.htm


Revisited: Interview with Marwan Barghouti
The Oslo agreement was supposed to lead to an end of the Israeli occupation, and implementation of the accords was supposed to begin in 1994. By 1997, the Palestinians were supposed to control more than 80 to 90 percent of the Occupied Territories, and the remaining 10 percent was supposed to be negotiated during the final status talks.  What happened was that the Israelis never implemented their part of the agreements...
http://www.mediamonitors.net/fletcher3.html


Palestinian children in Israeli crosshairs
The Palestinian Authority has accused Israel of making the killing of Palestinian school children by the occupation army a daily occurrence while calling on the world to put an end to the practice. "It is becoming a gruesome daily routine and Israel, as you see, is interested more in concocting and inventing lies to justify the murder than in stopping it."
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/4F5ED1ED-C44D-454C-A51D-07A66AD124F4.htm


Israel kills two resistance fighters
Earlier on Sunday, a Palestinian resistance fighter was killed and another injured in an exchange of fire with Israel occupation troops in the northern West Bank town of Jenin. Up to 15 others, including activists, were detained during the invasion by Israeli troops into the city and refugee camp which began at midnight on Saturday.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9444E72F-5D3F-483A-B690-C77D19CBB864.htm


Palestinian powers call for unity
The factions said in a joint leaflet that all the national institutions and organizations should assume their responsibilities and make all efforts to strengthen the Palestinian unity against any attack from Israel.
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20041031-124338-3480r.htm


Palestinian factions vow to strengthen national unity
Palestinian factions also urged the international society to push Israel to implement the international resolutions over the Middle East peace process, including the full withdrawal from allthe Palestinian territories.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/31/content_2161601.htm


Officials: Arafat Condition Is Improving
Doctors have not said what might be causing the deficiency, although Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said all types of cancer had been ruled out. However, no doctors or other specialists have publicly confirmed that conclusion.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4587002,00.html


Peres says Labor won't back 2005 budget
The Labor Party will, however, back the Pullout and Compensation Bill and Labor members of the Knesset Finance Committee will back plans for early compensation payments for those settlers being evacuation.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/495795.html


66 MKs oppose a referendum on the disengagement
A majority of 66 Knesset members is against a referendum on the disengagement, therefore there is no chance of holding one, Prime Minister's Bureau sources said Saturday
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=495608&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


80,000 attend Rabin memorial rally in Tel Aviv
Tens of thousands of people attended a memorial rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday night to mark nine years since the murder of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. (Remember that the murder had no ifluence in Peace Process "history says")
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=495475&contrassID=1&subContrassID=7&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Palestinian firm says Israel working to damage reputation of UNRWA?
The "Dameer" firm said in a statement that it supports the UNRWA and Hansen against what it called pressures to replace the official with Israel-backing personality.þ It hailed Hansen's standings based on respecting international laws, which þare being violated by the government of Israel, the statement said.þ
http://www.kuna.net.kw/English/Story.asp?DSNO=676542


Military Intelligence chief: Arafat's death may end intifada
Speaking at Sunday's cabinet meeting, Ze'evi stressed that the chairman's death would only lead to the end of the violence that began in September 2000, and not the entire Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/495473.html


Sharon ready for talks with post-Arafat Palestinian leadership
"If a new Palestinian leadership which is both serious and responsible emerges, it is possible that there can be a resumption of negotiations on the roadmap" peace plan, Sharon was quoted as telling the weekly cabinet meeting. "A new leadership must prove by its actions that it is fighting against terrorism," he added, according to public radio.
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=32378


Israeli PM rules out Arafat burial in Jerusalem, amid spectre of violence
"As long as I am in power, and I have no intention of leaving, he (Arafat) will not be buried in Jerusalem," public radio quoted him as telling the weekly meeting, in response to a question by Justice Minister Joseph Lapid.
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=32400


Old Age Counts Against Arafat's Successors
Since Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, whose name is synonymous with the Palestinian struggle, didn't allow any other names to come forward for opposition, the whole world is now wondering who will be the next leader to carry on the Intifada. The most charismatic potential leader of Palestine after Arafat, "young" Marvan Barghuti, is serving jailtime in Israel.
http://www.zaman.com/?bl=international&alt=&hn=13437


The Importance of being “Irrelevant” - By Uri Avnery
The man who years ago was officially declared by the Israeli government to be “irrelevant”, was headline news all over the world this week. There are very few leaders around whose state of health would command similar attention. If one does not want peace and prefers a Greater Israel, one does not need Arafat.
http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/article328.html


His death will not bequeath life - By Gideon Levy
During the past four years when Israel humiliated him (Arafat) into the dust by imprisoning him, during the years when he was proclaimed politically dead, and now physically, the country has come not even one step closer to peace and security. Is our situation better today than before he was ostracized?
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/495462.html


Anti-war movement: The centrality of the Palestinian question
Why Palestine is so important in the eyes of millions of activists in civil and political society. Why, in every demonstration against neoliberalism or against the war, is the Palestinian flag omnipresent, much more than the Iraqi or any other flag? Is it because the Israeli occupation is the most barbarous or murderous?
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=107&ItemID=6527


Nostalgia for the disengagement
If until three days ago unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip was considered by the left a default option, ever since the possibility of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's departure started threatening it the plan's implementation, disengagement has become the left's greatest desire.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/495471.html


Michael Collins: Lesson for Yasser Arafat and the Palestinians
Palestinian campaigner Edward Said, compared Arafat and Collins and the compromise over partition that led to the latter's assassination and accused Arafat of coming "away from the negotiating table with a lot less than Collins". But Arafat survived anyhow.
http://www.brookesnews.com/040111collins.html


The darling of the left
The evacuation is not a goal in itself, and if the withdrawal from Gaza is not followed immediately by negotiations with the Palestinians, based on the Clinton formula, the evacuation that the Knesset approved last Tuesday will have no real effect on the situation.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/495458.html


Iraq's Allawi says showdown imminent in Fallujah
Seven people, including women and children, were killed and 11 wounded in clashes between U.S. forces and insurgents in Ramadi, according to hospital director Abdul-Muneim Othman. Residents said U.S. artillery had shelled eastern districts and said there had been air strikes on Saturday and Sunday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=495804&contrassID=1&subContrassID=8&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Al-Jazeera airs plea of Polish hostage in Iraq for troop pullout
"My life is in great danger, and the only thing that will save me is a response to the Iraqis' demand for, first, the withdrawal of Polish military forces from Iraqi territory, and secondly, offering any possible help to release Iraqi women prisoners from various US prisons in Iraq,"...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=10&u=/afp/20041031/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_hostages_poland_041031015142


Japan Confirms Japanese Hostage in Iraq Beheaded
Japan's government on Sunday said it is now certain that a 24-year-old Japanese backpacker taken hostage in Iraq has been killed. Japanese officials say the identity of the body was confirmed through fingerprint matches.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2004-10-31-voa5.cfm


Iftar Banquets Vanishing in Occupied Iraq
Iraqi mosques used to host collective iftar banquets in a show of solidarity among fellow Muslims during the holy fasting month of Ramadan but under the US-led occupation of the oil-rich Arab country this is no more possible.
http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=6735&s2=31


Israeli secret agents liquidate 310 Iraqi scientists
The experts said they had detected an organized campaign aimed at “liquidating Iraqi scientists” in the past 18 months and most of them pointed the finger at the Israeli secret police service, the Mossad. He said more than 310 Iraqi scientists have been killed so far and most of them at the hands of Mossad agents working in Iraq.
http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=6736&s2=31


British Soldier Found Dead at Basra Base
"The body of a dead British soldier was found at a British military base in Basra this morning. Investigations are ongoing. It's not believed that this was the result of any hostile act," a spokesman for the MoD said.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6668183


'Black Watch' Wives Told To Keep Silent
Jeff Duncan, spokesman for the Save the Regiments Campaign, said a number of wives had complained to him about the edict. “I have taken a number of calls from wives of soldiers in the Black Watch who say their husbands have been told to tell them not to speak to the media. Orders have come from the top,” he said.
http://www.world-crisis.com/news/1012_0_1_0_M/

October 30 2004

In Qaffin: The Apartheid Gates and the Policy of “Permits”
Only 650 people from Qaffin have “permits”, while the number of people that have requested to access their lands which the Occupation Forces have now made inaccessible due to the building of the Apartheid Wall, is some 1600 people. At present, it is the olive harvest season, with people unable to access their groves.
http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/789.shtml


High Court freezes fence construction near Budrus
The court, however, allowed the security forces to continue the infrastructure work on the fence's planned route near five villages in the southern West Bank area. The state has promised to restore the condition of the area where the fence is being built should the petition be accepted, Israel Radio reported.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=494910&contrassID=1&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


The Wall, Israeli Apartheid and the Right of Return in Focus at the Norwegian Social Forum
The humanitarian and political consequences of the Apartheid Wall were discussed in a seminar organised by the Norwegian Tear Down the Wall Campaign in which the Norwegian Association of NGOs for Palestine is a driving force.
http://stopthewall.org/worldwideactivism/790.shtml


Israel: 'Disengagement' Will Not End Gaza Occupation
“The removal of settlers and most military forces will not end Israel's control over Gaza,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa Division. “Israel plans to reconfigure its occupation of the territory, but it will remain an occupying power with responsibility for the welfare of the civilian population.”
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/10/29/isrlpa9577.htm


Underage Female detainee deprived of their basic rights
Lawyer of the Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs reported that female detainees under the age of 18, in Al-Ramlah prison are suffering from inhumane conditions and treatment, in violation of international law and the basic rights of children.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/103004/underage%20F-detainees.htm


Two Children Killed in Less than 24 Hours in Jenin
IPC correspondent in Jenin said Israeli forces shot dead 12-year-old schoolboy, Ibrahim Kmail, in front of his school in the city. During the third day of the invasion of Jenin City, medical sources told our correspondent that at least seven civilians were wounded by Israeli gunfire, including three children whose injuries were described as moderate.
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=779


13 homes razed north of Rafah
WAFA news Agency said on Saturday, that soldiers razed 13 homes and destroyed an agricultural barracks in Al-Arabeyya area, in Rafah, near the Egyptian borders, in the south of the Gaza Strip.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/103004/Rafah%20demolish.htm


PCHR: “26 Palestinians killed last week”
Moreover, the report said that soldiers conducted vast military raids in Khan Younis, in the Gaza Strip killing 17 residents including three P.A security men, and shot wounded 76 residents, including 26 children, and eight residents who were killed by missiles fired by military apaches
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/103004/PCHR.htm


Young girl demands compensation for being shot inside her classroom
A 13 years old girl from Khan Younis, who was shot wounded while sitting inside the classroom, filed charges against the army, seeking compensations. It is worth mentioning that the girl is now blinded, paralyzed and continuously suffers from pain in her head in addition to physiological problems.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/103004/young%20girl.htm


Israeli Troops Rampage Throughout Palestinian Territories
In the meantime, the Israeli bulldozers razed earlier on Saturday vast areas of arable Palestinian-owned lands in the Farta neighborhood in the northern Gaza Strip City of Beit Hanoun. Also, the bulldozers knocked down several green houses in the area, witnesses confirmed.
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=789


Rally in Tel Aviv to mark nine years since Rabin assassination
Organizers of the rally decided not to invite politicians to speak this year in order to make the rally more stately and to appeal to an audience that may have stayed away due to the political nature of past memorials.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/495387.html


PLO gathers for crucial meeting as Arafat undergoes urgent medical care
Although a weekly event, analysts have predicted that the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) executive meeting will be an attempt to reassure the world and the Palestinians that there will be a smooth transition of power during Arafat's absence.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/114420/1/.html


Abbas urges Palestinians to unite
Abbas spoke after chairing the first Palestine Liberation Organisation executive meeting without Arafat, amid speculation that the Palestinian leadership could fall into chaos should the veteran leader not return. "We call on all our people and factions to unite and work together in responsible fashion to protect our destiny and homeland,"
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=32306


French Tend to Ill Arafat, Aides Dismiss Leukemia
"The tests already carried out exclude any possibility of leukemia, and I say it again, any possibility of leukemia," she said, speaking in French. "There are other possibilities and the doctors are still examining."
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6666601


Russian foreign ministercalled on both Israel and Palestine authorities
Lavrov also said he believed Israel would follow through with its promise to allow Arafat to return to Palestine after treatment. Arafat agreed to go to France after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said he would let him return to the West Bank
http://www.maldivesinfo.gov.mv/news.php?newsid=4643


Israeli Arabs Send Ramadan Packages to Palestinians
Palestinians living inside what is now Israel (Israeli Arabs) are increasingly contributing to a campaign championed by several charities to help needy Palestinian families in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during the holy fasting month of Ramadan.
http://www.islamonline.org/English/News/2004-10/30/article07.shtml


Palestinians consider life after Arafat
"We have no strategic plan for this," says a senior Palestinian security official. "He didn't want any discussion of creating an alternative in case of emergency." The official says security chiefs were only Thursday forming a plan to define responsibility for the head of each security branch if Arafat dies.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1029/p01s04-wome.htm


Who's afraid of a war of inheritance?
Until Thursday, no formal meetings were held by the cabinet or any Palestine Liberation Organization or Fatah institution. But even before it was decided to send him to Paris, there were spontaneous consultations about the next steps and how to fill the leadership vacuum, temporarily.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=495174&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Arafat's departure would alter PLO's UN mission
According to one version of events discussed by diplomats Thursday, the death of the Palestinian leader would mean a moderation in the position of the PLO's New York mission toward Israel. Sources in New York said Thursday that the PLO mission is already considering a memorial ceremony to be held for Yasser Arafat in the General Assembly.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=494993&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Reactions from the Arab press
Whether Arafat is cured and returns to his prison, or whether he is overpowered by a disease, which has worsened because of imprisonment, the Palestinians will always remember that the Israelis and the Americans are responsible... What is more important however, more than ever, is that the Palestinians thwart attempts by Israel to ignite a civil war in the territories.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1099123897601


On This Day 1991: Bush opens historic Mid East peace conference
"Territorial compromise is essential for peace," said President Bush. "We seek peace, real peace. And by real peace I mean treaties. If we cannot summon the courage to lay down the past for ourselves then let us do it for the children."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/30/newsid_2465000/2465725.stm


China, Iran sign biggest oil & gas deal
Under a memorandum of understanding signed Thursday, Sinopec Group will buy 250 million tons of liquefied natural gas over 30 years from Iran and develop the giant Yadavaran field. Iran is also committed to export 150,000 barrels per day of crude oil to China for 25 years at market prices after commissioning of the field.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/30/content_2157826.htm


Eight U.S. Marines killed in Iraq; car bomb in Baghdad kills seven people
The U.S. military said nine Marines were also wounded in the fighting in Anbar province west of the capital, which includes the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah. The statement gave no further details on how or where they were killed.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/495389.html


Black Watch soldier killed on road to secure new base
The Scots Guards are on stand-by to become the second British regiment to be deployed to areas of Iraq formerly occupied by the Americans. The Guards are expected to be ordered at around Christmas or the new year to replace the Black Watch battalion, which arrived at a new base near Baghdad known as Camp Dogwood yesterday.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=577509


Iraqi armed group claims responsibility for Al-Arabiya attack
Al-Arabiya had been temporarily banned by the Iraqi authority from covering news in Iraq. However, the Saudi-funded channel has been more cooperative with the interim government led by Iyad Allawi, especially since he visited Saudi Arabia earlier this year.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/30/content_2159437.htm


Group Warned U.S. of Unsecured Weapons
Human Rights Watch said Saturday it alerted the U.S. military to a cache of hundreds of warheads containing high explosives in Iraq in May 2003, but that officials seemed uninterested and still hadn't secured the site 10 days later.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=540&e=8&u=/ap/20041030/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_weapons


Iraq Hostage's Father Hopes Son Is Alive
The father of a Japanese traveler held hostage in Iraq expressed hope Saturday that his son was alive and would be freed after a body found in northern Iraq and said to resemble him turned out to be someone else.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=540&e=7&u=/ap/20041030/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_hostages


Pope to meet with Iraqi PM at Vatican
The Vatican sources said Allawi would meet with the 84-year-old pope at around 11 am (1000 GMT) on Thursday. John Paul has been a fervent opponent of the war in Iraq, and prior to the US-led invasion last year he made a determined campaign to try and prevent it.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=6&u=/afp/20041030/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_pope_vatican_041030131718


Italians stage demo against Iraq war
"It's not enough to sign unitary motions on the withdrawal. We must also mobilise, as thousands of pacifists have done today. This large turnout shows that peace is an issue in Italian public opinion that can mobilise people."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=10&u=/afp/20041030/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_us_italy_demo_041030165139

October 29 2004

Lessons from South Africa
Indeed, the South African apartheid system does exhibit a number of similarities to the system installed by the Israeli government to rule Palestinians under occupation. To give but one, perhaps the most obvious example, Palestinians in the occupied territories live under one law, military law, while Israeli settlers in the same occupied territories live under another, civil Israeli law.
http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/10849/


UN human rights expert: 'Israel has killed the road map'
"The road map is dead. Israel has killed it," South African law professor John Dugard told a General Assembly committee. "The world is looking to the United States for leadership in this region, and the world is simply not getting it," said Dugard, who monitors the Palestinian territories for the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Commission.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/494927.html


The Rachel Corrie Rebuilding Campaign in Gaza
You've heard us say for months that The Rebuilding Alliance is working to build the home that Rachel Corrie stood to safeguard. In the spirit of Ramadan and its call to empathy, we want to let you inside our strategy to build the Nasrallah family home and help end home demolitions in Gaza.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3270.shtml


Two detainees severely tortured and abused
Zaghari said that since he was arrested on June 2004, he was interrogated and tortured while soldiers used several illegal methods against him such as shooting near his head, using dogs, in addition to clubbing him and hitting his face against the wall or against metal.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/102904/detainees.htm


Refugee Camp, a Vilage Raided, Two youths arrested near Bethlehem
a huge military force broke into and searched few homes, and arrested Raed Mohammad Salah, who suffers from paralysis in his right leg as a result of a gunshot injury. It is worth mentioning that soldiers raided the village of Al-Khader two days ago, and broke into tens of homes before arresting the brothers of Raed, Suleiman, 16, and Mahmoud, 13 years old
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/102904/Two%20youths.htm


Three youths shot wounded in Jenin refugee camp
A medical source in Jenin said that soldiers shot wounded three residents in Jenin refugee camp, in Jenin, in the north of the West Bank, on Friday afternoon. Tens of homes were used as military posts and monitoring towers, especially in the southern side of the camp.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/102904/Three%20youths.htm


Occupation forces demolish 7 Palestinian homes in Rafah, bulldoze farmlands
Eyewitnesses confirmed that the Zionist forces fired randomly towards Palestinian homes, assaulted the residents and prevented them from taking their belongings out before demolishing their homes. Furthermore, the occupation forces bulldozed large areas of farmland, destroyed two water wells and a number of greenhouses.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/am/publish/article_8703.shtml


Hamas urges for casting differences aside
A Hamas statement was quoted as saying that the movement urged the formation of a unified national leadership to be the highest political echelon for the Palestinian people while wishing a speedy recovery for Arafat.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/29/content_2154432.htm


UN eyeing developments as Arafat reported ill - spokesman
Fred Eckhard told a press briefing in New York that the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Terje Roed-Larsen, spent the day in Ramallah meeting with top Palestinian officials.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=12374&Cr=palestin&Cr1=


How could it have been different?
Sixty-eight years ago, however, claimed an Israeli newspaper article two days later, Ghoul's grandfather had saved a neighboring Jewish village from any harm during the Palestinian revolt of 1936. The fates of the two Ghouls is an interesting illustration of the understandings of the two peoples about their histories.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3264.shtml


EU Takes Initiative to Guarantee Arafat's Return Home
In a news articles printed in the Al Hayat newspaper, it is noted that EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana briefed Palestinian delegate in Brussels, Sevki Al-Armali, about the content of his talks with Israeli officials regarding the guarantee of Arafat's return.
http://www.zaman.com/?bl=hotnews&alt=&trh=20041029&hn=13428


Committee to succeed Arafat denied
Farouk Kaddoumi was quoted by Tunisia's daily al-Sabah as saying reports about the formation of a three-man committee to take over rule from Arafat are simply rumors aimed at distressing and confusing the Palestinian people.
http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=0c7e80a11154987c


Jerusalem Municipality exempts a Kach affiliated organization from Taxes
The Kach movement thus ran for election in 1984, winning 26,000 votes, and Kahane became a member of Knesset. He announced that Kach would not support any government that did not advocate the expulsion of the Palestinians.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/102904/kach-taxes.htm


Current and Former PMs Stand in for Arafat
Ailing Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's powers have been temporarily passed to two men -- both who have served under him as prime minister -- until he recovers or dies, officials said on Friday.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6659516


Palestinians gripped by fear and uncertainty as prospect of power vacuum increases
So who, if the worst happened, would Mr Naswari like to see as the new president? "Anyone clean," came the reply. Was there such a person? "No", shot back Mr Naswari, before correcting himself to mention the name of a popular Fatah leader on many lips. "Marwan Barghouti is the only one I can use the word about, but he is in [an Israeli] prison and I can't help him."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=577142


Palestinian stocks weighed down by Arafat's health
Only six of the bourse's 26-listed companies traded yesterday, with Palestine Telecommunications leading the market's decline with a 4.9 percent drop in the day's largest turnover of 65,000 dinars. Palestine Development & Investment shed 4.65 percent while Palestine Electric Co. ended down 4.6 percent.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=495186&contrassID=1&subContrassID=4&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Powell calls again for Palestinian leader to cede authority over security
Secretary of State Colin Powell refused to speculate on Yasser Arafat's health Friday but urged the Palestinian leader to yield control of security in Palestinian-run areas to a prime minister as a way of furthering peace.
http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2004/10/29/news/latest_news/fd19e36ee8e398ec86256f3c00695413.txt


Real battle of succession to be fought among younger, homegrown generation
Marwan Barghouti: The 45-year-old is the best known of the new generation of homegrown Palestinian leaders. he was brought up and spent most of his life in the West Bank. He demonstrated his leadership qualities during the first Palestinian uprising of 1987-1993 and is one of the main leaders of the second intifada... The Israeli government will determine his fate.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1338741,00.html


Few prepared to write off the resilient Arafat just yet
As a Jordanian helicopter lifted him out of his Ramallah compound on Friday on the first stage of a journey to Paris for medical treatment, Palestinians faced the prospect that this time nature might overcome their president's legendary capacity for survival.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/d0dbd832-29d0-11d9-b3d1-00000e2511c8.html


End of an era? End of an aura?
Yasser Arafat stole the show again. This was supposed to be Ariel Sharon's week, after the disengagement plan was passed in the Knesset on Tuesday. But on Wednesday evening, the prime minister discovered that his veteran adversary, a man whom he occasionally considered assassinating for more than 20 years, was one step ahead of him again.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/494947.html


Analysis: Good and bad scenarios
Sharon has gone through a series of extreme turnarounds in relation to Arafat. First, as defense minister during the Lebanon war, he tried in every possible way to hurt Arafat while the siege of Beirut was on, including a plan to down a plane carrying Arafat. As prime minister, he supported former then chief of staff Shaul Mofaz' plan to expel Arafat from the territories.
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/495193.html


Beilin: Gaza pullout should be coordinated with Palestinians
Beilin's Yahad party supported the disengagement plan in the Knesset vote on Tuesday, in spite of the fact that as an initiator of the Geneva Accord, Beilin found it difficult to support a unilateral move.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/495304.html


EDITORIAL: Palestine needs international attention more than Iraq does
It took the Bush administration more than two years to get round to the Israeli-Palestinian problem. Even as the US was preparing to go to war with Iraq, most discerning experts were trying to tell the Bush administration that it would do much better if it invested in a viable peace process.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_29-10-2004_pg3_1


Israel's Settlers Cut Down to Size
Since 1967, Israel, under both Labor (the first settlements in the Gaza strip were established by Labor in 1971) and Likud governments, has gone to great pains to populate the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with illegal settlements, investing roughly $100 billion dollars in this illegal enterprise over the course of 38 years
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/dahan.php?articleid=3870


Abbas, Arafat's Ticket to International Diplomacy
Together with Farouq Qaddomi, the PLO foreign minister, Abbas is a different caliper of a leader than all public figures surrounding Arafat, including current Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei. His integrity together with his pressure to act as a real partner frightened the besieged Palestinian President, who is surrounded with powerful enemies eager to remove him physically and politically.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/102704/abbas%20arafts%20ticket.htm


On This Day 1998: Apartheid report accuses SA leaders
Accepting the report, President Nelson Mandela declared: "The wounds of the period of repression and resistance are too deep to have been healed by the TRC alone." "We are extricating ourselves from a system that insulted our common humanity by dividing us from one another by race".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/29/newsid_2468000/2468007.stm


Report puts Falluja civilian toll at 600
"There are clear reports of 600 people killed in total up until April 12th, most of them killed before US forces began to permit women and children to be evacuated from the town," it added. The IBC went on to say that its report, which is based on multiply cited accounts from doctors and eyewitnesses, confirms that no less than 308 of those killed were women and children.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/11CE896E-46C4-4327-A525-41008BED9D7A.htm


War costs 100,000 Iraqi lives
Around 100,000 Iraqis have been killed in violence since the US-led coalition forces invaded the country in March 2003, said a report published Friday in British medicine journal The Lancet. More than half of those who died were women and children killedin air strikes, American public health experts said in the latest issue of the magazine.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/29/content_2154439.htm


US troops refused requests to protect explosives store
Al-Qaqa'a, the Iraqi military complex from which 350 tons of explosives disappeared, was looted after US troops left the area refusing requests to protect the site, Iraqi witnesses say. They say unguarded buildings were stripped of their contents after the arrival and departure of American troops in the last few days of the war.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=577148


British troops arrive at new operational base in Iraq
A battalion of around 500 soldiers from the BlackWatch regiment, along with 300 support troops, began the move earlier this week from their previous base around the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=15&u=/afp/20041029/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_britain_troops_041029144900


Sadr-backed cleric tells Iraqi Shia to vote
"I call on you all to participate in the elections," Sheikh Abdul Zahra al- Suweidi, a Sadr representative, told a crowd of about 50,000 yesterday. The Friday sermon in Sadr City is a political statement carefully vetted by Mr Sadr's group.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/bc11ff42-29c8-11d9-b3d1-00000e2511c8.html


Japan says body resembling hostage found in Iraq
"The American military in Iraq told the Japanese embassy on Friday afternoon there and early Saturday Japan time that a body that looks like a Japanese had been found," spokesman Hatsuhisa Takashima said.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=2&u=/afp/20041029/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_hostage_japan_reax_041029193823

October 28 2004

Christian Peace Group Supports Divestment from Israel
The 10th anniversary assembly of Pax Christi Aotearoa-New Zealand, held in Auckland on 1-2 October, endorsed the Anglican Peace and Justice Networks and Presbyterian Church of the United States in their recent call for divestment in Israel modelled on the popular boycott of apartheid South Africa.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PO0410/S00270.htm


Sound and vision - By Daniel Barenbolm
Edward Said was many things for many people, but in reality, his was a musician's soul, in the deepest sense of the word. He wrote about important universal issues such as exile, politics, integration. However, the most surprising thing for me, as his friend and great admirer, was the realisation that, on many occasions, he formulated ideas and reached conclusions through music; and he saw music as a reflection of the ideas that he had regarding other issues.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,,1335260,00.html


22 Per Cent of Palestinian Children Permanently Malnourished
In an annual report issued Wednesday to the United Nations General Assembly, Ziegler underlined the humanitarian tragedy affecting the 3.8 million Palestinians saying that 85 per cent of water in Palestinian aquifers had been diverted to illegal Israeli colonies in contravention of the Geneva Convention.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1822


A Released Female Prisoner: Israeli Prisons Sign of Humiliation
"In July2004, I fell down to the ground, and my head was hit severely, then the prison's administration evacuated me to a hospital just for one hour", Samar accounted on. She emphasized to the IPC's that the Israeli prisons are merely 'sign of humiliation of human dignity'
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=763


Palestinian girl killed by Israeli troops, witnesses say
An eight-year-old Palestinian girl who was on her way to school in a Gaza Strip refugee camp was shot and killed by Israeli troops on Thursday, Palestinian witnesses say. Rania Iyad Aram was killed by random machine gun fire from an army outpost near the neighbouring Jewish settlement of Ganei Tal
http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2004/10/28/palestinian041028.html


Civilian Dies of Wounds as Israeli Forces Invade Jenin
IPC correspondent said yesterday that Esam Abu Tueima, 30, died of wounds he sustained on October 2, during the Israeli onslaught on northern Gaza Strip. Abu Tueima was critically wounded when an Israeli unmanned drone fired a missile at a group of civilians in Jabalia refugee camp.
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=751


3 Palestinians injured in Jenin
The sources said that Israeli troops, backed by about 50 tanks and armored vehicles, stormed the city and the refugee camp of Jenin, adding that the army imposed curfew on residents at predawn. Eyewitnesses said that Israeli soldiers seized several houses and searched inside, and turned them into army outposts
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/28/content_2150564.htm


Palestinian fire wounds 7 soldiers in Gaza
In a gun battle near the southern Gaza settlenent of Morag, Palestinian gunmen hit an IDF position with mortars and sniper fire, wounding seven soldiers, one of them listed in extremely critical condition. The injuries of three other wounded troops were described as serious.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/494672.html


Jordan sends choppers for Arafat
JORDAN sent two helicopters to the West Bank this evening to transport ailing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to the kingdom en route for medical treatment in France, government spokeswoman Asma Khader said.
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,11222121%255E1702,00.html


France Sending Plane to Airlift Ailing Palestinian Leader
Thursday evening, a spokesman for French President Jacques Chirac called the airlift "imminent." Arafat aides in the West Bank say he will depart the region early Friday morning.
http://www.bakutoday.net/view.php?d=10936


Annan gives full backing to head of UN agency helping Palestinians
Secretary-General Kofi Annan today gave his complete backing to the head of the United Nations agency helping Palestinian refugees after Israel's allegation that a rocket had been loaded into a UN ambulance was disproved. (The text does not dare to criticize Israeli fabrication)
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=12362&Cr=palestin&Cr1=


Charity night to back Palestine
"These families are so poor that they don't even have a morsel of food to eat while we're here enjoying ourselves." Donations and charity will be collected at the event that also includes a bazaar featuring well-known Palestinian embroidery such as clothes and shawls.
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=94954&Sn=BNEW&IssueID=27220


Qorei speaks with Sharon over Arafat health crisis
Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei spoke by phone with his Israeli counterpart Ariel Sharon who agreed to his request that Israel ensure that all the needs of ailing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat be met, an Israeli official said.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1514&ncid=1312&e=8&u=/afp/20041028/wl_mideast_afp/mideast_arafat_health_041028102702


Aide denies Arafat named three-man team to run affairs
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's senior aide, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, denied Thursday that Arafat had formed a special three-man committee to run affairs in his absence.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=494353&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Palestinian foreign minister cancels visit to Russia
"Shaath was planning to visit Moscow, but now the visit will not take place," the Interfax news agency cited the unnamed sourceas saying, without specifying the reasons.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/28/content_2150838.htm


IDF has 'A New Leaf' plan, for day after Arafat's death
For the past year, the Israel Defense Forces Central Command has been working on a plan entitled "A New Leaf," which explores military options for "the day after" Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's death.
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/494629.html


Chirac sends get-well wishes to stricken Arafat
French President Jacques Chirac on Thursday addressed his "warmest wishes" for the recovery of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who has fallen badly ill and who, according to his doctors, requires foreign medical treatment.
http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=58&story_id=13389&name=Chirac+sends+get-well+wishes+to+stricken+Arafat


Israeli peace camp hails Sharon the hawk
Governments of all hues have withstood domestic and international pressure to pull out of any part of the West Bank or Gaza Strip since their occupation began after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. Sharon, who was regarded as the Israel's most right-wing ever leader, is now poised to carry out an evacuation process which was beyond all imagination when he came to power in 2001.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=11&u=/afp/20041028/wl_mideast_afp/mideast_israel_gaza_041028125446


A clearer picture of the territories
The overall number of residents of the West Bank and Gaza is now about 3.5 million (based on data of the Palestinian population registry from 1997, which include East Jerusalem). And if it is true that about 5 percent have emigrated in recent years, this is most certainly a high number...
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/494410.html


Analysis: Without Arafat, it grows harder to justify pullout
The claim that "there is no partner," which has formed the basis of Israeli foreign policy over the past four years and justified the refusal to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority, would depart together with him.
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasen/spages/494355.html


Analysis: Few Palestinians show support for Arafat
Despite the fact that during his public appearances on television Arafat is surrounded by cheering supporters in his headquarters, it appears that large segments of the Palestinian public felt remote from their leader, despite the fact they did not blame him directly for the deteriorated state of affairs.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/494765.html


Jordan braces for stormy demonstrations
When reports of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's dwindling health were publicized Wednesday night, Jordan raised the state of alert in its capital and in Palestinian refugee camps in the country.
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=494418&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Jewishness versus democracy - By Azmi Bishara
These same words were imposed on them under Article 7A of the Knesset Law, which the Arabs would oppose if it were put to a vote again, just as they opposed it when the law was first enacted. According to this provision any party that does not recognise Israel as a Jewish and democratic state cannot participate in parliamentary elections.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/714/op63.htm


Anti-Sharon forces swell within his own Likud party
Benjamin Netanyahu and Limor Livnat, who worked against him openly and at the end of the day gave him an ultimatum: a referendum within 14 days or resignation from the government. That move could weaken Sharon's government even further, increase opposition to Sharon within his party, and make life difficult for him in continuing to promote the disengagement plan.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/493863.html


100,000 civilians have died from Iraq War and aftermath: Lancet
Around 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died as a result of the March 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, more than half of them from violence, according to an estimate to be published on Friday by the British medical weekly The Lancet.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=3&u=/afp/iraq_toll_civilians


Falluja emptied of women and children
"Three-quarters of the people have fled to other towns to avoid the American air strikes, especially the women and children," said Abdel Aziz Ibrahim, a teacher. "I stayed but my family is in Baghdad so the kids can go to school. No schools are open in Falluja now because of the security situation."
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/041027/325/f5dgp.html


160 Arabs Face Death Penalty in Iraq
Noting Iraq is still suffering under the yoke of the US occupation and its daily attacks against Iraqi cities, the reporter added that Arabs who cross into the country to resist the foreign troops must be subjected to a fair trial.
http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=6644&s2=28


Iraq says 'impossible' explosives taken before regime fall
But as the issue of the missing explosives took centre stage in the final days of the US presidential campaign, some US officials have suggested they had gone before the US-led forces moved on Baghdad.
http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=6651&s2=28


Iraqi police placed in the firing line without weapons
These are the men, the Iraqi police and army, that the US and British government insist will take over security in Iraq, combating the ferocious rebellion, allowing their troops to be pulled out. They are already doing the bulk of the dying for the occupation forces, as last weekend's massacre of 49 recruits highlighted.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=576794


US gave date of war to Britain in advance, court papers reveal
Secret plans for the war in Iraq were passed to British Army chiefs by US defence planners five months before the invasion was launched, a court martial heard yesterday. The revelation strengthened suspicions that Tony Blair gave his agreement to President George Bush to go to war...
http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=6634&s2=28

October 27 2004

Settlers delay ambulance after Palestinian shot at outpost
Settlers at an illegal West Bank outpost on Tuesday prevented an ambulance from reaching a Palestinian teenager shot by the outpost's security officer, Israel Defense Forces sources said Wednesday. Salman Yussuf Safadi, an 18-year-old from the nearby village of Orif, died before the ambulance arrived.
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/493683.html


Two Jewish families move to create Bethlehem settlement
Right-wing activists and people involved with the yeshiva were preparing to ultimately bring 10 families to live there and transform it into a settlement near the holy site, on the northern outskirts of Bethlehem, to provide a basis for a Jewish hold in that region.
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/493329.html


Female detainee tortured, abused and subjected to Physiological pressures
The society said that Ahlam Taiseer Salah, 22 years old, from Bethlehem, was arrested on October, 20, 2004, and that she is being subjected to daily harassments and physiological pressures while soldiers barred her from sleeping for three days.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/102704/Female%20Detainee.htm


Iman al-Hams
“Don't shoot. It's a little girl.” The company commander, the soldiers testified, “approached her, shot two bullets into her [head], walked back towards the force, turned back to her, switched his weapon to automatic and emptied his entire magazine into her.”(1) After a bullet hit her leg, Iman, who was wearing her school uniform, fell. Then, they said, the officer went over to her...
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=107&ItemID=6504


MOH: “19 killed, 122 Wounded in Khan Younis”
The Palestinian Ministry of Health accused the Israeli Government increased it military operations against the Palestinian in Khan Younis, in the south of the Gaza Strip killing 19 residents and wounding more than 122 others.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/102704/MOH.htm


Bad conditions in Galboa detention
Badran appealed that Red Cross and Humanitarian Organizations to pressure the administration in order to cancel the barring imposing on visitations, and to treat the detainees in accordance to the international law.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/102704/detainees%20Galboa.htm


Israel reinforces military presence in Gaza
Palestinian security sources said Israeli army shelled at predawn Wednesday a Palestinian security outpost in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah. The Israeli troops opened fire haphazardly and the outpost was completely destroyed, added the sources.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/28/content_2146867.htm


IPC Exclusive: Israel Kills 193 Palestinians and Wounds 700 Others Within a Month
As the Israeli government has been over the past few weeks marketing its purported unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, it has given its army the upper hand to further carry out military actions against the Palestinian people, killing 193 men, women and children and wounding 700 others.
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=740


PROMINENT BRITISH HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST DENIED ENTRY TO ISRAEL
Zelter was detained and interrogated by Israeli authorities for over 12 hours, before being denied entry to the country. She was detained as a ‘security risk,' placed in a holding cell at the airport police station, and told that she could be held 7 days before being put on a flight back to Britain.
http://www.womenspeacepalestine.org/angie_press_release.htm


Israeli Settlers Occupy Two Houses as Civilians Arrested in West Bank
Local sources added that a group of armed settlers raided the house and moved furniture and other household objects into the uninhabited house, which the Bakri family was forced to abandon under the heavy and continuous Israeli attacks.
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=712


Palestinian sources: Arafat has lost consciousness
Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo denied earlier reports that Arafat had lost consciousness. Senior Palestinian officials, including current Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, former Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, and the heads of various Palestinian security forces, are currently in his headquarters.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/494337.html


Sharon Rejects Calls for National Referendum, Despite Resignation Threat from Cabinet Members
The four cabinet rebels, led by Finance Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, said they would resign if no referendum is called. They gave the prime minister a two-week deadline to agree to their demand.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2004-10-27-voa12.cfm


Annan congratulates Israel's Sharon on vote in favour of Gaza pullout
"The Secretary-General remains supportive of a full and complete Israeli withdrawal, leading to the end of the occupation of the Gaza Strip," a spokesman for Mr. Annan said in a statement. (Ignoring Israeli study proving Gaza's remaining under occupation despite removal of illegal settlements)
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=12353&Cr=middle&Cr1=east


Larsen Deplores Continuing Deaths in Gaza
Terje Roed-Larsen, in a press release, voiced out his concern over the continuing Israeli violence in Gaza which began on Saturday, leaving 17 Palestinians dead, including an 11-year-old child, while more than 65 others have been reported injured, several critically. In addition, 25 homes have been demolished and 30-40 dunums (1000 M2) of land leveled.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1817


EU: Israeli Withdrawal should be Part of Peace Plan
The European Union (EU) expressed approval that the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza has been passed by the Knesset; but made clear that any kind of withdrawal should be part of a broader peace plan, which will pave the way for the establishment of a Palestine state.
http://www.zaman.com/?bl=hotnews&alt=&trh=20041027&hn=13381


Clinton wows Florida Jews, says Kerry 'loyal friend of Israel'
Former U.S. president Bill Clinton continued his support for the Democratic presidential hopeful Tuesday, telling an election meeting at a synagogue in Boca Raton, Florida that John Kerry is "a loyal friend of Israel."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=494105&contrassID=1&subContrassID=9&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Jihad slams Israeli parliament's approval of disengagement plan
A senior Jihad leader Khaled al Batesh told the press that "the voting on the disengagement plan doesn't mean any change to the Palestinians," asserting that Israel should pull out from all the "occupied areas"
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/28/content_2146861.htm


PM at Rabin memorial: Our disputes were never personal
"The disputes were never personal," said Sharon from Rabin's graveside at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. "If in the heat of the moment things were said that shouldn't have been, I am so sorry."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/494291.html


AL chief calls for unconditional Israeli withdrawal from Gaza
Moussa said Israel's pullout should not be something that provided security for Israel at the expenses of the Palestinians. The planned withdrawal should be based on related United Nations Security Council resolutions and the land-for-peace principle, he added.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/27/content_2146362.htm


Jordan says Gaza pullout must lead to end of occupation, Palestinian state
"Our position is clear. Any withdrawal should be part of the Middle East roadmap and herald the start of a withdrawal from all Palestinian territories," foreign ministry spokesman Ali Ayed told AFP. "The withdrawal should put an end to the occupation and lead to a Palestinian state," he said.
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=31996


Arafat's Health Crisis Prompts Questions
Yasser Arafat's latest health crisis - a severe flu, gallstones, a battery of cancer tests - has exposed how unprepared the Palestinians are for their leader's death, making a chaotic transition period all but inevitable.
http://www.gadsdentimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041027/API/410270985&cachetime=5


UN invasion and liberation required
Isn't it strange how we don't see the same urgency of the UN rushing in with their allied military forces into Israel despite their being proof of weapons and Israelis of mass destruction. The same urgency that backed the invasion of Iraq where NO proof of weapons of mass destruction existed!
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=552&letter_id=6156&topic_id=10&anon=n


Implementation next
That vote was the significant step toward an actual disengagement of Israel from the Gaza Strip. It grants Sharon and his plan legislative, democratic and public legitimacy to continue the process. There is no need for a referendum, despite the efforts of ministers to impose one on the prime minister.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/493902.html


Chicago film crew explores Palestine through the lens of soccer
"Because of the reach of the game of soccer, the team has been able to make Palestine part of the community of nations in a positive way," Producer Nelson Soza added, "different from the violence with which Palestine is associated every time the name is brought up, particularly in Western sources."
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3259.shtml


Analysis / Now run, Arik, run
So, for now it can be said that the main change is that Sharon has been transformed from a tactician to a strategist. As a strategist, he understood the limits of power, the damage caused to us in the world, the demographic risks, and most important of all to him, the danger of a rupture in relations with the U.S.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=493858&contrassID=1


Has Sharon moved from villain to visionary?
Shimon Peres, the leader of the Labour opposition, believes that the prime minister's "unilateral disengagement plan" has set in chain a process that it will be difficult to reverse. "Once it starts, it will continue. It's the beginning of a journey to a permanent solution with the Palestinians," he said. "Sharon cannot stop it even if he wanted to."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1336768,00.html


Britain's Prince Charles views reconstruction of Al-Aqsa pulpit in Jordan
Britain's Prince Charles got a first-hand glimpse of the recreation of a pulpit for Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque on the second day of a visit to Jordan. The original minbar (pulpit) was destroyed in a 1969 arson attack on Al-Aqsa, Islam's third holiest site in Jerusalem, and a copy is being made by a team of international craftsmen and experts.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=10&u=/afp/20041027/wl_mideast_afp/jordan_britain_royal_religion_art_041027144240


Tape: Hassan Urges British to Leave Iraq
The tape, broadcast on Al-Jazeera television, showed a distraught and frightened Margaret Hassan, the 59-year-old head of CARE International in Iraq, blinking back tears as she spoke into the camera. No gunmen were visible in the footage. "Please don't bring the soldiers to Baghdad... Please, on top of that, please release the women prisoners from prisons," she said.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=540&e=6&u=/ap/20041027/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_hostages


British troops start perilous Iraq mission, Japan defiant after kidnapping
Hundreds of British soldiers left southern Iraq on a risky mission closer to Baghdad to free up US forces for a possible assault on rebel-held Fallujah, as Tokyo stood firm after militants threatened to behead a Japanese hostage.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=2&u=/afp/20041027/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_041027182232


Bush campaign downplays Allawi accusation
Iraq weighed heavily on the Bush administration on Tuesday as Iyad Allawi, Iraq's interim prime minister, said the weekend massacre of 50 Iraqi National Guard soldiers “was the outcome of major neglect by some parts of the coalition forces”.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/f398901a-2780-11d9-a0dd-00000e2511c8.html


U.S. Is Said to Urge Its Iraqi Allies to Unite for Election
U.S. authorities in Washington and Iraqi politicians confirmed that top White House officials have told leaders of the six major parties that were on the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council that it would be in the groups' common interest to present a unified electoral slate.
http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=2&p=6616&s2=27


Rumsfeld implicitly admits lack of planning for Iraqi insurgency
The remarks, made on Tuesday in an interview with Cincinnati, Ohio, radio station, came amid a barrage of charges by Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and his aides that the White House had failed to adequately plan for the possibility of a guerrilla war in Iraq.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=7&u=/afp/20041027/wl_mideast_afp/us_iraq_planning_041027142352

October 26 2004

Two Jewish families move to create Bethlehem settlement
Two Jewish families moved into a house near Rachel's Tomb in the West Bank city of Bethlehem this week, in effect creating what appears to be a new settlement.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=493329&contrassID=1&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


International Solidarity Movement's Olive Harvest Campaign - Update
The Apartheid Wall is much more completed this year. These “facts on the ground“ create great hardship for Palestinian farmers who find more of their lands inaccessible than ever before. The Israeli military has created a system of “permissions“ that has further complicated the harvest.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/DesktopModules/Articles/ArticlesView.aspx?TabID=0&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en-US&ItemID=567&mid=10547


Commander implicated in death of Palestinian girl arrested
Military Police have arrested a Givati Brigade company commander on suspicion he shot dead a 13-year-old Palestinian girl at close range, after she had already been shot by troops and was laying on the ground. (Still not sure!)
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/493807.html


Israeli tanks' shell wounds six-year-old child
Amin Shahwan, Hasna's father said that he woke up to the sound of the huge explosion, finding the wall falling on his daughter who was asleep. Doctors at the Nasser hospital's reported that Hasna was in a “very serious” condition since shrapnel penetrated most parts of her body.
http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=10/27/2004&Cat=4&Num=005


Settler shoots Palestinian to death in West Bank
Security forces detained the security coordinator for questioning after the incident. Israel Defense Forces troops and police were investigating whether the Palestinian may have entered the outpost with olive pickers who were given permission by the IDF to enter the area to harvest olives.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/493683.html


Two killed in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday
A local source in Khan Younis said that a military scouting plane fired at least one missile at a group of residents in Khan Younis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, killing one, critically wounding at least three others, on Tuesday after midnight.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/102604/Kh_Younis1.htm


4 apprehended in Hebron, one carpentry, one shoemaking workshop burnt in Hebron
A local source in Hebron said that soldiers apprehended four residents, burnt carpentry and a shoemaking store and pinched money and gold from some homes during raids conducted in Wad Abu Kteila, in Hebron in the south of the West Bank.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/102604/Hberon4.htm


Reacting to deaths in Gaza, UN envoy calls on Israel to protect civilians
Voicing deep concern over the continuing violence in the Gaza Strip, the senior United Nations envoy for the Middle East today deplored deaths during the renewed military operation in Khan Younis and called on Israel to respect international law. (So Gently; keep on killing, just try not ot shoot a child using sniper...)
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=12340&Cr=palestin&Cr1=


Qurei blames int'l community for silent over Israeli massacre
"At the time we talk about a promised Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, Israel carries out massacres in the Palestinian areas every day," he said, adding "we want to say to the whole world that words and statements are not enough anymore, and we want actions indeed."
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/26/content_2140973.htm


Israeli Supreme Court demands army justify demolitions
The Court was responding to a petition filed by the Arab-Israeli rights group Adalah, which accuses the military of having perpetrated "war crimes" with the demolition of the large number of houses in the town which borders Egypt.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200410/s1228529.htm



US says committed to Roadmap, unsure about independent Palestinian state by 2005
The United States said on Tuesday it remained committed to the Road Map peace initiative but stopped short of making any commitment to the establishment of a viable Palestinian state by 2005.
http://www.kuna.net.kw/English/Story.asp?DSNO=675443


State to underwrite damages awarded to Israelis in suits against PA
The temporary seizures of the last two years contradict the state's commitment to the United States to transfer to the PA, under the road map, all the customs and tax money taken by Israel for merchandise and services intended for the PA. ( But USA is fine with it!)
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/492877.html


Yasser Arafat said to be suffering from large gallstone
Hospital sources said they had brought X-ray and ultrasound machines to Arafat's compound two days ago to perform tests on his chest and stomach. The X-ray turned up clean, but the ultrasound uncovered a 1-centimeter-long gallstone.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/493801.html


Arafat to work to end disagreement among security apparatuses
"These measures aim to stem the worsening security situation that has prevailed in the Palestinian lands, especially in the Gaza Strip," Palestinian Minister of Agriculture Ibrahim Abu Naja was quoted as saying.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/26/content_2141434.htm


Graffiti in W. Jerusalem: "We killed Rabin and will kill Sharon as well, Death to the Arabs"
Israeli police in found on Tuesday morning graffiti on the walls in the streets of West Jerusalem as saying: "We killed Rabin, we will kill Sharon too, and death to the Arabs." Israel Radio said, police thinks these are acts of the extreme right wing in Israel. A Police source said they are investigating the issue.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/102604/grafitti.htm


Protesters Harry Israel Parliament Before Gaza Vote
Thousands of rightist Israelis accused Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of treason Tuesday as parliament looked set to approve the first pullout of settlers from occupied land Palestinians want as part of a future state.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6616220


Ministers may abstain in pullout vote unless PM calls poll
The threat comes after the ministers managed to secure a deal with the National Religious Party under which the party will not quit the coalition government if a referendum on the pullout plan is held. Likud ministers Limor Livnat, Benjamin Netanyahu, Silvan Shalom, Yisrael Katz and Tzachi Hanegbi...
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/493670.html


Israeli parliament approves Gaza pullout plan
Sharon's victory was achieved partly through a decision by the left-wing opposition Labour and Yahad parties to support the premier, who had previously been regarded as the ultimate champion of the settler movement.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=1&u=/afp/20041026/wl_mideast_afp/mideast_israel_gaza_vote_041026192631


Egypt: No sign bomber linked to Palestinian groups
Egypt said on Tuesday there was no indication the Palestinian organiser of bombings at Egyptian Red Sea resorts frequented by Israelis had links with Palestinian groups fighting Israel.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L26494296.htm


Analysis / Much ado about nothing
According to Mallouh, and most Palestinian spokespersons, the noise being made by the Israeli right with regard to the pullout from Gaza is nothing more than a big act designed to demonstrate to the world the terrible pain of the Israeli concession.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/493402.html


Pro-Israeli groups pressure Columbia University
The far-right Pro-Israeli newspaper The New York Sun broke a story on Oct. 20 that there existed an underground film in which university students and alumni complain that they felt their academic careers were threatened because they expressed pro-Israeli positions.
http://dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=9607


The Jews versus the Israelis
Zionism posed a challenge to the "We are Jews" of Rabbi Avraham Shapira and his disciples because it stated that the fate of the Jewish people is a matter for human action, not divine action. It is precisely along this fault line that Orthodox rabbis disengaged from Zionism.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/493417.html


On This Day 1994: Israel and Jordan make peace
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and King Hussein of Jordan formally made peace at a ceremony in desert area of Wadi Araba on the Israeli-Jordanian border. US President Bill Clinton was a witness to the treaty also watched by 5,000 guests and relayed to the world on TV. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was conspicuous by his absence - he had not been invited.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/26/newsid_3764000/3764162.stm



ExpoTech Palestine in Gaza from December 4th-6th
ExpoTech Palestine Exhibition will be held at the Rashad Al Shawa Cultural Center, Gaza from December 4th—6th 2004. Claim your exhibition space at the technology crossroads of Palestine Gaza City. Meet your market, launch, preview and demo products. Sell your proven technology solutions.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3257.shtml



Letter from the people in Fallujah to Kofi Annan
On the night of the 13th October alone American bombardment demolished 50 houses on top of their residents. Is this a genocidal crime or a lesson about the American democracy? It is obvious that the Americans are committing acts of terror against the people of Fallujah for one reason only: their refusal to accept the Occupation.
http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=2&p=6601&s2=25


Syria arrests Kuwaitis trying to fight in Iraq
Syrian security forces have recently arrested several Kuwaitis who had attempted to enter Iraq to fight a holy war against US forces in Fallujah, the Arab Times reported Tuesday.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/26/content_2140912.htm


Rumsfeld 'ignored Fallujah warnings'
Warnings by the US military commander of last April's operation in Fallujah on the consequences of attacking the city were ignored by the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, and not passed to President George Bush, an American newspaper has claimed. After weeks of fighting, and with 600 Iraqis dead, not only did the assault fail...
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=576042


FLASHBACK: United States War Crimes Against Iraq (1991)
The members of the International War Crimes Tribunal, meeting in New York, have carefully considered the Initial Complaint of the Commission of Inquiry dated May 6, 1991 against President George H. W. Bush, Vice President J. Danforth Quayle, Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf Commander of the Allied Forces in the Persian Gulf...
http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=2&p=6556&s2=25


ICRC says it must be notified about Iraq prisoner transfers
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that it must be notified of every prisoner transfer under the Geneva Conventions, following reports that United States had transferred detainees out of Iraq
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=9&u=/afp/20041026/wl_mideast_afp/us_iraq_prisoners_icrc_041026180712


Report: Army denies most compensation claims by Iraqis
The Army has denied most of the thousands of compensation claims Iraqis have made against the U.S. military, determining that combat accounted for most of the deaths, injuries and property damage, a newspaper reported Sunday.
http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=2&p=6577&s2=25

October 25 2004

Two Jewish families move into Bethlehem site near Rachel's Tomb
Right-wing activists and people involved with the yeshiva were preparing to ultimately bring 10 families to live there and transform it into a settlement near the holy site, on the northern outskirts of Bethlehem, to provide a basis for a Jewish hold in that region.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/493329.html


Egypt: Mastermind behind Sinai blasts was Palestinian
A Palestinian angered by Israeli-Palestinian violence plotted and then died in the nearly simultaneous car bombings of a hotel and tourist camps in the Sinai that killed at least 34 people, the Egyptian government said Monday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/493266.html


Israeli Interrogators sexually harass female detainees
Several female detainees accused the Israeli Security of sexually harassing them, in order to force the detainees to confess to charges imposed on them, in addition to repeatedly imposing physiological and physical pressures.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/102504/harrasement.htm


Fourteen Palestinians killed as Israeli MPs to debate Gaza plan
The dead, among them an eight-year-old boy, were killed in either air strikes or from gunfire and tank shelling the town of Khan Yunis. Most died when the army fired at least four air-to-ground missiles at the area, one of which hit a national security service position, security officials said. Palestinian medics said some 70 people had also been injured...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1503&ncid=1503&e=2&u=/afp/20041025/ts_afp/mideast_041025125713


MOH Accuses Israel of Using Highly Explosive Missiles in Northern Gaza
The Ministry of Health accused the Israeli occupation forces today of using highly explosive missiles during their onslaught on northern Gaza Strip, which resulted in tearing victims' bodies apart.
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=692


?One more Palestinian killed
One more Palestinian was killed and two others were injured in a new Israeli air raid on a Palestinian Security Forces quarters in the Khan Younis city Monday. Israeli warplanes launched at least one missile at the building to kill Haitham Al-Nebrais, 22, and seriously wound two others. The number of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks today goes up thus to 15.
http://www.kuna.net.kw/English/Story.asp?DSNO=675107


The Killing of Iman al-Hams
I man al-Hams was a 13-year old refugee schoolgirl who was executed... In a flash, Israel proved to the world -- yet again -- that it is not only intransigent in its patent and consistent violation of international law, but also incapable of adhering to the most fundamental principles of moral behavior.
http://www.counterpunch.com/barghouti10252004.html


Al Qassam attacks Israeli vehicles in southern Gaza
Al Qassam said in a leaflet that its militants fired on Monday morning one rocket at an Israeli tank and exploded a roadside bomb on an Israeli bulldozer at al Namsawi neighborhood in the town. The two operations certainly killed and injured Israeli soldiers, said the leaflet.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/25/content_2136977.htm


W. Bank settler indicted for allegedly killing Palestinian driver
According to the charge sheet, Elitzur decided to stop the car of the Palestinian man for no reason and without any authority, as he was driving on the highway between the settlements of Itamar and Elon Moreh.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=493234&contrassID=1&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


AMF offers 10 million dollars in aid to Palestinians
The AMF has decided to allocate 10 million dollars from its net profits for 2003 to help the Palestinian people, Jassim Al Manai, AMF Board Chairman, was quoted as saying. Five million dollars of the assistance will be directed to the education sector, Al Manai noted.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/26/content_2138183.htm


Fatah calls on int'l community to stop Israeli attack in Gaza
The Fatah movement, chaired by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, on Monday called on the international community to immediately step in to stop an Israeli attack on the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Yunis.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/25/content_2137391.htm


No Israeli guarantee Arafat can return if leaves
The source was speaking after Israel television reported that Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz had given Arafat permission to leave Ramallah for medical treatment. Doctors said Arafat is recuperating from the flu.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L25705559.htm


Palestinians did not request Arafat's hospitalisation: Erakat
The Palestinians did not request Israeli permission for their leader Yasser Arafat to be hospitalised in the West Bank town of Ramallah, negotiations minister Saeb Erakat said.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=14&u=/afp/20041025/wl_mideast_afp/mideast_arafat_israel_041025194305


Rice urges foreign leaders to pressure Arafat to step down
Foreign leaders who still talk to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat must pressure him to step aside, now that Israeli leaders are pushing a plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said Monday.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041025/APP/410250932


Al-Aqsa Brigades to split from Fatah if the Qorei Government does not fulfill its demands
Al-Aqsa Brigades threatened to split from Fatah Movement if the Qorei Government and Fatah's Central Committee does not fulfill their demands to conduct new procedures in order to solve the problems and crises which the brigades face within two weeks.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/102504/AqsaB.htm


UN Mideast envoy stands by criticism of PA
Outgoing UN Mideast envoy Terje Roed-Larsen said Monday that Palestinians are now embracing him for telling the truth after initially chastising and even banning him for publicly criticizing Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's failure to combat lawlessness.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/493322.html


Israeli occupation is reason for violence
He said that Israel was taking advantage of the international community's refusal to take any political move, saying that the Israeli attack on Khan Yunis matches Israel's concept of the withdrawal plan -- leaving the lands destroyed.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/25/content_2137131.htm


Egyptian NGO sets up committee for defence of Semite rights
The Association for the Defence of Arabs (ADA), founded in 2000 to "defend the image of Arabs abroad", decided to create the committee "due to the sharp rise in the number of attacks against Arabs, who are also Semites," it said.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=11&u=/afp/20041025/wl_mideast_afp/egypt_us_rights_041025185809


AG to judges: Stop temporary confiscation orders on PA funds
Mazuz is asking Israeli judges who adjudicate such cases to stop imposing temporary confiscation orders on PA funds. Israeli judges have customarily imposed seizures on Palestinian funds in response to Israeli citizens' damage suits against the PA in recent years, before the court has reached a verdict.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=493181&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Shaath hopes next U.S. leader will 'reinvest in peace process'
Sha'ath declined to express a preference for either U.S. President George W. Bush or his Democratic rival Sen. John Kerry, neither of whom has made the Middle East crisis a campaign issue. "The winner, whoever he may be, should think of American interests in the Middle East."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=492865&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Sharon: Gaza Plan Only Way to Security
As the debate began, violence flared in Gaza, with Israeli troops killing 15 Palestinians and wounding 91 others in a raid on the Khan Younis refugee camp to halt Palestinian mortar fire at nearby settlements. Two Israeli soldiers were wounded.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=540&e=1&u=/ap/20041025/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians


Israeli Arabs won't vote
The entire Palestinian ethos is built on them losing their livelihoods, honor and identity, when they were uprooted from land they had settled for generations. So Israeli tears about a few hundred families that will be generously compensated after just a few years of settlement looks like a con.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/492907.html


Israel is waiting for a Lincoln
This too is just a prelude to the inevitable: In the Middle East, both among the Israelis and among the Palestinians, anyone who wants peace must prepare for a civil war. This, as Sharon said in a different context, will be the most justified of all Israel's wars.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/492908.html


Main Points of Gaza Disengagement Plan
After the withdrawal, Israel will retain control over a patrol road on the Gaza-Egypt border. Israel will also control Gaza's border crossings, the coast and airspace. Gaza will be demilitarized, and Israel reserves the right to re-enter the strip if attacked. With the withdrawal, Israel believes its 37-year occupation of Gaza will end
http://www.houmatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041025/API/410250935


Germany says missing Israeli airman dead
A former German official who negotiated prisoner swaps between Israel and the Lebanese resistance group Hizbullah says an Israeli airman shot down over Lebanon in 1986 is dead, The Jerusalem Post newspaper reported Monday.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=9601


Rebel militias deny holding British aid worker Hassan
"She had been living in Iraq for 30 years and she was a humanitarian. The resistance did not kidnap her because this would have left a bad impression of the resistance in the world," he added. Commanders of five separate guerrilla groups in Fallujah said they were not holding Mrs Hassan and had seen no evidence that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's organisation had kidnapped her.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=575637


Iraq fighters face death penalty
Capital punishment, which was in force under the ousted regime of president Saddam Hussein, was reinstated by the interim government on August 8, after being abolished by the previous US-led occupation authority.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/25/content_2137275.htm


Iraqi civilians are paying the price for American irresponsibility
In either case, the United States, Great Britain and others who enthusiastically pushed for this war need to take far more serious responsibility for the consequences of their deeds and misdeeds. It is fine for Messrs Bush and Blair go on and on about the monstrous nature of Saddam Hussein's former regime, yet they are repeating accepted facts...
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&article_id=9592&categ_id=17


Tons of Iraqi explosives missing
Nearly 350 tons of conventional explosives have vanished from a former military complex in Iraq, the UN says. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the explosives vanished from the al-Qaqaa facility near Baghdad during looting after the invasion.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3950493.stm

October 24 2004

PCBS: the Apartheid Wall Splits 80.7% from Medical Services
Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said that the Israel Expansion and Annexation (apartheid) Wall separates 80.7% of the households living west of the wall from the basic medical services.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1808


Israeli travel ban bars 1,200 Palestinians from studying abroad
In a statement, the center called upon the international society, especially the United Nations educational, scientific and cultural organization (UNESCO) to interfere and press Israel to allow Palestinian students to travel abroad to continue their study.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/24/content_2133730.htm


Trauma center bulldozed in Gaza
Ali Bahri's house has been a source of pride for himself, his family, and even the odd envious neighbor. No more. Like so many residents of the Gaza Strip, the simple location of his home was enough to entice the Israeli army in to demolish it.
http://metimes.com/2K4/issue2004-43/reg/trauma_center_bulldozed.htm


Study: Israel legally occupying Gaza, even after pullout
But because Israel intends to maintain control over the crossings into Gaza, its coastline and airspace, international law will still hold Israel responsible for the territories and its population, according to the study by legal experts from the Justice Ministry, Foreign Ministry and the military.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/492704.html


Palestinians' digital honor
"Digital honor" is probably the only sympathetic description that the Palestinians can expect from the Arabs. There are half-hearted condemnations, but it's difficult to find an Arab leader who has recently delivered a stinging speech against Israel or who has come out with a new political initiative.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/492465.html


Israeli warships shell northern Gaza Strip
Meanwhile, Israeli troops backed by several tanks and armed vehicles invaded at predawn the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, according to Palestinian sources. The sources also said the troops opened intensive fire and razed down several houses in Beit Hanoun before withdrawal.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/24/content_2132931.htm


2 Palestinians killed in southern Gaza Strip
Palestinian medics of Nasser hospital in Khan Younis confirmed that Ziyad Abu Mustafa, 27, and Omar Abu Mustafa, 20, who were brothers, were killed in the airstrike and their bodies were badly burned. Medics added that five others were rushed to the hospital, one in serious condition and the other four moderate.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/24/content_2132772.htm


Israeli Courts Rob Palestinian Prisoners' Money
Riayd Alarda, one of the advocates, confirmed that the fines being imposed on the prisoners constitute a big economic burden on the prisoners' shoulders, as millions of NIS's have entered the Israeli treasury.
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=658


Israeli troops arrest, wound number of Palestinians in El-Ein camp near Nablus
The Israeli forces continued Sunday their military operations in the camp, þwounding a number of Palestinians and causing others to suffocate from gas, as þthe Israeli soldiers fired rubber bullets and tear bombs towards the citizens.þ Radio Israel claimed that a booby-trapped car went off near an Israeli patrol in the camp without causing any injuries in the Israeli army.
http://www.kuna.net.kw/English/Story.asp?DSNO=674794


Israeli Missile Wounds 2 Gaza Policemen -Medics
Witnesses said the attack came as more than two dozen Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers took up positions between the Jewish settlements in southern Gaza and Khan Younis.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6590917


Two apprehended in Hebron, tens withheld, one school attacked
In the old city, soldiers intensified military presence and broke in a home causing huge damages. On the other hand, settlers in Hebron continued their assaults and attacked the Ibrahimi School, near Al-IBahimi Mosque, in the city causing damages to some windows of the school.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/102404/Hebron1.htm


Car Explodes Next to Israeli Army Jeep
A car exploded Sunday next to an Israeli army jeep in this West Bank city, damaging the vehicle, Palestinian witnesses and the army said. No injuries were reported.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=736&e=10&u=/ap/20041024/ap_on_re_mi_ea/palestinians_explosion


Half Palestinian deficit due to Israel funds seizure
A PA treasury source says the sum of confiscated funds reached some NIS 1 billion this month, consisting of levies, taxes and customs collected by Israel for services and merchandise intended for the PA.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/492477.html


PNA welcomes EU initiative to follow up Israeli pullout
The EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana revealed on Sunday that the EU intended to contribute to the implementation of the roadmap by sending army experts to train policemen in the Palestinian security apparatuses. "Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip should be the first step in a process that leads to the pullout from all the occupied areas, " said Solana.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/24/content_2133424.htm


Elections committee: Referendum possible within 75 days
Sharon, however, stressed his continued opposition to such a referendum and said he would present the Knesset with a disengagement bill devoid of any references to a referendum. A vote on the disengagement bill is expected Tuesday. The cabinet approved the bill Monday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/492830.html


Let me leave and be free, pleads Israeli whistleblower Vanunu
"My hope was that by revealing the nuclear secrets I would bring new states towards real peace in the Middle East and the abolition of nuclear weapons in all the Middle East," he said.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=5&u=/afp/20041024/wl_mideast_afp/israel_nuclear_vanunu_britain_media_041024141130


The Arabs / Two Arab MKs expected to say yes to disengagement
Al-Saneh decided in favor of disengagement, among other reasons, in the context of the recent call of his movement, the Arab Democratic Party, to run in the upcoming elections in a joint bloc of Arab parties and Jewish leftist parties.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/492459.html


Let them refuse
For the settlers it is an effective and brutal means to frighten the largely indifferent public; for the IDF it is one more way to perpetuate its status as the central factor in Israeli life. It is only in this light that it is possible to understand the statements made by generals and rabbis, all of which bordered on hysteria.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/492467.html


On the Road to Civil War - By Uri Avnery
Quietly and not so quietly, the Shin Bet is taking precautions. The prison service has been ordered to prepare facilities for mass detentions. The army leadership is planning the call-up of 10 thousand reserve soldiers and starting to think about the steps they must take in the case of…
http://www.amin.org/eng/uri_avnery/2004/oct23.html


Report: Apply law to make outposts illegal
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon appointed the attorney to find a legal way to evacuate the illegal outposts in the West Bank. Previous Justice Ministry attempts to apply Israeli construction laws in the settlements were thwarted by ministers, since the existing situation was convenient for the governments set on building settlements.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=492729&contrassID=1&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Israeli Cabinet Approve Settlers' Compensation
The approved bill gives Sharon the power to issue evacuation orders for the settlements, details the compensation package for the evacuated settlers [an average of 330 thousand dollars per family], and sets penalties for those who stay in evacuated areas or work to hinder the evacuation.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/102404/cabinet%20approves%20compensation.htm


Crunch vote for Sharon on settlement pullout plan
Israel's parliament will on Tuesday take what is billed as one of the defining decisions in the state's 56-year history when it votes on the plan of Ariel Sharon, prime minister, to remove Jewish settlements from Palestinian land.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/8bacc9e8-25bf-11d9-81d9-00000e2511c8.html


Rebel forces set to disrupt final withdrawal vote
In an extraordinary broadside, Reuven Rivlin, the speaker of the Knesset, declared in a letter to Likud's 3000 members that Sharon, with his disengagement plan, was “not loyal to the land of Israel” and accused him of betraying “the principles of Likud”.
http://www.sundayherald.com/45603


Settlers' champion Sharon turns reputation on head with pullout from Gaza
The irony that Sharon previously dismissed talk of Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories as tantamount to surrender has not been lost on the settler movement, who have replayed some of his old speeches at anti-disengagement rallies.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=13&u=/afp/20041024/wl_mideast_afp/mideast_israel_sharon_041024152506


Syria: U.S. wants support of anti-Israeli resistance to cease
The United States is increasing its pressure against Syria to force the Arab state to stop backing anti-Israeli resistance in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon, Syria's information minister said Saturday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=492485&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


PM's son, MK Omri Sharon, questioned by fraud squad
He was said to have been questioned over possible involvement in the Cyril Kern case. According to police suspicions, the prime minister had received bribes to promote the interests of businessmen overseas in the Middle East through his son, Gilad.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/492721.html


Politicians, intellectuals vow to try to end Mubarak's rule
Almost 700 politicians, activists and intellectuals issued a landmark joint statement Saturday saying they will push to amend Egypt's constitution to prevent Hosni Mubarak, the country's president for almost a quarter of a century, from standing for another term next year.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=492488&contrassID=1&subContrassID=8&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


US Jews send letter of support to Sharon
As the Knesset vote on disengagement from the Gaza Strip approaches, the American Jewish Committee sent a letter of support on Sunday to Ariel Sharon to express support for the prime minister's plan.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1098591996166


Informants suspected in deaths 50 Iraqi soldiers
The attack, in Diyala province, demonstrated the likelihood that guerrillas had inside information on the soldiers' movements and the fact that they were unarmed. The men were returning for home leave after completing basic training at a base east of Baghdad.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/26d9b8f0-25b0-11d9-81d9-00000e2511c8.html


US secretly moved prisoners out of Iraq for questioning
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention protects civilians during wartime and occupation, prohibiting "individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory... regardless of their motive."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=4&u=/afp/20041024/wl_mideast_afp/us_iraq_prisoners_041024111326


US diplomat killed in Iraq attack
A State Department security officer was killed Sunday when insurgents launched a mortar or rocket attack on a US base near Baghdad International Airport, The US embassy said.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/24/content_2133418.htm

October 23 2004

Apartheid Israel: An Interview with Uri Davis
When there isn't universal citizenship that is equitable to all, democratic values are compromised in a serious way. A quintessential illustration of this is Apartheid South Africa, where 87% of the territory of South Africa was reserved under law for white citizens only, and denied from non-white citizens.
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=2004102109320353


Inside Track / A disaster waiting to happen
The Jews have no sense of proportion nor do they have any judgment on world affairs. Henry brought a thousand Jews to New York on a supposedly temporary basis and they stayed ... The Jews, I find are very, very selfish. They care not how many Estonians, Latvians, Finns, Poles, Yugoslavs or Greeks get murdered or mistreated as D[isplaced] P[ersons] as long as the Jews get special treatment.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/492053.html


PCHR Concerns over Israeli Prevention of Palestinian Students to Travel
"PCHR remains gravely concerned that hundreds of students from the Gaza Strip have not been able to travel to attend their universities abroad, due to the prohibition on travel of Palestinians who are aged between 18 and 35 by Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF)," PCHR said in a press release
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1804


Detainees subjected to inhuman treatment in Qadumim detention
Lawyer of the Palestinian Prisoner's Society, Samer Al-Nammari, who met with a number of detainees in Betah Tikva and Qadumimdetention, said that the detainees informed him of inhuman treatment and harassments conducted against them.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/102304/Detainees.htm


Fallujans and Palestinians bombed day and night but what does the world care?
As Palestinians and Iraqis are slaughtered, the events hardly register in the world's press and fall below the radar or world public opinion. Non Arabic countries then wonder why the Isalmic world feels the way it does. Is it that people just don't care because of the terrible media silence?
http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=6520&s2=23


Israeli forces assault Palestinian woman
Israeli soldiers stationed near Beit Eiba west of Nablus attacked and beat up a Palestinian young woman who was waiting to be allowed through, witnesses said on Friday.
http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=10/24/2004&Cat=4&Num=003


Israel army builds lookout tower near Netsarim
Witnesses said that Israeli troops stationing around the settlement opened intensive fire and fired tank shells at Palestinian houses, but no injuries were reported.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/23/content_2131090.htm


RAFAH TODAY
One casualty, a young woman, was walking outside fher house to her cousin's house. Another woman was on her way to the hospital in North Gaza. One schoolboy was on his way to elementary school when an Israeli bullet penetrated his head...
http://rafahtoday.org/news/todaymain.htm


?Two Palestinian children injured by Israeli fire
Sources at the hospital said the Israeli soldiers stationed in the Sources at the hospital said the Israeli soldiers stationed in the þ þoutskirts of the Israeli settlement of Neve Dekalim opened fire against houses þ þat Khan Yunis to wound Yusef Barbakh, 13, and Abdul-Malik Abu-Shemaleh, 15.þ
http://www.kuna.net.kw/English/Story.asp?DSNO=674599


Palestinian 'collaborator' killed in Gaza
Hasan Muhammad Musallam, in his 20s, had been missing from his home for several days. He was shot dead two days after Israel assassinated the deputy chief of Hamas' military wing, Adnan al-Ghul, in an air strike. Al-Ghul had been on Israel's most-wanted list since 1990.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/5525AAA4-2A1E-4FD9-AAA1-354BF644018C.htm


Hamas threatens collaborators with Israel with death
The Islamic Resistance Movement(Hamas) Saturday called upon those Palestinians collaborating withIsrael to repent or face death. The call came after Ezel Dein al Qassam brigades, the armed wingof Hamas, executed Hassan Musallam who was accused of collaboratingwith Israel.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/24/content_2131536.htm


UN official reports on 206 Palestinian, 13 Israeli deaths in month of violence
Prendergast said that 206 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed in the month since his previous report to the Security Council. He said the latest deaths raised the toll since the start of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000 to 3,839 Palestinians and 979 Israelis.
http://cbsnewyork.com/international/UN-Mideast-ai/resources_news_html


EU to introduce initiative to jumpstart peace process
"Probably together with Egypt, we will send well-prepared people so that the Palestinians can enact a sensible command structure and also have the ability to fulfill their duty," Javier Solana was quoted as saying by Der Spiegel, a weekly news magazine.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/492321.html


Top UN official: Int'l community must intervene in Mideast
"Even to speak in terms of a peace process seems to put one at a distance from the present reality," he said. "The international community's more vigorous engagement is therefore an indispensable ingredient."
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/492357.html


France and China Reiterate Backing to the Palestinian People's Rights
Both France and China, the two United Nations Security Council's permanent member states, reiterated yesterday backing to the establishment of a viable independent Palestinian state living side by side in peaceful coexistence with Israel.
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=639


Jordanians, Israelis meet to discuss joint academic center
A delegation of 20 Israeli and Jordanian officials will meet on Sunday in Tel Aviv to discuss a change in the countries' southern border to facilitate a joint project, under which a revolutionary academic center would be constructed on ex-territorial land.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=492387&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Rabbi Yosef expected to announce decision on pullout
Likud rebel leader MK Uzi Landau met with Yosef on Thursday in an attempt to persuade him to oppose disengagement. Landau discussed the security and political drawbacks to the plan, which he said is dangerous and harmful to unity.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/492413.html


Sharon gears up for decisive vote on Israel's Gaza pullout
The climax of campaign will occur on Tuesday during a parliamentary vote on Sharon's plan which involves Israeli evacuating the Gaza Strip, moving out the 8,000 settlers living there and closing down four small settlements in the north of the West Bank.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=2&u=/afp/20041023/wl_mideast_afp/mideast_041023125946


Hamas admits to having weapons factories in Gaza
"Thank God, the weapons of the Hamas fighters are manufactured locally," Rayyan said. "For several years now we have had our own weapons factories and we are working round the clock to improve the fighting capabilities of our fighters. We first made hand grenades and rocket-propelled RPGs, mortar rockets and their launchers, and then Kassam and Yassin rockets."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1098520961838


Egypt offers elite military force to ease Israel's withdrawal from Gaza
An Egyptian government delegation will fly to Tel Aviv next month with proposals to help Israel's planned pullout from the Gaza Strip next year, including the deployment of two Egyptian battalions along the border.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1334272,00.html


European Trade Agreements, Human Rights, and Palestine
The Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreement with Israel grants it preferential trading terms conditional on observance of Article 2 which states that "Relations between the Parties... shall be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles..."
http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/10751/


U.S. awards $18.5 million to Middle East reform projects
The awards bring to $129 million the total money obligated so far under the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), launched by President George W. Bush in 2003 to support democratic reforms in the region.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=492386&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Tunisian Doctors Examine Arafat, Aides Blame Flu
Six Tunisian doctors arrived in the West Bank on Saturday to examine Yasser Arafat, but aides dismissed Israeli media reports that the Palestinian president's health had deteriorated and said he had flu.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6588871


Israel May Have Iran in Its Sights
Increasingly concerned about Iran's nuclear program, Israel is weighing its options and has not ruled out a military strike to prevent the Islamic Republic from gaining the capability to build atomic weapons, according to policymakers, military officials, analysts and diplomats.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/latimests/20041022/ts_latimes/israelmayhaveiraninitssights


Romanian police confiscate diamonds belonging to Israeli man
An Israeli had less than a glittering start to his trip on Saturday after police confiscated 230 diamonds sewn into the pockets of his pants, police said.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/492414.html


Weeping hostage begs Blair not to move troops
Margaret Hassan, director of CARE International in Iraq, sobbed as she said she did not want to die like beheaded engineer Ken Bigley and urged the Government not to move Black Watch soldiers to the country's capital.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=575128


Religious leaders to dominate Iraq's election
Mainstream Shia religious leaders, led by the highest ranking cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, have been pushing hard for an election since the end of the war 18 months ago. They say an election would offer the best opportunity for the Shia to take advantage of their numerical supremacy, estimated at 60 per cent of Iraq's population.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/d310fae6-244f-11d9-a110-00000e2511c8.html


Saboteurs Bomb Iraqi Pipelines to Baghdad
An oil official said saboteurs on Friday blew up a section of another oil pipeline in Mashahdeh area, around 31 miles north of Baghdad. The pipeline feeds the same refinery which processes 110,000 barrels per day (bpd).
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/breaking/breakingnewsarticle.asp?feed=OBR&Date=20041023&ID=4047884


Shia leader cuts ties with Sadr
A senior religious leader in Iran has severed ties with radical Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr for encouraging his followers to fight US troops. Grand Ayatollah Kazem Haeri, one of the top authorities in Shia Islam, said Mr Sadr was no longer his representative in the holy city of Najaf.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3758872.stm


Further abuse at Abu Ghraib detailed
Government documents made public Thursday provide fresh details about allegations of abuse by guards at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and other detention facilities in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They include incidents in which a female prisoner was sexually humiliated by US military intelligence officers and a male inmate was shot at to force cooperation.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2004/10/23/further_abuse_at_abu_ghraib_detailed/

October 22 2004

Mideast crisis sorely needs outside mediation -UN
Prendergast said Secretary-General Kofi Annan would soon establish a new group to register all damage caused by the constructions of Israel's barrier in the Palestinian West Bank, as requested by the General Assembly.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N22715647.htm


A Campaign to plant Olive trees near the Separation wall
Tens of farmers from villages in the south of Qalqilia, in the north of the West Bank, started on Thursday morning, planting Olive trees near the Separation Wall, which separated the Palestinian villagers from their fields.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/102204/Olive trees.htm


Facts on the ground: The end of the two-state solution?
The report draws on the experience of Christian Aid's Palestinian and Israeli partners and on first-hand accounts from the people with whom they work and looks at the progressive building of settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territories and the construction of the Separation Barrier.
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/480fa8736b88bbc3c12564f6004c8ad5/d840fa5fc4b9d119c1256f3400481915?OpenDocument


French Journalist: “The Wall is a dedication for Racism”
Alan Manark, a French Journalist and the author of “ Sharon's Wall”, which was published recently in France, said that the Separation Wall which Israeli is constructing in the West Bank is a dedication for Racism, and as a means to encircle the Palestinian in isolated geographical locations.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/102204/french%20journalist.htm


The olive war
Israeli practices aim to tighten the siege and eliminate all semblance of normal life in the occupied territories. One example was seen in the images carried by the Israeli media covering what is happening to Palestinian crops, particularly the olive harvest. Israeli occupation forces are working to destroy this important crop and wholly eliminate Palestinian agriculture
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/713/pr3.htm


Palestinian Child Prisoners in Cruel, Inhuman Conditions
391 Palestinian children under 18 years are still detained in Israeli detention centers, 7% suffer diseases and denied medical care, while 77% of child prisoners arrested from their homes,the Child and Youth Department in the Ministry revealed.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1801


Poetry for Palestine - Rhythms of Resistance
The violence of the powerful Israeli occupation army using live ammunition, tanks and helicopter gunships is equated with Palestinians protesting against the loss of their rights, lands and lives." The artists in Poetry for Palestine disolve the fabrications and deceptions with their words and passion.
http://www.freespeech.org/fsitv/fscm2/contentviewer.php?content_id=720


Three killed in Khan Younis on Friday
A Palestinian medical source in Khan Younis said that one woman died on Friday evening, of wounds sustained on October, 4, 2004, raising the number of Palestinians shot dead in Kahn Younis, on Friday to three residents.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/102204/Khan%20Younis.htm


Palestinian killed at funeral of Hamas militant
Security sources and witnesses said Israeli troops opened fire at the funeral procession in Khan Yunis, killing Ahmed al-Haddad. But an Israeli army spokesman denied troops had fired at the funeral procession
http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=31458


Thousands mourn Hamas chief
The funeral procession was headed by children waving the movement's huge green banners, followed by a rank of militants and armed men wearing masks, says the BBC's Alan Johnston in Gaza. Behind them marched the great throng of mourners.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3945169.stm


U.N.: Hundreds of Palestinians Homeless
In addition, army shelling and bulldozers destroyed 19 public buildings and commercial properties, including government compounds, a mosque, two farms and three factories, among several other small shops, the report said. Sixteen buildings were damaged, including eight UNRWA schools
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=540&e=13&u=/ap/20041022/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_un


Church Responds to Congressional Criticism on Divestment
I very much regret your disappointment, but in all candor, must also communicate with you that I am terribly distressed in the failure of the United States Congress to seek a peaceful resolution to this conflict that would both protect the right of Israel to live in peace with secure borders and the rights of the Palestinians to statehood and an end of the occupation of their territory.
http://www.pcusa.org/washington/divestment.htm


Tensions boil as Holocaust survivor decries treatment of Palestinians
On a recent trip to Israel, airport security guards informed her that based on her history as an activist she was considered a terrorist threat. She was subsequently stripped and cavity-searched. “When I stood next to that wall, I remembered what the motto of Holocaust survivors was: ‘Never again,'” she said. Epstein shook her head and continued, “We Jews are doing this.”
http://daily.stanford.org/tempo?page=content&id=14971&repository=0001_article


Sha'ath: PA needs a general election
"Elections are the single most important act of reform because elections turn a stale democracy to a vibrant democracy," Sha'ath told reporters after talks with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/492321.html


Palestinians shell Gaza settlements after Israelis kill leading Hamas commander
Tens of thousands of angry Hamas supporters joined the funeral procession for Adnan al-Ghoul, 46, a founder and deputy chief of the Hamas military wing who was on Israel's most-wanted list since 1990. Mourners and leaders of the Islamic militant group threatened revenge attacks against Israel.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20041022-0744-palestine.html


South African President Mbeki meets with Deputy PM Olmert
Trade between the nations stands at about $500 million per year, and officials say it could double in coming years. South Africa, which hosted talks last month with members of the Likud party to try to revive negotiations to end the Middle East conflict, has slammed Israel for building a wall in the West Bank
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/492363.html


Egypt proposes deploying 750 troops in Sinai
If Israel agrees, the force will be deployed beginning on January 1, 2005. Egypt made the proposal to Israel during the last meeting of the special security committee on the Egyptian side of Rafah on October 5.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/492104.html


The Launching of a New International Campaign of Sanctions Against Israel
The aim of this press conference is to inform the public about the latest developments in the international movement to bring sanctions against Israel in order to end its aggressive policies and bring peace to the region. There are five factors pushing us to begin this campaign:
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/new_web/October_update_archive.htm#sanctions


Germany and Israel restart talks on sale of submarines
According to German defense sources, Germany's Defense Ministry and military support Israel's request, which would supply employment at shipyards. However, implementing the deal requires approval by the government, which is divided on the issue.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=492266&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Churches urged to take proactive role in Israeli-Palestinian crisis
Canada, he added should promote "justice and security. Genuine peace in Israel and Palestine must be founded on justice," he said, but justice is not the final objective Justice, however, is "the key to all to which we aspire. Only justice produces peace. Only justice leads to security. Only justice opens the way to reconciliation."
http://generalsynod.anglican.ca/stories/news.php?newsItem=2004-10-21_Ateekvisit.news


Palestinian official urges Israel to resume peace talks
Addressing delegates to a regional Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building, Abdalla said Israel and the Palestinians needed "to return to the negotiating table and implement obligations" under the roadmap.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=7&u=/afp/20041022/wl_mideast_afp/mideast_kazakhstan_cica


'To begin the real process of healing' - By: Daoud Kuttab
In both cases, the Israelis create a point of view and corresponding terminology and idioms and then circulate them locally and around the world as undisputed truth. The irony is that in both cases, what the Israelis are talking about is the land, lives and future of someone else, namely the Palestinian people and land.
http://www.amin.org/eng/daoud_kuttab/2004/oct22.html


Israel rampant - By Azmi Bishara
This Israeli phase will be characterised by attempts to internationalise the Congress approved boycott of Syria. The recent UN Security Council resolution on Lebanon -- which has nothing to do with the Lebanese constitution and everything to do with encircling and striking at Syria -- can only be understood as a building block in this process.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/713/op14.htm


10 years on, Jordan-Israel peace treaty remains cold
Even intellectuals like Hassan Barari, who lived three years in Israel to learn Hebrew, say they are fed up. "Every time I see the scenes of Palestinian deaths and destruction on television I feel disgust" toward the Israelis, said the researcher from the University of Jordan's Center of Strategic Studies. "
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=9496


You bet he's got a mandate
In February 2004, in an interview with Haaretz, Sharon dropped the bombshell about evacuating 21 settlements in Gaza and the West Bank. He needed time, but Sharon has ripened into a leader determined to carry out a plan that he believes is imperative, given our political situation, and in keeping with what most Israelis want.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/492039.html


Israeli army faces a revolt from the right
"When it comes to the crunch these rabbis are saying there is a higher law than the law of state," says Yossi Alpher, former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv. "This is a very serious challenge not only to the military but to the rule of law."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1022/p01s03-wome.htm


PART 2: The US-Israel tag-team act
As the US presidential election campaign is coming to a close and Iraq continues to burn, another dangerous diplomatic tussle is taking place: the United States and Israel are acting as a tag-team against the potential emergence of Iran as a nuclear power. The stakes are high in this tussle.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FJ22Ak02.html


ACLU files suit over FBI questioning of Muslims
In its lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco, the civil rights advocacy group said it had received reports that numerous individuals had been "interrogated" by the FBI since the summer "solely because they are Muslims or of Middle Eastern descent."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=492293&contrassID=1&subContrassID=8&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


US fire killed two Fallujah girls: rescuer
Villager Mahmoud Mohammed says the mother of the two girls and the driver of the car, who have both been wounded, had told him a US tank had fired at the vehicle in Naamiya, 10 km south-east of Fallujah.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200410/s1226253.htm


Witness says CIA oversaw abuse at Abu Ghraib
Witnesses in the trial of a U.S. soldier charged with abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib have told the court that the CIA sometimes directed abuse and orders were received from military command to toughen interrogations.
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=606774&section=news


Muslim scholars arrested in Iraq
The head of the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) office in Kubeisa in western Iraq was arrested along with four other members. They were on their way back from Baghdad when US forces stopped their convoy and arrested them.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/037BF7E6-B239-4C23-A6A3-6E4F21DA44CC.htm


British hostage pleads London to withdraw from Iraq as violence flares
Kidnapped British aid worker Margaret Hassan pleaded for London to save her life by scrapping a plan to redeploy Britain's troops in Iraq and by pulling them out, as more than a dozen people died in clashes around the country. "Please help me, please help me, these might be my last hours," ... "I will die like Mr (Kenneth) Bigley,"
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=1&u=/afp/20041022/wl_mideast_afp/iraq

October 21 2004

A schoolgirl riddled with bullets. And no one is to blame
The schoolgirl kept on walking toward the tower but was still several hundred metres away when two shots caught her in the leg. She dropped her bag, turned, tried to hobble away, and fell. Four or five soldiers emerged from the army post and shot at her from a distance. Palestinian witnesses and some Israeli soldiers say that the platoon commander moved in closer to put two bullets in the child's head. (This Action is clearly not Anti-Semite, looking at the silence...!)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1332219,00.html


Action Alert: Release Non-Violent Activist Ahmad Hassan Khalil Awad!
Ahmad works closely with Abu Ahmad in organizing non-violent civil resistance to the Wall in Budrus and is an active member of the Committee Against the Separation Wall in the Northwest Jerusalem Region.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/palsolidarity/message/1079


Palestinians challenge fence route in Hebron Hills
The petition claims the fence's route will damage the residents' lives and their livelihood. The petitioners are claiming that land-seizure warrants recently issued by the government are illegal. According to Israel Radio, the petition also claims the maps attached to the warrants are unclear.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/491865.html


Internationals Beaten in Village of Al-Hatab Near Nablus
Violence escalates as Israeli soldier puts gun to head of Swedish national and threatens to pull the trigger... At approximately 9:00AM, 18 internationals accompanied Palestinian farmers to their olive groves to harvest their olives near the village of Al-Hatab, East of Nablus.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/DesktopModules/Articles/ArticlesView.aspx?TabID=0&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en-US&ItemID=534&mid=10400


Holocaust survivor protests wall
So I did not imagine that the Israeli security force that guards Ben-Gurion Airport would abuse a 79-year-old Holocaust survivor, holding me for five hours and performing a completely unnecessary strip search of every part of my naked body.
http://daily.stanford.edu/tempo?page=content&id=14946&repository=0001_article


Palestine: the assault on health and other war crimes
The coherence of the Palestinian health system is being destroyed. The wall will isolate 97 primary health clinics and 11 hospitals from the populations they serve. Qalqilya hospital, which primarily serves refugees, has seen a 40% fall in follow up appointments because patients cannot enter the city.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3247.shtml


Media Pro Greta Berlin Will Show Her Power Point Presentation Anywhere in U.S.
“Now these same children’s eyes look out in TV footage from Rafah as they witness Israeli bulldozers demolish their homes and see American-made Apache helicopters fire missiles on them. How will they ever see a better world,” Berlin asked, “when the Israeli military forces this deliberate carnage on their families?
http://www.wrmea.com/archives/Oct_2004/0410062.html


PPS: Israeli Prison Services Further Humiliate Palestinian Prisoners
According to testimonies gathered from several prisoners like N'aeema Nakhla (needing special care) from the West Bank refugee camp of Jalazoun, Abeer Amro (backbone problems) from Hebron and Maha Alka'ek (mentally ill), the prison's service offer pain killers for most cases only.
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=622


IDF soldier killed in blast on Philadelphi Route in Gaza
In a leaflet that was distributed, Hamas claimed responsibility for the blast that killed First Sergeant Major Moshe Elimelech, from the Engineering Corps, saying militants had attacked soldiers and civilian contractors in the area.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/491750.html


Emergency Aid to Gaza!
The Middle East Children's Alliance will send your contribution to purchase emergency food and medical aid for children in the Gaza Strip.
https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?id=2236&cmid=8515:2097447


Armed wings issue joint statement over deaths of 2 Palestinians
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, armed wing of the mainstream Fatah movement, and Saraya al Quds, armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, issued a joint statement on Thursday, asserting that the Israeli army killed two militants in Gaza.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/21/content_2122948.htm


UNRWA Gaza Field assessment of IDF Operation Days of Penitence
During the operation, approximately 36,000 Palestinians in different locations, including Beit Hanoun (22,000 persons), Izbet Beit Hanoun (5,000 persons), the areas east of Sikka St. and Salah Eddin St (2,500 persons), Nada and Awda towers (2,500 persons) and parts of Jabalia camp (4,000 persons) were under siege. October 2004 has been the deadliest month so far, with 112 killed
http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/47d4e277b48d9d3685256ddc00612265/34d778171ac57b5d85256f34004ba1b5!OpenDocument


UN: Gaza offensive left 675 homeless
In its assessment of Operation Days of Penitence, which began late last month and was wrapped up over the weekend, the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) said 91 buildings, home to 143 families, had been destroyed. "Over 90 percent of those affected were refugees.
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/palestine/?id=11644


Israeli Arabs slam policeman's promotion
The families of Israeli Arabs who were killed in the October 2000 riots expressed outrage on Wednesday over the promotion of police Brigadier General Bentzi Sau, who was the commander of the Border Police in the north during the clashes. During the riots, 12 Israeli Arabs and one Palestinian were killed
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=491435&contrassID=1&subContrassID=7&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


After talks with PM, Shas leader says no to backing pullout
Shas Chairman Eli Yishai said afternoon that the ultra-Orthodox party will not back Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan when it comes to a vote in the Knesset next week, Israel Radio reported.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/491503.html


Sharon removes disengagement funding from state budget bill
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided Thursday to separate funding for the disengagement plan from the 2005 state budget bill. The decision followed a request Monday by Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=492004&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Some Arab lawmakers oppose Gaza pullout
Arab legislators said they struggled over their position on the evacuation of Jewish settlements in Gaza and removal of Israeli troops. But many ultimately concluded the "disengagement plan" would not bring Israeli-Palestinian peace closer.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L17389411.htm


European delegation to meet Arafat over Mideast peace process
A senior Palestinian official saidon Thursday that an European ministerial delegation would meet Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat before holding a conference on thestalled Mideast peace process in Britain.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/21/content_2122611.htm


Egyptian FM, intelligence chief to visit Israel in November
The visitors will meet with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom to discuss the disengagement plan and security cooperation to prevent smuggling across the Egyptian border.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=491395&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Pre-army academies join call for soldiers to obey orders
These recent letters come in reaction to a petition by some 60 rabbis, including heads of hesder yeshivas - which combine Torah study and army service - calling on religious soldiers to refuse to evacuate settlements.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/491436.html


Israel denies pullout will crush Palestinian economy
Tel Aviv hit back at criticism on Wednesday that an Israeli pullout would cause economic isolation and an increase in poverty in the Gaza Strip. According to Israel-based experts, the pullout next year could revive the local economy if Palestinian goods and laborers can freely move in and out of the territory.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=3&article_id=9441


A message from the Arab citizens
And now, out of the blue, a survey has cropped up in which more than 77 percent of those questioned said they would "support" or "definitely support" the establishment of a constitution that defines Israel as a Jewish and democratic state that ensures full equality to Arabs.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/491475.html


Noam Chomsky on the State of the Nation, Iraq and the Election
The latest polls about a week ago, 17%. Now, a majority of the population thinks that we ought to equalize aid to Israel and Palestine, and we should deny aid to either one that refuses negotiations, which would entail denying it to Israel. That's the majority of the population. Those results are so unacceptable, the press won't report them.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/21/1441204


In Gaza, Debate Over Pullout Plan Pits Settler Against Settler
She has been threatened with eviction from her home, her 2-year-old son was denied entry to the settlement's pre-kindergarten, and she has been ostracized by her neighbors -- all for supporting the disengagement plan, Cohen said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49659-2004Oct20.html


Arabs in US elections
Any objective attempt to explain the deterioration of Arab-American relations must include a process of sober introspection and self-criticism. Intractable underdevelopment and relentless despotism and marginalisation have systematically decimated Arab civil and cultural society over the past 50 years, destroying, in turn, the bridges of unofficial dialogue.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/713/ed.htm


Sharon or disaster
From the left's perspective, the matter is very simple: only Sharon can do it. If Sharon will not be able to evacuate settlements in 2005, no one can. The occupation would become a permanent state of affairs. Yet even from the right's perspective, the matter is not especially complicated: Sharon is the last defender of most of the settlements.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/491476.html


IPI Intifada Report Says Press Freedom Deteriorating: Heavy Media Casualties, Perpetrators Go Unpunished
The International Press Institute (IPI) today published the IPI Intifada Report, a chronicle and statistical analysis of 562 press freedom violations during the first four years of the Palestinian Uprising. At least 478 press freedom violations were carried out by the Israeli state, including the government, the judiciary, and even the legislators.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3245.shtml


Joint Irish-Palestinian appeal for release of kidnapped aid chief
Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern and his Palestinian counterpart Nabil Shaath called in a joint written statement for her release for the "sake of humanity, compassion and the people of Iraq". Ahern and Shaath said they were making the appeal in their own names and "on behalf of the Irish and Palestinian peoples".
http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=31279


James Zogby: Why I'll Vote for Kerry
While President Bush has been praised for projecting a vision of a Palestinian state, every step taken by his administration has made a realization of that vision impossible. During the past four years the administration has failed to support even its own initiatives, from the ill-fated “Mitchell, Tenet, Zinni” plans to the now dead “road map.”
http://ummahnews.com/story.php?sid=20041021094341737


France expels two more students for defying headscarf ban
France has quietly begun expelling Muslim girls for wearing head scarves to public schools in defiance of a new law banning conspicuous religious attire. Seven girls have been forced to leave school so far this week after two more were expelled Thursday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=491851&contrassID=1&subContrassID=8&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Britain agrees to send 850 troops into US-controlled zone in Iraq
Britain agreed to an unprecedented US request to redeploy 850 crack troops to a volatile area to the west of Baghdad, freeing up US soldiers for an expected assault on the "insurgent" stronghold of Fallujah. "The government has decided that we should accept the US request for assistance,"...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=15&u=/afp/20041021/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_us_britain_troops_041021175120

October 20 2004

Review of From Oslo to Iraq and the Road Map : Essays by Edward W. Said
Both President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry back Israel's apartheid wall in the Palestinian West Bank, which, when completed, will separate an estimated 300,000 Palestinians from the land they farm. Consequently, these agricultural laborers will be forced into the wages system. Said analyzes the propaganda of the Israeli lobby and America's corporate media.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Oct04/Sandronsky1019.htm


Guava in Jabalia: First Bite, Last Breath
Craving for eating the ripe guava with his cousins led Saber to head to the orchard close to his house. He was so happy as he had new hair cut style and new clothes. "Dad, look, it is a new hair style. Is it nice dad?, Saber asked his father, soon after he had his fresh haircut minutes before being murdered.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3246.shtml


A Bullet Fired for Every Palestinian Child
It was a bullet for every Palestinian child, said one of the officers in that meeting, or at least this is what the Israeli daily Maariv revealed two years ago, when the horrible figures were first leaked. It didn't much change "public opinion", neither here nor in the West, neither two years ago nor 4 months ago when Malka finally opened his mouth.
http://www.counterpunch.org/laor10202004.html


Israel arrests 2,500 Palestinian children
A total of 2,500 Palestinian childrenhave been arrested since the intifada (uprising) against an Israelioccupation began four years ago, the Palestinian Ministry ofPrisoners said in a report on Wednesday. Of the total, 391 children were still in the Israeli Jails, andmore than 400 were under 18 when they were arrested.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/21/content_2118600.htm


Study: Settlements get more aid money than other towns
West Bank and Gaza Strip settlements received at least twice as much money in Interior Ministry financial aid as did other Jewish communities in 2002 and 2003 - and three times as much as Israeli Arab communities, according to a Tel Aviv University study released Tuesday. ( I L L E G A L - Settlements)
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=490957&contrassID=1&subContrassID=7&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


4 Killed in Gaza, 4 Arrested in West Bank
A citizen was slain early Wednesday by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) in Rafah city area of Tal Zourob, witnesses said. They told WAFA that Ahmed Baraka 29, was shot dead when an Israeli tank opened its heavy machineguns at the houses.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1797


Jerusalem Women Promote Peace on U.S. Tour
In a promotion-for-peace tour titled, “Three Women, Three Faiths, One Shared Vision,” the speakers talked about their life experiences with occupation, not prevalent in U.S. mainstream media. The UN-registered organization, Partners for Peace, sponsors their tour. “By omitting the occupation, we will no longer have violence,” Albina said.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0410/S00247.htm


Vatican, Chief Rabbinate slam assault on Armenian Patriarch
In a joint statement released Tuesday in Rome, the Vatican and the Chief Rabbinate called on religious authorities to publicly protest when actions of disrespect towards religious persons, symbols and Holy Sites are committed.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/491292.html


Israel's Olmert starts secretive S.Africa tour
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert arrived in South Africa on Wednesday on a secretive tour that has outraged pro-Palestinian groups. South Africa's black-led government has encouraged factions in the Middle East conflict to draw on its experiences in negotiating the end of apartheid white rule in 1994.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L20616921.htm


Boycott threat hangs over Israeli visit
The South African NGO Coalition (Sangoco) has also condemned the visit. In a statement, Sangoco said: "The visit of a hate monger like Olmert is not in the best interests of the people of Israel and Palestine. We urge all our members to show their displeasure at the visit and meeting by joining in the protests."
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=6&art_id=vn20041020064818593C377596


US envoy has 'no illusions' on Israeli-Palestinian two-state solution
The assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, who made no reference to the killing of 129 Palestinians in Israel's three-week campaign in the Gaza Strip that ended over the weekend, acknowledged that reviving trust on both sides would be an uphill struggle.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1521&ncid=1312&e=2&u=/afp/20041020/pl_afp/mideast_gaza_us_roadmap_041020145133


Israel more corrupt, third year running, says corruption index
The Palestinian Authority also showed a substantial increase in its level of corruption, and was ranked 108th, with 2.5 points, a drop from its 78th-place ranking last year.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/491353.html


Arab MKs propose bill to block disengagement referendum
The Hadash Knesset faction submitted a bill Tuesday calling for no referendum to be held on "issues that do not fall within [Israel's] sovereignty and recognized borders." As such, the party is aiming to thwart plans for the disengagement plan, which it has recently said it opposes.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=490862&contrassID=1&subContrassID=7&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Mideast "roadmap" in a coma: Palestinian minister
Shaath, who is on a tour of European states, on Monday in London restated the Palestinian Authority's commitment to the peace roadmap and to a simultaneous ceasefire by Israel and the Palestinians. But he added that during the recent three-week Israeli offensive which left 129 Palestinians dead his people had felt "very alone."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=12&u=/afp/20041021/wl_mideast_afp/mideast_spain_041021000312


Katsav apologises for killings
"I am very sorry and I apologise for the deaths of civilians, women and children," Mr Katsav, in Austria for the first visit by an Israeli head of state, was quoted by the Austria Press Agency as saying. "That's accidental. They are never our targets." (Except in Proved cases, which is Anti-Semite to mention?)
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,11137092%255E1702,00.html


US anti-Semitism law will not dissuade Arabs from criticizing Israel: Arab League
"We Arabs do not have any feelings of hatred toward Jews because they are Jews. Arabs are Semites in the same way as Jews," he said. Mussa said Arabs would not respect the law if it is intended to "muzzle and ward off criticism of Israeli policies, which should be criticized because of their continuous crimes against the Palestinian people."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=10&u=/afp/20041020/wl_mideast_afp/arabs_bush_jews_041020195341


PM to meet Yishai in effort to convince him to support pullout
Cabinet Secretary Yisrael Maimon met Wednesday with Labor party faction whip Dalia Itzik, and discussed cooperation between the government and opposition in recruiting a majority for the disengagement plan in the Knesset vote next Tuesday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/491228.html


Olmert arrives in South Africa to protests
He is the most senior Israeli government official to visit South Africa since the fall of apartheid a decade ago, was expected to discuss strengthening economic ties between the two countries.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=491312&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Palestinan denies Israeli reports on Arafat's health
A senior Palestinian official on Wednesday denied Israeli reports that that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat may be airlifted to Cairo to pass through a surgery operation.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/20/content_2117264.htm


U.S. Diplomatic Delegation Shocked by Oppression and Devastation in Palestine
IN MAY OF this year, 82 former American diplomats wrote President George W. Bush to express their firm belief that his April 14 endorsement of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's unilateral “disengagement plan” was not in the best interests of the U.S., or Israel, or the Palestinians. Through his endorsement Bush had closed the door to negotiations with Palestinians and the possibility of a Palestinian state.
http://www.wrmea.com/archives/Oct_2004/0410042.html


Rental Unit: "Holy Land"
“The Holy Land” smartly avoids placing the conflict upfront. Those tensions are more background facts of life in this coming-of-age drama, like trash and the human crush in New York. Only here the facts of life include checkpoints, constant paranoia and news updates that make mothers hold their breath. Characters channel the repercussions.
http://www.styleweekly.com/article.asp?idarticle=9258


Palestinians should head to the polls
Israel and the United States currently oppose elections for fear that Yasser Arafat will be reelected president of the Palestinian Authority, yet they are the only effective, legitimate way to marginalize him. Additionally, a Palestinian ceasefire during elections would allow the Jewish state to prepare for its withdrawal without appearing to flee under fire. .
http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/10/20/news/edshikaki.html


Leaders of Conservative movement draft prayer for PM's safety
A newly drafted prayer, in English and in Hebrew, will be added this Saturday to the ritual prayer for the safety of the State of Israel. The prayer mentions the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated by a Jewish extremist nine years ago.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/491383.html


Shas leader could determine fate of Sharon's Gaza plan
Leading supporters and opponents of Israel's proposed withdrawal from Gaza on Wednesday set out to woo a leading rabbinical sage whose followers' votes could be crucial in next week's Knesset decision on the controversial plan.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/75450e56-22b1-11d9-be80-00000e2511c8.html


Kicking the beehive
But as David Ben-Gurion noted: "It doesn't matter what the gentiles say, it only matters what Jews do." The problem is not whether Palestinians want two states or one - the problem is unilateral Israeli action that is rapidly making, or has arguably already made, a two-state solution impossible.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/490928.html


Nablus thanks for computers
She said, “The work here has been advancing by leaps and bounds since the visit of the Dundee delegation this year, the local volunteers tell me. They are particularly appreciative of the gift of computers, which are making it easier for them to forge ahead with spreading the news about the situation in Palestine.
http://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/output/2004/10/20/story6449348t0.shtm


U.S. Rocket Attack in Fallujah Kills Six
U.S. forces fired rockets in central Fallujah early Wednesday, hitting a teacher's college and leveling a house, killing six people, police and witnesses said. A family of six was killed when U.S. jets fired two rockets at their home in the central Wahda area, said neighbor Saeed Mohammed Bassem, 40. The couple and their four children...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=540&e=20&u=/ap/20041020/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_fallujah


British forces 'will be targeted by Iraqi insurgents'
Colonel Christopher Langton said public debate about the possible redeployment of up to 1,000 British soldiers from Basra was "rather unfortunate" and could jeopardise British troops by "highlighting it so graphically". He added: "The insurgency will see this as a weakness they can attack, and the British public can now say 'I told you so'," to the Government.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=573931


Heavy fighting errupts in rebel-held Falluja
The official did not rule out a peaceful resolution, but said Falluja was different from other cities in Iraq where negotiations had led to diplomatic solutions. Any military offensive aimed at retaking the city would have to be started soon to restore control in advance of planned January elections, he said.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/f54caa4e-22bd-11d9-be80-00000e2511c8.html


Anti-U.S. Iraqis Not Welcome at Conference
Top U.S. and Iraqi officials said Wednesday that Iraq's delegation to next month's international conference on Iraq would only include members of the interim government and that Iraqis opposed to the American-backed administration would not be welcome.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=540&e=9&u=/ap/20041020/ap_on_re_mi_ea/egypt_iraqi_conference


Agency halts aid projects in Iraq
Care International has suspended its aid operations in Iraq, after the director of the charity's work there was kidnapped. A video of Margaret Hassan has been broadcast on al-Jazeera TV station, showing her with her hands tied behind her back. She was abducted by an unnamed group on her way to work in Baghdad.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3758354.stm


Swimming in oil, Iraqis still made to wait hours at gas stations
"Have you ever seen anything like this in a country that is floating on a sea of oil?" the 60-year-old businessman demanded as he stood on the roadside watching a scruffy boy pour petrol into his tank from a plastic container -- a scene that is commonplace across the capital.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=4&u=/afp/20041021/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_oil_society_041021064828

October 19 2004

Killing children is no longer a big deal
More than 30 Palestinian children were killed in the first two weeks of Operation Days of Penitence in the Gaza Strip. It's no wonder that many people term such wholesale killing of children "terror." Whereas in the overall count of all the victims of the intifada the ratio is three Palestinians killed for every Israeli killed, when it comes to children the ratio is 5:1. The youngest victims are 13 newborn infants who died at checkpoints during birth.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/489479.html


Gaza girl death officer cleared
The Israeli army has cleared an officer accused of repeatedly firing into the lifeless body of a young Palestinian girl of "unethical" behaviour. While Iman was lying, wounded or dead, about 70m from the Israeli guard post, the platoon commander approached her and fired two bullets from close range at her head, the soldiers said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3748054.stm


Israeli Troops Demolish Historical Buildings in Hebron for Settlement Purposes
In August,2004, the Israeli bulldozers knocked down 13 historical Palestinian-owned homes , east of the Alharam Alibrahimi mosque, for the construction of a bypass road for the use of Israeli armed settlers of the Kiryat Arba illegal settlement
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=598


October 2000, revisited
But there is another aspect to those difficult days that has been erased over the years from the awareness of Israeli Jews: the riots initiated by Jews against mosques, Arab-owned businesses, residences and Arab passersby, in mixed cities and elsewhere.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/490425.html


Disproportionate Force Suspected in Northern Gaza Strip
Among those killed were 50 civilians who did not take part in the hostilities, including 26 children under 18; The IDF damaged at least 235 homes in the northern Gaza Strip: 85 housing units were completely demolished and another 150 housing units were severely damaged.
http://www.btselem.org/English/Press_Releases/2004/041018.asp


3 Citizens, including 2 Children, Wounded, Dozens Arrested in GS and WB
Medics told WAFA that the child Hasnaa Shahwan 6, was shot with a shell shrapnel allover the body while her little brother Hassan 3, was shot in the legs. Both were wounded while they were inside their house.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1796


Two activists shot dead, three residents shot wounded in the Gaza Strip
Moreover, soldiers fired at tens of residents who were trying to cross Al-Matahin – Abu Holy checkpoint, in the south of the Gaza Strip, moderately wounding Rweida Abu Mustafa, 32 years old, sustained a gunshot injury to her head while she was heading to Al-Aqsa University in Gaza city.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week3/101904/Two_killed.htm


Jihad leader's brother dies of wounds in Rafah
Mahmoud Elsheikh Khalil, the brother of Saraya's leader Mohammed Elsheikh Khalil, was seriously wounded a week ago when an Israeli helicopter shelled the refugee camp of Yebna in Rafah in an attempt to kill Mohammed.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/19/content_2107805.htm


Israeli killed in West Bank shooting attack
An Israeli man was killed Tuesday afternoon in a shooting attack near the West Bank settlement of Mevo Dotan, south of Jenin.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/490691.html


17 Palestinians arrested in West Bank
The Israeli army arrested some 17 Palestinians in different parts of the West Bank on Tuesday, Palestinian security sources said. The sources said that the Israeli troops stormed the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank and arrested six Palestinian residents there.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/19/content_2112453.htm


Two Peace Cyclists and Three Palestinians Detained North of Nablus
The Israeli occupying forces took the identification cards from the three Palestinians and the passports from the two Swedes.  They have been unable to leave for over eight hours. Israeli Army DCO claims incident "doesn't exist"
http://www.palsolidarity.org/DesktopModules/Articles/ArticlesView.aspx?TabID=0&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en-US&ItemID=519&mid=10400


Palestinian IT thrives despite occupation
For now the future appears bright for stay-at-home Palestinian programmers and designers, at least in the short run. "The ICT sector is least affected by the situation because we don't have any checkpoints on the internet" he says. "Well, we are thinking maybe Israel might start developing that someday. God knows."
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=3&article_id=9376


Israeli destruction of Palestinian homes 'violates international law'
It calls on the United States and European countries who fund the rehousing of Palestinians left homeless by Israeli action to demand reparations for victims or compensation for donors because of the unlawful nature of the destruction. The report also calls on Caterpillar Inc the US-based company that supplies Israel with powerful D9 bulldozers to suspend sales...
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=573565


Rights groups slam Israeli attacks
Israel's policies in the Gaza Strip have come under severe criticism after a leading rights group and a UN agency chief both accused Tel Aviv of violating international law. Israel has systematically expelled tens of thousands of Palestinians from the border area in the southern Gaza Strip, and plans to expel thousands more as part of its "disengagement plan", the report also said.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E0EE1985-06BD-4AF0-AE69-61B59FE19234.htm


UNICEF starts distribution of 40,000 school bags in Gaza Strip
UNICEF today began distribution of more than 40,000 school bags to children in the Gaza Strip, starting with schools damaged by the recent military incursions into the North.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3244.shtml


Rival Palestinians Clash in Gaza, 6 Hurt
Witnesses said six people were hurt in gunfights in Gaza City between officers of the Palestinian Authority's internal security service and military intelligence agents loyal to the cousin of President Yasser Arafat, Moussa Arafat.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6534216


Qurei asks for two more weeks to defend cabinet's performance
Qurei had been summoned to present a report to parliament on Oct. 20 after accusations that his government, appointed by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, failed to act on wide spread demands for reform.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/19/content_2112493.htm


PA offices closed by Jenin gunmen
"We have been appealing to the Palestinian Legislative Council for the last eight months to pass a bill that would protect the families of martyrs," Zakaria Zubeidi - head of al-Aqsa Brigades in Jenin - told the AFP news agency. "These offices will remain closed until the law is adopted", he said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3756800.stm


Peres: Sharon risks assassination for Gaza plan
Peres, head of the centre-left Labour party, said the divisive atmosphere recalled the climate when Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was killed in 1995 by an ultra-nationalist Jew opposed to his peace deals with the Palestinians. ( had no impact on Peace Process, White House said)
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L19303216.htm


PM mulls abolition of gov't settlement division
It has functioned as the chief conduit for financing West Bank and Gaza settlements, as well as settlements in the Golan Heights. Its operations, however, were only officially recognized in 1998, during Benjamin Netanyahu's term as prime minister. (had no impact on Peace Process, White House said)
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/490830.html


FM criticizes EU decision to sign cooperation treaty with Syria
Syria's was delayed by its reluctance to sign up to a clause committing to the nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction that the EU has insisted upon in all such agreements since late 2003. (Skipping Israel?)
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/490834.html


Public Security Min. approves controversial police appointment
Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra authorized on Tuesday the appointment of Brigadier General Benzi Sau to Border Police Staff Commander, despite the fact that the Or Commission, which investigated the October 2000 clashes in which 12 Israeli Arabs and a Palestinian were killed by police, recommended his promotions be frozen for four years.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/490842.html


Poll: 49% of Arab-Americans back Democratic candidate Kerry
Other causes of the Arab American political swing include the stagnation of the Middle East peace process, Bush's unwavering support for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the war in Iraq - all of which have further distanced Bush from the Arab vote.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=490686&contrassID=1&subContrassID=8&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


July deadline seen for settlers leaving Gaza-official
Jewish settlers slated for evacuation from Gaza will have until next July to go and anyone resisting will be forced out by September, the chief architect of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's withdrawal plan said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L19657823.htm


SA under pressure to call off Israeli visit
Olmert, who is due to begin four days of talks in South Africa on Wednesday, will be the most senior Israeli official to visit since the end of apartheid a decade ago. The Palestine Solidarity Group umbrella grouping said the visit by Olmert was a "national shame" for the governing African National Congress, Africa's oldest liberation movement.
http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/zones/sundaytimesNEW/newsst/newsst1098192113.aspx


An author's catharsis: Arab-Israeli MP gets his message across
"I wrote 'Checkpoint' during the hardest year of my life. It was the beginning of the second intifada and I myself was an object of violence," says Bishara, referring to attempts to set fire to his home in Nazareth, and living and working in a general atmosphere of intense hostility.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=4&article_id=9353


Palestine Takes Center Stage at European Social Forum
"End the oppression, end the occupation" was the rallying cry at the European Social Forum in London last weekend, where thousands of delegates from all walks of life descended on Alexandra Palace united in the belief that "another world is possible."
http://www.counterpunch.org/kattan10192004.html


Michelin drops case against Israeli jail satirist
The pamphlet tells readers to begin the "guided tour of Israel's prisons, concentration camps and torture chambers" by being arrested. "The safest way to be arrested, although this also carries a risk with it, is to look like a Palestinian Arab."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1330431,00.html


Arafat aide reports improvement after Egyptian doctors called
Arafat caught his cold last Tuesday, while walking in the windy courtyard of his headquarters, aides said. That evening, he felt nauseous during dinner, couldn't finish his meal and went to bed early, an aide added.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=490675&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Fallujah enjoys respite as US troops await manpower
Part of the reinforcement will be US soldiers freed for Fallujah with the expected arrival next week of British troops from Basra to replace them. Although no final decision had been made, it was believed that a mechanised infantry battalion of 650, the Black Watch, will move into an area...
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=573593


Baghdad to extend arms for cash plan across Iraq
The initiative is largely the result of an experimental "arms for cash" handover in the Baghdad suburb of Sadr City, which has been largely successful. Sadr City residents say the handover scheme has inadvertently increased the flow of arms into the suburb from traders throughout Iraq, hoping to make a profit.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/991223dc-21c1-11d9-8c55-00000e2511c8.html


General Reported Shortages In Iraq
The lack of key spare parts for gear vital to combat operations, such as tanks and helicopters, was causing problems so severe, Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez wrote in a letter to top Army officials, that "I cannot continue to support sustained combat operations with rates this low."
http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=2&p=6413&s2=19


US soldier's non-combat death raises toll to 1,100
The soldier's corpse was found in his bunk house after he did not return to guard duty, the military said in a statement. A spokesman declined to comment on whether the soldier had committed suicide and said the cause of his death would be announced after the completion of an official probe.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=15&u=/afp/20041019/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_us_toll_041019120203

October 18 2004

Occupation Forces Begin Building the Apartheid Wall in Al Burj Village
Al Burj village is situated in the southwestern part of Hebron with 2500 inhabitants at an area of 10,000 dunums, with most of the people working in trade and agriculture as well as depending on work inside the Green Line. Occupation Forces are currently destroying lands and uprooting trees in the west and the southwest sides of Al Burj village...
http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/774.shtml


In a Next Step towards Expulsion: New Demolition Orders in Dab'a
The new demolition orders in Daba'a are an additional step taken by the Occupation towards the expulsion of the people living in the village. Over one year ago the Apartheid Wall was completed around Dab'a along with the adjacent villages of Wadi Al Rasha, Ras Tira, Arab Al Ramadin and Arab Abu Farda, isolating all of them from the rest of the West Bank...
http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/773.shtml


S. Africa moves to avert protests over Olmert visit
Meanwhile relations with Israel's government are complicated by South Africa's protests over the 600 km West Bank barrier - ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice but which Israel says it needs to keep suicide bombers out - as well as Israel's historic support for apartheid.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=490346&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Israel: Despite Gaza Pullout Plan, Home Demolitions Expand
Human Rights Watch called on Caterpillar to suspend sales of D9 bulldozers, parts or maintenance services to the IDF so long as they use this machinery in illegal demolitions. The company should take steps to ensure that it does not knowingly sell its goods and services to customers that will use them to abuse human rights.
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/10/18/isrlpa9507.htm


Razing Rafah: Mass Home Demolitions in the Gaza Strip
The Israeli Supreme Court has consistently sanctioned IDF policies that violate international law, including house demolitions aimed at collectively punishing families of militants and those destroyed to make way for the illegal “separation barrier” under construction inside the occupied West Bank. And under Israeli law, compensation is ruled out in cases of “combat activity,” which the Knesset amended in 2002 with an expansive definition that includes virtually every IDF action in the OPT.
http://hrw.org/campaigns/gaza/

Palestinians fear more of the same after US elections
Palestinians may well be glad to see the back of George W. Bush at next month's presidential elections but are sceptical that John Kerry will execute a major rethink in US policy on the Middle East conflict.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1963&e=24&u=/afp/20041018/pl_afp/us_vote_palestinian_041018051756


Israel faces twin allegations of breaching international law in Gaza
A report by Human Rights Watch said the destruction of thousands of homes in in southern Gaza along the border with Egypt, could not be justified on military grounds. The head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Peter Hansen, said a recent offensive in northern Gaza had left up to 700 people homeless.
http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=31028


Palestinian parliament gives Qureia two-week reprieve
Quriea had been summoned to present a report to parliament on Oct. 20 after accusations that his government, appointed by Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, had failed to act on widespread demands for reform.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/490360.html


Palestine economy 'is facing a bleak future'
According to latest World Bank figures, 70 per cent of the 1.3-million population are living below the poverty line and unemployment stands at 44pc. Around 60pc of the population is under 18 years of age.
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=94291&Sn=BUSI&IssueID=27212


Gaza Strip: Six Palestinians killed, Israeli officer wounded in series of clashes
Earlier Monday, Israeli troops killed two other Palestinian fighters who infiltrated into Israel from the southern Gaza Strip, reaching to an area close to the settlement of "Holit". Hamas claimed credit for the infiltration attempt, Reuters reported from Gaza Strip.
http://www.albawaba.com/news/index.php3?sid=287123&lang=e&dir=news


Palestinian refugees dream of home amid desolation
Contrary to general belief, Palestinian refugees are not enthusiastic about having military organizations in their camps; they would rather live without them and surrender their security issues to the appropriate Lebanese authorities, the army and the security agencies, like other Lebanese citizens.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=9326


Palestinian Solidarity Conference Ends Peacefully
Duke's student newspaper had received threats the week before from a New York-based militant group, the Jewish Defense Organization, which said it would try to shut down the conference Sunday.
http://www.nbc17.com/education/3828429/detail.html


Yeshiva student apologizes to archbishop for spitting
The student, Natan Zvi Rosenthal, explained that he was raised to see Christianity as idol worship, which is forbidden by the Torah. Rosenthal's rabbis from the Har Hamor Yeshiva in Jerusalem - who, along with his father, were present at the meeting - said they regretted the incident, and that they educate their students to be courteous to others.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/489884.html


MidEast cannot wait for US elections -Palestinian FM
Prime Minister Tony Blair has pledged to make Middle East peace a personal priority but only after the Nov. 2 U.S. vote, recognising no progress can be made without Washington on side. "During the American election and in the three months after, allies of the United States should really do more work than they would do otherwise," Nabil Shaath said
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L18173151.htm


France: Mideast peace process has implications for Europe
Barnier said Europe has been a financial giant thus far, but a political midget vis-a-vis the Middle East peace process. The foreign minister stressed that Europe was interested in becoming a political giant and playing a greater role in the region's diplomatic process
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/490355.html


PM agrees to establish Likud team to consider referendum
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon agreed on Monday to establish a Likud faction committee to examine all possible aspects surrounding a disengagement referendum, in the event one is held.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/489945.html


U.S. Presbyterian Church considers economic pressure on Israel
"The occupation by Israel in the West Bank and Gaza must end because it is oppressive and destructive for the Palestinian people," the Rev. Nile Harper said in an interview with The Associated Press.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=490384&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


'When we came back they had destroyed all the houses'
While Mr Sharon agonises over how to draw 7,500 Jewish settlers out of Israel's Gaza colonies - offering hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation to each family - the army has already bulldozed close to 9,000 Palestinians from their homes in the Gaza strip this year alone.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1329830,00.html


Angry Gaza settlers condemn talks with Sharon as 'disgrace'
Jewish settler leaders emerged seething yesterday from a meeting with Ariel Sharon, who rejected their demand for a referendum on the Prime Minister's plan to evacuate 21 settlements from the Gaza Strip by the end of next year. They vowed to continue pressing for a nationwide vote "to avoid a civil war".
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=573213


Ariel Sharon's Worldview - By URI AVNERY
everybody has had a go at analyzing the interview with Dov ("Dubby") Weisglass, Ariel Sharon's most intimate confidant. But there is precious little to analyze. His statement is crystal clear: the "redeployment plan" was designed to "freeze" the peace process for decades, to put all peace plans "in formaldehyde", to put an end to the possibility of a Palestinian state, once and for all.
http://www.counterpunch.com/avnery10182004.html


Israel 'redeploys' in Gaza, but who won?
"The Israeli side has a problem," says Avi Issacharoff, author of The Seventh War, a history of the intifada. "Israel will continue its assassinations against Hamas and this will cause Hamas to fire Qassams at Sderot. Then the army will go back in, perhaps even deeper." "In a few days, a week, or two weeks, the rockets will resume and we will be back soon in Jabalya"
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1018/p06s02-wome.html


Israel Feuds With Agency Set Up to Aid Palestinians
The agency has grown into a huge operation, with 25,000 employees, almost all of them Palestinians, and its continued existence is a symbol of the unresolved Middle East conflict that has left Palestinians in limbo for decades.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/18/international/middleeast/18gaza.html


Between America and South Africa
Since the disengagement plan nudged the road map off the agenda, a reminder is in order that Sharon, according to Powell, is "committed," in accordance with the road map, to an agreement that will bring about "the establishment of an independent, democratic and lasting Palestinian state that will end the conflict" in 2005.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/489924.html


Arab world needs stronger civil society
Izzat Abdel-Hadi, the director of the Bisan Center for Research and Development in Ramallah, Palestine, said that the status of the civil society cannot be separated from the political reality any country encounters. "Development and civil work cannot be separated from the political scene in any country," he said, citing civil work in Palestine as an example.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=9342


Justice Ministry: No tax on evacuation compensation package
Settlers who leave their homes in the West Bank or Gaza Strip under the terms of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan will not have to pay taxes on compensation packages they receive as a result, the head of the Justice Ministry said Monday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/490319.html


Speakers to address rights in Palestine tonight
Palestine Liberation Organization legal adviser Diana Buttu and NYU law professor Olivier de Schutter will lead the discussion. De Schutter will present the findings of an inquiry he led in June under the International Federation of Human Rights.
http://www.nyunews.com/news/campus/8004.html


Israel jails Palestinian ship crew for arms smuggling
The weapons "were going to be used ... for the Palestinian people to protect themselves," he said. "I condemn killing civilians and children ... (but) there is no justice that Israel has all the sophisticated weapons and we have nothing."
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L18347135.htm


Moscow urges Beirut to accept UN statement
The message was delivered on Friday morning by Russian Ambassador Serguei Bukin, who visited Foreign Minister Jean Obeid, a day after the United States and France circulated a draft resolution to the Security Council member, aiming to put more pressure on Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=9310



Freed Falluja negotiator says peace talks off
The chief negotiator for Iraq’s rebel-held city of Falluja said after his release by U.S. forces that peace talks with the interim government had been called off. ”I was released at 2 a.m.,” Khaled al-Jumaili told Reuters on Monday. ”The people of Falluja have suspended negotiations, despite the fact they had made progress, because of arrests like mine and American policies.”
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/a8978f9c-20de-11d9-9db7-00000e2511c8.html


Hoon considering US request for UK troops
Geoff Hoon, UK defence secretary, on Monday told MPs that the British government was considering a request from the US for some British troops in Iraq “to be made available to relieve US forces”. Mr Hoon said no decision has yet been reached, but ministers are considering sending a force of about 650 to a region south of Baghdad...
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/d3e6dd18-2072-11d9-af19-00000e2511c8.html

October 17 2004

Yassouf Villagers and Internationals Pick Olives
International Women's Peace Service from Austria, Australia, France, Germany, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, UK and the USA and friends from the Israeli peace have,on Sunday, picked olives in the area north of Tapuach colony known as An-Naqar.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1792


Palestine: The Assault On Health And Other War Crimes
Two thirds of the 621 children (two thirds under 15 years) killed at checkpoints, in the street, on the way to school, in their homes, died from small arms fire, directed in over half of cases to the head, neck and chest-the sniper's wound. Clearly, soldiers are routinely authorised to shoot to kill children in situations of minimal or no threat.
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=107&ItemID=6435


The Jewish appeal for Israeli Arabs
Nearly five years ago one of Green's friends proposed he donate a joint tennis center for [Arab] Nazareth and [Jewish] Upper Nazareth. "That was the first time," says Green, "that I learned there were over 1 million Arabs in Israel, and about their difficult situation."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/489488.html


Gaza cleans up after Israeli offensive
More than 100 Palestinians were killed in the operation, which saw Israel send in tanks, infantry and armored bulldozers, giving bite to its pledge to hit militants hard. Palestinian officials estimate more than 100 houses were destroyed in the northern Gaza camp.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/17/content_2100373.htm


Refugee camp a shambles after Israeli offensive in Gaza
Palestinian officials denounced the offensive. "It is part of an attempt . .. to bring our people to their knees," Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia told reporters in the West Bank town of Ramallah. "This, of course, will never happen."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/10/17/MNGPG9B9B31.DTL


Several Palestinian children injured
Several Palestinian children were injured when local youths clashed with Israeli soldiers in a West Bank refugee camp, Palestinian sources say. Palestinian youths threw stones at an Israeli tank which was piling dirt in order to block the Balata refugee camp, located in the West Bank city of Nablus.
http://www.maldivesinfo.gov.mv/news.php?newsid=4474


?Israeli forces destroy seven houses in Rafah, injure two Palestinians
Israeli occupying forces destroyed on Sunday seven þhouses in the Brazil district and block 5 in Rafah south of Gaza and two þPalestinians were wounded during an incursion that ended this morning.þ Palestinian security sources said "ten military vehicles and two bulldozers þbacked up by helicopters penetrated into the Brazil district
http://www.kuna.net.kw/English/Story.asp?DSNO=673076


Israeli Tank Shell Wounds Citizens in Rafah
Local witnesses revealed that a convoy of Israeli tanks rolled into Block (O) refugee camp and opened heavy random fire at houses in the area. Some of the wounded are Moshera 18, and Hussam Abu Samhadana 15, medics said.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1790


Ultra-orthodox Jews 'must stop religious abuse'
Jerusalem's Christian community has demanded that Jewish leaders and the Israeli government take action against what they claim is growing harassment of their clergy by religious Jews. Christians say ultra-Orthodox Jewish students spit at them or at the ground when they pass.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1329380,00.html


Two Israeli Arab MKs to vote in favor of disengagement bill
"I won't raise my hand in opposition to an end to the occupation and evacuation of settlements in Gaza," said Dehamshe. On Saturday, the Hadash-Ta'al party announced its three MKs would vote against the disengagement bill... Azmi Bishara's Balad party is also expected to vote against the bill.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=489425&contrassID=1&subContrassID=7&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


PNA calls for emergency aid to Gaza areas damaged by Israeli offensive
The Palestinian National Authority(PNA) on Sunday called on Arab ambassadors to visit northern Gaza areas damaged by the 16-day Israeli offensive and urged for an emergency assistance, Palestine satellite channel reported.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/17/content_2102879.htm


Sharon urged to hold poll on Gaza pullout
A spokesman for Mr Sharon said the prime minister was still determined to avoid a referendum, despite the latest appeals for a nationwide vote. Analysts said that holding a referendum on the so-called disengagement plan could delay its implementation by up to a year.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/cb4cc298-2064-11d9-af19-00000e2511c8.html


Israeli PM's talks with settlers over Gaza plan end in acrimony
"We met with a prime minister who was deaf to our positions and who just read set texts which had been cooked up by his advisors," said Yehoshua Mor-Yussef, secretary general of the main Yesha settlers council. "We did not receive any serious response to our demand that he put this to a decision of the people."
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/112154/1/.html


French FM on highly charged visit to Israel
Barnier's visit to Israel was the first by a senior French official since Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in July that France was host to "the wildest anti-Semitism" and urged French Jews to flee the country. French officials called Sharon's comments "unacceptable," and French Jews also criticized him.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/489839.html


French official visits Israel
Speaking at a Foreign Ministry seminar of Israeli and French journalists in Paris last Friday, Barnier said that “peace for Israelis will follow the renunciation of occupation.” Barnier also warned Israel that it would have to deal with the European Union as a political force for peace in the Middle East if it wanted cooperation on economic matters.
http://www.jta.org/brknews.asp?id=122845


Palestine Conf. Underway in US Despite Jewish Campaign
"We have carefully researched this student-run group, checked with federal authorities in Washington and with our colleagues at universities that have hosted or even considered hosting past conferences. We are confident this group is not affiliated with terrorists," he averred.
http://www.islamonline.org/English/News/2004-10/17/article05.shtml


Israel worried about EU sanctions
The Israeli Foreign Ministry believes that Solana will present a detailed list of measures to advance the roadmap on the Middle Eastpeace process and the establishment of a Palestinian state.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/17/content_2101156.htm


Israeli whistleblower Vanunu makes appeal to European Social Forum
Speaking by telephone from Israel in a call relayed by loudspeakers to the assembly, Vanunu appealed for the promotion of worldwide peace and the reduction of inequality between peoples. "This is a message for the 21st century," he told the European Social Forum, which has attracted 19,000 activists to the British capital this weekend.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=12&u=/afp/20041016/wl_mideast_afp/europe_forum_israel_041016204737


U.S. Jewish leaders split over public support for pullout
Supporters said that the Conference of Presidents was founded with the express mission of supporting the State of Israel, and therefore an immediate publication of a statement of support was imperative. They also stressed that lack of Jewish support for Sharon at this hour would be perceived as a slap in the face for the White House and the Bush administration
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/489492.html


Time to Get Serious
The crisis is mainly the product of relentless colonial policies of oppression and outright dispossession of the Palestinians and their land, practiced by the Israeli side for decades now, but more so in the last four years.
http://www.amin.org/eng/uncat/2004/oct/oct17.html


Analysis / Be wise Hamas - stop the Qassams
With the end of Operation Days of Penitence in northern Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces' General Staff has decided that should the firing of Qassam rockets at Sderot or other Israeli towns in the Negev resume in a serious fashion, the IDF will return to Gaza in force, perhaps even with a larger operation.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/489458.html


Analysis / The political fight
This week, Sharon will fight against a national referendum under increasing pressure from the Yesha Council of settlements and senior Likud ministers, led by Benjamin Netanyahu. His aides said yesterday that he remains opposed to a referendum. With good reason: both a justified fear of destructive delay in implementing the disengagement
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/489468.html


Everything is temporary - until deportation
Father Gabriel asked for the transfer - after 12 years in Israel and the territories, including five-and-a-half years in Jaffa - when he saw the church emptying out as his congregants began disappearing one after the other, deported by the Immigration Police.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/489487.html


Monetary prize to be offered for information on MIA Arad
The Oman-based Al-Watan daily reported that Hezbollah has recently released "new and credible information" on Arad under the terms of the second stage of the prisoner exchange deal with Israel. A senior defense source noted that the key to the mystery of Arad's fate remained in the hands of Iran.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/489863.html


Tens of thousands throng London to protest Iraq war
The march was arranged Sunday to coincide with the end to the three-day European Social Forum held in London. It comes also after a stormy week for Blair, who was accused in parliament last Wednesday of misrepresenting intelligence on Iraq to make the case for war.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=7&u=/afp/20041017/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_britain_demo_041017165031


Seven killed, 10 wounded in clashes in Iraq's Fallujah
Seven Iraqis were killed andten others wounded in the on-going fierce clashes that broke out Sunday morning between US-Iraqi forces and fighters who defend the city, local medics told Xinhua.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/18/content_2102884.htm


British troops in Iraq won't be redeployed to Baghdad, Fallujah: ministry
British troops in Iraq will not be redeployed to Baghdad or the restive Sunni Muslim stronghold of Fallujah after it was confirmed that the United States has requested London to move its soldiers to the US-controlled sector, a defence ministry spokesman said.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=3&u=/afp/20041017/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_britain_us_troops_041017164421


'They want Zarqawi. They can't kill him so they're killing us'
The missiles struck at just after 3am with devastating effect. Eight members of the al-Jabouri family were killed as they slept, their home destroyed. The following morning the US military issued a statement saying that fighters loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, America's number one enemy in Iraq, had been taken out in a precision strike in Fallujah.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=572922


Many Iraqi Intellectuals Seek Exile
The walls of Iraqi universities were once festooned with announcements of coming forums and lectures. Now, many are draped with black mourning banners inscribed with the names of professors who have been slain in the country's spiraling violence.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=540&e=6&u=/ap/20041017/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_academics_in_peril


Iraqi police arrest 135 infiltrators from Iran
"Border guards forces, a department of the Iraqi police, carriedout a search campaign in villages and border areas with Iran and arrested 135 infiltrators carrying Afghani and Pakistani nationalities," a police source was quoted as saying.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/17/content_2099561.htm


Iraq says 'come and get us' to Western oil companies
Iraq has issued an open invitation to the world's largest oil companies to exploit its vast reserves. The interim government believes it can double oil production by 2010 if it exploits existing facilities and develops new fields. But it thinks that the only way to do this is by involving the West's energy giants.
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/story.jsp?story=572870

October 16 2004

Left-wing activists not allowed to help olive-pickers
Israel Defense Forces troops denied the entry of more than 100 Israeli left-wing activists who had come to assist in an olive harvest, into the village of Azawiyeh in the northern West Bank on Saturday morning.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/488976.html


Corries push U.S. government to investigate their daughter's death
Corrie and his wife, Cindy, are pushing the U.S. Congress to open a new investigation into the death of their daughter, Rachel, 23, who was crushed by a bulldozer in the Gaza Strip in March 2003 as she tried to block the demolition of a Palestinian physician's home.
http://www.wfn.org/2004/10/msg00122.html


Gazans survey devastation after Israeli operation
Lamp posts and electricity cables lay uprooted along roads mangled by Israeli tanks around Jabaliya and Beit Lahya. Puddles of stagnant drain water permeated refugee camp streets with a fetid smell. Whole districts were still without water and electricity on Saturday. "This is worse than an earthquake. The Israelis threw out the Palestinians in 1948 and in 1967 and they're trying to do the same thing now,"
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=5&u=/afp/20041016/wl_mideast_afp/mideast_unrest_gaza_041016153141


PCHR Receives delegation from Human Rights Watch and witnesses destruction in Jabalya Refugee Camp
HRW was visiting Gaza as part of a programme marking the release of their new report in Jerusalem on Monday the 18 th of October. The report is entitled Razing Rafah: Mass Home Demolitions in the Gaza Strip. The report details the comprehensive destruction of homes and agricultural land in Rafah last May...
http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/PressR/English/2004/129-2004.htm


?Young Palestinian dies suffering from wounds in Gaza
Director of the Public Relations Department in Al-Shefaa Hospital in Gaza, þDr. Jumaa Al-Saqa told KUNA that young Palestinian Mohammed Al-Eilla, 25, died þafter suffering from serious wounds and burns that covered his whole body, þcaused by shrapnel of an Israeli missile fired at him on October 6th.
http://www.kuna.net.kw/English/Story.asp?DSNO=672882


'Sharon is a butcher'
Around 100 houses were levelled in the refugee camp of Jabaliya and neighbouring Beit Lahya, scenes of the heaviest violence, said Palestinian security sources and a correspondent at the scene. Fifty workshops and shops along the Gaza Strip's main road were destroyed by tanks and army bulldozers.
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1606255,00.html


Twilight Zone / The meter is running
Far from the lazy eye that we still somehow open in the direction of the horrifying killing in the Jabalya refugee camp - where there were 110 killed by the beginning of this week - the innocent victims who die daily in Jenin remain anonymous, and the circumstances of their killing don't interest anyone.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/489312.html


Palestinians retrieve belongings from rubble of flattened homes
Gaza Strip Residents of a northern Gaza refugee camp are poring through the rubble of what was once their homes. After 17-days of an Israeli incursion, Palestinians are now trying to retrieve their belongings from dozens of destroyed houses.
http://www.kbcitv.com/x5154.xml?ParentPageID=x5155&ContentID=x51828&Layout=KBCI.xsl&AdGroupID=x5154&URL=http://localhost/apwirefeed/d85og9u00.xml&NewsSection=InternationalHeadlines


Muslims protest Israeli visit - (South Africa)
Ehud Olmert is expected in the country next week to discuss strengthening economic ties with South Africa. "Suddenly economics is more important than human suffering," said Mandla Sishi of the Palestinian Solidarity Group, which helped organise a demonstration in Cape Town, one of three major cities where rallies were staged.
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_1606281,00.html


Hadash-Ta'al announces will opppose disengagement bill
Hadash's political bureau, headed by MK Mohammed Barakeh, said it reached its decision because "the disengagement plan is an alibi for Sharon and is meant to serve as a cover for continued war crimes against the Palestinians and to bury the peace process."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/489425.html


UN report: Israel guilty of wanton destruction
"Bulldozers have destroyed homes in a purposeless manner and have savagely dug up roads, including electricity, sewage and water lines." The report is dated August 12, well before the current Israeli operation in northern Gaza, the largest in four years of fighting.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1097915021482


Israel calls for ouster of UN food officer
Ziegler, according to an AFP report, will present a study to the UN General Assembly next week saying that 22 percent of children in the territories are gravely malnourished, and half of the Palestinians are dependent on food aid.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1097727861522


UN-backed Palestine Rehabilitation Forum announces development initiatives
New initiatives - from planting trees to helping businesswomen - aimed at fostering development in the Palestinian territories have been announced at the conclusion of a four-day United Nations-backed Arab International Forum held in Beirut.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=12249&Cr=palestin&Cr1=


?Palestinian official warns of further deterioration in occupied territory
Palestinian Minister of Negotiations Saeb Oreikat on Saturday warned the Palestinian Authority that conditions in the occupied þPalestinian territories were dramatically deteriorating as a result of þcontinuous hostile action by the Israeli occupation forces.þ
http://www.kuna.net.kw/English/Story.asp?DSNO=672960


IDF leaves Jabalya, redeploys near site of Qassam launchings
In a television interview on Saturday, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said that while Israeli forces had pulled back in northern Gaza, troops remain committed to battling the rocket threat - a strong hint that Israel believes more Qassams will be launched.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/489056.html


The Political Aims Behind "Days of Penitence" Operation
Evidently, with the American Veto in the UN Security Council, Sharon felt that he enjoyed a solid international umbrella even as the death toll among Palestinian civilians was unprecedented; almost a Palestinian was killed every three hours.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week3/101604/political%20aims%20behind.htm


International poll: World opposes Bush, except Israel
Israelis, perhaps not surprisingly, are alone in their support of the American president. While in other countries, 60-80 percent of those asked said they believed the war in Iraq to have been a mistake, in Israel most thought it justified.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/489210.html


Indonesia to work for independent Palestine
“He stated that the Indonesian government under his leadership will take a more pro-active role on the issue of Palestine and hopes that the formation of an independent, viable and sovereign state of Palestine will be realised as soon as possible,” Dino Pati Djalal, quoted the president-elect as saying.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_16-10-2004_pg4_7


Under siege since 9/11, Arab voters shift to Kerry
By luck rather than design Arab-Americans are a sizeable force in many swing states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida. In a third of the states needed to win the electoral college, Arab-Americans make up more than the gaps between the two parties. In 2000 they backed George Bush. This year they are leaning half-heartedly towards his Democratic challenger...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1328800,00.html


Documentary film review: "Checkpoint"
The simplest of activities are made impossible by Israeli soldiers, who are documented in the film as sometimes denying Palestinians movement just because they can. Palestinian men, women, and children - healthy, frail, old, and young - are forced to wait in bitter thunderstorms, snow, and the heat to get to hospitals, schools, funerals, jobs, and their homes.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3232.shtml


Cinema for Palestine: so many images, so few movies
As there is no institutional support for Palestinian film, it relies completely on what resources can be drummed up by individual film-makers and most of them rely on European funding. This is less of a problem, though, than the lack of local training facilities. "The most important thing is that we have no film schools," explains Odeh.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=4&article_id=9294


Candidates Ignore Palestinians' Plight
both President George Bush and Sen. John Kerry used almost identical words of support for Israel vis-a-vis Iraq. "A free Iraq will help secure Israel," said Bush. And Kerry almost echoed, "I am going to get it [Iraq] right -- because it is important to Israel." According to them, the purpose of invading Iraq was for the interest of Israel. What is important to Palestinians?
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041016/NEWS/410160343/1036/EDIT


Scream fight for Palestine
Generation after generation has been there since 1948, scattered all over: Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and in occupied Palestine. "From Shatila to Gaza, it is these kids I see when I think of Palestine. They have been ignored and excluded, growing up without any hope. We want to tell them we are with them, that they are not alone."
http://uk.news.launch.yahoo.com/dyna/article.html?a=/041015/340/f4mvw.html&e=l_news_dm


Officials say Bush considering tougher sanctions on Syria
The official declined to discuss the timing or scope of the additional sanctions, but congressional aides briefed by the administration said a leading option under consideration was freezing the assets of high-ranking Syrian and Lebanese government officials.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=489391&contrassID=1&subContrassID=8&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Lebanon Calls U.S. Envoy Over Assets Issue
Prime Minister Rafik Hariri summoned the American ambassador to Lebanon on Saturday over reports Congress was considering freezing the U.S. accounts and assets of Lebanese and Syrian officials as a way to pressure both countries.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=540&e=1&u=/ap/20041016/ap_on_re_mi_ea/lebanon_us


US mixes jaw-jaw and war-war to quell Falluja
following the start on Friday of an offensive by US and Iraqi government forces to oust suspected foreign militants from the city, will largely determine the success or failure of the effort to quell the bloody insurgency in Iraq's “Sunni Triangle”. There are signs that the resistance in Falluja is divided and the population tired of bloodshed. But it is just as clear that the US...
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/c06ce2bc-1eda-11d9-9015-00000e2511c8.html


Fallujah Seeks Peace Talks if Attacks End
"We are ready to resume talks," delegation member Khaled Fakhri al-Jumeili told reporters. "We suspended the talks because we felt that the Iraqi government, especially Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, was meeting the demands of the Americans." He said that if attacks and airstrikes stop, "we are ready to return to the negotiating table."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=540&e=13&u=/ap/20041016/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_fallujah


Baghdad blasts rock churches as car bombs kill four US troops
A bomb hit the church of Saint Joseph at about 4:00 am (0100 GMT) followed by similar explosions over the next two hours outside four other churches. Flames engulfed the Roman Catholic Saint George's church in the central Baghdad district of Karrada, leaving its wood-built sanctuary charred.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=1&u=/afp/20041016/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_041016183326


Four US troops, one translator killed in twin Iraq car bombings
Three US soldiers, a marine and a civilian translator were killed and one soldier wounded in two car bombings in Iraq, one to the west and another in the northern city of Mosul, the military said.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=17&u=/afp/20041016/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_us_attack_toll_041016142324


Pentagon uses depleted uranium shells in its raid against Iraq
The radiation level may testify to the fact that the US army used uranium-cored projectiles in the raids. Japan's Kyodo News agency reported from Baghdad, a group of specialists had found several radioactive tanks in the area of the Iraqi town of Samawa, where the Japanese contingent was stationed.
http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=2&p=6344&s2=16


British opposition hits out at possible Iraq troop redeployment
British media have been reporting that Washington has asked for British troops to be sent from the southern city of Basra to relieve US forces in south Baghdad, although Britain's defence ministry denied a decision had been made.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=7&u=/afp/20041016/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_britain_us_troops_041016181131

October 15 2004

Settler violence restricts Palestinian olive harvest
Two olive groves totaling approximately 110 acres will not be allowed to be harvested at all. One of these olive groves is near the illegal settlement outpost of Havat Gilad. Restrictions on Palestinians harvesting their own crops were also imposed on the villagers of Kafr Kaddum.
http://www.amin.org/eng/uncat/2004/oct/oct141.html


90,000 Worshippers Attend Ramadan prayers At Al-Aqsa
Most of worshippers came from Arab Moslem communities inside Israel . Palestinians from the West Bank are banned from entering Jerusalem , some find their way by-passing road block and military check posts. Palestinians in the Gaza Strip stand no chance to join the Friday prayer in Haram-Al-Sharif, during the holiest Moslem month.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week3/101504/90000%20attended.htm


Letter from Twanie
In the 1980s, Israel began building settlments (or colonies) in these hills. They have systematically expanded them, confiscating more and more of these villages' farm and grazing land. Some of the smaller villages have been destroyed entirely by the Israeli military or rampaging settlers. This simple and loving village of Twani has demolition orders on every house...
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3236.shtml


Three hours at Kalandia checkpoint
As part of the effort to Judaize Jerusalem (a term used by the Israeli Authorities), Palestinians from East Jerusalem are not given permits to build or even repair their homes in the city. If they built without a permit their houses are demolished. On the other hand they are permitted to build in areas closer to Ramallah like Al-Ram and Samir Amis.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3238.shtml


The FIDH Calls for the Immediate End of the Ongoing Incursion in the Gaza Strip
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) condemns in the strongest terms the Israeli military operation going on since 28 September 2004 in the Northern Gaza Strip in complete violation of international law. The FIDH recalls that the Fourth Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949 applies...
http://www.fidh.org/article.php3?id_article=1985


Israeli Soldier Cleared In Palestinian Girl's Death
commander who was accused of repeatedly shooting a 13-year-old Palestinian girl to make sure she was dead, but officials said Friday the punishment wasn't because of the shooting. The officer was suspended for "failure of command" and poor relations with his subordinates, Harel said.
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/3825130/detail.html


Five killed on Friday, including an aged woman shot dead while at home in Jabalia
A Palestinian medical source in Jabalia, in the north of the Gaza Strip, said that soldiers shot dead an 80 years old woman while she was at home, easting with her family after the first fasting day of the Moslem Holy Month of Ramadan.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week3/101504/Gaza%20strike.htm


Palestinian children are not terrorists
These children are confronted with a hard struggle: to find ways to clear their name and reputation in the media. They want others to realize their only fault was to be born under an occupation that stripped away their childhood. The life of Palestinian children is far from normal. Their daily trips to school take hours instead of minutes.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/195275_palestinian15.html


Settlers who attacked Palestinian olive pickers arrested
Palestinians said the settlers who attacked them reside in a nearby outpost. Three Palestinians were detained for questioning. After the incident, the army prevented the Palestinians from harvesting the olives and sent them home.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/489266.html


Organized Settlers' Gangs Step Up Attacks on Peace Activists
While Israeli police declared that attacks against peace activists and innocent palestinian civilians, especially school children, in the Hebron area was the work of a well organized settlers' gang, army says "As soon as the peace activists are gone, things will calm down,"
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week3/101504/settlers%20attack%20peace%20activists.htm


?Palestinian gunners fire missile on Israeli targets
The spokesman said the gunners fired one Al-Qassam missile from the þnorthern part of the strip in the direction of Ashderot in southern Israel, þdespite continuing Israeli military operations in the strip.þ The spokesman said a missile crashed into the industrial zone in the town inflicting no losses.
http://www.kuna.net.kw/English/Story.asp?DSNO=672707


Sharon's rampage
Missiles fired by military drones killed as many 10 civilians this week, many while struggling to bring food or water to their families, locked down inside their cubic cement rooms for the second consecutive week. Meanwhile, the Israeli army has belatedly confessed to have deliberately murdered a Palestinian school girl.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/712/re4.htm


Working Towards a Better Future for Palestine Refugees
UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, is holding a two-day meeting with 26 major donor countries and host authorities to plan the future of humanitarian assistance to the millions of stateless Palestinians scattered across the Middle East.
http://www.un.org/unrwa/news/releases/pr-2004/hqg35-04.pdf


UN criticizes Israel for human rights violations in territories
During operations in the Gaza Strip, Israel engaged in "massive and wanton destruction of property," the report said. "Bulldozers have destroyed homes in a purposeless manner and have savagely dug up roads, including electricity, sewage and water lines."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=488934&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


France protests Israeli warning shots near envoy
"This type of act is unacceptable, even more so since it concerns people with diplomatic passports who followed all the formalities demanded by the Israeli army," he said. "It is all the more worrying because it is not an isolated case," the statement added. "Other European diplomats have experienced similar difficulties."
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L1518678.htm


French FM to see Sharon on fence-mending visit to Israel Sunday
The minister was to reaffirm France's belief that the so-called Middle East roadmap is the "only agreed framework for relaunching the peace process," the spokesman said. On Thursday Barnier said the EU has a political role to play in resolving the conflict.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=10&u=/afp/20041015/wl_mideast_afp/france_israel_mideast_041015161910


Sharon to hold meeting with settlers
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has invited leaders of the settler movement, who are fiercely opposed to his Gaza pullout plan, to a meeting on Sunday, his office said. "The meeting is being held on the initiative of Mr Sharon at the prime minister's office in Jerusalem," a spokesman said.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/14AEB1C8-5238-4ED4-B548-E94233CC117D.htm


Russia to send its envoy to Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone
Inappropriate use of military force by Israel in densely populated areas impedes the settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the information and press department of the Russian Foreign Ministry reported.
http://www.rbcnews.com/free/20041015183620.shtml


International poll: World opposes Bush, except Israel
While more than half of those polled elsewhere stated their attitude toward the U.S. had deteriorated, most respondents in Israel said their opinion had improved, and 76 percent said the U.S. contributed to peace in the world. Among Israelis polled, 50 percent said they would like to see George Bush reelected
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=489210&contrassID=1&subContrassID=7&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Hizbullah is involved in West Bank, says Israel
Israel's claim was given some credence this week by the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, who complained about Iran meddling in the West Bank and Gaza. He claimed Hizbullah was trying to "infiltrate" Fatah, his own organisation, which includes the al-Aqsa Brigades.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1327732,00.html


THE SITUATION: Knesset Vote Against Sharon Seen To Signal Coalition's End
Some army commanders quietly back the referendum idea, fearing that the lack of a popular mandate will make the plan's implementation dangerously divisive. The prime minister, however, has refused so far to consider the idea, insisting he can win Knesset approval and implement the plan on his own timetable.
http://www.forward.com/main/article.php?ref=shelah20041013930


Israel and Racism
The fact of the matter is that the people of historical Palestine did exist. Their roots are derived from the ancient Canaanite population and the Muslim and Christian Arab peoples who jointly conquered Palestine from Byzantium in 637 A.D. In 1897, 93% of the inhabitants were Palestinian Arabs: 88% Muslim and 10% Christian.
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=22&ItemID=6412


Don't let him fall
There are people, particularly on the left, who say Sharon has been bluffing all along. They claim he never meant what he said and would never do it. His own camp, on the other, has been much more believing - especially the right-wing extremists and settlers. They have made up their minds to shoot him down...
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/489049.html


Column One: Sharon shows his cards
The idea is that by pushing a radical leftist agenda, Barak then and Sharon today have both been pulling the wool over our eyes – forcing the Palestinians to show their cards and in so doing, pointing to the emptiness of the Left's ideology of appeasement, thereby, indirectly, advancing the platform of the Right.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1097727860804


The New York Times' coverage of Operation "Days of Penitence" in Gaza
Not one of Bennett's 8,692 words alluded to the 20,000 civilians killed in Sharon's 1982 bombing of Beirut; nor did Bennett's research cover Sharon's missives to South Africa's apartheid regime, urging them to beef up their military... A notable example was Greg Myre's October 5 report, “Palestinian Rockets Miss Some Targets, but Hit Israeli Nerves.”
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3237.shtml


Report slams US Arabic radio station
A draft report by the US State Department's inspector general has criticized the Arabic-language Radio Sawa for failing to promote democracy and pro-American attitudes in the Middle East. The radio station, which opened in March 2002 with an annual budget of $22m
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3743624.stm


US forces hit Falluja and arrest Iraqi negotiator
US forces arrested Falluja’s chief negotiator on Friday after air strikes on the rebel-held city that were part of a U.S. drive to thwart attacks in Iraq during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. A hospital doctor, Thamim al-Nuaimi, said five civilians had been killed and 11 wounded in the overnight raids.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/fc2c48e4-1e88-11d9-9015-00000e2511c8.html


Americans want negotiations to fail: Fallujah delegation member
"If the government represents sovereignty and has its own will, then the negotiations would succeed, but if the government is just a front for the Americans, the negotiations would certainly fail," he said. He said that the delegation wanted to stop bloodshed and restoresecurity and stability in the city.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/15/content_2092011.htm


Iraqi Kurdish leader visits Syria
Barzani, who arrived form Jordan, said he would discuss a number of subjects with Syrian leaders. They included federalism in Iraq, relations between the two countries and the question of Kirkuk, the troubled, ethnically-mixed northern Iraqi city.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=9&u=/afp/20041015/wl_mideast_afp/syria_iraq_kurds_041015191640


Polish PM survives confidence vote, promises Iraqi pullback from 2005
Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka promised to start pulling out troops from Iraq next year, shortly before his shaky left-wing government survived a confidence vote in parliament.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=8&u=/afp/20041015/wl_mideast_afp/poland_politics_041015165450


Zarqawi - Bush's Man For All Seasons
Former US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) asset turned Iraqi prime minister, Iyad Allawi, is set to give the go-ahead to what the US Army twice could not bring itself to carry out: the leveling of Fallujah. Following a purely military logic, this is the next step after the barrage of precision strikes that are killing dozens of Sunni Iraqi civilians, according to Fallujah hospital reports.
http://www.world-crisis.com/analysis_comments/922_0_15_0_C/


Germany's Schroeder, Kadhafi disagree over Iraq in landmark meeting
The two leaders disagreed over Iraq, with Kadhafi blaming the United States for the continuing violence there and called for US troops to withdraw, while Schroeder expressed doubts over the wisdom of a sudden pullout, a German official said. The two men were also at odds over the US role in the Middle East.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=18&u=/afp/20041015/wl_mideast_afp/libya_germany_041015124226

October 14 2004

Forcible Migration in Rafah Refugee Camp: 3 Palestinian Civilians Killed and 35 Houses Destroyed by Israeli Occupation Forces
IOF killed 3 Palestinian civilians, including an elderly man, and destroyed 35 houses during an incursion into Rafah refugee camp. Each time, IOF try to justify such house demolitions in Rafah by claiming that they are searching for tunnels, but in fact, such attacks aim at creating a buffer zone along the Egyptian border, south of the town, and expel local inhabitants.
http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/PressR/English/2004/128-2004.htm


Palestinian Authority coordinated timetable for olive harvest with IDF
In some cases, when Palestinian farmers did try to reach their groves they were driven off by settlers. Yesterday, four Palestinians from the village of Salam and four International Solidarity Mission activists who were trying to harvest olives in the Elon Moreh area were detained for questioning.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/487911.html


Breaking Sharon's 'Iron Wall' - Death of the Roadmap to Peace
September 14th, Occupation forces began in earnest the process of building a new settlement on Izbat Salman and Izbat Jalud lands, near Qalqiliya district in the West Bank.  Earlier in August, the Occupation forces began moving in bulldozers to clear the way for settlement  expansion including the uprooting of 5,000 olive trees during the construction of the Separation Wall.
http://www.amin.org/eng/uncat/2004/oct/oct14.html


UN figure calls on EU to freeze Israel's special trade status
Ziegler said he would submit a report at the next United Nations General Assembly meeting , according to which 22 percent of Palestinian children in the territories were suffering from malnutrition. A United Nations food expert called on the European Union to freeze Israel's special trade partner status, in order to pressure Jerusalem into ceasing a policy...
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/488934.html


Palestine beats Taiwan 1-0 in World Cup qualifier
Palestine coach, Ghassan Balawi, said he had to bring a young team to Taiwan because seven of his best players weren't allowed to travel. "It was a political problem," he said. "The Israeli government would not let them go."
http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/soccer/20041014-0517-as-spt-soc-taiwan-palestine.html


Olive growers rue absent Palestinians
Basem, a Palestinian worker, on the phone Wednesday from Kabatiya, said he can't understand the policy at the checkpoints. "We are given permits, and then stopped. We merely want to work for our livelihood, otherwise we will have nothing to eat. I don't own any land, or property, if I can't work, what will I do?
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=488479&contrassID=1&subContrassID=7&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, Different Kinds of Tears
A 12-year-old child, Hussam al-Najjar, was crying loudly, his tears showered his face while his relatives were trying to make him calm. Hussam, who was wounded with an Israeli gunshot in the right leg, was crying because he has just heard that his 10-year-old cousin Mohammed has just died of wounds he sustained the day before.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1787


Five Palestinians killed in Gaza; Israeli officers urge end to offensive
Five more Palestinians were killed in Gaza as Israel pushed on with a massive operation in the north of the territory despite criticism by officers that the offensive had become counter-productive.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1512&ncid=1312&e=3&u=/afp/20041014/wl_afp/mideast_041014115917


Israelis covering up their losses in Jabaliya
Testimonies and eyewitness accounts from residents of the refugee camp, being aired around the clock on local radio stations, either confirm seeing an Israeli tank ripped apart by a roadside bomb or helicopters landing nearby to evacuate Israeli casualties.
http://www.arabmediawatch.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2019


UN criticizes Israel for human rights violations in territories
The annual human rights report is to be presented to the UN General Assembly later this month. The 18-page report was prepared by John Dugard, the UN representative for human rights. It charges that while some of Israel's actions in the Palestinian areas can be explained by security concerns, many cannot.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=488934&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


UN agency faces $120 million shortfall for emergency aid to Palestinians
The United Nations relief agency assisting Palestinians faces a $120 million shortfall for its emergency operations this year in Gaza and the West Bank, donor countries were told today. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said only $89.4 million has been pledged for its $209.4 million Emergency Appeal for Gaza and the West Bank.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=12224&Cr=palestin&Cr1=


Living conditions for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon 'worse than Occupied Territories'
"I was stunned by the refugee camps in Lebanon," he said. "Even in camps in Gaza and Nablus in the Occupied Territories, the situation is better than that of the camps in Lebanon." During his visit to Beirut this week, Khatib, with a delegation of Palestinian officials, visited President Emile Lahoud to plead for "easing the living and working conditions for Palestinians here."
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=9250


Israel could become pariah state, warns report
The EU says Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005 must be followed by major troop withdrawals in the West Bank, and pave the way for Palestinian statehood. "None of this is exactly what the Israelis want to hear, but we have to say it," Ms Gallach said.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1327370,00.html


Israel will not limit access to Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque for Ramadan
Israel will not restrict the entrance of worshippers to Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan despite concerns part of the structure could collapse, security sources said Thursday
http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=30797


Palestinian PM says PA unable to put end to chaos
Angered by a lack of reforms that international peace mediators demand as a condition for Palestinian statehood, Palestinian legislators have demanded Qureia present a report on his cabinet's performance on October 20.
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/488826.html


U.S.: Gaza Pullout Timing Up to Israel
The Bush administration renewed its approval of a planned Israeli pullout from Gaza on Thursday and said the timing was up to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=540&e=3&u=/ap/20041014/ap_on_re_mi_ea/us_israel_palestinians


Arafat appeals for Arab support over deadly Gaza campaign
Arafat urged Arab League chief Amr Mussa in a letter to "intensify his contacts with the international community to support the Palestinian people against Israel's official policy of killing and destroying and to revive the peace process, which is currently at an impasse,"...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=9&u=/afp/20041014/wl_mideast_afp/mideast_gaza_arab_arafat_041014162612


PM: Gaza raid will proceed if there are Israeli casualties
The Israel Defense Forces operation in northern Gaza will continue as long as there are casualties on the Israeli side, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Thursday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/488107.html


Low turnout at anti pullout demonstrations across the country
Several thousands of people gathered across the country to protest Prime Minister Sharon's disengagement plan on Thursday evening. Demonstration planners said they expected some 500,000 people to take part in the various protests in support of the Gush Katif settlers.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/488706.html


Peace Now: Probe rabbi's call to disobey evacuation orders
According to Shapira, orders must be refused "also at the price of sitting in jail." In addition, soldiers must not even assist in evacuating settlements, he said. "It is an offense, it is forbidden, and they must say that to their commander. It is like desecrating the Sabbath and eating non-kosher food," Shapira said.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/488477.html


UN agency demands Israel apology
The head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) is demanding an apology from Israel after the Army admitted it was wrong to accuse UN staff of helping Palestinian militants.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200410/s1219646.htm


'The last Jewish intellectual'
London- based Egyptian professor Sabry Hafez shared what he had heard from Swedish sources -- that had Said lived another year, he was in line to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature... As Alexander Cockburn put it, "Edward was important not just for what he did in his books, but because they have encouraged so many people."
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/712/cu1.htm


Spelling out Sharon's real plan
"Effectively, this whole package called the Palestinian state, with all that it entails, has been removed indefinitely from our agenda," he said. "And all this ... with a [U.S.] presidential blessing and the ratification of both houses of Congress."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/10/12/opinion/edsiegman.html


Israel buries the "peace" process
THE SUICIDE bombing that targeted Israeli tourists at an Egyptian resort hotel captured front-page headlines across the U.S. But the more lethal Israeli violence against Palestinians in the days before and after the hotel bombing barely earned a few paragraphs. This is the sick double standard of U.S. politicians and their media mouthpieces...
http://www.socialistworker.org/2004-2/516/516_03_Israel.shtml


Analysis / No white flags in Jabalya
The prime minister is aware of these facts, but no less aware of the political tangle he is in. Against the right-wing's charges that he is making too many political concessions, Sharon can make a convincing display of force, without paying too high a price, in the military arena.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/488433.html


Israel ‘risks EU ostracism unless conflict resolved'
EU could harm Israeli interests by challenging the influence of the US, Israel’s main ally. “This could put Israel on a collision course with the European Union,” the report said. “Such a collision course holds the risk of Israel losing international legitimacy and could lead to its isolation in the manner of [apartheid] South Africa.”
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/7b37b84a-1dbb-11d9-9c24-00000e2511c8.html


Duke increases security for Palestinian conference
Duke University said it plans to have more than 100 uniformed security personnel on campus this weekend in case of trouble during conference of the Palestine Solidarity Movement. The conference begins Friday.
http://rdu.news14.com/content/headlines/?ArID=56966&SecID=2


Syria-Lebanon question headed back to UN Security Council
Annan said that both Beirut and Damascus had indicated that the Syrian troops were on the ground "at the invitation of Lebanon and that their presence is therefore by mutual agreement." The United States and France put forward a draft UN Security Council resolution pressing Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=4&u=/afp/20041014/wl_mideast_afp/un_syria_lebanon_us_041014194408


Fallujah Delegation Suspends Peace Talks
Allawi's "government now is an (American) agent that is working to make this city easy for American troops to enter and do what they want," Assad said. "Military operations didn't even stop when the negotiating delegation was in Baghdad ... Dozens are killed every day. Entire families have been eliminated."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=540&e=2&u=/ap/20041014/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_fallujah


At least 31 die in Iraq violence on eve of Ramadan; Green Zone bombed
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the dead Americans were security staff with a private company on contract to protect the US embassy. He added that embassy staff had been ordered to remain in the heavily fortified facility until further notice.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=1&u=/afp/20041014/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_041014185849

October 13 2004

Palestine-Israel, The daily struggle continue
the army raided the village the day before and picked up people suspected of demonstrating. The reason for the decoration was an appearance by Abas Zaki, a member of the central committee of the Fatah... He arrive at 10:25 and spoke for about 20 minutes along with other dignitaries. From there we marched to the Bulldozers who were working just north of the school.
http://www.ainfos.ca/ainfos27137.html


We will not be stopped! No to the apartheid fence! no to the state violence!
Monday, October the 18th will start the court hearing of 11 activists who demonstrated against the apartheid wall at the war ministry compound in Tel Aviv - 23d Februar 2004 - the day the international court in Hage started deliberation on the apartheid wall.
http://www.ainfos.ca/ainfos27138.html


Update on the International Day of Anarchist Solidarity against the Wall
At the request of the comrades in Crete, Greece, we are sending an update on the day of international anarchist solidarity which they are promoting for 22nd October 2004 in support of the non-violent struggle of the Palestinians against the Apartheid Wall being constructed in Palestine and in support of the Israeli conscientious objectors.
http://www.ainfos.ca/en/ainfos15109.html


Foreign Ministry warns Israel, Europe on collision course
A secret report prepared by the Foreign Ministry warns that Israel's global standing could deteriorate in the coming decade and could even resemble the pariah status of apartheid South Africa. Israel could become increasingly isolated in the coming years if Europe becomes more influential, the Foreign Ministry report says.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/488303.html


Israel to limit Temple Mount worshippers during Ramadan
Adnan Husseini, director of the Islamic Trust in Jerusalem, denied an area of the compound was in danger of collapse. No request has been received to limit the area where Muslims can worship, Husseini said, adding that he would not agree to such a demand.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=488295&contrassID=1&subContrassID=7&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Child Shot in UNRWA School Dies
At 09:15hrs this morning, Ghadeer Jaber Mokheimer, a grade five pupil at UNRWA’s Co-Ed Elementary D School in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip died of her injuries from a gunshot wound received while sitting at her desk in an UNRWA school.
http://www.un.org/unrwa/news/releases/pr-2004/hqg34-04.pdf


IDF suspends commander implicated in death of girl, 13
The probe exposed contradictions between the company commander's version of the event and some of the soldiers' versions. Soldiers complained that after the first shots were fired at the girl, the company commander, Captain R., "confirmed the kill" - he approached her body and shot a large number of bullets into her at close range.
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/487788.html


Seven Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip, on Wednesday
Dr. Mohammad Al-Najjar, head of the Reception Desk Kamal Adwan Hospital, in Beit Lahia, in the north of the Gaza Strip, said that two residents were killed after army shelled Beit Lahia, on Wednesday afternoon. The bodies of the two residents were mutilated after being directly hit by the shell.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week2/101304/killed.htm


Israeli army expands deadly northern Gaza offensive
Dozens of tanks and army bulldozers rolled into the town of Beit Lahiya in the early hours as the focus of Operation Days of Penitence, which has claimed the lives of 116 Palestinians, shifted north from the nearby Jabaliya refugee camp. They flattened several buildings and fields as they entered the area...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1503&ncid=1312&e=1&u=/afp/20041013/ts_afp/mideast_041013153102


Double Standards That Kill
Israel is engaged in the mass destruction of the Gaza Strip, subjecting people who have been suffering for decades from what in any other circumstances world leaders would denounce as ethnic cleansing if not outright genocide. Yet, other than pro forma criticism, there is great tolerance for the ongoing massacre.
http://www.world-crisis.com/analysis_comments/915_0_15_0_C/


US church piles pressure on Israel
The church has nearly $8 billion invested in companies currently operating in Israel. Although one official said any actual divestiture of stock would take more than a year to complete, the church has already begun researching which companies may be engaged in business activities deemed harmful to the Palestinian people and the peace process.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C99827C4-3DAD-4239-BCA5-5263F6C2EC8A.htm


Israel's Christians spitting mad
Christians in Jerusalem have attacked what they say is the increasingly common phenomenon of ultra-orthodox Jews spitting on them. The statement followed a brawl between an orthodox Jewish yeshiva (religious school) student and an Armenian archbishop.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/10/13/wspit13.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/10/13/ixnewstop.html


Mofaz: Arrest of Hebron Hamas leader should reduce attacks
"Kawasme is a mass-murderer whose hands were soaked in blood of many of Israel's civilians. I very much hope that the arrest will disrupt the [Hamas] infrastructure in Hebron and reduce the number of attacks emanating from the region," said Mofaz.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/488250.html


Double Standards and Curious Silences - Amnesty International: A False Beacon?
According to AI, the Israeli depredations on occupied land are acceptable as long as they "respect" human rights. It is also difficult to imagine that a military occupation could ever be imposed while observing "human rights". when Palestinians kill some civilians, then it constitutes a "crime against humanity" -- one of the most serious crimes under international law, and a precursor to genocide. But, when Israel kills far more civilians...
http://www.counterpunch.com/rooij10132004.html


Bargouthi: “The Initiative is not a new faction; it is to create a wide Coalition"
Sadly, Palestinian factions are now working in order to serve themselves and not the Palestinian cause; we want to return the movements to their origins in representing the people, and not containing them.
http://www.imemc.org/interviews/2004/september/barghouthi.htm


Palestinian state more likely with Netanyahu than Sharon: Arafat
"With Sharon it's very difficult," he told the Financial Times. "Maybe Netanyahu (says he) is against the withdrawal (from Gaza) but he's in an election campaign." Netanyahu, a former premier who remains the darling of Sharon's Likud party, called last month for a national referendum on Sharon's proposed evacuation of Israeli settlers and troops from the territory next year.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1514&ncid=1312&e=14&u=/afp/20041013/wl_mideast_afp/mideast_palestinian_041013055743


EU's Solana unveils new approach to Mideast peace
A plan by Israel to withdraw from the occupied Gaza Strip could only be part of a wider strategy of pulling back to within Israel's 1967 borders, he said, adding: "If the exit strategy only looks at Gaza, then Israel cannot continue to count on financial assistance from the European Union."
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L1332247.htm


Shaath aims to boost Syria ties, warns against Israeli 'crimes'
"We have discussed all means to boost Syrian-Palestinian relations at all levels," he said. After several years of tension, relations have been on the mend, with Damascus voicing support for Yasser Arafat in the face of Israeli threats to expel the veteran Palestinian leader.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1514&ncid=1312&e=2&u=/afp/20041013/wl_mideast_afp/mideast_syria_041013151658


Most Israelis favor early elections: poll
Forty-six percent of respondents said Sharon should opt for early polls, 38 percent said he should enlarge his coalition and two percent deemed he should leave things as is. The remainder did not express an opinion.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1514&ncid=1312&e=7&u=/afp/20041013/wl_mideast_afp/mideast_israel_politics_gaza_poll_041013120248


Arab forum raises $23.5 million for Gaza inhabitants
Participants at an Arab forum in Beirut gathered $23.5 million in relief money for Gaza Strip inhabitants who have been under Israeli bombing for 13 consecutive days. The Care for Gaza initiative, begun at the UN-sponsored Arab-International Forum on Rehabilitation and Development in the occupied Palestinian territories (OPT)...
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=9214


Israel retracts rocket claim against UN agency
The UNRWA agency said it needed a full public apology to safeguard the security of U.N. staff operating in the area. Israel raised a stir at the United Nations last week with its accusation against the Gaza-based U.N. agency...
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L13591613.htm


Illusions and delusions of combat
More than 100 Palestinians are dead and over 400 injured. Around 40 percent of the casualties are children. About 80 homes have been destroyed, agricultural land has been devastated - the exact amount remains to be assessed - 38,000 children have been unable to get to school, neighborhoods are under siege, streets are singed black.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/487920.html


Barghouti hopeful for Palestinians' future
"Israel is trying to divide and conquer the Palestinians; that is why building ... national unity is crucial. ... We will defeat Sharon." For Barghouti, the way to do that is by building an internal democratic system. "That is why we are very much (in favor of) elections, as this is the way to sustain Palestinian legitimacy, and this is the only way to maintain unity."
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=9217


In the land of the bluff
Labor voted against the government to increase its chances of joining the government. If it embarrasses Sharon, he'll feel more pressure in sensitive places. Dov Weisglass explained very nicely that Sharon is implementing the disengagement plan to ensure that a final wider peace deal goes to hell.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/487923.html


The Shin Bet chiefs did it
The prime minister described the alternatives that he faced in the fall of 2003. They included dismantling the Palestinian Authority and a full reoccupation of the territories, an agreement based on a deep withdrawal as in the Geneva Accord, or a proposal by "one minister" (Silvan Shalom).
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/487921.html


Arab American voters drop support for Bush
In a poll of Arab Americans in those states conducted in September after the Republican convention, 47 percent of voters favored Kerry to 31.5 percent for Bush. Nine percent favored Ralph Nader, the independent candidate who is of Lebanese descent, while 12 percent were undecided.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N13612665.htm


Iraqi PM warns Fallujah: Give up Zarqawi or face bombs
Anti-US attacks continued in Iraq, with six US soldiers killed in three separate bombings after US forces struck rebel positions in the Sunni Muslim hotbeds of Fallujah and Ramadi late Tuesday, killing 11 people.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=1&u=/afp/20041013/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_041013175249


Iraq urges donors to speed up funding
Iraq on Wednesday urged donors to speed up funding for its reconstruction and step up pledges to forgive much of its $125bn debt, saying faster project implementation was vital in the struggle against insurgency.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/d4c3fe08-1cfa-11d9-abbf-00000e2511c8.html


Iraq faces soaring toll of deadly disease
Soaring rates of disease and a crippled health system are posing a new crisis for the people of Iraq, threatening to kill more than have died in the aftermath of the war. Deadly infections including typhoid and tuberculosis are rampaging through the country, according to the first official report into the state of health in the country.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=571593


Iraqi woman tells of US abuse
Iraqi businesswoman said to have been the last female prisoner at Iraq's infamous Abu Ghraib prison said she saw soldiers there abuse other prisoners, it was reported today. Houda Al-Azzawi also said that, while held in another detention centre before being transferred to Abu Ghraib, she was beaten, deprived of food and sleep and had her shoulder dislocated by a guard...
http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=6277&s2=13

October 12 2004

Three Days Ultimatum for Palestinian Olive Growers to finish
Israeli Authorities warned Palestinian olive growers in the Nablus area in the West Bank to finish picking the olives in three days, claiming that the olive picking season threatened lives of Israeli settlers. This step comes one day after settlers from Yetzhar settlement assaulted some farmers in Asseirah Al-Qibliyyeh resulted in critically injuring one of the farmers in the neck.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week2/101204/olive-ultimatum.htm


Jewish peace group challenges Caterpillar's Israel business
A Jewish group has submitted a shareholders' resolution to Caterpillar Inc., arguing that the heavy machinery company may be risking its reputation by continuing to sell to the Israeli army bulldozers that are used to demolish the homes and orchards of Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
http://www.wfn.org/2004/10/msg00074.html


Israeli Gunfire Hits 11-Year Old Girl Sitting at her Desk in an UNRWA School
At 10:45hrs this morning, two shots were heard from the direction of an Israeli army position on the border of the Gush Katif settlement block and overlooking Khan Younis refugee camp. One of the shots hit Ghadeer Jaber Mokheimer, a grade five pupil at UNRWA's Co-Ed Elementary D School. Ghadeer was immediately taken to hospital and into emergency surgery.
http://www.un.org/unrwa/news/releases/pr-2004/hqg33-04.pdf


'Officer emptied gun on dead Palestinian girl'
Thirteen-year-old Iman al-Hams was first gunned down by soldiers posted in a nearby observation tower in the southern Gaza Strip last week as they suspected she was carrying explosives in her satchel. The commander then shot the girl several times, a fellow soldier said. Her body was riddled with 20 bullets, including five in the head
http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/zones/sundaytimesNEW/basket7st/basket7st1097486063.aspx


Lost boys of Gaza
The pattern he sees emerging, at the start of the fifth bloody year of intifada, is a generation of Gazawi boys so traumatized by multiple layers of political violence that they no longer view their father as a figure of power.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1097358613608&call_pageid=970599109774&col=Columnist1016110013469


Amin Salem 1969 - 2004: UHWC staff member killed during Israeli operation
Amin was married and had a four year old daughter called Asil. He was very dedicated to his work and had a smiley disposition that was never dampened by tough times. Amin's family originated from the village of Herbia, now inside Israel, a few kilometers away from Beit Lahia. But like so many Palestinians, they were made refugees by Israeli militant groups advancing on Palestinian towns and village in 1948.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3210.shtml


Culture and dissent: Khalil Sakakini Center looks towards creative resistance
In Occupied Palestine, it is as if you live a dehumanized existence from the day you're born. You are uneqal. You feel it everyday in how power is exercised. That relationship is rarely altered. You are second class and relegated to a Bantustan-like existence. When the people in power talk peace, you see the situation deteriorate. You see loved ones die, killed off by security forces.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3193.shtml


Deadly Gaza offensive continues - In Pictures


Israel's deadly Gaza offensive enters third week
Israel's massive military onslaught in the northern Gaza Strip entered its third week Tuesday with the death toll topping 110 and scenes of utter devastation in the territory's largest refugee camp. Israeli army bulldozers continued to level citrus groves and houses in the northern sector of the camp.
http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=30537


115 Palestinians killed in Israel's Penitence operation
An official report issued by the Palestinian Health Ministry said Tuesday that 115 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of Israel's Days of Penitence innorthern Gaza on Sept. 29. The report said that among the dead, 65 were civilians, most of them children under the age of 16.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/12/content_2082450.htm


Woman escorting Palestinian kids beaten by mob of Israeli teens in Hebron
The Italian man suffered a broken arm and had his camcorder stolen while he tried to film the attack. Janzen, who works for Christian Peacemaker Teams, escaped shaken, but suffering only bruises.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/CalgarySun/News/2004/10/10/663376.html


PA: Gaza will remain occupied territory
The document says Israel seeks to proclaim an end to the Gaza Strip's occupation in order to absolve Israel of all legal responsibilities as an "occupying power," while simultaneously retaining military control over the Strip and its residents.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/487428.html


Sharon: Palestinians to be blamed for not having a State
"The cabinet's decision from June 6 this year does not speak of the evacuation of settlements, but rather says that the cabinet will hold future discussions on whether to evacuate settlements and which ones," Peres said. "It is doubtful that we will vote in favor of this."
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week2/101204/sharon-blames-pals.htm


Arab, international donors give $25 million for Gaza aid
Arab and international donors have given some $25 million to a fund set up to provide humanitarian and reconstruction aid to Gaza, the Islamic Development Bank and Palestinian officials said Tuesday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/487847.html


Car bomb explodes at Palestinian security HQ in Gaza
Musa Arafat, a nephew of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, was appointed head of the Palestinian general security service in July, prompting angry outbursts from militant groups who branded him a symbol of corruption and warned the controversial appointment would lead to "internal conflict".
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=3&u=/afp/20041012/wl_mideast_afp/mideast_unrest_gaza_041012190851


NRP's Eitam, Levy give party two weeks to quit coalition
National Religious Party MKs Effi Eitam and Yitzhak Levy are threatening to divide their party if it does not quit Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's coalition government, Israel Radio reported Tuesday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/487850.html


PM meets supporters; 'rebels' accuse him of dividing party
Sharon was only meeting at his Jerusalem residence with those Likud ministers and MKs who voted in support of his state of the nation address to the Knesset on Monday. Sharon lost the largely symbolic vote 53 to 44 following a speech in which he introduced his plans to submit the disengagement...
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/487729.html


Sharon's words should turn into deeds: Erekat
Erekat called on the Quartet Committee's representatives to act seriously to oblige Israel to implement the roadmap. "The Quartet is actually able to oblige Israel to implement the plan by imposing a mechanism, setting up timetables and bringing international observers," said Erekat.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/12/content_2082059.htm


FM visits Poland in hope that it will make EU more pro-Israel
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom arrived in Warsaw on Tuesday to try and strengthen the relationship between Israel and Poland in the hope that the Eastern European country could make the European Union more pro-Israel, he said.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/487780.html


EU: Unilateral disengagement can't replace two-state solution
The foreign ministers stressed that any withdrawal from Gaza could not replace a two-state solution for the Middle East conflict as foreseen in the road map for peace drafted by the United States, the United Nations, the EU and Russia.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=487749&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


EU to unveil plan to help Palestinian state
The European Union is set to produce a plan to ensure the viability of a Palestinian state, based on 1967 borders, it has emerged. In a bid to step up the EU's engagement in the region, the plan is set to focus on reconstruction as well as ensuring security is brought to the territories. It will also set out the need for holding free and fair elections.
http://www.euobserver.com/?sid=9&aid=17503


Shaath: Disengagement plan aims to destroy Gaza
Speaking in Beirut on Monday, Shaath said, "In reality, it only aims to mark a blow to the national PA, and hit the infrastructure and the economy and divert international attention from the policy to expand settlements and gobble up the land of the West Bank."
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=9182


Annan laments ongoing violence in Gaza as another girl is hit by Israeli gunfire
In a statement issued by his spokesman, Mr. Annan said he deplored the "high toll of death and injuries among the civilian population" and grieved "for the many children who have been killed or wounded" during the Israeli military operations in the north of the Gaza Strip. (Carefully choosing words not to hurt Sharon)
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=12196&Cr=palestin&Cr1=


Interview: Ghazi Hamad
As for Arafat, he has expired. I wrote an article a few weeks ago in Al-Risala titled Arafat - You Have to Go. The majority will not vote for Arafat. But the problem is in Fatah. Arafat is the only one who can control them and, if he is lost, there is no alternative. The number two man does not exist in Arab regimes.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/48BF1C1C-0300-49E9-A7FC-2FC72D02204B.htm


Between the Lines / Sharon plans to lie low and survive
Indeed, the only one who could carry out the disengagement plan at this time and form a unity government is not Ariel Sharon. Since the Likud members' referendum, Sharon is functioning as a prime minister in Netanyahu's cabinet. The one making the decisions is not the leader but his would-be successor.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/487470.html


Christians in Jerusalem want Jews to stop spitting on them
A few weeks ago, a senior Greek Orthodox clergyman in Israel attended a meeting at a government office in Jerusalem's Givat Shaul quarter. When he returned to his car, an elderly man wearing a skullcap came and knocked on the window. When the clergyman let the window down, the passerby spat in his face.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/487412.html


New bill in US calls for rating countries on treatment of Jews
US Jewish organizations have hailed final congressional approval of a bill that compels the State Department to create a special office to monitor anti-Semitic abuses around the world and compile annual reports rating countries on their treatment of Jews.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1520&e=7&u=/afp/20041012/pl_afp/us_jews_041012144340


Jewish students protest Duke conference with bus display
The National Student Conference of the Palestine Solidarity Movement is planned Friday through Sunday. The group is an umbrella for organizations that seek an end to Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their original land.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=487411&contrassID=1&subContrassID=9&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


IDF admits Qassam was not transported in UN ambulance
The Israel Defense Forces spokeswoman admitted Tuesday that the IDF was wrong to accuse the UNRWA of using its ambulances to transport Qassam rockets.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/487866.html


Iraqi mosque ablaze after US air strike
"Air strikes were called in on the mosque position. The mosque is partially damaged and is currently on fire," he said. Hiyt is on the main road that follows the Euphrates river towards Syria. A US military helicopter was downed in the same city in earlier clashes on Monday, witnesses told Aljazeera.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/5FA41DD4-C3A1-42A5-8503-831418384965.htm


Nuclear-linked items 'have vanished from Iraq'
Mr ElBaradei's letter says AEA analysis revealed "in many instances the dismantlement of entire buildings that housed high precision equipment" such as milling machines and electron beam welders that had previously been tagged and monitored. Equipment and materials had been removed from open storage areas.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/f858f2ae-1c1b-11d9-bb5b-00000e2511c8.html


Iraqi Kurds ready to fight for Kirkuk: Barzani
"If anyone, if any regime or system wants to continue the Arabization or oppression of the people of Kirkuk, we will defend their rights and we are ready to fight for them," Barzani told AFP through an interpreter. He said the Iraqi Kurds would defend not only the Kurdish people of Kirkuk but "any other group or minority" in the city.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=14&u=/afp/20041012/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_turkey_kurds_041012143401


Poland has repatriated 34 soldiers from Iraq for psychiatric problems
"PTSD syndrome (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) has been diagnosed among seven soldiers in the first contingent (in 2003), 23 in the second, and four in the current one," Colonel Miroslaw Karasek told journalists.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=11&u=/afp/20041012/wl_mideast_afp/poland_iraq_041012173844

October 11 2004

Qalqilya Strangled by Israel's Wall
Farmers can visit their fields outside the wall only when Israeli soldiers open the gates. Israelis are now forbidden by their government to shop for produce, get haircuts or fix their cars in Qalqilya as they used to. Israel has posted signs saying it is forbidden even to enter Qalqilya. This town will not survive without trade from Israel, and was dying before our eyes.
http://wrmea.com/archives/Oct_2004/0410048.html


ICJ Rules Israel Is “Obligated” to Observe International Law, Make Reparations
The construction of the wall being built by Israel, the occupying Power, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, and its associated regime, is contrary to international law. The U.S. and Israel have conspired to remove all questions of legal rights from peace negotiations.
http://wrmea.com/archives/Oct_2004/0410010.html


Amount of apartments sold in territories rises by 20.5%
The rise in sales in the territories parallels a decrease in sales of apartments in the periphery that are located within the Green Line. The average lag time between construction and sale is about 18 months.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/487358.html


How can I send a donation to support UNRWA's emergency services to the palestine refugees?
http://www.un.org/unrwa/emergency/donation/index.html


email - Giles Fraser@Rafah
The Gaza community mental health programme has catalogued a full range of post-traumatic stress symptoms displayed by the children: stammering, depression, headaches, stomach pains, the inability to concentrate. Behind the cheeky grins, the shooting and shelling is educating the children of Gaza on a daily syllabus of fear.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1324405,00.html


Palestinian olive grower shot, critically wounded
A Palestinian farmer was shot and critically wounded in his olive orchard near Nablus in the West Bank on Monday. Palestinians blamed Israel Defense Forces, while the IDF said that a Jewish settler fired the shots.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/486924.html


Palestinian Shot in the Neck During Olive Picking
Hani Shihadeh, 26, was shot in the neck by a soldier after the troops arrived at the orchard to break up a fist fight between Jewish settlers and the Palestinians picking olives, said Munir Darwish, a Palestinian who was picking with Shadeh.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week2/101104/olive-picking.htm


Israelis probe Gaza girl shooting
Hundreds of Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli troops during the Palestinian uprising or intifada. It is unusual for the army to launch an investigation into the circumstances of such incidents. But the death of Iman al-Hams is different because soldiers have complained publicly about the behaviour of their commander - who has not been named.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3733638.stm


Four Palestinians Shot Dead as Israeli Aggression on Gaza Strip Heightens
Four Palestinian residents were reportedly killed and several others wounded in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli occupying forces, including three in the northern refugee camp of Jablya, and a fourth in the middle city of Deir Elbalah.
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=440


MK set to propose bill enabling communities for Jews only
The Knesset presidium voted on Monday to allow National Union MK Zvi Hendel to propose a bill enabling the establishment of communities for Jews only, sparking charges of racism. Hendel said the purpose of the bill was to allow for the creation of communities for Jews only.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/487364.html


Médecins Sans Frontières asks for access to its patients in Gaza
Since then, and despite multiple daily requests to the Israeli authorities to allow medical teams to reach people in need, no "coordination" - clearance given by Israeli army - has been given to MSF. To this day Gaza is still cut into three segments, and access to our patients is strictly impossible.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3202.shtml


Sharon withholds approval to End Jabalia Offensive
Therefore, the military operation will continue despite mounting criticism in the General Staff and Southern Command of the Israeli Army. The army officers said that remaining in the densely populated camp increases the danger to the troops, and recommended operating in other parts of the Gaza Strip.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week2/101104/withhold-approval.htm


Jihad confirms commander's escape of assassination in Rafah
It was the third time that Khalil survived a possible assassination within the last few months. He was wounded in a previous Israeli attack, during which hisleg was cut off. In a second airstrike, two of his brothers were killed in Rafah. His another two brothers were killed in Lebanon in 1983 when Israel invaded south Lebanon.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/11/content_2077853.htm


Catholic hospitals and dying patients hunted by Israeli tax collectors
The Jerusalem Municipality is threatening to confiscate the funds of St. Louis Catholic Hospital, if the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition, who run this specialised hospital for the terminally ill, do not pay the property taxes, from which, by international law, they are exempt.
http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=1653


South Africans Rally Against Olmert's Visit
The Palestine Solidarity Committee of South Africa plans a protest campaign across South Africa against a visit by Israeli Deputy Premier Ehud Olmert to the country, scheduled for Saturday, October 16.
http://www.islamonline.org/English/News/2004-10/11/article06.shtml


Palestine's game in Taiwan put back over visa delay
Palestine's World Cup qualifier away to Taiwan has been put back one day after a delay in the Middle Eastern team obtaining exit visas from Israel, FIFA said on Monday.
http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-worldpalestine&prov=reuters&type=lgns


EU demands Israel end Gaza incursion
"(The EU) condemns the disproportionate nature of Israeli military actions in the Gaza strip,"... Meeting in Luxembourg, the ministers acknowledged Israel's right to defend itself against missile attacks but said "these actions have claimed the lives of many innocent civilians, including children, and left many injured".
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=601225&section=news


Israeli attack on Gaza: NEC resolution
As the recent death toll in Gaza rises to over 70, including at least 19 children, UNISON condemns the activities of the Israeli army and calls on the government of Israel to cease its violent and indiscriminate attack on Gaza immediately. UNISON further condemns the demolition of homes and the destruction of agricultural land
http://www.unison.org.uk/news/news_view.asp?did=1707


Arab forum on Palestinian development meets in Beirut
Due to run until October 14, the conference aims "to enhance mechanisms for forging partnerships between Arab and Palestinian entities ... therefore assisting the Palestinian people to overcome the repercussions of the occupation as well as to address future challenges
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=487381&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Sharon Vows Parliament Vote on Gaza Plan on Oct. 25
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed on Monday to put his Gaza withdrawal plan to a parliamentary vote on Oct. 25, despite persistent violence in the coastal strip and fierce opposition from Israel's far right.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6469257


Jewish settlers step up campaign against Sharon's Gaza pullout plan
Under the banner "Sharon is tearing apart the nation," the settlers' main organization, the Yesha Council, "is demanding that the prime minister bring his Gaza and northern Samaria -- northern West Bank -- disengagement proposal to a national referendum or call for early elections", a statement said.
http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=30446


Silvan Shalom: Peace with Syria 'a strategic goal'
"I think that peace with Syria is a strategic goal for the State of Israel" he said. "(It) would mean that all the countries we share a border with would be at peace with us and of course that would also make future negotiations with the Palestinians easier."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=487322&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Israeli planes fly through Lebanese airspace
Four Israeli jets flew over the southern cities of Sidon and Tyre and the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, an official said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity. The planes caused some panic among the inhabitants of Akkar, a town near the east Lebanese border with Syria, the official added.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1097468028320


Foreign Minister chairs peace process conference on Israeli-Palestine conflict
Senior adviser to Palestine President Arafat Mohamed Rachid Arafat and Israeli Transportation Minister Meir Sheetrit, both former negotiators, were among the official speakers at the conference together with the authors of the Geneva Accord, also former peace negotiators, Yossi Beilin of Israel and Yasser Abed Rabbo of Palestine.
http://www.independent.com.mt/daily/newsview.asp?id=28072


Israel Destroys Palestine's Children
Israel portrays the children of Palestine as terrorists, faceless stone throwers, but due to Israeli policies, it's highly complex matrix of control, the health, education and overall well-being of the 1.8 million children of Palestine are at severe risk, Adah Kay, Professor at City University, London stated at the UN Conference
http://jerusalem.indymedia.org/news/2004/09/133075.php


Unforgivable Betrayals and Broken Promises - By ROBERT FISK
British thought they could fix the Middle East in 14 days. And so we laid the borders of Iraq and laid out the future for what Churchill would, much later, refer to as the "hell disaster'' of Palestine. I'll always remember the way that Macdonald, talking to me in his Sevenoaks home 26 years ago, turned to me during our conversation. "In Palestine, I failed,'' he said. "And that is why you are in Beirut today.''
http://www.counterpunch.com/fisk10112004.html


O Little Town of Bethlehem
Next to Rachel’s Tomb, the traditional pilgrims’ route between Jerusalem and Bethlehem now is barricaded and impassable. “It’s a big shame to put the wall at the entrance to Bethlehem,” said Mayor Nasser. The Israeli military seized Rachel’s Tomb for—what else?—”security reasons,” pushing concrete barriers in front of the site and wrapping it in razor wire.
http://wrmea.com/archives/Oct_2004/0410054.html


Massacre in Gaza
The Israeli army's murder of 82 Palestinians in the week after Sept. 28; Ariel Sharon's unleashing of artillery and rockets on civilian areas; the U.S. veto at the United Nations backing Sharon's massacres; the position of the Kerry-Edwards campaign--all must be looked at in the light of the ongoing occupation.
http://www.workers.org/ww/2004/edit1014.php


Reconstruction of the Heart of Jenin
From 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. on Nov. 22, 2002, Israeli snipers attacked the U.N. compound in Jenin, trapping 28 staff members, including Wolstenholme and Iain Hook, both British ex-military men who had worked together in Bosnia. Wolstenholme described how Hook was shot. The IDF then prevented an ambulance from getting to the compound.
http://wrmea.com/archives/Oct_2004/0410058.html


Charge of “Anti-Semitism” Used to Provoke Immigration of French Jews to Israel
History has recorded that anti-Semites and Zionists are natural allies who have helped each other on several occasions. Anti-Semitism in France, real or imagined, and the invitation to French Jews to occupy Palestine is yet another instance of this phenomenon.
http://wrmea.com/archives/Oct_2004/0410008.html


“The Game Is Clear”: Israel Dismantling Palestinian Society, Culture
With each passing day, it became more apparent that Israel’s strategy is twofold: not only to dismantle Palestinian society, but also to eliminate any moderate Palestinian who could serve as a “partner for peace.” “I am Israel’s real enemy,” Erekat explained, “because I am committed to working for peace.”
http://wrmea.com/archives/Oct_2004/0410046.html


Rumsfeld's optimism silenced by bombing
Mr Rumsfeld's trip had not been announced beforehand for security reasons. He met US military commanders, the American ambassador, John Negroponte, and Iraq's interim Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi. His last visit was in May at the height of the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=570732

October 10 2004

Hundreds of Dunams bulldozed near Hebron
A local source in Hebron said that soldiers bulldozed hundreds of Dunams in the villages of Dir Al-Asal Al-Foqa, and Dir Al-Asal Al-Tihta, in the south west of Hebron, in the south of the West Bank, on Sunday morning. The source added that military bulldozers uprooted hundreds of Olive trees...
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week2/101004/Hebron_wall.htm


Civilian toll grows in Gaza fighting
Filfil was planning a business trip to Germany this month. That was before an Israeli tank shell crashed into the top storey of his five-floor house one night last week, wounding him, his wife and all his nine children. with a steel pin in his shattered right arm and a six-inch shrapnel wound across his shoulder, it is doubtful he would be travelling any time soon.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/31978e6e-1ae0-11d9-9fe4-00000e2511c8.html


Two Palestinians dead in Gaza Strip
A Palestinian schoolteacher on Sunday was killed and five others injured in an Israeli missile raid on one of the Jabalya houses in northern Gaza Strip. PIC reported that Israeli aircraft fired a number of missiles at a house near Khulafa Rashideen mosque in the camp.
http://www.albawaba.com/news/index.php3?sid=286566&lang=e&dir=news


Israel strikes Gaza
Witnesses said the Israeli missile struck three Palestinian resistance fighters as they were planting a bomb intended for use against Israeli troops late on Sunday evening, wounding at least three of them.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3583E84E-0280-4627-BF62-2F59DC2D850B.htm


Palestinians call for boycotting Israeli products
"Israelis should know that it has to pay the price of its ongoing military aggression that is practiced against our people everyday," Al Salhi said, adding that the boycott would cause severe damage to many Israeli companies.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/10/content_2073712.htm


Woman escorting Palestinian kids beaten by mob of Israeli teens in Hebron
Diane Janzen, 28, and an Italian worker, whose name isn't being released, were returning to their quarters at about 3 p.m. local time after walking five Palestinian children home from school in the area when a mob of eight Israeli teenagers from the nearby Ma'on settlement attacked them with sticks... just 10 days earlier two others were beaten.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/CalgarySun/News/2004/10/10/663376.html


Arab League slams US for supporting Israel despite Gaza killings
"The Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people is continuing because some superpowers are encouraging Israel," Mussa told reporters. Mussa did not name the United States but his comment came amid the 22-member body's exasperation over a US veto of a draft UN resolution demanding Israel halt its Gaza raid...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=8&u=/afp/20041010/wl_mideast_afp/mideast_unrest_gaza_arab_041010170013


US, EU and Israel to discuss Gaza offensive: Shaath
Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said on Sunday that officials of the United States, the European Union and Israel will convene later in the day to discuss the ongoing Israeli large-scale offensive in northern Gaza Strip.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/10/content_2073784.htm


Palestinian killed in Gaza as Kerry vows no reprieve for Arafat
US Democrat presidential hopeful John Kerry warned that if he wins the November 2 election there will be no reprieve for sidelined Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Sunday's deaths brought to 107 the number of Palestinians killed during Israel's "Days of Penitence" operation... (Kerry is fine with it)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1503&ncid=1503&e=10&u=/afp/20041010/ts_afp/mideast_041010141308


Ministerial panel nixes call for referendum on disengagement
Meanwhile, the Justice Ministry officials said Sunday that they wished to be exempted from promoting the bill outlining the compensation package and evacuation procedures for the politically-charged disengagement plan.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/486880.html


?Senior Israeli officer accused of spying for Palestinians
Israeli security authorities arrested a "senior" Israeli reservist officer on charges of spying for Palestinians, radio Israel reported. The Radio quoted Israeli security sources as saying the officer is þþimplicated in activities "jeopardizing state security in return for money from the Palestinians."
http://www.kuna.net.kw/English/Story.asp?DSNO=671317


Settlers to Lunch a Massive Campaign against Disengagement
The group is also disscusing plans to ad 1,500 more settlers to Gush Katif settlement, and ways of blocking the roads leading out of the Gaza Strip settlement to prevent the evacuation of settlers.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week2/101004/settlers%20to%20lunch.htm


Algeria-Palestine: Farouk Kadoumi in Algiers
The president of the political department of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Farouk Kadoumi, arrived Saturday in Algiers, “to inform Algerian senior officials of the latest developments in Palestine in the light of the terrorist attacks the Palestinian people is confronted to.”
http://www.aps.dz/an/pageview.asp?ID=73089


Egypt: Bedouin says may have sold explosives for Sinai bombs
"The explosives were sold on the assumption that they were going to the Palestinians," the official said on condition of anonymity. Palestinian and Egyptian officials told The Associated Press that Egyptian security and intelligence officers have been discussing the attacks with officials from Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/486334.html


Israelis who disregard counter-terror unit may face sanctions
The sanctions, which would include the cancellation of rights to compensation guaranteed to victims of terror attacks, are already practiced by the United States and Britain.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/486826.html


Believe a Word - By: Uri Avnery
The real purpose of the “disengagement” is  to block negotiations with the Palestinians for dozens of years and to prevent any discussion about the West Bank, while at the same time extending the Israeli settlements in a way that will put an end to any possibility of a future Palestinian state.
http://www.amin.org/eng/uri_avnery/2004/oct9.html


U.S. should support a viable Palestinian state
Israeli troops have also demolished dozens of houses to carve out paths for tanks mainly in Jebaliya, scene of the heaviest fighting. On Oct. 5, BBC News showed a kindergarten the Israeli army had deliberately destroyed. George Bush claimed that we are hated because we have democracy.
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=293611


Hamas had too much to lose
An Egyptian-Islamic attack, in distinction from a Palestinian one, is directed at Egyptian authorities no less than at Israeli tourists, with the aim of driving out the despicable presence of Westerners in Muslim lands.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/486480.html


Israelis occupy state of denial over Zionism's great moral crisis
Weisglass said a deal had now been made with the US Government that, in exchange for the Gaza withdrawal, the US would abandon its promise of a Palestinian state, "with all that entails". He added: "All this with a presidential blessing (from Bush) and ratification by both houses of Congress."
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11035852%255E2703,00.html


Sharon's last session
In his Knesset address tomorrow to mark the opening of the winter session, Rivlin will stress that "it has been years since we were faced with such fateful decisions. The parliamentary debates will be more profound than ever and the battle will be for all or nothing."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/486519.html


Sabotage an option against Iran's atomic plans-experts
"If the Israelis believe sabotage is the only way of stopping Iran getting the bomb, I think they will go with it, even if this ends up harming relations with Europe," Vatanka said. "The Europeans have invested enormous diplomacy in Iran, but that means little to those planning Israel's self-defence."
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L28314095.htm


Ken Bigley's desperate final bid to escape his murderers
A dramatic picture emerged yesterday of the desperate last hours of Ken Bigley, who evaded his captors only to be hunted down and beheaded. The Liverpool engineer may have spent as much as a night on the run before being recaptured by militants, according to extraordinary eyewitness accounts from the town where he was held.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=570543


Wide attacks threatened if US enters Fallujah
The threat presents a conundrum for US and Iraqi officials who have begun a nationwide offensive to take back territory held or contested by insurgents before national elections scheduled for January. In the last 10 days, US forces have stormed Samarra in the Sunni Triangle and Latifiyah south of Baghdad, in an attempt to beat back insurgent forces.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2004/10/10/wide_attacks_threatened_if_us_enters_fallujah?mode=PF


The massacre of Mesopotamian archaeology
Properly excavated, these cities could reveal valuable knowledge on the development of the human race and resolve the big mysteries of history. Unfortunately, this is unlikely to happen. The Sumerian cities have been destroyed, ravaged by the incessant looting that started with the American invasion of Iraq.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=4&article_id=8536


US-led rebuilding efforts turn to locals in rocky Iraq
US-led reconstruction efforts in Iraq are changing track amid a scourge of hostage beheadings, as contractors seek to hire more local companies directly instead of high-risk and costly foreign expertise.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=10&u=/afp/20041009/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_hostages_britain_041009234122


Iraqi groups ‘work on WMD'
Saddam Hussein may not have had weapons of mass destruction before the US-led invasion but the chief US inspector found evidence that Iraqi insurgents have tried to develop them since. In his report on the work of the Iraq Survey Group, Charles Duelfer said several rebel groups were trying to make chemical weapons to use against coalition forces.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/56e40484-1add-11d9-9fe4-00000e2511c8.html


France's Saddam deals revealed
The disclosure will embarrass President Jacques Chirac as it follows on from claims last week by the Iraq Survey Group that Saddam indirectly paid French politicians and individuals to gain support for lifting UN sanctions and influencing French policy. The ISG's claims were dismissed by Chirac as politically motivated.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,11882,1323967,00.html


For Marines, a Frustrating Fight. Some in Iraq Question How and Why War Is Being Waged
Perez said he thought that in some ways he was still fighting terrorists "and I can see how they might attack the United States in the future. It's a link, but it's not really based in the same thing." Perez added that he now believes the primary reason for the U.S. presence is to help the Iraqis. "But they don't seem like they want to be helped," he said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A20794-2004Oct9?language=printer

October 09 2004

Palestinians Will Find No Friends In White House
Neither President George W. Bush nor Sen. John Kerry has any intention of saving the Palestinian refugees living in misery in the Gaza Strip from the current Israeli military assault, which appears to have the silent blessing of the United States. Of course, the State Department does urge "restraint" on both sides. Whatever that means.
http://www.wesh.com/helenthomas/3796634/detail.html


Gaza children lose in games against real bullets
"Sulaiman was cut to pieces," says Karam, his classmate. "His belly was blown away. His head was blown away. There was no ambulance here, just regular cars. I carried his hand and put it in a car." Raed Abuzaid was also blown to shreds. The boys' deaths brought to at least 24 the number of Palestinian children killed since the launch of Israel's "Operation...
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/10/08/1097089567513.html?oneclick=true


Gaza families live in the shadow of death
The last thing that young Suha Ayub Ibayd remembers before a barrage of tank fire ripped through her home is huddling together with her parents and eight brothers and sisters. Now she lies listlessly in her hospital bed, trying to absorb as well as any nine-year-old could the events of that morning.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/CB8868A4-078C-4BDC-B562-9F5ACBB2C54C.htm


Eleventh Day of Israeli Campaign: 9 Killed, 2 Died of Wounds, Scores Wounded
As the Israeli military campaign against northern Gaza Strip enters its eleventh day, nine citizens were killed, and two died of their wounds in less than 24 hours in three points, Khanyounis, Beit Hanoun and Jabalia.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1773


Israeli Troops Wound Children, Raze Lands in Khan Younis
Hassan Alqamhawi, 12, and Jehad Barbakh have been shot and wounded with shrapnel, after an Israeli tank, stationed at the illegal Israeli settlement 'Neveh Dkalim' fired shells at the nearby Khan Younis refugee camp, west of Khan Younis, local medical sources said.
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=394


Peace activists remain undaunted
Mr Hurndall had been working closely with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) - a Palestinian-led group which campaigns against the Israeli occupation using non-violence. The play reveals an idealistic young man, determined to help others despite the risk to his own safety.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3724424.stm


Gaza Daily Update, 7.00 PM
At 11:20 yesterday, Thursday 7 October 2004, 13-year-old Jum'a Al Sharatha, from Jabalia, passed away at hospital. He was injured on 1 October 2004 from IOF bullet towards his neighborhood of Izat Abed Rabu. At 3am today, IOF demolished the house of Mousa Abu Jarad east to Erez crossing. North of Beit Hanoun...
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3197.shtml


Several Hurt in Israeli Missile Strike
An Israeli aircraft fired missiles Saturday night toward a group of Palestinians near a market in the Jebaliya refugee camp, witnesses said. Several people were injured but could not be evacuated because of Israeli machine-gun fire, they said.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=540&e=3&u=/ap/20041009/ap_on_re_mi_ea/gaza_missile


?Palestinians destroy Israeli tank in Beit Lahya
A joint press release issued by al-Quds Brigades, al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, þand the National Resistance Brigades said that a joint group detonated a 90 kg þbomb underneath an Israeli tank that was attacking Palestinians nearby a þþgovernment educational authority.
http://www.kuna.net.kw/English/Story.asp?DSNO=671022


Israel To Benefit From Sinai Bombings: Experts
A cohort of Egyptian security, political and diplomatic experts have concluded that Israel is the only party to benefit from the blasts that rocked tourist resorts in the Egyptian Sinai peninsula on Thursday, October 7, ruling out any possible Egyptian involvement.
http://www.islamonline.org/English/News/2004-10/09/article02.shtml


Aid agency calls for effective international intervention in Gaza
In a situation of ongoing violence and the sharply deteriorating humanitarian situation, civilians are now paying the highest price in growing numbers because of the escalating violence in Gaza, according to aid agency Oxfam International.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3196.shtml


Arafat aide: Israeli occupation motivated Sinai bombers
Arafat said in the letter "On my behalf and on behalf of the Palestinian leadership and the Palestinian people, we express our true feelings of solidarity with the families of the victims and send our condolences to them."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/486374.html


Qureia tells Haaretz: U.S. may be guilty of collusion
Abu Ala, said yesterday that Weisglass' remarks oblige Israel to reconsider its policies in the territories, and the U.S. and international community to redefine their demands of Israel if they would like to see a genuine peace process in the Middle East.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/485999.html


AFC Urges the Creation of Regional Soccer Leagues in Palestinian Territories
"It is important that football activities go on in Palestine. It is a major problem for Palestinian players to travel, not only outside the country but inside as well. This is a political situation in which there is no easy answer."
http://english.daralhayat.com/sports/10-2004/Article-20041009-7d7e8b09-c0a8-01ed-004f-353962e3d2ce/story.html


Sharon tells cabinet ministers to halt criticism of Egypt
Mossad chief Meir Dagan said at the meeting that, "Egyptians are operating in a sincere manner to provide assistance. But we must remember that in regards to timetables and bureaucracy, it is a different world."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/486429.html


Bush: Arafat will not lead Palestinians to statehood
In a heated debate rematch, President George W. Bush said Friday night that he did not believe Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat could lead the Palestinian people to statehood, Israel Radio reported. Bush stressed that the Palestinians were in need of new leadership that could attain democracy and freedom.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=486408&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Syrian president denies secret peace talks with Israel
President Bashar Assad denied what he said were media reports that Syria has held secret peace talks with Israel, saying Saturday that his country wants to negotiate publicly with the Jewish state.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/486434.html


British MP tours South, backs resistance to occupation
"I was able to see the Shebaa Farms and hills, as well as parts of the Golan Heights ... and I remembered that in these areas there is occupation too, and not only in the West Bank," he said.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=9121


Breaking the impasse
In the land of home demolitions, military assassinations, movement restrictions, settlement construction, religious and secular strife, collective punishment, military incursions and legal and socio-economic discrimination, and all thepsychological and physical damage associated with the Occupation there is a growing chorus of those who believe that the situation will deteriorate...
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3194.shtml


Presbyterians Stand By Divestment Vote
Not long ago, the Presbyterian Church USA managed to do something most Jewish organizations can only dream of: It generated Jewish unity. Jewish groups were outraged when the organization passed a resolution over the summer calling for divesting from companies that do business in or with Israel.
http://www.jewishtimes.com/News/4233.stm


No Palestinian State, No Peace for America
Now we know the truth. Neither the Bush administration nor the Israeli government has any intention whatsoever of allowing the Palestinians to establish their own state. That means, of course, that both have been lying, not only to the Palestinians but to the American people.
http://www.antiwar.com/reese/?articleid=3751


Israel's Attack On Gaza Aims To Stop Peace Process
This is part of Sharon's larger plan to show Palestinians and the world that Israel alone calls the shots. The Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot noted that Sharon is “marketing the Gaza Disengagement as something which ‘the Palestinians will pay for heavily.'
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1008-21.htm


The ICG report on Hamas: a shallow approach to a complex issue
Yet when Israel strikes at the heart of Palestinian cities killing innocents, it can easily be portrayed in the international media as "self-defence," while any Palestinian response, which produces identical results on an Israeli street is termed "terror."
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3199.shtml


Not 'another UN conference on Palestine'?
In numerous seminars and conferences around the world. The issue has been addressed in all of its complexities and developments. Resolutions to the conflict have been adopted and schemes for the alleviation of the suffering of the Palestinian people under occupation have been identified. But so far a just and comprehensive solution has been elusive.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=3&article_id=9103


Sharon's hot winter
Things will only get harder as his timetable progresses. Two weeks will be devoted to recruiting supporters and softening the opposition. On October 24, the cabinet will approve the implementation bill, and the next day Sharon will bring the declaration of principles to the Knesset.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/485963.html


The Abu Ghraib Supplementary Documents
An investigation by Major General Geoffrey Miller reveals the interest of high-level officials in obtaining valuable intelligence from the prisoners at Abu Ghraib and other detention facilities in Iraq. Miller, the head of intelligence and interrogation operations at Guantanamo Bay, arrived in late August with interrogation experts from Guantanamo, military intelligence and the CIA.
http://www.publicintegrity.org/report.aspx?aid=396&sid=100


Iraqis may sue US over invasion
Iyad al-Samarrai of the Iraqi Islamic Party said on Thursday that the report, drafted by the chief US weapons inspector in Iraq Charles Duelfer, proves the war was "not legitimate". "These weapons were used as a pretext by the US and British governments to invade Iraq."He added: "We have the right to demand compensation and the withdrawal of the occupation forces."
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/2E5CE52A-F5CE-433A-9F9F-3AA603B6F0DF.htm


Captors refused to back down despite message exchange
Frantic diplomacy was going on behind the scenes right up until the moment Ken Bigley was beheaded by his captors, the Foreign Secretary revealed for the first time last night. Jack Straw also revealed that the Government knew about Mr Bigley's death 24 hours before the news emerged via Abu Dhabi television.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=570396


US may send more troops to Iraq for elections: Rumsfeld
On the flight from Washington on Saturday, Rumsfeld said the United States was trying to find countries to provide troops to protect the UN mission that is supposed to organize the elections in Iraq.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=8&u=/afp/20041009/wl_mideast_afp/bahrain_us_iraq_rumsfeld_041009064828


Pentagon meddling crippled post-war humanitarian aid for Iraq: US experts
"The situation was further complicated by the fact that the [Pentagon] humanitarian planning team, citing secrecy, refused to disclose crucial information needed for planning not only to international relief organisations but also to other US military, government and civilian agencies working on humanitarian relief," they add.
http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=2&p=6203&s2=09

October 08 2004

From Oslo to Iraq and the Road Map, by Edward W. Said
Said rebukes Yasser Arafat and other Arab leaders for driving the Palestinian people into a violent dead end through "corruption and rank incompetence". He also condemns American politicians like Bill Clinton and the "intellectually disadvantaged" George W. Bush for playing peacemaker while supplying Israel with vast stockpiles of high-tech weaponry, much of it for use in what he calls a "disproportionate military response to...an anticolonial civilian uprising".
http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=5408


Sheffield calling: Palestine activists take a page from concert against apartheid
For many of us, the Nelson Mandela Freedom concert at London's Wembley stadium in June 1988 was the "beginning of the end" for apartheid in South Africa. Sixteen years later, could music help to overcome an even greater challenge - to end the Israeli military occupation of Palestine and allow its people to live, at last, in peace and freedom?
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3184.shtml


International Strategy Meeting in Beirut calls for “International Movement against Israeli Apartheid”
In Beirut, between September 17-19, over 260 delegates from 43 different countries, representing social movements, organizations, political parties, networks, and coalitions struggling against war and occupation, met to discuss the principles and strategies of their struggle.
http://stopthewall.org/worldwideactivism/765.shtml


Palestinian girl killed by Israeli fire in Gaza: medics
A nine-year-old Palestinian girl was killed Friday by Israeli troops in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanun, medics told AFP. Samah Nassar was fatally hit in the chest, they said. Ninety-five Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the army launched 10 days ago a major offensive in the Gaza Strip...
http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=30135


Resident dies of wounds sustained in Khan Younis, death toll rises to 103
A local source in Khan Younis said that soldiers centered east of Khan Younis fired at tens of homes in the south of Khan Younis causing several injuries including Abu Teimah, who was found dead in the shelled area, on Friday morning.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week2/100804/Gaza_op.htm


Israeli airstrike kills Palestinian in Gaza - medics
An Israeli airstrike killed a Palestinian in northern Gaza on Friday, witnesses said, as the military continued one of its biggest and bloodiest assaults on the area in four years of conflict.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L08138350.htm


Occupation troops prevent ambulance from reaching a wounded girl
Nuha Odeh, the child's sister, said that Samah was standing at the window when she suddenly fell covered with blood. Ambulances were not allowed to reach the injured child, so her family had to take her in a neighbor's car to the nearby Biet Hanoun clinic, her sister added.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/am/publish/article_8396.shtml


Israeli fire kills 2 Palestinian children in Gaza
Palestinian doctors identified the two slain children as Sliman Abu Foul and Raed Abu Zeid, both 14, and said their bodies had been ripped apart by what appeared to be a tank shell. The Israeli Army insisted the two people fired on had been "preparing to fire an improvised rocket."
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=9092


Palestinians Will Find No Friends In White House
Neither President George W. Bush nor Sen. John Kerry has any intention of saving the Palestinian refugees living in misery in the Gaza Strip from the current Israeli military assault, which appears to have the silent blessing of the United States.
http://www.wesh.com/helenthomas/3796634/detail.html


Peace activists remain undaunted
A play based on the diaries of British peace activist Tom Hurndall is to be broadcast by the BBC. Mr Hurndall was shot in April 2003 while working with children in the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza, and died after spending 10 months in a coma.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3724424.stm


?Al-Kidwa condemns Taba terrorist acts
Palestinian envoy Nasser Al-Kidwa on Friday þcondemned the bomb attacks in Taba, Egypt, late Thursday and stressed that the þPalestinian Authority ordered Al-Qaida head Osama Bin Laden years ago not to meddle with the Palestinian question.þ
http://www.kuna.net.kw/English/Story.asp?DSNO=670635


Qureia tells Haaretz: U.S. may be guilty of collusion
Abu Ala said Thursday that Weisglass' remarks oblige Israel to reconsider its policies in the territories, and the United States and international community to redefine their demands of Israel if they would like to see a genuine peace process in the Middle East.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=486308&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Arafat aide: Israeli occupation motivated Sinai bombers
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's top adviser, Nabil Abu Rudeinah, also drew a direct link with the heavy death toll in Israel's current massive operation in the Gaza Strip, which borders on the Sinai. "The continuation of Israel's occupation and aggressions fuel the world's anger," he said.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/486374.html


Syria, Iran condemn Israeli practices against Palestinians
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his visiting Iranian counterpart Sayed Muhammad Khatami made the condemnation duringtheir meeting. They also stressed the importance of preserving Iraq's territorial integrity and independence...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/08/content_2061731.htm


Violence must stop in Gaza
The World Confederation of Labour reiterates its position that only talks between both parties and respect for the United Nations resolutions can bring fair and lasting peace in the region. Respect for these resolutions implies the effective recognition of the Palestinian State and therefore also the right to economic development.
http://www.cmt-wcl.org/cmt/ewcm.nsf/_/F3094B34C45724C8C1256F27004991EA?OpenDocument


Occupation as withdrawal - By: Dr. Mustafa Barghouti
The evidence is piled high, yet some remain in denial, still believing Sharon plans to "withdraw" from Gaza. Sharon himself never used the word "withdrawal", yet the word has spread like wildfire. The international media invented it, the Arab media picked it up and Palestinian officials seem to have believed it. Arab officialdom now acts as if "withdrawal" is just around the corner.
http://www.amin.org/eng/mustafa_barghouthi/2004/oct7.html


The Big Freeze
Sharon is the son of a Russian agronomist, Weisglass the son of a Polish fur merchant. Sharon is flesh of the flesh of the fighting rooted land-settlement movement, Weisglass is the embodiment of the speculator immigrant bourgeoisie. Sharon is brutal frontier Zionism, Weisglass is urban real estate Zionism.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/485929.html


Save the collapsing Palestinian system
Besieged from without and divided from within, the Palestinian political system is coming apart. It is hard pressed to deliver vital services or ensure law and order and is virtually incapable of producing basic decisions, let alone generating a coherent political program.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=9074


Going quietly
Operation Days of Penitence, which this morning entered its 10th day, has played itself out. The decision rests with the political-diplomatic level. True, last Wednesday Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared, following consultations with the top levels of the defense establishment, that the operation would go on indefinitely, until no more Qassam rockets...
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/485964.html


Sharon 'creating a lose-lose situation' with Gaza invasion
Mr Dahlan said that, by destroying the peace process and trying to liquidate the PA, Mr Sharon was playing for time. "He may gain time - one or two years - but the Israelis will lose a lot and we will lose a lot. It's a lose-lose situation," he said. The Israeli offensive was driving people into the arms of Hamas, its ostensible target, he added.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/bf409b14-18a8-11d9-8963-00000e2511c8.html


Analysis: Target was Israelis as well as Israel-Egypt ties
They noted, however, that there was much support for the Palestinians on Egyptian campuses and that scores of Egyptian youngsters who wished to take action against Israel had been apprehended in the past two years.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=485955&contrassID=1&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Making Arab media really independent - By Daoud Kuttab
A woman journalist from Oman spoke about the impossibility of talking about human rights in her country, let alone expecting a free press or thinking of creating a journalists' syndicate or a human rights NGO. A Saudi editor who was forced to resign from a leading newspaper explained how the minister of information in his country must approve the choice of editor of any Saudi newspaper. A journalist from Syria...
http://www.amin.org/eng/daoud_kuttab/2004/oct8.html


Harmony Over Israel / Palestine
S tatements by presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry and his running mate Sen. John Edwards on issues concerning the Palestinian-Israeli conflict indicate that if elected this coming November 2nd, they would follow the same policies as the Bush-Cheney administration concerning the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
http://www.counterpunch.org/assad10082004.html


When Victory Is No Victory at All
To some strategists, the important issue is who appears to be winning. "Let us project victory," was the sound advice given once by Brigadier General Eival Gilady, former head of the strategic planning department of the Israeli army. But even this has turned out to be difficult.
http://www.forward.com/main/article.php?ref=shelah200410061038


The Israeli "Disengagement" Plan: Gaza Still Occupied
Notwithstanding the terms of the Plan, Israel will remain an occupying power under international law after disengagement from Gaza and is therefore bound by the obligations of an Occupying Power under international customary law and the Fourth Geneva Convention.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3189.shtml


Cold peace over Sinai's borders
What Egypt has never done is repudiate the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty which was meant to define relations between the two countries. These included the de-militarisation of the Sinai peninsula, normal diplomatic, economic and cultural relations, the free movement of goods and people and mutual protection under the law.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3726502.stm


US air strike kills 11 and wounds 17 in Falluja
Rescuers dug bodies from rubble with their hands after the raid on the house where residents said a wedding party had just taken place. They said the groom died and the bride was wounded. “Credible intelligence sources confirmed Zarqawi leaders were meeting at the safe-house at the time of the strike,” a U.S. military statement said.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/22c4a64c-18f6-11d9-80e1-00000e2511c8.html


British hostage Ken Bigley 'dead'
Hostage Ken Bigley was feared dead today after a Middle East TV station reported it had video footage said to show his execution. Abu Dhabi TV said the tape appeared to prove Mr Bigley had been killed. The video showed six militants standing behind a hostage as he was beheaded, according to reports.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=570143


Pentagon Sets Steps to Retake Iraq Rebel Sites
Pentagon planners and military commanders have identified 20 to 30 towns and cities in Iraq that must be brought under control before nationwide elections can be held in January, and have devised detailed ways of deciding which ones should be early priorities
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/08/politics/08strategy.html?ex=1098249362&ei=1&en=3dd1e89bf90fe5a1

October 07 2004

Mohamed Lahrub from Deir Samit: “The Apartheid Wall Nakba Has Come”
These trees were planted a long time ago, and thank God they bear an abundance of fruit, and we would produce 12 tons of olives from it, and the same quantity as well was produced by my uncle. And now this third Nakba has come upon us which was inconceivable: is it not enough the 1948 Nakba and the 1967 Nakba, and now a new Nakba that is the Wall.
http://stopthewall.org/communityvoices/771.shtml


Israeli assault turns Gaza into battlefield
Armoured bulldozers had demolished scores, possibly hundreds, of homes, they said. Thousands of people had spent days without electricity and water. Residents said that the destruction of sewage systems had contaminated the water supplies.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianweekly/story/0,12674,1321668,00.html


Three Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in Gaza, UN delivers aid
Palestinian doctors identified the two slain children as Sliman Abu Ful and Raed Abu Zeid, both 14, and said their bodies had been ripped apart by what appeared to be a tank shell. A 17-year-old girl, Samah Udeh, was also seriously wounded in Jabaliya when Israeli soldiers opened fire from tanks at the entrance of the camp...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=1&u=/afp/20041007/wl_mideast_afp/mideast_041007184814


Tanks fire shells into family homes
Israeli tank fired two shells into blocks of flats yesterday, killing a Palestinian father and his son in one home and wounding nine children asleep in another. The most seriously hurt was 18-month-old Wisal Obed Felfel, who doctors fear will not survive brain injuries from shrapnel. Her eight siblings, aged from seven months to 11 years, have shrapnel wounds and burns.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1321584,00.html


Ninth Day of Israeli Escalation in GS and WB: 3 Killed, Scores Arrested
In Deir al-Balah city, central Gaza Strip, massive Israeli troops, backed by four tanks and five military bulldozers dynamited the house of Nassar al-Fleit, shortly after besieging it and demanding its dwellers to leave out under fire threat.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1769


14 residents, including 6 brothers and 3 lads apprehended in Hebron
A local source in Hebron said that soldiers withheld more than 60 school students, and apprehended three, after stooping a school bus on a military checkpoint on the entrance of the village of Beit Ummar , north of Hebron, and apprehended 14 residents in several areas in Hebron, in the south of the West Bank on Thursday afternoon.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week1/100704/14_Hebron.htm


Israeli assault on Gaza leaves scores dead and many homeless
Daud Asliya, a 33-year-old resident of Jabalya refugee camp told Christian Aid's partner B'Tselem: 'Since the invasion began, we have been under siege and cannot leave the house. A tank is positioned 50 metres from my house and is intensively shelling all the time…
http://www.christianaid.org.uk/news/stories/041006s.htm


Heroism in the Holy Land: Chris Brown beaten for walking children to school
Chris and Kim are volunteers with an organization called Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), which provides nonviolent intercession in areas of violence. They serve in the West Bank city of Hebron, where Palestinian civilians are frequently attacked and harassed by Israeli settlers. The presence of such international witnesses often reduces this violence.
http://www.sfbayview.com/100604/heroism100604.shtml


Powell: U.S. in no doubt of Sharon's commitment to road map
United States Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters while visiting Grenada on Wednesday that the U.S. does not doubt Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's commitment to the internationally-brokered road map to Middle East peace.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/485862.html


Arab League 'fed up' with US veto: official
The Arab lawyers' union said Washington's decision to resort to the veto had blocked "condemnation of the Israeli butchery in the Gaza Strip", in a statement released here. It made the United States "a full partner of the Zionist entity in its attack on the Palestinian people and the implementation of its extermination plan", the union charged.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=5&u=/afp/20041007/wl_mideast_afp/mideast_gaza_un_arab_041007174938


Battling to survive in Jabaliya
“At least 250 people have been injured, and 18 are in very critical condition. Eight of them are expected to die in the coming few days. Thirty-three of the injured are under the age of 16,” Sakka told Palestine Report.
http://www.palestinereport.org/article.php?article=528


First UN relief convoy reaches families trapped in northern Gaza
The first shipment of food and water to people trapped in their homes by the current Israeli incursion into northern Gaza was delivered to half of the 600 families there, the main United Nations agency helping Palestinian refugees said today.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=12148&Cr=palestin&Cr1=


UN warns of impending humanitarian crisis in Gaza Strip
Twelve UN organizations - under the auspices of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - put together the report after realizing the situation was more severe than they had initially thought, said David Shearer, the head of OCHA's Jerusalem office.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=485843&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


UN challenges Israel on UNRWA terror link claim
Israel linked the UN employees to "terrorism" shortly after backing away from an accusation that Palestinian militants transported a rocket to be fired at Israel in