February 06, 2005

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|  Today in Palestine!  06 - Feb - 2005  |
|           www.TheHeadlines.Org             |
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Two Civilians Wounded in Gaza and a Boy Ran Over By Israeli Jeep
Eyewitnesses told IPC correspondent in the town of Doura, south of Hebron province, that an Israeli military jeep ran over 16-year-old boy Ayed Al Rajoub in the center of town. The witnesses asserted that the jeep deliberately ran over Al Rajoub...
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=2441


Military court releases officer charged with killing Gaza girl
The IDF Southern Command's Military Court on Sunday decided to release Captain R., who is suspected of killing a 13-year-old girl in Rafah, southern Gaza, at point blank range. R. has been confined to an IDF base for the last two months, pending completion of the trial. (Good step for Just-Peace)
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/536760.html


MPA Calls for Releasing Palestinian Child Prisoners
Ministry of Prisoners Affairs (MPA) affirmed the necessity of releasing the Palestinian child prisoners in the Israeli prisons. In a press release issued Saturday the MPA called on the "concerned parties" to put the issue of the child prisoners on top of their schedules...
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=2097


Parents fight to learn why Israeli sniper shot their son
Hurndall was hit in the forehead by a high-velocity bullet fired by an Israeli soldier as he worked as a peace activist in the Gaza Strip 20 months ago. The bullet entered cleanly enough, but then splintered into hundreds of tiny pieces. Hurndall never regained consciousness, dying nine months later and 2,200 miles away in a London hospital.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1401737,00.html


The two Palestinians Killed on Friday were unarmed
After a thorough combing, An Israeli army source said Saturday that the two Palestinians who were killed on Friday by Israeli soldiers near Neir Amm settlement were unarmed. Soldiers fired at two Palestinians who approached the security fence of the settlement, apparently seeking work.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2005/feb/week1/020605/unarmed%20the%20ones%20killed.htm


Immigration to Israel drops in 2004
Immigration to Israel fell by more than nine percent in 2004, led by a sharp drop in arrivals from the former Soviet Union, officials said Sunday. The Jewish Agency, the agency that deals with immigration, said 22,134 Jews moved to Israel in 2004 - down from 24,434 the previous year.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=536749&contrassID=1&subContrassID=9&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


IFH Calls for Improving Palestinian Prisoners' Conditions
The Vienna-based legal organization, International Friends of Humanity (IFH), called on Saturday the Israeli Defense Minister and the Israeli prisons service to improve detention conditions experienced by thousands of Palestinian prisoners inside various jails, prisons and concentration camps.
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=2438


Sharon, Abbas turn blind eye to wreckage of other Mideast peace bids
US President George W. Bush may have predicted last week that the goal of an independent Palestinian state is within reach, but neither Sharon nor Abbas have shown any desire to address the thorniest issues such as the plight of Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem.
http://www.turkishpress.com/world/news.asp?id=050206034857.zt48jf1u.xml


Rice Says 'Hard Decisions' Await Israel
"We will ask of our partners and our friends here in Israel that Israel continue to make the hard decisions that must be taken in order to promote peace and help the emergence of a democratic Palestinian state," Rice said Sunday. Rice did not go into specifics.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article/article?f=/n/a/2005/02/06/national/w095510S21.DTL


U.S. draft law designates PLO officials as “terrorists”
The bill states that: "An alien who is an officer, official, representative or spokesman of the Palestine Liberation Organization is considered, for purposes of this Act, to be engaged in a terrorist activity." If adopted, the law would kill the hopes for the peace process in the Middle East.
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=6969


Palestinian prisoners on talks agenda
The minister for prisoners' affairs, Hisham Abd al-Razaq, told Aljazeera on Sunday that the Palestinian Authority had not agreed to "Israel's criteria for selecting Palestinian prisoners". "The issue is still one of the controversial points between us and the Israeli side ... Israel's position with regard to these criteria needs to be more constructive.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D1152F67-1613-4C2F-A850-4AB68FD6F18E.htm


Rice urges Israel to avoid unilateral steps on J'lem
Israeli sources said Rice was referring to the government's decision from last summer to apply the absentee property law to tens of thousands of dunams (acres) of Palestinian property in East Jerusalem. Attorney General Menachem Mazuz last week instructed Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to order an immediate halt to the application of the law.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/536736.html


Calls to dissolve 'corrupt' PA cabinet
Fatah officials and Palestinian columnists and editors urged Abbas over the weekend to dismiss the cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, as a first step toward stemming widespread corruption.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1107575181588


Abbas meets PLO council
Top Palestinian official Nabil Abu Rudeineh said that the Palestinian Authority is expecting the visit of US secretary Rice to bring progress on issues under discussion between Israel and the Palestinians.
http://www.ndtv.com/template/template.asp?template=Palestine&slug=Abbas+meets+PLO+council&id=68052&callid=1


Fatah movement reissues call for truce with Israel
In a statement, the 124-member Fatah Revolutionary Council said its member militias would refrain from attacking Israeli civilians inside Israel, and would be ready for "a mutual ceasefire" in lands Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East War.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/536394.html


Mobarak might visit Israel after Sharm Al-Sheikh summit
Israeli military radio reported that the Egyptian president Hosney Mobarak might conduct his first official visit to Israel after Sharm Al-Sheikh summit next Tuesday. The Radio stated that Mobarak told some of his aides that he might accept an invitation which Sharon is expected to offer during the summit.
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2005/feb/week1/020605/mobarak.htm


Report: Egyptian army to secure Gaza's Philadelphi route
A senior Egyptian official told the official state news agency on Saturday that Israel and Egypt will sign an agreement on Thursday enabling the Egyptian army to secure the Gaza border area adjacent to the Philadephi route.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=536376&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Knesset unlikely to vote on disengagement bill this week
Army Radio reported Sunday that the committee was considering adding an article to the bill compelling the prime minister to hold a national referendum on the disengagement plan before it could be implemented. A preliminary vote at the finance committee found that 10 members opposed the bill, while just eight support it.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/536745.html


Rice: U.S. Wants Help With Mideast Peace
The United States wants help from Turkey and other countries to "sustain the momentum" toward Middle East peace, and incitement to anti-Jewish violence and sentiment must end, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=1&u=/ap/20050206/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/rice_11


Israel to 'pray for failure'
Jerusalem - Israeli rabbis were planning on Sunday to hold special sessions in 100 synagogues to pray for the failure of this week's summit between prime minister Ariel Sharon and new Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas.
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1658266,00.html


Israeli DM declares suspension of manhunts, assassinations
The Israeli military operations against wanted Palestinian men have been temporarily frozen, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told the cabinet Sunday. Mofaz said he had approved the release of the jailed son of Fatah West Bank leader Marwan Barghouti... (Who was jailed for??? being son of the jailed leader! )
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-02/06/content_2556309.htm


Gaza and Jericho first - again
It used to be said that a meeting like this was important because of the very fact that it was being held, as if this were some type of cosmic event. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict can no longer allow itself to suffice with this type of meeting. The working assumption of the Sharm summit can no longer be that the sides convene only to write each other's test assignments again.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/536427.html


In Mideast, Rice tests diplomatic waters
The road map calls for the establishment of a viable Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel. "In Israel, there is concern that an American mediator will press Israel to help [Abbas] beyond what Sharon is willing, and will weaken the Israeli stance," wrote Aluf Benn in Haaretz in an analysis headlined "Condi go home."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0207/p07s01-wome.html


Defense chiefs disagree with Dichter on approach to PA
The stance associated with Dichter - who is due to end his tenure at the Shin Bet in a few months - is much harder and calls for minimum gestures toward the Palestinians and retains the readiness for the assassination of potential Palestinian attackers.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=536647&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Dolan: `Less satisfied' with Mazuz's clearing of Sharon
"As to Mazuz's opinion (Attorney General Menachem Mazuz's decision to absolve the prime minister in the public sphere), in this matter I am less satisfied. There was room to phrase it differently, and I tried to make my contribution to the matter."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=536582&contrassID=1&subContrassID=4&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Israel returns five Egyptian infiltrators to Egypt
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the five, all aged in their 20s, crossed into Israel looking for jobs and were interrogated by Israeli authorities before being handed back to Egyptian authorities.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=536783&contrassID=1&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


French FM urges Syria to stay out of Lebanese elections
Syria has been under increasing international pressure, led by the United States and France, to lessen its influence in Lebanon. Syria maintains an estimated 15,000 troops in Lebanon and remains the main political power broker in the country.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=536362&contrassID=1&subContrassID=8&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


The Abu Ghraib Scandal You Don't Know
Now, it emerges, there may be another dimension to Gus' story and certainly to the horrors of Abu Ghraib. In what amounted to a perversion of the traditional doctor's creed of "first, do no harm," the medical system at the prison became an instrument of abuse, by design and by neglect.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1025139,00.html


22 Iraqi Officers Killed Near Baghdad
Insurgents attacked a police station south of Baghdad under cover of darkness Sunday, killing 22 Iraqi police and soldiers, police said. Gunmen seized four Egyptians technicians in Baghdad in the second kidnapping of foreigners in the Iraqi capital within a week.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=540&e=2&u=/ap/20050206/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq


Fresh threats to kill kidnapped Italian in Iraq
A second Iraqi Islamic group claimed on Sunday responsibility for the kidnapping of Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena and said she would be killed by Monday unless Italy withdrew its troops.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-02/07/content_2556496.htm