Bil`in this Friday - crowded anniversary & a water canon
Anarchists/Gush Shalom/ISM - The Bil`in demonstration marking two years of ongoing joint struggle was larger than the usual Friday actions and also got more media attention (including a long item on Israeli TV First Channel News. It also got the usual "attention" of the army. Following are some reports by various participants. [A.K.]
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19475

 Israeli truck uprooting Palestinian olive trees near Nablus
Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC - Qassem Al Najar, the owner of the trees stated that the Israeli army is planning to expand a Settlers road. http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19474
 
 A plea against demonizing
Tony Klug - UK`s Jews Speak Out - When the land-confiscations and settlement-building accelerated a decade or so after 1967, and the Israeli occupation no longer looked to be temporary, Palestinian resistance grew in tandem. If, at times, it turned violent and involved deadly atrocities, it was not because the perpetrators were Palestinian, or Arab or predominantly Muslim, but because they were an occupied people. (...) In parallel, if there has been a persistent pattern of serious human rights violations in the occupied territories, it is not because the perpetrators are Israeli, nor even because they are Zionist - patriotic Israelis and self-proclaimed Zionists have been among the most outspoken critics, as they should be - and certainly not because they are Jews. It is because they are occupiers. http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19473
 
 Is "a just solution" a non-starter?
Judea Pearl/Ramzi Khoury (debate) - The Saudi Gazette - "Do you know what Israelis see when they read an Arab peace proposal in the newspaper? They skip the text about peace, recognition and security and search for one word: `refugees`. The rest is trivial; if that word appears there explicitly or embedded in `right of return` or `a just solution` or `Resolution 194` or some other phrase that may threaten the demographic makeup of Israel, the proposal is automatically deemed a non-starter."  http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19471
 
 S. African Jewish minister sends support to `Israeli Apartheid Week` organizers
Johnny Paul - Jerusalem Post - Ronnie Kasrils, South Africa`s minister for intelligence, wrote "To any fair minded person, this process of colonial-style dispossession is the fundamental cause of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and is certainly akin to the racist-style humiliation and brutality of the notorious apartheid system under which South Africa`s landless and dispossessed people suffered". http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19467 
 
 A country for some of its citizens?
Shulamit Aloni - Haaretz - In the discussion on the granting of cultural autonomy to the Israeli Arab community, the opposition to this proposal surprised me. Initially, the majority supported it; however, gradually, the discussions exposed all the fears, suspicions and manipulations used to justify discrimination. The question asked by Smooha, who was dominant and frank in the talks, expressed all this. He wondered how much autonomy could be extended to a minority that is suspected of being basically disloyal by the majority. In my view, that question sums up why this project failed.  http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19465
 
 High Court: Security fence may be built on Palestinian farmland
Yuval Yoaz - Haaretz - The High Court of Justice ruled Thursday that it is permissible for the Israel Defense Forces to build security fences around West Bank settlements, even if the barriers cut into agricultural land owned by Palestinians. Justices Dorit Beinisch, Eliezer Rivlin and Edmond Levi rejected a petition submitted two years ago by ten Palestinian residents of the West Bank opposing the construction of security fences surrounding adjacent settlement land.  http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19464
 
 Hamas is the missing link in Rice`s plan
George S. Hishmeh - Arabic Media Internet Network-"..her commitment to bring about a better life for the Palestinians "free of the humiliation of occupation", as she said when she spoke at the inaugural gala of the American Task Force on Palestine last October. ..But, unfortunately, President George W. Bush seemed to have pulled the rug from underneath her feet just as she was to start her talks in Occupied Jerusalem with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert." http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19456
 
 Hamas: Quartet stand encouraging
Al Jazeera-"The EU, like Russia, appears to favour a softer line, seeing the new Palestinian unity government as a solution to factional violence, although the EU has not pushed for a resumption of aid to the Palestinians." 
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19455