Here follow the September 22, 2007 press picks from different sources, posted by TOI-staff on Occupation Magazine.(We do the updating on Saturdays, but OM is updated daily, each day of the week by a different editor.) 

...but first, some articles of earlier days

 The Education System in East Jerusalem – Summary  
Shir Hever -- AIC -- "The economic situation in East Jerusalem is a testament to years of inequity and neglect. Sixty-six percent of Palestinian families and 76% of Palestinian children live below the poverty line. While Palestinians make up 34% of the total population in Jerusalem, they make up 56% of the poor and about 58% of poor children, despite the fact that the percentage of Muslim men in Jerusalem employed in the civilian workforce is greater than that of Jews. While Palestinian school pupils make nearly 42% percent of the pupils in the whole of the Jerusalem education system, they receive little more than 20% of the education budget (this figure is provided by the official statistics: the real amount of money that ends up in the hands of the Palestinian schools is even smaller than that)"
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=22340

 UN finds 40 new W. Bank roadblocks in two months
Avi Issacharoff-Haaretz - "Defense Minister Ehud Barak promised U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this week to remove 24 roadblocks and consider additional alleviations of movement restrictions on the Palestinians. This followed a similar promise to alleviate movement restrictions that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. However, the number of roadblocks has now reached 572, an increase of 52 percent compared to 376 in August 2005, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). In the past two months alone, Israel put up 40 new roadblocks, "
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=22426

 Israel’s Missed Opportunities
Joharah Baker - MIFTAH - "Israel has repeatedly failed to grasp opportunities for peace, at least its own peace, over the years. At present, it is fair to say that it just might be too late to recapture opportunities gone by, but it is still clear that at least some players in this conflict understand the wheels that set these opportunities in motion"
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=22402

22/09/2007

 Hamas is the key
Ahmed Yousef - Haaretz - Many attempts are underway to lift the siege that has been imposed on Hamas, and to integrate the organization into the political process. Those who are involved in these attempts realize that Hamas is a key political player that cannot be ignored or swept aside. They also know that no political progress in the direction of a political settlement can be achieved without the endorsement and approval of Hamas. Numerous official and semi-official organizations and groups, both Western and international, have come to this conclusion, as is amply reflected in their repeated calls for positive and proactive engagement with Hamas.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=22440
 
 Barghouti is the key
Ronny Shaked - Ynet - The prisoner [Marwan Barghouti] reportedly receives direct reports on any developments from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas` office, and may even be the one to decide whether the international peace conference set for Washington in November will take place.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=22445
 
 How to cause humanitarian crisis and throw responsibility to Egypt
Yaakov Katz - Jerusalem Post - A day after the cabinet defined the Gaza Strip as "hostile territory," The Jerusalem Post learned Thursday that the IDF is working on a proposal that calls for a "complete disengagement" from the Gaza Strip -involving the closure of all border crossings with Israel and the transfer of all responsibility over the Palestinian territory to Egypt.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=22438

 The Commandment of the Redemption of Prisoners.
Gush Shalom - paid ad - The Jewish Yom Kippur / And the Muslim Ramadan / Are the appropriate moment (...) To release Gilad Shalit. To release Ehud Goldwasser. To release Eldad Regev. To release Marwan Barghouti. To release Ahmad Saadat. To release Samir Kuntar. And the elderly, the women And the children.
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/weekly_ad/1190311665/

 `Staying here is my Jihad” (interview with Hani Abu Haikel, Hebron)
Palestine Monitor - “The settlers first moved here in the mid seventies. Slowly they expanded, until they surrounded our home. Many times they have offered us vast money to leave here. You know the last time they offered me $20 million. Yes – twenty million. These settlers told me they would take my family to Haifa, then we would fly to Argentina and they would pay for our villa and new luxury car. The offer was genuine, they very much want to get rid of us. When we didn`t go, they have burnt out five different cars that I bought. They have destroyed half my olive trees, poured paint over my grape vines, and threatened my children. We can never leave the house empty, becuase they will immedieatly take it over. But I will not leave. Staying here in Tel Rumeida, in Hebron, this is my Jihad". 
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=22444
 
 The Friday joint actions
Ilan Shalif e.a. - A-infos - The main point of this week`s demonstration in Wallage was the combining of the struggle against the separation fence being built, with the road blocks - the older means of restriction of freedom of the Palestinians in the occupied territories.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=22443
 
 Yesh Gvul wins in court and puts out Yom Kippur ad
Yesh Gvul - For the past five years we have been carrying on a public and legal struggle to bring to justice those responsible for the dropping of a one ton bomb on the El-Daraj of Gaza City in July 2002. This week the Israeli State Attorney`s Office announced its agreement to establish an independent commission of inquiry to investigate this terrible event to the High Court of Justice. 
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=22436
 
 It’s lobbying, But is it really pro-Israel?
M.J.Rosenberg - IFP - John J. Mearsheimer and Steven M. Walt (...) believe that the interests of both, the U.S. and Israel, would be better served by aggressive US involvement to produce an Israeli-Palestinian agreement along the lines of the so-called Clinton parameters.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=22442

 Extreme Right on the hunt for "leftist" plays and films
Ehud Asheri - Ha`aretz - Good for National Religious Party Chair Zevulun Orlev! In a brilliant intelligence coup, he managed to find two "left-wing" plays included in the schools` culture basket, and he immediately warned the nation that the souls of Israeli students were being "poisoned". It is, however, doubtful whether he even saw the two plays before describing them as "extreme left." Both are, by the way, based on personal experiences: "Project Jabalya" on Eldad Galor`s period as a soldier in Gaza`s Jabalya Refugee Camp, "Winter in Qalandiyah" on Lia Nirgad`s long monitoring the Qalandiyah Checkpoint on behalf of "Machsom Watch".
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=22441

 San Diego Film Festival director threatend over Israel boycott
Leigh Brady - The San Diego Women`s Film Festival jury selection committee and festival director, Jennifer Hsu, have fallen under attack for deciding to observe the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. Hsu and her fellow member of of the jury Bassemah Darwish state: "As judges of artistic films serving a festival that provides a platform for women`s films to be screened, it was a difficult decision to exclude some artists based on their nationalist affiliations and source of funding. However, as conscientious members of the world, we found this festival to be an opportunity to bring awareness to an issue too easily hidden from the public - the forced separation of two peoples for the acquisition of land.". Under strong pressure from the supporters of the Israeli government policies, the board demans from Hsu to issue "an apology" and include an Israeli film, or be fired. 
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=22437

 For first time, Iran directly confronts Israel on alleged nuclear arms
AP - The harsh Iranian and Arab words reflected frustration on their part after their efforts to formally submit a resolution to the conference on Israel Nuclear Capabilities and Threat was blocked by the EU, the United States and other Western nations.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=22435