I want the Palestinians to win
Bradley Burston -
Haaretz - It is in the direct interest of hardliners to do everything in their
power to convince their side that this is a zero-sum game, that only one side
can emerge triumphant. In fact, though, there are two additional options, the
first, of course, being that both sides can lose.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=26225
Gazans brace for major incursion as Israeli forces enter
Jabalia
Ma`an News Agency (Gaza) - Thirty Israeli military vehicles
entered the northern Gaza Strip city of Jabalia early on Tuesday morning,
stopping 100 meters from a Palestinian residential neighborhood, witnesses said.
Jabalia residents said the Israeli forces have been firing heavily towards the
Palestinian houses, but no casualties have yet been reported. The mood in
Jabalia is tense, with residents fearing that the vehicles could signal the
beginning of a major Israeli incursion.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=26223
Hamas leader Mash`al to meet with Jimmy Carter in
mid-April
Ma`an News Agency (Bethlehem) - A plan is coalescing to
arrange a meeting between exiled senior Hamas leader Khalid Mash`al and former
US President Jimmy Carter in Damascus on 18 April, Palestinian sources told the
London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat on Tuesday. If the meeting is held,
Carter will become the highest-ranking American official ever to publicly meet
with Hamas leaders. [When he was President, Carter had fired his Ambassador to
the UN for meeting with PLO members. Ed.]
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=26224
No checkpoints in heaven
Ramzy Baroud -
PalestineChronicle/Electronic Intifada - When the Palestinian uprising of 1987
exploded our camp became a battleground between stone-throwers and the Israeli
army, mere survival became Dad`s new obsession. Our house was the closest to the
Red Square, arbitrarily named for the blood spilled there, and also bordered the
"Martyrs` Graveyard." How can a father adequately protect his family in such
surroundings? Israeli soldiers stormed our house hundreds of times; it was
always him who somehow held them back, begging for his children`s safety, as we
huddled in a dark room awaiting our fate. "You will understand when you have
your own children," he told my older brothers as they protested his allowing the
soldiers to slap his face. Our "freedom-fighting" dad struggled to explain how
love for his children could surpass his own pride. He grew in my eyes that
day.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=26230
Riding Herd On The Wild West Bank
James Kitfield -
National Journal - With help from the Israeli Supreme Court, Peace Now recently
obtained documents on building permits and demolition orders from the Israeli
Defense Ministry, which administers the West Bank. In the last seven years, the
ministry has rejected 94 percent of Palestinian construction requests, approving
only 91 of 1,624 applications. Over the same period, Israeli settlers
constructed 18,472 houses in their West Bank settlements. Israel likewise issued
demolition orders against 4,993 illegally built Palestinian houses, one-third of
which were carried out -- meaning that for every construction permit granted to
a Palestinian, 18 houses were torn down. "What those figures show is that the de
facto policy of Israel is a quiet transfer of land to settlers and the expulsion
of Palestinians," Hagit Ofran said. "They don`t accomplish that by force, nor do
they roll up with trucks to take Palestinians away. They just don`t allow them
to rebuild their villages or repair their homes."
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=26227
Settlement bloc expansion is the most destructive
Yariv Oppenheimer - bitterlemons.org - The settlement of Modiin Illit, which
in early March was declared a full-fledged municipality, offers an excellent
example of the way Israeli governments have obliterated the green line and de
facto annexed territory while simultaneously proceeding with peace negotiations.
In 1993 when the Oslo accord was signed, the land adjacent to the Palestinian
village of Bil`in was empty. Yet within three years, even as a process unfolded
whereby Israel recognized the right of the Palestinian people to a state in the
West Bank, construction began on the Modiin Illit settlement to provide housing
solutions for the ultra orthodox sector. Today, this settlement comprises 37,500
residents. Plans are advancing to expand it deeper into the West Bank; just this
week two new enlargement plans were released. [[NB] This is what the struggle of
Bil`in is all about. ed]
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=26229
Vice PM: Ofra settlement homes built on private Palestinian
land
Akiva Eldar - Haaretz - According to the transcript of the
February 25 meeting, which addressed the outposts and the implementation of the
Sasson Report, committee chairman MK Zevulun Orlev asked Ramon: "To add 20 more
homes in Ofra has political implications? I want to understand the point." Ramon
responded: "From many standpoints Ofra is not a good example for you, because
all of it is build on private Arab land, private Palestinian property." (...)
Ramon`s official statement has both political and legal implications. This may
include compensation demands by the Palestinian property owners.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=26221
Supreme Court orders evacuation of illegal settlement outpost
IMEMC - The Israeli High Court of Justice decided to evacuate an
illegal settlement outpost which was constructed by the settlers on a privately
owned Palestinian land in Al Khader town, west of the West Bank city of
Bethlehem. The appeal of landowner Moneer Mousa was lodged through Hagit Ofran
of the Peace Now Settlement Monitoring Team.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=26226
Peace Radio staff detained on charges of pirate
broadcasting
Or Barnea - Y-Net - Police shut the Jerusalem studio
of RAM-FM, a radio station aimed at promoting reconciliation between Israelis
and Palestinians, owned by the South African Jewish businessman Issy Kirsh and
modeled after a South African station that provided a venue for reconciliation
after apartheid. Police shut down the Jerusalem transmitter and closed the
studio, taking away staff for questioning and hauling away equipment. After the
raid, the station remained on the air from Ramallah as usual.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=26222
Returning to Nablus: Collateral Damage
Alice
Rothchild - Miftah - The delegates were ushered into one apartment after
another, richly upholstered living room furniture, formal dining room tables,
long white draperies, decorative wooden head boards, posters in a child`s room,
a blinking TV, now all splattered with bullet holes. The curtains were shredded
and burned by gunfire, walls, floors, and ceilings fissured and pock-marked in
every direction. In one apartment we were shown a neat pile of rocket parts,
bullet casings, mortar shells, and empty flares
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=26228
