Israel under fire over East Jerusalem settlement plans
Haaretz - Reacting to the East Jerusalem settlement tenders, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters at a press briefing that "our position on the settlements is that we don`t believe that any more settlements should be built, and we know that it exacerbates the tension when it comes to the negotiations with the Palestinians." Israel`s Housing Minister Ze`ev Boim confirmed that the settlement tenders were issued under the authority of PM Olmert, who tady sets out for a visit to Washington. "I don`t take such policy decisions on my own" Boim told Israeli radio. 
 http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=27224

 Public feelers for Fatah-Hamas reconciliation
Rami Almeghari - IMEMC - Ismail Haniya Palestinian Prime Minister of Hamas, welcomed remarks by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas over possible conciliation between the rival Fatah and Hamas parties. [Abu Mazen made the remarks on the same day that he met Israeli PM Olmert, who rebuffed Palestinian protests over the new mass settlement plans in East Jerusalem, and who has little chance of political survival. Ed.] 
 http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=27227

 Israel relents and agrees to let Gazan students travel for Fulbright study; US decides to restore funding
Marian Houk - Ma`an - At 9am on Monday morning, Gisha reports, Israel `s Supreme Court will start to hear petitions that Gisha will argue on behalf of two other Gazan students who want to reach their studies, respectively, in the U.K. and in Germany.
 http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=27228

 Physicians for Human Rights official detained by Shin Bet
Akiva Eldar - Haaretz - The director of the mobile clinics run by the organization, Salah Haj Yihyeh, was questioned by the Shin Bet recently on the activities of the organization, its budget, the identity of its donors, and details about others employed by PHR, as well as about recent meetings between PHR representatives and Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip, including the speaker of the Palestinian Parliament and the minister of health. In a letter to Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin, the PHR board noted that the security officials` tactics were "unacceptable and illegal, solely aimed at intimidation". 
 http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=27223

 Let Finkelstein enter Israel
Oded Feller - Ynet - In recent years we have been forced to get used to immediate expulsion of visitors of Arab descent, relatives of residents of the occupied territories, peace and human rights activists, and to abuse of foreign reporters. Now is the turn of those who “merely” annoy Israel (...) a sign of a country under siege which fears that her citizens or those under its occupation will be exposed to other views.
 http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=27222

 Imam Mohammad Qatanani tells American judge of torture in Israeli detention
Samantha Henry - Associated Press/Multiply - At the Federal Court in Newark, N.J., Mohammad Qatanani, a Palestinian religious leader facing the threat of deportation from the US, described his time in Israeli detention in 1993: being tied to a small chair with his hands bound, kept in a freezing cell, and subjected to starvation, violence and threats to himself and his family. Several of his supporters in the packed courtroom began quietly weeping as he spoke. Among the protesters outside were a group of orthodox Jews, expressing solidarity with Qatanani who had championed their fight to get a kosher slaughterhouse. 
 http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=27225

 The Jewish public knows
Sarah Kreimer - Jerusalem Post - We must assure that our governments reach an agreement on the future of Jerusalem - along the lines that the public already understands - in a way that will answer the needs of the peoples who live in it and share it.
 http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=27220

 Jerusalem`s demolition derby
Meron Rapoport - Haaretz - The Jerusalem municipality mobilizing against the demolition of a settler building in Silwan, set up without a permit and in contravention of the city`s master plan, and after all attempts to make it legal have failed.[Ed.]
 http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=27229

 Green and red lines - impressions of a three-day walk
Gershon Baskin - Jerusalem Post - When we were on top of the Gilboa, a group of girls from the Kedumim settlement was touring the area. The settlers` tour guide did not make any mention of the thousands of Palestinians living just below except for commenting on the strategic and religious importance of holding onto this land. 
 
 `The U.S. is sowing the seeds of a long term tragedy...` (Gilbert Achcar interview)
Foti Benlisoy & Aykut K?l?? - Mesele - (...) a one-state, "one person one vote" solution limited to Palestinians and Israelis strikes me as an uninspiring utopia. I`m not convinced at all that the Palestinians would like to be citizens of the same state with the Israelis, even if they were the political majority, under hugely unequal social conditions like what you have now in South Africa where whites still constitute by far the main section of the dominant class and are getting richer, many of them living in gated communities. And I am positively sure that the Israelis will never accept being a political minority. So this is a dead end.
 http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=27226

Week of June 5 activism:

Peace Now demo Wedn. 4.6.08 in Ariel, against the settlement`s 30 yrs celebration - amongst those celebrating: Peres - transportation from Jerusalem, Gan Hapaamon, 6.30pm / Tel-Aviv, Arlozorof Station, 7pm

Saturday, June 7 in Tel-Aviv: Peace Movement's Protest March Against 41 Yrs of Occupation starting at corner Allenby/ Rothschild Blvd. at 5.30pm

Women in Black focusing on Tel-Aviv because of the 41st anniversary to the 1967 occupation

Gush Shalom protest campaign against singer Shlomo Gronich's performance for the Silwan settlers and Irwin Moskowitz.  Protests to: shlomogronich@shlomogronich.com or to Hanan Bar Sela, Gronich`s personal manager barsela10@gmail

Third Annual Conference in Bil`in 4-6 June 2008
For details http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=26909