"When we say withdraw we mean complete withdrawal - no half-hearted
measures," Bush told an audience in New Jersey on Friday."

 

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced the disengagement from Gaza and northern Samaria, but U.S. President George W. Bush warned nothing short of a full withdrawal from the whole of Palestine would satisfy Washington.

 

For the real article, go to:

 

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/548114.html\
   ~~~

 

 

A further week of protests by Palestinians, assisted by Israelis and internationals against the steadily continuing construction of the Monster Wall. The confiscation of land and the destruction goes on in spite of the judgement of the International Court which left no doubt that building a wall within the  Palestinian occupied territories, hurting Palestinian property and life in general, is illegal. But the non-violent protests against the ongoing crime have lost the international attention, and our government's ignoring the decision seems to bear fruit.

 

An updated map of the route of the wall:
http://www.btselem.org/Download/Separation_Barrier_Map_Eng.pdf

 

More maps at: http://stopthewall.org/news/maps.shtml (click on the samll examples and get to the bigger size)

 

 

"This is the fourth consecutive day that Israeli ???special forces??™ disguised as Palestinians have infiltrated the demonstrations against the Wall in Beit Surik. Yesterday two Palestinians were arrested and later released. On Monday, Israeli undercover agents arrested six Palestinians including the mayor of Beit Surik, Mohammed Kandil, while he and other Palestinians were trying to prevent the destruction of their lands."
 
http://www.palsolidarity.org/DesktopModules/Articles/ArticlesView.aspx?tabID=0&alias=Rainbow&lang=en-US&ItemID=761&mid=10400

 

Further actions expected from tomorrow morning
Contact: Mansour: 054-5804830 / Yonatan 054-6327776
   ~~~

 

 

Also tomorrow, in front of the PM's residence in Jerusalem, a  demonstration demanding to take away the settler guns - by the newly-established Take-Their-Guns-Coalition (initiated by Courage to Refuse and joined by  Emda Circle, Gush Shalom,  Machsom Watch, New Profile, Students,  and Women  for Peace). 
Israelis are also invited to sign a (Hebrew) petition to that effect:
http://www.taketheirguns.org
   ~~~

 

???Every Hebrew Mother Should Know??? 

 

 by Chen Kotas-Bar in - Ma'ariv

It happens even in the officers??™ course. The elite boys, who are intended to command the future generation of the IDF. Members of ???Breaking the Silence??? compiled testimonies from combat soldiers who served in the officers??™ course over the course of the past four years, since the Intifada began. One particularly painful account illustrates the situation more than all the others.

 

???In the framework of the course we went to an operational action, as part of the officers??™ training. (...) We went in to search; there were no wanted people or anything. We destroyed, we tore. Nobody cared. Among other things, children started to gather, and said to us ???what are you doing???™, ???why are you closing the village???™ They started to throw stones at us, and we started to play a kind of ???tag??? with them. And then, what can you do with the boy who throws stones? Impossible to let him go, because he??™ll just throw stones again. So we attached them to poles. That??™s what they said to them, to attach the children with handcuffs to utility poles.???

 

Translated from Hebrew by Mark Marshall for Occupation Magazine

 

full text: http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=832
 
Hebrew original: http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART/877/693.html
   ~~~

 

 

Mohammed Barake, an MK from "Hadash" party [whose vote for the disengagement had tipped the balance to the side of the government] is, as his name might indicate, an Israeli Arab. Limor Livnat, the Israeli minister of education, who had also voted in favor of the law, was one of the most noticeable politicians in a group of right wing Knesset members and others who had each expressed outrage that an Arab (who had, like any other Member of the Knesset, been elected democratically) was the one  to determine the future of Israel in such an important question.

 

full text:
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3634.shtml
   ~~~

 

Arab, Druze youths attend meeting urging against IDF service  

 

By Jack Khoury, Haaretz

 

Hundreds of Arab and Druze from the Balad party's youth movement took
part in a meeting Friday urging them not to enlist in the Israel Defense
Forces. The meeting was held in Shfaram under the banner "No to
recruitment and no to Zionist national service."

 

read more:  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/548181.html

 

   ~~~

 

 

"Only a democracy can serve the hopes of Palestinians, and make Israel secure, and raise the flag of a free Palestine. A successful Palestinian democracy should be Israel's top goal as well. So Israel must freeze settlement activity, help Palestinians build a thriving economy and ensure that a new Palestinian state is truly viable, with contiguous territory on the West Bank. A state of scattered territories will not work."
With this quotation of George W. Bush, James Zogby, President of the Arab American Institute in Washington starts an article in which he counts up the gains - without falling prey to overenthusiasm ("Hopeful, but not Optimistic")..

 

full text:  http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/13463/

 

In a similar mix of hope against hope, Brit Tzedek President (and former KM) Marcia Freedman  remarked at the annual meeting of  the American-Jewish peace group which she presides:
 ???We may gag on it, but we have to support the Sharon government over the next months [in its evacuation of Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip].What else can we do? We certainly can??™t support the settlers.???
At the same conference, former KM and Chief of Staff Amnon Lipkin-Shahak representing the  Geneva Initiave,  is reported to have predicted  that Israeli elections will soon follow the disengagement from Gaza. In these elections he believes that "if the question of whether to move to final negotiations is put to the Israeli electorate and there's quiet on the ground, then Israelis will vote for final negotiations"  [National Conference Report, received March 4  from Brit Tzedek v'Shalom <info@btvshalom.org> ].

 

Read more at: http://www.btvshalom.org/pressrelease/nyjweek030405.shtml
   ~~~

 

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