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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org for Monday November 15, 2010
Palestinians commemorate the 22 anniversary of the declaration of the State, while still under occupation, in the meantime, settler harassment continues against the civilian population, these stories and more, coming up, state tuned.
The Palestinians commemorate on November 15, what is called, the Declaration of Independence, a document that was adopted by the Palestinian National Council in Algeria in 1988.
The National Council is the highest political reference of the Palestinian people as it represents all the Palestinians, in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and in Diaspora.
In its 19th round in Algeria, the PNC, declared its acceptance to the United Nations resolutions 242 and 338 which state that Israeli should withdraw to the borders of 1967 and gave the Palestinians the right to establish an independent Palestinian state on these border with East Jerusalem as its capital.
This document paved the way for peace talks with Israel which led later to the signing of the Oslo accords and the later agreements which were supposed to lead to the establishment of a Palestinian State in 5 years.
In the meantime, Israeli settlers continue to vandalise Palestinian farmlands in different parts of the West Bank.
On Sunday evening, a group of extremist Jewish settlers torched at least 200 olive trees that belong to residents of Salem village, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, and also torched a number of nearby farms.
Adli Eshtayyaa, spokesperson of the Salem Village Council, stated that the settlers were seen heading to Elone Moreh settlement after setting the trees ablaze.
Eshtayyaa added that the trees were planted in Palestinian lands adjacent to the settlement, and that Israeli soldiers prevent the local Palestinian villagers from reaching their orchards in that area.
Meanwhile, an army spokesperson stated that the army did not receive any complaints against the settlers, and that the “incident” is being dealt with as just a “fire accident” and not as a “deliberate act of vandalism”.
In other news, Israeli troops abducted three Palestinian civilians and broke into a number of homes and a mosque in the West Bank city of Hebron.
Eyewitnesses reported that the military broke into the houses of Ashraf Hashlamon, Hamza Al-Ja’bari and Anas Al-Jabarin and took them to unknown destination.
Troops setup a checkpoint at the entrance of the city and searched passengers documents, which caused delays and traffic jam on the main road, at a time, Muslims are preparing for the Adha Eid Holidays on Tuesday.
In political news, the US has offered Israel a 3-billion dollar weapon deal in exchange of a 90-day settlement freeze in the West Bank, media sources reported Monday. The source added that this offer was presented to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his meeting with the US secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday.
While the suggested freeze does not include Jerusalem, it is not expected that Israel will reject it. Palestinian political analysts suggest that the U.S. offer is weak, as it does not pressure Israel in any way to adhere to past signed agreements or international law, but merely forestalls the inevitable failure of ‘peace talks’ between two vastly unequal players. In addition, other analysts went far as saying that this offer is an attempt by the U.S. to bribe Israel to do what it is required to do under international law.
By this we come to the end of our news for today, thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem, you have been listening to Palestine today from the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, this report had been brought to you by Husam Qassis and George Rishmawi.
