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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Wednsday March 9, 2011
The Bedouin village of Al-Arakib in Israel’s Negev, was demolished again by Israeli forces for 21st time. Four huts, which were desert used for village meetings, were demolished. When the demolitions first began, villagers and volunteers would attempt to rebuild homes immediately afterwards. More recently, Israeli authorities have removed the remains of homes, rendering reconstruction all but impossible. Today, the villagers live in temporary structures in the village cemetery. The Israeli state attorney has recently announced plans to fine the villagers over NIS 1million for the cost of demolishing their homes.
On Tuesday, a Palestinian worker was killed in a tunnel accident in Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. Yousef Khalil Al Bal’awy, 29, died after a tunnel collapsed on him burying him under the sand. More than 150
Palestinians were killed in similar tunnels accidents since Israel imposed the deadly siege on Gaza more than four years ago.
During a tour around the eastern West Bank on Tuesday, the Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu vowed to keep the Israeli military presence on the eastern border of the West Bank, which would mean that any future Palestinian ‘state’ would be an enclave, completely surrounded by Israel.
Arab residents of Lod held a massive protest, on Tuesday at night, in support of the Abu Eid family that lost its seven homes after the Israeli Authorities demolished them four months ago. The protest was held in front of the Lod city Council. At least 100 residents participated in the protest carrying signs that read “no to home demolitions”, “No to stripping human beings from their right to live in dignity”, and other signs calling for equal rights.
Since the start of the protests against the ruling regimes in some Arab countries, and the latest removal of Egyptian and Tunisian presidents, the Israeli Army’s Central Command in the West Bank have been tightly monitoring what is happening in the Arab world. The army has been updating its operational plans for an anticipated nonviolent uprising in the occupied territories. Haaretz, stated that former and current Israeli army commanders in the West Bank believe that Israel cannot effectively deal with widespread nonviolent protests, similar to those in Tunisian and Egyptian..
One of the fighters from Al Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, was killed in what was described in a mission outside of Gaza.
Spokesperson of Popular Resistance Committees, Mohammad Al Abreem, welcomed the stances of the new Egyptian government regarding rejecting the Israeli siege on Gaza and the necessity to lift it.
Israeli soldiers invaded on Wednesday several villages east of Jenin city, in the northern part of the West Bank. Eight Palestinian were detained
That sums up our news for today, thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem. You have been listening to Palestine Today, from International Middle East Media Center. For more updates, please visit our website at www.imemc.org. This report has been brought to you by Husam Qassis and Cicarre Parrhesia.
