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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Thursday April 21st, 2011
The Bil’in conference on popular Resistance continues for the second day, and a Palestinian youth is wounded in Jerusalem by Israeli fire, these stories and more, coming up, stay tuned.
A Palestinian youth was shot in the face by a rubber-coated steel bullet fired by Israeli soldiers during clashes that took place in Silwan, in East Jerusalem on Thursday.
The twenty-year-old youth suffered severe wounds as he was shot directly in the face, including a serious wound to his lips which caused massive bleeding. The wounded youth was moved to the Hadassah Ein Karem hospital in Jerusalem.
The clashes spread to other parts of East Jerusalem while clashes also took place in the nearby Al Thoury neighborhood as the army violently attacked the protestors.
In other news, a group of Palestinian Christian and Muslim clergy and officials arrived in Italy on Wednesday to pay condolences to the family of the Italian peace activist, Vittorio Arrigoni, who was kidnapped and murdered by extremist gunmen in the Gaza Strip last week.
Mahmoud Al Habbash, head of the Waqf and Religious Affairs, Sheikh Khamis Abdo, and Father Ibrahim Musleh, official spokesperson of the Greek Orthodox faith met with the family of Arrigoni to comfort them for the loss of their son.
Al Habbash said that this crime was caused by ignorance, extremism and insecurity in the Gaza Strip directly impacted by internal divisions and rifts, especially between the rival Fatah and Hamas movements.
In related news, a new initiative by the non-violent activists of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) was launched on Wednesday, by sailing a fishing boat in the Gazan waters to monitor attacks by Israeli forces on Palestinian fishermen. The activists resolved to continue their human rights work despite the kidnapping and murder last week of Vittorio Arrigoni, who was a member of the ISM.
Attacks on Palestinian fishermen are commonplace on the Gaza coast, with 53 fishermen having been injured in the last year by live ammunition fired by Israeli naval forces. In addition, 17 fishing boats have been confiscated indefinitely, thus depriving the Palestinian fishermen of their only source of livelihood.
More on nonviolence, where Hundreds of International, local and Israeli peace activists attended the second day of the 6th International Conference on Popular Resistance in the village of Bil’in near the central West Bank city of Ramallah.
The conference started Wednesday and was attended by hundreds of activists and dozens of senior Palestinian officials, including Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad,
The Palestinian Premiere, called on the international community to promote Palestinian self-determination by supporting the planned declaration of independence in September.
He stated that the international community has a duty to help protect the Palestinian non-violent movement, referring specifically to the recent arrests of Naji and Bassem Tamimi of the Nabi Saleh popular committee.
That sums up 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. For more updates please visit our website at www.imemc.org. This report has been brought to you by Husam Qassis and me George Rishmawi.
