Click on Link to download or play MP3 file || 4 m 240s || 4.10 MB ||
Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center www.imemc.org, for Wednesday June 13th, 2012.
At least 12 have been detained in the past 24 hours in the various locations in the West Bank, the details and more, coming up, stay tuned.
At least seven Palestinians have been detained on Tuesday in a variety of locations across the West Bank.
Residents of the village of Iraq Burin, in the Nablus district, said that five young Palestinians had been detained, although an Israeli Military spokesperson denied the report.
The spokesperson, though, did confirm that three young men had been detained in the Balata Refugee Camp in Nablus, three in the Aqbat Jaber Refugee Camp in Jericho, and one more in Bethlehem.
Five activists and one journalist have been arrested on Wednesday at a Women’s movement walk in the West Bank city of Hebron. Youth against settlements reported that two Israelis, three internationals and one Palestinian journalist who works for Reuters, were arrested by Israeli forces during the demonstration.
In the meantime, Palestinian football player Mahmoud Al-Sarsak who has been on huger strike for ninety days remains in serious condition while Israel refuses to release him.
The International Federation of Football Association (FIFA) has released a statement on Tuesday on its website regarding the illegal detention of Palestinian footballers, including Sarsak, in addition, a letter has been sent to British Sports Minister Hugh Robertson and Union of European Football Associations President Michel Platini calling for Sarsak’s release.
The FIFA demanded the International Football Arena to to draw the attention of the Israeli competent authorities to the present matter, with the aim of ensuring the physical integrity of the concerned players as well as their right for due process.
Sarsak was detained leaving the Gaza Strip en-route to Ramallah, in the West Bank, to represent the Palestinian national team.
In other news, Israeli settlers from the unauthorized outpost of Ulpana hurled stones at an engineering unit of the Israeli army on Wednesday as they arrived to the outpost to finanlize the plan to evacuate it, in accordance with the Israeli court ruling last month.
The EU Foreign Policy Chief, Catherine Ashton said on Wednesday that Israeli settlements and the lack of control by Palestinians on most of the C areas in the West Bank and the increasing settler violence are an urgent concern in the middle east and seriously threaten the two-state solution.
Ashton’s remarks came during European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg. She called on Israel to refrain from building more settlements in the occupied West Bank.
She stated emphatically that the EU would not accept any changes to 1967 borders, including those relating to Jerusalem, “unless both sides agreed to them,” arguing that Jerusalem “must be shared between the two nations as part of any two state agreement.”
Local sources reported that the new Palestinian consensus government may be announced next week. Delegates from both Fatah and Hamas are set to meet on June 18 and 19 to finalize the names of the new cabinet members.
The new government is expected to consist of 19 ministers and will be headed by the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
That’s all from IMEMC News. This was the Wednesday June 13th daily roundup of news from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates please visit our website at www.imemc.org. Today’s report has been brought to you by Husam Qassis and me George Rishmawi
