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This Week in Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center IMEMC.ORG in Palestine for the week of Friday November 25th, to Thursday December 1st, 2005.
Bil’in and Aboud continue their joint struggle against the Separation Wall. Israel again affirms its military policy of extrajudicial assassinations, invasions, arrests and expanding settlements in blatant disregard for international law. And, the latest on the ongoing internal crisis in Fatah. These stories and more, coming up. Stay tuned
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This week in Palestine, a service of the International Middle Eat Media Center IMEMC.Org for Thursday December 15th 2005
Bil’in and Aboud continue their joint struggle against the Separation Wall. Israel again affirms its military policy of extrajudicial assassinations, invasions, arrests and expanding settlements in blatant disregard for international law. And, the latest on the ongoing internal crisis in Fatah. These stories and more, coming up. Stay tuned
Planting Olive Trees At The Wall
Aboud and Bil’in villages are now coordinating weekly peaceful actions against the Separation Wall. Bil’in has been hosting actions every Friday for a year, and Aboud has joined them for a month now every Sunday.
This week the two villages planted olive trees at the Wall’s construction site. Both actions were accompanied by international and Israeli peace activists. In Aboud, the Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, several Muslim sheikhs, and local political leaders, also joined in.
Israeli soldiers attacked both groups with clubs, tear gas, and rubber-coated bullets. In Bil’in, five villagers including two children were injured, and two Israeli activists were also injured. In Aboud, soldiers detained an Israeli peace activist and took him to an unknown destination.
John Dugart, UN Special Envoy for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, attended Bil’in’s Friday action and, after meeting with members of the village council, said he intends to file a report to the United Nations.
Israel Invades Nablus
The Israeli army invaded the West Bank city of Nablus this Tuesday at dawn. Soldiers fired at dozens of houses, and several clashes were reported. One resident was killed, at least twenty injured. Two Israeli soldiers were also injured when an explosive charge was hurled at their jeep.
The army returned to invade the city again over the weekend. Israeli soldiers arrested seventeen residents and killed one member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.
Kris, a humanitarian aide volunteer who lives in the city, described what happened.
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On Thursday, the army invaded Tulkarem and Anabta, injuring two residents and arresting twenty-three residents. Later that night, an Israeli undercover unit killed Yaser Ikmayel, age 24, in the West Bank city of Qabatya. Ikmayel was a member of the Islamic Jihad’s military wing. He died of two bullet wounds to the chest and back.
Gaza Air Strike Targets Islamic Jihad
Despite the so-called Gaza pullout, Israel’s business of invasions and assassinations in the Gaza Strip continued this week.
Khader Habib, Islamic Jihad’s media spokesperson, survived an assassination attempt when an Israeli spy plane dropped a bomb on his vehicle in Gaza city. Habib escaped with only light injuries, but Islamic Jihad vowed fierce retaliation.
On Wednesday evening, four Palestinian fighters were assassinated with missiles fired by an Israeli warplane. And on Tuesday morning, Israeli tanks shelled the city of Khan Younis, killing one resident.
Shaul Mofaz Underwrites Settlements, Quits Likud
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz gave the green light for the construction of hundreds of new settler housing units in West Bank. The construction violates international and Israeli law, as well as the US brokered Road Map, which all call for the cessation of settlement expansion. After approving these violations, Mofaz announced his intention to quit Likud and join Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s new Kadima party.
The settlement housing will encroach on land belonging to the village of Bil’in. Abdullah Abu Rahmah, a member of the Popular Committee against the Wall in Bil’in, talked about Israel’s real motivation for building the Wall.
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"We warned that it is not an issue of security. They say the Wall is constructed for security concerns, but the real reason for its construction is to annex as much land as possible.
This is a clear strategy for settlement expansion. There is a wide strip of land between our village and the Green Line, on which they plan to construct more settlements."
Altering Fatah List Band-Aid Solution To Party’s Problems
Just minutes before the midnight cutoff for registering electoral lists, Fateh submitted its official list of 66 candidates to run in the Palestinian Legislative Council elections on January 25.
Over 400 candidates have been registered on 12 lists across the Occupied Territories. The imprisoned but popular Marwan Barghouthi led both the Fatah and Mustaqbal lists. His name had originally been kept off of Fatah’s list, but was quickly added when members of Fatah’s military wing shot up the movements’ Gaza headquarters in protest, injuring three.
Barghouti, part of Fatah’s young guard, has been repeatedly sidelined by Fatah’s old guard. Apparently losing patience, he has threatened to leave Fatah. His departure would be a blow to the party, which is already facing internal crises and the growing popularity of Hamas.
Meanwhile, initial results of local elections in the West Bank cities of Nablus, Jenin, and Al Bireh, show a landslide victory for Hamas over the Fateh ruling party, with Hamas pulling 65% of the vote and Fateh only 15%. The final results will come out on Sunday. Elections were held in 40 other towns in the West Bank, but results have not yet come out.
And that’s some of the news this week in Occupied Palestine. From the International Middle East Media Center in Beit Sahour, I’m Dina Awwad & Trina Aguilar.
