Listen to the audio from the MP3 Player on the right column. || Click here to Download MP3 file 8.5 MBThis week in
A new Palestinian government is on its way to being formed; The Israeli army staged attacks against the Palestinians in various cities in the
Separation Wall
Three
In Bil’in, after Friday’s weekly protest, the Israeli army invaded the village, firing rubber bullets and tear gas. A number of Bil’in residents, including those who were inside their homes, required medical treatment after inhaling gas and three people required medical treatment after being hit by rubber bullets.
Bil’in also hosted a two-day conference, organized by the Popular Committee Against the Wall and supported by a number of other organizations, and attended by hundreds of Palestinians, Israelis and international supporters.
Also on Friday, in Aboud village, approximately 300 residents, Israeli and international peace activists protested against the Wall. Soldiers attacked the procession, and several residents and peace activists were injured.
In Beit Sera village, west of Ramallah, at least ten Palestinian and Israeli peace activists were injured on Thursday after Israeli soldiers attacked a peaceful protest and fired rubber coated bullets. The soldiers were uprooting orchards in order to construct the Wall in a Palestinian area between Beit Sera and Maccabim settlement, located inside the Green Line.
New Palestinian Government
Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, asked the Palestinian Prime Minister-designate Ismail Haniyya to form the new Palestinian government headed by Hamas. Abbas urged Hamas to recognize the past peace deals with , and to seek the Palestinian statehood through "nonviolent means".
Hamas held a number of meetings with various Palestinian parliamentary blocs, and primarily the Fatah bloc, in a bid to form a coalition government. With the Peoples Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Party announcing on Monday that they would consider the possibility of joining a Hamas-led Palestinian government, and the Fateh party leadership mulling the possibility of a coalition with Hamas, it appears that the Hamas party is set to do what seemed impossible: merge the various Palestinian factions in a united front. Even the resistance movement Islamic Jihad, whose military-wing leader was assassinated by on Sunday, begrudgingly offered their support to the Hamas leadership
Invasions, Killings, and arrests
The West Bank city of Nablus and Balata refugee camp have been taking the brunt of the attacks by Israeli forces, who have conducted a large-scale military offensive on the city, in which five people, including two children, were killed and dozens others were wounded.
Thursday morning Israeli forces backed by bulldozers, military jeeps and armored personal carriers invaded
Clair, an international volunteer, was in Balata refugee camp during the invasion.
<Actuality>
Israeli soldiers invaded, on Wednesday morning, the villages of Al Yamoun and Qabatia, near Jenin, and arrested two members of Islamic Jihad. The two unidentified members, were arrested after the soldiers broke into and searched dozens of homes, and detained and interrogated residents. Soldiers closed the entrances of the two villages and barred the residents from entering or leaving.
In a separate invasion to the West Bank city of
Report
The
The B’Tselem report challenges the Israeli allegations that the Wall route is based solely on "security considerations" and offers proof that in many cases the primary reasons for choosing the route of the Wall were to enable settlement expansion and the establishment of new settlements. The report provides an in-depth analysis of the expansion plans of four settlements and the connection between the plans and the route of the Separation Wall and presents the principal findings in eight other cases in which settlement expansion plans significantly affected the Wall’s route.
Israeli only checkpoints
Israeli soldiers began last week implementing a military order that bars Palestinians with permits to enter
Jad Issac director of the Applied research
<Actuality>
Divestment
With the recent announcement by the Church of England that they would divest from companies which profit from ‘s occupation, as well as a similar divestment announcement by an Architect’s Association in , the ‘Boycott
The Anglican Church will divest the 200 million pounds it currently has invested in Caterpillar Company, whose bulldozers are used to demolish Palestinian homes. The Israeli practice of demolishing Palestinian homes has rendered at least 27,000 Palestinians homeless over the last five years, according to human rights organizations.
Similarly, Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine, a group including Britain’s most prominent architects, is calling for an economic boycott of Israel’s construction industry to protest the building of Israeli settlements and the Separation Wall.
Settlers Attacks
Israeli settlers from the Karneh Shemron settlement have been carrying out repeated attacks against a Palestinian family in Kufr Laqif village, near Qalqilia in the
Awad says the settlers frequently attack his house with rocks and Molotov cocktails in an attempt to frighten the family into leaving. Last Monday, Awad brought workers from the Qalqilia municipality to reconnect the electricity to his house. Israeli soldiers detained him and the workers for several hours. Upon releasing the men, soldiers told them not to return to the area, claiming it was a "closed military zone".
Conclusion
And that’s just some of the news this week in
