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Welcome to Palestine Today a service of the International Middle East Media Centre, www.imemc.org for Wednesday, July 28, 2010.
Netanyahu visits Jordan’s King Abdullah and an accused torturer heads up Police- Arab relations in Jerusalem these stories and more coming up, stay tuned.
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, conducted a short, unannounced, trip to Jordan on Tuesday afternoon, and held a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II.
Netanyahu left Jordan directly after his meeting with King Abdullah and returned to Tel Aviv.
He described the meeting as “very good” and stated that the talks were focused on the means to resume the peace process with the Palestinians.
During a speech in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said that Israel wants to ensure that missiles and rocket launchers never make it into territories Israel evacuates under any peace agreement.
Out of Haaretz today it is learned that a former military interrogator who goes by ‘Captain George’ and has been accused of torture, is heading the department responsible for Police- Arab relations in Jerusalem.
The post includes responsibilities such as being a liaison between the police commander and the Arab community as well as filing reports on Arab opinion in the city. It is considered a very important post by the Jerusalem police commander, Aharon Franco.
‘Captain George’ reached notoriety when a unit he was commanding was accused of torturing Mustafa Dirani, a Lebanese citizen kidnapped by Israeli forces in 1994.
Mustafa sued Israel for 6 million shekels in damages and in his testimony recalled how his captors had raped him with a baton. The case has been in limbo since 2005.
The police say that he has contributed a great deal to the good relationship the police have with the Arabs of East Jerusalem.
Out of Egypt, we hear that authorities there have located ten tunnels used for smuggling goods into the Gaza Strip.
They discovered a large quantity of cement moving through a few of the tunnels. It will be auctioned and the tunnels will be collapsed or filled.
IMEMC has also learned that the American- Israeli protestor who lost her eye in May to a high-velocity tear gas canister will not have her bill reimbursed by the Israeli government.
The total cost of her medical care came to NIS 14,000. The government maintains the canister was not aimed at her and that it bounced off a wall.
An Israeli court deferred the trial date of Mohammed Abu Teir until late November.
Abu Teir is a Palestinian legislator from Jerusalem who has been accused of being a member of Hamas.
These accusations led to Israel revoking his residency rights to his ancestral home in an attempt to force him into exile abroad or the West Bank.
Three other legislators face the same fate but have not been arrested yet and are protesting at the International Committee of the Red Cross’s headquarters.
Abu Teir refused to leave the city of Jerusalem and has been in Israeli custody since May.
Thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem, you have been listening to Palestine Today from the International Middle East Media Center, for constant update, please visit our website at www.imemc.org. This report has been brought to you by Brian Ennis.
