Click on Link to download or play MP3 file|| 5 m 15s || 4.80 MB ||
Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center. www.imemc.org, for Wednesday, October 13, 2010.
A Jewish member of the Knesset declares that Jordan should be the future Palestinian state, while the U.S. agrees that Israel is a Jewish state theses stores and more are coming up stay tuned .
Aryeh Eldad of the National Union Party, a member of the Knesset said on Tuesday that Jordan is the future Palestinian state. Other Knesset members opposed this statement, calling it racist and provocative.
US State Department spokesperson Philip Crowley said that the United States is committed to the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, and President Obama’s administration backs the issue as a fundamental demand in peace talks. Crowley stated that the United States recognizes Israel as a state for the Jewish people and its special nature in this regard. Next week, Israel will be asking the United States to extend the so-called “security package” for a few more years. U.S. direct aid to Israel now stands at 3 Billion USD a year.
Palestinian Liberation Organization official Yasser Abed Rabbo said that in exchange for accepting Palestinian territorial claims, Palestine will recognize Israel as ‘whatever it wants.’ ‘We want to receive a map of the State of Israel, which Israel wants us to accept.’ We will agree to accept, as long as we receive the 1967 borders. ‘We have recognized Israel in the past, but Israel has not recognized the Palestinian state,’ Abed Rabbo said
Today in the West Bank about 50 settlers from Aitsear settlement injured farmers and stole bags of olives and tools in the olive groves of Burin, near Nablus. Settler attacks during the olive harvest are frequent in villages around Nablus.
Also on Wednesday, five Palestinians were abducted in villages near Nablus, Jenin and Hebron.
In Silwan, East Jerusalem, plans were announced Wednesday to increase Israeli military and police presence due to clashes between Palestinian youth and Israeli settlers, soldiers and police.
In the Hebron area the Israeli army detained two journalists and a spokesperson for the Palestinian Solidarity Project as they were filming Israeli bulldozers clearing Palestinian land next to the settlement of Karm Tsur.
The Israeli Ministry Of Interior continued to demolish houses in the village of al-Araqib, in the Negev . Bulldozers demolished houses after they had been rebuilt for the fifth time. Villagers and peace activists will not give up and will rebuild the destroyed houses in spite of ongoing Israeli demolition.
In Gaza, a Palestinian a seventeen year old was wounded by Israeli fire while collecting ballasts. Workers are fired upon everyday to prevent them from earning money.
Zaher Beerawi, spokesperson of the Artery of Life 5 also knows(Viva Palestina 5) flotilla, said Egypt backpedaled, and placed new preconditions on allowing the humanitarian convoy into Gaza.
Egyptian Authorities announced that vehicles being transported to Gaza and certain convoy members including George Galloway will not be allowed through. Activists declared Tuesday that they will hold a hunger strike to protest Egypt’s additional demands and preconditions, and said protests will be held in European and Arab countries to demand the convoy delivery of medical supplies be allowed in to the besieged coastal region.
After several nations announced that they will likely boycott this month’s planned bi-annual tourism conference of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Secretary-General of the OECD wrote a harshly worded letter to the Israeli Prime Minister which hinted at the possibility of relocating the conference. He said that holding the conference in Jerusalem was not meant in any way to support Israel’s territorial claims to the city.
Area bishops, summoned to the Vatican for a synod on the status of Christians in the Middle East are warning that the flight of Christians may result in a Muslim-only Middle East clashing with a Christian West.
That concludes our news for today. Thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem. You have been listening to Palestine Today, a program of the International Middle East Media Center. For more updates and details of these stories, please visit our website at www.imemc.org. This report was brought to you by Husam Qassis and Cheryl Hogan.
