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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Thursday, November 4th 2010.

On Thursday at dawn, Israeli troops detained eight Palestinian citizens in the West Bank allegedly wanted for ‘security violations’. Surely, they are activists involved in non-violent protests against the Israeli wall and the settlement construction.

On Thursday, it was known that Egyptian authorities prevented a Gaza poet from travelling to a poetry competition in Abu Dhabi, arguing security concerns. The poet was supposed to cross the Gaza-Egypt border to take part in the ‘Prince of Poets’, an annual competition, which is celebrated in Abu Dhabi.

With regard to Israeli army, Israeli Lieutenant received lax sentence for abusing a soldier. The lieutenant’s offense, that is, punching a soldier in the ribs and spraining his arm, was judged as non-criminal. The abuse took part in a hazing ceremony for new soldiers in 2009.

Also on Thursday, Israeli army claimed responsibility for assassinating a Palestinian man from Gaza, while Israel’s Internal Security Agency claimed that the man was a member of the Army of Islam group. Senior army officials hinted that the United States approved the attack. The extra judicial killing took place on Wednesday and four Palestinians were also wounded.

Israeli authorities also decided to block any Palestinian officials from crossing through the Allenby Bridge, which joins the West Bank with Jordan. The decision only excludes Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Dr. Salam Fayyad.

Also on Thursday, Britain caved to Israeli pressure and agreed to revoke the ‘Universal jurisdiction Law’, which allows for the prosecution of foreign citizens who have engaged in crimes against humanity. Many Israeli officials have been cited for potential war crimes, including former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and former Israeli defense minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer. The decision was made during the visit of British Foreign Secretary William Hague in the region.

And this is some of the news from Palestine; for more updates; please visit our website at www.imemc.org. Thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem. This report has been brought to you by Husam Qassis and Ane Irazabal.