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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Tuesday, February 08 2011.
During a visit to Hebron, on Monday, the Spanish Foreign Minister, Trinidad Jiménez, came under a torrent of abuse from the settler group she had agreed to meet. Settler activist Itamar Ben-Gvir, shouted at Jiménez as she left the Ibrahimi Mosque calling her an ‘anti-semite’, an ‘Israel hater’ and telling her that she should ‘get out’.
During his visit to Israel, on Monday, Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal has urged the State of Israel to increase the number of items that the Gaza Strip can export. Currently the only items that the Gaza Strip can export are tomatoes, strawberries and carnations.
On Monday, the Israeli military and police destroyed the village of Al- Araqib, located in the Negev desert in southern Israel. This is the 12th time that Israeli forces have destroyed the village, which is ‘unrecognized’ by the Israeli government. The demolition, which left several dozen families homeless, comes at a time of record low temperatures in the Negev, with a rare prediction of snow in the coming days.
Early Tuesday morning, the Israeli military abducted three Palestinians from Jenin Refugee Camp, during a raid on houses in the camp, and abducted four more Palestinians from the town of Selat al-Haritheya. The Israeli military forcibly entered the homes and ransacked them, allegedly searching for illegal weapons.
A young man has been hospitalized by rubber coated steel bullet fire, on Tuesday, in the West Bank village of Beit Ummar, near Hebron. The Israeli military entered the village shortly before midday, looking to arrest a resident of the village, and during the raid the young man, identified as Shadi Ahmad Ekhlayel, 18 years old, was shot by the military in the back, neck and hands. Ekhlayel was transferred to a hospital where he is being treated for moderate wounds.
Today, four projectiles have been fired from the Gaza Strip into the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council district in Southern Israel. No injuries were reported, but light damage was sustained by a car.
Israel’s High Court of Justice has given the Education Ministry and Jerusalem Municipality 5 years to improve the provision of state education in East Jerusalem. Approximately half of East Jerusalem’s children currently attend public schools. The ruling was made in response to a petition submitted in 2008 by the Association of Civil Rights in Israel. According to the court, the shortage of places is a result of years of under-funding and official neglect.
Today, a date has been confirmed for the upcoming Palestinian municipal elections, announced last week by Palestinian Prime Minister in the West Bank, Salam Fayyed. The date has been set for July 9 2011, and will be the first elections held in the area since 2006.
The United Kingdom’s Department for International Development has pledged ₤1.5 million of new support for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. The aid will go the United Nations Relief Works Agency which provides services to Palestinian refugees in a number of countries. The money is intended to provide rental subsidies to almost 3,500 families for the next two months, in addition to a month’s medical aid for approximately 1,200 families.
The International Israeli Apartheid Short Film contest has announced its winners. The contest encouraged filmmakers to submit short films about Israeli Apartheid. Three panels of judges determined the winners of four different awards. The Expert Panel prize, was won by ‘Road Map to Apartheid”. The Global Jury prize, was won by “Confronting the Wall”. The Palestinian Jury prize, was won by “Ali Wall”. Lastly, the Overall prize was also awarded to ‘Road Map to Apartheid”.
That sums up our news for today, thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem, you have been listening to Palestine Today, from International Middle East Media Center. For more updates, please visit our website at www.imemc.org. This report has been brought to you by Husam Qassis and Ramona M.
