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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Monday September 26, 2011.
Israeli undercover force kidnap a Palestinian lawmaker in Jerusalem, and Israeli settlers put up anti-arab banners, these stories and more coming up, stay tuned.
An Israeli undercover force kidnapped on Monday morning, Palestinian law maker, Ahmad Attoun from Jerusalem. Attoun is know to be a Hamas-affiliate, and has been elected as member of parliament with the Change and Reform bloc in June 2006.
Palestinian media sources said that Attoun was inside a protest tent setup in front of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) when kidnapped.
The source reported eyewitnesses as saying that four young men wearing civilian clothes carrying books and maps, pretending to be engineers were in the area and where pointing at the near by building. In addition, a big truck parked in front of the center and a private car with four female passengers with headscarf and a veil covering their face.
According to the witnesses Attoun was preparing for a TV interview when a fight erupted in the street, then four armed young men jumped into the tent and kidnapped Attoun. The wife of Attoun said the fight was a decoy and the four veiled women appeared to be armed young men.
Attoun was blindfolded and taken to the Israeli detention and interrogation center at the Russian compound in Jerusalem.
The Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and the Hamas-led government in Gaza condemned the kidnapping of Attoun saying this act is a violation of international law.
Apparently, Attoun was claimed to be wanted by the Israeli military and was taking refuge at the Red Cross offices.
The Prime Minister of the deposed Hamas government in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh called on Monday for an inter-Palestinian strategic dialogue to decide on a joint strategy for establishing a Palestinian state.
Hamas did not support Abbas’ move at the United Nations where he submitted a request for full UN membership, however they did not actively oppose it. Hamas claim they were not consulted in the matter and urged that the move has no substance.
In the meantime, the United Nations Security Council held informal consultation sessions regarding the Palestinian statehood bid. It is expected that an official response to be declared within few weeks.
President Abbas received a hero welcoming upon his arrival to Ramallah coming back from the US on Sunday. Tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered at the presidential compound in Ramallah as he spoke to the crowd affirming that the Palestinian Authority will not return to negotiations until Israel fully freezes settlement activities in the West Bank.
The Palestinian move at the UN stirred a wave of anger among Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Settlers have escalated attacks against Palestinian civilians during the month of September. On Sunday, dozens of armed Israeli settlers put up Israeli flags and posters on main and bypass roads close to Jewish settlements in the southern part of the West Bank, calling for slaughtering Arabs and Palestinians.
Racist posters were also placed along the Jerusalem-Hebron road, and some read “We Will Slaughter All Arabs”, “This is the land of our fathers and forefathers.”
The settlers also camped in Palestinian farmlands and orchards south of Bethlehem, and prevented the farmers from reaching their own lands.
Israeli settlers living in the city of Hebron also raised Israeli flags and put up racist posters threatening to kill the Palestinians and calling for their expulsion.
That was just some of the news from Palestine Today, 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 Hussam Qassis and me, George Rishmawi.
