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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Centre, www.imemc.org, for Wednesday October 26, 2011
Israeli military detains a Palestinian from Jenin and a Palestinian negotiator says no peace talks before stopping settlement activities, these stories and more, coming up, stay tuned.
The Israeli army has detained a resident from the refugee Camp of Jenin after breaking into his house on Wednesday at dawn
Palestinian security sources stated that Israeli military forces have invaded the camp and broke into the house of Basil Samara. Eyewitnesses said that Samara was blind-folded, handcuffed and was take to undisclosed destination.
Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaat stated that Israel must stop all settlement activities for peace talks to resume. Shaath’s comment came after a meeting held in Jerusalem for senior Palestinian and Israeli officials with representatives of the Quartet committee for the Middle East peace.
The meetings aimed at pushing the peace process forward by renewing the peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis that has been halted for over a year.
Meanwhile, the office of the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdore Liberman sent out a letter to foreign embassies describing the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as the main obstacle for peace.
The Israeli online newspaper Haaretz said the letter was sent to all 27 European embassies in addition to ambassadors from the U.S., Russia, China, India, Japan, Colombia and Quartet envoy Tony Blair.
The letter reads ‘The unavoidable conclusion is that there will be no agreement as long as (Abbas) is the leader of the Palestinian Authority, especially given the fact that he is sacrificing Palestinian interests for his own personal future.’
Palestinians on the other hand, described Liberman’s comments as life-threatening and sent a letter of objection to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In other news, the Jerusalem municipality announced it will demolish the ramp leading to the historical Al-Mughrabi Gate in the wall of the old city of Jerusalem within a month.
The Mughrabi gate leads to the compound of the Aqsa Mosque and the dome of the Rock in addition to Al-Buraq wall known by the Jewish people as the Western Wall.
The decision was made despite several objections by a number of Arab countries, especially Jordan.
The Oline Gulf News reported that after demolishing the ramp, Israel intends to build a bigger bridge that allows military vehicles and trucks into the al-Aqsa Mosque area.
According to the report, the Jerusalem Municipality gave the project its final approval claiming that the existing wooden bridge is not safe for visitors.
Staying in Jerusalem, the Israeli police closed two offices in occupied East Jerusalem claiming they have ties with Hamas. One of the offices is an organization called “Jerusalem for Development” and is identified as a local housing committee.
Khaled Zabarqa head of the organization denied the accusations and said the organization has no ties with Hamas and their work is focused on renovating homes of Palestinian residents of Jerusalem which helps the families stay in Jerusalem.
Thats all for today from the IMEMC News. This was the Wednesday October 26 daily roundup of news from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. We hope you will join us again tomorrow. This was brought to you by Husam Qassis and me George Rishmawi
