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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Centre, www.imemc.org, for Tuesday November 1st, 2011
The US and Israel are set to impose sanctions after Palestine were voted in as full members of UNESCO, and Israel are seeking to upgrade and improve their Nuclear capabilities, these stories and more, coming up, so stay tuned
There was an historic vote yesterday on Monday, which granted full member status for Palestine into UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
The vote passed with a majority of 107 yay votes, 14 nay votes, and 52 abstentions. The United States, Israel and Germany voted no, with Great Britain abstaining, and a surprise yes vote coming from France.
Angered over the submission of the vote, and of the outcome, the U.S. State Department declared their intention to cancel funding to UNESCO, who are due to receive over sixty million dollars later this year, with US money accounting for 22% of the yearly budget.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has met with his Cabinet of Eight on Tuesday today, to discuss a series of sanctions they can impose on the P.A. within the West Bank, in response to the Abbas side-stepping Israel in their bid for an independent Palestinian state.
Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli authorities prevented Palestinian farmers from reaching their farmlands, which are located behind the Annexation Wall in Kufr Jamal village, near the West Bank city of Tulkarem.
The farmers stated that the soldiers, based at the gate of the settlement of “Salit”, prevented them and their tractors from entering their own lands, and forcibly made them go home.
The gate is the only entrance that connects the farmers with their farmlands behind the Wall.
Israeli Army Chief of Staff, Benny Gantz, ordered the army to start what he called “gradual retaliation” to counter the shells fired from the Gaza Strip into adjacent Israeli areas, Israeli TV reported.
Gantz stated that Israel will not be committed to a truce with the resistance groups in the Gaza Strip, and will continue to strike Gaza to limit the capabilities of the resistance.
After repeated exchanges of fire between fighters in Gaza and the Israeli Army, schools across three Israeli border towns closed on Monday and Tuesday.
Twelve Palestinians have been killed since Saturday in a series of air strikes, and one Israeli civilian was killed on Sunday whilst he was driving home.
A report publish by the British Newspaper The Guardian has revealed Israel to be expanding its nuclear arsenal; seeking to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles, and wanting to bolster its “second strike” nuclear capability.
They are seeking to improve its cruise missile effectiveness, fired from their Dolphin Class submarines, of which they currently have three.
Two more submarines are on order to be developed and delivered by Germany within the next year, with the possible addition of a third.
Israel submarines are reported to be equipped with nuclear weapons, providing them with the key “second strike” capability, enabling them to hit back if the country is attacked and their ground silos are destroyed or disabled.
They are also seeking to extend the range of their home developed Jericho 3 Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, which has a range estimated at over 5000km.
That’s all for today from the IMEMC News. This was the Tuesday October 1st 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 William Gibson.
