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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Centre, www.imemc.org, for Monday November 21, 2011
A Palestinian Prisoner is given the wrong injection whilst in an Israeli prison hospital, and joint Israeli-Palestinian radio station is shut down, these stories and more coming up; so stay tuned.
The King of Jordan, Abdullah II, will make a surprise visit to the West Bank today, Monday, to meet with President Mahmoud Abbas to reiterate Jordan’s support for the Palestinian people.
Support from Jordan is an integral part of the Palestinian push for recognition as its own separate state. A Palestinian official told the AFP quote- “We consider this visit an important part of King Abdullah’s support for President Abbas on the direction of Palestinian policy, as well as for the Palestinian people, particularly under the current circumstances.’
A Palestinian prisoner who suffers from a chronic health condition was given the wrong injection at an Israeli prison hospital on Saturday, causing his health to deteriorate.
Riyadh Al-Amor, 42, was treated at the Ramle prison hospital for a chronic heart condition. The injection he received caused temporary paralysis, and Al-Amor has had difficulty moving or walking since the injection was given.
Al-Amor is married with five children, but is rarely able to see his family due to Israeli restrictions on visitations.
The Israeli Ministry of Interior approved on Sunday, a plan to build 4,000 new settlement units in the Galilee. The Israeli Minister of Interior, Eli Yishai, welcomed the move, stating that this plan will be done under a frame of a series of decisions to reduce the accommodation crisis.
However, Palestinian residents of the Galilee point out that the land in question is being illegally confiscated from the indigenous Palestinian residents of the area in order to construct the Israeli housing developments, which will be owned by the Jewish Agency and available only to Jewish Israelis.
According to an investigation by the Ma’an News Agency in Gaza, the illegal use of child labour has become commonplace in the Gaza Strip, where the lack of an export economy due to the Israeli siege has led families to send their children to bomb sites to collect scrap metal for money.
Despite the illegality of child labour, the practice is widespread due to the complete breakdown of the Gazan economy over the last four years. It is particularly common in families whose male head of household was killed by Israeli forces, as many of those families have no other wage earners.
Due to the imposition of the Israeli siege in 2007, the Gaza Strip has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world, and a child poverty rate nearing 40%.
A radio station that has worked for seven years to bring together Palestinians and Israelis in joint broadcasts and dialogue was shut down by Israeli authorities over the weekend, with the claim that the station lacked the proper license – despite the fact that the station broadcasts from the West Bank and is not under Israeli jurisdiction.
That’s all for today from the IMEMC News, this was the Monday November 21st daily roundup of news from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. We hope you will join us again tomorrow. This was brought to you by Hassam Qassis and myself, William Gibson.
