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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Tuesday November 22, 2011
In the news today, the Solidarity Convoy has made it into Gaza to deliver aid and meet with senior officials while more arrests have taken place throughout the West Bank, these stories and more coming up; so stay tuned.
Last night, a convoy made up of representatives of the Arab Spring movement as well as activists from over forty countries crossed into the Gaza strip via the Rafah border crossing. The group will be meeting with Ismail Haniyya, Prime Minister of the dissolved Hamas-led government in Gaza, and several Palestinian officials.
In cooperation with different groups and organizations, convoy members will be working on issuing the World People Declaration against the illegal Israeli siege imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip.
Over in the West Bank, Israeli forces have conducted another round of dawn raids, across the territory, resulting in multiple arrests. In the northern city of Jenin, eight members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) were arrested after a series of home searches. Local sources reported that explosives were used to force open doors causing significant property damage and spreading panic through the residents.
One of the prisoners who was released last month in the prisoner-swap deal has been taken back into custody outside the city of Bethlehem. 22-year old Ghassan Mohammed Hanini was arrested near Qalqilia while attempting to cross an Israeli military checkpoint.
Some Israeli officials had stated at the time of the swap deal that they would work to re-imprison many of the Palestinians that had been released. This is despite the fact that many of the Palestinians released in the prisoner swap deal had been in ‘administrative detention’ and had never been charged with any crime.
The son of a high ranking Israeli intelligence official has successfully been granted a gag order to prevent his name from being released by the press. The boy is standing trial after being accused of issuing death threats against members of the Israeli peace group, Peace Now. His father, believed to be apart of Shin Bet, yelled at journalists in the courtrooms “Do you know who I am?”, and told the journalists that they would be imprisoned if they revealed his son’s identity.
Finally, in other news from the Middle East, Egyptians are massing in Tahrir square in preparation for another mass protest. This follows three days of clashes between protestors and Egyptian security forces which has left 28 dead and hundreds more wounded. The protests have already forced the resignation of the cabinet but there are concerns that the upcoming elections could be postponed.
That’s all for today from the IMEMC News, this was the Tuesday November 22d 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, Adam Kerry.
