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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Thursday January 26th, 2012.
Egypt rejects an invitation for the head of the Egyptian Peoples Council to visit Tel Aviv, and talks in Amman between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have been declared a failure, these stories and more, coming up, so stay tuned.
Dr. Mohammad al-Kittani, the elected head of the Egyptian People’s Council, a political leader of the Freedom and Justice Party in Egypt, declined an invitation to visit Israel to deliver a speech in front of the Israeli Knesset.
The invitation was sent by Knesset Speaker, Reuven Rivlin, who said that he hopes that the new head of the Egyptian People’s Council will be willing to visit Tel Aviv, and that he also hopes to be able to visit Cairo soon. Rivlin told the Israeli Radio that quote- “Peace between Israel and Egypt is based on the best interests of both peoples.’ –unquote.
Mahmoud Ghuzlan, spokesperson of the Islamic Brotherhood in Egypt, told the Middle East newspaper last Wednesday that the brotherhood rejects any dialogue with Israel, and that this stance is solid.
In other news, Palestinian Minister of Detainees in the West Bank, Issa Qaraqe’, has called for the boycotting of all Israeli military courts for their repeated rulings that confine thousands of detainees under administrative orders without filing any official indictments against them.
There are 280 Palestinians who are currently imprisoned under administrative detention orders; Israel has issued thousands of administrative detention orders since the year 2000; these orders have also been issued against children and elected legislators and Palestinian Officials.
In Gaza, Israeli border forces partially opened the Kerem Shalom crossing on Thursday, and allowed 300 lorry loads of commercial and agricultural goods to enter the besieged costal region, and let two Lorries of flowers and strawberries to be exported.
In Amman, the recent talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have reached a standstill, with the deadline set for Thursday January 26 by Palestinian negotiators, and no progress having been made, the talks have been declared a failure.
The collapse arose from the inability of the parties to settle border disputes, with the Palestinians insisting on pre-negotiated borders, and the Israeli negotiators insisting on leaving it an open issue. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he will not close the door on potential negotiations with the Israelis, if the Israeli government shows willingness to present borders as a starting point for any future talks.
That’s all for today from the IMEMC News, this was the Thursday January 26th daily roundup of news from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. We hope you will join us again tomorrow. This has been brought to you by Husam Qassis and me, William Gibson.
