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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Wednesday February 8th, 2012.
Israel contemplates the setting up of an Air Force Base in Greece, and Price Tag operations take place in cemeteries and a school in Jerusalem, these stories and more, coming up, so stay tuned.
The Israel military court has extended administrative detention for detained for civil rights lawyer, Dr. Yousef Abdul Haq. Yousef is a lecturer at An-Najah National University, and the Cultural Coordinator for the Tanweer Palestinian Cultural Enlightenment Forum. He is currently detained in Ofer Prison near Ramallah.
Yousef Abdul Haq had been arrested in November in his home at two o’clock in the morning; he was sentenced to three months in administrative detention immediately, which has now been extended.
Local sources reported Tuesday that a number of Israeli settlers uprooted nearly 25 newly-planted olive trees that belong to residents of Beit Ummar town, north of the southern West bank city of Hebron.
Yousef Abu Maria, coordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Beit Ummar, told the Press that dozens of settlers attacked the area and uprooted the trees while, Israeli soldiers were present in the area. They were either unaware of the incident, or merely neglected to intervene. The land is located in near the illegal settlement of Karmie Tzur, north of Beit Ummar, where the settlers have also installed a number of additional mobile homes
Settlers also broke into a Christian cemetery in Jerusalem and defaced several graves using spray paint to right racist graffiti, including “Death to Christians”. “Death to Arabs” and “Mohammad is a pig” graffiti was also found on the wall of a bilingual school in the city.
In a separate incident, settlers attacked a gas station in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, forcing the residents out.
In international news, the Israeli government, under Benjamin Netanyahu, is about to initiate talks with Cyprus in order to establish an Israeli Air Force base in the country, while affirming Israel’s “outstanding” relations with Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus.
Netanyahu will be heading to Cyprus later this month, and will be holding talks on a number of issues, including the possibility of allowing Israel to park some of its fighter-jets at the Andreas Papandreou base, as an initial first step.
Senior Israeli sources reported that establishing a military base outside of Israel’s borders is a valid possibility, with Israel attempting to boost its security and military cooperation with a number of countries in the region, especially due to heightened tensions with Iran and Turkey.
That’s all for today from the IMEMC News, this was the Wednesday February 8th 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.
