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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org for Thursday July 26th 2012.
The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, says no breakthrough has been made in restarting dialogue between Palestinian representatives and Israel, meanwhile a world bank report says, the Palestinians are not economically ready for statehood, these stories and more, coming up. Stay tuned.
The United Nation’s News Center reports that Robert Serry, The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, stated that the effort to restart direct talks has not reached a breaking point, but there has not been a breakthrough either, and that is increasingly a concern. He added that while talks remain stalled, events on the ground continue to move in the wrong direction.
Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, and Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, have made overtures towards one another with regards to the renewal of peace talks; yet no real progress has been made.
According to AFP, the World Bank released a detailed report concluding that the economy of Palestine is unsuitable for statehood and incapable of sustaining itself without foreign aid.
The 181-page report concludes that the Palestinian Authority has not done enough to build a prosperous economy despite its success in constructing institutions of government, The World Bank made no attempt to avoid the fact that Israeli policies are primarily responsible for the stagnation of the Palestinian economy.
A number of Israeli settlers have setup mobile houses in the village of Al-Khader near the southern Palestinian city of Bethlehem. Ahmad Salah, coordinator of the Popular Committee against the Wall in Al-Khader told IMEMC that a group of Israeli settlers, accompanied by Israeli soldier,s arrived on Tuesday and Wednesday in the Batn al-Ma’asi area of the village and setup 10 mobile houses and electricity poles in a nearby location already occupied by settlers.
Israeli police broke into the Aqsa mosque on Thursday morning and arrested the Sheikh while praying and took him to an undisclosed location. Local media sources said the sheikh was arrested to force some 20 Palestinians who took refuge into the mosque to leave.
Shortly after, a number of Israeli jewish settlers invaded the mosque again and closed it gates. This in turn led to a number of demonstration in some of the surrounding villages of Jerusalem, during which Palestinian youth hurled stones at Israeli border police who responded by firing tear gas and live ammunition, however, no injuries has been reported.
And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Thursday July 226 daily news round-up from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates please visit our website at www.imemc.org. Today’s report has been brought to you by Husam Qassis and me, Kelly Joiner.
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