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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Thursday December 12, 2013.
Israel drops a controversial plan to displace tens of thousands of Palestinians from their villages, and a Palestinian youth die of wounds sustained 9 year sago, the details are coming up, stay tuned.
The Israeli government has decided on Thursday to drop the current draft of a bill to displace nearly 30,000 Palestinian Bedouins living in the Negev known as “The Prawer Plan”.
The plan was proposed by former Israeli Minister of Planning, Ehud Prawer in 2011 and was approved by the Israeli Parliament in June 2013.
Benny Begin, an architect of the Begin-Prawer Plan, told a press conference that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had accepted his recommendation to halt progress on the bill. Some observers have voiced concerns whether the bill has been shelved or just temporarily postponed.
The Prawer plan had triggered anger among Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and also in Israel.
Talab As-Sani’ a Palestinian member of the Israeli Parliament, said “We have made it clear repeatedly that our people will never allow another catastrophe (Nakba), and all plans that aim at displacing us form our land will fail”
He added that the latest government decision is a victory to the popular struggle against this plan which was held in all the Arab cities and towns in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
Most of these Bedouins live in villages that are not recognized by the Israeli government. They do not receive services from the Israeli government.
In other news, A young Palestinian man died, on Thursday morning, of a serious injury suffered after being shot by an Israeli soldier in 2004 which put him in a wheel chair.
Farid Al-Atrash a lawyer and activist said that his brother Mu’in Al-Atrash, 29, from the Deheisha refugee camp, fell into a coma six days ago, due to serious complications.
A month ago, he was moved to the Arab Rehabilitation Society in Bethlehem, and was later moved to the Al-Maqasid Hospital in Jerusalem, due to the severity of his condition.
He suffered various complications, including serious pressure sores, which eventually led to his death despite extensive efforts to provide him with the needed medical attention.
In 2004, Mu’in Al-Atrash was shot by an Israeli army bullet to the back, hitting his spine and causing paralysis.
He was shot during one of the massive protests in different parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, after an Israeli war plane fired a missile at the wheelchair-bound spiritual leader of the Hamas, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, in Gaza on March 22, 2004.
And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Thursday December, 12, 2013 news round-up from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates please visit our web site at www.imemc.org. Today’s report has been brought to you by Ghassan Bannoura and me George Rishmawi
