Tadhamon condemns Israel's continued violations of Muslim holy sites
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2b
Israel moves Muslim skeletons making way for hotel in Jaffa
NAZARETH (PIC) 20 June -- The Israel Antiquities Authority has been working with a local company to build a tourist hotel on the ruins of a Muslim cemetery [al-Qishlah] near the Grand Mosque in the Palestinian port city of Jaffa, Al-Aqsa Islamic heritage foundation said in a statement Sunday. It said the IAA has gathered the remains of Muslims buried there in cardboard boxes placed in a bunker near the cemetery, making way to transport them covertly. Dozens more skeletons are scattered across the cemetery, Al-Aqsa Foundation said ... Al-Aqsa Foundation has filed a petition in the Israeli court objecting to the construction, but the petition was denied
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2
Israel Land Fund incites for Ras al-Amud mosque demolition
NAZARETH (PIC) 20 June -- A Jewish settler organization has been inciting for the demolition of a mosque in Jerusalem’s Ras al-Amud district, with hopes of rallying support of high-profile Jews meeting for the Israeli Presidential Conference this year. The Israel Land Fund, which advocates and funds Jewish settler activity in the holy land, has claimed that locals carried out "illegal" restoration works on the Mohammad Al-Fatih mosque, which overlooks Al-Aqsa Mosque southeast of the Old City. Earlier in January, the mosque was raided by Jewish settlers claiming the municipality had ordered to halt restoration works. They also called police, whose elements raided the mosque alleging to be looking for illegal Palestinian construction workers from the West Bank.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2
Gisha appeals court decision that violates Muslim freedom of worship
Gaza (PNN) 20 June - Gisha, the Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, has today appealed a court judgment which prevents Muslims from Gaza from worshipping freely at Jerusalem's holy sites. The State of Israel allows Christian worshippers to exit the Gaza Strip in order to visit Jerusalem to worship, but the same privilege is not granted to Muslims from the same area. The Supreme Court has rejected the petition of seven Muslim women from the Gaza Strip to exercise their right to enter Jerusalem in order to worship at al-Aqsa mosque. On Monday Gisha issued a press release outlining their appeal to the Supreme Court, saying, "There is no justification for discrimination on the basis of religion: Christians enjoy freedom of movement, Muslims do not."
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10268&Itemid=63
Court fines petitioners for demanding equal praying rights / Noam Sheizaf
PL blog 20 June -- When demanding to maintain its control over both East and West Jerusalem—and especially, over the city’s holy sites—one of Israel’s main arguments is that it allows freedom of worship in the city to members of all religions. The Knesset’s Basic Law: Jerusalem from 1980 [Hebrew link, PDF] states that the holy sites will be guarded by Israel from any harm that might prevent access to them (btw, a 2001 provision to this law states that a Knesset’s special majority is necessary for removing Israel’s authority from parts of the city, placing another barrier on reaching a two states solution – but that’s a different story). The problem is that Israel itself is the one preventing access to Jerusalem’s holy sites. It takes a special permit for Palestinians from the West Bank to enter the city to pray, and this permit is given mostly to members of certain age groups (the official excuse, like always, is security concerns).
http://www.promisedlandblog.com/?p=3980
Documentary of 'price tag' mosque arson
PalMon 15 June -- Short documentary of the settler arson attack on a mosque in the Al-Mughayyir, a West Bank village just outside of Ramallah. Al-Mughayyir is terrorized by the incessant threat of settler attacks.
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/?p=820
Land, property, resources theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing
Israel to build wall on occupied Golan
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd8
Bedouin community homes destroyed
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 20 June -- Israeli bulldozers destroyed several tin homes and animal shelters Monday, in the Bedouin herding hamlet of Khirbet Bir Al-Idd. The demolitions, which left 60 men, women and children displaced, were said by Israel's Civil Administration to be "routine implementation of the law concerning illegal building," with a spokesman saying the homes lacked the necessary permits. Now homeless, Khirbet Bir Al-Idd resident Ziyad Muhammad Younis Makhamra told Ma'an that the community had received notice two years earlier from the Israeli High Court saying they could return to the land in the south Hebron hills. The extended family returned, set up eight shelters for themselves and their livestock, and resumed working the lands. Historically, the farmers had lived in natural caves in the hills. Makhamra said the residents were being forced back into life in the caves following the demolitions. The residents have been repeatedly affected by Israeli activity in the southern West Bank. Makhamra said the community once had access to some 2,000 dunums of land, but 90 percent was confiscated for the construction of illegal settler outpost Mitzpe Yair, located just south of the Suseya settlement.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=398312
3 new demolition orders in Jiftlik
JVS 20 June -- Today the occupation Civil Administration came to Al Jiftlik village, in the Central Jordan Valley, to give three new demolition orders ...to three families, Awad Ali Masoud Bderat, Abdallah Barnawi and Khaled Abdel Rahman Ahmad Laraheile. Two months ago the Civil Administration had come to take pictures of the structures that received today the demolition orders. Four structures are concerned, two homes, an animal shelter and a bathroom block. All of them are located in the hart of the village. If the lawyer does not succeed to stop the order the demolitions should happen on the 11th of July.1 7 people, among them 11 children, would then remain without homes or bathroom. http://www.jordanvalleysolidarity.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=291:3-new-demolition-orders-in-jiftlik&catid=15:2010&Itemid=21
Detention
PM mulls Palestinian prisoners' conditions
Ynet 20 June -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering worsening the incarceration conditions of Palestinian prisoners, Jerusalem officials told Ynet Monday. The officials say Netanyahu may implement recommendations of a report written by former Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann, who said Israel should cancel some of the prisoners' benefits in order to gain leverage in talks for the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4084876,00.html
3 detained by Israel overnight
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 20 June -- Israeli forces raided the southern West Bank village of Husan, west of Bethlehem overnight and detained two minors after storming their family homes, local source said. Speaking with Ma‘an by phone, a family member said several Israeli military vehicles entered the village at around 2 a.m. and ransacked two homes. He said Muhammad Ra‘afat Khalil Hamamra, 15, and Miras Muhammad Nimir Al-Ureidi, 15, were handcuffed and taken away to an unknown location. [from IMEMC: The town of Husan near Bethlehem in the South West Bank has been the target of Israeli military actions due to its proximity to the settler town of Betar Illit built in 1984. Villagers have complained of regular settler attacks to the village and of Israeli land demolitions and land confiscation.]Collaborators with Israeli police should be handled seriously
GulfNews 21 June -- Ramallah: Palestinian security officials on Monday demanded that collaborators with Israeli police and Israeli intelligence be treated equally before the law. Officials said while collaborators with the intelligence are referred to the military prosecutor, those working with the police are referred to the civil prosecutor. In latter cases, collaborators are usually let out on bail till the trial date, and mostly dismissed for lack of evidence. Security sources told Gulf News that in both cases collaborators provide the Israelis with security-related information which is used against Palestinians.http://gulfnews.com/news/region/palestinian-territories/collaborators-with-israeli-police-should-be-handled-seriously-1.824396
The Treatment and Rehabilitation Center: a case study / Alessandra Bajec
20 June -- The Treatment and Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture (TRC) strives to alleviate the traumatic physical and psychological effects of torture and politically motivated violence while giving victims a place to go and discuss their problems ... The family examined is made up of eight members consisting of the father, Majed Arar, his wife, three girls and three boys –aged between 2 and 19 -- from Qurawa Ban Izet, a village near Ramallah. In 2005, their house was demolished by Israeli bulldozers. The family had invested all their money into this brand-new property and suddenly they watched the destruction of their home taking place. At that time, the family was giving refuge to a group of people who were ‘wanted’ by the Israeli forces. The troops ordered the large family out and proceeded to then demolish the house, two of the people hiding away remained inside and died during the demolition. The family was left outside the house, and managed to find -from one of their relatives- a temporary lodging in a small garage. On the same day, the Israeli military took the father and put him in jail. It needs to be mentioned that the father was not a militant, instead a simple man working in the building industry, only his two friends who had taken refuge in his house were politically involved. On the whole, the family went through a large-scale trauma: they were thrown out of their house and humiliated, their house was bombed, the father was taken away, they witnessed the death of two men under rubble. Following his arrest, Majed Arar was subjected to different forms of torture: humiliation, verbal abuse, beatings, sleep and food deprivation, enduring painful positions, having hot and cold air thrown at him, being forced to stay naked, suffering inhumane treatment in general.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10270&Itemid=63
Hamas: Awaiting Egyptian move on Shalit
Ynet 20 June -- Hamas Deputy Politburo Chief Moussa Abu Marzouk on Sunday said the organization was waiting for an Egyptian move "in the very near future" to advance a prisoner exchange deal that would secure the release of captive soldier Gilad Shalit.http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4084524,00.html
PA security apparatuses escalate arrests in lines of Hamas supporters
WEST BANK (PIC) 20 June -- PA security apparatuses escalated arrest campaigns in lines of supporters of the Hamas movement in the West Bank over the past two days despite the signing of the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation agreement. Locals reported the detention of 11 Hamas supporters in the governorates of Nablus, Ramallah, and Qalqilia.
Most of the detainees were former prisoners in Israeli jails or students especially in Nablus while in Ramallah two brothers were detained after being released to attend funeral of a relative ... The PA intelligence rearrested liberated prisoner Mohsen Shreim from his workplace in Qalqilia after his nephew was shot and arrested by the Israeli occupation forces for his alleged attempt to assault a soldier.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bc
Gaza
Videos: Every day is 'practice' for the Israeli navy
...On Wednesday, Israel carried out a large simulation exercise at sea to prepare for any new confrontation and the source said everything possible would be done to prevent direct clashes. Video footage from Wednesday’s exercise broadcast by the military showed Israeli ships practicing the use of water cannon. But ask any Palestinian fisherman from Gaza and they will tell you the Israeli navy is well experienced in the art of water-cannoning unarmed civilians.
http://ingaza.wordpress.com/2011/06/18/every-day-is-practise-for-the-israeli-navy/
Gaza in crisis as smugglers divert trade to Libya
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 20 June -- Egyptian fuel smugglers are expanding their network to Libya and reducing deliveries to Gaza causing a fuel crisis in the Strip, traders told Ma‘an. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=398259
Rafah chaos escalates as Gazans continue to wait for the border to open / Ruqaya Izzidien
Mondo 20 June -- Arms grappled through the black metal barrier that separates Palestinians from the Rafah terminal. A barrier which only ever shifts to let through ambulances, press and -- very occasionally -- a busload of travellers, successfully making it out of Gaza. Elderly ladies wait for hours brandishing their passports through the bars. Welcome to the new, improved, siege-free Gaza.PA interior ministry to control Gaza crossings committee
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 20 June -- PA President Mahmoud Abbas gave instructions Sunday to transfer administrative and financial control of the department coordinating the entry of goods from Israel into Gaza from the Ministry of Economy to the Ministry of the Interior. The committee, headed by crossings coordinator Raed Fattouh, is the liaison between Israeli officials and local groups and NGOs in Gaza and facilitates the transfer of purchased goods, aid for refugees and construction materials for international aid groups from Israel
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=398127
Medical crisis worsening in Gaza / Eva Bartlett
GAZA CITY, Jun 19, 2011 (IPS) - "During the first years of the siege, we could still manage, but nowadays we have no alternatives," says Dr. Hassan Khalaf, Deputy Health Minister in Gaza. "It is a major crisis: many health services have stopped, and I'm afraid this will spiral out of control, because Gaza doesn't have the essential medicines and supplies needed."... While alarming zero-stock levels of drugs were already being reported in 2007 – when 80-90 drugs of the 480 deemed essential were at zero - Palestinian physicians could still find ways around the shortages ... But with each year of the total siege on Gaza, particularly after the 23 days of Israeli war on Gaza in 2008-2009, the already dilapidated medical system in Gaza has been rendered more sickly. During the Israeli war on Gaza, Israeli warplanes bombed over half of Gaza's hospitals, as well as 44 clinics and the medical storage facility of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=56141
Haniyeh opens new roads in Gaza City
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 20 June -- Speaking at the official opening of a network of re-paved streets in Gaza City, Haniyeh said that while the municipality, and others across the Strip, were facing hard times, the opening of new roads was "proof of the steadfastness of the Palestinian people," and their determination to succeed despite all obstacles. Gaza City Mayor Rafiq Maki said that so far in 2011, 96 construction and rehabilitation projects had been completed, including repairs and upgrades to the water and sanitation systems, as well as street safety. The city's debt to the electric company is part of an estimated billion-dollar debt owed by Gaza residents, companies and municipal bodies.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=398099
In Gaza ... children in cemetery to get some livelihood
Gaza, (Alresalah.ps) 20 June -- Monday and Thursday are marked in the cemetery of Beit Lahya, northern Gaza Strip, as relatives of the dead come to visit their dead. Many children use to come to the cemetery on these days to offer some services such as pouring water on the grave, or cleaning it up, for some NIS from the dead's relatives ... Ihab , a 11-year-old boy, says he comes every day to the cemetery, accompanied by his friends to play and get handouts the visitors pay them, especially on Monday and Thursday. He adds although the cemetery contains the dead and the graves, they enjoy playing in it, as none bother them while playing. ''Visitors come to the cemetery, carrying dates and sweets. They distribute them among us as a charity for their dead. They asked us to read "Al-Fateha'" for the soul of their dead, and we do."IOF soldiers infiltrate central Gaza borders
GAZA (PIC) 20 June -- A number of Israeli army tanks and armored vehicles infiltrated the central Gaza borders on Monday and approached the vicinity of the Maghazi refugee camp amidst random firing. Eyewitnesses said that Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in four Mirkava tanks and armored vehicles escorted six military bulldozers into eastern Maghazi while indiscriminately shooting at citizens’ houses. They said that the IOF forces and bulldozes were combing cultivated land in the area, adding that farmers left their plantations fearing for their lives.Limited quantities of goods to be allowed into Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 20 June -- Israeli officials approved the transportation of 270 truckloads of goods and humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip on Monday, Palestinian officials said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=398067
Gaza feature: You can't develop an economy based on tunnels
19 June by Julie Webb-Pullman -- Dr Ahmed Yousef said in my last interview, “You can’t develop an economy based on tunnels.” On Thursday I went to Rafah to see the tunnels first-hand, and talk with those who work in them. I was asked not to take photographs of the tunnels themselves, because every time pictures of them are published, they are bombed by the Israelis. The latest attack was only a week or so ago. So external pictures only…Flotillas
Videos: Press conference with passengers of U.S. Boat to Gaza
Fifteen of the 36 passengers on the U.S. flagged boat, The Audacity of Hope, are joining with supporters today at 11 AM at the Church Center for the United Nations (44th Street and First Avenue) to discuss their plans and reasons for joining the international Freedom Flotilla II - Stay Human. They are departing for Athens today to join the rest of the passengers on the U.S. boat, and people from over 20 countries who will take part in the Freedom Flotilla sailing the last week of June to break the blockade of Gaza.http://endtheoccupationblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/press-conference-with-passengers-of-us.html
The new Israeli hitlist available online
...If you’d like to help Israel in this time of terrorists provocations and help avoid the next attack on Israel please take a few minutes to look at the individuals listed below. These people are the global support base of the Flotilla movement. Giyus.org took the time to identify those that raise funds for flotilla activities, support terror organizations like IHH and Hamas and blindly act against Israel no matter what. They use their Facebook accounts to spread heir hateful anti Israel message. These are the faces of the new web 2.0 antisemitism -- please log into your facebook account and report these users for abusing Facebook to spread hate and antisemitism. Click on each NAME link to reach the relevant facebook profile to report. Click on the report link on the bottom left hand side of the profile page. When you click on the report link a small window opens up. Please choose the “Inappropriate profile information” option and then choose the 2nd option in the drop down menu – “contains hate speech”.
http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2011/06/20/the-new-israeli-hitlist-available-online/
American Jews to join Gaza flotilla
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) 20 June – Several American Jews are to board a US boat planning to join a flotilla of about 10 ships seeking to breach Israel's naval blockade of Gaza later this month, an organizer said Monday. "We are seeking justice for Gaza," Leslie Cogan told reporters, noting the boat will have 36 passengers, four crew and nine journalists when it sets sail for the tiny Palestinian enclave. She said 28 percent of the passengers were American Jews. "It's important that Jews are in this boat... The Jewish lobby in this country is so powerful," said New York labor attorney Richard Levy, himself Jewish. "We cannot support an Israeli blockade which is morally and juridically unsupportable... No more people should be slaughtered in the name of the Jews."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110620/wl_mideast_afp/israelpalestiniansconflictgazaflotillaus
Gaza crew in vow over Israelis
20 June -- Human rights activists trying to break the Gaza blockade have vowed to stop Israeli forces from boarding their ship. Dr Fintan Lane, coordinator of Irish Ship to Gaza, said crews in the second aid flotilla will make it difficult for officials to seize control of vessels, including the Irish-owned MV Saoirse [Freedom]. "If they attempt to board the ship we will non-violently impede their progress. We will not facilitate their boarding party," said Dr Lane. "We will not lay hands on them, we will not use physical measures against them. But we will lock down the ship and make it difficult to seize control." At least 20 Irish citizens, including former rugby international Trevor Hogan, are taking part in Freedom Flotilla II..
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/gaza-crew-vow-over-israelis-140619282.html
Racism / Discrimination
Court: State must explain why admissions committees legal
Ynet 20 June -- The High Court of Justice on Monday has ordered the state to explain within 60 days why it was not considering a new law allowing small communities to have admission committees illegal. A bill permitting admission committees -- able to prohibit applicants from residing in towns that establish them -- was approved in March, but the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the Abraham Fund, and Adalah petitioned the court over its acceptance.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4084788,00.html
Interior minister plans to return nationality clause to ID cards
Haaretz 20 June -- Eli Yishai said however that he still opposes classifying Reform and Conservative communities as Jews; Leader of the Reform movement: Yishai is a strategic threat to Israel ...Interior ministry spokesman Roi Lahmanovich told Haaretz that "there are Holocaust survivors who want the nationality clause, and those who lost their IDs and ask why they can't leave in the word 'Jewish'." Certain Israelis who may pass as foreigners or minorities have claimed they want to keep the "Jewish" clause in order to "pass security checks more easily." The Justice Department has already voiced opposition to the move, and the Reform movement is threatening to take the matter to the High Court. http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/interior-minister-plans-to-return-nationality-clause-to-id-cards-1.368780
Political / Diplomatic / International news
IDF prepares for September declaration
Ynet 20 June -- Will officers need visa to arrest terror suspects in West Bank? Additional resources, training exercises, deployment – all part of army's plan ahead of possible declaration of Palestinian state at UN. Senior military officials agree: Future remains unclear
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4084712,00.html
Ex-Israeli army colonel urges direct talks with Hamas
MEMO 20 June -- Retired Israeli army colonel Shmuel Gordon has called on the Israeli government to begin direct talks with Hamas in order to reach a bilateral agreement on prisoner exchange and the release of the captured Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. Gordon considered the Israeli government's refusal to engage in direct negotiations with Hamas over Shalit's release a problem and a significant obstacle to a prisoner exchange deal and criticized the Israeli government for resorting to international mediators.
http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/news/middle-east/2490-ex-israeli-army-colonel-urges-direct-talks-with-hamas
Salam Fayyad 'will refuse' PM post
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 20 June -- Salam Fayyad will announce his intention to refuse to head the new unity government if he is offered the post, sources close to the appointed West Bank Prime Minister told Ma‘an. Fayyad has publicly said he would accept whatever parties decide in Cairo.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=398299
France 'concerned' by expansion of Jerusalem homes
AFP 20 June -- France is deeply concerned over Israel's authorization to expand 2,000 homes built in east Jerusalem, the French Foreign Ministry said Monday. "Our position is constant: Settlement construction is illegal in the eyes of international law, in the West Bank as well as in east Jerusalem," Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4084806,00.html
Israel's UN ambassador tells US Jews to prepare for September vote on Palestinian state
Haaretz 20 June -- Ron Prosor urges leaders at closed session of the Conference of Presidents of major Jewish American Organizations to use connections to stop upcoming UN vote ... Prosor stressed before the Jewish leaders that they must take advantage of the Jewish community's connections with decision makers in order to get results.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-s-un-ambassador-tells-u-s-jews-prepare-for-september-vote-on-palestinian-state-1.368773
Other news
Settlements to get hotlines, call buttons
The Knesset's Joint Committee for the Defense Budget on Monday decided to earmark NIS 10.3 million ($3 million) for the establishment and renovation of emergency hotlines in West Bank settlements ... Their job will be to alert rescue forces such as firefighters, paramedics, the IDF, and the police. In addition, the hotlines will coordinate between the various forces in the event of an emergency.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4084853,00.html
Medical Council corruption report handed down to PA
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 19 June -- The Palestinian anti-corruption department received a report Sunday from a parliamentarian committee investigating alleged corruption charges against the Higher Palestinian Medical Council ... Details of the report were not made public, and critics have accused President Mahmoud Abbas - to who the report went first - of delaying its hand over top the anti-corruption department.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=397966
'Natural gas reliance poses security risk'
Ynet 20 June -- Dozens of former top defense establishment officials warned Sunday against the government's intention to base Israel's future energy market solely on the offshore gas depositories discovered in the Mediterranean.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4084429,00.html
Picasso work loaned to West Bank goes on display
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) 20 June -- A Palestinian art academy on Monday put on display a $7 million Pablo Picasso masterpiece, the first of its kind in the West Bank. Picasso's 1943 "Buste de Femme" is on loan from the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, Holland. Organizers said they had to overcome a lack of reliable transport and several Israeli checkpoints along the way. The art director of the Palestinian academy, Khalid Horani, said it took two years to arrange the loan. He said the painting's journey was "a story full of details and difficulties."
http://ph.omg.yomg.ahoo.com/news/picasso-loaned-west-bank-goes-display-171656738.html
Analysis / Opinion
Palestinian economic boom unsustainable without overseas donations / Amira Hass
Haaretz 20 June --...The following event was reported on Saturday by the Palestinian news agency Ma'an: Homeless residents of the southern Gaza Strip blocked access to UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East ) summer camps to protest the fact that the organization has not yet rebuilt their homes, which Israel destroyed during the second intifada. According to the demonstrators, 40,000 refugee families have lost their homes since 2000, but UNRWA has preferred to give priority to rebuilding homes destroyed by Israel in Operation Cast Lead. Even if the figures are not precise, it underscores the distress and insult felt by those who inhabited those houses destroyed in 2001, then in 2003 and in 2004 in the refugee camps of Khan Yunis and Rafah. In order to protect the fortified and spacious settlements surrounded by greenery that were just 20 meters away, Israeli army bulldozers razed those crowded rows of gray houses, with asbestos roofs surrounded by sand. Guided by the logic of generals and Caterpillar commanders, the houses were taken down one by one. Following delays that cost many lives, the settlements were eventually evacuated. Their residents were generously compensated. But the residents of the camps, refugees from Yibne and Burayr, Isdud and Beit Tima, continue to wander from one temporary apartment to another. They are waiting for UNRWA to compensate them for the homes that Israel destroyed.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/palestinian-economic-boom-unsustainable-without-overseas-donations-1.368629
Why is this year different from years and this vote from all other votes? / Adam Keller, Gush Shalom
20 June -- For decades, the UN General Assembly is meeting every year in the month of September. And every year it adopts by a large majority a series of resolutions initiated by the Palestinians. These resolutions gets reported (if at all) as a minor news item deep down on page 10 and go straight to the UN archives. No one seriously expects them to be actually implemented in reality. This year, it is quite different. Never did a UN vote get such attention as the vote which is expected in September this year. This year, Israel's Defense Minister expressed apprehension that the expected UN vote might cause a political Tsunami. And the Foreign Ministry embarked on an emergency mobilization of all its diplomats in all countries throughout the world and instructed them, many months in advance, to focus their energies on the expected vote in the General Assembly.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10269&Itemid=58
The real meaning of defensible borders / Shaul Arieli
Haaretz 19 June -- A regional peace deal, including normalization, as promised by the Arab peace initiative, would confer more security than a few thousand dunams in the Jordan Valley ... The 21st century is different than the 20th, regarding limits on the use of force, as well as threats, technology and the legitimacy accorded to liberation struggles. As a result, the importance of technological capabilities and controlling territory, as parameters under the concept "defensible borders," has lessened. Or, as U.S. President Barack Obama put it, with technology alone, Israel will find it hard to defend itself in the absence of real peace. Thus the meaning of "defensible borders" should be expanded to include nonmilitary considerations.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-real-meaning-of-defensible-borders-1.368464
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River to Sea
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