PALESTINE NEWS

NOVANEWS

Ali Abunimah – The Electronic Intifada – Last night, Israeli police besieged the headquarters of Zochrot, in Tel Aviv, preventing dozens of activists from carrying out a silent action in which they intended to hold signs on Tel Aviv’s “Rabin Square” bearing the names of Palestinian villages ethnically cleansed in 1948.-rh

Harriet Sherwood – The Guardian – The number of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails has grown to 2,000, with more preparing to join the protest next week, according to human rights groups in the West Bank. The Israeli prison service is taking punitive measures against hunger strikers, including solitary confinement, the confiscation of personal belongings, transfers and denial of family visits, say Palestinian organisations.

Omar Rahman – +972 – Palestinian Christians are an integral part of the Palestinian people and have been at the forefront of the movement for national liberation. From the earliest days until now, Palestinian Christians have comprised many of Palestinian nationalism’s intellectual pioneers, advocates and political leaders—not the hapless minority caught up in a struggle in which they have no part, as this piece portrays them as being.-rh

Daoud Kuttab – Al Arabiya – A practice described by Palestinians as ethnic cleansing is withdrawing their residency for administrative reasons. The current right-wing government of Premier Benjamin Netanyahu is said to have accelerated this process. As a result of the problems faced by the Palestinians, many opted to apply for Israeli citizenship, as an indirect way of safeguarding their right to their birthplace.-rh

Gisha – Does the situation in Gaza fit what most of us think of as a “humanitarian crisis”? Probably not, but dire poverty and unemployment are exacerbated by Israeli imposed restrictions on movement – particularly on export. Gaza residents are able to travel to other parts of the world via Egypt with almost no Israeli intervention, but Israel still prevents them from engaging with the other part of the Palestinian territory, straining professional, academic, and familial ties under severely restrictive criteria for travel.-rh

Yehudit Keshet and Natanya Ginsburg – Machsomwatch – we saw a field of wheat with about 20 little boys with their kippot bouncing running around and some settler men guarding them with their rifles…….they were tearing up the crops of the Palestinians. When they saw our car stopping and especially when they thought they saw cameras they all ran away back to their settlement of Susiya. They ran back carrying sheaves of wheat. The laurels of the victors.-rh

Joseph Dana – The National – The strategy has a number of fronts: dispossess Palestinians through the creation of national “heritage parks” that lay claim to land through archaeological speculation; deprive Palestinian areas of necessary municipality services; and deny almost every building permit required for natural Palestinian growth in the city. In short, take as much land as possible while making Palestinians` lives as difficult as possible.-rh

MEMO-Middle East Monitor – Australians for Palestine – According to the source, there are various methods used by the Israelis to recruit Palestinians, such as capitalizing on their desire to travel and threatening to prevent them from traveling to study or receive medical treatment. Israelis also target Palestinian minors in Israeli prisons and use drugs in their recruitment. The most insidious method employed is the exploitation of the tough economic conditions in Occupied Territories alongside other deficiencies.-rh

Jimmy Johnson – The Electronic Intifada – Pearlman begins by presenting a thesis about how a national liberation movement’s structure — mostly either the unity or fragmentation of its leaders and factions — is a reliable predictor of whether it engages in mass unarmed action. More cohesive movements are more likely to opt for an unarmed strategy than fragmented ones, she argues.-rh

GLOBAL DONORS FORUM – Rebuilding Alliance helped Al Aqaba construct a kindergarten that now serves 130 children. That kindergarten has attracted the further investment of 17 countries, U.N. Agencies, and NGO’s in Al Aqaba Village despite demolition orders issued by the Israeli Army against the mosque, medical clinic, the kindergarten and all the homes but two, for lack of unattainable building permits. Now the displaced villagers are ready to return home.-rh