AFP articles, latest news, letters and world-wide updates http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/rss/zoobrascoop.xml en The situation in Palestine continues to deteriorate, both on a political scale and humanitarian scale. The international blockade of Gaza and the continued illegal collective punishment of its residents by... http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/nov07/BULLIMORE_abbas_road_to_capitulation.php B'Tselem is the conservative Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories with a well-deserved reputation for accuracy. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/nov07/LENDMAN_torturing_palestinian_detainees.php The Media department in Nafha Society for Defending the Rights of Detainees and Human Rights reported that Israeli military kidnapped 20 Palestinian civilians from different parts of the West Bank in the past 24 hours http://www.imemc.org/article/51633 Palestinian sources reported that an Israeli army force invaded Al Far'a refugee camp located south east of the northern West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday morning. Troops opened fire at local school boys, injuring four of them. http://www.imemc.org/article/51627 Curfews have been imposed on all towns and villages in the northern West Bank. Access to Jerusalem for worshippers hoping to pray at the al-Aqsa mosque has been cut off. Soldiers operating the over 700 checkpoints and roadblocks in the West Bank have been instructed to severely restrict the movement of Palestinian people http://www.imemc.org/article/51641 Just hours after announcing to the international community that Israel was committed to the 'Roadmap Plan' for peace and would agree to freeze settlement activity on occupied Palestinian land, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made his Cabinet a very different promise. http://www.imemc.org/article/51625 Israeli forces on Tuesday attacked a Palestinian home in the village of Siliat al-Thaher located near Jenin city in the northern part of the West Bank, kidnapping one civilian and reportedly stealing 2500 JD from the house. http://www.imemc.org/article/51180 Israeli settlers from the illegal settlement of Alon Mureh, located near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, on Tuesday released a quantity of waste-water on Palestinian-owned land in the area. http://www.imemc.org/article/51181 Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday again warned of the likelihood of an imminent wide-spread invasion of the Gaza Strip. http://www.imemc.org/article/51185 Yasser Hiyya didn't know why he was always so weak and tired until this summer, when doctors discovered a small hole in his heart. Israel gave Hiyya permission to leave the Gaza Strip last month and cross Israeli territory for immediate surgery in the Palestinian-controlled West Bank. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/NISSENBAUM_israel_pressuring.php Israeli military experts have formulated a plan to gradually cut off electricity and fuel to the Gaza Strip in response to ongoing rocket fire from the Palestinian area, officials said Wednesday. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/COPANS_israel_draws_up_plan.php Nabeel Abu Rudienah, spokesperson for the Palestinian Presidency, said on Thursday that it is the Israeli delegation's stance which is hindering progress in talks over a final document prior to the November peace conference. http://www.imemc.org/article/51085 A twenty-year-old Palestinian man was severely beaten by Israeli soldiers at the Ar-Ram military checkpoint north of Jerusalem on Thursday. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=26006 Nabeel Abu Rudienah, spokesperson for the Palestinian Presidency, said on Thursday that it is the Israeli delegation's stance which is hindering progress in talks over a final document prior to the November peace conference. http://www.imemc.org/article/51085 Unfailingly polite, and spotless in their uniforms of blue and white striped smocks, the teenage pupils from the UN Relief and Works Agency Girls' Preparatory A school in Al Deraj were initially shy about talking about why they had wound up in a remedial class. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/MACINTYRE_exam_failure.php A zoo. This is one of the ways that Palestinians describe the conditions under which nearly 1.5 million of them have been living: in an area of some 360 square kilometers... http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/HASS_the_41st_kilometer.php His calm demeanour belies the personal tragedy he is living. Journalist Bassam Al-Wahidi, 30, is on the verge of giving in to perpetual darkness. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/AL-NAAMI_treachery_for_treatment.php Not much lasting harm will come from the recent nastiness surrounding Archbishop Desmond Tutu and a Minnesota university that canceled his invitation to a human rights conference, for fear of offending the Jewish community http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/EDITORIAL_the_tutu_heave-ho.php Yaser Abed Rabu, Secretary General of the Executive Committee of Palestine Liberation Organization and member of the Palestinian negotiating team, said on Tuesday that Israel is obstructing progress in current political efforts by escalating their military operations in the West Bank. http://www.imemc.org/article/50906 Ahmad Qurei, head of the Palestinian negotiating team, on Monday night met Livni Tizpi, Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs and head of the Israeli delegation. http://www.imemc.org/article/50901 The Hamas movement on Tuesday welcomed the comments made by John Dugard, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, regarding the withdrawal of the United Nations from the Quartet. http://www.imemc.org/article/50899 The leader of the Al-Aqsa Brigades, the armed group of Fatah in Nablus in the northern West Bank, was killed on Tuesday morning by an Israeli shell. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25837 Four years after her last visit to Melbourne, Australia, Dr Ghada Karmi returned to speak again on her latest book Married to Another Man – Israel’s Dilemma in Palestine which proposes a one-state solution to the intractable problem that has vexed the world’s politicians and diplomats for decades. In 2003, Dr Karmi spoke on what was then considered a most controversial topic A Single Democratic State in Historic Palestine – An Idea Whose Time Has Come. But the time had not yet come. Too many people were firmly wedded to the idea of a two-state solution, despite Israel’s colonial expansionism. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/LECTURE_ghada_karmi.php After spending many hours trying to reach Jerusalem, that used to be only 20 minutes away before the imposition of the humiliating Israeli checkpoints, a Palestinian woman said... http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/SHAABAN_between_gaza_and_newyork.php While his aides munched tuna bagels thoughtfully provided by the Israeli military, a shirt-sleeved Tony Blair peered intently at a map showing the two main cargo crossing-points that will function between the West Bank and Israel once the 450-mile separation barrier between them is complete. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/MACINTYRE_blair_is_shocked.php At dawn on the third day of Eid, on Monday, Israeli forces stormed the West Bank cities of Bethlehem, Hebron, Nablus and Jenin and seized several Palestinians. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25833 US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday that Palestinian and Israeli negotiators "are making their most serious effort in years to resolve the conflict." http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25834 I’ve never imagined a simple equation between the non-racial democracy for which we fought (and which we won) in South Africa and achieving a unitary state democratic solution for Israel and the Palestinians. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/KARON_israelis_fighting_israeli_apartheid.php Israeli military forces invaded the village of Beit Fourik, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, on Thursday morning and opened fire with tear-gas near a girl's school, causing students breathing difficulties. http://www.imemc.org/article/50838 Israeli forces invaded the city of Bethlehem on Wednesday night and again on Thursday morning. Three Palestinians were kidnapped during the operations. http://www.imemc.org/article/50837 Israeli military aircraft shelled the areas of Beit Hanoun and Deir Al Balah in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, firing several rockets. http://www.imemc.org/article/50834 The Israeli army conducted a wide-scale abduction campaign in the early hours of Thursday morning, abducting 7 Palestinian men and one young woman from the northern West Bank city of Nablus and the village of Sura. http://www.imemc.org/article/50831 My aim in the following is, first, to defend the accuracy of this statement. Since the Oslo Agreements of 1993, Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza has developed into a colonial siege, gradually atomizing and strangling Palestinian economy and society. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/ABU-MANNEH_israels_colonial_siege.php Father Dennis Dease, president of the University of St. Thomas, has asked that the letter below be sent to St. Thomas students, faculty and staff: http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/DEASE_tutu.php The peace process has been just that - a process with no real outcomes. EVERYONE wants to see "peace" between Israel and the Arabs. It has now dawned on most people that the terrorist attacks on America and Europe, the al-Qaeda rhetoric about the suffering of fellow Muslims, and the instability in the Middle East are connected with the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/KARMI_israel_the_roadblock_to_peace.php Conal Urquhart (Oct 11, 2007) describes Israel’s planned apartheid road link for the Palestinians, while it continues to take more land prior to the “peace” talks. It is no wonder the US has had difficulty naming these upcoming talks in its attempts to water down expectations. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/press_room/letters/oct07/McPHEE_re_israel_grabs_land.php Israeli military forces invaded the northern West Bank city of Qalqilia and the al-Ama'ari refugee camp in the early hours of Wednesday morning, kidnapping several Palestinians. http://www.imemc.org/article/50806 Israeli settlers on Wednesday blocked a road in southern Hebron, while the military invaded the area, confiscating private vehicles and ransacking homes. http://www.imemc.org/article/50812 Israeli bulldozers on Wednesday attempted to annex an area of land adjacent to a Kindergarten in the Shu'afat refugee camp. http://www.imemc.org/article/50813 Three hundred Palestinian refugees, stranded at the Iraq-Syria border for the last 18 months, have turned down the offer from the Sudanese government which would have allowed them to settle in the North African country. http://www.imemc.org/article/50820 As with many Palestinians, the right of return is a major preoccupation for Khaled al-Mudallal. The return he is campaigning for, however, is not to an ancestral village in Israel. He wants to be allowed to go back to Bradford. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/HIDER_trapped_in_gaza.php On 18 October, One Million Voices, an organization led by Israelis and international figures with the support of some Palestinians, is organizing a public event in Jericho and Tel Aviv, simultaneously. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/PACBI_warning.php The concern Israel demonstrates for the fate of one Palestinian boy touches the heart: Again, note what a fuss is being made about the case of the killing of Mohammed al-Dura. Our heart is impervious to the fate of other children who have been killed. Just little Mohammed continues to haunt us. But the question of who killed al-Dura is not important. And maybe he is even alive, as some eccentrics claim. Perhaps he committed suicide, as the strange investigations are liable to suggest. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/LEVY_mohammed_al-dura_lives_on.php Head of the Israeli Army Forces in the occupied West Bank, Gadi Sheemny, issued on Monday a military order annexing 1130 Dunams of Palestinian lands in Al Sawahra Al Sharqiyya and Abu Dees towns, near Jerusalem. http://www.imemc.org/article/50771 The Israeli army invaded several areas across the West Bank on Monday morning, kidnapping at least five Palestinian civilians. http://www.imemc.org/article/50765 Eight Palestinian civilians were wounded in two different Israeli air strikes in Gaza on Monday morning. http://www.imemc.org/article/50766 Over the past two decades, the Palestinian national movement has bound itself to a vision of two states, Israel and Palestine, coexisting in peace.  http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/KIBLAWI_KHALED_time_to_talk.php Two recent offhand comments, both widely publicized, have seriously undermined whatever progress might have been made in exposing the fact that the Iraq war was initiated at least in large part to guarantee Israel's safety and regional dominance in the Middle East. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/CHRISTISONS_see_no_evil.php Over the past two decades, the Palestinian national movement has bound itself to a vision of two states, Israel and Palestine, coexisting in peace. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/KIBLAWI_KHALED_time_to_talk.php In “Battle rages over fateful footage” (Oct 6, 2007) Ed O’Loughlin reports that a French court will soon decide on whether the iconic image of the death of Mohammed al-Dura, was fabricated. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/press_room/letters/oct07/McPHEE_re_battle_rages_over.phppress_room/letters/oct07/McPHEE_re_battle_rages_over.php The Age http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/battle-rages-over-fateful-footage/2007/10/05/1191091366434.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1 The Israeli forces on Sunday morning seized five Palestinians from the southern West Bank city of Hebron and Qabatiya, in the north. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25733 Israeli drones on Sunday morning launched two missiles at a school in Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip. No casualties have been reported. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25729 Salman Abu Sitta, the general-coordinator of the Right of Return conference, has sternly warned Saturday PA chief Mahmoud Abbas not to fall in the Israeli "trap" by recognizing occupied Palestine as national state for Jews http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7fMvd75VPcpHYZfOHQczYZb2dOKxxHHvTkNWaIbw6vRogOR%2fBtjGftBns1LTDZ%2bZjGbiEEon2vGay5UB1qKxum8d%2brtMqWZstBNkXrDtfyvE%3d Israeli forces executed an incursion early Saturday into the eastern outskirts of Breij and Maghazi camps in central Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian witnesses. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25692 Haidar Ibrahim, secretary-general of the Palestinian Laborers Union, stated on Friday that Israeli forces arrested 300 Palestinian workers inside the Green Line (Israel)during the month of September. Among the arrested workers were 25 females. http://www.imemc.org/article/50733 Ghada Karmi’s latest book “Married to Another Man” opens with the problem European Zionists faced over a century ago when they first mooted the idea of a Jewish State in Palestine. They found then that there was already a well-established Palestinian society existing in the land they wished to claim as their own. Hence the message sent back to Vienna by the two rabbis who made the discovery: 'The bride is beautiful, but she is married to another man.' http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/KARKAR_book_review.php Last year, I agreed to speak to a Jewish youth group about my organization, Jewish Voice for Peace, and our opposition to Israel's occupation. My talk was to follow one from a member of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which calls itself 'America's pro-Israel Lobby.' http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/SURASKY_dissenting_at_your_own_risk.php The Bush administration may delay its planned international peace conference until late November, so that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will have more time to formulate a joint declaration. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/909316.html At least three people have been killed and two injured when a car exploded outside the Hamas marine police force building in Gaza City. http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/0E151E31-E1BE-4834-95D2-4C02C0C10DA5.htm The Palestinian Minister of Prisoners' affairs, Ashraf Al-Ajrami met with the Israeli minister of Internal Security, Avi Dichter on Tuesday, and discussed a potential plan to release long-term prisoners and political leaders, including charismatic Palestinian resistance leader Marwan Barghouthi. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25690 The minister of health in the de facto government warned on Thursday that a humanitarian disaster is looming in the Gaza Strip because supplies of 470 essential medicines will run out within a week. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25684 It is a curious phrase this “right to exist”. Israel wants the world to accept its “right to exist” as a state, but it denies the indigenous Palestinians their right to exist as a people in their own land. International relations only acknowledges the rights of people, not states. States exist because of the formal recognition afforded them by other states, and now that Israel is recognised as a state, it in fact exists. It makes no sense to demand that a political party recognise Israel’s “right to exist”, much less punish 4 million Palestinians because a majority voted the Hamas Party into government. Yet, these are the very words that are holding the Palestinians, particularly those in Gaza, to an impossible ransom. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/KARKAR_the_right_to_exist.php The further you penetrate into the heart of the old city of Hebron, the narrower the lanes become. Broad enough at first for a market stall on either side piled high with brilliantly coloured fruit and vegetables and a bustling crowd passing between, they gradually taper to shady tunnels with cave-like shops cut into the walls on either side. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/SWAIN_a_walk_through_old_hebron.php The clinking champagne glasses on Engage's website said it all. The movement established to oppose the proposed boycott of Israeli academic institutions was celebrating a victory, as the British University and College Union (UCU) announced that to even discuss the boycott risked "infringing discrimination legislation." The boycott of Israel, it seemed, had suffered a blow. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/WHITE_its_about_palestine.php Theirs is an apartment building no one has ever heard of. No architectural International Style, no style at all, just an apartment building. Five floors, 11 families, new tiles in one of the bathrooms. Situated on a hillside, the house hovers above the city below. Hovers? Hovered. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/LEVY_the_war_for_the_house.php Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, and Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, have agreed to begin negotiations next week aimed at drawing up a joint document on the major questions to be submitted to the US-sponsored autumn peace conference, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation's chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat told a news conference on Wednesday. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25672 Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, and Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, have agreed to begin negotiations next week aimed at drawing up a joint document on the major questions to be submitted to the US-sponsored autumn peace conference, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation's chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat told a news conference on Wednesday. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25672 Three Palestinians were killed on Wednesday morning in three separate incidents in the Gaza Strip. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25662 Rumors have been circulating for some time that Archbishop Desmond Tutu was banned by the University of St Thomas in Minnesota because of statements he made that some consider anti-Semitic. http://www.muzzlewatch.com/?p=257 "The protest wave has calmed down," some Israeli journalists said Friday of the Burmese military junta's success in driving thousands of demonstrators off the streets, using excessive violence. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/HASS_democracy_is_more.php If you are a young Muslim American and head off to the Middle East for a spell in a fundamentalist "madrassa," or religious school, Homeland Security will probably greet you at the airport when you return. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/HEDGES_israels_toy_soldiers.php "Getting inside the official Israeli mind is a worthwhile, if lurid, experience," the late Edward Said wrote in his article "Dignity, Solidarity and the Penal Colony." This is what it feels like when one is trying to understand the Middle East peace process that never seems to lead to anything. Observing this never ending saga, one can hardly help reaching the realization that peace is not a priority for Israel, and indeed Israeli governments have made no secret of the fact that a peace that precludes Israel's complete control over historic Palestine is of no interest to them. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/PELED_a_crack_in_the_wall.php An important interview with John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, authors of “The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy”. http://fanonite.org/2007/09/26/an-interview-with-mearsheimer-and-walt/ Lwayers at the Nafha Association for prisoners' rights said Monday that Israeli forces at the Huwwara detention center, near the West Bank city of Nablus, forced their Palestinian detainees into the yard, abusing and insulting them. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25640 The British government will face a legal challenge over arms-related sales to Israel, a Palestinian human rights organization revealed on Tuesday. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25658 A Palestinian man and a woman were injured on Tuesday near the Ibrahimi Mosque, known to Israelis as the Cave of the Patriarchs, in the old city of Hebron in the southern West Bank, according to Ma'an's correspondent. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25661 Israeli security forces have opened fire on a crowd of Palestinians waiting for 29 prisoners freed by Israel to cross into the Gaza Strip. http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/5B58B11F-8F4E-4CCE-86C7-F341CD44D320.htm With some sort of "meeting" or "conference" to kick start the peace process now being touted by the Bush administration, there is at least the appearance of an understanding in Washington of the importance for the region and the world of solving the 'Palestinian problem.' http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/WHITBECK_democracy_not_zionism.php Henry Kissinger used to say that Israel has no foreign policy, only internal politics. Listening to our politicians, you often indeed wonder whether any of them has any long-term strategy. Given that every Israeli politician is supposed to care for Israel's long-term survival, it is stunning to see that an important event in the U.S. with enormous implications for Israel has gone all but unnoticed here. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/STRENGER_a_pariah_state.php 'Israel-Palestine: The One State Solution' - (begins 14 mins into program) http://www.abc.net.au/rn/latenightlive/stories/2007/2047672.htm Israel was to release 87 Palestinian prisoners on Monday as a goodwill gesture to president Mahmud Abbas during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and ahead of a US-sponsored peace conference. http://english.alarabonline.org/display.asp?fname=2007\10\10-01\zmainz\900.htm&dismode=x&ts=01/10/2007 09:10:41 A thirteen-year-old Palestinian boy was shot and wounded after Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd of Palestinians waiting at Erez border crossing for their relatives to be released from Israeli prisons on Monday. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25643 Israeli forces on Monday morning arrested nine Palestinians from different areas of the West Bank. They were taken to interrogation centres. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25633 The dialogue between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has gained momentum, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview to CBS. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1189411508956&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull Gaza is a strip of land of less than 400 square kilometres in which 1.5 million people live as prisoners due to the closure and the consequential economic isolation imposed unilaterally and illegally by the Israeli authorities. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/MORGANTINI_one_half_and_a_half.php It was a pretty quiet year, relatively speaking. Only 457 Palestinians and 10 Israelis were killed, according to the B'Tselem human rights organization, including the victims of Qassam rockets. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/LEVY_twilight_zone.php You have to have lived in America a long time before you realise that political correctness - far from ridding the country of -isms such as racism, sexism and anti-Semitism... http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/STEPHEN_saying_the_unsayable.php The Israeli army on Sunday demolished a cattle slaughterhouse belonging to the local council of Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25612 Israeli forces on Sunday seized eleven Palestinians from different areas of the West Bank. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25611 Israeli forces on Sunday morning invaded the northern West Bank town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin, and set ambushes throughout the old city. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25621 More than twenty Israeli military vehicles on Sunday invaded the town of Kafr Dan, west of the northern West Bank city of Jenin, and stormed several homes allegedly in search of 'wanted' Palestinians. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25620 In these days of warmongering, peace and justice are tossed about like hot potatoes with no end to the suffering in sight. But, where is the compassion for the children, women and men who are being subjected to the excesses of power in all its guises? http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/sep07/KARKAR_gaza_the_quality_of_mercy.php Imagine if, after an IRA bombing, a British prime minister declared Catholic areas in Northern Ireland to be hostile territory, and threatened to reduce or cut off goods, water, fuel and electricity supplies. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/sep07/DOYLE_life_behind_the_wire.php Israeli forces stormed Atara village, located north of Ramallah in the central West Bank, and al-Bireh city in the early hours of Wednesday morning. http://www.imemc.org/article/50625 Israeli military forces kidnapped one Palestinian from the northern West Bank city of Nablus in the early hours of Wednesday morning. http://www.imemc.org/article/50621 Israeli forces imposed a military siege on the West Bank and Gaza Strip because of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, Israeli sources said on Wednesday. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25544 Eight people were killed and at least 20 others injured in Israeli air and ground attacks in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25556 Dr Haider Abdel-Shafi, who has died at the age of 88, was a towering figure of the Palestinian national movement for more than half a century - not only one of the fiercest critics of Israel, but also often of the Palestinian leadership. He had a commanding presence, equally at home in an Oxford college as on the crowded streets of Gaza, and his integrity shone out in any company. http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2177107,00.html Palestinian sources reported that Israeli forces invaded the West Bank town of al Doha near Bethlehem in an early hours of Tuesday morning. Local eyewitnesses said that the soldiers were accompanied by metal elevators and two sniffer-dogs. http://www.imemc.org/article/50609 The Israeli army attacked and searched Palestinian homes in the southern west Bank city of Hebron and the nearby Sourif village on Tuesday morning, kidnapping seven civilians, Palestinian sources reported http://www.imemc.org/article/50606 The Israeli army kidnapped two Palestinian civilians on Tuesday morning as troops invaded the village of Beit Fajar, south of city of Bethlehem in the southern part of the West Bank. http://www.imemc.org/article/50603 A U.N. Investigation has found that the Israeli administration has established approximately 40 new roadblocks in the West Bank in spite of previous promises to reduce their number. http://www.imemc.org/article/50604 The Australian http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22483470-15084,00.html The Editorial (24 Sep, 2007) calling for diplomacy rather than yet another military solution to the problems in the Middle East mirrors advice already put to Congress last year by the Iraq study group. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/press_room/letters/sep07/McPHEE_re_age_editorial.php The forthcoming “peace” conference is more about Israel wanting Palestinians to finally recognise Israel’s right to exist on what was Palestinian land than achieving a just and meaningful solution to the conflict. Unless the Jewish/Israeli people can finally come to terms... http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/press_room/letters/sep07/McPHEE_aus_media.php The Age http://www.theage.com.au/news/editorial/tempers-must-remain-cool-as-the-middle-east-heats-up/2007/09/23/1190486129857.html The Australian http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22469557-15084,00.html The Age http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/syria-may-be-invited-to-peace-talks/2007/09/24/1190486223229.html Israeli forces seized 22 Palestinians during raids in in the West Bank Monday morning. Ten of those detained were taken from the area around the city of Nablus http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25514 The Israeli security committee entrusted to examine how to deal with Gaza as an "enemy entity" on Monday recommended cutting the electricity supply to the Gaza Strip from Israel whenever a homemade projectile lands in Israeli territories. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25516 IMEMC http://www.imemc.org/article/50586 'Who killed Watan?' cried the dozens of youngsters on the stage of the Shawah, the largest theater in Gaza, as they pointed accusing fingers at a group of older actors waving the flags of the Palestinian resistance movements... http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/sep07/CREMONESI_who_killed_our_homeland.php The Israeli government decided earlier this week to declare the Gaza Strip 'hostile territory' and vowed to cut off essential services such as electricity and fuel to the over one million Palestinian residents in the Hamas-controlled territory. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/sep07/LOWENSTEIN_local_jewish_leaders.php An entire generation of Palestinians in Gaza is growing up stunted: physically and nutritionally stunted because they are not getting enough to eat; emotionally stunted because of the pressures of living in a virtual prison and facing the constant threat of destruction and displacement; intellectually and academically stunted because they cannot concentrate -- or, even if they can, because they are trying to study and learn in circumstances that no child should have to endure. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/sep07/CHRISTISON_justice_forgotten.php Seven Israeli human rights organizations jointly warn that Wednesday’s Israeli Cabinet decision to limit the electricity and fuel supply to the Gaza Strip and to further restrict movement in and out of Gaza will exacerbate the existing humanitarian crisis there. http://www.imemc.org/article/50567 Israeli army bulldozers, accompanied with tanks, incurred on Sunday some hundred meters into the Shuka village, to the east of Rafah city in southern Gaza Strip. http://www.imemc.org/article/50566 A number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank city of Hebron, stabbed a Palestinian boy near the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba’, to the east of the city. http://www.imemc.org/article/50565 Israeli forces stormed the town of Kafr Qallil, south of the the West Bank city of Nablus Sunday evening, seizing an activist affiliated with the armed wing of Fatah, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25503 The Israel-Palestine Conflict: Causes and Consequences with Dr Danny Lamm President of the Zionist Council of Victoria and Mr Michael Shaik Public Advocate for Australians for Palestine press_room/report/sep07/REPORT_israel-palestine_conflict.php Israeli forces withdrew from Qalqilia, in the northern West Bank, on Wednesday after seizing three Palestinians and ransacking several homes. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25436 The Israeli left wing movement, Gush Shalom, (Peace Bloc) issued a press release on Thursday describing the Israeli decision to regard the Gaza Strip and Enemy Entity and imposing a strict closure as a crime and called on the Israeli government to negotiate with the Palestinians including Hamas. http://www.imemc.org/article/50520 Palestinian medical sources reported on Thursday midday that one Palestinian boy was crushed and killed by an Israeli military bulldozer near Al-Buraij refugee camp in central Gaza strip. http://www.imemc.org/article/50521 Palestinian medical sources in the Gaza Strip reporter on Thursday that four Palestinians were killed during the military offensive carried by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip. Several residents were injured and at least twenty were abducted. http://www.imemc.org/article/50531 On January 26th 1976 the United Nations Security Council debated a resolution (S11940) introduced by Jordan, Syria and Egypt that included all the crucial wording of UNSC resolution 242. It accepted the right of all states in the region to exist within secure and recognized borders while re-emphasizing the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force. This resolution added for the first time, however, what was missing from 242: recognition of Palestinian national rights. The phrase “all states” was taken to include a new Palestinian state in the occupied territories. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/sep07/LOWEWENSTEIN_european_parliament.php Israeli forces withdrew from Qalqilia, in the northern West Bank, on Wednesday after seizing three Palestinians and ransacking several homes. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25422 The Israeli general prosecution on Wednesday agreed to form an impartial committee to investigate the targeted assassination of Hamas leader, Salah Shahada, in July 2002, in Gaza. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25419 A Palestinian citizen was killed by Israeli forces on Wednesday morning in Al-'Ayn refugee camp, west of Nablus, during an incursion which began on Tuesday. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25417 The Israeli security cabinet declared the Gaza Strip an "enemy entity" on Wednesday and voted to gradually cut off fuel and electricity supplies to the poverty-stricken territory, according to Israeli press sources. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25418 - http://www.poica.org/editor/case_studies/view.php?recordID=1154 Michael Danby's vitriolic criticism of Ed O'Loughlin, Michael Leunig and anyone else, Age editors included, who dares to convey the truth of what is going on in Israel and what is left of Palestine today... http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/press_room/letters/sep07/COX_re_michael_danby.php Israeli occupation and apartheid, backed by international support and acquiescence, continue to deny the Palestinian people their inalienable rights, including the rights of self-determination and return. While the humanitarian, political and social conditions inside the Occupied Palestinian Territory continue to deteriorate, especially in the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip, while Palestinian refugees around the world remain unable to exercise their internationally-mandated right of return, and while Palestinians inside Israel continue to face institutionalized discrimination, we recognize and remain committed to our global obligation to work to realize those rights. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/sep07/NABULSI_unjust_and_absurd.php No people, territory or issue on earth have had more international attention devoted to them than Palestine and its people. Yet no conflict looks further from resolution, and no people further from achieving the freedom promised them. More Palestinians lack more basic freedoms today than they did 60 years ago. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/sep07/NABULSI_unjust_and_absurd.php A number of Israeli armored vehicles stormed the village of Azon, east of Qalqilia city in the northern part of the West Bank, in the early hours of Wednesday morning, injuring two civilians. http://www.imemc.org/article/50260 Israeli military forces kidnapped one Palestinians after invading the southern West Bank city of Hebron and the nearby village of Athana on Wednesday afternoon. http://www.imemc.org/article/50264 The Israeli forces on Wednesday morning invaded the northern West Bank village of Qabatiya, near Jenin, from all directions. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=25159 Tanks and gunboats of the Israeli army attacked the northern area of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday morning http://www.imemc.org/article/50269 The Sydney Morning Herald http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/dark-side-of-jewish-dream/2007/08/26/1188066926247.html The Sydney Morning Herald http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/gaza-gunmen-breach-israeli-barrier/2007/08/26/1188066946084.html The Australian http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22311256-15084,00.html The Australian http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22312664-2702,00.html In March 2006, two respected academics, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt from the University of Chicago and Harvard University, respectively, wrote a paper that shook up the academic and foreign policy communities. These authors broke the taboo among the elite and openly discussed the Israel lobby http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/aug07/FORTHOFER_lobbying_for_a_foreign_country.php Israeli military forces have stormed the city and the refugee camp of Tulkarem, early on Saturday morning. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=24945 The Nafha prisoners' society on Sunday condemned what it described as the Israeli prisons' authorities neglect of healthcare in Israeli jails and maltreatment of Palestinian prisoners. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=24971 Palestinian medial sources reported on Friday at night that at least two residents were killed in an Israeli military shelling which targeted Beit Lahia town, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. http://www.imemc.org/article/50071 The Israeli occupying forces shot intensively at a child on Friday, while he was sitting in a fig tree in Seida village, near the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=24972 Palestinian media sources reported that Israeli troops have invaded the Al Fowar refugee camp, located south of Hebron city in the southern West Bank. Soldiers searched and ransacked homes, kidnapping 10 civilians. http://www.imemc.org/article/50039 Israeli troops, positioned on the borders of Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, have opened heavy gunfire on Palestinian farmers while they were toiling on the ground on Thursday at midday. http://www.imemc.org/article/50045 Israeli military bulldozers started to demolish homes and residencies in Krebet Homsa in the Jordan valley to the east of Tubas in the West Bank on Thursday morning. http://www.imemc.org/article/50042