IMEMC Weekly Report from Palestine

9:49 mp3
While the newly-elected Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been successfully negotiating a truce with Palestinian resistance groups, as well as mobilizing thousands of Palestinian security forces into the Gaza Strip to back up his call for a cease-fire, the Israeli army has unleashed another series of invasions into Palestinian areas over the last week. Stay tuned for the weekly report from the IMEMC, imemc.org for the week of January 15th to 22nd, 2005

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Seven Palestinians have been killed this week, including three children. 10 Palestinians have been injured and 91 arrested in at least 39 separate invasions of Palestinian towns. At least 400 Israeli checkpoints remain in place throughout the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip, and full closure has been imposed on towns and villages at least 46 times this week. On the Israeli side, one soldier was reported injured Wednesday during an invasion of the Palestinian Khan Younis refugee camp in southern Gaza.

After the Israeli government issued home demolition orders for an entire village of 70 homes in the Negev desert in Israel, Israeli peace activists and the threatened Bedouin community gathered for a protest and to plant olive trees in opposition to the government's order. Ari is with an Israeli peace group.

The order comes just after a controversial plan was announced by the Israeli army to destroy 3,000 Palestinian homes in the southern Gaza Strip. The destruction of homes would be in order to build a 50-meter wide 'security trench' along the southern border in Rafah.

In that area, known as the Philadelphi route, a number of children and other civilians have been killed, and hundreds of homes have been demolished over the last four years. The family of thirteen-year old Iman al-Hams, who was shot multiple times by Israeli soldiers in October as she walked to school near the Philadelphi route, on Sunday demanded an investigation of her death, claiming that the Israeli government has implemented a 'kill zone' in which anyone who enters the area will be killed. Indeed, transcripts from the incident have exposed an army commander as giving the order "Anything that moves in the area, even if its a three year old, should be shot". Most of the 662 cases of children shot by the Israeli army since 2000 have gone uninvestigated, but al-Hams' case is one of the few that has gained international publicity.

Three children have been killed this week by the Israeli army.Taqi Al-Deen Al-Khouli, a mentally-disabled 17 year old, was killed near the annexation wall in Azzoun, in the northern West Bank. He is the third handicapped person to be killed by the Israeli army in the Qalqilia area in the last month. Human Rights organizations in the West Bank have criticized the unrestricted and uninvestigated killings of civilians in the West Bank and Gaza, killings which go largely unreported by the international press.

In Jerusalem, home to nearly 200,000 Palestinians, families are facing the acquisition of their property by the state of Israel in a legal maneuver that would annul Palestinian ownership of over 50% of the area of East Jerusalem. In July 2004, the Israeli High Court decided in secrecy to implement the Absentee property law in East Jerusalem. Just this week, the decision was published. The immediate consequence of implementing the Absentee property law is the confiscation of land and property owned by Palestinians living in other areas of the West bank. Since it is nearly impossible for a Palestinian in the West Bank to get a Jerusalem ID, Palestinians whose property is being confiscated have little legal standing to appeal their cases. The Absentee Property Law was first established in 1950, when the government of Israel used it to claim ownership of the property of the 700,000 Palestinians who fled the country in the 1948 war, and redistribute that property to Jewish immigrants to Israel. Families who lost their property located in what is now Israel in 1950 are looking at this move by the Israeli governement as a similar "land-grab" to further disenfranchise the Palestinian people.

On Monday, Israeli soldiers gave eviction orders to dozens of Palestinian families in the eastern plains area of the West Bank, saying they must be out of their homes and family farmlands by the end of may 2005, so that Israel can construct the illegal annexation wall on their land. Residents reported that Israeli settlers currently living illegally in the area threatened to attack them and burn their fields if they don't evacuate.

American peace activist Kate Bender, who was arrested in December at an anti-wall protest in the Palestinian West Bank, was finally given a hearing a month after her arrest, and one day after her visa had expired. She was ordered to leave the country because, after a month in jail, her visa had expired. I spoke to her by cell phone in the prison:

Another American peace activist was arrested Monday after being targetted by Israeli security for his involvement in peace protests. He is currently being held in Israeli detention.

Meanwhile, Mahmoud Abbas, the new Palestinian president, has been meeting with resistance groups to negotiate a cease-fire. After sending 2000 Palestinian security forces into the Gaza Strip last week, the Palestinian Security Minister Ismail Jaber announced the readiness of Palestinian security forces to take over operations in the West Bank as well, if the Israeli army agrees to withdraw. The armed resistance group Hamas has issued a call for national unity behind a number of principles, including the right of return for Palestinian refugees and the release of Palestinian political prisoners before they would consider a truce.
Sheikh Hassan Yusef of Hamas:

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said: "There is no truce without clear and guaranteed Israeli commitments," adding that "Israel is known for making empty promises."

Former Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel does not owe anything to the Palestinians, and shouldn't give Abbas anything in return for a cease-fire by Palestinian groups.