Weekly Audio Report

This Week in Palestine - a service of the International Middle East Media Center, IMEMC.org, for the week of Friday, March 11th to Thursday, March 17th, 2005.

Weekly Audio Report
Friday, March 11 – Thursday, March 17, 2005

This Week in Palestine - a service of the International Middle East Media Center, IMEMC.org, for the week of Friday, March 11th to Thursday, March 17th, 2005.

This week’s visit by the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan exemplified the contradiction between the perceived progress of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and continued Israeli assaults on Palestinian communities. While Annan’s meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were widely publicized as strengthening diplomatic support for the peace process, few media agencies reported the 369 Israeli violations of the ceasefire documented by the Palestinian Information Center this week.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 3 Palestinian children were injured when the Israeli army invaded village of Budrus west of Ramallah on Tuesday. The same afternoon, an 8-year-old Palestinian girl was injured in the southern West Bank city Hebron when a settler rammed her with his car as she was on her way to school. A hospital source reported that Nibal Al-Fakhouri sustained fractures and concussions.

Tuesday evening, Israeli soldiers fired gas bombs and rubber coated bullets at dozens of residents participating in a funeral ceremony in the village of Budrus, near Ramallah. Ahmad Hasan was shot with live ammunition when more than twenty soldiers broke into the family home of the deceased disrupting funeral services.

An Israeli source reported that five Palestinians were injured Thursday morning when dozens of Israeli settlers of Nahlilel settlement, west of Ramallah, attacked a group of Palestinian workers. Witnesses said that the assailants, who they identified as Yeshiva students, attacked the Palestinian laborers with stones and clubs. Also on Thursday, Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian home in Hebron causing structural damage and injury to a policeman guarding the home.

Meanwhile, Palestinian political factions met in Cairo this week and announced an agreement to extend the period of calm established at the Sharm Al-Sheikh summit in February in exchange for a halt to Israeli attacks and the release of Palestinian political prisoners. Suspecting a lack of commitment from Israel, the factions rejected an Egyptian proposal for an open-ended cease-fire, stating that if the calm is reciprocated by Israel, it can become a full truce. Sheikh Hassan Yussef, a leader of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, clarifies the difference between the calm and a truce.

“This calm down period is conditional on real Israeli actions on the ground related to the end of occupation. But a truce means that Palestinians should give up their right to resist the occupation. And in my personal opinion, this cannot happen right now.”

Palestinian and Israeli security commanders singed an agreement on Wednesday formally transferring control of the West Bank city of Jericho to the Palestinian Authority. Wednesday morning, the Israeli army moved a major checkpoint blocking entrance to the city from the north. The military also changed regulations at its southern checkpoint, authorizing Israeli soldiers to inspect only Palestinian cars leaving the city and not those entering. The main north-south highway in the Jordan Valley, known as Route 90, remains under Israeli control. Jericho governor Sami Musalem says that these measures represent a shift in Israeli occupation tactics and not an Israeli withdrawal from Jericho.

Over the weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon approved the final route of the wall around Jerusalem, which is expected to be completed within six months. Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Ulmert affirmed Monday that Maale Adumim settlement will be included on the Israeli side of the wall. Israeli Human Rights group Btselem has published a report revealing that the area allocated for Maale Adumim settlement is triple the size of the city of Tel Aviv and essentially divides the northern and southern West Bank. The approved route of the wall also encompasses Palestinian East Jerusalem and a large a portion of the Palestinian town of Bethlehem, south of Jerusalem.

In Ramallah, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was greeted by thousands of Palestinian demonstrators protesting his refusal to visit the wall and Palestinian refugee camps. Protestors also denounced Annan’s decision to fire Peter Hansen, the former chairman of the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees and an outspoken advocate for refugee rights.

Sunday, the Israeli cabinet voted to dismantle 24 unauthorized West Bank settlement outposts, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz. The cabinet approved the formation of a special ministerial committee to prevent future illegal outpost construction after Israeli attorney Talia Sasson released a report stating that successive Israeli governments helped build and expand 105 outposts over the past decade. Adam Keller, a spokesman of the Israeli peace bloc Gush Shalom said that while the Israeli government is removing some outposts, they are also building others.

On Tuesday, the parents of Rachel Corrie, an American activist killed in Gaza by an Israeli army bulldozer, filed suit against the state of Israel and the Israeli military. Corrie, a 23-year-old student and member of the International Solidarity Movement, was killed on March 16, 2003 while trying to stop the demolition of a house in Rafah refugee camp. Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Corrie's family is seeking $324,000 from the Israeli government and army for her death two years ago. The Corries also filed a federal law suit against Caterpillar, the company that made the bulldozer that killed Rachel. The suit alleges that Caterpillar violated international and state law by providing specially designed bulldozers to the Israeli military knowing they may be used to demolish homes and endanger people. Caterpillar spokeswoman Linda Fairbanks said the company had no comment on the lawsuit.

This report has been brought to you by the International Middle East Media Center, IMEMC.org in Beit Sahour, Palestine.