Today in Palestine April 3rd

Jenin Camp Revisited

On the night of April 2, 2002 more than 400 Israeli military tanks, armored personnel carriers, jeeps and other vehicles rolled into the one-square-kilometer camp, as swarms of combat helicopters hovered above. Rocket batteries and mortars were deployed outside the camp but not too far away. Everything was set by the Israelis for a true battle ground.

http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_e/ipc_e-1/e_News/news2004/2004_04/012.html



Thousands mark Jenin massacre anniversary at site

Thousands of Palestinians on Saturday marked the second anniversary of the “Jenin massacre” at the bombed-out site of Israel’s 3-week rampage of murder and destruction which began today two years ago and targeted the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank.

http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/am/publish/article_5386.shtml



Confronting the constuction in Qatanna

While Israel claims that this portion of the wall is actually being built on the green line and is therefore not in violation of the court order which has halted work over the past month or so, sadly this is not true.

http://www.palsolidarity.org/reports/writings/1Apr04_02_05_58RamallahNeal.htm



Zionist Apartheid Condemned at University of Arizona Lecture

Julian Kunnie of the University of Arizona Africana Studies Department delivered a spirited condemnation of settler colonialism as was historically practiced in South Africa by European powers and by the Zionists in Palestine.

http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=4/4/2004&Cat=2&Num=023



MK: Don't shoot rubber bullets at fence demos

"We are not talking of animals here, but human beings," he wrote in an open letter to Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz last week. "These are Jews and Arabs who are opposed to the building of the fence and are not posing any danger to the lives of soldiers.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1080979164962



Civilian Killed, 3 Arrested in Gaza

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed, on Saturday, a civilian and arrested three others in Gaza Strip, security sources and witnesses said.Meanwhile, IOF blocked Salah al-Deen main road, linking the south of Gaza Strip with north, and arrested three civilians...

http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=372



Israeli forces invade Nablus

Israeli occupation troops in over 80 vehicles have invaded the West Bank city of Nablus, imposing a curfew and arresting "tens" of people, including two journalists in door-to-door searches.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/1A3A01FE-A6EA-485B-A99C-F1C7B7D25900.htm



IOF Blows up a House in Rafah as its Warplanes Raid others

Israeli occupying forces blew up Saturday a Palestinian-owned house in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, as its warplanes raided other houses.

http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_e/ipc_e-1/e_News/news2004/2004_04/021.html



Tulkarem under Continued Siege

Security sources said that IOF is still imposing a tightened siege on Tulkarem and its Refugee Camp since pre-down hours. IOF announced Tulkarem as a closed military zone, while Israeli Patrols took positions in the city streets , its Refugee Camp and villages, security sources confirmed.

http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=374



Sheikh Yassin wanted a secular Palestine

In answer to the question if a two-state solution would be acceptable, the Hamas leader said, “Our recognition of an Israeli state is conditioned on their recognition of our rights. Since we still don’t have a state - I don’t have a home to settle on - that means we’re not in a position to recognise Israel.”

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_2-4-2004_pg7_51



Mussa urges united Arab, world front over Israeli threats against Arafat

Mussa said he had telephoned Arafat to discuss the events in the occupied territories and the "dangerous threats of the Israeli prime minister" against him, said an Arab League statement sent to AFP. The secretary general said "Arab and international action was necessary to stop the (situation) from deteriorating".

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=7&u=/afp/20040403/wl_mideast_afp/mideast_unrest_sharon_040403131422



Russia condemns Israel for assassination threat to Arafat

"Russia came against extrajudicial executions that violate the norms of international law," the spokesman said. The assassinationattempt will undermine "the efforts taken to stop violence and start a constructive dialogue between the warring sides," he added.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-04/03/content_1399635.htm



Fatah warns of heavy price if Israel assassinates Arafat

"An attack would plunge the region into a huge war and would undermine any chance of reviving the peace process," according to a Fatah statement issued in Gaza City. Assassinating Arafat would be a political stupidity for which Israel would pay a heavy price, said the statement.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/411795.html



Ex-PA security chief Dahlan calls for new PA leadership

"Our experience together - the international community, the Palestinian Authority, Israel, the States - has really failed, finally," Dahlan said. "To be frank with ourselves, it's failed. We have to change our role. We have to change our way of thinking, of working, of implementing our commitment.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/411969.html



Report: Palestinian factions to meet in Gaza Strip

Hamas leaders announced Friday that they intend to share authority with other Palestinian political groups in running the Gaza Strip after Israel pulls its army out and evacuates the settlements, as pertained in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/411963.html



Peres: PM's plan is chance to also leave West Bank

Opposition leader MK Shimon Peres said Friday that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw unilaterally from the Gaza Strip was also an opportunity for Israel to leave the West Bank and correct past mistakes.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=411957&contrassID=1&subContrassID=7&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y



Palestinian group names successor for Abu Abbas

The Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF) has elected Omar Shibli (Abu Ahmed) as secretary general of the organization, sources said on Friday. He succeeds Mohammed Abbas (Abu Abbas), who died in an American prison in Iraq early last month.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?categ_id=2&article_id=1545



Unbearable disgrace

Even in cases where the children were not deliberately targeted, Israel has carried out its policies with the knowledge that they would likely leave Palestinian children dead, as "collateral damage". As an Arab poet once said, "If you didn't know, it is a calamity. If you did know, the calamity is even bigger."

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/684/re8.htm



Settlers prepare for long-awaited evacuation

For many, the news was a relief. Unable to sell their homes since the outbreak of fighting in September 2000, they have been waiting for a government eviction order and the compensation that will come with it.

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/News/2004/04/03/406840.html



Analysis / Palestinians out of the loop

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and two of his ministers, Saeb Erekat and Nabil Sha'ath, told U.S. envoys yesterday that they are very worried that Washington will back the unilateral steps proposed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the expense of the Palestinians.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/411582.html



Israeli Troops Destroy Milk and Honey in Palestine, the Holy Land

And to read that 62,044 dunums of land have been bulldozed for a variety of reasons and 991,581 trees have been uprooted by Israel has become a mind numbing expectation. The lands expropriated for the Apartheid Wall in West Bank amount to 201,696 dunums. Ironically, the destruction of fruit bearing trees by theocratic Israel is incongruous with Jewish beliefs.

http://www.amin.org/eng/uncat/2004/apr/apr02.html



No concession

So might there not be a plausible scenario in which Sharon would want to evacuate the Gaza Strip, rather than just pretend to want to? Is it not possible that he could turn disengagement, just as he did the wall, to his advantage?

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/684/op12.htm



Union dues

Anyone who studies the data published by Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics will discover Israel's considerable economic dependence on the EU, which is Israel's chief trading partner. For example, the EU imports 77 percent of Israel's agricultural produce;

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/411579.html



Welcome to Their Nightmare

descriptions of Palestinians by Israeli leaders range from "there are no such thing as Palestinians" (Prime Minister Golda Maier, June 15, 1969), to "beasts walking on two legs" (Prime Minister Menahim Begin, June 25, 1982), to "drugged cockroaches in a bottle" (Raphael Eitan, Chief of Staff, April 14, 1983)...

http://www.counterpunch.com/davidson04032004.html



Raiders of the Lost Ark

He feared that his plans - to dig under the foundations of the Dome of the Rock in order to find the site of the Holy of Holies, and the place where the Temple artifacts had been concealed - would be discovered too soon.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=286935



Germans accuse US over Iraq weapons claim

German officials said that they had warned American colleagues well before the Iraq war that Curveball's information was not credible - but the warning was ignored. It has now emerged that Curveball is the brother of a top aide of Ahmad Chalabi, the pro-western Iraqi former exile with links to the Pentagon.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1184172,00.html



Families Rage - By Robert Fisk

The old man was Abdul-Aziz al-Amairi - his daughter's name is Sundus - and their son and brother was a journalist, a news cameraman whose brains I saw lying on the back seat of the car in which he, Ali Abdul Aziz, and his reporter colleague, Ali al-Khatib, were shot dead by US troops just over two weeks ago.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=5263



S Arabia 'real reason for war'

"If we held Iraq we felt first there would be dramatic changes of behaviour from the Saudis," he said. "We could also manipulate the Iranians into a change of policy and finally also lean on the Syrians. "It wasn't a great policy. It happened to be the only policy available."

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,9177611%255E2,00.html



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