Tag Archive for Palestinians

| August 5, 2012
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Another Palestinian militant riding his motorcycle in Gaza dies from Israeli air strike

The 2nd militant member of the Popular Resistance Committees was wounded in the ‘surgical strike’.

By Avi Issacharoff and Gili Cohen

 

An Israel Air Force craft targeted a motorcycle traveling in the Gaza city of Rafah on Sunday, killing one militant and wounding another.

IDF strike - AP - 10.3.2012

A Palestinian trying to extinguish a fire after an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. – Photo by AP

According to initial reports, the attack was a surgical strike against a member of the Popular Resistance Committees militant organization.

An IDF statement released after the attack said that the assault was a joint operation by the army and the Shin Bet, adding that militant squad targeted belonged to a global Jihad organization. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| August 5, 2012
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Isreali Ambassador: Palestinians have ‘guaranteed majority’ for UN membership

Amb. Prosor tells radio stations that PA will likely receive non-member observer status, and says: ‘Nothing will change on the ground’

By Reuters

 

The Palestinians’ bid to upgrade their status at the United Nations would find majority support there but would not bring them closer to statehood and peace with Israel, Israel’s UN envoy said on Sunday.

Prosor - David Bachar - February 2011

Isreali Ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor.- Photo: David Bachar

Citing stalled peacemaking and Israeli settlement-building on occupied West Bank land where they seek sovereign independence, the Palestinians said on Saturday they would renew a bid to win UN.recognition as a state.

Ron Prosor, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, accused the Palestinians of trying to recapture international attention that has shifted to crises in Iran, Egypt and Syria. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: ,
| August 4, 2012
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21 dead in Damascus’ Palestinian refugee camp after being hit by mortar shells

Unclear if Palestinians were fired on by Assad’s forces or opposition, says Syrian activists.

 

 

Mortar shells rained down on a crowded marketplace in a Palestinian refugee camp in the Syrian capital, killing 21 people as regime forces and rebels clashed on the southern outskirts of Damascus, activists said Friday.

Shelling in Homs, Syria.

Shelling in Homs, Syria. – Photo by AP

The Britain-based Syria Observatory for Human Rights, which reported the deaths, said the shells hit Yarmouk camp Thursday as shoppers were buying food for the evening meal. The activists would not speculate on who was firing.

“We don’t know where the mortars came from, whether they were from the Syrian regime or not the Syrian regime,” said Rami Abdul Rahman, director of the Observatory. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , ,
| July 25, 2012
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World Bank: Palestinian Economy is Unsustainable

World Bank says the PA economy is currently not strong enough to support a state due to foreign aid reliance.

 

The Palestinian economy’s recent growth is unsustainable because of its heavy reliance on foreign aid, a World Bank report said Wednesday.

For the past two decades, donor countries have propped the Palestinian economy by giving billions of dollars. The report said such aid has led to 7.7 percent gross domestic product growth between 2007 and 2011.The growth has been primarily in government services, real estate and other non-tradable sectors. In contrast, the report said manufacturing and agriculture have dropped significantly. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| June 29, 2012
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PA and Israel negotiate over Palestinian water shortage

Head of Palestinian Water Authority says Israel wants to increase price of the water it supplies to the PA from NIS 2.60 for one cubic liter to NIS 3.70, concedes that there are additional water problems being caused by poor management on the Palestinian side.

By Israel Hayom Staff

 

 

In an interview with Palestinian news agency Ma’an, the head of the Palestinian Water Authority Shadad al-Ateli said on Wednesday that Israel is seeking to increase the price of the water it supplies to the Palestinian Authority, raising it from 2.60 shekels for one cubic liter to 3.70 shekels. Al-Ateli claimed the change will cost the Palestinian Treasury around 700 million shekels (which is the equivalent of around $177 million).

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Category: Mid-East News | Tags: ,
| June 23, 2012
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Palestinians push UNESCO to make Bethlehem’s Nativity church a World Heritage site

 The effort by the Palestinian Authority is drawing resistance; World Heritage Committee meeting starts on Sunday.

 

 

The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is becoming the church of contention, with a bid by the Palestinians to use their position as the newest members of the UN’s cultural arm to obtain World Heritage status for the iconic Christian site – and perhaps boost their own campaign for legitimacy.

The effort by the Palestinian Authority, like its overall efforts for global recognition for an independent Palestinian state, is drawing resistance. And it may fail at the World Heritage Committee meeting that starts Sunday. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| June 17, 2012
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Egypt busts Sinai terror ring amid run-off presidential elections, report says

Egyptian daily al-Shuruq says 22 men, including Palestinians, Syrians, and Jordan’s planned to destabilize country following poll results, obtained police uniform and weapons.

 

 

Egyptian security forces arrested a suspected terror ring, thought to have planned attacks against targets in the Sinai in an attempt to destabilize the country following a key run-off presidential election, an Egyptian newspaper reported on Sunday.

The reported bust comes on the second day of voting in Egypt, pitting Ahmed Shadiq, former premier under Hosni Mubarak, and the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi, and follows reported attempts by the Brotherhood to strike Israeli targets in order to sway election results. Continue Reading »

Category: Jewish News | Tags: , ,
| June 7, 2012
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Israeli soldiers use Palestinians to train army dogs, activist says

Report claims IDF troops order West Bank residents to exit cars and wait, as dogs seek training explosive devices; army spokesman: Soldiers conduct searches to increase Israelis’ safety.

Soldiers from an elite IDF canine unit have been confiscating Palestinian vehicles in order to train their explosive-detecting dogs, an activist monitoring the conduct of soldiers in checkpoints told Haaretz.

The unit in question is Oketz, directly subordinate to IDF command, and which, among other duties, trains dogs to locate weapons and explosives. Its training base is located in the Adam base west of Ramallah.

Oketz training - Breakin the Silence

Oketz soldiers inspecting a Palestinian cab in a West Bank checkpoint - Photo by Tamar Fleischman

According to Tamar Fleischman, Oketz soldiers have been randomly stopping Palestinian vehicles in the last few weeks as they pass through the Jaba checkpoint, near the city of Ramallah. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| June 6, 2012
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OObama to U.S. Orthodox Jews: My administration is more attentive to Israel than to Palestinians

Obama told a White House meeting with leaders of Orthodox community that the window of opportunity for peace with the Palestinians might have already closed, but expressed hope that progress is possible.

U.S. President Barack Obama told a delegation of the U.S. Orthodox Jewish community at the White House on Tuesday that his administration is decidedly more attentive to Israel than it is to the Palestinians.

Obama was speaking at a meeting between White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew and leaders of the Orthodox Jewish community, including Dr. Simcha Katz, Rabbi Steven Burg and Nathan Diament of the Orthodox Union. Continue Reading »

Category: Jewish News | Tags: , ,
| June 6, 2012
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Netanyahu: I will fire any minister who votes to legalize Ulpana homes

PM’s office updates ministers that government position is to oppose a bill that would legalize settlement construction on privately-owned Palestinian land.

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a sharp warning to government ministers on Tuesday, threatening that anyone who votes for a bill to legalize homes on the settlement of Ulpana Hill, which was built on privately-owned Palestinian land, will be fired.

Settlers at the start of a three-day march from Ulpana to Jerusalem, June 4, 2012.

Settlers at the start of a three-day march from Ulpana to Jerusalem - Photo by Emil Salman

The Prime Minister’s Office has begun updating ministers on Tuesday that Netanyahu decided that the government position is to oppose a bill that would authorize settlement construction on privately-owned Palestinian land. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| June 1, 2012
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Clinton rejects Barak’s unilateral withdrawal

“The United States believes there is no substitute for direct talks between the parties,” said the US secretary of state.

 

WASHINGTON – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday rejected the notion of unilateral Israeli steps toward separating from the Palestinians.

“We have discouraged unilateral action from both sides,” Clinton said when asked about the possibility during a press conference while on trip to Denmark.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Brazil - Photo: REUTERS/Ueslei MarcelinoUS Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Brazil – Photo: REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino

“The United States believes there is no substitute for direct talks between the parties.”Several leading Israeli voices, including most recently hints by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, have raised the possibility of unilateral Israeli withdrawals from the West Bank – though presumably they would not be as extensive as those sought by the Palestinians – in the face of a longtime stalemate in negotiations to reach a peace agreement.Clinton,

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Category: Israel News | Tags:
| May 28, 2012
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Palestinian Airlines back in the air after 7 years

Once hailed as a symbol of Palestinian statehood dreams, the carrier is a tiny operation, with just two 48-seat turboprop planes, two weekly flights and a borrowed hub in Egypt.

 

Palestinian Airlines is back in the skies after being grounded for seven years by the deepening enmities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Once hailed as a symbol of Palestinian statehood dreams, the carrier is a tiny operation, with just two 48-seat turboprop planes, two weekly flights and a borrowed hub in Egypt.

But Palestinians say just being on the map again is what matters. “My hands were shaking when I bought the ticket… and it said the name of the carrier is Palestinian Airlines,” said recent passenger Zuhair Mohammed, a 38 year-old teacher from Gaza. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , ,
| May 28, 2012
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Is the U.N. making the Palestinian ‘refugee’ problem worse?

U.N. history experts say that the definition wasn’t changed until 1965, when over the objections of the U.S., UNRWA extended “refugees” to include children & grandchildren of those displaced between 1946 – 1949.

Until recently, few Americans ever heard of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). But then Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) got interested in what the agency, supposedly neutral in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was up to. As Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies reminds us:

Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) is trying to get a handle on the real number of Palestinian refugees in the Middle East — a move that could result in a change of status for millions of Palestinians.

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Category: Mid-East News | Tags: ,
| May 25, 2012
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US Senate Redefines ‘Palestinian Refugee’

The State Department and Jordan are unhappy that US lawmakers want to know how many “Palestinian refugees” actually lived in Israel in 1948

 

The US State Department and Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan are trying to block a Senate bill that would require an accurate accounting of how many ‘Palestinian refugees’ receive American aid dollars.

Deheishe "refugee camp" in Bethlehem

Deheishe "refugee camp" in Bethlehem - Reuters

The push came after the US Senate Appropriations Committee approved on Thursday language that would distinguish between Arabs who fled Israel in 1948 and their descendants.

The new language, introduced by Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), seeks to distinguish between those “whose place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948 and who were displaced as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict; and who are descendants” of those people. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| May 25, 2012
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US Senate dramatically redefines definition of Palestinian ‘refugees’

 The UN says there are 5 million Palestinian refugees. The US Senate says that’s more than 160 times too high

 

Nearly everyone agrees that around 650,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes between June 1946 and May 1948. But when it comes to counting the number of Palestinian refugees alive today, the math gets fuzzy.

US Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) introduced an amendment to redefine how the US defines Palestinian refugees (photo credit: Courtesy Sen. Mark Kirk's office)US Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) introduced an amendment to redefine how the US defines Palestinian refugees
Photo: Courtesy Sen. Mark Kirk’s office
According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) – the main body tasked with providing assistance to Palestinian refugees – there are more than 5 million refugees at present.
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