Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines August 25, 2008 ~

Petition: Palestinians Call on Egypt to Open the Rafah Crossing
http://www.petition online.com/ pal2008/petition .html

The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) Periodic Report: June 2008
No Defense: Soldier Violence against Palestinian Detainees
http://www.stoptort ure.org.il/ files/No_ Defense_Eng. pdf

Soldiers attack a peaceful protest in Nilin
Israeli soldiers attacked on Sunday a nonviolent protest against the Annexation Wall in Ni'lin village, near the West Bank city of Ramallah. Soldiers fired gas bombs causing several injuries and detained an Israeli peace activist. On Saturday, soldiers kidnapped two children in the village.
http://www.imemc. org/article/ 56706

Palestinian beaten near death, Occupation seals Ni'lin
Border police escalated the violence in Ni'lin, beating one resident nearly to death on Thursday. Occupation forces went on to seal the village on Friday in an attempt to isolate the local struggle against the Wall.
http://stopthewall. org/latestnews/ 1715.shtml

IOF troops arrest over 100 Palestinians within a week
The PA prisoners and ex-prisoners' affairs ministry confirmed Sunday that the Israeli occupation forces have arrested close to 107 Palestinian citizens since it announced its goodwill gesture.
http://www.palestin e-info.co. uk/En/default. aspx?xyz= U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MD I46m9rUxJEpMO% 2bi1s7YlSkAe41np 9Im7aPYFU1qv% 2bh8adzZDuyRl2UU FBXzbPt2iiD41ion dlZGB5h29vjtuFET 5%2f4fdK2VLZ1Qj% 2bBcifIlO2l7j2I0 AeoMSZvGlI% 3d

Police shut Islamic Movement organ for reputed int'l links
Police and security personnel closed down an office yesterday in the northern town of Umm al-Fahm reputedly affiliated with the Islamic Movement and linked to Islamic organizations abroad. The closure order, drafted by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, described the organization operating there as an "unrecognized association."
http://www.haaretz. com/hasen/ spages/1014935. html

Palestinian prisoners are freed before Rice arrives
Israeli officials released nearly 200 Palestinian prisoners today, just hours before US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was due to arrive on her latest peace mission.
http://www.independ ent.ie/breaking- news/world- news/middle- east/palestinian -prisoners- are-freed- before-rice- arrives-1462765. html

Israel frees Palestinian prisoners
Israel has released 198 Palestinian prisoners ahead of a visit to the region by Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state. Palestinian officials, including Ashraf al-Ajrami, minister of prisoner affairs, greeted the prisoners as they boarded buses at Israel's Ofer military detention centre in the occupied West Bank on Monday.
http://english. aljazeera. net/news/ middleeast/ 2008/08/20088256 5115301249. html

Palestinian fishermen test Israeli blockade on Gaza
Palestinian fishing boats carrying Western activists defied an Israeli-led naval blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Monday, sailing further into the Mediterranean from the Gaza coast than they have in years. On Saturday, Israel allowed the 44 "Free Gaza" activists from 17 nations to sail to the Gaza Strip, the first foreigners to reach the territory by sea since travel restrictions were tightened after Hamas's takeover more than a year ago.
http://www.alertnet .org/thenews/ newsdesk/ LP594638. htm

Free Gaza Movement is at sea again on the 8 mile limit off Gaza Harbour
SS Free Gaza, with six Palestinian fishermen's boats, is 8-miles off the coast of Gaza, being circled by three Israeli Dabur naval vessels. No shots have been fired. The fishing boats are continuing to exercise their right to fish and have not turned round, but the Free Gaza has just now turned round (10.15 a.m.). The Oslo Accords allow Palestinian Gazans a 20-mile limit off the coast of the Gaza Strip. Currently the Navy is enforcing a 6 mile limit, so the Free Gaza Movement has broken that naval blockade, too. Updates from Prof. Jeff Halper on a fishing boat (not on the Free Gaza): 0542 002 642 or Huwaida Arraf also on a fishing boat: 0599 130 426.
http://www.palsolid arity.org/ main/2008/ 08/25/free- gaza-movement- is-at-sea- again-on- the-8-mile- limit-off- gaza-harbour/

Free Gaza Movement: On Monday morning, Human Rights Workers go to sea to fish
Two days after the SS FREE GAZA and the SS LIBERTY arrived to a jubilant welcome in Gaza, 20 to 25 of the human rights workers will go to sea with the fishermen in a show of support for their struggle to keep their industry productive.
http://www.palsolid arity.org/ main/2008/ 08/24/free- gaza-movement- on-monday- morning-human- rights-workers- go-to-sea- to-fish/

'Symbolic solidarity' with Gaza
We want to tell the world that the Europeans are against the siege of Gaza as children die of the shortage of food and medicine. Our message to the Israelis is we do not support them and more than that, we oppose them and we will fight against their policy of besieging Gaza.
http://english. aljazeera. net/focus/ palestine/ 2008/08/20088245 204163878. html

VIDEO: Activists break Gaza blockade
Aug 23 - In a bid to avoid an offshore confrontation, Israel allows two boats full of human rights activists into Gaza City port. Israel allowed the vessels into port despite earlier warning the group - calling itself "Free Gaza" - not to breach its blockade of the Palestinian territory. Susan Flory reports.
http://www.alertnet .org/thenews/ newsdesk/ 12195708191. htm

Mustafa Barghouthi conveys message of solidarity to the Free Gaza ships
Ramallah, 03-08-08: Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi MP, the General Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, today telephoned the people on board the Free Gaza ships to express his full support and solidarity. Said Dr Barghouthi "I commend the group of international solidarity activists onboard the ships for their important campaign to raise awareness, and confirm that we are all part of the same movement to break the siege together". Dr Barghouthi has been an outspoken critic of the siege on Gaza and has made countless calls for it to be ended immediately.
http://www.palestin emonitor. org/spip/ spip.php? article600

Haneyya honors activists who sailed to Gaza in defiance of the Israeli siege
Ismail Haneyya, the premier of the caretaker government, decided to grant all those who came on board the two siege- breaking vessels a Medal of Honor, which he dubbed "breaking the siege" medal.
http://www.palestin e-info.co. uk/En/default. aspx?xyz= U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MD I46m9rUxJEpMO% 2bi1s7S9fURcWf2P %2fkQySjbP1ihR2A WnULZyjMRxS% 2feqYBBZw6B9gEz5 Y4uNYnO0Fw7fg% 2bin2QvfevIbKIfO 7s31IWJgGUyQXOWj OfGJWZFwHRJHw% 3d

Blockade-running activists tour Gaza Strip, vow to bring 10 students on return voyage
Dozens of human rights activists from 17 countries toured the Gaza Strip on Sunday after their two fishing boats were allowed in despite an Israeli naval blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory. The group also said it plans to bring 10 Palestinian students to Cyprus on the return voyage in another bid to highlight Israel's strict restriction of movement into and out of the impoverished territory of 1.5 million people.
http://www.dailysta r.com.lb/ article.asp? edition_id= 10&categ_id=2&article_id=95365

Masri: We hope Arab and Islamic nation to take steps like the European activists
MP Mushir Al-Masri expressed his hope that the Arab and Islamic peoples would take similar steps like the daring one taken by the European activists who sailed from Europe to Gaza to break the siege.
http://www.palestin e-info.co. uk/En/default. aspx?xyz= U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MD I46m9rUxJEpMO% 2bi1s7XVR9yi8QEV MVlclgryXUYuEYCy 4pHwe%2fIewoU% 2br341N7sLGqvQH5 S1AAmVR2Y5% 2feKeYd64GJLcfxD c3uBqb2QXbJTqPmp pZSAhCLmhzCIdw% 3d

Activist decides to give up his US nationality and get Palestinian nationality
One of the activists who participated in the sea trip said he would renounce his US citizenship for a Palestinian one, while other activists expressed their great joy for arriving in Gaza.
http://www.palestin e-info.co. uk/En/default. aspx?xyz= U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MD I46m9rUxJEpMO% 2bi1s7aFGcD5Twkk NSXff5uCArsHIoN% 2fKyR6IvtUu8% 2bPU9W4Kr% 2fRNxbZGwwXECqWG e89D8dLD% 2f5nrGCtZDKrkooa %2b%2b2fCSDqpb9% 2bN7zSVj3KX3% 2fN8%3d

International activists greet senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh at his
Two boats carrying activists challenging an Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip reached the shore of the Hamas-controlled territory on Saturday. The 44 "Free Gaza" activists from 17 nations, who had set out on Friday from Cyprus in two wooden boats, were met by thousands of Palestinians who cheered along the shoreline at their arrival.
http://palestinianp undit.blogspot. com/2008/ 08/international -activists- greet-senior. html
Slide Show" SS Free Gaza and SS Liberty arrive in Gaza port
http://www.bubblesh are.com/album/ 445304/overview

More pictures of boats arrival in Gaza
http://palestinian. ning.com/ forum/topic/ show?id=1970466% 3ATopic%3A23710

Israel: Free Gaza ships "one time" event; Gaza port remains closed
Israel's last minute decision to allow the Free Gaza boats to enter Gaza waters was a "one time" event, based on evidence that the ships were "purely humanitarian" and carried no weapons, according to the Israeli press.
http://www.maannews .net/en/index. php?opr=ShowDeta ils&ID=31508

Israel, Palestinians far from peace accord on verge of Rice visit
The visit of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will seek to determine whether it will be possible to present an Israeli-Palestinian accord to the world, or even a partial document of agreement, before the end of the current year. Nine months have passed since the Annapolis conference, which was held at the behest of Rice and where the participants promised to "make every effort" to reach a settlement by the end of 2008. Any attempt to redeem that promise will take place in the shadow of a political crisis in Israel.
http://www.haaretz. com/hasen/ spages/1014939. html

Senior PFLP leader slams Rice's visit
A senior leader of the Popular Front to Liberate Palestine (PFLP) slammed Sunday U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's coming visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories. Abdel Rahim Mallouh, PFLP deputy chief made the denunciation in a written statement sent to the press, saying that "the visit of Rice to the area aims basically at exerting pressures on the Palestinians to give more concessions that serve the interests of Israel."
http://news. xinhuanet. com/english/ 2008-08/24/ content_9685683. htm

Abul Haija: American veto should be overruled in order to start national dialog
Sheikh Jamal Abul Haija, the imprisoned Hamas West Bank leader, has called on all Palestinian parties to assume their responsibilities in the light of the ever increasing conspiracies.
http://www.palestin e-info.co. uk/En/default. aspx?xyz= U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MD I46m9rUxJEpMO% 2bi1s7L4RnCV3bPT FPvOyNWVl6HfI1pH 7E1tIjXvyzkxhril IAoeOHBHiwH2F4% 2fp%2fac8Pn9BMFY yl5lS8BIr02gKBB5 LsZw3N29xntpwh1z 4ZzaN0%3d

MIDEAST: Egyptian Kinship with Fatah Hampers Mediation
Commentators, meanwhile, point out that Egyptian mediation attempts will be sorely undermined by Cairo's relative closeness to Fatah. "Egypt openly supports Fatah," Gamal Zahran, political science professor at Suez Canal University and independent member of parliament, told IPS. "This is primarily due to the fact that Cairo doesn't want to see Hamas become a successful example of Islamic governance in the region."
http://www.ipsnews. net/news. asp?idnews= 43658

Hamas calls on Arab donors to stop transferring funds to PNA
Islamic Hamas movement that rules the Gaza Strip on Sunday called on Arab donors to stop transferring funds to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in Ramallah. "Hamas calls on Arab donors not to transfer any money to the Palestinian (National) Authority until it shows commitment that all the Palestinian people would get benefits out of this money," said Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas spokesman in Gaza.
http://news. xinhuanet. com/english/ 2008-08/24/ content_9683257. htm

New school years opens despite calls for strike
The new school year in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank started on Sunday despite calls for strike in Gaza by the Fatah-dominated union of teachers in a bid to obstruct the educational march.
http://www.palestin e-info.co. uk/En/default. aspx?xyz= U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MD I46m9rUxJEpMO% 2bi1s7btDuiJy0pV AmV9gf%2fb4g0eRe 1M9gNkD6Nr% 2fyV6b%2fTXmTiqo W4pQ9aU4pGJF8tzm fI9Tp3%2bkixm625 Uz3hdw%2bDgdXu2G mNeHRJMIPnOkQ1zg %3d
Hamas cancels school uniform
Some 548,000 pupils in West Bank, 250,000 in Gaza return to school Sunday; due to shortage of clothes, Gaza government annuls school uniform obligation, cancels registration fee.
http://www.ynetnews .com/articles/ 0,7340,L- 3586858,00. html

Hamas, Fatah rivalry spills into Gaza schools
About half of the Gaza Strip's teachers began a five-day strike on Sunday at the start of the school year, accusing the Hamas-run Education Ministry of job discrimination over their support for the rival Fatah faction. A pro-Fatah teachers' union said many of its members have been transferred from their posts in a bid by Hamas to weaken the largely secular movement's influence. Hamas Islamists seized the Gaza Strip from President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah last year.
http://in.reuters. com/article/ worldNews/ idINIndia- 35154720080824

No solution looming for cooking gas crisis in Gaza
Cooking gas crisis still in place in Gaza Strip while a solution before the start of Muslim's fasting month of Ramadan doesn't loom. "The cooking gas which is obtained in Gaza only meets the needs of 40 percent of the people," said Mahmoud al-Shawa, director of Gas Stations Owners Union. Al-Shawa said his union, in cooperation with the petrol stations, "try to draw up solutions to arrange and manage the crisis to ease it during Ramadan."
http://news. xinhuanet. com/english/ 2008-08/24/ content_9682757. htm

Nasrallah: response to Israeli attack would be 'harsher than 2006'
Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary-General of the Lebanese movement Hizbullah said on Sunday that any Israeli attack on Lebanon would result in consequences worse than the 2006 Israel-Hizbullah war.
http://www.maannews .net/en/index. php?opr=ShowDeta ils&ID=31509

Biden could give Obama a lift in Florida
'It's a fabulous choice for the campaign as far as the pro-Israel community is concerned,'' said Adler.
http://www.miamiher ald.com/979/ story/655077. html

Obama played it safe, but is Biden good for Israel?
After weeks of anticipation, speculation and even gambling - presidential candidate Barack Obama's plan to name Senator Joe Biden as his running mate was leaked in the middle of the night. The Democratic candidate was forced to send out text messages to his supporters at 3 A.M. so that they would not be disappointed, having expected to be the first to know.
http://www.haaretz. com/hasen/ spages/1014477. html

Member of 'modesty squad' indicted
A 29-year-old man affiliated with Jerusalem's haredi "modesty squad" has been indicted in a Jerusalem court for allegedly assaulting a 31-year-old woman in her apartment, together with six other men, after they suspected she had carried out "improper" relations with other men, court documents released Sunday show.
http://www.jpost. com/servlet/ Satellite? cid=121957211336 9&pagename=JPost% 2FJPArticle% 2FShowFull

Gilad Shalit becomes punchline for jokes in the Gaza Strip
Gilad Shalit, who was abducted from the Gaza Strip border by Palestinian militants in 2006, has become the butt of more than one joke in the coastal territory. Several video clips and E-mails have been making the rounds in Gaza, triggering laughs that stand in stark contrast to the anxiety Shalit's fate elicits in Israelis and Jews around the world. One clip in a recording of a mock phone call from Shalit's mother to her son, which thousands of Gazans have downloaded onto their phones. Another image circulating online depicts Shalit dressed as a Hamas fighter and mocks him for supposedly marrying a member of the clan implicated in his abduction.
http://www.haaretz. com/hasen/ spages/1014782. html

The food of love
Barenboim, too, has been accused of ingenuousness. He wants Israelis and Palestinians to accept each other as equals, to explore what they have in common as much as what divides them, to learn from the way Jews and Muslims in Andalusia enhanced each others' lives across the centuries.
http://www.ft. com/cms/s/ 0/da4b3d4a- 70ad-11dd- b514-0000779fd18 c.html?nclick_ check=1

Witnesses to the hurt of history
Mahmoud Darwish, the celebrated poet who died early this month, was part of a small but vastly reverberating world of Palestinian artists and intellectuals who lived through the uprooting of the late 1940s, when their homeland became the state of Israel. That world extends to Kokomo, Ind., where another Palestinian poet reflects on Darwish's life and work while nearing the completion of a memoir of his own boyhood in a village that ceased to be in 1948.
http://www.indystar .com/apps/ pbcs.dll/ article?AID= /20080824/ OPINION05/ 808240351/ 1039/OPINION05

Mural spotlights West Bank
Work continued Saturday on the Olympia-Rafah Mural Project, a painting of a large olive tree that is slowly spreading across one side of the Labor Temple building in downtown Olympia. Painting started two weeks ago, and Saturday, organizers started to paint the title of the project and contact information about how to get involved, project spokeswoman Ashley Harrison said. A screening of a documentary about a town in the West Bank also was planned for Saturday night, Harrison said. A mural mission statement and a quote from peace worker Rachel Corrie's writings are expected to be added next week, mural artist Susan Greene said. Greene of San Francisco, said the project is receiving some funding from the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice, an organization named after a former student at The Evergreen State College who was killed in 2003 while trying to protect Palestinian homes from being bulldozed.
http://www.theolymp ian.com/southsou nd/story/ 557325.html

Cherif Ismail interviews Mary Rizzo
Cherif: First, I would like to welcome you and it gives me great pleasure to do this interview with you in which you are introduced to the Arab audience for the first time.
Mary: Thanks Cherif. I am honoured that you've given me such an opportunity.
Cherif: Since you are Italian, how far is your interest with the Palestinian case – isn't that a little bit strange?
Mary: I am Italian, yes, but I was born in the USA, maybe that makes it a bit stranger to be so dedicated to the Palestinian cause, since it gets such awful press there, or at least did when I lived there! At any rate, anyone and everyone in the world, even in Israel, only has to start to learn a little bit about history and inform themselves, and all the heavy indoctrination they may have had will start to crumble away, if they are not busy defending some beliefs they cling to for comfort or out of habit. Now that there is information that is practically free and available to almost everyone, I believe more people will turn their attention to the Palestinian and other liberation struggles, and that is why the Israeli and Zionist campaigners are really putting in great efforts to control the floodgates.
Continued.
http://palestinethi nktank.com/ 2008/08/24/ cherif-ismail- interviews- mary-rizzo/

Iraq: suicide bomber kills 25 west of Baghdad
Iraqi police and hospital officials say at least 25 people have been killed and 29 wounded in a suicide bombing on the western outskirts of Baghdad.
http://us.rd. yahoo.com/ dailynews/ rss/iraq/ *http://news. yahoo.com/ s/ap/20080824/ ap_on_re_ mi_ea/iraq_ bombing

Iqbal Tamimi - Chant for Israel… "long live Demonclassy"
Whenever there is a debate about what happens in Palestine, and what kind of hell the Palestinians endure under the Israeli occupation, there is always a Zionist volunteer ready and armoured with the same sentence "Isn't it enough that Israel is THE ONLY DEMOCRACY IN THE MIDDLE EAST?" I don't know who offered Israel such a description and who granted Israel such an honour. While Palestinians were counting their 240 sick people who died in Gaza as a result of the Israeli siege, Israel's Prime Minister Shimon Perez celebrated his 85th birthday at Demona atomic power plant. Was he sending the world a certain message having in mind that Israel was and still is nagging the USA to do all it can to prevent Iran from developing its atomic programme?
http://palestinethi nktank.com/ 2008/08/24/ iqbal-tamimi- chant-for- israellong- live-demonclassy /

Iraq: Shiite cleric killed in shooting ambush
Gunmen in Iraq killed a Shiite cleric and an outspoken critic of sectarian militias in an ambush on a van carrying his wife, mother and sister, police said Sunday. The cleric, Haider al-Saymari, was killed Saturday in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. His relatives were not harmed, said a police official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.
http://ap.google. com/article/ ALeqM5gkx- 3oYeFwuWKCusr2jr ojs98w8wD92ONQ6O 0

Iraqis voice opposition to security deal
Former Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and a slew of other lawmakers Friday condemned the long-term security deal reached with the United States. "I renounce the humiliating agreement between Iraq and the United States," Jaafari said in a statement.
http://www.metimes. com/Security/ 2008/08/22/ iraqis_voice_ opposition_ to_security_ deal/6fc6/


Sadr denounces U.S. withdrawal plan
Iraq's government spokesman, Ali Dabbagh, reiterated Friday that any departure of U.S. troops was "subject to Iraqi national security" and that the dates are hypothetical. The final departure date "will be jointly set" by Iraq and the United States, he said, downplaying suggestions that the draft was the final deal.
http://www.mercuryn ews.com/nationwo rld/ci_10283802? nclick_check= 1


Iraq PM demanding changes to US military deal: Ally
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is demanding changes to a draft deal on the status of U.S. forces beyond this year, a key Shiite ally in the governing coalition said on Sunday. "There are points in the agreement that are still pending, and they can't be approved without changes in order to preserve the complete sovereignty of Iraq," the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council quoted Maliki as telling fellow Shiite politicians at a meeting on Saturday.
http://rawstory. com/news/ 2008/Iraq_ PM_demanding_ changes_to_ US_0824.html

Documents reveal PR push for Iraq war preceded intel findings
New documents from within the Bush administration and US intelligence community during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq reveal that the White House began assembling a case for war before it had compiled the intel that ostensibly formed the basis of that case.
http://rawstory. com/news/ 2008/Documents_ reveal_US_ case_for_ Iraq_0822. html

Do the U.S. and Iraqi government care about Iraqi children?
Who would believe the U.S. and the Iraqi government's claims that they care about the well being of Iraqi children? Concern over the fate of Iraqi children is perhaps the biggest lie the U.S. has tried to spread after the notorious fallacy of weapons of mass destruction.
http://www.azzaman. com/english/ index.asp? fname=news\ 2008-08-24\ kurd.htm

Fear Keeps Iraqis Out of Their Baghdad Homes
When Jabbar, an elderly Shiite man, stormed out of his house here in June wanting to know where all his furniture had gone, the sharp look of the young Sunni standing guard on his street stopped him cold. The young man said nothing, but his expression made things clear: Jabbar had no home here anymore.
http://www.nytimes. com/2008/ 08/24/world/ middleeast/ 24baghdad. html?ref= middleeast

Iraqi Arabs seek vacation escape in Kurdistan
AP - Iraqi Arabs looking for a break from five years of war and sectarian strife — or just the heartland's heat and dust — are finding one in the green, tranquil mountains of Kurdistan.
http://us.rd. yahoo.com/ dailynews/ rss/iraq/ *http://news. yahoo.com/ s/ap/20080824/ ap_on_re_ mi_ea/iraq_ escape_to_ kurdistan

Chants for peace as soccer final returns to Baghdad
The home team lost but the fans were jubilant anyway on Sunday when the Iraqi football league final was held before a full crowd in Baghdad for the first time since the fall of Saddam Hussein more than five years ago. In a remarkable sign of the turnaround in the country's security, the 50,000-seat al-Shaab stadium in the centre of Baghdad was full to bursting with ecstatic fans. "Sunnis and Shi'ites! We are all brothers! We will not sell our homeland!" the crowd, bedecked with Iraqi flags, chanted and clapped in unison before the players took the field.
http://www.alertnet .org/thenews/ newsdesk/ LO480160. htm