Studies show that US coverage is Israeli-centric. The main bureaus for CNN, Associated Press, Time, etc. are located in Israel and often staffed by Israelis. The son of the NY Times bureau chief is in the Israeli army;"pundit" Jeffrey Goldberg served in the IDF; Wolf Blitzer worked for AIPAC. Because the U.S. gives Israel over $8 million/day - more than to any other nation - we feel it is essential that we be fully informed on this region. Below are news reports to augment mainstream coverage.
American Chronicle
Just before 2pm on Sunday (which is the first day of the Israeli work week), colleagues at Ma'an News Agency in Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, said that the Israeli prosecutor still had not filed charges to authorize the deportation of Jared Malsin, an American graduate of Yale University who was working as editor of Ma'an's English-language website.
Jared was detained at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport last Tuesday afternoon, and denied immediate re-entry, when he returned from a short trip to the Czech Republic that he took to renew the normal tourist visa that he had previously been given, and under which he had been functioning.
Because the Israeli Government Press Office (GPO), which is part of the Prime Minister's office, does not recognize Ma'an as a news organization (a privately-owned and -operated Palestinian company), no Ma'an employee was granted an Israeli press card.
The Israeli GPO press card is required to get a journalist visa from Israel (which is, effectively, a variety of tourist visa (the Israeli journalist visa has two parts: a residency permit and a work permit) as a news organization).
A valid Israeli visa is required to enter the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Therefore, Jared and others like him have been obliged to come and go on an ordinary tourist visa.
He remains in detention for a fifth day.
Israeli interrogators at Ben Gurion Airport said in a document submitted on Thursday, when a first deportation was to have been held (but it was postponed until Sunday), that Jared should be deported for "lying".
......the Israeli security agents who interrogated Jared said that they had googled Ma'an reporting and found that it was anti-Israel, according to a report by Ma'an News Agency, which said that the lawyer it had retained to defend Jared had been given Hebrew-language transcripts of his interrogation, in which Israeli security agents stated they had "gathered online research into the journalist´s writing history, which the transcripts indicate included news stories ´criticizing the State of Israel'. Other charges initially presented by the security interrogators were that Jared had "authored articles inside the territories".
......Journalists are not the only ones facing the conundrum.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of Americans and Europeans who are in Israel and the Palestinian territory now, working for Non-governmental or Church-affiliated organizations who have pumped millions and millions of dollars into their work here -- and who are not participating in actions that Israel deems a security threat, such as demonstrations against The Wall -- but who have had to be coached by their organizations on what to say and what not to say (in effect, to "lie"), so that they will be able to satisfy Israeli questioners at Ben Gurion airport, said one American who is well acquainted with the situation here -- because, she said, they face an unpleasant and difficult and costly deportation if they say they have anything to do with the Palestinians.
Friends of Bethlehem/Denver
Faith Rowold (Polson High School '00, Washington University ‘04, University College of Dublin, ‘07), daughter of Pastor Paul and Donna Rowold of Polson, is in Prague after being denied entry to Israel, where she had been a volunteer with the Lutheran Church in Jerusalem for the past two years.
Ms. Rowold, 27, was returning to Israel from the Czech Republic with her partner, Jared Malsin, 25, who is the chief English editor at the Ma'an News Agency. They were detained at the Prague airport by agents of Israel's El Al airline after going through preliminary screening, but were eventually allowed on their flight back to Tel Aviv after they were interrogated and given full body searches.
They were detained again by Israeli airport security when they presented their passports at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, and held and interrogated in the airport for 8 hours before being transferred to the Immigration Detention Center on the airport grounds. There, they were placed in separate cells and were unable to communicate with each other until just hours before Ms. Rowold was deported back to Prague on Thursday morning.
A lawyer for Ma'an had filed an injunction against the deportation order for Mr. Malsin, who is still in detention, awaiting a court hearing on Sunday.
This is the latest incident in what appears to be an escalation of Israeli government activity against foreign church and non-governmental organization (NGO) workers in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It has recently been reported that approximately 100 church and NGO workers who had previously held work visas from Israel have been denied renewals.
Ms. Rowold commented from Prague that the reason Israel denied her entry was because of her connections to Palestinians.
"Of course I'm connected to Palestinians," she said. "I work for a church body that includes hundreds of Palestinian Lutherans. There are 172,000 Palestinian Christians in Israel and the Palestinian Territories. The Israelis are making it really difficult now for church and NGO workers who work with Palestinians or in the Palestinian Territories. It's so hard to get proper visas these days. Lots of us are on tourist visas, leaving every three months and praying to get let back in so we can do our jobs."
"Israel knows these people have proper jobs with registered organizations, and you can't legally work on a tourist visa, so Israel is making illegal workers out of a whole class of people, including some senior staff people. Anyone who looks at this situation can see that Israel is discriminating against organizations that work with Palestinians or in the Palestinian Territories," she continued.
Ma'an
Israeli authorities released five Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons on Saturday, all from the Balata Refugee Camp in eastern Nablus.
Abdul Rahman Abu Jneid was amongst those released, having served 26 months in several different Israeli prisons. He commented on poor living conditions within the jails and the prison administration's neglect of detainees' needs, adding that prisoners are punished arbitrarily to force them into confessions, Abu Jneid said... Full story
The Detainees Media Committee reported that a Palestinian detainee was seriously wounded due to extreme torture by Israeli interrogators at the Salem detention camp in the northern part of the West Bank.
The detainee was identified as Hatheefa Farid Ziyada from the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
He was repeatedly beaten to several parts of his body, mainly to his head, leading a severe injury in his eye, likely leading to internal bleeding.
The committee voiced an appeal to different human rights groups and international humanitarian organizations asking them to intervene and save the lives of hundreds of detainees who are being tortured abused in Israeli interrogation facilities........
He was repeatedly imprisoned by Israel during the first Intifada and was also imprisoned during the second Intifada. In 2004 he was kidnapped again and spent three years in administrative detention without charges or trial.
Ziyada was released in 2007 but was kidnapped again just before the end of the same year and remained under administrative detention since then. Full story
Ma'an
Following months of detention without charge in an Israeli prison, anti-wall activists Mohammad Othman and Jamal Juma have been released, a statement from the senior campaign officer said on Saturday...
Juma and Othman work for Stop the Wall, an organization opposed to Israel's construction of the separation wall, which severely limits Palestinians' freedom of movement and leads to the confiscation of agricultural land. Their detention was part of Israel's ongoing crackdown on anti-wall activists...
Night Raids, Threats and Arrests of West Bank Popular Leaders
According to a statement released by Jonathan Pollack, an Israeli peace activist, two popular committee members' houses were raided by Israeli soldiers in the village of Al-Ma'sara and surrounded the homes of Popular Committee Against the Wall members Mohammed Barjiya and Mahmoud Zwahre on Friday. The Bethlehem village is the site of weekly anti-wall demonstrations.
On Thursday Saed Yaqim, member of the Palestinian National Committee Against the Wall and Al-Quds University lecturer was detained from his home in Beit Duqqu, northwest Jerusalem.
"Both Barjiya and Zwahre were warned about that repercussions will follow if they do not stop organizing protests in the village. Zwahre was even threatened that a child may end up dead," the statement said
"Yaqim's arrest is a direct continuation of a recent Israeli wave of arrests aimed to suppress the Palestinian unarmed struggle. Thursday's arrest follows the detention of three members of the Popular Committee in the village of Ni'iln and a long-standing arrest campaign in the village of Bil'in."
The statement noted that since 16 December 2009, the Israeli army has staged 12 night incursions into Ni'ilin. Similar raids have been conducted in the village of Bil'in, where 34 residents have been arrested in the past six months, in addition to the cities of Nablus, Ramallah and East Jerusalem.
Among those arrested in the recent campaign are five members of the Bil'in Popular Committee, all suspected of incitement, and include Adeeb Abu Rahmah - who has already been held in detention for almost six months and Abdallah Abu Rahmah – the Bil'in Popular Committee coordinator. Full story
WAFA
Seven citizens and an Israeli peace activist were injured today in the West Bank village of Bil’in west of Ramallah along with dozens who suffered gas inhalation in the weekly protest against the Apartheid Wall and settlement building.
The demonstration was .... celebrating the 45th anniversary of the movement....
The protest marched toward the Wall, where an Israeli military unit was located behind blocks of cement. The army had earlier closed the gate in the Wall with razor wire. When the protesters attempted to reach the land seized behind the Wall, the army fired tear gas and rubber bullets.
Palestine TV Photographer Haron Amayrehm Al-Hayat daily photographer Mohib Barghothy and Israeli activist David and four other Bil’in citizens: Ibrahim Burnat, Mohmmad Hamad, Nayef Ghazi and Farhan Burnat, were injured while dozens suffered tear gas annihilation ,as Israeli soldiers fired rubber bullets and tear gas against protesters. Full story
JTA
...saying he was unfairly under suspicion over lawful contacts with Israel and AIPAC officials.
The agent, suing in federal court as John Doe, said he was wrongfully under suspicion for what amounted to lawful contacts with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee after he was tied to the 2004 case in which two AIPAC employees and a Pentagon analyst were indicted on charges of espionage...
The Pentagon analyst, Lawrence Franklin, pleaded guilty to passing confidential information regarding U.S. foreign policy on Iran. The case against the AIPAC employees was dismissed.
...the agent claims that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Justice Department "have allowed their personal, unfounded, and ill-informed biases regarding the country of Israel and the loyalty of Jewish Americans to improperly and illegally color their personnel decisions."
The agent also said he worked for the State Department as an analyst covering issues of Palestinian terrorism and Jewish extremism before moving to the FBI's Counterterrorism Division in 2004.
He said the FBI revoked his security clearance and placed him on administrative leave without pay in 2005 after being told he was being investigated for espionage.
The agent was fired by the FBI in June 2008... Full story
Ha'aretz - Avi Issacharoff
........Mohammed Khatib, a 36-year-old father of four...member of the Supreme Coordinating Committee] says...... "Our effort at this time is aimed at something much larger than Bil'in or Na'alin: We want a popular nonviolent struggle in all the territories, which in the end will succeed for the simple reason that it is just"...
...It started at the end of 2003 in the village of Mas'ha in the northern West Bank (where an Israeli demonstrator, left-wing peace activist Gil Naamati, was wounded by IDF fire) and then spread to the village of Budrus... It was in Budrus that the demonstrators scored their first successes by stopping the Israeli bulldozers and forcing a change in the route of the barrier. The struggle spread to Biddu, a village outside Har Adar, outside Jerusalem; to Beit Lahia, on Highway 443; and elsewhere. The demonstrators suffered casualties as the IDF responses became harsher. In February 2004, for example, two young Palestinians were killed and about 70 wounded in a single day of demonstrations.
Israelis were involved in the demonstrations from the outset. Meanwhile, casualties sustained by Palestinian civilians led to heightened support for such activism and the idea of the popular struggle increasingly entered the Palestinian consciousness...
The basic underlying goal of the struggle remains unchanged: to alter the route of the separation fence, which passes through land belonging to Palestinian villagers, some of them farmers. (In September 2007, the High Court of Justice ruled that the route of the barrier in Bil'in had to be changed, but in practice nothing was done.) ........
The groundwork for the separation fence in Bil'in began at the end of 2004, Mohammed Khatib relates: "Our activity at that time was only symbolic, on a small scale. After all, this is a small village. The turning point came on May 4, 2005. We tied ourselves to olive trees. That sent a powerful message to Israel, but through the use of totally nonviolent means. Our aim was to create a triangle of activists: Palestinian-Israeli-international. We welcomed every Israeli who wanted to take action against the occupation. Even soldiers came to express solidarity. Everyone who took off his uniform, "ahalan wa sahalan" - "welcome." Our goal is not the soldier who guards the fence; it is the fence itself. We have no intention of killing the fence guards and we have no problem with the army.
"Our method led a great many volunteers from abroad and Palestinians to join us," he continues. "We were able to convey the Bil'in story in the media. We were accurate about the details. We did not make up anything. Abdullah Abu Rahma [who was arrested by Israel about a month ago] coordinated the activity with the Arab media, and I was in charge of the Israeli and foreign media."
The most striking resemblance between the weekly demonstrations and the first intifada - "the intifada of the stones" - is in the way they took shape. They began with ordinary people who owned land and homes on the route along which the fence was built. The struggle was spearheaded not by politicians or armed members of organizations, but by people with no special connection to Fatah or Hamas. At one point some activists from Bil'in set up a body they called a "popular committee.".....
At present, popular committees are active in a number of Palestinian villages, including Bil'in, Na'alin, Maasra (near Bethlehem), in the southern Mount Hebron area, in villages on the ridge outside Nablus, in the Jordan Rift Valley and elsewhere. Each committee has representatives of the official factions, but also activists whose only association is with the idea of the popular struggle.
"We consider every citizen who wishes to take part in the demonstrations to be a member of the popular committee," says Dr. Rateb Abu Rahma, a leading member of the Bil'in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, and a lecturer in psychology at Al-Quds Open University. Below his home there is a kind of commune of activists from the International Solidarity Movement.
"The secret of our success is unity of the popular struggle against the fence and the settlements. The fence is not an insurance policy for the Israelis - it is a plundering of land. The settlements and the fence lie on Bil'in land and they are not legal. From our point of view, the popular struggle is preferable to violence, because only Palestinians will take part in a military struggle, whereas everyone can participate in a popular struggle.
"It is the army that starts the violence against the demonstrators," he continues. "On Christmas Day, five youngsters dressed up as Santa Claus. We decorated a Christmas tree with empty teargas canisters. That was our message: Everywhere in the world people decorate their trees with flowers, but we did it with teargas grenades. We placed the tree next to a gate in the fence, and the army immediately started to fire teargas. Another example is Bassem Abu Rahma, who was killed from a direct hit by a teargas grenade. So which side is using violence?".....
..... Nineteen demonstrators have been killed in actions like this since 2004... Five Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in Na'alin, including two boys, aged 10 and 17, and dozens have been wounded. In Bil'in, Bassem Abu Rahma was killed and many others were wounded. Another eight demonstrators in Na'alin were wounded by regular live ammunition (5.56 mm. bullets) and 28 others by 0.22 inch bullets, which have been banned for use by the military advocate general.
The Yesh Din organization has submitted many complaints in an attempt to prompt investigations of the behavior of the Border Police and the soldiers in these and other cases. To date, only on indictment has been filed. However, in addition to the many casualties, since last June the IDF and the Shin Bet security service have been engaged in a concerted effort aimed at the leaders of the struggle. Thirty-one residents of Bil'in (5 percent of the population) have been arrested in this six-month period, 15 of whom are still in detention; in Na'alin, 94 residents (7 percent of the population) have been arrested since May 2008. Indictments have been filed against three members of the popular committee in Bil'in, mainly for incitement. The IDF operates in the village almost every weekend.
"They arrested Abdullah on December 10," Rateb Abu Rahma says about his brother. "He is accused of stone throwing, incitement and being in possession of means of combat. It's almost a joke. There was an exhibition that an Israeli held at Abdullah's place of various weapons found in the fields of Bil'in. So they accused him of possession. He is 39, a teacher in a Christian school and a university lecturer. Is he going to use violence? He was then accused of throwing stones. They took one of the boys in the village and interrogated him. In his testimony he named dozens of people who threw stones with him, including Abdullah. So it's obvious they read out the names to him and told him to sign."
........"Even the U.S. consul general visited the village," Khatib notes. "The Americans are in direct contact with us, are following the events and have offered financial aid for humanitarian projects in the village. American and Swedish diplomats attended the trial of Abdullah Abu Rahma. Our coordinating committee is working with an international committee which is trying to help.
..... I feel today that I am part of a group that is changing history."Full story
Ha'aretz - Akiva Eldar .......Among us, those who incite against the Arab neighbors are always "rogue elements." So why do Israeli governments irrigate them with public water? Take for example, "Shabbat Beshabato," a weekly pamphlet on the Torah portion distributed in thousands of copies to synagogues all over Israel. Rabbi Yisrael Rosen, the founder of the Conversion Authority and head of the Tsomet Institute of Halacha and Technology, wrote in the most recent edition that "the time has come 'to declare war' on the Israeli Arabs....'"
In an article featured prominently on Tsomet's Web site, Rosen suggests the ammunition to be used against the Arab citizens: "Taking away rights, also collectively (such as traveling on major arteries), as long as they do not meet the test of loyalty to the state. Also the right to vote for the Knesset, and certainly the right to be elected, are not 'God-given rights' and may be encroached on due to disloyalty, and certainly for security reasons, and to protect ourselves from those who would harm us."
The spiritual leader states that "whoever 'everyone is against' runs amok and goes wild."
....what kind of enlightened democracy finances a body that is behind the publication of unacceptable remarks against its citizens? The Tsomet Institute, like quite a few "rogue elements" (such as the Od Yosef Hai Shechem yeshiva, whose rabbi, Yitzhak Shapira, permits the killing of gentile babies) receives thousands of shekels annually from the state. In 2007-2008, Tsomet received from the Science and Technology Ministry over NIS 580,000, and another NIS 100,000 or so from the Ministry of Education, as well as NIS 200,000 from the Gush Etzion Regional Council.
.......Machsom Watch member Edna Kanti, .....dared to suggest to the Palestinians that they should refuse to show their documents and cross through the checkpoints en masse...
.......her family is receiving death threats....... Full story
Ha'aretz
Award-winning architect Frank Gehry announced yesterday that he was withdrawing from the Museum of Tolerance project in Jerusalem. The museum, being built by the Simon Wiesenthal Foundation, has drawn controversy because it is being put up on the grounds of an old Muslim cemetery in the Mamilla neighborhood....
Haaretz has also learned that Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch decided yesterday to cancel plans to set up a compound of judicial institutions in the area. The new buildings were meant to house the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court and the Jerusalem District Court.
Human remains were recently found at the site, which supported critics' claims that construction in the area was offensive to Muslims.......
...All graves have been removed from the site, with hundreds of skeletons reburied at the outskirts of the construction area... Full story
Ha'aretz
Goel Ratzon, a suspected cult leader, was arrested in Tel Aviv on Monday on suspicions of rape, enslavement and indecent assault of minors, police said yesterday.
...Ratzon was brought to the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court... He is also suspected of extortion, incitement to arson and solicitation to commit suicide. Police also detained Ratzon's 17 wives and 38 of his 60 children for questioning. .... Full story
Ha'aretz
Israelis have recently been swept into a maelstrom of religious legislation and antidemocratic actions that are harmful to their liberty and way of life. The source of this dangerous upheaval is Shas, whose leaders' wanton conduct has exceeded all reasonable bounds.
Throughout its existence, Shas has never enjoyed such dizzying freedom of action. The party is using it to push a new chametz law that will prohibit the display of leavened products during Passover even in stores and restaurants in neighborhoods where the residents would normally eat chametz. Moreover, Interior Minister Eli Yishai, the Shas leader, insists that the necessary reforms in business licensing be made conditional on increased enforcement of the closing of businesses on the Sabbath. A business owner who does not close that day would not get a license.
Cabinet members from Shas are doing everything they can to scatter public funds to the wind while inconveniencing the same public whose taxes are financing their profligacy. Religious Services Minister Yaakov Margi, who is responsible for 133 wasteful local religious councils, where redundant jobs for pals are rife, now wants even more...
The people are paying the price of the competition between Shas' leaders, each of whom wants to show his constituents that he is doing more for them than his rivals. Therefore, not only is the Interior Ministry making life even more miserable than usual for conversion candidates and people needing visas and marriage registrations, but the Communications Ministry is busying itself with halakhic trivialities, and the Education Ministry has to handle the ceaseless demands of the deputy minister from Shas and is giving in to them. And the Religious Services Ministry, which has been reopened after it was shut a few years ago, is milking the public coffers.
Shas uses Israeli society for its own purposes and no one tries to stop it. ......Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is responsible for this destructive rampage, and it is incumbent upon him to stop it.
But this is unlikely to happen. Netanyahu owes his return to government to Shas, which prevented Kadima's Tzipi Livni from setting up a cabinet after Ehud Olmert's resignation as prime minister. The price for the political deal between Netanyahu and Yishai is now being paid by the public. Full story
Ha'aretz
The Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram claimed on Saturday that the head of Israel's Mossad, Meir Dagan, is "Israel's superman" for successfully thwarting the Iranian nuclear program.
The article in Al-Ahram, written by the paper's analyst for Palestinian affairs Ashraf Abu al-Haul, claimed that Dagan is the "brains" behind last week's assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist.
"Surely the Iranians know who stands behind the assassination of the Iranian nuclear scientist Massoud Ali Mohammadi in Tehran last Tuesday..... "without Dagan, the Iranian nuclear program would have been complete years ago. Nevertheless, the director of the Israeli Mossad, whose name is mostly unknown, works away from the limelight and the eyes of the media."
According to al-Haul, in the past seven years Dagan was able to successfully hinder the Iranian nuclear program. ..... Full story
Ma'an
Israeli tanks operating near the northern Gaza border near Beit Hanoun targeted civilian properties with heavy artillery fire...
Eyewitnesses said tanks were spotted at the border, and noted a heavier than usual weaponry used by the forces. They said the fire hit civilian homes on the outskirts of the town, causing material damages but no injuries.
Families said the louder than usual tank fire terrified their children.
........According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs' weekly Protection of Civilians Report, last week saw a steep escalation in violence in Gaza. It counted seven Palestinians in Gaza killed by Israeli airstrikes, and called the deaths a "serious escalation." Full story
Ma'an
The Palestinian Detainees' Society said on Saturday that 34 women detainees await news on a prisoner swap deal, having contacted the society by smuggling letters.
The women prisoners wrote of the poor living conditions inside Israeli jails, where they are punished arbitrarily.... not having access to hot water, not being given blankets, cramped cells and poor electricity. The cells in particular lack decent access the light and fresh air.
The facilities are outdoors, the women wrote, and lack privacy. Full story
Ma'an
Palestinian teenager was attacked by settlers on Saturday evening in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem.
Amina Nashashibi, 16, was pulled by the hair and beaten whilst attending a demonstration in the area, Ma'an's reporter said. ....The reporter said Israeli police were present at the scene.
On Thursday evening Israeli police blocked the road leading to the Al-Kurd family home, which was taken over in part by settlers.
In early August, Israeli police forced more than 50 members of two Palestinian families, from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah and allowed Israeli settlers to move in. The evictions of the families went forward despite near-universal condemnation from the international community, including Israel’s closest ally, the US.
On Friday, a group of Israelis rallied at Ben Yehuda street in Jerusalem to protest Israeli policies encouraging the eviction of Palestinians from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah. Full story
Ma'an
As Israeli authorities prepared to expel Ma'an News Agency's chief English editor later this week, media rights groups have blasted his ongoing detention as an assault on freedom of the press.
Jared Malsin was originally scheduled to be deported without a hearing on Thursday morning. Protests by US authorities in Tel Aviv resulted in a temporary reversal, and an injunction filed by Ma'an delayed the expulsion until at least Sunday.
Reporters Without Borders "condemns the detention and imminent expulsion of US journalist Jared Malsin, who has worked for the past two years as an editor with Ma'an, an independent Palestinian news agency," the group said on Wednesday in a statement, the first of many that it and others would issue on behalf of the top journalist at Ma'an's English Desk.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, which monitors freedom of the press worldwide, urged Israel to refrain from taking punitive action against reporters over specific content in their work. "Israel cannot hide behind the pretext of security to sideline journalists who have done nothing more than maintain an editorial line that the authorities dislike," the organization said.
Indeed, court documents indicated that Malsin's detention was directly related to his work at the news agency, quoting airport officials as noting that he authored articles "inside the territories," among them some which "criticized the State of Israel."
.....Meanwhile, two influential Palestinian media groups denounced the decision. ....
....urged the International Federation of Journalists, the Arab Union of Journalists, and other human rights organizations and media networks to denounce the decision, and to urgently intervene to prevent Malsin's expulsion. He also vowed that the union would carry out large-scale protests if Israel ultimately ignores international concern over Malsin's case....Full story
Ma'an
Israeli settlers torched three cars and a tractor outside Immatin village west of Nablus overnight, leaving residents to find the skeleton's of the vehicles Thursday morning...... Full Story
JTA A program started by a San Francisco foundation soon will make it possible for struggling small businesses in Israel’s Negev to obtain the loans necessary to bolster their businesses, create jobs and boost the economy.
The venture is made possible from a partnership of the Koret Israel Economic Development Fund, an arm of the San Francisco-based Koret Foundation; Israel’s Bank Leumi; and the Overseas Private Investment Corp., a U.S. governmental agency.
OPIC, which fosters investment overseas and promotes economic development in new and emerging markets, and the Koret fund have provided the funding to guarantee any loan Bank Leumi directs to Israeli entrepreneurs in the Negev.
The collaboration will make available $160 million over seven years for loans ranging from $13,000 to $325,000.
....The fund, which is the largest of its kind in Israel’s history, will enable small-business owners in the Negev to receive loans at a 1.5 percent interest rate. The cooperation among the agencies will allow businesses that meet the criteria to offer up much less equity than is usually demanded when applying for credit.
Most of these businesses otherwise would not be eligible for a loan, Farber said.
“Maybe they have no collateral, they’re too young or they have no track record,” he said.... Full story
Meanwhile, small business bankruptcies rose 81 percent in California
PACBI
Dear Bono,
..... the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)was deeply disturbed to learn that that you are scheduled to perform in Israel this coming summer...... we call on you now not to grant legitimacy to a state that practices the most pernicious form of colonialism and apartheid.
Performing in Israel would violate the almost unanimously endorsed Palestinian civil society Call for Boycotts, Divestments, and Sanctions against Israel. This Call is directed particularly towards international activists, artists, and academics of conscience, such as yourself. Moreover, it would come a year and a half after Israel’s bloody military assault against the occupied Gaza Strip which left over 1,440 Palestinians dead, of whom 431 were children, and 5380 injured......
This criminal assault comes after three years of an ongoing, illegal, crippling Israeli siege of Gaza which has shattered all spheres of life, prompting the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights, Richard Falk, to describe it as “a prelude to genocide”......
In the New York Times you wrote of your hope “that the regimes in North Korea, Myanmar and elsewhere are taking note of the trouble an aroused citizenry can give to tyrants.” You went on to further elaborate on the hope that “people in places filled with rage and despair, places like the Palestinian territories, will in the days ahead find among them their Gandhi, their King, their Aung San Suu Kyi.”
Rather than shifting the blame from the violence of the colonial oppressor to the resistance of the indigenous oppressed and characterizing the Palestinians as a population filled with “rage and despair,” it is more apt to consider them among the “aroused citizenry” responding to tyranny – Israel‘s regime of occupation and apartheid.
As to your hope that the Palestinians will soon find their own leading figure to champion nonviolent resistance, the Palestinian civil society Call for Boycotts, Divestments, and Sanctions against Israel is one of the largest nonviolent, morally consistent movements for ending Israel’s system of apartheid and colonial oppression. It is endorsed by a majority of Palestinian civil society. As a leading artist who is concerned about human rights, it is your moral obligation to honor this call and not to cross our "picket line."
A whole generation was affected by your musical activism... the civil rights movement in America, the everyday human heroes in El Salvador and the brave struggles in Ireland.... Entertaining apartheid Israel despite all the injustice it is committing against the Palestinians would significantly smear this great legacy of yours.
Through systematic repression and incarceration of human rights defenders without due process, Israel has made sure that those Palestinian "Gandhis" and "Kings" do not rise to prominence. Activists such as Mohammed Othman, Abdallah Abu Rahma, and Jamal Jum’a, to mention only a few recent examples, have been imprisoned without charge or trial, a practice that has been harshly condemned by Amnesty International.
Historically, successive Israeli governments went even further in suppressing civil and popular resistance: one of Yitzhak Rabin’s strategies in the First Intifada, for instance, was to “break the bones” of young Palestinian protestors, often "preemptively;" more recently, Israeli military forces have brutally dispersed weekly nonviolent Palestinian protests.....
Such methods have resulted in the injury of hundreds of peaceful protesters, including some internationals and Israelis, as well as the death of several Palestinian civilians. American human rights activist, Tristan Anderson, was shot in the head with a high velocity tear gas projectile while protesting peacefully in the village of Ni'lin against the Wall.
Your appearance in Israel would lend to its well-oiled campaign to whitewash all the above .......
As a promoter of peace and justice, you are a distinguished member and co-founder of the ONE Campaign to end extreme poverty in Africa. The international patron of this campaign, South African Nobel Laureate and celebrated anti-apartheid activist, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, remarked that “the end of apartheid stands as one of the crowning accomplishments of the past century, but we would not have succeeded without the help of international pressure-- in particular the divestment movement of the 1980s…a similar movement has taken shape, this time aiming at an end to the Israeli occupation...if apartheid ended, so can this occupation, but the moral force and international pressure will have to be just as determined....”
.......When I was last in Nablus I learned of a massive nonviolent demonstration that had occurred in 2001 – estimates range from 10,000 to 50,000 Palestinian men, women, and children taking part in a nonviolent march. All sectors of Nablus had joined together in organizing this – public officials, diverse parties, religious, secular, Muslim, Christian.
Modeling their action on images of Dr. Martin Luther King, they marched arm-in-arm, believing that Israel would not kill them and that the world would care. They were wrong on both counts. Israeli forces immediately shot six dead and injured many more. And no one even knows about it. At If Americans Knew we are currently working on a video to try to remedy the last part; there’s nothing we can do about the dead.
But there’s a great deal you can do, Bono. You can use your talent and celebrity to tell the world these facts. You can write a New York Times op-ed about the Palestinian Gandhis in Israeli prisons and call for their freedom. You can sing of these Palestinian Martin Luther Kings you wished for, and by singing save their lives.
For the reality is that nonviolence is only as powerful as its visibility to the world. When it is made invisible through its lack of coverage by the New York Times, the Associated Press, CNN, Fox News, et al, its practitioners are in deadly danger, and their efforts to use nonviolence against injustice are doomed.
In the New York Times you publicly proclaimed your belief in nonviolence. Now is your chance to demonstrate your commitment.
* * *
List of Palestinians Killed by Israeli forces while demonstrating against the Israeli wall being built on Palestinian land... Full story and sources
IMEMC 12 Palestinian civilians were kidnapped on Thursday by Israeli troops during military invasions targeting a number of West Bank communities.
Local sources reported invasions of the southern West Bank cities of Bethlehem and Hebron, in addition to Nablus and Jenin in the north as well as Ramallah, central West Bank.
The Israeli army radio announced that all those kidnapped were taken to military detention camps for questioning.
This week the Israeli military conducted at least 23 military invasions of Palestinian communities in the West Bank. During those attacks troops kidnapped and arrested 16 civilians, including 9 children.
Elsewhere on Thursday, Israeli settlers destroyed three Palestinian-owned cars at a village in northern West Bank.
Local sources announced that settlers from the illegal settlement of Shafet Jilad attacked the village of Amateen near Nablus city. The Settlers' rampage ended by the morning, no one was injured but three cars owned by the villagers were destroyed, witnesses reported. Full story
Ma'an Israeli forces detained Al-Quds University lecturer and Fatah affiliate Sa'eed Yaqin, according to the detainee's wife and witnesses.
The detention took place in the Jerusalem village of Beit Duqu, north-west Jerusalem. "A large number of Israeli solders broke into our home at dawn, forces us out, and thoroughly searched it," said Yaqin's wife.
......Sources at Al-Quds University expressed dismay over the arrest, citing that reasons for Yaqin's detention remain unknown.
Yaqin is a lecturer in Political Science. Full story
IMEMC Jamal Juma’, co-coordinator of the Stop The Wall campaign was released yesterday evening. Jamal had been arrested on December 16th, 2009 having been called in for questioning previously.
He had been detained without charge for approximately 1 month...
[Juma' told IMEMC] “In the first 12 days I was interrogated and they targeted my work with the popular committees, the non-violence work. The main accusation was incitement. They said that my work was a danger to the security of Israel at a local and international level.. It is clear that they are panicking about the popular struggle, the international solidarity and the steps to boycott Israel. That is why they are starting to target Palestinian activists inside, to stop the movement outside.”
“They haven’t learnt their lessons from the past. They still think they can crush the Palestinian movement and can stop us with violence, but they are losing. They are violating the people’s rights, international law, and committing crimes against the people.”
“Since 2004, 18 young people have been killed over this wall but it doesn’t stop the people from demonstrating. We have thousands of people arrested and released, and we also have hundreds who have been injured, but they don’t stop. The opposite. It then starts in another village.”
“I’m really optimistic that the more they try and stop the people, the more they try to crush us, and put us in jail, the more we continue the movement, and for us there is very strong evidence that what we’re working on is very effective.”
“One of the impacts is the international solidarity that wasn’t as big before. It has become all over. Mainstream organizations, such as Amnesty International, for example, and on official political levels like consuls, representatives, and also the EU and political parties, all have begun to strongly question Israel.”
“They tried to show me that I am one of the main inciters of people violating Israeli rules and targeting the Israeli state & reputation, which is a crime, according to them. In the end, they had nothing to sell to the courts. No real accusations could be made.”
“Some people spend years in prison without seeing the courts. Huge international pressure prevented me from this.” Full story
This spring, the Free Gaza Movement is sending at least six boats to Gaza to break Israel’s illegal blockade on 1.5 million Palestinians. This blockade constitutes an act of collective punishment, a crime prohibited under international humanitarian law. Gaza's man-made and internationally perpetuated crisis is set to deepen as Egypt builds an Iron wall 30 meters deep on the southern Rafah border, closing off the final route for Palestinians to get basic supplies.
The urgency of breaking the blockade grows by the day, as Palestinians living in this prison are denied their most basic rights.
Our mission will include two boats committed by a Turkish NGO plus a cargo ship purchased with donations from the Malaysian people. This ship will be loaded with cement, water filtration systems and paper - all essential reconstruction materials denied entry to Gaza by Israel.
Free Gaza's missions were the first to challenge Israel’s hermetic closing of Gaza when we sailed two small boats into Gaza in August 2008. We did not ask permission of Israel or Egypt to travel to Gaza and sailed directly from international waters into the waters of Gaza. Since then, we have been the catalyst for a growing international movement of civilian advocates, including the Gaza Freedom March and Viva Palestina.
.......We sailed four more successful missions to Gaza since August 2008, and we intend to come back this year with a small flotilla, so you still have time to get boats and come with us. We are calling on all NGOs, human rights organizations and communities around the world to join us. If you already have funding for boats, we can provide the logistical and technical advice on how get them ready to join the flotilla. If you want to help in other ways, we have listed five below.......
Ma'an Israeli troops closed all military checkpoints in and out of Nablus Wednesday evening and erected barriers on several roads leading out of the city, witnesses said.
The closure affected civilians as well as Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances, sources said. Security officials noted Israeli "red alerts" in the area but declined to elaborate... Full story
Ma'an The editor in chief of Ma'an English, Jared Malsin, was temporarily spared deportation after an Israeli judge in Tel Aviv reversed an overruled injunction filed by lawyers representing the Bethlehem-based news agency late Wednesday night.
Malsin was detained at Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport on Tuesday afternoon while returning from the Czech Republic on holiday. After eight hours of interrogation, the Israeli Interior Ministry ordered him held and scheduled deportation for 6am on Thursday.
Ma'an attorney Castro Daoud intervened amid pressure from US diplomats seeking an injunction against the deportation. The request was rejected by the Israeli attorney general, whose own ruling was then overturned by a Tel Aviv judge, granting Malsin a hearing. Judge Miriam Sokolov will hear Malsin's case at 10am at the Tel Aviv District Court. A verdict is expected by noon.
[Update: JTA reports: "during a hearing Thursday requested more information on Malsin." BBC reports that proceedings have been "postponed until Sunday.]
Hebrew-language interrogation transcripts obtained by Ma'an reveal that Malsin was deemed a security risk on the apparent basis of his political beliefs. Interrogators gathered online research into the journalist's writing history, which the transcripts indicate included news stories "criticizing the State of Israel," among other allegations that he "authored articles inside the territories."
The security agents questioned why Malsin would have entered the West Bank if he were truly interested in becoming an Israeli citizen, say he "claimed to be Jewish," and allege that "he exploited his Jewishness to gain entry into the State of Israel." Among the specific grounds for detaining him were "lying to border officials," "here illegally," and "entered Israel by means of lies."
Shortly after it became clear why Malsin was actually detained, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a media rights organization, issued a scathing statement denouncing the the detention and calling on Israel to reverse its decision.
"Israel cannot hide behind the pretext of security to sideline journalists who have done nothing more than maintain an editorial line that the authorities dislike," said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, the CPJ's program coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa. "Israel should release Jared Malsin without delay and allow him to resume his work," the statement concluded.
Israeli officials have refused to publicly acknowledge Malsin's presence at the airport or anywhere else. Full story
.......Since his detainment, which Israeli officials initially denied, Malsin has had little contact with the outside world. Daoud has had only one brief meeting with his client and Malsin has made a short phone call to Maan staff writer and sub-editor, George Hale.
Speaking to The Huffington Post, Hale reports that Malsin was shocked by the detainment. Malsin was also surprised that Israeli security officials were questioning him about the International Solidarity Movement, an activist group that Malsin has no affiliation with.
"He [Malsin] is the last person who would be involved with the ISM. He is a journalist," Hale says, "and his reporting is impartial."
.........Despite the fact that the Israeli Government Press Office [GPO] refuses to issue press passes to Maan employees, Hales says that both Malsin and Maan enjoy good working relationships with the Israeli Defense Forces [IDF] and other governmental bodies.
"We [Maan] talk to the IDF and include the Israeli point of view [in our articles]," Hale says.... Hale states that Malsin's partner, Faith Rowold, who does not have legal representation, was deported to Prague.
When considered within a larger context, Malsin's detention seems to point to a government intent on silencing dissent.
In September, the prominent Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions [BDS] activist Mohammed Othman was picked up by the IDF as he attempted to enter the West Bank via Jordan. Othman was returning from a visit to Norway, a country whose government had recently divested from an Israeli corporation directly involved in the occupation. Othman was widely credited as having been a crucial player in Norway's decision to divest.
After months in administrative detention without charges, held on the basis of evidence that neither Othman nor his lawyer was allowed to see, Othman was finally released yesterday, January 13.
Recently, the IDF has also arrested various leaders of non-violent grassroots movements against the separation barrier. In December, Abdallah Abu Rahmah, coordinator of the Bil'in Popular Committee Against the Wall was arrested on charges of incitement and stone throwing. Abu Rahmah is also accused of arms possession for displaying empty tear gas canisters and discharged rubber bullets--both shot at him and other protestors during the weekly non-violent demonstrations held in his village.
On January 12, Ibrahim Amirah, the coordinator of the Ni'ilin Popular Committee Against the Wall was arrested. Amirah has been detained and released without charges twice in the past.
Additionally, the IDF conducted a night raid on the West Bank home of the ISM's media coordinator, Eva Novakova. While Novakova was arrested and deported on the grounds that she had overstayed her visa, critics of her deportation point out that it's unusual for the IDF to go to such lengths due to an expired visa.
Hale says that, to the best of his knowledge, Malsin has a valid Israeli visa. Malsin's detention is "arbitrary," Hale says. "It's a violation of press freedom." Full story
Ma'an Israeli troops bulldozed four dunums of agricultural lands in Safa village north of Hebron Tuesday night, following an effort by Palestinian farmers to plant olive trees in the valley near Beit Ummar.
Earlier Tuesday, troops advanced on the farmers planting trees, who responded to the encroachment by throwing rocks... Locals said a five-year-old planting trees suffered from shock when a tear gas canister detonated beside him.
Media spokesman for the Palestinian solidarity project Muhammad Awad said troops uprooted trees and destroyed land on property belonging to the Abu Maria family and his brothers... Full story
Ma'an Sheikh Raed Salah, the leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel, was sentenced on Wednesday to nine months in prison and another six months probation in Jerusalem's Magistrates’ Court, Israeli media reported.
Sheikh Salah was accused of spitting on an Israeli officer in 2007 at the Dung Gate, in the Old City, occupied East Jerusalem, and in addition to the sentence, was ordered to pay the officer 7,500 Israeli shekels.
"We reject the court's ruling. It doesn't frighten us. We will continue to have the occupation removed from al-Aqsa," the Israeli daily Ynet quoted Sheikh Salah as saying.
“This is a hefty sentence in order to make clear to the convicted the gravity of the offences he committed," saidJudge Yitzhak Shimoni wrote in the verdict.
Palestinian Israeli Member of Knesset Mohammad Barakeh also visited the court house. "“This is a political trial and a political sentence. I was surprised by the unprecedented punishment that was made through non-legal considerations.
"East Jerusalem is occupied territory and does not belong to the State of Israel. The police officer was in a place that does not belong to him, and he has no jurisdiction in that area. There is racism and violation of the freedom of religion and worship. The police raided a place of worship." ... Full story
Ma'an Two Palestinians and one child were injured on Tuesday as Israeli forces prohibited farmers from tending to their land in Safa village in the northern Hebron governorate...
"While the farmers were planting olive trees, Israeli forces attacked them...
Two men sustained injuries from rubber bullets used by Israeli forces and Hisham Al-Khlayel, 5, was taken to hospital to undergo treatment for shock as a result of tear gas used by forces to disperse those present, Awwad said....
.....On Monday Israeli forces reportedly prohibited Palestinian farmers from planting 1,500 olive trees in the Abu Ar-Rish area, also in Beit Ummar.
"Despite the decision by an Israeli court allowing Palestinian farmers to work on their lands, Israeli troops banned farmers today from planting [olive trees]," said Awad.
"The troops said that it is a closed military area."...
CounterPunch - Paul de Rooij ....a new book by Joe Sacco.... Footnotes in Gaza ....Sacco spent seven years researching and drawing about two sordid events that took place in November 1956 when Israeli forces invaded Gaza as part of the joint British-French attack against Egypt. The Israeli army conducted two massacres where hundreds of Palestinians were murdered, and Sacco set out to collate the oral histories of the Palestinians who witnessed or were the victims of the events. Sacco engaged in a detailed investigative work finding the witnesses who could credibly recollect what happened, sifted through the accounts to eliminate the factual inconsistencies due to the deteriorated memories, and then spent four years bringing these histories to life...
.........In 2001, he travelled in Gaza with Chris Hedges, the American journalist, to research an article about the 1956 massacres for an article for Harper's magazine. When the article finally appeared, the history of the massacres had been editorially expunged; not all histories are treated equally. Perhaps it was this incident that piqued his interest to write about the neglected massacres... Full story
Following the detention of Jared Malsin, Ma’an News Agency’s chief editor at Ben Gurion yesterday, IMEMC has spoken to George Hale, editor at Ma’an.
Mr. Hale told IMEMC that in addition to the lawyer that Ma’an has hired on Mr. Malsin’s behalf, the United States embassy, specifically the embassy’s press officer, is also working on the case.
Ma’an's lawyer has met with Mr. Malsin and is attempting to secure an injunction against the deportation order that will see Mr Malsin depart on a flight back to the Czech Republic at 6:05am tomorrow morning, appealing to the Israeli Supreme Court to overrule the Ministry of Interior’s decision.
The Ministry has not commented officially on the situation, but Ma’an has been told that Mr. Maslin’s detention and deportation are based upon security issues.
Mr. Hale stated that he had spoken to Mr. Maslin late last night, although briefly, and Mr. Maslin reported that he had been subjected to “8 hours of grueling interrogation.”
Mr. Hale continued, “Even if the chances are slim, Ma’an will still protest, as Jared has done nothing illegal. He’s a journalist; he’s not a security threat to the State of Israel… Jared speaks to the Israeli military probably 20 times a day. Ma’an staff has been invited to tour Israeli military bases and have done so without issue.”
With regards to the other members of Ma’an’s staff, Mr. Hale stated that, “no threats have been made against other members of staff, but our position is that we support Jared publicly and should the Israeli government decide that we don’t have the same rights afforded to the journalists on the other side of the wall… it doesn’t concern our day to day lives until they tell us to stop.” Full story
...The English Desk at Ma'an News Agency, the largest independent news network in the Palestinian territories, is deeply concerned that its chief editor, Jared Malsin, an American citizen [and graduate of Yale University], was detained on Tuesday afternoon upon arriving at Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv. He is slated for imminent deportation.
In what can only be explained as a retaliatory measure for Malsin's reporting on Palestine, his long-term girlfriend, Faith Rowold, a two-year, registered volunteer with the Lutheran Church in Jerusalem, was also seized and placed in a holding cell pending deportation. Israeli security agents have prevented the couple from making calls, and lied to concerned American consular staff, denying that the two were even being held.
While the US Embassy is protesting both incidents, and is in constant contact with our staff on the ground, diplomatic officials say that there is little they can do when Israel cites "security reasons" for the denial of entry. Meanwhile, Israeli security officials have quietly expressed concern to Ma’an over this latest abuse of power by authorities at the Interior Ministry, skeptical that the professional journalist they know could be deemed a threat.
For its part, Israel has yet to specify any allegations against Malsin, who indicated - just before his phone was seized by airport guards - that during his hours of interrogation, security agents inexplicably questioned him over his supposed ties to international peace activists, with whom he has no relationship.
Ma'an scrupulously maintains its editorial independence and aims to promote access to information, freedom of expression, press freedom, and media pluralism in Palestine. It has no other agenda. Israel's arbitrary detention of the head of its English Desk is an affront to professional journalists not only in Palestine, but also to journalists in Israel and abroad, who rely on Ma'an for its accuracy, impartiality, and independence... Full report
Jared's phone was confiscated by El Al security officials when he boarded a flight in the Czech Republic on 12 January 2010. He was denied the opportunity to make any calls to his consulate, his family or a lawyer between 11am (upon boarding) and 11pm (when his mobile was briefly returned).
In what can only be explained as a retaliatory measure for Malsin's reporting on Palestine, his long-term girlfriend, Faith Rowold, a two-year, registered volunteer with the Lutheran Church in Jerusalem, was also seized and placed in a holding cell pending deportation.
At 4pm when the flight was disembarked in Tel Aviv, Faith used the phone of a fellow traveler, an Israeli national, in the restroom of the airport. She called her sister with a brief message saying she had landed but indicated that there were problems.
At 6:30pm, the office of US Citizen Services was contacted in Jerusalem. Officials called Israeli airport authorities, who assured them that there were no American citizens being held there at that time. The names of Jared and his companion, also a US national, were reportedly not flagged. The official suggested the couple were out having a good time in Tel Aviv and had simply not gotten in touch.
The official also said local police should be contacted if Jared were actually missing, but assured that his contacts at the airport were not holding him. Ma'an staff asked if the official could confirm whether or not Jared and his companion had in fact cleared immigration.
Jared used the mobile of a French traveler admitted to the detention hall at 8:30pm to call his Faith's sister again and asked a colleague to immediately contact the US Embassy. He said he was being questioned and feared being denied entry into Israel; he provided passport numbers for himself and his fellow traveler.
The US Consulate official was contacted again with the information that Jared was not out in Tel Aviv, but had in fact been in Israeli custody since 11am that morning. The official immediately expressed concern and said he would call his contacts again at the airport.
The official called back at after 9pm and asked for more information on Jared and his fellow traveler: are they married, is she pregnant, is there a Palestinian connection, what newspaper does Jared write for, etc.
The consulate official was informed that Jared worked with Ma'an. He was also informed that while the US, EU and UK fund programs and productions with the Ma'an Network, that staff at each of the consulates consult the English Desk site daily, even hourly, the State of Israel does not recognize Ma'an as a news organization, and therefore denies its journalists press accreditation.
By 11pm, both Jared and Faith were informed that they had been denied entry. Their mobile phones were returned to them for two hours, and then confiscated just after midnight when they were transferred to holding cells.
At 8am, the US consular official was contacted, called security at the airport and was informed that Jared and Faith were set to be deported at 6am on 14 January 2010, on the next direct flight to Prague, where they had been vacationing a week before.
Al Mawasi, Gaza, 2001, by Alison Weir Ma'an For the first time in years, Gazan farmers were told a semi-regular system of exports for flower and then strawberries would be put in place at Israeli crossings.
During 2009 there were four days when the export of goods was permitted from Gaza, there were zero days in 2008. During these years the carnation industry in Gaza has staggered, with most of the product going to feed livestock. Because of scarce water, in mid-2009, farmers that wanted to grow strawberries had to apply for permission from the de facto Gaza government to get the okay to use more than their quota of fresh water for the crops.
For the past month, an irregular schedule for the export of the goods was working at the Kerem Shalom crossing. There is, however, more product awaiting export than has been permitted through the crossing, and the perishable items are lined up in trucks near the border waiting for their turn to leave....
According to the Agricultural Development Society (ADS) in Gaza noted that the "more than 300 out of 750 tones of strawberries that continue to be harvested between now and mid-February, are supposed to be exported; the flower season continues until the end of may and is expected to generate more than 30 million cut flowers for export, so far only 630,000 have left the Gaza Strip."
The nature of the industry is that if farms stop producing flowers or strawberries, re-starting the production will be difficult and costly. Goods produced but not sold or exported, however, represent an even greater danger.
“Each shipment that cannot be exported causes accumulating economic losses for farmers, and increases the burdens both farming families and the agricultural societies working to get the goods sold," the ADS said. The society called on crossings officials to ensure the agreed upon amount of goods exit the Strip.
The exports have so far been possible because of the help of the Dutch government, which continues to help 179 farmers in Gaza who work a total of 300 dunums of land for flower farms, and another 500 dunums of strawberry fields. The products from these farms are allocated for sale abroad.
The society thanked the Dutch government, but said farmers would prefer to make a living from their crops, rather than rely on donations from the country to compensate them for the spoiled or perished crops. Full story
Ma'an The US administration in Washington announced on Tuesday its support for the construction of an underground steel Egyptian borders with Gaza, to prevent the smuggling of weapons....
A substantial amount of humanitarian aid is transferred through the smuggling tunnels ..... Full story
Ma'an Israel troops detained the son and daughter of member of the Nablus Municipality Khulud Al-Masry late Tuesday night at the Allenby Bridge crossing, as they returned from a visit to Jordan...
Daughter Safa, 20, and son, Sahib, 23 were taken to Petakh Tikva prison and HaSharon prison respectively and were denied access to lawyers, Al-Masry said, adding that she was not allowed to see her son.
Safa studies Social Work at the An-Najah University in Nablus and is engaged to be married in April while Sahib is a recent graduate from the Jordanian University, Al-Masry added. Full story
Ma'an Israeli forces raided a house in occupied East Jerusalem...on Wednesday.
Sources say Israeli troops stormed the home of Samir Abu Farha in order to detain his son, Mu'tasem, 23, and search for weapons. Mu'tasem was not present during the search and forces handed his parents a summons order, calling on their sun to turn himself over to the police.
Mu'tasem is a taxi driver who refused to work around the area of an Israeli excavation site around the Al-Aqsa Mosque and was honored by Sheikh Raed Salah, who was banned from entering Jerusalem for six months by Israeli intelligence last week. Full story
Ma'an The Palestinian Center for Development & Media Freedoms (MADA), a Ramallah-based NGO that monitors press freedom in the occupied territories, released its first film on Monday.
"Freedoms Invasion" takes a look back at 2009 detailing violations against journalists on the part of forces allied with the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, Gaza's de facto government, and the Israeli military...
MADA monitored 257 violations during 2008, and more than 150 violations during 2009, committed by Israeli forces and settlers, in addition to Palestinian security services, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Mousa said. "The film also shows how the geographical and political division and continued conflict between Hamas and Fateh affected the Palestinian media negatively," he added.
Moussa said the film should be interpreted as a message to the Fatah-administered Palestinian Authority and de facto Hamas government in Gaza "to stop the attacks against journalists because of the negative consequences on the media and the Palestinian cause." He also said film should encourage the international community to "pressure the Israeli government to abide [by] international conventions, which guarantee freedom of expression, and to stop the violations."... Full story
Ma'an Israeli forces reportedly prohibited Palestinian farmers from planting 1,500 olive trees in the Abu Ar-Rish area of the Beit Ummar village near Hebron on Monday.
"Despite the decision by an Israeli court allowing Palestinian farmers to work on their lands, Israeli troops banned farmers today from planting [olive trees]," said Muhammad Awad, media spokesman for the Palestine Solidarity Project. "The troops said that it is a closed military area," Awad said.
The spokesman added that four journalists and three American activists were detained, as Israeli forces used stun grenades and closed off the area leading to the agricultural land in question... Full story
Ma'an Israel deported a Czech national on Tuesday, 24 hours after she was seized by soldiers in a late-night raid in the West Bank city of Ramallah's city center.
Eva Nováková, 28, the International Solidarity Movement's media coordinator, was forced onto a plane early Tuesday to Prague from Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport, where she was taken late Monday night.
....Forces raided Ramallah's central Manara area for the sole purpose of detaining the activist... Soldiers deployed on rooftops adjacent to the PA police headquarters, while three APVs patrolled the urban area. Onlookers counted at least 20 soldiers participating in the operation, which lasted less than half an hour.
Also participating were forces belonging to Israel's special "Oz" immigration task force, according to Israeli activist Jonathan Pollak, among others. Pollak said immigration police broke down Nováková's door, checked her passport, and took her away...
.......Her attorney, Omer Shatz, said Israel's alleged use of its special "Oz" unit was illegal. "This arrest is part of the continued and illegal use of the immigration police against activists, for political purposes," Shatz said in an ISM statement. Immigration police work under the explicit authority of the Israeli Ministry of the Interior, Shatz added, and thus would have no business operating in Palestinian cities.
....Israel controls all the entrances to the West Bank, and is at present the sole issuer of visas for Czech citizens.
......Ramallah, a city in Area A, has supposedly been under full PA security control since 2009.
While raids targeting Palestinians in outlying districts are nightly events, the detention of Nováková was unusual because Israeli forces tend only to enter PA-controlled areas for the purpose of capturing Palestinians on their "wanted" list, and usually for alleged security grounds. One such incursion was in December, when Israeli forces assassinated three Fatah operatives in their Nablus homes.
Last week, President Mahmoud Abbas said the PA was considering scaling back security ties with Israel on operations in certain Area A sites such as Ramallah. "If the coordination does not lead to a halt in the incursions and the provocations, we will think anew," Abbas said....... Full story
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Jared was detained at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport last Tuesday afternoon, and denied immediate re-entry, when he returned from a short trip to the Czech Republic that he took to renew the normal tourist visa that he had previously been given, and under which he had been functioning. 
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