Israeli Soldiers Attack Wall Protesters

Israeli soldiers injure three civilians and arrest eight for protesting against construction of a wall and attempting to stop military bulldozers from destroying Palestinian orchards.

Israeli soldiers attacked the anti-wall protesters with rifle butts and batons, injuring three international supporters and arresting eight others in the town of Beit Jala near Beth Lahm (Bethlehem), in southern West Bank.

Palestinians complain that the new section of the wall in Beit Jala, will surround a nearby settler-only road and destroy about 75 acres of land owned by Palestinian residents. The construction will reportedly destroy centuries-old olive trees and will "pass right through the front door of 35 families".'

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Israel Insists on Defying Building Freeze

Israel says it will keep building settlements on the occupied Palestinian lands a day after the start of “peace” talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA).

"It is evident we will continue to build over the next two years in Gilo, Pisgat Zeev, French Hill," Israeli Information Minister Yuli Edelstein told public radio on Monday, referring to Jewish settlements in al-Quds (East Jerusalem), AFP reported.

PA on Sunday announced the start of indirect talks with Israel which are held with the mediation of United States envoy George Mitchell.'

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Soldiers Level Mosque Near Rafah, Settlers Torch Mosque Near Nablus

Israeli soldiers invaded an area in Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, leveled the Al Dahniyya mosque and uprooted farmlands on Tuesday at dawn. Local sources reported that the mosque was leveled to the ground after several armored military vehicles and bulldozers invaded Rafah.

Also on Tuesday at dawn, a group of fundamentalist settlers torched the main mosque of the Al Lubban Al Shariyya village, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus. The settlers attacked the mosque approximately at 3 A.M., rounded up several copies of the Holy Koran in one place and set them ablaze. The fire caused excessive damage to the property of the mosque, including its ceiling, its fans and walls. Its 450 square meters of carpet and eight air conditioners were burnt also.'

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Israel Shuts West Bank Borders Again

Israel has decided to seal off West Bank border crossings from midnight Saturday until midnight Tuesday.

The Israeli army announced on Saturday that the third closure of the past few weeks would be implemented in a region of the West Bank for the duration of this week's Israeli holidays, the Maan news agency reported.

On Tuesday at midnight the closure will be lifted "in accordance with security assessments," the Israeli army said in a statement.'

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Palestinians Face More Ethnic Cleansing

The Israeli military has issued a new ruling that would allow the mass deportation of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank.

According to the Israeli media, the new order considers anyone caught in the West Bank who does not hold an Israeli permit to enter and reside in the area as an "infiltrator."

The order, which is due to come into effect on Tuesday, would automatically turn tens of thousands of Palestinians into criminal offenders liable to be severely punished.

They could face seven years in prison and would also have to pay the cost of their expulsion from the West Bank — most probably to the Gaza Strip.'

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Israel Seizing Hundreds of Millions of Shekels Meant For Palestinian Services

For the past 15 years, Israel has been channeling hundreds of millions of shekels it had collected in the West Bank into its state coffers. The move is considered illegal, since international law prohibits an occupying power from appropriating the fruit of economic activity in an occupied territory.

Following protests by military lawyers, the deputy attorney general has ruled that the practice should be stopped and ordered an inquiry into whether the Civil Administration in the West Bank should be compensated retroactively.'

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Don't Declare State, Lieberman Warns Palestinians

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman says Tel Aviv would annul previous peace accords with Palestinians if they decide to go ahead with plans to unilaterally declare an independent state.

Speaking to Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper on Tuesday, Lieberman threatened Palestinians that such a move could prompt Israel to annex parts of the West Bank and revoke 1990s Israeli-Palestinian peace agreements.

"Any unilateral decision will release us from all of our commitments and will allow us also to make unilateral decisions," Lieberman said. "For example, imposing Israeli sovereignty on certain areas, cutting off all kinds of ties and transfers of money and a string of benefits and agreements put into place since the (peace) accords".'

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Netanyahu Vows More Settlement Construction

Israel's hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he is determined to push ahead with the construction of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

"We will continue developing in the North and the South, and certainly in Jerusalem (al-Quds)," Netanyahu said at a ceremony marking the end of Passover.

Defying widespread international calls for a freeze, Israel has been refusing to halt settlement expansion on confiscated Palestinian land, including the illegally annexed East al-Quds.'

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Israel Imposes Nine-Day Blockade on West Bank

Israel imposes a 9-day full blockade of the occupied West Bank starting Sunday night, ostensibly as a security measure for the Jewish Passover festival.

The lockdown, on the orders of the Israeli War Minister Ehud Barak, will prevent thousands of Palestinian workers based in the West Bank from reaching their places of work.

The closure will be lifted only after another security assessment following the Passover holiday, the Israeli army said in a statement on Sunday.'

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Spain Predicts Israeli Annexation of Entire West Bank

Madrid has warned that, if continued at the current rate, the Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian lands would bring about the annexation of the entire occupied territories.

Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos cautioned that the advancement would claim the entire Palestinian territories in the West Bank, should the current rate of acquisition survive for another two years, AFP reported on Saturday.

"Until now, it's not too late, but if we wait for more than two years it will be too late," he said.'

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Israel Imposes Full Closure on West Bank

Israel has ordered its military forces to impose a total closure on the West Bank in the occupied Palestinian territory for 48 hours.

The closure was enforced Thursday midnight amid reports on the possibility of fresh protests by Palestinians around the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem (al-Quds) after Friday prayers. The closure is to be lifted on Saturday night.'

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UN, Russia Slam Israel Heritage Scheme

The UN and Russia join world symphony slamming Israel's decision to include the West Bank holly sites in its national heritage list.

"We have repeatedly said that we are categorically against any steps and actions that foreshadow the outcome of negotiations on a final Palestinian-Israeli settlement, and which cannot but hamper efforts contributing to the resumption of dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said Friday.

Israel's decision to include the Ibrahimi Mosque in al-Khalil and the Bilal Mosque on its list of around 150 so -called Jewish heritage site has provoked widespread condemnation.'

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Peace Talks Further Damaged as Netenyahu Claims Settlement Blocs ‘Part of Jerusalem’

Seemingly already damaged beyond repair, the prospect for peace talks took another hit today when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared portions of the occupied West Bank “eternally” part of Israel.

Attending a tree-planting ceremony in one of the settlements, Netanyahu proclaimed that “we are planting here, we will stay here, we will build here, this place will be an inseparable part of the state of Israel for eternity.” He added that the settlements were part of “sovereign Jerusalem".'

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Israel 'Revises' 10-month Settlement Freeze in West Bank

Israel has authorized settlement municipalities to issue building permits in the occupied West Bank in defiance to a ten-month moratorium imposed on the settlements.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak authorized settlement municipalities to issue permits for the renovation of existing structures and for public infrastructure work, Haaretz reported Friday.'

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The Ongoing Repression of Palestinian Protesters

On a pitch black early December night, seven armored Israeli military jeeps pulled into the driveway of a home in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Dozens of soldiers, armed and possibly very scared, came to arrest someone they were probably told was a dangerous, wanted man - Abdallah Abu Rahmah, a high school teacher at the Latin Patriarchate School and a well-known grassroots organizer in the village of Bil'in.

Every Friday, for the past five years, Abdallah Abu Rahmah has led men, women and children from Bil'in, carrying signs and Palestinian flags, along with their Israeli and international supporters, in civil disobedience and protest marches against the seizure of sixty percent of the village's land for Israel's construction of its wall and settlements.'

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Israeli Troops Fire Live Ammunition at West Bank Protestors

Israeli troops have fired live ammunition on protestors near the West Bank village of Na'alin, leaving one Palestinian wounded.

About 150 demonstrators attended a weekly protest against the construction of the separation wall and the expansion of Israeli settlements.'

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EU Envoys: Israel Trying to Sever East Jerusalem From West Bank

A classified report drafted by European consuls in East Jerusalem and Ramallah slams Israeli policy in East Jerusalem and recommends that the European Union take steps to strengthen the Palestinian Authority's status in the city. It also advises taking various measures to protest Israeli policy in the city, as well as sanctions against people and groups involved in "settlement activity" in and around it.'

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Israel Reneges on Settlement Ban With Tourism Plan

Israel plans to develop tourist magnets in the West Bank despite pledging to temporarily halt settlement construction in the occupied territories.

Israeli Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov announced the plans, hot on the heels of a decision by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to freeze settlement expansions for 10 months, the Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post reported on Saturday.

Misezhnikov said the ban had to exclude construction of public buildings in settlements or construction in Jerusalem Al-Quds.'

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Erekat: Palestinian State May Have to be Abandoned

Palestinians may have to abandon the goal of an independent state if Israel continues to expand Jewish settlements and the United States does not stop it, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Wednesday.'

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Which is exactly what the israeli war criminals have been wanting all along!!

Israel Set to Approve Massive New Settlement Near Bethlehem

Israel’s Ministry of the Interior is expected to approve could become the most populous single settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories since 1967, an Israeli newspaper reported on Wendesday.

The Hebrew-language daily Ma’ariv stated that the project, prepared by both the Ministry of the Interior and the Jerusalem Municipality, calls for the construction of 14,000 housing units for 40,000 Jewish Israelis on 3,000 dunums (three square kilometers) of land near the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

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