http://www.imemc.org/article/47413
Palestinian Unity Government pending Parliament Approval
Thursday March 15, 2007 15:29 by George Rishmawi - IMEMC & Agencies george at imemc dot org

Senior Palestinian leaders have almost finalized the formation of the long-waited National Unity Government and agreed on all names of the cabinet ministers. A list of 25 names, which includes two women, will be presented to the Palestinian Parliament for approval on Saturday. The two women are proposed to handle the Women's Affairs and Tourism Ministries.

Ismael Haniyeh will head this government, and Azzam Al-Ahmad, the head of Fatah’s Parliamentary bloc will take up the post of vice-premier.

The remainder of the portfolios will be distributed amongst candidates as follows:



Mahmoud Al-Aloul for the Ministry of Labor

Suleiman Abu Sneineh, Minister of Prisoners' Affairs

Radwan Al-Akhras, Minister of Health

Khloud Deibis, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities

Sa’di Al-Krunz, Minister of Transportation

Ziad Abu Amr, Minister of Foreign Affairs

Bassam Al-Salhi, Minister of Culture

Salam Fayad, Minister of Finance

Hani Qawasmi, Minister of Interior

Mustafa Barghouthi, Minister of Information

Saleh Zidan, Minister of Social Affairs

Samih Al-Abed, Minister of Public Work

Nasser Eddin Al-Sha’er, Minister of Education

Yousef Al-Mansi, Minister of Communication and Information Technology

Suleiman Al-Shindi, Minister of Religious Affairs and Holy Sites

Samir Abu Aisha, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation

Mohammad Barghouthi, Minister of Local Governments

Bassim Na’em, Minister of Youth and Sports

Ali Sartawi, Minister of Justice

Mohammad Al-Agha, Minister of Agriculture

Ziad Thatha, Minister of Economy

Mariam Saleh, Minister of Women's Affairs

Wasfi Kabaha, Minister without portfolio

Palestinians agreed to form the unity government in the Makkah meeting in February under Saudi auspices.

The upcoming government will be facing serious challenges, including lifting the US-led economic and political blockade which has resulted in a serious financial and political crisis in Palestine.

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=20029
Palestinian prisoners tortured and sexually assaulted in Israeli prison
Date: 03 / 03 / 2007 Time: 19:49

Bethelehem - Ma'an - A Palestinian prisoner serving in an Israeli jail, Adnan Shanayta, from the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem, said on Saturday that the prisoners at the Mascobiyya (the Russian compound) prison suffered a brutal assault at the hands of the Nehshon division of the Israeli forces on Thursday. According to Shanayta, the Nehshon unit broke into the prison without any justification.

During a visit by a Palestinian prisoners' association's advocate, Shanayta said that 25 Israeli soldiers suddenly started beating the Palestinian prisoners with rods, causing several injuries.

Some of the prisoners lost consciousness as a result of the extreme beating, including Ahmad and Bilal Asheikh, Jihad Jibreel and Zahid Da'dara.

The prisoners' association was informed that the Nehshon unit forced the head of the prisoner, Thaer Abu Kareefa, into the lavatory before they struck him brutally on his genitals rendering him unconscious. They also tore-up the holy Quran and threw it on the ground and mixed food with clothes in the lavatory, reported the prisoners' association.

The detainees were also forced to undress completely and the Israeli soldiers brought female soldiers to jeer at them.

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=20054
Egypt to try Israel for war crimes committed in 1967
Date: 04 / 03 / 2007 Time: 16:51

Cairo - Ma'an - Assistant Egyptian foreign minister for legal affairs, Abdul Aziz Sayf An Nasir, announced on Sunday that the foreign ministry is finalising a political and legal action against Israel. This action will be undertaken through international institutions and the national council for human rights and is in response to Israeli leaders confessing to the assassination of 250 Egyptian soldiers while Egypt was withdrawing from the Sinai Peninsular in 1967.

The Egyptian official affirmed, in a meeting of the Arab and foreign affairs committees and the national Security Council in parliament, that the foreign ministry have started to act following Israeli TV publishing a documentary, which showed the massacre of the Egyptian soldiers.

The parliament members called for the distribution of a petition to the international Supreme Court of Justice and criminal courts, in order to sue the Israeli leaders involved in the slaughter of the Egyptian captives. Top the group of Israeli war criminals is the former minister of defence, Benjamin Bin Eliazer, who has admitted to murdering the Egyptians. Parliament members also called for the dismissal of the Israeli ambassador to Egypt and to summons the Egyptian ambassador to Israel.

Chief of the foreign relations committee, Dr Mustafa Al-Faqi, said that Israeli crimes cannot be forgotten just because time has lapsed since the event. He also said that the Israelis showed the documentary in an attempt to terrify Arab people and armies.

Israeli daily newspaper of Maariv stated on Sunday that high-ranking officials within the office of infrastructure minister, Benjamin Bin Eliazer, last week delivered messages to the Egyptians denying the massacre of captives, which was exhibited in a documentary film on Israeli TV.

Bin Eliazer is considered very close to the Egyptians and is supposed to arrive in Cairo in four days time. He hastily denied what was shown in the documentary, regarding himself and his military division during the tripartite aggression against Egypt. The division was called Shakid and, according to the documentary film, they were responsible for the execution of 250 Egyptian captives in the 1967 war. It was established in 1953 to fight Palestinian resistance fighters who used to infiltrate through Egypt into the Gaza Strip and conduct operations in Israel. It was depicted as the elite division.

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=20037
Bethlehem - Ma'an - According to online news source Electronic Intifada, http://electronicintifada.net/new.shtml, Irish political party, Sinn Fein, have called for economic sanctions of Israel, following the recent military incursion into Nablus.

Electronic Intifada issued the following press release:

Sinn Fein Justice and International Affairs Spokesperson Aengus O Snodaigh TD has called on the Government to enforce emergency economic sanctions on Isreal after its latest illegal military incursion into Nablus in the West Bank. Deputy O Snodaigh said occupying Israeli forces have killed and wounded Palestinian civilians and forced young Palestinians to act as human shields.

Speaking in the Dail today Deputy O Snodaigh said, "There is an urgent need for the government to respond to the latest illegal Israeli military incursion into Nablus in the West Bank by enforcing emergency economic sanctions on Israel. This latest assault commenced last Sunday and was heightened yesterday when some 120 military vehicles, bulldozers and armoured jeeps entered the town, piled up rubble to block roads, besieged three hospitals and actively prevented Palestinian ambulances from approaching the hospitals. Many thousands of Palestinian civilians have been placed under curfew, schools and universities have been forced to close.

"Israeli occupying forces have killed and wounded Palestinian civilians and forced young Palestinians to act as their own human shields.

"The Irish people understand occupation. They are disgusted by the actions of Israel and by the failure of the international community to bring the Israeli occupation of Palestine to an end. As the representatives of a small country whose people empathise greatly with the suffering of the Palestinian people this government should take a stand on the side of right and justice. This government should set the right example and send the right message by lifting sanctions on Palestine and imposing them on Israel."

http://www.imemc.org/article/47264
Caught on tape: “Army still using civilians as human shields”
Sunday March 04, 2007 11:17 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies saed at imemc dot org

A scene caught on tape by the Associated Press raised questions on the Israeli army practices in using Palestinian civilians as human shields during its invasion to the Palestinian occupied territories.

Boy used as Human sheild - Palestine Mointor (archive)

!-- @page { size: 21.59cm 27.94cm; margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } -->The scene captured by an AP crew showed a young Palestinian man, only waring shorts and a T-shirt during a cold winter morning, walking in front of a heavily armed Israeli soldiers who were carrying a door-to-door attacks in three apartments in a neighborhood in the West Bank.

The young man, Sameh Amira, 24, was seen in the AP video walking in front of the soldiers during a home-to-home attacks. He was seen walking in front of the soldiers up some stairs of an apartment entrance.

Amira was awakened by the soldiers at 5 A.M, and was ordered to accompany the troops, along with his family to a neighboring home. Later on, Amira was ordered to accompany the soldiers during their attacks,

The incident, which took place on Sunday in Nablus, in the northern part of the West Bank, casts doubt whether the army is implementing a High Court order barring the soldiers from using the Palestinian civilians as human shields.

Several Human Rights groups in Israel and the Palestinian territories described the military tactic as a violation to the international law that bars using civilians as human shields and pacing them in the line of fire.

The Israeli army said that the tape “shows no wrongdoing on behalf of the soldiers”, but pledged to look into the incident by pressuring inquiry into the case, Israeli online daily Haaretz reported.

Moreover, the army stated that soldiers had been carrying “broad arrest invasions in Nablus throughout the week”. Army claims that most suicide bombings, including an attempted attacks last week, originated from Nablus area.

In 2005, the Israeli High Court issued a ruling barring the army from using Palestinian civilians as human shields during the invasions “even if the civilians volunteer to help”, according to the ruling.

The ruling clearly barred the army from using civilians to knock on the doors of house with “suspected fighters”.

Yet, the army did not halt using Palestinian civilians as human shields in its invasions into Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank.