http://www.imemc.org/article/46624
Israeli Army violates Israeli High Court Ruling in Hebron
Friday January 19, 2007 17:57 by George Rishmawi - IMEMC & Agencies george at imemc dot org

hebron Peace activist Issa Amro being stopped by Police at Al-Shuhada Street in Hebron (Photo ISM)

Israeli police and troops operating in the West Bank city of Hebron prevented on Thursday a Hebron peace activist accompanied by a number of Palestinian residents to walk down Al-Shuhada streets in Hebron claiming that this road is Jewish-only road.

Issa Amro, a Palestinian peace activist working with the Tel Al-Rumeideh Project was stopped at the entrance of the road despite an Israeli High Court of Justice ruling, issued in December 2006, confirming the right of Palestinians to use this road, a main road in Hebron.

When Issa arrived at the military post set up at the entrance of Al-Shuhada road, Israeli police told them there is a new military order however, they refrained to present it to him saying that he should get his lawyer to go to the court to be able to see the order.

The International Solidarity Movement who sends international peace activists to Hebron said that last week when Palestinians attempted to walk down Shuhada Street accompanied by an Israeli TV crew, they were also told about the existence of a ‘new’ order.

An Israeli Army spokesperson later on TV denied the existence of this order and promised to investigate but so far no explanation has been offered.Members of the Israeli Peace Now movement were prevented to hold a rally in Hebron against settler violence and were confined to the outskirts of the city.

On Thursday, Amira Dotan, a member of the Knesset, came to visit Tel Rumeida. After walking up Tel Rumeida st. she spent some time speaking to Abu Samir, a local resident of Hebron, about the situation his family faces dealing with the settlers that live across the street from his home.

During the discussion Abu Samir conveyed the miserable situation he and his family live in because of the settlers’ continued violent aggression against them. After speaking to Abu Samir, Amira Dotan spent some time speaking to other locals, including peace activists, about the situation in Tel Rumeida.

Once she reached Shuhada st. the Palestinians speaking with her had to leave as they are still not allowed to walk down this street past the settlement. A few international human rights workers were allowed to follow her down Al-Shuhada street.Israeli army has prevented Palestinians to drive on this street since a very long time, however, they recently banned even pedestrians to use the road.

Earlier this week, Palestinian sources circulated a few minute-long footage showing an Israeli settler woman harassing a Palestinian woman calling her bad names and asking her to go back to her ‘cage’ while Israeli soldiers were watching.

Tel Rumeida is located on a hill, with Beit Haddaseh settlement at its base and the Tel Rumeida settlement at the peak.

the neighborhood is located in the H2 area defined to be under total Israeli control according to the Hebron plan of 1997 by former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamine Netanyahu. H1 is the nearly 80% of Hebron and is under total Palestinian control, however Israel army do not hesitate to enter the area, nab or residents and resistance fighters.

The paved roads surrounding the neighborhood are frequently off-limits to the Palestinian families, who can be prohibited even from walking or playing in the streets. Palestinian vehicular traffic in Tel Rumeida is forbidden, forcing all the Palestinian Tel Rumeida families to park their vehicles outside the neighborhood and walk home. Consequently, Palestinian residents must carry all their groceries, appliances,and furniture to their homes.

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=18735

Rafah crossing to be open Saturday and Sunday then closed for two weeks
Date: 19 / 01 / 2007 Time: 11:02

Ma'an - The director of the Palestinian crossings, Nazmi Muhanna, has confirmed that the Rafah crossing in the south of the Gaza Strip between Gaza and Egypt will be opened on Saturday and Sunday in both directions.

Muhanna said that the crossing will be opened between 5am and 8pm on both days. However, he said the crossing would subsequently be closed for two successive weeks after that.

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=18733
President George Bush extends the freeze on accounts of Islamic Jihad, Bin Laden and Hezbollah
Date: 19 / 01 / 2007 Time: 10:03


Members of Islamic Jihad's armed wing
(MaanImages)
Bethlehem - Ma'an - On Thursday night, United States President George Bush extended for another year the decision to freeze the accounts of the Islamic Jihad movement in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Israeli media sources said that President Bush also extended the freezing of the accounts of Sheikh Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda, and of the Lebanese party, Hezbollah.

President Bush explained his decision in a letter sent to American legislators: "The terrorist organizations continue to exercise activities in the Middle East that expose the peace process to risk and antagonize the American interests in the region".

====================================================================
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=18726
Peres: Palestinians should be given economic aid
Date: 18 / 01 / 2007 Time: 19:09

Jerusalem - Ma'an – Deputy Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres has declared on Thursday that job opportunities and economic aid should be provided to the Palestinians. He suggested the establishment of joint industrial zones between the Palestinians and the United States similar to the Aqaba trade zone in Jordan.

Peres referred to the fact that efforts are ongoing to reactivate the Erez industrial zone in the Gaza Strip and to establish a similar zone in the West Bank.

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=18738
Negev Bedouins fight to stay on land
Date: 19 / 01 / 2007 Time: 11:40

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

TWAIL ABU JARWAL, 18 January (IRIN) - In the Negev Desert village of Twail Abu Jarwal, a Bedouin boy is hammering away at the roof of a new tin shack in the setting sun. Around him are the twisted ruins of the Talalka tribe's 22 homes and a few animal shacks.

The Israeli authorities on 9 January demolished them for the second time in just over a month because Twail Abu Jarwal is among 34 Bedouin villages that officially do not exist, according to the Israeli government. Israeli officials say all homes are illegal because they were built without a permit.

"They came at 5 a.m. with police, a helicopter and bulldozers and just demolished everything," said village chief Aqil Talalka. "Now we are rebuilding because we have nowhere else to go."

About 150,000 Bedouin Arabs live in the Negev Desert in southern Israel and face discrimination over the provision of essential services, local aid workers say. Their claims to land ownership have been turned down by successive Israeli governments and those who do not live in government-approved new towns face having their homes demolished.

Aqil said he had little hope that Israel's attitude to the Bedouin's land claim would change. "Israel will only recognise my ownership of the land if I agree to sell it to them. Then they are only too happy to recognise it. Otherwise, I have no rights," he said.

"We believe the Bedouin should be treated as an indigenous people and should be given their rights," said Yeela Ranaan of the Regional Council of Unrecognised Villages (RCUV).

Today's Bedouin are descended from about 10,000 who remained in the Negev during the war of 1948; 80,000 fled to Jordan, refugee camps in Gaza and the West Bank and mixed Israeli cities farther north such as Ramle or Lod, Ranaan said.

The remaining communities were moved into the Siyag or Enclosed Zone, in the northeast of the Negev, with much of the rest of the region being declared state land.

Successive Israeli governments have tried to get people such as the Talalkas to abandon claims to land ownership and settle in one of seven towns built to house them. They are offered cheap plots of land for a house and access to electricity, water, health and education.

"The idea was to get as many Arabs on as little land as possible," said Ranaan.

But despite Israel's efforts, only about half the Bedouin have moved into the towns. The remaining 80,000 are still in unrecognised villages in the Siyag Zone, without access to water and electricity supplies and sewage facilities.

Under a government proposal in 1976, the 500-strong Talalka group had accepted and paid for land near the wealthy Beer Sheva suburb of Lagia, Aqil said. But after a 30-year wait, the land had still not been made available - so the Talalkas returned to the hillsides they say their tribe has lived on for centuries.

"We were living on land owned by another tribe. It was overcrowded and some of us were asked to leave because the other tribe had grown and needed the extra land for itself," said Aqil.

The authorities' response was harsh - buildings in Twail Abu Jarwal have been destroyed four times in recent months.

"The law is the same for everyone. There would be no difference if it was a town mayor who builds illegally or a Bedouin," Sabine Haddan, spokeswoman for Israel's Ministry of the Interior, said.

However, the Talalkas have not moved. They are sheltering in tents and organisations such as the RCUV and the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions are helping them to rebuild.

They are encouraged by the fact that nine villages inhabited by about 30,000 Bedouin have been or are in the process of being recognised, according to the RCUV.

"But the government is still refusing to acknowledge traditional ownership of the land. And if the government recognises a village, it wants to make orders preventing the residents from working the land around it," said Ramaan.

Successive Israeli governments passed laws to discourage Bedouin agriculture, such as the so-called Black Goat law in 1950, which specifically prohibited anyone from raising flocks of black goats. This affected the Bedouin because they used to keep flocks of black goats and would use the hair to make tents.

---
This item comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and information service, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The information in this article is not compiled by Ma'an reporters

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=18751
West Bank villager gets six months' administrative detention; the charges against him are unknown
Date: 19 / 01 / 2007 Time: 15:10

Jenin - Ma'an - The Israeli military court at Salem has sentenced a Palestinian from the village of Barta'a, situated on the Green Line west of Jenin, to six months' detention.

Tawfiq Kabha, a member of the village council of Barta'a, told our correspondent in Jenin in a phone call that Sufian Hamzeh Hassan Kabha, 28, had been sentenced to six months' administrative detention, meaning imprisonment without charge or trial. Administrative detention can be renewed indefinitely.

Sufian Hamzeh Hassan Kabha was arrested two weeks ago. The charges against him are not known.

Barta'a is located on the Green Line in the north of the occupied West Bank but behind Israel's illegal separation wall which annexes the land in that region into Israel.