http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=17855
Israeli authorities launch a campaign to demolish Arab homes in Israel
Date: 06 / 12 / 2006 Time: 13:57


An Israeli bulldozer demolishes
houses in the Negev
(MaanImages archive)
Jerusalem - Ma'an - The Israeli authorities have demolished 17 homes in the village of Tawil in the Negev, southern Israel, on Wednesday.

A Ma'an correspondent reported that the demolition of the houses came after the Israeli minister of the interior announced that a campaign to demolish 42,000 houses in this area of 'non-recognized villages' will start. The houses to be demolished apparently do not have licenses for buildings.

The council's regional head of the 'non-recognized villages,' Hussein Rafay'ah, has accused the Israeli government of, "continuing its racist campaign against the Arabs in Israel." Rafay'ah told the Ma'an reporter that the Israeli government has, "threatened to demolish 45 villages resided in by 90,000 Arabs after seizing 98 percent of the lands of these villages."

Rafay'ah confirmed that the residents will rebuild the demolished homes.

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=17859
Vital Gaza food conduit to open at Karni, Israeli officials assure UN
Date: 06 / 12 / 2006 Time: 18:22

TEL AVIV, 6 December (IRIN) - An important commercial crossing from Israel into the Gaza Strip could be re-opened next week, Israeli officials told IRIN, allowing vital food supplies into Gaza.

The Karni crossing to the west of Gaza City is the only cargo terminal designed for the passage of large containers into the Strip and as such is vital for food supplies. It has been closed almost constantly since September, according to John Ging, the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which feeds 860,000 refugees in Gaza.

"There's no substitute for the [Karni] commercial crossing. There is no comparable alternative in terms of quantity. That is the weakness of the Gaza Strip. We are talking about hundreds of containers," said Ging.

Israel closed the crossing shortly after one of its soldiers was captured by Palestinian militants on 25 July, saying it discovered a tunnel that could be used to attack its border personnel. The crossing has been opened intermittently since then but the soldier is yet to be recovered.

"We had to close the checkpoint because we have civilians working there and we don't want them killed by the Palestinians," said Shlomo Dror, spokesman for Israel's Government Coordination Office, which monitors the humanitarian situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

However, Dror said security and functional improvements to Karni were almost complete. "We are checking the system and we hope to open next week. The movement of containers will be much better than before," he said.

The revamped Karni will be able to process between 800 and 2,000 ship containers of food every day, Dror said. "We have invested a lot of money in this. It is the only way Gaza's economic situation can improve," he added.

The news comes as the World Food Programme (WFP) reported that 35 percent of Gazans do not have enough money to buy food, while 25 percent only just have the means. WFP's Comprehensive Joint Food Security Assessment report found Gaza's central Deir Al-Balah governorate to be the worst affected, with almost three-quarters of the population defined as food insecure.

More than a million of the Gaza Strip's 1.4 million inhabitants rely at least in part on food handouts from the UN to survive.

For the first time, urban areas in northern Gaza were also suffering from an uncertain supply of food, said the report. "Unemployment is very high and the private sector has been badly hit by the situation [the 10-month economic embargo and four-month military clampdown in Gaza]," Kirstie Campbell, WFP spokeswoman, said.

Many Gazans do not get enough protein because of tight fishing restrictions on the Gaza coast. Israel says these are necessary to ensure a kidnapped Israeli soldier is not smuggled into Egypt.

"The situation could deteriorate very rapidly," said Jacques Higgins, the WFP's deputy country director for Gaza and the West Bank.

This year's agricultural cycle in Gaza has been almost cut by repeated military incursions that have wrecked fields and greenhouses, Higgins said. He added that the closures of crossings into Israel have led to the collapse of agricultural markets.

"It has been a big problem for us. There's no alternative to Karni and closing it exposes Gaza's vulnerability," he said.

Ging said that over the past couple of weeks UNRWA had managed to get some food through a different crossing - Sufa, in the south-western corner of the Gaza Strip - which is intended for processing construction material.

"Now we are in difficulties in Sufa as the Palestinian merchants who use it are protesting and blocking it because we are using up their time," he said, adding that no new food had entered Gaza since Sunday.

Ging said that UNRWA had wasted US $1.5 million on rental charges for 400 ship containers stacked on the Gaza side of Karni because it had been unable to return them to the shipping companies in the nearby Israeli port of Ashdod while the crossing was closed.

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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=17861
Minister of planning releases figures for aid delivered to Palestinian government since the economic siege started
Date: 06 / 12 / 2006 Time: 20:02

Ramallah - Ma'an - The Palestinian minister of planning, and deputy minister of the treasury, Dr Samir Abu 'Aisha, has held a press conference on Wednesday, in which he detailed, in figures, the aid that the current Palestinian government has received so far. The cumulative aid has mounted to $318 million, most of which has come through the presidency, in cooperation with the government. Three million was kept abroad for certain needs, such as medical treatment abroad.

The EU sent financial aid directly to the employees, covering those whose salaries are below 2000 NIS and part-payments to those with salaries below 2500 NIS.

$66.5 million entered through Rafah crossing with ministers and PLC members.

So far, $207 million of the civil services employees salaries for 8 months have been paid. The cumulative salaries owed are $1,755,000,000.

Abu 'Aisha added that the military services employees have received 46% of their salaries, which, in total, mounted to $ 1,362,000,000.

In general, the public sector's employees have now received 59% of their salaries, some $3,127,000,000.

Israel is currently withholding $550 million of tax revenue from the PA.

The minister directly accused the union of public sector employees of threatening those who want to go back to work. The strike has also resulted in treasury employees failing to issue official documents for Palestinian importers and exporters, which negatively affected the Palestinian economy. He referred to the fact that the lack of such official documents had resulted in great losses for exporters, in some cases, up to 20,000 NIS.

The Palestinian minister also held the previous government responsible for the EU suspending their support, as they had appointed 25,000 employees in the time between June 2005 and March 2006.

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=17858
Europe is softening its stance towards Hamas,
a governmental source claims
Date: 06 / 12 / 2006 Time: 16:53


Haniyeh giving a speech in Gaza (MaanImages)
Khan Younis - Ma'an - The Europeans are softening their stance towards Hamas and the Palestinian government, a Palestinian governmental source have revealed.

These sources say the EU's position is changing thanks to efforts taken by Hamas envoys in Europe to hold talks and explain their position and reasons for calling for the non-recognition of Israel.

The source added that the Europeans have begun to deal with the idea of solving the conflict on the basis of a truce, as presented by Hamas, and not on the basis of "land for peace".

The source also said that the most important countries which Hamas is holding a dialogue with are France and Britain. He clarified that these two countries asked Hamas to present a paper in which the movement explains its stance about the truce and its vision. This paper, explaining Hamas' vision for the future and its stance vis-à-vis the conflict with Israel, will be presented to the whole world.

In the American arena, the source said that Hamas has made a great deal of progress after a meeting took place between a delegation from the Hamas movement and many American figures from the Democrat party in a third, unnamed country. The source stressed that the dialogue with the Europeans broke the ice, and the rigidity, of the European position in regard to Hamas. Hamas has persuaded them to accept the long-term truce without recognizing Israel, the source said. The source added that the dialogue with the European has allowed new ideas about Hamas to crystallize.

He ended, "The next few days will witness more meetings with Europeans in more than one country and in America in order to further clarify Hamas' stance … based on the truce".

http://www.imemc.org/content/view/23081/1/
Rafah border crossing reopens
Ghassan Bannoura – IMEMC & Agencies - Wednesday, 06 December 2006, 11:43

Palestinian security sources reported that the Rafah Border Crossing, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip was reopened on Wednesday morning.

The Rafah crossing, which is the only way for Gaza residents to connect to the world, was officially opened and a bus full of Gaza residents, who were stranded at the Egyptian side of the border for several months, crossed into the Gaza Strip.

The sources added that crossing will be open for the Palestinian residents stranded on the Egyptian side to enable them come back to Gaza, and for humanitarian and medical cases

The Israeli army closed the Rafah border crossing when it started the "Summer Rains" military offensive in the Gaza strip six month ago.

Since then, the crossing was opened for limited hours on a number of days over the past six months.