The Palestine thread

[give her dixie]

Palestinian youths shot dead in West Bank

Two teenagers killed by Israeli forces as protests over death of prisoner in custody spark violent clashes in West Bank.

Israeli troops have shot dead two Palestinian youths in the occupied West Bank as confrontations entered a third day following the death of a prisoner in an Israeli jail.

The body of Naji Balbisi, 17, a cousin of 16-year-old Amer Nassar who was also shot dead in clash at a military roadblock at Tulkarem in the north of the Palestinian territory, was discovered early on Thursday morning, officials said.

The Israeli army said troops fired on Palestinians who threw fire bombs at a guard post in the area after dark on Wednesday, but did not confirm the teenager was killed by them.

The army said it was investigating the incident, which left at least one other Palestinian wounded.

Tensions have risen rapidly in the West Bank and Gaza Strip following the death from cancer on Tuesday of Maysara Abu Hamdeya, 64, who was serving a life sentence in an Israeli jail.

Palestinians accuse Israel of withholding care from the man and failing to release him after diagnosing that his illness was terminal. Israel said it followed normal procedures.

Abu Hamdeya was convicted for a planned attack on a Jerusalem cafe in 2002.

In the southern West Bank city of Hebron, where Abu Hamdeya is to be buried on Thursday, Israeli forces clashed with dozens of Palestinian protesters on Wednesday, firing tear gas and rubber bullets at men throwing stones and petrol bombs.

Al Jazeera's correspondent Nicole Johnston, reporting from Hebron on Thursday, said that the situation in the town remained very tense.

Rocket fire

On Wednesday, Israeli jets carried out their first air strike on the Gaza Strip since a truce ended several days of fighting in November.

"I assess that Hamas has no interest in seeing the situation deteriorate."

- Richard Serry, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process

The military said it was responding to rockets fired on Tuesday by a group inside the Gaza strip.

The group fired two more rockets on Wednesday and said it was responding to the death of Abu Hamdeya.

Israeli officials pressed Gaza's ruling Islamist movement, Hamas, to rein in rocket-launching fighters after the most serious outbreak of cross-border hostilities since the ceasefire that ended the eight-day siege in November.

Some 4,600 Palestinian prisoners declared a hunger strike for three days in protest at Abu Hamdeya's death.

Food trays were returned untouched on Wednesday, an Israeli prisons official said.

In towns of the occupied West Bank, some shops were shut in solidarity.

'Maintain the quiet'

"I assess that Hamas has no interest in seeing the situation deteriorate," he said. "Our goal is to maintain the quiet."

Commenting on the violence in Gaza, Richard Serry, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said it was of "paramount importance to refrain from violence."

He said in a statement that renewed violations of the ceasefire threatened to unravel Egyptian-brokered understandings
that included an easing of Israel's blockade on the enclave.

Egypt mediated the November truce after fighting in which some 170 Palestinians and six Israelis were killed.

Israel had launched that Gaza offensive, as it did a bigger campaign in 2008-09, with the declared aim of ending rocket fire.

Hamas took control of Gaza Strip from western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement in 2007 after winning an election a year earlier.

The Palestinian Authority want to establish a state in the enclave along with the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in the 1967 war.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/04/20134445916413847.html

[Ball DeBeaver]

Op-Ed: NGO Tells Visiting Canadian FM How to Investigate PA


Published: Thursday, April 04, 2013 8:12 AM

The Jerusalem-based Israel Resource News Agency, Center for Near East Policy Research, provides the visiting Canadian Foreign Minister with a ten-step process for a long-overdue, thorough inquiry into PA use of foreign aid funds.




David Bedein, Israel Resource News Agency
The writer is the director of the Israel Resource News Agency & The Center for Near East Policy Research Ltd. His website is www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com
► More from this writer




This week, Canadian Foreign Minister has announced that he will visit areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority to inquire as to how foreign aid funds are being spent, in order to determine whether Canada should indeed renew foreign aid to the PA.

While it would seem natural for the foreign minister of any respected democracy to ask for an accounting of how foreign funds are being spent by a nascent entity, Canada is the first government to officially engage in an accountability process with the fledgling Palestinian Authority.

How should Canada conduct an inquiry into the Palestinian Authority? Here is a suggested ten step process as to how the Canadian Foreign Minister, The Hon. John Baird, could conduct an inquiry into the accountability of funds administered by the Palestinian Authority

Step One: Enter a Palestinian Authority classroom. Examine the new PA curriculum whose focus revolves around preparation of a new generation to conquer all of Palestine. Most recently, the Center for Near East Policy Research dispatched a TV crew to follow the classrooms of Palestinian Authority schools that are located in UNRWA facilities and witnessed teachings which did not focus on peace or reconciliation.

Translations of the new Palestinian Authority school books yielded the conclusion that they focused on a curriculum of "suspended war"

Step Two: Peruse the news output of the PBC (Palestine Broadcasting Corporation) radio and TV. Follow the messages of Jihad conveyed by the PBC to the Palestinian Arab people, the PBC adulation of Palestinians who committed suicide attacks, and PBC news clips which laud attacks on Beer Sheva, Sderot, Ashkelon,and Ashdod, which PBC terms "illegal Jewish settlements", though these Israeli cities, which have been shelled by missiles, are located on lands lost to the Arabs in 1948 - not 1967.

Step Three: Spend time in an UNRWA facility, where thousands of descendants of Arab refugees languish under the premise and promise of the "Right of Return". Nearby Palestinian Authority urban areas flourish. Note how the new Palestinian city, Rawabi, built near teeming UNRWA refugee facilities, will not allow UNRWA camp residents to live in the new Palestinian city. Meanwhile, in August 2012, Hamas terror groups won their fourth consecutive election to take charge of the UNRWA trade union and the UNRWA teachers union in Gaza, Ask for a report on UNRWA-Hamas cooperation..

Step Four: Peruse The "Right of Return" computer program that operates throughout the Palestinian Authority, and which helps UNRWA residents to locate the villages of their grandparents from 1948, even though these towns no longer exist, to prepare them to realize their "right of return:.

Step Five: Visit Palestinian Authority-controlled mosques on Friday. Follow the incendiary message conveyed by the mosques that function under funding and control of the PA.

Step Six: Review all new official maps that are published by the Palestinian Authority, which show all of Palestine, that is, including the state of Israel, as the location of any future Palestinian state.

Step Seven: Visit the PA Security Force. Following the expectation that the PA Security Force would be engagedto crush the Hamas, review reports of Hamas-Palestinian Authority cooperation. While the PA security force has worked with Israel on matters of petty crime, the PA will not take on Hamas. Moreover, the PA has no laws against money-laundering for terror groups and PA statutes do not define any group as a terrorist organization.

General Yaakov Amidror, former head of the IDF's Research and Assessment Division and currently serving as Security Adviser to Prime Minister Netanyahu, observed that "there is a huge difference in the Palestinian view between law enforcement, which is seen as legitimate, and anti-terrorism, which is NOT seen as legitimate."

Step Eight:  Ask for an evaluation of the food distribution program in Gaza, which the Hamas regime in Gaza and UNRWA have been running. Funds are delivered in cash dollars at the Gaza crossing to UNRWA, once a month, in the amount of $13 million. How much of the funds are geared to the purchase of food? Does the Hamas regime siphon off some of the foreign aid cash for the purchase of munitions or for any other purpose? Why is there a demand for "cash delivery"? What follow up-reports have been submitted to the donor countries on funds delivered to the UNRWA food distribution program?

Step Nine:  Review the published political program of Palestinian Prime Minister Salman Fayad, who has earned a reputation as a "moderate" and note Fayad's endorsement of a Palestinian Jerusalem (no mention of having just East Jerusalem, the Palestinian "right of return" to villages from 1948 that no longer exist, and the demand to free all Palestinians in Israeli jails, ignoring the fact that this includes thousands of Palestinians who have been convicted of first degree murder in a court of law. For Fayad's paper "Ending the Occupation, Establishing the State:Program of the Thirteenth Government - August 2009", available on the net, click here.

Step Ten: Review recent speeches of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, where Abbas himself conveys consistent praise for Palestinian Arabs who have murdered civilians. Review the telecast New Year's speech of Abbas, where he concludes his litany of praise for killers with a salute to the legacy of Hitler's ally, Haj Amin Al Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem.


http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/13082

[seafoid]

Op-Ed: NGO Tells Visiting Canadian FM How to Investigate PA


Published: Thursday, April 04, 2013 8:12 AM

The Jerusalem-based Israel Resource News Agency, Center for Near East Policy Research, provides the visiting Canadian Foreign Minister with a ten-step process for a long-overdue, thorough inquiry into PA use of foreign aid funds.




David Bedein, Israel Resource News Agency
The writer is the director of the Israel Resource News Agency & The Center for Near East Policy Research Ltd. His website is www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com
► More from this writer




This week, Canadian Foreign Minister has announced that he will visit areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority to inquire as to how foreign aid funds are being spent, in order to determine whether Canada should indeed renew foreign aid to the PA.

While it would seem natural for the foreign minister of any respected democracy to ask for an accounting of how foreign funds are being spent by a nascent entity, Canada is the first government to officially engage in an accountability process with the fledgling Palestinian Authority.

How should Canada conduct an inquiry into the Palestinian Authority? Here is a suggested ten step process as to how the Canadian Foreign Minister, The Hon. John Baird, could conduct an inquiry into the accountability of funds administered by the Palestinian Authority

Step One: Enter a Palestinian Authority classroom. Examine the new PA curriculum whose focus revolves around preparation of a new generation to conquer all of Palestine. Most recently, the Center for Near East Policy Research dispatched a TV crew to follow the classrooms of Palestinian Authority schools that are located in UNRWA facilities and witnessed teachings which did not focus on peace or reconciliation.

Translations of the new Palestinian Authority school books yielded the conclusion that they focused on a curriculum of "suspended war"

Step Two: Peruse the news output of the PBC (Palestine Broadcasting Corporation) radio and TV. Follow the messages of Jihad conveyed by the PBC to the Palestinian Arab people, the PBC adulation of Palestinians who committed suicide attacks, and PBC news clips which laud attacks on Beer Sheva, Sderot, Ashkelon,and Ashdod, which PBC terms "illegal Jewish settlements", though these Israeli cities, which have been shelled by missiles, are located on lands lost to the Arabs in 1948 - not 1967.

Step Three: Spend time in an UNRWA facility, where thousands of descendants of Arab refugees languish under the premise and promise of the "Right of Return". Nearby Palestinian Authority urban areas flourish. Note how the new Palestinian city, Rawabi, built near teeming UNRWA refugee facilities, will not allow UNRWA camp residents to live in the new Palestinian city. Meanwhile, in August 2012, Hamas terror groups won their fourth consecutive election to take charge of the UNRWA trade union and the UNRWA teachers union in Gaza, Ask for a report on UNRWA-Hamas cooperation..

Step Four: Peruse The "Right of Return" computer program that operates throughout the Palestinian Authority, and which helps UNRWA residents to locate the villages of their grandparents from 1948, even though these towns no longer exist, to prepare them to realize their "right of return:.

Step Five: Visit Palestinian Authority-controlled mosques on Friday. Follow the incendiary message conveyed by the mosques that function under funding and control of the PA.

Step Six: Review all new official maps that are published by the Palestinian Authority, which show all of Palestine, that is, including the state of Israel, as the location of any future Palestinian state.

Step Seven: Visit the PA Security Force. Following the expectation that the PA Security Force would be engagedto crush the Hamas, review reports of Hamas-Palestinian Authority cooperation. While the PA security force has worked with Israel on matters of petty crime, the PA will not take on Hamas. Moreover, the PA has no laws against money-laundering for terror groups and PA statutes do not define any group as a terrorist organization.

General Yaakov Amidror, former head of the IDF's Research and Assessment Division and currently serving as Security Adviser to Prime Minister Netanyahu, observed that "there is a huge difference in the Palestinian view between law enforcement, which is seen as legitimate, and anti-terrorism, which is NOT seen as legitimate."

Step Eight:  Ask for an evaluation of the food distribution program in Gaza, which the Hamas regime in Gaza and UNRWA have been running. Funds are delivered in cash dollars at the Gaza crossing to UNRWA, once a month, in the amount of $13 million. How much of the funds are geared to the purchase of food? Does the Hamas regime siphon off some of the foreign aid cash for the purchase of munitions or for any other purpose? Why is there a demand for "cash delivery"? What follow up-reports have been submitted to the donor countries on funds delivered to the UNRWA food distribution program?

Step Nine:  Review the published political program of Palestinian Prime Minister Salman Fayad, who has earned a reputation as a "moderate" and note Fayad's endorsement of a Palestinian Jerusalem (no mention of having just East Jerusalem, the Palestinian "right of return" to villages from 1948 that no longer exist, and the demand to free all Palestinians in Israeli jails, ignoring the fact that this includes thousands of Palestinians who have been convicted of first degree murder in a court of law. For Fayad's paper "Ending the Occupation, Establishing the State:Program of the Thirteenth Government - August 2009", available on the net, click here.

Step Ten: Review recent speeches of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, where Abbas himself conveys consistent praise for Palestinian Arabs who have murdered civilians. Review the telecast New Year's speech of Abbas, where he concludes his litany of praise for killers with a salute to the legacy of Hitler's ally, Haj Amin Al Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem.


http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/13082

That is really poor even by your standards

Step Eight:  Ask for an evaluation of the food distribution program in Gaza, which the Hamas regime in Gaza and UNRWA have been running. Funds are delivered in cash dollars at the Gaza crossing to UNRWA, once a month, in the amount of $13 million.
why does Gaya need food aid

Step Nine:  Review the published political program of Palestinian Prime Minister Salman Fayad, who has earned a reputation as a "moderate" and note Fayad's endorsement of a Palestinian Jerusalem (no mention of having just East Jerusalem, the Palestinian "right of return" to villages from 1948 that no longer exist, and the demand to free all Palestinians in Israeli jails, ignoring the fact that this includes thousands of Palestinians who have been convicted of first degree murder in a court of law. For Fayad's paper "Ending the Occupation, Establishing the State:Program of the Thirteenth Government - August 2009", available on the net, click here.

The right of return is enshrined in international law.
So what if the villages don't exist. Who destroyed them BTW?

[Ball DeBeaver]

The right to return is enshrined in international law for only those that actually lived there , not their kids and grand kids. The only refugees to ever claim right to return for descendents are palestinians. Are they special among the millions of world wide refugees?

[DrinkingHarp]

GHD or anyone who could answer some basic questions.

I understand the blockade via Israel, why are the Egyptians blocking supplies if they are fellow Muslims? And what about Jordan, are they against the Palestinians as well?

And if the above three countries are blocking supplies into Palestine how are rockets delivered and used to fire into Israel? It would seem they would be able to use the same pathway to get food, medicine and supplies.

These are legit questions I do not understand.

[seafoid]

GHD or anyone who could answer some basic questions.

I understand the blockade via Israel, why are the Egyptians blocking supplies if they are fellow Muslims? And what about Jordan, are they against the Palestinians as well?

And if the above three countries are blocking supplies into Palestine how are rockets delivered and used to fire into Israel? It would seem they would be able to use the same pathway to get food, medicine and supplies.

These are legit questions I do not understand.

Egypt is run by the Army there and they don't want any of the refugees in Gaza bringing Israel's Palestinianian problem into Egypt. It is ultra cynical.
Egypt's government isn't very interested in the Palestinians but the people are.

Egypt is the only country that has a free border with the occupied Palestinian territories ie one that is not controlled by Israel.
The Jordan valley portion of the West Bank is controlled by the Israeli army even though it is not in Israel /- Israel controls everything that goes in and out.

Gaza doesn't have money to buy food. 80% live on international food aid. It is like Ireland was in the 1840s. Most people have very little cash and they depend on the charity of others. All avoidable but that is the way Israel runs things at the moment.

Re food and medicine

The Mavi Marmara was a Turkish relief ship that went to deliver humanitarian relief to Gaza in 2010. 9 activists were murdered on board by the Israeli Army, most with shots to the back of the head.

Israel seized the ship and its contents

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7fIk7ygYb8

Israel promised to deliver all of the material on board.

"Two desperately needed X-ray machines which were carefully packaged and loaded in full working order in Turkey were never delivered to Gaza because they were reportedly no longer working.  3,500 tons of desperately needed cement was left on the MV Rachel Corrie for months so that it was unusable when it finally reached Gaza. But cruelest of all, was the trashing of thousands of individual gifts to sponsored orphans in Gaza. IHH's Orphan Care Unit had collected individual gifts from their sponsor families with letters of friendship from Turkish children to their brothers and sisters in Gaza.  At Gaza the Orphan Care Unit had intended to have a presentation when the gifts would be given to the orphans. Israeli soldiers tore open and vandalized every present. "

They really are tramps.

[give her dixie]

Official statistics offer revealing glimpse of Palestinian life

A report from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) has shown that around half of the Palestinian population is under 18 years old, equating to 2.04 million young people. The total population in the occupied Palestinian territories in 2012 was 4.29 million.

PCBS Director Ola Awad said that the results of the study were announced to mark Palestine's Day of the Child on 5 April. "The report," she added, "includes detailed data about Palestinian children and their lives." Palestinians under the age of 18, noted Ms Awad, will be the backbone of the population for several years to come, based on the present birth and mortality rates.

The infant mortality rate is 18.9 out of every 1,000 live births. The main cause for such death is pre-birth infection. Breastfeeding by Palestinian babies is very common, with 62.8 per cent dependent on their mothers' milk for an average of 13 months. However, 11 per cent of children under five years old also suffer from chronic malnutrition; the percentage is slightly higher in Gaza, at 11.5 per cent, than in the West Bank at 10.4 per cent. Statistics from the Ministry of Health show that 19.4 per cent of Palestinian children under five suffer from anaemia. The rate in Gaza is almost double that in the West Bank, at 25.6 per cent compared with 13.4 per cent. The lack of clean drinking water is one cause of such illnesses amongst children.

The section of the PCBS report covering education shows that 1,129,538 Palestinians in the occupied territories are pupils in school; just over half - 50.2 per cent - are girls. Just over 67 per cent of all schools have science laboratories, with a slightly higher percentage of government schools (71.1 per cent) than those run by UNRWA (59.2 per cent). Fifty-three per cent of private schools have dedicated science facilities. More than 75 per cent of all schools have libraries and around the same figure have computer laboratories.

Around 75 per cent of all students use computers, with 81.9 per cent doing so in the West Bank and 64.4 per cent in the Gaza Strip. There is no significant difference in computer use between males and females.

Four out of ten children have access to the internet; two out of ten have enough knowledge to use the internet but for various reasons, including poverty, they do not have internet access. At least four out of ten children have no knowledge at all about the internet.

The number of Palestinian children aged between 10 and 17 involved in the labour market is low, at just over 4 per cent doing paid or unpaid work. It is higher in the West Bank (5.8 per cent) than in the Gaza Strip (1.5 per cent).

The report also showed that Palestinian children need protection. Around 3 per cent of them were exposed to bodily harm from the Israeli occupation forces and Jewish settlers. Most of these are in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem where the settlers live.

The average age of marriage among Palestinian youth is 20 for females and 24.6 for males, the report points out. However, their prospects are not good. About 20.7 per cent of Palestinian households are classed as "poor"; most of them have children. The official poverty rate in the Gaza Strip is 32.6 per cent with 14.7 per cent in the West Bank.

http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/5670-official-statistics-offer-revealing-glimpse-of-palestinian-life

[give her dixie]

GHD or anyone who could answer some basic questions.

I understand the blockade via Israel, why are the Egyptians blocking supplies if they are fellow Muslims? And what about Jordan, are they against the Palestinians as well?

And if the above three countries are blocking supplies into Palestine how are rockets delivered and used to fire into Israel? It would seem they would be able to use the same pathway to get food, medicine and supplies.

These are legit questions I do not understand.

DH, to add to Seafoids answers, the Egyptian military is funded by Uncle Sam to the tune of $1 billion a year, second to Israel in terms of military aid. Since the fall of Mubarak and the election of Morsi, very little has changed in that the military would be loyal to their paymasters. The media is also still controlled by the old guard.

Jordan and Egypt are the only 2 countries in the Middle East that have peace agreements with Israel, and again, this is due to the massive hand outs both receive from the US taxpayer. Currently Jordan is the training ground for rebels by US troops who are directing the civil war currently going on in Syria.

Certainly Egypt and Jordan could be doing a lot more to help the Palestinians, however, the root cause of the problem is the Israeli occupation. Everything else comes second.

[Itchy]

You didn't answer the food/rocket part of the question.

[Ball DeBeaver]

PA pay jailed murderers over 4 times as much more than they pay policemen. No wonder they are queuing up to kill Israeli kids.



Financial Crisis? PA Continues to Pay Jailed Terrorists

The PA, despite complaining that it is suffering from a severe financial crisis, is continuing to pay to terrorists in Israeli prisons.


AAFont Size
By Elad Benari, Canada
First Publish: 4/5/2013, 9:09 PM




The Palestinian Authority, despite complaining constantly that it is suffering from a severe financial crisis, is continuing to provide monthly payments to terrorists serving time in Israeli prisons, the Makor Rishon newspaper reported Friday. This is not the first time that the enormous salaries the PA pays terrorists have been exposed.

According to Friday's report, which was based on data collected by the research department of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, at least 4% of the PA government's budget is allocated for terrorists' salaries.

Each month, the PA transfers about 17.5 million shekels to terrorists, the Foreign Ministry has found. While the PA has claimed to the international community that the funds are allocated for social assistance, the information collected in Israel shows otherwise.

According to the information published in Makor Rishon, the percentage of support for terrorists is determined by the number of years in prison each one has been sentenced to. This means that the more serious the crimes committed by the terrorist, the higher his salary.

According to the scale set by the PA, a terrorist who is serving more than 30 years in an Israeli prison earns 12 thousand shekels per month. Those terrorists who were sentenced to 25 to 30 years receive 10 thousand shekels each month. A terrorist who is serving five to ten years earns four thousand shekels.

The data collected has also found that the salaries of these thousands of terrorists is higher than the monthly salary of a PA Arab police officer, whose average salary is only about 2,700 shekels.
Furthermore, reported Makor Rishon, the Israeli Foreign Ministry has discovered that it is none other than PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who often presents himself to the world as opposing terrorism, who ordered two years ago that the payment to terrorists be tripled.

According to the report, Norwegian Foreign Minister Epsen Barth Eide met with Fayyad on Thursday and expressed his protest over what was happening in the PA. Just several weeks ago, Eide met with Fayyad as international donors tried to collect the $1.2 billion needed to help fund the PA.

Eide has in the past hinted that Israel was to blame for the PA's financial crisis and has called on Israel to ease restrictions on the PA so as to allow it to continue to reform, and the donors to continue to donate.

European officials familiar with the matter were quoted by Makor Rishon as having said that the information collected is indeed disturbing and that at least some of the countries concerned, especially Norway and the UK, will look into it thoroughly.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/166799

[seafoid]

Israel is a farce. How can any thinking person take it seriously ?

[Ball DeBeaver]

Israel is a farce. How can any thinking person take it seriously ?

My da's bigger than your da.


Any chance of a reasoned argument?

[seafoid]

Israel is a farce. How can any thinking person take it seriously ?

My da's bigger than your da.


Any chance of a reasoned argument?

What is the point of the mitzvot?

[Ball DeBeaver]

Google it. Come out and say what you want to say.

[muppet]

BDB could you point to any poster here that you think you might have persuaded to think differently? Any poster at all?