Donor states meet in Paris to support Abbas' government and Israeli army attacks on the coastal region leave 20 Palestinians killed this week, these stories and more coming up stay tuned.


Nonviolent Resistance in West Bank

Let's begin our weekly report with the nonviolent actions in Bethlehem and Ramallah. IMEMC's Caroline Jones with the story:

Bethlehem
On Friday Thousands of Palestinians marched through the town of Beit Sahour, east of Bethlehem marking the beginning of the three-day, Joy to the City festival. The marchers carried signs, calling for a Just Peace, and signs against the annexation wall that is being built on Palestinian land.

The candlelit procession is an annual event organized by the Palestinian Centre for Rapprochement between People, the mother organization of IMEMC.ORG since 1991. While, the procession has carried a different title every year, this year’s procession was held under the title “Light a Candle for a Just Peace”. Iyad Abdullah, a member of the board in the Palestinian Centre for Rapprochement talked about the procession:



"This candlelit march is an annual event that we hold, each year it has a different meaning according to the political situation, this year it will be for justice and peace, Palestinians live in a very difficult situation, and we hope that next year we will have peace and that all nations have peace especially over these holy days."

The march started by opening a Bazaar where products such as Christmas cards and candles and some other goods produced by mentally and physically challenged people were displayed. Lead by four groups of boy scouts, the procession arrived at the municipality of Beit Sahour where a ceremony to light up the Christmas tree was held whilst Christmas carols were sung by local singer, Haitham Shomali.

Hani al-Hayek, Mayor of Beit Sahour, welcomed the crowd and wished them happy Adha Eid and Christmas and stressed the need for a just peace in this part of the world. The marchers were invited to a reception that was held after the lighting of the tree at the Latin Patriarchate Hall in the town where various choirs performed Christmas carols and other hymns.

Ramallah
Palestinians from the village of Bil'in, near Ramallah in the central West Bank, along with their international and Israeli supporters conducted their weekly protest against the Israeli Annexation Wall on Friday midday. Shortly after the midday Friday prayers, the protestors marched towards the location of the illegal wall built on the village's land. The Israeli army installed a barbed-wire roadblock to try and prevent the protesters reaching the construction site. As soon as the demonstration reached the roadblock troops showered the protesters with tear gas and metal rubber coated bullets injuring six people.

Among those injured was Iyad Bornat the head of the popular committee against the wall and settlements in Bil'in village.

For IMEMC.org this is Caroline Jones.




Political report

Hamas denies any truce offer to Israel, while donor states meet in Paris to support Abbas' government. This and more from IMEMC's Raphael Anderson:

More than 70 countries and international organizations met in Paris on Monday to raise funds to support the Palestinian Authority. Originally conceived of on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting in September, the meeting was billed as the economic counterpart to the Annapolis peace summit, which was held in the United States in late November

Donors pledged more than 7.4 billion US dollars to build institutions and the economy in the occupied territories, exceeding the Palestinian Authority's original goal of 5.6 billion. Saudi Arabia pledged the largest sum, with a contribution of 500 to 750 million US dollars.

At the Paris conference French President Nicolas Sarkozy proposed the deployment of international forces in the occupied Palestinian territories to bolster the Palestinian Authorities' security forces. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agreed in principle to an international force, but Hamas, who control the Gaza Strip, are opposed to the idea.

President Abbas traveled to London on Tuesday to meet with British officials in order to follow up on the Paris talks. Following the meeting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that the UK and the US would sponsor yet another conference to encourage investment in Palestine, to be held in the West Bank city of Bethlehem next year.

While the organizers of the conference envisioned the conference as a step towards building the economic foundations of a future Palestinian state, political realities continue to cast doubt on that project, with ongoing Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, and expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank.

On Wednesday Israeli housing minister Ze'ev Boim, gave the green light to a new settlement consisting of a massive 10,000 units of housing in occupied East Jerusalem. Israel is also pressing forward with the construction of 307 new housing units at the settlement of Har Homa, in the area known to Palestinians as Abu Ghneim, near the West Bank city of Bethlehem. The United States, European Union, United Nations, and numerous other countries, have called on Israel to comply with its legal obligations and cease settlement activity.

Israeli media reported on Wednesday that Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader and de facto Prime Minister of the Gaza Strip had made a truce offer to Israel, in which Israel will stop it attacks on Gaza in return for a halt on Palestinian homemade shells. Israeli officials rejected the offer, less than two days after Israeli warplanes bombed the Gaza Strip, killing 12 Palestinians. Israel say it will only negotiate with President Abbas and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority.

During an interview with IMEMC, Dr. Khalil Abu Leilah said that Haniyeh did not make such an offer



" The Palestinian Government spokesman in Gaza denied such that an offer was made by Prime Minister Haniyeh. So, we do not believe the Zionist media. We believe the government spokesman."

For IMEMC.org this is Raphael Anderson.

The Israeli attacks

The West Bank

The Israeli army conducted at least 20 military invasions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank this week. During these incursions, Israeli troops kidnapped 41 Palestinian civilians. Here is IMEMC's Elizabeth Smith with the details:

With those kidnappings this week, the number of Palestinians abducted by the Israeli army in the West Bank since the beginning of this year has risen to 2,594.

25 Palestinians were kidnapped during Israeli army invasions into several parts of West Bank on Sunday. According to local sources, most of the kidnappings occurred in the West Bank city of Nablus. Officials confirmed that the detainees include lawmaker and senior member of Hamas, Ahmad Al-Hajj, a former deputy-cabinet minister in the Palestinian government, and two Nablus Municipal Council members. The Israeli crackdown on Hamas came one day after the movement celebrated its 20th anniversary in Gaza.

Hamas-affiliated acting-speaker of Palestinian parliament, Ahmad Bahhar, said on Sunday that the total number of detained Hamas parliamentarians has risen to 46. Israel refused to recognize the legitimacy of Hamas' overwhelming victory in the January 2006 parliamentary elections.

Scores of Palestinian families were help up at the Huwwara checkpoint, south of Nablus, on Wednesday night, at the end of the first day of the Muslim holiday Eid Al-Adha. Many were forced to wait for Israeli soldiers to grant them permission to pass the checkpoint while returning from visiting relatives.

The checkpoint was closed after a Palestinian youth allegedly attempted to stab an Israeli soldier when a fight broke out between them. The boy was detained and taken to a nearby Israeli military base. The soldiers kept the checkpoint closed even after they kidnapped the boy, and did not reopen it until an Israeli officer arrived.

For IMEMC.org this is Elizabeth Smith.

The Gaza strip

Shortly after the Israeli government decided to step up attacks on Gaza, the army killed 20 Palestinians and injured many more, from Gaza, IMEMC's Rami Al Mughari has more:

Six Palestinians, among them four resistance fighters, were killed early on Thursday, as the Israeli army swept into the central Gaza Strip town of Maghazi. Medical sources said that ambulances were fired on by the Israeli army while evacuating the dead. Witnesses said that an Israeli tank fired a shell on a group of resistance fighters after they opened fire on the invading forces.

From morning until night Palestinian resistance fighters have been trading gunfire with the invading forces, who have taken positions on the east of the town. Israeli army sources confirmed that one Israeli soldier was injured, the Israeli media reported. The sources said that today's attack was a part of the army's "routine operations."

Israeli sources reported midday on Tuesday that the Israeli government has decided to increase attacks on the Gaza strip. Palestinian sources said that Israeli army attacks left 12 Palestinian dead on Monday and Tuesday. The Israeli army claimed that the recent attacks are in response to Palestinian homemade shells fired from Gaza into nearby Israeli towns. The homemade projectiles, also known as Qassam shells, have killed one Israeli this year. Meanwhile Israeli army attacks on Gaza have left at least 450 dead, among them children and many more others injured.

Israeli airstrikes on Gaza have been relentless across the coastal region over the past several weeks since Israel declared Gaza a 'hostile entity' in September. A total of nine Palestinians were killed in Israeli air-strikes in the Gaza Strip on Monday.

The siege that the Israeli government has imposed on Gaza since Hamas took total control there in mid June, has left the 1.4 million Palestinians living in Gaza lacking medicine, fuel, and food. UN and international aid work agencies have warned of humanitarian crises in Gaza in the near future due to the siege.

Also this week two Palestinian patients died because the Israeli army refused to allow them to leave the Gaza strip from medical treatment.

For IMEMC.org this is Rami al Mughari in Gaza.

Civil unrest

Hamas and Fatah security forces this week continue to attack the counter movement members of Gaza and the west Bank, IMEMC's George Rishmawi has more:

During the week the Hamas movement denounced the Palestinian Authority's decision to ban Hamas' celebrations in the West Bank marking the 20th anniversary of the movement's installation. Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in mid June. Hamas' spokesperson, Sami Abu Zuhri, stated the ban reflected the repression of freedom that is being practiced by the Fatah affiliated, Palestinian Authority against Hamas across the West Bank. Abu Zuhri also condemned the arrests of various Hamas members across the area and the accusation that Hamas was behind a blast during a funeral procession on Friday.

On Saturday, the Palestinian National Initiative PNI issued a press release condemning political arrests and abductions in the Gaza Strip. The Initiative added that all factions must engage in dialogue and should reject abductions and assaults especially since the Palestinians are still facing Israeli aggression, settlement expansion and other violations.

In concurrence with this idea, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), a leftist political party, has presented an initiative to end the infighting between Fateh and Hamas. Neither party have responded to the proposals, which call on Hamas to end its control over the Gaza Strip, and turn the territory over to the control of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The only thing it asks of Fatah is that the party “return to dialogue”, and clarifies its position.
Although Hamas is said to 'control' the Gaza Strip, and Fatah to 'control' the West Bank, both territories are actually under the full military control of the Israeli army, which has jurisdiction over all Palestinian movement, imports, exports, and all parts of the sea, air and land.
For IMEMC.org this is George Rishmawi.

Conclusion

And that’s just some of the news this week in Palestine. For constant updates, check out our website, www.IMEMC.org. Thanks for joining us from Occupied Bethlehem; this is Louisa White and Ghassan Bannoura.