Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, stated this week his government would not stop settlement construction or expansion in the occupied West Bank while the military continued to attack Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank, these stories and more coming up stay tuned.

Nonviolent Activities

Let's begin our weekly report with the nonviolent activities in the West Bank with IMEMC's Ghassan Bannoura:



The three day conference ended with the weekly nonviolent protest on Friday at the small village of Bil’in in central west Bank. Local and internationals protesters have been conducting weekly nonviolent demonstrations against the Israeli wall in Bil’in for four years.

Abduallh Abu Rahmah, an organizer of the conference, told those gathered about the soldiers who killed Bassem Abu Rahmah one week ago during the weekly demonstration:



“He was shouting, stop shooting you have injured an Israeli woman, they did not allow him to finish. They shot and killed him.”

Eyad Burnat is an organizer of the conference and the head of the village committee against the Wall and settlements. He talked about this year’s conference goals:



"150 people from different parts of the world took part in the conference today; our objective is to support and expand nonviolent popular resistance everywhere."

Among those who took part in the conference were delegations from South Africa, the Catalan government, and Luisa Morgantini, vice-president of the EU parliament, in addition to Palestinian officials like the appointed PM Salam Fayyad.



“So far Bil’in struggle is something really that give hope to everybody, we did not see the wall go down, we saw settlements grow up, but in the same time I think it’s so important the struggle that Bil’in are doing, because it’s also an example for trying to be together in a bigger movement.”

In September 2007 the Israeli Supreme Court of Justice ruled that the construction of the wall around Bil’in must stop. The court also ruled that the section of the wall currently built on the Palestinian villagers’ land must be re-routed. The lawyer for the village, Michael Safrad met the villagers on the second day of the conference, as the groups were touring the West Bank.



“Now two and half years after the first decision, and two attempts by the army to evade from implementing the decision, finally the army have issued new route, if implemented it will restore something like 750 dunoms out of 2,000 dunoms, that was taken in the first place.”



One Acre equals four dunoms. For international and Israeli supporters, this Friday was another weekly protest where dozens are injured by army fire and tear gas that are fired by soldiers permanently stationed behind the wall, to prevent the crowd from going through the gate to their land. But for Bil’in villagers this Friday the march was missing one activist, Bassem who once walked and chanted among them.

Other villages like Al Ma'ssara near Bethlehem city and Nil'in near Ramallah also conducted there weekly protests on Friday. As is the case each week, the army fired tear gas and rubber-steal-coated bullets at the protesters. Dozens were treated for gas inhalation injuries in both villages.

For IMEMC.org this is Ghassan Bannoura.


The Political report

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, stated this week his government would not stop settlement construction or expansion in the occupied West Bank unless the Palestinians halted the building of new homes. Meanwhile, Hamas' political leaders wanted further European intervention in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. IMEMC Rosa McCarthy has the story:

Netanyahu's remarks come in contravention of the essence of Palestinian-Israeli peace process, which demands Israel to halt settlement activities on occupied Palestinian territories.

International law considers Israeli settlements on the occupied West Bank and occupied east Jerusalem illegal. "We would not expand existing settlements, but if any settler wants to build a home where he/she is, it is no problem", Netanyahu was quoted as saying.

Washington, which has been supervising Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations for several years now, has regarded the settlement activities as a major stumbling block in the path of peace. According to Israel's Peace Now peace group, there are currently about 480,000 Israeli settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

In a related remark, U.S president, Barak Obama, confirmed that his country will take further action to bring both Palestinians and Israelis together for peace. In London, British MPs listened this week to Hamas' political leader, Khaled Mash'al via video link. Mash'al's address, the first of its type since the EU had boycotted Hamas, drew attention to a variety of issues, including the peace process.

Mash'al called on Europe to intervene effectively for a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East region, blaming Israel for not accepting the Arab peace initiative, formulated in 2002, which was later re-endorsed this year.

In Israel, Egyptian intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, met this week with Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, defense minister, Ehud Barak and foreign minister Avidgdor Liberman.

Suleiman's visit comes on top of concentrated Egyptian mediation efforts to reach a prisoner swap deal between Israel and the Palestinians. The Egyptian official invited Liberman to visit Egypt, despite Lieberman's' previous statements against the president of Egypt, Husni Mubarak.

At the internal Palestinian level, representatives of Fatah and Hamas parties began heading back to Cairo for resumption of national unity talks. The talks are expected to take place on April 26.

Arab media reports said that Cairo set the end of May as a deadline for parties to reach an agreement. In spite of a series of rounds of negotiations, the two sides have not signed a unity deal.

Hamas wants a power-sharing government that has no specific political agenda, while Fatah insists that any coalition should abide by PLO's platform that signed peace with Israel in 1993.

Since coming to parliament in 2006, the Islamist Hamas party has shunned peace with Israel until Israel ends its occupation of the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem.

For IMEMC.org this is Rosa McCarthy.


The Gaza Repot

As Israeli continue to besiege the Gaza Strip, more patients die and more are injured due to Israeli attacks, from Gaza IMEMC’s Rami Al Meghari reports:

Four Palestinian civilians were injured on Wednesday at midday when an explosion occurred in a market place in Gaza city. Medics reported that all four were taken to a nearby hospital after sustaining moderate wounds. The Palestinian ministry of health reported that an unexploded Israeli bomb left over from January's Cast lead Operation caused the explosion.
On Tuesday Israeli soldiers detained two Palestinians after they allegedly attempted to infiltrate into Israel from the Central Gaza Strip, the army reported. The two were moved to an interrogation facility. It remains unclear whether they intended to infiltrate Israel searching for work or to carry out an attack.
The more than 1.5 million Palestinians living in the impoverished Gaza Strip are under strict Israeli siege. Medical sources reported that the number of patients who died due to the unjust Israeli siege on Gaza amounted to 321 after a patient died last week at a Gaza hospital. The latest casualty was a 4-months old infant identified as Ayham Karim Eid.
Also on Tuesday the Israeli navy recovered the body of a Palestinian man from the sea just off the northern Gaza coast whilst patrolling the area.
Local Palestinian sources said that the Israeli navy has not yet handed the body to the Red Cross so that it can be sent to the Palestinian health ministry for identification. Local police say that two Gaza men have drowned this week, but they do not yet know the identity of the man found today.
Since Israel's 22 month long siege on Gaza took effect the Israeli navy patrols often attack Palestinian fishermen when they sail into Palestinian territorial waters.
For IMEMC.org this is Rami Al Meghari in Gaza.


The West Bank report

This week the Israeli military carried out at least 28 invasions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. During those attacks, Israeli troops kidnapped 45 Palestinian civilians including four children. This and more by IMEMC's Kathrin Orwell:

This week’s invasions were focused in the cities of Hebron, Ramallah and Jenin this week. An Israeli settler ran over and killed a Palestinian man in east Jerusalem on Tuesday morning.
Local sources said Mohamed Ali, 27, from Sho’fat refugee camp in Jerusalem, was crossing a street near the illegal settlement of Pisghat Za’ev and the French Hill when the settler ran him over, causing the fatal injury.
Also this week the Israeli military continued to demolish Palestinian homes in all parts of the West Bank. The Israeli army demolished four homes belonging to Palestinian farmers in the village Akraba near the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
Witnesses said that troops invaded the village in the morning and surrounded the four homes. Later bulldozers arrived and demolished the homes. The farmers said that soldiers also damaged property nearby.
On Tuesday the Israeli military ordered eight families from the village to leave. The homes of four of them have now been demolished. The army says the homes are too close to the nearby settlement of Mokhier.
In Jerusalem the Israeli police demolished a Palestinian-owned home in the Jabbal Al Mukaber neighborhood just outside Jerusalem’s old city. The house belongs to Ammar Ehdaden and is home to seven people. Jabbal Al Mukaber is a Palestinian dominated area of Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Jerusalem municipality pressed charges against a Palestinian woman who owns a house inside Jerusalem’s old city. The court says Taliah Al Salayma added a new room to the house without permission, and had been in contempt of the court when she refused to remove it.
Since Israeli occupied the city of Jerusalem in 1967, it has rarely given Palestinians permissions to build homes or to renovate them.
For IMEMC.org this is Kathrin Orwell


Conclusion

And that's just some of the news this week in Palestine. For constant updates, please check out our website, www.IMEMC.org. Thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem. This week's report has been brought to you by George Rishmawi.