Israel army dismantles 10 West Bank roadblocks Thu Apr 3, 4:22 PM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - The Israeli army dismantled on Thursday 10 roadblocks in the West Bank, as part of a pledge to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to remove 50 in the occupied region, an army spokeswoman said. The roadblocks were removed from areas near the towns of Ramallah, Nablus, Qalqilya and Tulkarem in the north of the West Bank, the spokeswoman said.The army had said on Monday that it had removed a roadblock northeast of Ramallah.That announcement came a day after Rice secured a pledge from Israel to dismantle 50 West Bank checkpoint to improve the daily lives of Palestinians in order to bolster faltering peace talks formally revived in November.But Israel's decision was deemed insufficient by the Palestinian Authority.We welcome the removal of any checkpoint but what the Israelis have declared is nonsense and not useful, Hussein al-Sheikh, head of the Palestinian Authority's civil affairs department, said on Monday.The measure affects a fraction of the more than 500 roadblocks and checkpoints the army operates across the occupied West Bank, according to a UN tally.
Egypt allows Palestinians to cross back into Gaza Thu Apr 3, 1:31 PM ET
RAFAH, Egypt (Reuters) - Egypt temporarily opened a border crossing with the Gaza Strip on Thursday to allow around 200 Palestinians stranded in Egypt to return home, Egyptian security sources said.
Hamas militants blew a hole in the border in January, allowing Palestinians to flood into Egypt to seek relief from an Israeli blockade. The border has since been resealed, stranding hundreds of Palestinians inside Egypt.Many of the Palestinians, who returned home through the Rafah crossing, had been living with relatives in towns on Egypt's Sinai peninsula, the sources said.Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has said Egypt was working to lift the blockade of Gaza and reopen the Rafah crossing, where Hamas has demanded a key role. Hamas seized control of Gaza in June.The Egyptian government says it would like the Palestinian Authority, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, to take charge at the crossing point. Abbas and his Fatah group have little influence in Gaza.
(Reporting by Yusri Mohamed, writing by Will Rasmussen)
Israel plays down risk of conflict with Syria by Charly Wegman Thu Apr 3, 1:01 PM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel on Thursday played down media reports of heightened tension along the Syrian border, insisting there was little likelihood of military confrontation between the two neighbours. Israel has no intention of attacking Syria, and the latter says only it is ready to respond to any attack, so the risk of a military confrontation is very low, said Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon.His comments came as Israeli newspapers splashed front-page stories claiming the military was on high alert after Syria reportedly boosted its deployment near the border and called up reserves.The Jerusalem Post said increased tension along the frontier, as well as in the Gaza Strip, led Defence Minister Ehud Barak to cancel a planned visit to Germany, though a spokesman said the decision was linked to a planned home front defence exercise next week.
Spokesman Shlomo Dror told AFP Syria has staged military manoeuvres and made other preparations for possible confrontation in the event Hezbollah seeks to avenge the February 12 killing in Damascus of its military leader Imad Mugnieh, which the Shiite militia blames on Israel.But Ramon, a close ally of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said Hezbollah was well aware that if they react too strongly, we will also react harshly.I don't know if they will react or not, but we must do everything in our power to thwart such a retaliation and to thwart their ability to avenge, he said at a conference in Tel Aviv.President Shimon Peres blamed radical elements for seeking to fuel tension between the Jewish state and its northern border.
Israel said in the past and says today that it seeks peace. We have no intention of attacking Syria ... Syria is sending similar messages but there are radical elements trying to incite and raise tensions.Yediot Aharonot claimed there were increasing signs that an attack could take place soon.And the more these signs accumulate -- unusual movements, meetings between various figures, information from all sorts of sources -- the more the temperature rises, the daily wrote.The London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi reported on Wednesday that Syria had deployed three armoured divisions and nine infantry brigades near the border with Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, fearing Israeli infiltration.But General Dan Harel, Israel's deputy chief of staff, also dismissed the likelihood of confrontation with Syria.Neither of the two parties wants such a conflict, he said. But he added that Israel would respond with a heavy hand to any attack -- a warning top Israeli officials have voiced with increasing regularity over recent days.What is certain is that Israel is the most powerful country in the region and that our response to any aggression would be very tough, Harel said.Hirsh Goodman, of the Institute for National Security Studies, said the situation could easily get out of hand if a war of words escalates. Therefore, Israel and Syria are doing what they can to ease the tension, he told AFP.
Ramon stressed that Israel remained interested in holding talks with Damascus, but he did not have high hopes this would be possible soon.I believe, unfortunately, that the ability to hold talks with Syria, at least in the near future, is extremely limited if it exists at all, he said in Tel Aviv. Unfortunately that country is deeply anchored in its relations with the axis of evil of Iran and Hezbollah, he added. The last round of negotiations between the two neighbours, technically at war since 1948, broke down in 2000 over disagreements over the strategic Golan Heights plateau, which Israel seized in the 1967 war and annexed in 1981.
The reports of increased tension between the two countries coincided with an announcement that Israel will hold a large-scale home front defence exercise next week featuring scenarios in which chemical and biological missiles hit populated areas.
Israel to hand out gas masks to civilians Wed Apr 2, 7:46 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel has decided to distribute gas masks to civilians, starting next year, to prepare for a possible non-conventional weapons' attack, public radio reported. Deputy defence minister Matan Vilnai announced the decision during a closed-door meeting between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and members of his security cabinet, the radio said.General Zeev Zuckran of Israel's emergency services told public radio there was no cause for alarm over the decision, which he stressed did not signal a deterioration of the security situation.Israeli authorities regularly warn of the risks of a non-conventional attack from Iran or Syria.Gas masks were distributed to the public during the 1991 Gulf War when Iraq fired Scud missiles at Israel, and again in the run up to the US-led assault on Iraq in 2003.Those masks were collected in 2006 for checks and to change the filters.Israeli media reports had said the country is planning another large-scale civil defence exercise next week.
Palestinian businesses look east to China By Wafa Amr
Tue Apr 1, 8:07 PM ET
HEBRON, West Bank (Reuters) - Faced with Israeli trade and travel restrictions, a stagnant economy and a flood of cheap imports from Asia, Palestinian businessmen are increasingly seeking their fortunes in China. Demand for Chinese visas among business owners in the occupied West Bank is so high that the Chinese consul regularly visits the city of Hebron to stamp their passports and circumvent an Israeli ban that prevents them from traveling to the embassy in Tel Aviv.Everybody is doing business in China, Khaled Oseily, businessman and mayor of Hebron, told Reuters. "The Chinese consul comes to Hebron and on one day issued some 600 to 700 visas to Hebronite businessmen.China began to open up its economy around 30 years ago, using cheap labor to produce and export huge volumes of inexpensive goods that have undercut local industries in many developing countries.
In Hebron, the largest Palestinian city famous for its leather and handmade ceramics, the wave of cheap Chinese goods was the last straw for businessmen already battling Israeli travel restrictions that inflate costs and hurt economic growth.Israel says its network of checkpoints and roadblocks that carve up the West Bank is needed for security reasons. Palestinians say they amount to collective punishment.On Sunday, Israel said it would remove about 50 dirt roadblocks in the West Bank and open a permanent checkpoint that obstructs the flow of travelers to the town of Jericho.Western and Palestinian officials said Israel had pledged in the past to remove West Bank barriers but failed to do so.Meanwhile, many Palestinians have turned to the import trade, traveling to China to buy cheap goods to sell at home.Increasingly, and amid doubts peace talks with Israel will yield a deal for an independent Palestinian state soon, they are opting to stay.
Economic conditions in Palestine are very bad, said Hazem Shyoukhi, a gift merchant from Hebron who moved to the eastern Chinese city of Yiwu in 2006 to start an export business.There (in Hebron) we conducted our business based on news reports, he told Reuters by phone from Yiwu. I had to listen to the newscast to check if there was a closure ... I worked under pressure merely to survive, so I decided to leave.
MADE IN CHINA
China, which since the end of the Cold War has turned to the Middle East for half of its oil imports, is not just linked to the region by trade. Beijing has sought a bigger political role in the Middle East and has appointed an envoy to the Arab-Israeli peace process.
Palestinian diplomat Ahmad Kayed, who lives in Beijing, said in the past 10 years, more than 200 Palestinian businessmen had settled in China, but thousands of other Palestinian and Arab businessmen were frequent travelers to Chinese cities for trade.Arabic restaurants, mosques and schools have opened throughout the vast country, he said.Palestinian imports of Chinese goods are (worth) more than $2 billion through direct trade by Palestinian businessmen or through Israel, said Kayed, head of Palestinian-Chinese trade relations at the Palestinian embassy in Beijing.Competition from cheaper Chinese goods has all but destroyed the manufacturing industry in the Palestinian territories, where the Made in China label is a common sight in shops.
The popular Crocs leisure shoes, made by U.S.-based Crocs Inc, sell for 280 shekels ($78) in Israel but in Hebron, the copycat Chinese-made version goes for just 13 shekels ($3.6). For five decades, Yasser Hirbawi was the only Palestinian manufacturer of the national black-and-white keffiyeh headdress, the symbol of Palestinian nationalism worn most famously by the late leader Yasser Arafat. Now, he wipes dust and cobwebs from an old weaving machine in his small, dark textile factory in Hebron. Two years ago I had to close down my factory because I couldn't compete with Chinese-made Hattas (keffiyehs) that sell for 40 percent less, said the 76-year-old, who himself wore a keffiyeh. Hebron mayor Oseily said competition from Chinese goods coupled with Israeli restrictions had forced about 200 shoe factories to close in the city, putting 17,000 out of work. He said more than 40 percent of people in the Hebron area were unemployed and called the 250 Israeli army roadblocks there a huge impediment to business.
WORK ETHIC
Thousands of miles away in Yiwu, a city of 2 million people in China's eastern Zhejiang province, 30-year-old Shyoukhi had a happier tale. Palestinian businessmen import everything from China. I even get orders to send Chinese-made Palestinian flags and the Palestinian keffiyehs, said Shyoukhi, whose export office does business with thousands of Palestinian and Israeli merchants. Yiwu has become a buzzing trading spot thanks to the influx of Middle Eastern money. It is now a hub for selling made-in-China Arabic products, like fashion clothing and religious artifacts. Every Friday, buyers from Lebanon, traders from Yemen and businessmen from Egypt, gather for their weekly prayers. At wholesale markets in the city, makeshift stalls are stacked with everything from toothbrushes to belts. Businessmen in Hebron have their business cards printed in English and Chinese, and many have even adopted Chinese names. Professor Wilfried Vanhonacker, who taught a course Doing Business in China at the Kellog-Recanati School of Business in Tel Aviv in February, said Hebronites needed to adapt to globalization or see their businesses die. Production has moved to China and it will be moving next to Vietnam. There are 1.3 billion people in China with an incredible work ethic ... This will continue, said Vanhonacker, dean of the Moscow School of Business Skolkovo and author of several books on China. In Hebron, Shehadeh Sammouh, once a small-time merchant, now owns a large store selling Chinese shoes, clothes, toys and household goods. He sells Chinese shoes for 70 percent less than a Hebron-made shoe. Customers demand the goods made in China because they look better and are cheaper, Sammouh said. (Additional reporting by Royston Chan in Yiwu; Editing by Clar Ni Chonghaile)
