Israeli navy challenges Gaza-bound Libyan ship
By Jeffrey Heller JULY 13 11:35 AM
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The captain of a Gaza-bound Libyan aid ship Tuesday rejected an Israeli demand that it dock instead in Egypt, the mission organizers said, setting course for a new confrontation over Israel's naval blockade.Six weeks after it drew a world outcry by killing nine Turks in the botched boarding of another ship that tried to reach the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory, Israel said it would turn away or seize the cargo vessel Amalthea -- renamed Hope by activists.A charity chaired by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, said in a statement an Israeli warship was near the Moldovan-flagged Amalthea, which left Greece on Saturday for what would normally be a three-day voyage to Gaza.In response to the Israeli order to head for the Egyptian port of El Arish, the captain of the Libyan ship and the head of the foundation team on board reaffirmed that the ship's destination is Gaza and no other place, the charity said.An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed that a process of identification and communication with the vessel, some 100 miles from the Gaza coast, had begun but said the ship had not been boarded.The Israeli navy has launched preparations and activity to stop the Libyan ship,she said.After the May 31 interception of the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara, Israel eased overland commerce with Gaza but maintained the naval blockade in what it called a precaution against arms reaching the Islamist Hamas, with whom it fought a war last year.
On June 5, the navy commandeered Irish-owned aid ship Rachel Corrie after it refused orders to turn back or dock in Israel for its cargo to be vetted for possible transfer to Gaza.International criticism of Israel, led by former stalwart Muslim ally Turkey, has focused on the continued harship inflicted on Gaza's 1.5 million Palestinians, many of whom depend on U.N. aid handouts.There has also been rancor over the limited powers and mandate of two internal Israeli investigations into the killings aboard the Mavi Marmara by marine commandos who said they opened fire after being set upon by passengers wielding clubs, knives and a gun. Activists aboard the ship disputed that account.Tuesday saw publication of the conclusions of the first inquiry by a military panel that faulted a lack of planning in the high seas interception but found the lethal force warranted.Organizers said the Amalthea, with 12 crew and up to 10 activists on board, carried 2,000 tonnes of food and medicine and complied with international shipping regulations.Hamas made clear it saw value to the ship beyond the cargo.This story is not related only to delivering humanitarian goods, but also to breaking the siege on Gaza and opening a sea lane, Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters, noting that Egypt, which also borders Gaza, was maintaining its own closure.(Writing by Dan Williams and Jeffrey Heller, Reporting by Allyn Fisher-Ilan and Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem and Lamine Ghanmi in Rabat, Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Missing Iranian scientist surfaces in Washington By MATTHEW LEE and ROBERT BURNS, Associated Press Writer JULY 13,10
WASHINGTON – A missing Iranian nuclear scientist, who has sought refuge at a Pakistani embassy office in Washington and who Iran claims was abducted, is free to return to his homeland, the State Department said Tuesday.It was the latest development in a murky case that has been shrouded in mystery since the scientist, Shahram Amiri, disappeared while on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in June 2009.He has been in the United States of his own free will and obviously he is free to go, department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. In fact, he was scheduled to travel to Iran yesterday but was unable to make all of the necessary arrangements to reach Iran through transit countries.Crowley said Amiri was at the Pakistani embassy. He traveled there on his own,he added, but would not elaborate. Other officials said Amiri arrived there Monday evening.Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, told reporters at a news conference in Madrid that Amiri was found after having been kidnapped during the Hajj and taken to the U.S. against his will. He demanded that Amiri be allowed to return home without any obstacle.In brief remarks to reporters, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Amiri was free to go.
These are decisions that are his alone to make, Clinton said. In contrast, Iran continues to hold three young Americans against their will, and we reiterate our request that they be released and allowed to return to their families on a humanitarian basis.Clinton was referring to three American hikers who have been held by Tehran since July 2009 on an accusation of illegally entering the country. They have not been charged.Clinton and Crowley also mentioned the case of Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent who disappeared in Iran in 2007.We also continue to have concern about others, including Robert Levinson. We have asked Iran many, many times for information about his whereabouts and we still do not have that information,Crowley said.Iran has repeatedly claimed that the U.S. abducted Amiri — charges the Americans deny. U.S. media reported in March that the 32-year-old scientist had defected to the U.S. and was assisting the CIA in efforts to undermine Iran's disputed nuclear program.Adding to the confusion, Amiri himself appeared in a series of videos making conflicting claims, including one where he said he was kidnapped by American and Saudi agents and taken to the U.S. and another in which he said he was freely studying in the United States.
Iranian state television reported that Amiri entered the Pakistani embassy's office representing Iranian interests in Washington and demanded an immediate return to Iran.The Iranian interest section is technically part of Pakistan's embassy and is under Pakistani legal protection but is run by Iranians who issue visas for travelers to Iran and perform other functions.A Pakistani diplomat in Washington said Amiri arrived at the interest section, which is separate from the main Pakistani embassy building, at 6:30 p.m. EDT Monday, and told Iranians there that he had been dropped by what he called his captors.The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. He added that Pakistani officials had yet to speak directly to Amiri.Mostafa Rahmani, head of the Iranian office in Washington, said Amiri was there but declined to provide details.Amiri's sudden appearance could prove an embarrassment to Washington, which accuses Tehran of seeking nuclear weapons. Iran denies that and maintains that its nuclear research is for peaceful purposes. Iranian State TV's website quoted Amiri as saying in a telephone interview that the U.S. was planning to send the scientist back to Iran following release of the videos.Since the release of the videos, the Americans have come out as the losers,Amiri was quoted as saying. He said he was under psychological pressure in recent months.The United Nations in early June slapped a fourth round of sanctions on Tehran over its refusal to curtain its nuclear program.
Before he disappeared, Amiri worked at Tehran's Malek Ashtar University, an institution closely connected to the country's powerful Revolutionary Guard.Iran's state TV has periodically showed purported videos of Amiri claiming abduction and torture by the U.S. Crowley, the State Department spokesman, disputed the claim of torture.I have no information to suggest that he has been mistreated while he has been in the United States,Crowley said.Associated Press writers Nahal Toosi in Islamabad, Nasser Karimi in Tehran and Robert Reid in Amman contributed to this report.
Israelis sue Al-Jazeera over Lebanon war reporting By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer - JULY 13,10
JERUSALEM – A group of 91 Israelis wounded by Hezbollah rockets during the 2006 war is suing the Arab news network Al-Jazeera for $1.2 billion in a New York court for allegedly aiding the Lebanese guerrillas, their lawyer said Tuesday.Nitzana Darshan-Leitner said the suit, which was filed Monday, claims the Qatar-based news network intentionally violated Israel's military censorship regulations and reported the precise locations of rocket strikes in Israel in live broadcasts during the monthlong 2006 war.The reporting enabled Hezbollah to aim its rockets more accurately at Israeli targets, the suit alleged.There was no immediate comment from Al-Jazeera.Hezbollah launched around 4,000 rockets into Israel during the monthlong war in 2006. The fighting killed 159 Israelis and 1,200 people in Lebanon.Al-Jazeera made itself a crucial component of the Hezbollah rocket offensive. The intent was to assist the terrorists in targeting and killing civilians,said Darshan-Leitner. Without the assistance of Al-Jazeera's on-the-ground spotters, Hezbollah would have been unable to accurately aim its rockets into Israeli cities.Israel's military censor prohibited media outlets from reporting the locations of rocket strikes during the fighting, and Israeli police detained Al-Jazeera crews several times for violating the edict and broadcasting real-time information, though no formal charges were ever filed.The lawsuit was filed on the fourth anniversary of the start of the war.Haim Kaplan, who was wounded in the first day of fighting and his northern Israel home damaged, said the lawsuit aimed to hold all those connected to the rocket attacks accountable.Anyone involved in supporting terror should pay the price and anyone who thinks about doing so should think twice,he said.
Israeli bulldozers raze 4 east Jerusalem buildings By DIAA HADID, Associated Press Writer - JULY 13,10
JERUSALEM – Israeli bulldozers destroyed six buildings, including at least three homes, in contested east Jerusalem on Tuesday, resuming the demolition of Palestinian property after a halt aimed at encouraging peace talks.Jerusalem house demolitions are a volatile issue because of conflicting Israeli and Palestinian claims to the city's eastern sector. Israel sees it as part of its capital city, while Palestinians want it for their own future capital.The municipality said none of the structures razed were homes, and that all had been illegally built and were not populated. The demolitions were carried out by a court order, the municipality said in a statement.But Palestinians disputed those claims, saying three of the demolished structures were homes and one was a warehouse. Two daybeds and bags crammed with children's clothing and kitchen utensils were strewn outside one of the buildings.Basem Isawi, 48, an unemployed contractor, stood stony-faced amid the rubble of his unfinished home, forbidding his six children to come out of the nearby house where they currently live to see what had happened to it.Isawi said he built the almost-finished home illegally for about $25,000 because he was convinced the municipality would deny him a permit. He had been notified of the impending demolition but did not know when it was slated to happen, he said.We watched them destroy the house, and we couldn't do anything, Isawi said. Police said the demolitions were carried out without incident.
Since October, no houses had been demolished in the eastern sector of the city until Tuesday. The demolitions seemed to indicate a move a way from the unofficial freeze on them, which Israel imposed after much criticism from Washington.On Monday, a Jerusalem municipal committee gave preliminary approval to 32 new apartments in a Jewish neighborhood in east Jerusalem, rolling back a decision earlier this year to quietly put new projects on hold. And in recent weeks, the municipality has begun demolishing small, uninhabited structures, such as sheds, built without permits in east Jerusalem.Palestinians say both demolitions and settlement construction undermine their efforts to establish a state on territory Israel captured in the 1967Mideast war.Saeb Erekat, an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, condemned the demolitions. This government of Israel has been given the choice between settlements and peace and it is obvious that it chose settlements, he said.The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not comment Tuesday. A spokesman for the U.S. embassy had no comment.Israel says it is only enforcing the law against building violations, but Palestinians say discriminatory planning practices make it impossible for them to get permits, leaving them no choice but to build illegally and risk demolition.About a third of Jerusalem's 750,000 residents are Palestinian. They have residency status in Jerusalem and receive Israeli social benefits, but do not hold Israeli citizenship.They largely boycott municipal elections to avoid recognizing Israel's hold on east Jerusalem.Meir Margalit, a dovish Jerusalem municipal councilman, said the demolitions were aimed at squeezing Palestinians out of the city.The municipality and the government are afraid that the Palestinians will become a majority in the future, and in order to stop this process they have forbidden them to build houses in order to convince them to leave the city,Margalit said.
US envoy Mitchell to return to Mideast in talks push
Mon Jul 12, 4:35 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States said Monday that envoy George Mitchell will return to the Middle East this week in hopes of helping start long-dormant direct talks between Israelis and Palestinians.He'll be in the region in a couple of days, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters.We want to get them into direct negotiations as quickly as possible, he said.Until we get in direct negotiations, there's little prospect of reaching a just settlement for everyone concerned.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House last week and pledged to work to resume direct talks as he tried to play down past frictions with President Barack Obama.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has been skeptical of Netanyahu's sincerity about starting direct talks, accusing Israel of poisoning the atmosphere with settlement plans in the Palestinian territories.
Palestinians suspended direct talks in December 2008 when Israel began an offensive in the Gaza Strip, controlled by the Islamist movement Hamas. But Mitchell helped start indirect talks in May this year.
20 new Jewish homes approved in east Jerusalem
Mon Jul 12, 2:15 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – The construction of 20 new homes in a Jewish settlement in annexed east Jerusalem was approved on Monday, officials said, in a move likely to hamper Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.The city's planning and construction committee authorised the construction in the Pisgat Ze'ev neighbourhood, said Stephen Miller, a spokesman for mayor Nir Barkat.The neighbourhood is one of the largest Jewish settlements built in mostly Arab east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed.Miller said the committee at a meeting on Monday authorised more than 100 building permit requests from all parts of Jerusalem, including in Arab neighbourhoods.Jerusalem and Jewish settlements are among the thorniest issues in efforts to achieve a peace deal.Israel considers the Holy City its eternal and indivisible capital and has vowed to continue building there, while the Palestinians see east Jerusalem as the capital of their promised state.So-called proximity talks were originally due to start in March but the Palestinians withdrew after Israel publicised a plan to build 1,600 units in east Jerusalem's Ramat Shlomo district.The Palestinians eventually agreed to hold the indirect talks after receiving US assurances the Ramat Shlomo expansion plan would be frozen, a move Israel denied.Israel is now pushing the Palestinians to agree to enter direct talks, but they have so far refused and made them conditional on an Israeli freeze on all settlement construction, including in east Jerusalem.We will continue building Jerusalem in all its neighbourhoods, without consideration for the political situation,committee member Elisha Peleg told the Ynet news Website.However, Miller said it was unlikely that the building of the 20 units in Pisgat Ze'ev would start any time soon.It still has to go to 15-to-20 municipal departments for approval, like sanitation and environment, before they can pay their fees and start building, the spokesman said.
Abbas urges Hamas to sign reconciliation deal
Mon Jul 12, 1:56 pm ET
BUCHAREST (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas Monday renewed calls for the Islamist Hamas movement to sign an Egyptian-drafted reconciliation document that would allow elections to take place.I hope that Hamas signs the Egyptian document so that we are able to move towards the organisation of elections, Abbas said after a meeting in Bucharest with Romanian President Traian Basescu.Abbas, who is scheduled to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Thursday in Egypt, reiterated the importance of inter-Palestinian reconciliation.In the last general election in 2006, Hamas unexpectedly routed Abbas' secular Fatah party.Under the terms of the reconciliation document, legislative and presidential elections would be held in mid-2010.The two groups have remained deeply divided since the Islamists violently seized control of Gaza in June 2007 during a week of bloody street clashes, confining Abbas's authority to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.Egypt has made several attempts at reconciliation, but the last round of talks ended in October 2009 when Hamas refused to sign the Egyptian document after it was inked by Fatah.Hamas has said it will only sign the document with certain amendments, while Egypt and Fatah have refused to reopen the negotiations.
Netanyahu: peace deal unlikely to be in place by 2012
Mon Jul 12, 12:17 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview broadcast Sunday that it was unlikely a peace deal with the Palestinians could be implemented by 2012.Can we have a negotiated peace? Yes. Can it be implemented by 2012? I think it's going to take longer than that,Netanyahu told Fox News Sunday.
Asked if he believes there can be a Palestinian state by 2012, Netanyahu said he thought the process needs to take longer.I think there can be a solution. It may be implemented over time, because time is an important factor of getting the solution, both in terms of security arrangements and other things that would be difficult if they're not allowed to take place over time,he said.For the past two months, Israel and the Palestinians have been engaged in a series of US-backed proximity talks which have seen US envoy George Mitchell shuttling between the two sides.But Israel wants to shift to direct negotiations -- in a move which was publicly backed by US President Barack Obama when he met with Netanyahu in Washington last week.Following the meeting, Obama assured Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas by telephone on Friday of his commitment to the establishment of a Palestinian state, Abbas' spokesman said.
The Palestinians have set August 2011 as a target date for a state, particularly prime minister Salam Fayyad, who has been trying to build the institutions for a de-facto state.
Israel says won't let Libyan aid ship reach Gaza
Sun Jul 11, 6:05 pm ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel will not allow an aid ship sent by a Libyan group to reach Gaza, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Sunday, just over a month after Israeli commandos killed nine activists in a raid at sea.I say very clearly, no ship will arrive in Gaza. We will not permit our sovereignty to be harmed, Lieberman said on Army Radio, referring to Israel's naval blockade of the Palestinian territory controlled by Hamas Islamists.The Moldovan-flagged Amalthea, renamed Hope, left Greece on Saturday bound for Gaza on a trip organized by a charity chaired by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi. The group said the ship was carrying some 2,000 tons of food and medicine and complied with international rules.Organizers said the vessel, with 12 crew and up to 10 activists on board, would head for Gaza but go to Egypt's port of El-Arish instead if banned from reaching its destination in a voyage expected to take between 70 and 80 hours.I hope very much that common sense will prevail and the ship will go to El-Arish, or that it will obey the Israel Defense Forces and eventually go to (Israel's port of) Ashdod,Lieberman said.Israel's blockade of the coastal strip has been under closer international scrutiny since it sent commandos to raid an aid flotilla on May 31, killing nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists. Israel said those troops acted in self-defense after passengers attacked them with metal rods and knives.
Israel said on Saturday it had contacted Greek, Egyptian and Moldovan authorities to make sure the latest ship, chartered by the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation, would not attempt to reach Gaza.Youssef Sawani, executive director of the Libyan charity, said before the Moldovan ship left Greece that its mission was peaceful and its sole goal was have its humanitarian cargo delivered to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.It's not to make an event or a show in high seas or somewhere else, Sawani said.Israel says the blockade is needed to keep arms from Hamas.The United Nations says the blockade has led to a humanitarian crisis for the Gaza Strip's 1.5 million people, of whom about 1 million depend to some extent on regular supplies of U.N. and other foreign aid.Following the international outrage caused by its raid on the aid flotilla, Israel eased the land blockade of the enclave and set up an inquiry into the incident.(Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Additional reporting by Reuters TV in Lavrio and Lefteris Papadimas in Athens; Editing by Peter Graff)
Hezbollah says it has list of targets in Israel By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer – Sun Jul 11, 11:00 am ET
BEIRUT – A senior official with the militant Hezbollah group said Sunday they have a list of military targets inside Israel to strike in any future war.Hezbollah commander in south Lebanon, Sheik Nabil Kaouk, made his comments in response to Wednesday's release by Israel's military of maps and aerial photographs of what it described as a network of Hezbollah weapons depots and command centers in south Lebanon.The Israeli material included detailed maps and 3-D simulations showing individual buildings that the military said were rocket storehouses. Some were said to be located close to schools and hospitals.The Hezbollah official told the state news agency that the Israeli leaders were trying to restore their confidence by presenting a list of targets in southern Lebanon after the Israeli public opinion lost faith in the army.Kaouk noted that Israel's announcement comes on the anniversary of their defeat in the 2006 war in which Hezbollah battled Israel to a stalemate and some 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israelis died.Though the border has remained quiet for the last four years, Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged threats in recent months.During the 2006 war, which started after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border attack, Israel launched a massive air, sea and ground campaign, while Hezbollah fired around 4,000 rockets into Israel.
The war ended with a U.N. resolution that imposed a blockade on weapons destined for Hezbollah and banned the group from operating near the Israeli border.Israel says the resolution and international peacekeeping forces in Lebanon have been largely ineffective. Israel believes Hezbollah has increased its prewar arms stockpile to more than 40,000 rockets.Israeli defense officials say the range of the group's arsenal now includes Israel's main population center in and around Tel Aviv.Hezbollah leader sheik Hassan Nasrallah said the group now can hit anywhere in Israel.Let the enemy's leaders know that we have a bank of targets that is full and they all know that all their drills and threats will collapse in front of the resistance's surprises in any future war,said Kaouk.
Israel police quiz ex-PM again over Holyland scandal
Sun Jul 11, 6:27 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's former prime minister Ehud Olmert was questioned by the fraud squad on Sunday for a third time over his alleged involvement in a huge property scandal, a police spokesman said.Ehud Olmert went on Sunday to the brigade headquarters in Lod, near Tel Aviv, said Micky Rosenfeld, without giving details of the questioning.In May, the fraud squad had questioned the 64-year-old two times within the same week about the so-called Holyland affair.He is already on trial on three unrelated counts of fraud and bribery.The investigation reportedly centres on his alleged role in a scandal involving bribes from developers building a grandiose residential project in Jerusalem called the Holyland complex.In April, prosecutors named Olmert as a key suspect in the Holyland affair in which he is suspected of having taken bribes totalling some 3.5 million shekels (one million dollars).The bribes were allegedly given during construction of the massive complex in the 1990s, a period when Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem. He has denied any such charges.
In December, Olmert also pleaded not guilty to charges of corruption linked to three other cases. He resigned under pressure in September 2008 after police recommended he be indicted.He is accused of unlawfully accepting gifts of cash-stuffed envelopes from Jewish-American businessman Morris Talanski and of multiple-billing for foreign trips.Olmert has also been charged with cronyism in connection with an investment centre which he oversaw when he was trade and industry minister between 2003 and 2006.All the charges relate to a period before Olmert became premier in 2006.
Palestinian village to be encircled by barrier By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer – Sat Jul 10, 3:08 pm ET
WALAJEH, West Bank – Israel has started construction on a new section of its West Bank separation barrier that Palestinian residents say could sound a death knell for their hamlet.The barrier, running much of the length of the West Bank, has already disrupted lives in many Palestinian towns and villages in its path. But it threatens to outright smother Walajeh: The community of about 2,000 on the southwest edge of Jerusalem is to be completely encircled by a fence cutting it off from most of its open land, according to an Israeli Defense Ministry map.Walajeh old-timers are determined to stay, but doubt their children will feel the same way.We will cling to the village by our teeth, said Adel Atrash, a village council member. But we don't know how the next generation will look at things. Maybe they won't be able to live with all the difficulties and decide to leave.Israel began building the barrier in 2002, saying it would be a temporary bulwark against Palestinian suicide bombers and gunmen who have killed hundreds of Israelis. However, the barrier's zigzag through the West Bank brought allegations that Israel is unilaterally drawing a border and grabbing land by scooping up dozens of Jewish settlements.Six years ago Friday, the International Court of Justice said in a nonbinding ruling that the barrier's path through occupied territory violates international law and that Israel should tear down what it has built.
Israel rejected the decision, saying the barrier is crucial for keeping Israelis safe, and denies it is drawing a border.In future negotiations (on Palestinian statehood), the route of the security barrier will not constitute a political factor,Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said.Construction of the barrier continues as Israel and the Palestinians hold indirect negotiations the U.S. hopes will eventually lead to face-to-face talks on a peace treaty establishing a Palestinian state. But the Palestinians have refused direct negotiations without a complete freeze on settlement building.Today, the barrier, almost two-thirds complete, runs for more than 250 miles (400 kilometers) through the West Bank and east Jerusalem, war-captured territories claimed by the Palestinians for a state. Once finished, the barrier would put 9.4 percent of the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, on the Israeli side, along with 85 percent of half a million Israeli settlers, according to a U.N. report.The barrier — walls of cement slabs in urban areas and wire fences in the countryside — has made it harder for tens of thousands of Palestinians to reach farm land, schools and medical care.Those who live in the seam zone between Israel and the barrier or have farm land there need special permits they can't always obtain and cross through gates that aren't always open, according to the U.N. report, issued on the anniversary of the world court ruling.
Walajeh's fate appears to be sealed because it is virtually surrounded by Israeli settlements.The barrier will make a large dip into the West Bank to keep the settlements, including Har Gilo and the Gush Etzion bloc, on the Israeli side. Within that pocket, an extra loop of barrier is to surround Walajeh on three sides, with a fenced settler road to Har Gilo closing off the fourth side, according to the Defense Ministry map of the projected route.Moreover, the loop runs tightly around Walajeh's built-up area, penning it within less than a square mile and isolating it from almost all its farmlands. Of 36 Palestinian villages that are or will be caught in the seam zone, none are as closely encircled as Walajeh, said Ray Dolphin, a U.N. barrier expert in Jerusalem.Israeli Defense Ministry spokesman Shlomo Dror said Friday he could not comment on the details of construction around Walajeh, but noted the route withstood a challenge in an Israeli court four years ago.The Israeli military would not comment on how villagers are to get in and out of their enclave. Israel has raised the possibility of an access road with a checkpoint, Atrash said, as well as gates so farmers could reach their lands. Residents are skeptical, considering the difficulties farmers elsewhere have had.In recent weeks, bulldozers began leveling land and uprooting trees near Walajeh in the run-up to construction.
Ahmed Barghouti, 63, who lives close to the fence's path, says he lost 88 olive trees last month and now fears for a nearby family burial plot. The village's lawyer, Ghiath Nasser, says he won a temporary order to stop work on that section until Israel's Supreme Court decides what should be done with the graves of Barghouti's parents and grandmother. The house of a neighbor, Omar Hajajla, lies just outside Walajeh's barrier loop. Hajajla said Israeli officials last week informed him his home would be surrounded by its own electric fence. This is like putting my entire family in jail,the father of three young boys said.My children need to cross four gates to go school. We don't know how it will work out, but I'm sure it will be hell for my entire family.The barrier is just the latest blow for Walajeh, which has lost most of its land to Israel in decades of conflict. Israeli forces took control of the village in the 1948 Mideast War, and residents fled, some resettling on parts of its lands that ended up in the Jordanian-controlled West Bank.After 1967, Israel expanded east Jerusalem's boundaries and absorbed half of Walajeh. But residents were still classified as West Bankers, not Jerusalemites, limiting their rights and freedom of movement.Since then, Walajeh has lost more acres to expanding settlements and roads, said Matteo Benatti, a U.N. official. From its pre-1948 size of 4,400 acres, Walajeh now has around 1,100 acres, nearly half of which will be cut off by the barrier if built as projected, he said.
Plans have been floated to build more homes for Israeli settlers in the area. In November, Israel's government gave preliminary approval to expand the nearby east Jerusalem's Gilo settlement. Private developers propose building apartments for Israelis on the lands surrounding Walajeh and have been lobbying to include the village on the Israeli side of the barrier, so far to no avail. Dror, the Defense Ministry spokesman, said he did not believe the developers would get their plan approved. Also, more than two dozen houses in Walajeh have been demolished over the years and 41 out of about 200 remaining homes face Israeli demolition orders on grounds they were built without permits, said Meir Margalit, a Jerusalem city council member. Margalit, who supports the village, says permits are impossible to obtain.Walajeh faces an uphill battle for survival, said Margalit.In any scenario, my feeling is that Walajeh will disappear.Associated Press writer Dalia Nammari in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.
Presbyterians: End Israel aid over settlements By PATRICK CONDON, Associated Press Writer – Sat Jul 10, 12:29 am ET
MINNEAPOLIS – Presbyterian leaders strongly backed a proposal Friday that included a call to end U.S. aid to Israel unless the country stops settlement expansions in disputed Palestinian territories.But they said the 172-page report, which details their church's approach to issues in the Middle East, was a sincere effort to mend long-standing fractures between the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and Jewish groups.
It earned qualified praise but also criticism from pro-Israel organizations, which have long taken issue with various Presbyterian statements on Middle East peace.
Church delegates approved the report by an 82 percent vote during the church's general assembly in Minneapolis. It's meant as a comprehensive guide to the denomination's more than 2 million members on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.We feel we've brought together people who previously had trouble talking about some of these issues together,said Rev. Karen Dimon, pastor at Northminster Presbyterian Church in North Syracuse, N.Y., and chairwoman of the committee that produced the report.Ethan Felson, vice president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, said he still took issue with major aspects of the report, but said it contained important signals that could lessen long-standing tension between Presbyterians and pro-Israel Jews. He said it strengthens support for Israel's right to exist and removes comparisons of Israeli policy to apartheid.Concerns remain, but I have hope that authentic dialogue and better relations can come of this,Felson said.The Anti-Defamation League said the report managed to avoid a rupture with Jewish people, but bias against Israel continues.The Simon Wiesenthal Center said the report takes definite sides in a complex struggle.But the Rev. J.C. Austin, director of the Center for Christian Leadership at New York City's Auburn Seminary, disagreed.We are refusing to designate a winner or loser,said Austin, who helped prepare the report.
The denomination's relationship with Jewish groups took a hit in 2004, when the church's general assembly voted to authorize phased selective divestment in multinational corporations operating in Israel because of Israel's policies toward Palestinians. That stance has since been softened, and this year convention delegates voted down an amendment to the Middle East report that would have put divestment back on the table.Despite the strong convention vote, some delegates expressed concern that the Middle East report remained too slanted toward a Palestinian perspective.There are many longtime friends in the Jewish community who believe this report misstates Jewish theology and misquotes the Jewish voice, said the Rev. Susan Zencka, pastor at Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church in Stevens Point, Wis. We have come to a position of Palestine good, Israel bad. Life is not that simple.But supporters stressed that the overarching goal of the report is to encourage activism toward peace in the Middle East.I fully support a state of Israel, but I also believe Israel's peace will not come until they seek peace with Palestinians,said Dottie Villesvik, a church elder from Everett, Wash.The church's annual convention is scheduled through Saturday. It began July 3.
