
APRIL 2001
Monday
April 30, 2001
Main Headlines
- President Arafat affirms his commitments to the peace
process and to the Egyptian Jordanian initiative to
resume peace negotiations. In a meeting with the Israeli
opposition leader Yossi Sarid, President Arafat believes
the said initiative can constitute the basis for the
resumption of peace talks. President Arafat had two
telephone conversations yesterday with both President
Mubarak of Egypt and King Abdullah II of Jordan.
- The Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres conveyed
Sharon's response on the Egyptian Jordanian initiative
back to Amman and Cairo. Sharon wants changes on the
initiative, effectively emptying it from its real
contents.
- Palestinian Minister of International Cooperation Nabil
Sha'ath met yesterday with the Danish Foreign Minister in
Copenhagen. Dr. Nabil Sha'ath said: President Arafat can
not end the Palestinian Intifada without a peace
agreement.
- The barbaric Israeli shelling of Palestinian cities
resumed yesterday. Palestinian residential areas and
police positions in Dir Al- Balah and Khan Younis were
bombed causing large destruction to property and
seriously injuring five civilians two of them seriously.
A Palestinian boy was also injured. The injured
Palestinians entered their land to work. The Israeli
occupation soldiers fired at the Palestinians and
prevented others from attending their land.
- Two other Palestinian men were shot and seriously injured
last night near Tulkarm. Lives of both the injured
Palestinians are in grave danger.
- As if he restraining them, Israeli army officers demand
that Sharon give them a free hand to escalate the Israeli
army aggression against the Palestinian population. The
Israeli National Religious Party faction whip Shaul
Yahalom, a coalition partner in the Sharon current
government called on the Israeli occupation army to
strike massively without limits against the Palestinian
areas and people. Yahalom advocated accompanying the
assaults with a world wide public relations campaign to
justify and to cover the assault on the Palestinian
people. Avigdor Lieberman, chairman of the so called
Israel Bietinu political party and member of Sharon's
government said that President Arafat is not a partner to
peace with Israel, and criticized Israel's foreign
minister Shimon Peres for travelling to Egypt and Jordan
to discuss the Egyptian Jordanian initiative to resume
peace negotiations.
- Thirty-three barrels of radioactive material was found in
Hebron. The barrels with - extremely toxic material,
Israeli Defense Forces - printed on them were discovered
by Palestinian security forces. The material was buried
in an area close to a cow and sheep farm in the city. Few
months ago a similar shipment was caught in Jordan coming
from Israel, the Jordanian authorities returned the
shipment back to Israel. It appears that Israeli
contractors entice local Palestinians to take this radio
active dangerous material and dump it in the occupied
Palestinian territories. The Palestinians who
collaborated with Israel on this were arrested.
- The French foreign minister calls on Israel to lift the
sanctions and to freeze Jewish settlements in the
occupied Palestinian territories.
- More security meetings between Palestinian and Israeli
personnel took place but without any tangible results.
- The Israeli ex foreign minister Shlomo Ben Ami says:
Sharon's military solution will not stop violence.
- An explosion in Netanya inside Israel, a booby-trapped
car exploded close to an Israeli bus near a Jewish
settlement in the West Bank and a bomb exploded inside a
Jewish settlement. No casualties were reported.
- Peres's mission in Cairo and Amman appears to have
failed.
- Instead of addressing the Israeli aggressor and occupier,
the American administration is reported to have asked the
Palestinians to 'quite things down'. Palestinian cabinet
secretary Ahamad Abdul Rahaman says: The American
position with regard to the Israeli aggression on the
Palestinian people is not fair. America is siding with
the aggressor against the victim.
- President Arafat was surprised by the announcement of a
cease-fire. Ahamad qura' denies that he reached an
agreement with Peres on a cease-fire. Qurai said Israel
has to either accept the Egyptian Jordanian initiative in
full or to reject it.
Sunday
April 29, 2001
Main Headlines
- Today the Palestinian Intifada for independence begins
its 8th month. On the ground the Israeli
occupation escalates its aggression against Palestinian
life, land, homes and trees, while the Palestinian people
persist in their demand to end the Israeli occupation of
Palestinian land and to regain their freedom and
independence.
- Israeli occupation troops assassinated a Palestinian man
aged 27 in Ayda refugee camp near Bethlehem and injured
his son and nephew both five years old. Israeli tanks
using shells and heavy machine guns attacked Palestinian
residential homes and police stations in Khan Younis, Dir
El- balah and Bietunia.
- Jewish settlers burn 200 Olive trees near the Palestinian
village of Salfit near Nablus.
- Palestinians fire five mortar shells on Jewish
settlements in Gaza. Six Israeli young men were injured
lightly. President Arafat ordered the enforcement of his
decision not to fire mortars on Jewish settlements and to
dismantle Palestinian popular resistance committees
established recently in Gaza.
- The Israeli opposition leader Yosi Sarid is scheduled to
meet President Arafat in Ramallah today, Sarid is said to
have a proposal formulated by the opposition to stop the
Palestinian Intifada in exchange for a freeze on Israeli
settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Obviously Sarid is in no position to influence Sharon to
freeze Jewish settlements. Sharon opposes totally the
concept of removing Jewish settlements from the occupied
Palestinian territories. On the contrary, he ordered the
building of new settlements and expansion of many others.
Tenders to this effect were published this month in
Israeli papers.
- President Arafat meets EU Foreign Policy Coordinator
Solana and EU peace envoy to the Middle East Moratinos.
President Arafat updated his guests on the continuing
Israeli army attacks on the Palestinian population and
the latest developments on the political contacts taking
place in the region now.
President Arafat last night received a telephone call
from US Secretary of State Collin Powel. So far the
American administration did not find it fit to invite
President Arafat to meet with the US President George W.
Bush. According to Vise President Chenny, the time is not
appropriate yet.
- A Palestinian official source said: Sharon's statements
on Jewish settlements are very dangerous.
- The French Foreign Minister criticizes Sharon's policies
in the occupied Palestinian territories and held the
Israeli government headed by Sharon as responsible for
the consequences of the siege Israel is imposing on the
occupied Palestinian territories.
- Al- Bayan newspaper published in the United Arab Emirates
reported yesterday that Israel uses depleted Uranium and
other active material in bombs used to shell Palestinian
targets and positions in the occupied Palestinian
territories. Al Bayan said that analysis of bomb
fragments used by Israel against the Palestinian people
proved that.
- Palestinian preventative security chief Jebril Rajoub
says: Israel is a state lead by the army. A Palestinian
Israeli security meeting is scheduled to take place
today.
- Always ingenious in its ways to dominate, oppress, and
control the Palestinian people. Israel is building steel
gates on main roads between Palestinian cities towns and
villages. One of the first steel gates is built on the
main Jenin Nablus road close to Arraba village. This
steel gate is closed at 11 P.M preventing people from
travel in between towns cities and villages after the
said time. Previously, Israel built steel gates on roads
leading to Jewish settlements and Jewish industrial areas
built in the occupied Palestinian territories.
- President Mubarak of Egypt says: Russia undertook to play
a more involved role in the Middle East peace process.
- Palestinian minister of international cooperation says:
The PNA will not accept any initiative that precludes
freezing Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian
territories.
- The Palestinian Minister of Labor denies that Israel
allowed 11 thousand Palestinian workers to return to
work. Palestinian officials and the Palestinian public
refute Israel's pretensions that it has eased sanctions
and the siege it imposes on the Palestinian people in the
occupied Palestinian territories.
Thursday
April 26, 2001
Main Headlines
- As if it is not already under siege, the Israeli
occupation government announces a complete closure on the
occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank, Gaza
and Arab east Jerusalem.
- Israeli occupation troops commit another crime in Rafah /
Gaza last night. A bomb operated by remote control was
detonated killing four Palestinian policemen and injuring
six, three, of whom seriously.
Israeli tanks stationed in Jewish settlements in the
occupied Palestinian territories indiscriminately shell
Palestinian towns, cities and refugee camps. Biet Jala,
Hebron, Rafah, Biet hanoun, Ayda and Azza Palestinian
refugee camps were shelled last night. The Israeli
occupation forces targeted Palestinian medical teams
yesterday shooting and injuring at least one of them. The
medical team was trying to collect body parts of the
Palestinian policemen killed in the explosion.
- Jewish settlers in the heart of the Palestinian city of
Hebron attack Palestinian civilians, destroy businesses
and journalists covering the news in the area.
- Poverty percentages in the West Bank and Gaza reached
55.7% of the population in the West Bank and 81.4% of the
population in Gaza. More than two million Palestinians
suffer severe hardships and poverty. Israel is conducting
a systematic campaign against the Palestinian population
in the occupied Palestinian territories purpose of which
is to destroy the Palestinian civil society through the
destruction of the Palestinian economy and hindering the
education process.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian workers are hit by
the Israeli closure and siege imposed on the Palestinian
territories. The effect is directly and indirectly
hitting the workforce and all sectors of the Palestinian
economy. The education process is being affected very
badly.
The Israeli deliberate and systematic measures are slowly
destroying the Palestinian society, all of this is being
done by the Israeli government in a subtle and discrete
way in a manner hides Israel's actions and real
intentions from the world. The Israeli propaganda machine
comprised of Israeli government media campaign supported
by mainly Jewish writers, journalists, analysts and
public relations groups in the United States and the West
in general are serving the Israeli military machine which
is literally killing Palestinian men women and children,
destroying homes and businesses, uprooting trees and
turning fertile agricultural land into vast areas of ugly
deserts, and most dangerous of all blinding people of the
world from seeing the reality and the consequences of
Israel's actions on the ground against a Palestinian
population struggling for its freedom, independence and
to end this barbaric Israeli occupation of Palestinian
land in the West bank, Gaza and Arab East Jerusalem.
- Many distinguished European officials are visiting
Palestine and Israel in an attempt to broker a solution
for the current deadlock. The foreign ministers of
Belgium and Spain are currently in the area. So far
nothing tangible is being done to stop the Israeli slow
genocide practiced against the Palestinian people. The
Palestinian people effectively have no hope. The European
peoples, the EU. Canada, Australia, India, China, Russia
and all others are called upon to stop the Israeli
ongoing savage aggression against the Palestinian people
and to end the Israeli occupation of our land, because
the Israeli occupation is the root of the problem and the
cause of the ongoing instability in the Middle East.
- President Mubarak of Egypt will receive the Israeli
foreign minister in Cairo on Sunday. First Sharon
rejected out of hand an Egyptian Jordanian initiative to
resume peace negotiations between the PNA and Israel, the
European Union gave their support to the initiative and
the American side did not oppose it. On his part, Shimon
Peres working as a marketing man for Sharon and his
obstructive policies suggested that instead of Sharon
rejecting the initiative, he should live with it and
destabilize it from within through asking for changes on
the terms of the initiative and eventually rendering
ineffective without actually announcing his rejection to
it. On Sunday, Peres is due in Cairo to discuss changes
on the initiative as Peres suggested and Sharon accepted.
Tuesday
April 24, 2001
Main Headlines
- A Palestinian boy 11 years old was shot and killed when
Israeli occupation troops fired upon a funeral procession
in Gaza yesterday, thirteen other Palestinians were
injured. Israeli tanks opened fire on Palestinian homes
and businesses in and around Biet Jala, Aida and Arroup
refugee camps. The Israeli occupation forces also
attempted to storm Rafah refugee camp to destroy more
Palestinian homes, Palestinian resistance rebuffed them.
- Israel continues its illegal digging underneath the Aqsa
Mosque. Recently, Israel asked UNISCO to postpone a visit
by one of its representatives from visiting Jerusalem to
investigate the ongoing excavations done by Israel since
1967. Israel's excavations underneath the Aqsa Mosque are
endangering the structure of the Aqsa Mosque.
- President Arafat reiterated his commitment to signed
agreements with Israel and asks the EU to increase its
efforts to save the peace process. President Carter calls
on the new Bush administration to renew credibility for
the United States in the region.
- Ex-President of the United States Bill Clinton believes
that President Arafat Wants to achieve peace with Israel.
- Israel is reported to have softened its opposition to the
Jordanian- Egyptian initiative to resume peace talks with
the Palestinian people. Palestinian observers are
suspicious of Sharon's intentions particularly in light
of his repeated positions with regard to withdrawing from
occupied Palestinian territories, stopping Jewish
settlements and arriving at a final status agreement with
the Palestinian people. Peres is reported to be behind
the apparent cosmetic change in Sharon's position.
- Members of the Israeli cabinet from the Likud differ in
their positions with regard to President Arafat. The most
extreme of those is Israeli minister of police Uzi
Landau. Others are silent particularly with regard to
Sharon's zigzaging policies. Landau is taking an extreme
stance, it appears, because he is competing with
Netanyahu on the leadership of the Likud. Both Netanyahu
and Landau have been attacking President Arafat recently.
In the Israeli public eye, there is no one more extreme
than Sharon, he was elected on a security for Israeli
ticket, some thing that appears to be not within Sharon's
grasp. Hence, the ground is being prepared in the Israeli
right wing camp to choose some one who is more extreme to
satisfy Jewish extremists lust for more killing and
destruction for the Palestinian people. Landau is
demanding and pushing to do just land. Netanyahu is
staring to appear one again on the scene.
To observers both Israelis and Palestinians, this is a
sign reflecting the apparent failure of Sharon thus far
in the eyes of the right in Israel.
- Eight Israelis were reported lightly injured due to a car
explosion near Tel- Aviv. In a drive by shooting near Tel
Aviv, an Israeli was shot dead, investigators say the
drive by shooting was a result of Mafia like conflict in
the area.
- Palestinian Minister of Information and Culture says: A
Palestinian delegation is expected to visit Washington
soon.
- As Israeli occupation soldiers increase their attacks on
Palestinian journalists,- latest victims of which - was
Laila Odeh a senior correspondent for Abu Dhabi Satellite
TV station who was shot in the leg by an Israeli live
bullet while covering the destruction of Palestinian
homes by Israeli bulldozers and tanks near Rafah last
Friday.
Palestinian journalists began a protest campaign designed
to pressure the Israeli government to take measures
against those who harass and attack Palestinian
journalists and to expose Israel's so called freedom
granted to the press.
- A fifteen-minute meeting was held yesterday between
Palestinian and Israeli security personnel near Gaza
yesterday. Another meeting lasting for three hours was
held at the premises of the American embassy in Tel- Aviv
last night.
- Washington warns its citizens from travelling to Israel
and the occupied Palestinian territories including Arab
east Jerusalem.
- Usama El- Baz, special advisor to President Mubarak says:
Egypt does not fear Israel. El- Baz added that Israel can
not attack Egypt, because such an action would mean the
last nail in Israel's coffin.
- The Israeli Prime minister said to have signed a document
allowing building a train track linking Gaza and the West
Bank to be used as a safe passage between the two areas.
Monday
April 23, 2001
Main Headlines
- An Israeli was killed and fifty others injured in an
explosion in Kfar Saba in Israel. A Palestinian suicide
bomber is said to have been behind the explosion. Sheik
Ahmad Yassin of Hamas said this comes as a result of the
bloody cycle waged by Israel against the Palestinian
people. Fatah and the PNA denied any responsibility for
this operation and a member of the Palestinian cabinet
said, the PNA condemns any killings of civilians be they
Israelis or Palestinians.
- Israel bombs Palestinian residential areas in Gaza. A
Palestinian policeman died of his wounds sustained last
week. The main Salah El- Din Street was closed by Israeli
occupation forces and Palestinians were prevented from
movement on this main road.
- Palestinian families are destitute in Gaza and the West
Bank. Israeli bulldozers razed Palestinian homes to the
ground. The percentage of Palestinian families not being
able to meet their basic needs in terms of food, medicine
and essential life services are on the increase. Whole
families throughout the Palestinian country areas are
dependent on material help and donations from charity
organizations.
- President Arafat will meet in Ramallah today both the
foreign minister of Spain and the foreign minister of
Belgium.
- Meretz leader - leader of the Israeli opposition Yosi
Sarid says: Conditions under Sharon are worse than what
they were under Barak.
83% of the Israeli public feel unsafe living in Israel.
- Israeli sources expect a meeting soon between President
Arafat and Shimon Peres.
- Ahmad Qurai, head of the PLC says: Contacts between the
PNA and Israel are focussing on the Jordanian Egyptian
initiative.
- King Abdullah II of Jordan says: The area can not bear
any longer the prevailing tense situation.
- Egypt questions the silence of Shimon Peres with regard
to Sharon's excessive use of force against the
Palestinian population.
- Syria reiterates its commitment to respond to the Israeli
air raid on its base in Lebanon last week.
- Fatah denies any relation to a communiqué issued in its
name adopting the suicide attack in Kfar Saba.
- Secretary General of the Arab League calls for an
international peace conference on the Middle East. Madrid
II.
- Head of the Palestinian general intelligence says, more
meetings are scheduled with the Israeli side.
- Israel arrested a Jordanian and accused him of smuggling
weapons.
Sunday
April 22, 2001
Main Headlines
- During Mr. Sharon's six weeks in office, he has gone
beyond his predecessor, Ehud Barak, in the use of tanks,
helicopters and heavy automatic rifle fire against
Palestinian civilians and military targets. In recent
weeks, Israel also has begun to use surface-to-surface
missiles to bombard Gaza.
- Bethlehem was shelled for at least two hours Wednesday,
the most persistent attack on a Palestinian town since
the latest round of Israeli - Palestinian conflicts
erupted last September. The targets selected for shelling
were economic ones; not only was a stone cutting factory
severely damaged, but Israeli tanks bombarded a new
conference center on the southern end of the city. The
buildings are integral parts of Bethlehem's major
industries; stone working and tourism. And then the
Israelis moved into Gaza, if only for 24 hours. Facets of
Sharon's strategy have been in full view during recent
weeks. Dozens of homes on the edges of the Khan Younis
and Rafah refugee camps in Gaza were destroyed. But the
tin roofed, one-story houses, set close to one another,
are not suitable for launching mortars and most offered
no line of fire for snipers. The houses were destroyed to
punish the Palestinians and hundreds of residents were
left homeless. (Part of a report by Daniel Williams -
Washington Post service.)
- With the Americans taking an isolationist stance, the
thinking in Israel went, the Israeli forces would be able
to make use of all the force at its disposal to combat
Palestinian (resistance) that is limited in its
capability. The Israeli forces started with rubber-coated
steel bullets and live bullets fired at stone throwers,
volleys of missiles launched at police stations,
liquidations that resembled contract killings, and it
ended with ground operations in Area A (under full
Palestinian control). All this continued uninterrupted
and threatened to extend the confrontations, while also
inducing the Palestinians to respond as intensively as
they could. When Israel enters the city of Khan Younis in
the Gaza strip and demolishes dozens of homes, the
Palestinian Authority cannot, and perhaps should not, sit
idly by. It owes its people a reaction. And then, when
the Palestinians escalated the use of their wretched
weapons, Israel drew its Doomsday weapon: the re-conquest
of Area A. With the dangerous trinity- Ariel Sharon,
Benjamin Ben- Eliezer and Shaul Mofaz-it was clear that a
re-occupation was only a matter of time.
It was just at this juncture that Powell - US Secretary
of State - intervened, showing magnificent timing. It is
clear that the Israelis and the Palestinians will not be
able to reach a viable settlement. It is equally clear
that in the absence of a settlement the situation will
continue to deteriorate and the bloodshed will continue
to intensify. There is nothing wrong with Israel saying
to the international community: We have failed in our
attempt to find a solution, we are too violent and the
Palestinians too violent - so come and help us. American
and European troops separating the Palestinians from the
Israelis can be good news for everyone concerned. Let's
issue the invitation. If we can not help ourselves, at
least let the world help us. (The above is Part of Gideon
Levy's article in Ha'aretz April 22, 2001)
- Joint Palestinian Israeli security meeting took place
yesterday near Gaza. The Palestinian side presented the
Israelis with a memorandum detailing Israel's violations
and the measures Israel should take to reduce violence.
The Israeli side described the meeting as positive.
President Arafat suggested a joint Israeli Palestinian
declaration confirming their adherence to the Sharm
understandings and the acceptance of the Jordanian
Egyptian initiative. A Palestinian source said that
Palestinian Israeli contacts are taking place, they can
not however be described as negotiations. The contacts
are more of brain storming sessions to find ways on how
to calm the situation.
- The Israeli occupation army storms into Rafah again and
destroys a Palestinian police position. Israeli
occupation soldiers prevent Israeli and Palestinian peace
activists from distributing food to Palestinian villages
under siege.
- Palestinian families who were made destitute due to
Israel's destruction of their homes are having very hard
times trying to reconstruct their lives. Women, men and
children, old and young people with no work and no
schools sleep in the open, no sanitary, no running water
and no place to prepare food to feed their children. The
Israeli soldiers go into Palestinian residential area
firing on people and property, destroy Palestinian homes
and businesses and leave people destitute.
- President Mubarak of Egypt describes the Israeli Prime
Minister Sharon as some one who is only interested in
violence. The German newsmagazine Der Spiegel quoted
President Mubarak as saying: "Sharon wants to force
the Palestinian people to follow his line."
President Mubarak also said that Sharon had extinguished
any glimmer of hope that had followed the 1993 Oslo
Accords.
- The Arab League is preparing to send a delegation to
Washington, to the EU and to the UN to explain the
gravity of the deteriorating situation in the Middle
East.
Saturday
April 21, 2001
Main Headlines
- For the first time since Sharon accompanied by his
soldiers stormed into the courtyard of Al- Aqsa Mosque
back in September, the Israeli occupation repeated its
actions yesterday. The Islamic Wakf condemned this
provocative action and warned of the sequences of such
intrusions by Israeli occupation forces into the third
holiest places of Islam in Arab Jerusalem. Palestinians
demonstrated in Jerusalem yesterday protesting the
Israeli continuing occupation of the Palestinian city.
- The destruction, the agony, and suffering is reaching
each and every Palestinian home. Sharon's occupation
soldiers, tanks and bulldozers are spreading death to
people, to plants and to animals. Sharon is killing life
in the occupied Palestinian territories. The Bush
Administration gave Sharon the green light and he used it
most efficiently. American money, American weapons and
American political support. Some say, the American people
are not supporting Israel's barbaric actions, some say it
is the Jews who are pulling the strings in Washington,
some say Bush is not all there. The problem is, Sharon
feels that he has a green light to wreak destruction on
the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian
territories. Who is going to stop him?
- The Israeli occupation troops stormed Al- Aqsa Mosque
yesterday and tightened its siege on Arab East Jerusalem.
Two babies one 20 days old boy and a six-month-old baby
girl died yesterday from suffocation. The Israeli
occupation troops fired poisonous gas bombs into
Palestinian homes in Shufat refugee camp north of
Jerusalem where the baby girl died and into Al-Khader
towns where the family of the baby boy lived.
- The Palestinian leadership considers the escalating
Israeli aggression on the Palestinian population as a
crossing of all red lines. The Palestinian leadership
condemns the dangerous political and military adventures
of the current Israeli government, and calls on the world
community to stop the Israeli on going murderous attacks
on the Palestinian people.
- The so-called easing of the siege on Gaza is not felt by
the Palestinian population of Gaza. Gaza is still divided
into sections and people find it very difficult to move
from one section to another. Israeli troops hinder the
traffic and search all cars, in the process delays of up
to three hours can take in order to cross from one point
into another.
- Secret talks said to be taking place within the UN
framework to deescalate tension in the Middle East and to
return to the negotiation tables. France is not
optimistic that peace talks can be resumed soon. Russia
says, the situation in the Middle East deteriorated to
its status before the Madrid Conference ten years ago.
- Sharon reiterated his objections to a return to peace
negotiations, refused a call from President Arafat for a
joint address to both peoples to stop all forms of
violence, and refused a solution on Jerusalem.
- An Israeli plan to expand Jewish settlements in Arab East
Jerusalem plans to build more houses for Jewish settlers
in the old city of Jerusalem, in Silwan and other
neighborhoods in the Arab city. The Palestinian
leadership calls on the international community to stop
Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian
territories and to stop the continuing Israeli aggression
on unarmed Palestinian civilian population.
- An Israeli opposition leader describes Shimon Peres as a
handbag carrier for the Israeli Prime Minister Sharon.
Yossi Beilin, a justice minister in the government of the
previous government of Ehud Barak says: Living by the
sword isn't the solution for Israel. Yossi Beilin article
with this title can be read in the opinion page on this
home page.
- An American official says: The Bush administration is
increasing its intervention in the Middle East in order
to defuse an escalating situation.
- An American LawMaker says, Sharon turned down a proposal
made by President Arafat to issue a joint anti violence
statements by both President Arafat and the Israeli
premier to their peoples.
Thursday
April 19, 2001
Main Headlines
- Israel shells Palestinian residential areas in Gaza,
Silwad, Bethlehem and Jericho, Israeli tanks invade Gaza
again and leave. Palestinian police positions were hit,
homes, cars, businesses are being destroyed and people
killed and injured.
- The destruction in Biet Hanoun brings back the memories
of 1967 when Israel invaded the West Bank and Gaza.
- In a letter to President Bush, President Arafat calls on
Washington to pressure Israel to stop its aggression on
the Palestinian people.
- Peres justifies the aggression and says the solution to
the Palestinian Israeli conflict can only be political.
- The PNA welcomes the recent American position. Head of
the Palestinian Legislative Council says: The United
States proved that it can be effective in its role in the
peace process.
- Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat says: Sharon is
trying to destroy the PNA . Proxies for Sharon and
ministers in his government openly call for 'doing away'
with President Arafat and the dismantling of the PNA.
Sharon is slowly doing just that.
- Assistant Secretary of State Ned Walker says: The US will
have a more visible role to bring quite back in
preparation for the resumption of peace talks between the
Palestinian leadership and Israel.
- President Bush extends the Law for the PLO to have
diplomatic offices in Washington.
- The Foreign Minister of France says: The situation in the
Middle East is the worse since 15 years.
- Official sources in Sharon's office say: Sharon rejects
the Jordanian Egyptian initiative to return to peace
talks.
- The Israeli ambassador to France confesses his government
crossed redlines. M. Moratinus, special EU peace envoy to
the Middle East condemns Israel's show of brutal
strength.
- Israel is said to be fearful of the Mitchell report
investigating reasons behind the eruption of violence in
the Middle East.
- The Security Council is worried by the Israeli aggression
on the occupied Palestinian territories. European and
international criticism is voiced against the continuing
Israeli attacks on the Palestinian people under Israeli
occupation.
- The Pope voices his concern on the violence in the Holy
Land and urges all to consider deploying voice of reason
to replace the sound of battle to solve and find a just
solution in the Holy Land.
- Sharon received criticism from his ministers for not
informing them of his plans to reoccupy Gaza last Monday.
It is expected that differences between Sharon and his
occupation army will increase as each blames the other
for the 'mismanagement' of the operation to reoccupy
parts of Gaza.
Wednesday
April 18, 2001
Main Headlines
- After midnight last night, the Israeli occupation
destroyed and burned more than 30 Palestinian homes in
Hebron. Israeli tanks bombarded almost all neighborhoods
in the Palestinian city of 120 thousand. Five hundred
Jewish extremists settlers occupied parts of the city
center, and a massive Israeli occupation force is there
to 'protect' them.
- Washington moved. Israel withdrew its occupation forces
from Biet hanoun in Gaza.
- President Arafat describes Israel's actions in Gaza as
unforgivable crime. And president Mubarak of Egypt tells
Sharon enough is enough.
- The Israeli occupation troops leave a trail of
destruction and terror in Gaza. Human lives literally
torn to pieces. Unable to collect the torn pieces of
Mohammad Al- Masri's body who received a direct hit from
an Israeli tank, ambulance crews and Palestinian
civilians were unable to collect his body parts scattered
on a large area. Crew and civilians came under Israeli
tank fire.
- The Israeli occupation forces kill four Palestinians
including young boys and teenagers. Bara Al- Shaer 9
years old was hit by two Israeli bullets fired from a
heavy machine gun placed on an Israeli tank occupying
Gaza. Two teenagers, Hamza Obiad 15 years and Rami Mousa
16 years were also murdered by Israeli occupation troops.
Scores of Palestinian civilians many of them children and
women were injured by the indiscriminate Israeli gunfire
against the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza,
Hebron, Bethlehem, Biet Jala; Al- Khader and Housan.
- President Arafat sent a letter to President Bush
detailing to him the Israeli atrocities in the occupied
Palestinian territories.
- Collin Powel demands that Israeli occupation troops leave
immediately. Amman is awaiting Israeli reply to the joint
Jordanian Egyptian initiative. The EU declares its
inability to do anything to stop the deterioration in the
Middle East as Sharon escalate the situation further and
further.
- Sharon is back to his true self. The mask he put on his
face during the election campaign is removed. The war
criminal of Sabra and Shatilla is back. This time
murdering Palestinian children, men and women in Gaza and
the west Bank.
- Israel builds a virtual 'third temple' for people to see
on TV screens in a museum built close to the Mugrabi gate
in Arab East Jerusalem.
- President Mubarak warns Sharon not to delve into the
unknown. Washington says Israel has no right to reoccupy
Palestinian land under PNA control.
- A Palestinian official spokesman says: Israel will not
make the Palestinian people kneel.
- The Arabs feel humiliation due to their inability to do
any thing against the Israeli military attacks on the
Palestinian civilian population in the occupied
Palestinian territories.
- As Israel describes Palestinian security forces
'terrorists' Palestinian security officials will not
attend future security meetings with Israelis.
- President Bashar Al- Asad says: Israel must be held
responsible for the results of its actions. Lebanon asks
the Arab league to meet and discuss the latest Israeli
aggression on its soil.
- Thousands of Palestinians demonstrated yesterday
commemorating " prisoners day" calling on the
world community to release Palestinian prisoners in
Israeli jails.
- More than 300 Palestinian children have been arrested by
the Israeli occupation forces since September. According
to a report by the International Secretariat of the World
Organization Against Torture based in Geneva, Palestinian
children and teenagers have been tortured mentally and
physically. OMCT said, 100 youth have been detained at
Maggido prison under the direct authority of the Israeli
occupation forces, 20 in Prisons under Israeli occupation
control in the West Bank, Eighty youths in Sharon and Tel
Mond prisons and two teenage girls incarcerated at a
women prison in Neve Tirtza prison in Ramla.
- Saudi Arabia condemns the Israeli attacks on the occupied
Palestinian territories and Lebanon.
- Russia is said to be worried by the escalating situation
in the Middle east.
- The head of the Israeli Shabak accuses President Arafat
of smuggling weapons in his plane!
Tuesday
April 17, 2001
Main Headlines
- In a gathering commemorating the 13th anniversary of Abu
Jihad martyrdom, and speaking on behalf of President
Arafat, Tayeb Abdulraheem said, the Palestinian hands are
extended for a just and durable peace. And the
Palestinian people will never surrender their rights.
- Israeli air raids on Gaza and Dier Al- Balah. Israeli
tanks shell Biet Jala Tulkarm, Ayda refugee camp and Al-
Khader near Bethlehem.
- In Hebron Israeli occupation forces bombard Abu Sneneh
neighborhood and attempted to assassinate a Palestinian
man. The man whose car was damaged received light
injuries to his hand and shoulder, and was transferred to
hospital.
- Sharon's government decides to partition Gaza into three
areas separated from each other. Imagine what is this
doing to peoples lives, unable to move, work or go to
hospital. Israeli tanks storm into Biet Hanoun in Gaza
destroying Palestinian homes. Israeli helicopters fly in
the Gaza skies unchallenged delivering death to the
Palestinian population. Israeli gunboats shell
Palestinian positions from the sea. The Palestinian
population has no arms to defend themselves against tanks
airplanes or gunboats. The 'heroic' Israeli occupation
army is fighting a Palestinian police force armed with
light machine guns and a civilian population resisting
the Israeli occupation with stones.
- Israeli occupation soldiers killed a Palestinian young
man after he stabbed one of them while searching a
Palestinian village.
- Forty six thousand Palestinian students will set the
Tawjihi exam (GCSE) on June 9 this year. The Tawjihi exam
will take place as scheduled.
- President Arafat meets king Abdullah in Jordan and
describes the Jordanian Egyptian peace initiative as very
important.
- The Israeli Chief of Staff warns the situation is
deteriorating further.
- The Israeli occupation authorities in Arab East Jerusalem
destroy graves belonging to the Roman Orthodox church in
the grounds of the Church of All Nations"in East
Jerusalem.
- An ex State Department official says: Washington can not
withdraw from the peace process.
- The Israeli raid on Syrian positions in Lebanon is a
dangerous step and will increase hostilities.
- The Jordanian Foreign Minister met Israeli officials in
Tel Aviv and condemned the Israeli aggression on Syria
and Lebanon.
- A security meeting between Palestinian and Israeli
personnel was cancelled yesterday.
- President Mubarak of Egypt calls on the international
community to assume its responsibilities and intervene on
behalf of peace in the Middle East.
- American officials say: The continuing confrontations in
the Middle East will hurt American interests in the
region. Saudi Arabia warns the US of its continuing
support to Israel.
- The Arab countries condemn Israel's attacks on Syrian
positions in Lebanon. Israel is still threatening Arab
countries saying the rules of the game have changed and
the United States is accused of colluding with Israel.
Hizbullah of Lebanon says: Sharon's dreams of security
will be turned into a nightmare.
- Israel said to be searching for a mortar bomb factory in
Gaza.
- The Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq Al- Shara'a says:
Israel will pay a heavy price for its aggression in time.
Monday
April 16, 2001
Main Headlines
- The Israeli army escalates its aggression against Rafah.
Sharon's tanks and heavy machine-guns indiscriminately
shell and hit Palestinian homes, business premises and
residential areas. Thirty Palestinians including women
ands children were seriously injured. The attacks by the
Israeli occupation forces on Rafah is the second in the
last two days.
- The Independent newspaper of London reported today on the
demolishing of Palestinian homes asking if what is
happening in the occupied Palestinian territories a
tragedy or is it a war crime committed by the current
Israeli government?
- An Israeli raid on Lebanon. The targets are a Syrian
Radar position and other military installations. Three
Syrian soldiers were reported killed and several injured.
- Olmert municipality plans to destroy more Palestinian
homes in Arab East Jerusalem. Faisal Hussieni urges
Palestinians in Jerusalem to resist Israeli occupation
bulldozers with their bodies if necessary.
Sunday
April 15, 2001
Main Headlines
- Sharon's occupation forces destroy 28 Palestinian homes
and businesses. In an attack on area A in Rafah, the
Israeli occupation troops supported by tanks and
bulldozers razed 28 homes and injured 44 Palestinian
civilians five of them seriously. During the night,
Israeli tanks shelled the Austrian neighborhood in Khan
Younis injuring many more Palestinian civilians.
Israeli tanks and heavy machine guns placed in Jewish
settlements in Gaza are being used to kill maim and
destroy Palestinians while in their homes. Sharon's
government is implementing its declared policies of
razing row after row of Palestinian homes.
On Wednesday, this happened in Khan Younis refugee camp,
and now in Rafah. This policy is also used in Arab East
Jerusalem, in Al- Khader , and near all Palestinian
towns, villages and cities, this is being done to limit
the expansion of Palestinian neighborhoods and to keep
the Palestinian population in large concentration camps,
deprived of freedom, of movement, from education, from
health and from work. All this is happening while the
world is watching, not doing any thing to stop this
fascist and racist government of Sharon.
- The Palestinian leadership congratulates the Palestinian
Christian community and all Christians throughout the
world on the occasion of Good Friday and Easter
celebrations.
- A missile fired by Hizbullah forces in southern Lebanon
against an Israeli tank kills an Israeli soldier.
Hizbullah affirms that its resistance to the Israeli
occupation of Sheba'a farm will continue until its
complete liberation. Shiekh Hassan Nasrallah of Hizbullah
vowed to come to the help of the Palestinian people when
Israel escalates its attacks on Palestinian civilians in
the occupied Palestinian territories. Many view this
attack on an Israeli tank as a warning to Israel not to
escalate its atrocities against unarmed Palestinian
civilian population resisting the Israeli occupation.
- Secretary general of the Palestinian Cabinet Ahmad Abdul
rahaman said yesterday: Peace negotiations with Sharon
are a waist of time. This man (Sharon) is not interested
in peace. Commenting on the coming visit of the Jordanian
foreign minister to Tel Aviv on Monday and his meetings
with Israeli officials, Abdul Rahaman said, the
Palestinian people and leadership do not expect much of
this visit.
- Christian communities in Palestine celebrated Good Friday
and Easter Sunday. Church leaders in Jerusalem said, the
celebrations were limited to religious ceremonies due to
the suffering of the Palestinian people and the Arab City
of Jerusalem. Michele Sabbah, the Patriarch of the holy
land said: it is the right of the Palestinian people to
establish its independent state with Arab Jerusalem as
its capital and it is the right of the Palestinian
refugees to return home.
- Three Israelis were hurt in two explosions in Kfar Saba.
- The United Arab Emirates says: Washington is totally
biased in favor of Israel. This is causing frustration in
the Arab world. But apparently Washington could not care
less.
- Israel bombarded southern Lebanon. Earlier, an Israeli
soldier was killed when an Israeli tank was hit by a
direct from a missile fired by Hizbullah fighters in
south Lebanon.
- A Palestinian man who was injured and paralyzed by
Israeli gunfire in the first Intifada died in hospital
yesterday. Jihad Abu Samour 30 years old died in Biet
Jalah Hospital from injuries received in his spine that
left half of his body paralyzed for the last 12 years.
Saturday
April 14, 2001
Main Headlines
- Palestinian civilian demonstrations against the Israeli
occupation take place throughout the occupied Palestinian
territories. Seventeen Palestinian civilians were wounded
when Israeli occupation forces used live fire and steel
plastic coated bullets against them.
- Palestinian families who lost their homes when Israel
destroyed them last Wednesday April 11, are now living in
tents on the ruins of their destroyed homes.
- The Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon describes
President Arafat as being the ' biggest enemy of Israel.'
Sharon excludes any dismantling of any Jewish settlements
in the occupied Palestinian territories and does not
utter the word 'peace' - a word not in his vocabulary-
even in the context he propagated in his pre election
campaign.
Uzi Landau, Sharon's minister of police wants a
systematic bombardment of Palestinian institutions
including Palestinian TV and Radio stations until the
Palestinian people and the PNA surrender to Israel both
militarily and politically, and Olmert, Mayor of West
Jerusalem- East Jerusalem Palestinians do not recognize
him as mayor, and do not participate in the elections-
says he will strengthen Jewish presence in the city
adding that the Aqsa Mosque in its entirety is Jewish,
and promises that his 'municipality together with the
Israeli ministry of police will destroy more Palestinian
homes according to him built without Israeli permissions-
Israel scarcely grant permissions for Palestinians to
build in Arab East Jerusalem - its building is exclusive
for Jews, Palestinians can only have their ID's
confiscated and their homes demolished.
- According to Palestinian security sources, Israel sent a
booby-trapped car into Ramallah with the aim of killing
Palestinians. The Palestinian who was given the car for
his use got suspicious, informed Palestinian security
after which the car was moved to an empty space where it
exploded.
- Sharon offers the Palestinian people a state on 42% of
the West Bank and 70% of Gaza. The West Bank according to
Sharon does not include Arab East Jerusalem, an area
according to Israel's planning represents 17% of the
occupied West Bank occupied by Israel in 1967. According
to Sharon, this state will be unarmed, not in control of
its borders, does not control what is underneath its
soil, and can not have any agreements with any other
state apart from Israel.
- Palestinian and world Christians celebrate Good Friday
and Easter Sunday this week. Palestinian Christians can
not enter Arab East Jerusalem effectively being barred
from their holy places, most important of which are the
Church of Holy Sepulcher and the Via Deloroza.
- Palestinian officials say, Sharon wants to return the
Middle East into the era of no peace and no war, some
thing that can not be sustained.
- Israeli writers, journalists and newspapers say Sharon's
honeymoon is over.
- According to the British newspaper the Independent:
Israel employed 4000 of its personnel to murder the
Palestinian second in Command Abu Jihad back in 1988.
- Egypt says: the return of its ambassador to Tel- Aviv is
subject to Israel accepting the Jordanian Egyptian
initiative to resume peace negotiations.
Thursday
April 12, 2001
Main Headlines
- Four Palestinians were killed and fifty injured by
Israeli occupation tank and machine gunfire Thursday
early morning. Israeli tanks and bulldozers stormed into
the Palestinian refugee camp in Khan Younis /Gaza and
destroyed 31 homes. Hundreds of men women and children
are made homeless, they lost every thing they got.
- Israeli occupation tanks shelling the Palestinian
neighborhood of Abu Sneneh in Hebron injured six
Palestinians, burned and destroyed many Palestinian
homes.
- Sharon's occupation army is waging a war of annihilation
and destruction against the Palestinian people resisting
the Israeli barbaric occupation, an ambulance catering
for injured Palestinians, victims of Israeli gunfire in
Hebron was hit by Israeli fire injuring all of its crew.
Earlier, in Gaza, a Palestinian doctor was killed while
treating two others victims of Israeli surface to surface
missiles Israel is using against unarmed Palestinian
population under Israeli occupation.
- In addition to daily tank shelling and missiles, the
Israeli occupation army is still placing an impossible
siege on the occupied Palestinian territories. The
suffering and difficulties endured by the Palestinian
people is very difficult to describe. Many hidden
tragedies are not known, a whole population is being
strangled, while the world community is watching.
Sharon's occupation government is going ahead with its
atrocities using American made weapons and American green
light for its actions. Sharon sends more of his
occupation troops into Jewish settlements in Gaza and the
West Bank.
- Answering a question on Rabbi Ovadia Yosef 's speech to
his followers on annihilation of Arabs, President Bush
answered, violence must stop first!
- Under President Bush, the United States government vetoes
a UN Security Council resolution calling for dispatching
international protection force to the occupied
Palestinian territories. Israel along with the US,
actually supported by the US refuses any international
observer force to come into Palestine to establish one
and for all who is who is the aggressor and who is the
victim in this conflict.
- Terje Larson, the UN representative in the occupied
Palestinian territories says: Violence will spiral if
political steps are not taken. Political negotiations are
the only way to stop violence.
- An ex Israeli minister says: The Palestinian leadership
is ready to return to peace negotiations. Yossi Bielin
informed the Israeli Radio of President Arafat's
willingness to return to the negotiating table on the
basis of an Egyptian Jordanian initiative to resume
negotiations. Sharon rejected the said initiative and
dismissed it out of hand. His Foreign Minister Shemon
Peres however said that an initiative put forward by PLC
head Ahmad Qurai based on the Egyptian Jordanian
initiative is 'interesting.'
- After a meeting with Israeli army and security officers
in the presence of American observers, head of
Palestinian Intelligence Amin Al- Hindi said: The
Israelis promised to end their aggression on the
Palestinian people and another meeting is scheduled for
this Monday.
- In his meeting with American Secretary of State Collin
Powel, President Jack Chiraq of France expressed his
worries on the escalating situation in the Middle East.
France condemned the Israeli attack on the Palestinian
refugee camp in Gaza.
- American Palestinian contacts are limited to President
Arafat and Secretary of State Collin Powel.
- Instructions from President Arafat to allocate forty
apartments to house the victims of Sharon's attack on the
Palestinian refugee camp of Khan Younis.
Wednesday
April 11, 2001
Main Headlines
- The US based Human Rights Watch organization released a
communiqué stating that Israeli occupation forces were
responsible for the most extensive abuses, including
excessive use of force against unarmed Palestinian
demonstrators, unlawful killings, indiscriminate and
disproportionate fire against Palestinian attacks, and a
consistent failure to protect Palestinians from attacks
by Jewish settlers.
- A Palestinian medical doctor was killed and twenty for
others were injured yesterday after Israeli surface to
surface missiles hit Palestinian positions both police
and civilian in Gaza yesterday. Sharon's occupation
government has planned to continue in its wild aggression
against the Palestinian people under occupation. Sharon
is using all his arsenal supplied by the United states to
enforce a surrender on a Palestinian population armed
with their love for their land and struggling for
Palestinian freedom and living in dignity.
- Under the protection of the Israeli occupation army and
police, the so-called "temple mount faithful"
group conducts a provocative walk in Arab East Jerusalem.
- Sharon threatens the Palestinian people and asks the
Israeli public to wait and see. Shemon Peres defends
Israel's bombardment of Palestinian neighborhoods in Gaza
and Bietunia. Sharon's occupation government plans to
build 5000 housing units for Jewish settlers on occupied
Palestinian land.
- European NGO's call for international protection for the
Palestinian people.
- To the Palestinian people, the Israeli occupation is one
of the most degrading aspect ever witnessed by humanity.
Israelis/ Jews control every movement of Palestinian life
in the occupied Palestinian territories, Israelis decide
when a Palestinian move and when he cant, decides what
the Palestinian buy and what he cant, a Palestinian can
be arrested in the middle of the night, his home
demolished without even any prior notice, Israelis on the
gates of Palestinian towns armed with tanks, helicopter
gunships, heavy machine guns, money and support from the
strongest nation on earth, the United States of America
is given the green light to do what ever it sees fit in
the occupied Palestinian territories assured always of
financial, military and political support from the United
States. Without the backing Israel receives from the
United States Israel can not violate Palestinian human
rights, can not maintain its occupation and can not stay
as an occupying power playing a death game with the
Palestinian civilian population in the occupied
Palestinian territory.
- President Bush insists on stopping violence and King
Abdullah of Jordan emphasizes the American role in the
peace process in the Middle East.
- The American General Consul in Jerusalem said yesterday:
The American policy towards peace in the area remains the
same, adding that the Americans called on Israel to ease
its restrictions against Palestinian areas. Palestinians
do not know what to make of such American statements,
probably air bubbles that do not mean anything, or
perhaps meant to cover the real American pro Israeli
position.
- An Israeli writer recently wrote the following: The
machine of the official Jewish establishment and its
Israeli offshoot nauseates many Jews. Israeli government
commits war crimes on a day-to-day basis. It is run by a
certified mass murderer. The unprecedented siege, mass
starvation, and summary executions are now routine.
Bombing and shelling civilians are no longer anything to
get worked up about. Many Jews see it, and are ready to
say so in a cozy 'enter-nous' environment. They read news
from Israel with resignation and disgust, like an English
Victorian squire learning of the new exploits of his wild
brother in a far away colony.
- In an article in the Herald Tribune, Henry Siegman (a
senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations) wrote
the following: Although it should be obvious, it seems
not to be understood by either Israel or the United
States that the demand that Israel's new government has
put forward for unconditional cessation of Palestinian
violence before negotiations resume is, in effect, a
demand that Palestinians accept continuation of the
occupation. After all, most members of Israel's current
government believe that Israel no longer needs to change
the status quo other than around the margin. The vast
imbalance of power between the parties has masked the
reality of Israel's use of that power to maintain the
status quo- occupation. The occupation is rarely seen by
Israelis or by the international community, as a resort
to violence. Only Palestinian Intifada's are immediately
recognized as violence. Palestinians believe that Israel
is in violation of the Oslo accords because of its
construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, and
changes in Jerusalem designed to foreclose Palestinian
claims.
To Palestinians an unconditional agreement to end
'violence' means return to open-ended occupation. It also
leaves Israel free to continue with its own form of
violence - continued settlement in the West Bank. This
they will not agree to.
Tuesday
April 10, 2001
Main Headlines
- A Jewish Rabbi named Ovadia Yosef so called spiritual
mentor of Shas, a right wing extremist party with 17
members in the Israeli Knesset (parliament) calls for the
annihilation of Arabs. The Rabbi wished that the Arabs,
are' eliminated from earth'. He recommended that Sharon's
government uses Missiles "Ala Kief Kafak' i.e. the
most powerful and destructive missiles that exist to
eliminate Arabs.
- In the meantime, Sharon's surface to surface guided
missiles, and tanks are bombarding Palestinian
residential areas, homes, schools and police stations.
Sharon's missiles and bombs murdered two Palestinian
civilians and four children were seriously wounded. A
Kindergarten and a girl's school were targeted in
Bietonia near Ramallah.
- Israel's foreign minister Shemon Peres rejects's
international objections to the continuing settlement
building and expansion in the occupied Palestinian
territories. Peres, a mouth peace for Sharon, a marketing
manager in charge of adding some cosmetics on Sharon's
government ugly policies is doing his best to destroy
what ever left of his credibility as a man of peace.
Peres lost most if not all of his credibility with the
Palestinian people. An advocate of Sharon's policies, the
father of all settlements, Peres has no credence what so
ever.
- According to Ha'aretz, settlement plans so far for this
year are like this:
Plots for the construction of 225 houses will be sold in
Alfei Menashe settlement, plots for 1328 houses at
Ma'aleh Adumim, 92 housing units in Giv'at Zeev, Givat
Benyamin 388, 594 housing units and 414 plots in upper
Beitar, 340 units in Efrat, 6000 housing units to be
built in a new settlement called Gvaot, 200 in Karnie
Shomron, and 650 in Ariel. All those settlements and many
more others are built illegally on land stolen from the
Palestinian people, land Israel occupied by force in
1967.
- Yossi Beilin, a leading figure in the Israeli Labor party
says: A return to the Clinton paper is inevitable, the
PNA is our only partner
and the alternative to
Hamas. Beilin also said, the day Sharon was elected is a
black day and can only lead to evil.
- A Palestinian senior politician says: What is required
now is a world pressure to make Israel freeze all
settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian
territories and a commitment from the Israeli government
to honor signed agreements and understandings reached
with the Palestinian leadership.
- Koffi Annan offers his services to resume peace
negotiations between the Palestinian people and Israel.
- Saudi Arabia accuses Israel of destroying peace efforts
and calls on the international community to interfere to
save the peace process.
- Israel says yes and no to the Egyptian Jordanian
initiative to resume Palestinian Israeli negotiations.
Israel says yes to the items in the initiative that suits
her and says no to those items that does not. Israel
particularly refuses the items in the initiative calling
for a complete stop to building and expanding Jewish
settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories
particularly in Arab east Jerusalem. The Palestinian
people say Jewish settlements on Palestinian land and
peace are two lines that can never meet.
- President Arafat will visit Amman and meet King Abdullah
upon his return from Washington.
- American attempts are being exerted to arrive at a deal
based on the interim agreements and the understandings of
Sharm el- Shiekh between the PNA and Israel.
- In a letter from Sharon to Powel, Sharon regrets opening
fire on the convoy of Palestinian officials returning
from a meeting with Israeli and American security
officials in Tel Aviv. A similar letter was not sent to
the Palestinian leadership or the concerned Palestinian
officials.
- The Israeli newspaper Ma'areev says: The Palestinians
insist on stopping settlements and implementing signed
agreements.
Monday
April 9, 2001
Main Headlines
- Palestinian Islamic and national sources warn Sharon's
government against any attempts to infringe on the
sanctity of the Aqsa Mosque.
- Israel bombs Gaza with surface to surface guided
missiles. Palestinian police positions and civilian
residential areas in Betonia/Ramallah, Bethlehem and Biet
Lahia are targeted. Five Palestinians were reported
injured and heavy material damages to buildings were
caused. Israel is deploying its military force to inflict
maximum damage on the Palestinian population in an
attempt to deter Palestinians from resisting the barbaric
Israeli occupation.
- A Palestinian woman and two of her children were injured
by Israeli gunfire near Al- Khader / Bethlehem yesterday.
The mother Nawal Kooper was hit in the back, her daughter
Amani one and a half year old was hit in the head and her
son Mahmoud eight years was hit in his right hand. The
baby Amani is in critical conditions at Al- Makased
hospital in Arab east Jerusalem.
- Family homes are hit and destroyed by the indiscriminate
Israeli tank bombardment of Palestinian homes. The
Israeli occupation soldiers have direct orders from their
central commands to indiscriminately shell areas from
which a bullet is fired against them. Complete
Palestinian neighborhoods are being hit and destroyed,
and civilians are killed, because Israel is bent on
punishing a whole population.
- Using heavy tanks, the Israeli occupation army attempted
to storm a Palestinian neighborhood built by the Austrian
government in Gaza.
- Sources at the Palestinian Ministry of Finance say:
Palestinian economic losses since September reached US $
3.9 billion.
- Egypt's Foreign Minister Amre Mousa declares: The
situation in the Middle East is critical and the Israeli
policies are responsible for the deterioration and
violence.
- Arab League Secretary General says: Extensive moves at
the UN to provide international protection for the
Palestinian people.
- President Arafat receives a phone call from US Secretary
of State Collin Powel.
- The Israeli occupation army prevents a German medical
delegation with medical supplies from entering Rafah. The
Israeli occupation army ordered the delegation back and
fired at one of its vehicles.
- Dr Erekat calls on the Bush administration to review its
position and values the Egyptian efforts to rescue the
peace process.
- Palestinian summer time will begin Friday April 14. In
Israel summer time began today.
- Jordan prohibits companies dealing with Israel from
trading with Iraq. This is in accordance with a trade
protocol signed between Jordan and Iraq. Similar
protocols were signed between Iraq and both Egypt and
Syria.
- Jordanian groups call for an Arab alliance made of
Palestine Jordan Syria and Iraq to confront the Israeli
aggression and to end the Israeli occupation of
Palestinian and Arab lands in Syria and Lebanon.
Sunday
April 8, 2001
Main Headlines
- A Palestinian man father of nine, 58 years old Mahmoud
Fayyad Harbiyyat was found dead yesterday immediately
after soldiers from two Israeli border police vehicle
stopped him beat him and then left. Eye witnesses said,
this occurred around 7:30 a.m. Sunday morning near the
village of Biet Awwa near Hebron. The body of Harbiyyat
was taken to Abu Dis hospital for autopsy.
- Since September, Israel's occupation army and bulldozers
destroyed 900 Palestinian homes in Jerusalem Gaza and the
West Bank uprooted seventy thousand fruit trees and
ripped apart large areas of fertile land. The financial
losses incurred by the Palestinian people since September
is in excess of US $3 billion. Sixty-four Palestinian
pupils died and two thousand injured from Israeli gunfire
during the last six months. Tens of schools are closed.
- Israeli tanks shell Palestinian areas in Ramallah, Gaza
and Salfit. Israeli bulldozers destroyed large fields in
Gaza and uprooted tens of fruit trees. Seven Palestinian
civilians where hurt, one old man was seriously injured.
The Israeli bombardment is causing tremendous material
damage to property, caused electricity blackouts and
terrorized Palestinian families.
- President Arafat will meet President Mubarak in Cairo
today. Cairo calls on the American administration to
mediate as an honest broker in the Palestinian Israeli
conflict. Cairo also called on the US and the UN to
provide international protection for the Palestinian
people.
- President Arafat phoned the Israeli prime minister on the
occasion of Pessah Seder - a Jewish religious holiday.
- Palestinian students from Hebron University demonstrate
protesting the Israeli closure and siege imposed on
Palestinian cities towns and villages. Students and staff
find it almost impossible to reach the university.
- Special advisor to President Arafat Nabil Abu Rdianeh
calls on President Bush to ignore a letter from the
American Congress asking for a negative review of
American Palestinian relations.
- Dr. Nabil Shaath says: We need an Arab and an
international active moves at the UN in order to grant
sending international protection force to the occupied
Palestinian territories.
- Sheikh Sultan Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Deputy Prime Minister
of the United Arab Emirates condemned the Israeli
continuing aggression against the Palestinian people.
Sheikh Sultan was speaking to members of the American
Congress visiting the AUE.
Saturday
April 7, 2001
Main Headlines
- Head of Amnesty International says: The international
community can not sit doing nothing while Palestinian
children are getting killed on the hands of Israeli
soldiers and bombs exploding in Tel Aviv. The only way to
begin solving the Palestinian Israeli conflict is by
sending an international observation force to protect the
Palestinian people immediately.
- Thousands of Palestinians walk with Hardan to his final
rest place in Jenin. Hardan, a 27-year Palestinian man
was deliberately assassinated by the Israeli occupation,
effectively extra judicial execution perpetrated by
Israel against a man who was not tried nor convicted.
Sharon's government is beginning to behave in an erratic
manner that would push the Middle East into deeper
crises.
- Tens of Palestinians were injured during Israeli
bombardments of Palestinian police positions, Palestinian
residential areas and Israeli live ammunition firing
against Palestinians demonstrating against the continuing
Israeli occupation of Palestinian land in the West Bank,
Gaza and Arab east Jerusalem. The Israeli occupation
authorities prevent Palestinians both Muslims and
Christians from entering Arab Jerusalem for prayers on
Fridays and Sundays, or any other time.
- The Palestinian people and leadership warns Israel of
continuing its settlement activities in the occupied
Palestinian territories and from encroaching on the Aqsa
Mosque, the third holiest Shrine in Islam. Sharon should
have leaned from his previous attempt to break into the
Aqsa Mosque compound last September. The Palestinian
people both Muslim and Christian stood for Sharon and
aborted his attempt to harm the Aqsa Mosque.
- Israeli tanks bombard residential areas in Gaza and
Bethlehem areas. President Arafat called on Kofi Annan,
UN Secretary General to effectively intervene to save the
Palestinian people from the continuing Israeli aggression
on the Palestinian people and land.
- The Israeli occupation soldiers kidnap two Palestinian
men from Ramallah. Near Jenin, the Israeli occupation
forces opened fire on a Palestinian vehicle carrying
Palestinian workers looking for work to feed their
children, the Israeli fire hit a Palestinian worker in
the head injuring him very seriously.
The Israeli government insists on its assassination
policies, and Jewish settlers collect and store weapons
and ammunition to be used in their aggression against the
Palestinian people under occupation.
- France and Egypt condemned Israel's settlement policies,
its assassinations of Palestinians and the Israeli attack
on Palestinian security officials returning home from
meetings with Israeli security officials under the
protection and patronage of the American administration.
- Several Israeli military measures are being taken
throughout the Palestinian occupied territories designed
to inflict maximum damage on the Palestinian population.
Palestinians are prohibited from travel, closure and
siege imposed on all Palestinian cities towns and
villages, Palestinians are prevented from commemorating
religious festivities in Nabi Muosa near Jericho and the
Israeli authorities attempts to evacuate the village of
Nabi Somwail from its Palestinian inhabitants. Protected
by Israeli army occupation tanks, Jewish bulldozers rip
Palestinian land apart, uproot trees and destroy
farmlands. What is not reported in the news is far more
dangerous and deadly than what is being reported.
Sharon's government is trying to destroy Palestinian
moral and ability to withstand and resist the Israeli
occupation. Sharon is using the American position as a
fig leaf to continue with his atrocities against the
Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian
territories.
- Basing their argument on incorrect, untrue and dishonest
information they receive from Israeli/ Jewish public
opinion manipulators, the American Congress and Senates
sent two identical letters to President Bush calling on
him to punish the Palestinian people. Although the world
at large see and hear the suffering of the Palestinian
people, men, women and children, see the atrocities
perpetrated by Sharon's government and his terrorists
settlers against the Palestinian people under occupation,
the US members of congress and house representatives,
true to their color of expressing their allegiance to
their Jewish financial backers, congress and senates
members who are void of any humanity, greedy,
manipulative and untrustworthy called on this young,
naïve, untested American president to review American
relations with the Palestinian people with view to
cutting aid to the Palestinian people and to stand by the
Israeli occupier, the Israeli aggressor.
- Germany is reported to have maintained its financial
assistance this year to the Palestinian people. Germany
will provide Palestinian institutions with 44 million
Euro for water projects and for creating work
opportunities for Palestinian men and women looking for
work.
- An Israel police officer fire at an Israeli police
station and accuses Palestinians of the firing.
- The Israeli defense minister was reported as saying that
he regrets that Rabin's government did not evacuate the
Jewish settlers from Hebron back in 1994.
- Attempting to take the heat of his boss Sharon, the
Israeli minister of police, a right wing extremist
accuses President Arafat of being a war criminal and
calls for intensive air strikes against the Palestinian
people.
- France says: The Israeli policies in the occupied
Palestinian territories are mistaken and will only lead
to more violence and destruction.
- A UN Committee on human rights meeting in Geneva
yesterday assets the rights of the Palestinian people for
self determination and for an independent Palestinian
state. The United States and Guatemala were the only two
countries who opposed the resolution. The other 48
countries voted in favor.
- An Israeli governmental committee recommends that
Sharon's government prevent Muslims from entering the
Aqsa Mosque.
Thursday
April 5, 2001
Main Headlines
- After they finished their meeting with Israeli security
officers in the presence of an American official,
Palestinian security officers headed for Gaza. On their
way home, Israeli soldiers fired at their vehicles
injuring three Palestinian bodyguards accompanying the
Palestinian officials. The Israeli I government is
permitting its soldiers to fire at the very people
negotiating with her to end the violence. What kind of
confidence, trust or credibility Israel is trying to
portray?
- Twenty-seven Palestinian homes were destroyed over the
last three days in Arab East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Again
why is it that Israel is undermining any
possibility for achieving quiet and a return to
meaningful negotiations? Why does it continue its
provocative barbaric actions, as there is nothing more
barbaric than destroying people's homes? There is only
one possible answer for this, Sharon is being made to
enter into negotiations with the Palestinians on terms
not acceptable to him, provoking Palestinian civilians
and perpetrating destructive actions might put pressure
on the Palestinian leadership not to continue with the
negotiations thus relieving Sharon from something he does
not desire, entering into political negotiations with the
Palestinian leadership.
- Five Israeli soldiers reported killed when their armored
vehicle overturned in the mountains around the
Palestinian city of Hebron, a sixth is seriously injured.
- A spate of fatal roads accidents is hitting Israel these
days, a family of six were reported to have been involved
in a fatal road accident this morning, three people of
the same family died, the other three were taken to
hospital for treatment. Another traffic accident
involving a number of vehicles occurred yesterday causing
the death of at least one person and injuring another
twenty. A report by Reuters said that, the Israelis are
making up for their Intifada worries through travelling,
eating more and watching more films. Nerve calming drugs
are being used more often indicative of the current
status of the Israeli society now.
- PLO General Secretary Mahmoud Abbas says, stopping all
settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian
territories is one very important condition to resume
peace negotiations with Israel.
- Nabil Sha'ath, Saeb Erekat and Shemon Peres held a
meeting in Athens yesterday. The Palestinian and Israeli
officials met in the presence of a senior EU official to
explore means to resume Palestinian Israeli peace
negotiations that were stopped on the eve of Sharon's
election to office in Israel.
- Israel escalates its destruction campaign of Palestinian
homes, and trains special Israeli forces to assassinate
Palestinian activists.
- President Arafat received three female members of the
Israeli Knesset. The Israeli MK's reported to have
conveyed a message for a cease-fire from the Israeli
defense minister. President Arafat noted that the
Palestinian people do not have tanks, helicopters and
gunboats in order to neither cease firing, nor are the
Palestinians are encircling Israeli cities or imposing a
siege on these cities.
- One million Palestinian children celebrate ' Day of the
Child' today with black ribbons and black badges tied on
their hands and chests.
- Head of the Palestinian Legislative Council Ahmad Qurai
urges Europe and the US administration to move in order
to save the peace process.
Wednesday
April 4, 2001
Main Headlines
- Israel launches one of its most brutal attacks on
Palestinian cities in Gaza and the West Bank. Missiles,
tank fire and helicopter gunships participated in the
attacks on Palestinian civilian and police targets.
Fifty-five Palestinians including women and children were
injured.
- Israeli tanks bombarded Bethlehem Housan and Al- Khader.
A Palestinian girl resident of Bethlehem, Jessica Aboud
age 4 lost her right eye and her little body received
Shrapnel injuries from bombs fired by Israeli tanks
bombing Bethlehem last Monday.
- Israeli bulldozers destroy five more Palestinian houses
under construction in Arab East Jerusalem. The number of
homes destroyed in Arab East Jerusalem since Sharon came
to power reached 13. The amount of destruction Sharon's
government inflicting on the Palestinian people is
colossal. In order to suppress the Palestinian Intifada,
Sharon plans to maximize material, psychological and
physical damage on the Palestinian people.
- The Palestinian leadership calls for international
protection for the Palestinian population under
occupation.
- Nabil Sha'ath and Shemon Peres to meet in Athens today.
On the agenda, means to end the cycle of violence and to
renew peace negotiations. Peres says, a light at the end
of the tunnel.
- Minister Yasser Abd Rabboh says: Palestinian Israeli
meetings will take place in the coming few days with
American participation.
- Because it is Palestinian, Israel rejects a joint
Egyptian Jordanian initiative to resume negotiations.
- Donor countries meet to discuss providing support for the
Palestinian budget.
- Sharon reiterates: His government will not budge from
it's declared position and threatens more harsh treatment
against the PNA.
- The Palestinian leadership holds Sharon's government
responsible for the military escalation.
- An Israeli ex army officer says, security for settlers in
Hebron will not be achieved without security for the
Palestinians in the city.
- An Israeli analyst writing in Yedi'ot Ahronot says: The
cycle of Israeli violence is on the increase. And a
source at the Arab League declares the Palestinian people
under occupation are in need of immediate protection.
- Head of the Palestinian district coordination office with
Israel protest the settlers' atrocities against
Palestinians in H2 area in Hebron.
Tuesday
April 3, 2001
Main Headlines
- Sharon's government sent American made gunships to
assassinate Palestinians in Gaza, Palestinian civilians
are killed and injured. Sharon's occupation army bombards
the birthplace of Jesus Christ, the city of Bethlehem.
The Jewish State launches its merciless war on the
Palestinian population, Palestinian cities, villages,
towns and refugee camps. When killing Palestinians and
shelling Palestinian homes, the Jewish state does not
discriminate between a woman and a child, between a
church and a mosque, between a Muslim and a Christian,
all are Palestinians, and hence, they have to be taught
the lesson and to be deterred. How dare they ask for
their freedom from our humanitarian occupation? After
all, 10 Palestinians killed and 250 injured in one
weekend testify to our restraint, we Jews are humane, we
do not mean to cause them any harm, we only want their
land, their water, and we rather not see them here at
all.
- Jewish settlers in Hebron broke into Palestinian shops,
looting, destroying them and setting them on fire.
Assisted by Israeli soldiers, who on orders from Sharon's
government placed H2 area in Hebron with its forty
thousand Palestinian inhabitants, under an ongoing curfew
that lasted six months so far, Jewish settlers used
cooking gas containers to blow up, burn and destroy 11
shops, stores and business places in Hebron. The Israeli
Hebron Brigade commander called the settlers/perpetrators
' a bunch of hooligans', no arrests however have been
made.
- Israeli tanks carried out overnight bombardment of
Palestinian neighborhoods in Bethlehem, Ramallah, Kufr
Aqab, Nablus, Khan Younis and Rafah. Aida refugee, Biet
Jala and Biet Sahur were also bombarded by Israeli tanks
and heavy machine gun yesterday. Nine Palestinian
civilians were injured including two infants and a
four-year-old girl in Rafah.
- Palestinian Ambassador to the UN says, the PNA will
continue calling for an international protection force to
be dispatched by the UN Security Council. Last week, the
United States vetoed a Security Council resolution
calling for sending international forces to protect
Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Immediately after that veto, Sharon's government sent its
helicopter gunships into action over Ramallah and Gaza
killing seven Palestinians and injuring more than 250.
Sharon's government seems to have understood the US veto
as a green light for it to go ahead with its military and
economic aggression against the Palestinian people under
the Israeli occupation.
- Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia calls on the
international community to interfere to stop Israeli
escalating aggression against the Palestinian people.
- Israeli gunships assassinate a Palestinian man in Rafah.
Mohammed Atwa Abdel al, 27 years was killed yesterday on
direct orders of Sharon and his government. Abdelal was
assassinated in daylight, no court, no right for
self-defense, and no appeal. Sharon is simply using a
Mafia type assassination and killing in cold blood. This
state-sanctioned terror should not pass without bringing
the perpetrators into account. This is one additional
crime committed by the Prime minister of Israel Eric
Sharon, to be added to his murderous record.
- An Israeli member of the Knesset met President Arafat
yesterday and suggested 15-day cease-fire. Sharon's
office declined to associate itself with the Israeli
Knesset member and said he is not talking on its behalf.
Shemon Peres reported to have said in Stockholm that it
is time to renew negotiations. Israeli commentators doubt
if Peres is speaking in Sharon's name.
- President Mubarak met President Bush, and King Abdullah
of Jordan is said to be on his way to Washington for a
meeting with President Bush. A joint Egyptian Jordanian
paper is reported to have been handed to the American
administration dealing with resuming peace talks between
the Palestinian people and Israel.
- Israeli sources said that Shemon Peres is interested in
meeting President Arafat somewhere in Europe, perhaps on
the fringes of an economic conference sponsored by the
British magazine the Economist to be held in Athens
tomorrow. Palestinian sources however said that President
Arafat has no planes to travel to Athens in the near
future.
- Austria warns of an impeding catastrophe in the Middle
East, and Israeli sources say Jewish terrorism is on the
increase.
- The Israeli occupation army prevents Palestinian
journalists from entering Hebron, and is restricting
their movements.
- Jerusalem's old city walls are in danger of collapse.
Monday
April 2, 2001
Main Headlines
- Israeli bulldozers destroy five Palestinian homes in the
village of Biet Dajan in the West Bank. Forty women, men
and children became homeless over night. With any due
regard to consequences or to the humanity of the
Palestinian people, the Israeli government takes
decisions that destroy the future of whole families. How
can that be? Where is the world community? Where is the
United Nations? Is there any credibility left to this
organization? Is Israel a country above the law? Why is
it Israeli war criminals are not summoned to the Hague?
Those questions require immediate answers.
- A Palestinian boy died yesterday from an Israeli sniper
bullet that hit him in the head. After two weeks in Coma,
the boy Loay Tamimi - eleven years- had his last breath
yesterday.
- Sharon's occupation army bombs residential neighborhoods
in Bethlehem and Nablus, and erects new barriers on
Palestinian roads.
- A minister in Sharon's government demands that Sharon's
occupation army bomb the house of President Yasser Arafat
in Gaza.
- The Sunday Times of London says: Sharon prepared lists of
Palestinian targets for liquidation, and plans to
implement the ethnic cleansing policy of transfer.
- Another Israeli minister in Sharon's government Ephrime
Sneh says: Washington supports Sharon's operations
against the Palestinian people.
- Sharon rejects a Jordanian -Egyptian proposal to renew
peace talks. At a time when Israel is finger pointing at
the Palestinian leadership accusing it of not willing to
go back to the negotiations table, President Arafat was
reported to have accepted an Egyptian - American proposal
for a return to peace negotiations and to put an end to
violence within a week. Sharon and Peres rejected the
proposal.
- Sharon's government plans more Jewish settlements in the
West Bank along the green line.
- The Israeli Prime Minister Sharon says: Jewish settlers
in Hebron are going to stay there forever. For those who
do not know, back in 1969, Jewish settlers burst into the
Palestinian town of Hebron, backed up by guns and tanks,
formed a commune headed by a thug named Moshe Levinger,
and did not budge since then, keeping the Palestinian
citizens of the town from living their lives, strangers
squatting in Palestinian homes, and posing a constant
threat. The Palestinian citizens of Hebron face
occupation soldiers, tanks, searches and curfews,
starvation, death and thousands of other obstacles in
order to get the most elementary things of life. Settlers
now number about 400 hundred, many of them stay during
daytime only.
- Israeli occupation units kidnap 6 Palestinian security
policemen manning a checkpoint in the Palestinian village
of Jaljilieh.
- Israel expects her Ambassador in Cairo to be kicked out.
Sunday
April 1, 2001
Main Headlines
- Violent Israel bombardment of Palestinian positions in
Biet Jala, Beit Sahur and Gaza. Sharon's occupation tanks
shell Palestinian residential neighborhood in Hebron,
Nablus and Rafah. Israeli tanks shell Aida refugee camp
near Bethlehem causing material damage and inflicting
many casualties among the Palestinian civilian
population, in the process terrorizing women, old men and
children. The state of Israel under the leadership of
Sharon is committing continuing murderous actions against
a civilian population under occupation. The Israeli
government blatantly violates the fourth Geneva
Convention, UN Security Council resolutions and the human
rights of the Palestinian people.
- Tens of thousands of Palestinians say goodbye to their
loved ones- victims of Sharon's massacres. Seven young
Palestinians were buried yesterday in Nablus, Ramallah
and Gaza.
- The Israeli minister of defense warns of more attacks on
the Palestinian people. With his smooth talk, Peres
prepares the grounds and Sharon kills, maim, injure and
starve Palestinian children.
- A State Department spokesman denies that the Bush
administration gave the green light to Sharon's
government to attack Palestinian cities and civilians
causing the death of more than ten young men since
Wednesday. Last Wednesday, President Bush vetoed a UN
Security Council calling for the dispatch of
international forces to protect the Palestinian civilian
population under Israeli occupation. Further more,
President Bush ignoring the Israeli occupation of
Palestinian land and Israeli atrocities against a
civilian population struggling for its freedom and
dignity, unjustly accused President Arafat of being
behind what he termed 'violence' in the occupied
Palestinian territories.
- Tayyeb abdul Rahim, General Secretary of the Presidential
Office said yesterday: The American administration no
longer an honest broker of the peace process, emphasizing
that the Palestinian leadership will never give up on
Palestinian legitimate objectives for freedom, self
determination and ending the Israeli occupation of
Palestinian land.
- The Palestinian leadership exposes an Israeli plan to
escalate its attacks and aggression against the
Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian
territories. The Palestinian leadership calls on the
international community to move to stop the Israeli
dangerous aggression against the Palestinian people.
- Israel's hiding behind what she terms Arafat's refusal of
Barak's generous offer is no longer bought by the world
community. Before he left for Camp David, Barak lost his
majority in the Israeli Knesset, and he could never have
been able to pass a peace agreement on the basis of
complying with UN resolutions.
- President Mubarak of Egypt discusses with American
officials a joint Egyptian- Jordanian paper to reduce
tension between the Palestinians and Israelis. Israel's
radio today announced that Sharon rejected the Egyptian -
Jordanian joint paper stating that he can not negotiate
under fire.
- President Jack Chiraque of France expresses his deep
concern on the escalating violence between both the
Israeli and Palestinian sides. The EU's special peace
envoy to the Middle East states that Sharon's policies
are causing deep worries in the European Union.
- The Israeli defense minister threatens invading
Palestinian cities towns and villages, i.e. instead of
standing on the gates, he wants to come in. The Israeli
defense minister is most welcome. Major General Majaydeh
says: an Israeli invasion of Palestinian areas is
imminent. Palestinian security forces are preparing for
such an eventuality.
- Denmark calls on Israel to stop expanding Jewish
settlements.