MAY 2001

Thursday May 31, 2001

Main Headlines

• Fasial Hussieni, Palestinian Minister for Jerusalem Affairs is dead. Born into one of Jerusalem's most renowned families, Faisal devoted his life, as his father and great uncle did, to his and our beloved city, Jerusalem. His dream to see it liberated from the Israeli occupation did not come true. The Palestinian people will see to it that someday very soon Jerusalem will be liberated and Faisal's dreams for his city will come true. The city will go into moaning for the next three days, and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians will join his funeral procession to his final resting place close to the Holy Shrine of Al- Aqsa Mosque, in his father's and great grand father's birth place, Arab Jerusalem.

  Faisal Hussinie died while in Kuwait. In his presence Kuwaiti members of Parliament assailed the Palestinian people and the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

• Israeli occupation forces penetrated deep into Gaza and destroyed more Palestinian homes, bombed residential areas and Palestinian police positions. Eight Palestinians were injured one of the seriously.
• President Araft renews Palestinian request for international force to protect the Palestinian people and to monitor compliance with the recommendations of the Mitchell Committee report. President Arafat was speaking in Copenhagen and will be travelling to Brussels today for talks with EU officials.
• President Arafat received a telephone call from US Secretary of state Colin Powell. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat calls on Israel to choose peace or settlements, saying that it can not have both.
  Since his so-called announcement for a cease-fire, Sharon's occupation army launched 167 attacks on the Palestinian land and people. Coming to support his party boss, Netanyahu, an ex Israeli prime minister demanded that Sharon attack Palestinian infrastructure, telephone exchanges, fuel storage depots, Radio and TV stations, and other Palestinian so called military positions.
  Yesterday, in this report, we said that there are no Palestinian military positions, we have no army, no military garrisons, no tanks, no airports, no ports, no navy, yet, Israeli leaders beginning with Sharon and ending with Limor livant want to launch an unending war on the Palestinian people. The world should be aware of Sharon's plans for the area and for the Palestinian people, no one should be fooled, Sharon is dragging the area into an imminent war.
  Sharon is fooling the US, is fooling the world community, is fooling the Palestinian people, but most important of all, Sharon is fooling his own people. While his people favor freezing Jewish settlements, Sharon and that fascist anti human rights character Sharansky are ordering more construction of Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. Sharansky is not satisfied with stealing Palestinian land, he is inciting for war against the Palestinian people.

  In its report for the year 2000, Amnesty International accuses Israel of using deadly force against the Palestinian people. American troops in Bahrain and Qatar go on a heightened state of alert.

• American diplomats cancelled a meeting with Palestinian high ranking officials. The Americans protested the none attendance of a senior Palestinian security official who declined attending. Palestine security chiefs and their homes came under Israeli tank and heavy machine gunfire recently.

  Israel promises to lift the siege, open the borders, end the closures, and stop settlement constructions. On the ground, things are getting worse and the Palestinian people and leadership do not believe anything Israel says, because its actions on the ground are much clearer.

• The Pope is sending an envoy to mediate between President Arafat and the Israeli Prime Minister Sharon. The Palestinian first and last demand is to end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land in the West Bank, Gaza and Arab East Jerusalem.

Wednesday May 30, 2001

Main Headlines

• Israel's minister of housing and construction announces the building of more than 700 housing units in Jewish settlements built illegally on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank. Sharansky, a Jewish immigrant from Russia turned politician and advocate of Israel's theft of Palestinian land and abuser of Palestinian human rights ordered the construction of more Jewish settlements at a time when the world community is asking the Jewish state and the government of Sharon to freeze building Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. Sharansky said that Jewish settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories will continue despite American and world opinions to the contrary. The Israeli government decision to build more settlement is a slap in the face to the Mitchell Committee, to the efforts of the American administration, a slap in the face of the EU and the world community at large.

• The Palestinian National authority says: Sharon's government green light to settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territories means a premature failure for the American efforts for peace in the region.

• An American sponsored security meeting between Palestinian and Israeli security officials was held yesterday. Expectations from such a meeting were very low, and no tangible results were expected. The Palestinian position is that security meetings should not be held without political input. Security can be achieved when both societies are satisfied that their rights are respected. As things stand now, Israel is an occupying power with its army and Jewish settlements all over the Palestinian land and territories, and the Palestinian people are deprived of their most basic rights to move freely, to work, to learn and to be free.

• Jewish settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories are spreading fear and destruction on Palestinian people's lives and property. Protected by the Israeli occupation army, in Hebron, in Nablus, Jericho and all over the Palestinian land, settlers thugs are attacking Palestinians, their vehicles, businesses and occupying more and more land and uprooting more and more trees.

• President Arafat arrived in Moscow yesterday and held a summit meeting with president Butin. President Arafat asks the Russian leadership and the community of nations to move quickly to stop bloodshed in the Holy Land. President Arafat arrived in Copenhagen last night and will conduct discussions on the deteriorating situation and Jewish settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian territories with Danish and EU officials today.

• Prior to the arrival of President Arafat, Denmark calls on the Israeli government and the PNA to implement the Mitchell report recommendations completely.

• Farouq qadoumi, Palestine's Minister of Foreign affairs says: The Palestinian leadership can not stop the Palestinian Intifada for freedom without political achievements.

• An editorial in the SHAS official magazine calls on Israel to evacuate and dismantle settlements in the occupied Palestinian land.

Tuesday May 29, 2001

Main Headlines

• Early this morning Sharon's occupation tanks bombed a Palestinian security shack injuring five Palestinian policemen in Gaza.

• Sharon's occupation army constructs missile firing posts north of Gaza, and uproots 1200 olive and almonds trees in the Jenin area, north of the West Bank. Israeli occupation tanks bombarded Rafah, KhanYounis and areas close to Almintar crossing areas in Gaza. In the meantime, Israeli bulldozers protected by Israeli tanks ripped through Palestinian farmland destroying vast areas of retile land and orchids.

• President Arafat met for the second time with the American envoy Bill Burns, and submitted to him maps showing the location of 18 newly established Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinian sources speak of a possible Palestinian Israeli security meeting today.

• Palestinian sources say that members of the disbanded (SLA) South Lebanon Army joined Israeli occupation soldiers in an attack against Palestinian villagers at the village of Bita near Nablus in the West Bank. Many reports published recently cited SLA agents as participating in atrocities perpetrated by the Israeli occupation army against the Palestinian people.

• In 1982 when Sharon was the Israeli defense minister he invaded Lebanon. Sharon trained and armed what is called the SLA, gave them the green light together with the Phalangist to attack and commit massacres against Palestinian refugees in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Chatilla, 1500 Palestinian man woman and child were butchered under the protective eyes of Sharon and his Israeli army using Israeli weapons. Using the SLA again under Sharon is not a coincidence, it is a deliberate plan to intimidate the Palestinian population in the occupied Palestinian territories. Sharon will do it again, Bita village which was partly attacked by SLA militiamen is not far away from the Palestinian refugee camp of Balata. The war criminal Sharon is preparing for another massacres, and every one should be warned.

• A Palestinian official source warned against Sharon's ploy of a "cease-fire." The source said that Sharon will use the pretext that the Palestinians did not reciprocate to unleash a devastating attack on the Palestinian people and PNA institutions.

• President Mubarak says: Sharon is fooling the world with his farce of announcing a cease-fire. Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmad Maher says, Tel- Aviv is leading the Arab world into a war with Israel.

• Egypt's Mufti warns Israel from building a Synagogue- a Jewish temple- on the grounds of Al- Aqsa Mosque, saying this would unleash a third world war.

• Egypt conducts intensive diplomatic contacts to make Israel commit itself to the Egyptian Jordanian initiative. Palestinian sources say: The Mitchell report and the Egyptian Jordanian initiative compliment each other and must be implemented.

• President Arafat is in Moscow today to discuss the Middle East crises with President Butin. President Arafat calls on the Russian President to play more active role to settle the Israeli Palestinian conflict. Russia's Foreign minister Ivanov says: Russia supports holding an international conference to settle the conflict.

• The French president Jack Chirac calls on the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships to resume peace negotiations to be based on the land for peace formula.

• The European Union insists on dealing with the Egyptian Jordanian initiative and the Mitchell report as a package.

• Fires rage in West Jerusalem areas burning large swaths of land. A heat wave hitting the area said to be behind the raging fires.

• Dr. Hanan Ashrawi one of Palestine's most famous women has just returned from lecturing American universities on the catastrophe befalling her people, trying to persuade the Gore and Bush foreign policy teams to understand the realities of the Middle East, condemning the powerful US press for its biased reporting of the conflict. A member of the original 1991 Madrid-Palestinian delegation and one of the few Palestinians to speak her mind to Yasser Arafat, Ms Ashrawi's job as an English literature don lets her speak with unique eloquence and contempt.
  
  When I ask if it's all over for Oslo, she nods. When I ask if the UN's 1967 Security Council Resolution 242 - demanding an Israeli withdrawal from occupied territory in return for the security of all states in the area and refusing the acquisition of land through force - is now the only possible peace, she nods twice more, between gulps of tabouleh and rice. When I ask if that means the closing down of all Jewish settlements on occupied Arab land and the return of East Jerusalem, her voice sharpens.
  
  "All the settlements will have to go - the moment you accept otherwise, you have legitimized the acquisition of territory by force. The basis of Oslo was 242 and (the reaffirming) Resolution 338, but Oslo violated that. It reinterpreted 242. The Israelis never respected any of the Oslo withdrawal timetable. What is happening now is a result of Oslo. We've been warning this would happen, that there would be an implosion or explosion. And now we are proven right, it's too late and there's a tragic loss of life."

To listen to Hanan Ashrawi - always associated with moderation and humanity - is to experience the historical shock of what has happened in the Middle East these past six weeks. "The Palestinian people feel victimized by this 'peace process'," she says angrily. "The 'process' is reinvented all the time to suit Israel. And America thinks as long as there is a 'process', God is in his heaven. Now the Americans are indulging in crisis management and individual legacies - the people in Washington have come to the end of their careers."

It's also clear Ms Ashrawi would like the careers of several reporters to come to an end. "When I visited The Washington Post, I asked them what had happened to the idea of journalistic integrity. There's now a total disjunction between the pictures of what is happening - the Palestinian casualties - and the language; this is the product of America's processed language and the Israeli spin machine."

She leans back on the sofa in exhaustion. "Now we are all being fed well- worn phrases: 'peace process', 'back on track', 'cease-fire', 'time-out', 'put an end to violence', 'Arafat to restrain/control his people', 'do we have the right peace partner?' This is a racist way of looking at the Palestinians and it obscures the fact that we've suffered an Israeli occupation all along. When newspapers ask if Palestinians deliberately sacrifice their children, it's an incredibly racist thing to do. They are dehumanising the Palestinians. The press and the Israelis have rid us of the most elemental human feelings in a very cynical, racist discourse that blames the victims."

The phone rings - it's like a clock chime in the Ashrawi home in Ramallah, the chirruping of the mobile, the repeated, tiring explanation of why Oslo does not work - and only after a minute of silence can she continue. "I always say Oslo could lead to a disaster or a state. It's not an agreement, remember. It says specifically that it is a 'declaration of principles'. The danger was always that the 'peace of the brave' could turn into the 'peace of the grave'."

When she is relaxed Hanan Ashrawi tells her narrative in sequence. "Let's reduce all this to its simplest components," she says. "Occupation is the cause of our problem. We already made the historic compromise by accepting 22 per cent of Mandate Palestine (the rest now being in the State of Israel). In 1967, Israel occupied the remaining 22 per cent - 242 deals only with this remaining 22 per cent of Palestine. We said we would be reasonable, pragmatic. But now Israel says it will keep its 78 per cent and see how much it wants to keep of our 22 per cent - in Jerusalem, Jewish settlements and so on. So they want to sign away our rights."

The new "Intifada" will continue - "in different shapes, different forms" - she believes. "We are not fond of mass suicide, but we want the right to resist occupation and injustice. Then the moment we say 'resist', the Israelis pull out the word 'terrorist' - so a child with a stone becomes the 'legitimate' target for Israeli sniper fire and a high-velocity bullet.

"Ultimately, there will have to be peace. But any unfair, unjust, partial, imposed peace will be a postponement or an invitation to further conflict."

Monday May 28, 2001

Main Headlines

• Jewish settlers opened fire on Palestinian schoolboys while returning from school in the Palestinian village of Tekoa near Bethlehem. Mohammad Ahmad Hamid 17 years was shot in the head and is in a very critical stage in hospital. His friend Nidal Khalil Jabarine 16 years was also shot and received moderate to serious injuries. Instead of apprehending the settlers who shot the boys, Israeli occupation soldiers attacked Palestinians who gathered to give assistance to the injured boys. The Israeli occupation forces burned an olive grove - more than 200 olive trees- belonging to Hamid's father and imposed a curfew on the Palestinian village.
• Near Nablus, Jewish settlers from the Jewish settlement of Yitzhar shot two cousins 16 year old Mohammad Al- Safadi 16 years and his cousin Mufeed Amer al- Safadi 15 years old. The cousins are in hospital being treated from their moderate injuries.
  In Gaza, Khan Younis and Rafah, Israeli tanks and bulldozers stormed into Palestinian land, shelling Palestinian houses, uprooting trees and destroying farmland and hot green houses. The economic and terrorist war waged by Sharon's occupation army is crippling the Palestinian economy and causing many hardships to the vast majority of the Palestinian people.
• The American envoy Burns met with President Arafat in Ramallah yesterday, and moved later to meet with the Israeli premier Sharon. President Arafat discusses with Burns the implementation of the Mitchell Committee report in its entirety. The President emphasized the cardinal issue that will make or break the Mitchell report, -freezing Jewish settlements- in the occupied Palestinian territories most important of which Arab Jerusalem. President Arafat also stressed the importance of Israel accepting the Jordanian Egyptian initiative to resume peace negotiations. The president will leave home to night on his way to Moscow to meet with President Butin.
• France's Foreign Minister says: Palestinians are frustrated to an extent of madness now are the same Palestinians who were expecting and working for peace few months ago.
• EU's Foreign Policy and Security Chief Solana says: A stop must be put to the construction of Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
• The Israeli Prime Minister Sharon speaks of accepting the Mitchell report. Sharon however, encouraged and assisted by the new American administration refuses to freeze Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. Palestinian observers believe that Burns' mission under the circumstances will be a resounding failure.
• Changing his tune, President Bush expects positive replies to the Mitchell report and calls on Arab leaders to support President Arafat in his decisions.

Sunday May 27, 2001

Main Headlines

• In a speech before the Islamic Conference in Doha - Qatar, President Arafat assails the world community particularly the USA, the West in general and the UN for remaining silent while Palestinian children are being killed, Palestinian homes destroyed and farmland raped by the Israeli occupation government and the Israeli occupation forces. President Arafat exclaimed: How can the international community remain silent while Palestinians including infants are killed by Israeli tanks, F-16's and missiles.
• Foreign ministers of the Islamic conference organization held a meeting in Doha Qatar yesterday. The Conference called on all Muslim States to sever all relations with Israel until Israel stops its violent aggression on the Palestinian people. The Conference called on the UN Security Council to provide international protection force to protect the Palestinian people and affirmed that it is no longer possible to stay silent in the face of the double standard policies of the United States and its continuing Veto of Security Council resolutions demanding international protection of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territories.
• President Arafat to meet an American envoy today in Ramallah. US President Bush decided to appoint a new American ambassador to Tel- Aviv. Great Britain appointed a new Consul General in Arab Jerusalem to oversee Britain's relations with the PNA and the Palestinian people.
• The Jerusalem Mufti directs severe criticism against the Israeli Prime Minister Sharon and the war he is conducting against the Palestinian people.
• President Mubarak of Egypt visited United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia and held discussions with their leaders on the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in addition to bilateral relations between Egypt and both countries.
• A visiting delegation from Norway sees first hand the barbaric practices and crimes of the Israeli occupiers of our Palestinian land.
• Ehud Olmert, the so-called mayor of west Jerusalem is accused of running a corrupt administration and is being called upon to resign. Olmert made it his business to make life as hard as possible for Palestinians in Arab East Jerusalem, where there are no adequate services and complete negligence of Palestinian needs. His corrupt administration is accused of being responsible for neglecting taking proper procedures to make sure that tragedies such as the fall of the wedding hall in West Jerusalem do not take place. 23 Israelis were killed and more than 300 hundred were injured when the wedding hall building collapsed Thursday night.
• Next in line will be Prime Minister Sharon. Journalists, writers and political analysts expect Sharon to fall very soon. In a recent Israeli public opinion poll 62% of the Israeli public supported freezing Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, 48% supported an imposed US resolution on Israel and the Palestinian people and 70% of the Israeli public supported resuming peace talks with the Palestinian people. Sharon appears to be losing support for his impractical mantra of no negotiations under fire. Sharon has definitely failed in fulfilling his promise to the Israeli public to bring them personal 'safety back'. Demands in the Israeli streets for Sharon's resignation and or replacement are being heard louder and louder.
• An overwhelming majority in the Palestinian street believes it to be impossible to make peace with Israel under the leadership of Sharon. The Palestinian people are resigned for more suffering and destruction from Sharon and his extreme right wing government. Stead fastness, patience and strong resistance is the mantra of the Palestinian people.
  In the Arab world, President Mubarak and king Abdullah lost faith in the capability or ability of Sharon to make peace and decided to halt all political contacts with him. At the moment, there are no Egyptian or Jordanian ambassadors in Tel- Aviv. Under Sharon, it is likely that the situation and relations with Israel will deteriorate further.

Saturday May 26, 2001

Main Headlines

• Israel explodes a Palestinian car injuring killing one Palestinian man and injuring six others in Balata refugee camp near Nablus in the West Bank.
• Israeli occupation forces killed two Palestinians a boy and a young man in Gaza yesterday. The young man is deaf and can not speak. He was the only provider, inspite of his disability he earned a living for his mother and younger sisters and brothers through selling vegetables in the market. After his death, the family has no one to support them.
• Israeli tanks and bulldozers went into Gaza yesterday destroying farmland and homes. Israeli tanks fired at the Palestinian refugee camp of Yabna in Rafah killing one Palestinian boy and injuring seven others.
• The PLO and the Arab league will be calling on the Islamic Foreign minister's meeting being held in Doha today to stop all political contacts with Israel until Israel stops its continuing aggression and attacks against the Palestinian people.
• President Arafat says, it will be difficult for Sharon to circumvent the Mitchell report.
• The Israeli Prime Minister Sharon tries to awaken his ploy of a unilateral so-called cease-fire. His forces never stopped firing and his tanks and bulldozers never stopped raping Palestinian farmland.

Thursday May 24, 2001

Main Headlines

• Sharon's occupation army perpetrates another massacre in Rafah. 45 Palestinian civilians including 23 children and an infant were injured, 10 are in serious conditions. Sharon's tanks and occupation army spread fear, destruction and death in a Palestinian refugee camp in Yabna / Rafah. Sharon's tanks also entered Gaza, destroyed homes and fertile land and uprooted trees. This is less than 24 hours after Sharon declared to the world a so-called Cease-fire.
• President Arafat held talks with the French President and Prime Minister in Paris yesterday. President Arafat also had a telephone conversation with President Bush. President Arafat calls on the Israeli Prime Minister Sharon to commit himself and his government to a comprehensive implementation of the Mitchell report in its entirety and calls on the participants of the Sharm el- Shiekh summit to meet again to discuss means and mechanisms for implementation. The original participants are The PLO, ISRAEL, the USA, the EU, the UN, the Russian Federation, Jordan and Egypt.
• The French President calls on the PNA and Israel to implement the recommendations of the Mitchell report.
• Palestinian Minister of Information and Culture says: Sharon is stopping the fire and continuing the strangulation. The problem is not stopping the fire, but taking the Israeli army out of populated areas, stopping the economic strangulation, and giving free and safe passage to the Palestinians. A cease-fire takes place between two armies, not between an army and a people under occupation.
• Palestinian sources warn that Sharon will use his call for a 'cease-fire' and a so-called Palestinian refusal to it as a pretext to launch more destructive attacks on the Palestinian population and PNA positions. Some Palestinian officials warn against a possible all out attack on the Palestinian areas particularly in the wake of statements issued by the fascist minister of police Uzi Landau and Israeli minister of justice Meir Shetreet this morning.
• Palestinian senior officers in Gaza deny Israeli allegations they financed production of mortars in Gaza. Director of Police in Gaza accused Israel of trying to justify its attacks and killing of Palestinian policemen adding that the Israeli story is false, fabricated and does not have one grain of truth in it. Ghazi jabali warned against Israel using such excuses to attack more Palestinian police positions.
• President Arafat will meet President Mubarak in Cairo/ Egypt today. A Palestinian scholar, a philosopher and an educator passed away yesterday. Professor Ibrahim Abu Loghod lectured and taught in American universities and came back home 7 years ago. In an interview with a Palestinian newspaper, Abu Loghod said he came home in order to be buried in his hometown of Yafa when he dies. Abu Loghod 72 years old died from cancer yesterday, He is due to be buried in Yafa, his hometown tomorrow.
• A Palestinian journalist was arrested and beaten when travelling between Ramallah and Bir Ziet. An Israeli tank forced his car to stop, after which Israeli occupation soldiers arrested the Journalist and beat him mercilessly. The journalist Khalid Farraj works for Al- ayyam newspapers. Israeli soldiers manning checkpoints repeatedly beat Palestinians particularly young men and those Israel suspects of participating in Intifada related activities.
• Polluted sweets from unknown sources are found close to schools in Gaza. Palestinian Ministry of Health officials warned the public not to touch or eat these sweets as initial tests proved them to be polluted and not suitable for human consumption.
• Palestinian NGO's call on Palestinians members of "Peres Center for Peace" to withdraw their affiliation from this center. Palestinian NGO's describe this center now as a center for war and aggression, particularly as Shimon Peres is a leading advocate of Sharon's murderous policies against the Palestinian people.
• Foreign nationals residing in the Palestinian territories demonstrate in solidarity with the Palestinian people and against the Israeli occupation demanding that Israel end its occupation of Palestinian land. Ramallah, Bethlehem and other Palestinian towns and cities are home to many foreigners working, studying and living in Palestine.
• India informed the PNA of its intention to provide medical equipment to Palestinian hospitals in assistance to the Palestinian people.

Wednesday May 23, 2001

Main Headlines

• A statement issued by the Palestinian National Authority states that the Israeli Prime Minister Sharon rendered the Mitchell report ineffective as Sharon refuses to halt and freeze Jewish settlement's construction in the occupied Palestinian territories.
• A Palestinian man died of his wounds yesterday, and Sharon's occupation forces bombed Biet Jala. Israeli tanks and bulldozers went into Gaza yesterday, destroyed many Palestinian homes, uprooted trees and ripped large parts of Palestinian farm land apart.
• Upon an invitation from the French government, President Arafat is due in Paris today.
• Western news reports said that President Bush seeks a meeting with President Arafat in Europe next month.
• President Bush said to have welcomed a so-called call for a cease-fire uttered by Sharon. Described by Erekat as some one, who did not read the Mitchell effort, Sharon took one item of the Mitchell report and agreed to it. With regard to settlements, Sharon did not see any connection and said: settlements are built on 'state land', meaning that he will continue constructing Jewish settlements and confiscating Palestinian land for bypass roads.
• To the Palestinian people, continuing Jewish settlement means perpetuating the occupation, it means no viable Palestinian state, no freedom and no independence. Continuing Jewish settlements means continuing Israeli occupation soldiers' presence, means unending suffering, humiliation, loss of dignity and loss of humanity.
• Palestinian Minister of international cooperation says: If Sharon and his government accept the Mitchell report in its entirety, this could mean the beginning of a new era in the Middle East.
• The Security Council endorses the Mitchell Committee report and supports the Jordanian Egyptian initiative to resume Palestinian Israeli peace negotiations.
• Trying to repeat his failure of the fifties and seventies, Sharon is said to be busy searching for an alternative Palestinian leadership. Further more, he is searching for ways in which he can divide the West Bank and Gaza into separate areas with different leaderships directly linked to Israel.
• In conjunction with Olmert municipality in West Jerusalem, the Israeli government concocts measures to prevent Palestinian Jerusalemites from building in Arab Jerusalem. The Israeli occupation authorities is taking steps designed not to allow Palestinians from buying building material except after receiving permission from the Israeli occupation authorities.
• Israel is preventing food supplies -assistance to the Palestinian people- from entering into the occupied Palestinian territories. The food supplies reached Rafah's crossing point but were prevented by the Israeli occupation forces from continuing to Gaza.

Tuesday May 22, 2001

Main Headlines

• Mitchell report is official, the US endorses it, the Palestinian leadership accepts it in its entirety, and Israel refuses to accept a cardinal measure that could make or break the implementation of the report. Israel refuses to completely freeze Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
• US Secretary of State Colin Powell appoints America's ambassador to Jordan as a mediator to implement Mitchell's report recommendations. Washington empowers its ambassador in Jordan to put a timetable to end 'violence' and the resumption of peace talks.
• President Arafat met with the EU's security and policy coordinator Solana and discusses with him the findings of the Mitchell report and the Jordanian Egyptian peace initiative. During the meeting President Arafat received a phone call from US secretary of State Colin Powell, and agreed with him to continue contacts with all concerned parties in order to implement Mitchell's report recommendations.
• Israel killed two Palestinian young men yesterday in Gaza, bombed Al- Buraij refugee camp in Gaza, and sent its tanks and bulldozers deep into the Palestinian town of Khan Younis to destroy Palestinian buildings. In its missile attack on Gaza two nights ago, Israel destroyed a marble factory, a garage where vehicles are fixed, a printer shop and a spare parts plant. Ten Palestinian homes were also destroyed, and 15 Palestinian civilians were injured.
• On what is termed by Olmert municipality as Jerusalem day, Jewish settlers staged provocative marches in Arab East Jerusalem. Under the protection and escort of the Israeli occupation police, Jewish settlers provoked and humiliated Palestinian citizens of Arab east Jerusalem burned Palestinian flags and shouted abuse at them. Jewish settlers attempted to desecrate the Aqsa Mosque and storm Orient House.
• President Mubarak of Egypt warns Israel against escalating its aggression against the Palestinian people and added that a point of no return could be very close. President Mubarak said that he was astonished when he heard of Israel using American supplied F-16 fighter-bombers against the Palestinian people.

• The PNA says: The key to the success of the Mitchell report is the complete freeze of Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

• Sharon's government plans the most dangerous step of all, constructing a Jewish temple on the Aqsa Mosque compound. It appears that Sharon's madness does not know any bounds.

• Israel's minister of police, the fascist Landau says: Jibreel Rjoub is not immune, and the Israeli occupation army says, yes, our bombing of Rjoub's home was deliberate.

• The Israeli newspapers say, the Palestinians achieved winning the media war. Sharon's orders to bombard Palestinian positions using F-16 bombers distorted the picture of Israel in the eyes of the world. The Guardian newspaper reported yesterday saying:

• the Israeli public realizes now that Sharon has no solutions, neither military nor political.  

• The European Union says: Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal and must stop completely. Israel must lift its siege and sanctions on the Palestinian territories.

Monday May 21, 2001

Main Headlines

• Sharon's government established 15 more locations for Jewish settlements in occupied Palestinian land since Sharon's election for Prime Minister last February.
• The Israeli defense minister said his government planned to prevent President Arafat from travelling to Cairo last Saturday to attend the Arab League foreign ministers' meeting, but changed its mind. - Apparently after consulting with the United States-.
• Palestinian homes, businesses and police positions were bombarded yesterday including the home of Palestinian Preventative Security Chief Jibril Rjoub in Ramallah. Fortunately, Rjoub's children were not home. Rjoub was lightly injured. Israeli tanks shelled his home and other civilian Palestinian positions. Rjoub's home was heavily damaged. Israeli tanks attempted to storm areas west of Ramallah yesterday.
• Israeli gunboats and helicopter gunships raided Gaza early this morning destroying a factory and 10 Palestinian houses. Also last night, Israeli tanks bombarded Bethlehem, Qalqilya, Khan Younis and Rafah. Twelve Palestinians were reported injured.
• The Israeli cabinet authorized Sharon, Ben Eliazer and Peres to take urgent military and war decisions. Sharon threatens to use all weapons in his arsenal against the Palestinian civilian population and its lightly armed security forces. Sharon's tanks bombarded Alia hospital and residential areas in Hebron and Arroub Palestinian refugee camp. Sharon threatens to hit Syrian positions in Lebanon if Hizbullah attacked Israeli occupation troops stationed in the occupied Lebanese territory of Sheb'a farms.
• President Mubarak of Egypt warns Israel against escalating its aggression against the Palestinian people and added that a point of no return could be very close. President Mubarak said that he was astonished when he heard of Israel using American supplied F-16 fighter-bombers against the Palestinian people.
• Threatening and intimidating, Sharon says he will use more force against the Palestinian population. Sharon added that the Americans understand that "we can't take this anymore." Sharon effectively sending two messages: - He calls on the Israeli public to be patient because the current situation according to Israeli sources would last between 3 and eight years, and the second message conflicting with the first " we can't take this anymore".
• American Vice- President Dick Cheney said in a television interview that Israel should stop using F16's against the Palestinians.
• Middle Israel is raising its voice saying Sharon and his government have neither a military nor a diplomatic answer to the conflict raging now in the occupied Palestinian land and Israel. Shlomo Avneri, an Israeli political analyst told Israeli radio that " Friday's response should be seen as indicative of the helplessness of a government that has no path."
• As things stand now in Israel, the military is leading the politicians, the military decides what actions to take and the political echelon appears to have no choice but to agree. The attack on Jibreel Rjoub's home yesterday is indicative of this situation. As reported on the Israeli news toady, the Israeli defense minister is waiting for an explanation from his military as to what happened yesterday in Ramallah. Giora Eiland, an Israeli General, head of operations in the Israeli army told journalists on Sunday that Israel wanted to send a message to the Palestinians that "there is a cost not only on the Israeli side of the line but on their lives." It appears that Giora Eiland is more dangerous to the Israelis than the Palestinians, no body heard his vocal threats, but Palestinians sow and felt the destruction and walked the martyrs to their resting-place. If Eiland and his bosses think his jetfighters will intimidate the Palestinian people, he and his bosses better think again.
• Israel isolates the holy city of Jerusalem and increases its security measures in the city. Under heavy protection by Israeli occupation soldiers, Jewish settlers in Arab Jerusalem will attempt to walk in the city and attack Palestinians and Palestinian property. The so called "Jerusalem day' fabricated by the Jewish mayor of West Jerusalem is a big farce. There is no unity in Jerusalem, and there is no harmony, what exist in Jerusalem is an Israeli occupation soldiers armed to their teeth intimidating Palestinians, blocking roads and preventing Palestinians from living their normal life on their land and in their own homes. Israelis themselves do not believe Olmert lies about unification in Jerusalem.
• President Arafat and President Bush may meet next months. A report of an American initiative on the Palestinian Israeli conflict is in the air.
• Citing American hostile position against the Palestinian people in favor of Israel, Saudi official sources confirm that Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia refused an American official invitation to visit Washington.

Sunday May 20, 2001

Main Headlines

• More than 100,000 Palestinians marched with 12 Palestinian martyrs who were killed on orders from war criminal Sharon by American made F16 jet bombers to their burial place in Nablus. Chanting long live Palestine and saluting the martyrs and Palestinian forces of resistance against the Israeli barbaric occupation of Palestinian land, the funeral turned into a huge nationalist demonstration.
• New Israeli air attacks against Palestinian police positions located close to Palestinian residential areas. Three more Palestinian young men were murdered yesterday and scores of others many of whom women and children were injured.
• Israeli tanks and heavy machine guns bombarded the Palestinian city of Hebron late last night and continued until the early hours of this morning. A group of 400 Jewish settlers occupy parts of the heart of the old city of Hebron. Three times their numbers, Israeli occupation soldiers are stationed in the Middle of the city to 'protect these settlers'. Israeli soldiers occupy roofs of Palestinian homes and place heavy machine guns on them. Soldiers make toilets out of the roofs of Palestinian homes, destroy water tanks, and are imposing almost an ongoing curfew on the Palestinian population on at least 20% of the area of the Palestinian city under direct control of Israeli occupation forces.
• Addressing the Arab League meeting President Arafat said, the Palestinian people is prepared to accept just and durable peace based on realizing Palestinian national rights and international legitimacy. President Arafat added, the Palestinian people will never surrender and will struggle for its rights until they are achieved.
• Palestinian minister of information and culture Yaser Abd Rabbo holds Washington responsible for the escalating Israeli attacks on the Palestinian people. A statement issued by the minister's office said that Sharon's murderous actions would not have happened had it not received a green light from the USA. Abd Rabbo cited Sharon's acquiescence when the US ordered him to evacuate Biet Hanoun last month after briefly occupying this Palestinian neighborhood north of Gaza. It is to be noted that immediately after Sharon formed his extreme right wing coalition government, Sharon made his first pilgrimage to Washington seeking its blessing and a green light for 100 days to destroy the Palestinian Intifada. The Bush administration since then remained quite, accepting Sharon's murderous attacks on Palestinian civilian population, freedom, liberty, economy and life. A rapist and his victims left alone to sort out their differences. Apparently, the American way, if in doubt .. ask Bob Carry the American Senator who was reported by the American TV to have murdered Vietnamese women, old men and children during the Vietnam War. Not just that, he denied it while his colleagues and live witnesses testified to it happening. Sharon and many Israeli Generals seem to have some common historical backgrounds particularly with murdering civilian population and committing war crimes.
• Some members of the American Congress call on the American administration to halt financial assistance to the Palestinian people and Egypt. The Palestinian people suppose to receive an annual aid of US$ 75 million. This is distributed in a manner and a framework laid down by the US agency USAID.
• Marwan Barghouty, member of the Palestinian legislative Council accuses the American administration of being a partner to Sharon's government in its ongoing barbaric and murderous attacks on unarmed Palestinian civilian population. Addressing an Arab and Muslim world audience on TV, Barghouthi said that Sharon is killing the Palestinian people with American tanks, bullets, missiles, airplanes and money.
• The American administration is reported to have prepared an initiative acceptable to Israel in order to reduce violence and prepare for a resumption of peace negotiations.
• Amre Mousa, the new Arab League secretary says: the Palestinian Intifada will continue. A public statement issued after the Arab League meeting demanded that all Arab contacts with Israel stop now.
• Egypt's newly appointed foreign minister Ahmad Maher said yesterday, one can not call the Palestinian people's resistance to the Israeli occupation 'violence'. President Mubarak of Egypt said to have initiated contacts with world leaders urging them to pressure Israel to stop its aggression on the Palestinian people.
• Jordan's foreign minister accused Israel of preparing to launch an attack on Syria and Lebanon, and warned that enlarging the area of conflict will have very dangerous repercussions on the region and beyond.
• Several Israeli occupation targets in the occupied Palestinian territories reported to have come under fire.

Saturday May 19, 2001

Main Headlines

• What is next on Sharon's menu? A nuclear bomb perhaps!
  Sharon yesterday sent his F16 airforce jets to hit Palestinian police positions, a prison, and homes. 13 Palestinian young men were murdered by Sharon and more than 100 injured, many are women and children. Homes in residential areas surrounding the attacked Palestinian police positions were heavily damaged.
  The Martyrs are:
  1. Nasri Naser Yacub Hasan 22 years from Dir Al- hatab village in the West Bank
  2. Refai Rabayah, 28 from Maythaloon - West bank
  3. Ayman Marouf - From Naqura West Bank
  4. Fadi Hamed Beit Djan West Bank
  5. Muataz Najeh Al Khateeb 27 years from Bourin
  6. Fares Hamdan
  7. Khalid Sbieh 21 from Tayaseer village - West bank
  8. Ahmad Sadeq Al- Khader from Qusin, the West bank
  9. -Wael Khader Mali Biet Iba, West Bank
  10. -Nabil Isam Ismael 22 from Dier Al-Ghsoon, West Bank
  11. Rami Ezzat Yasin 25 from Assira Shamleyyeh West Bank
  12. Wael Awad Abdulkarim 29 from Jdaydeh West Bank
  13. Ismael Abu raffeh 27 from Gaza and was killed in Ramallah.

  In addition to Israeli airforce jets, Sharon used his tanks, Navy gunboats, ground to ground missiles and heavy machine guns against the Palestinian people in Gaza. Other cities hit are Nablus where 12 Palestinians were killed and around 50 injured.

• Palestinian resistance destroyed an Israeli tank on the Egyptian Palestinian borders.
• A self-sacrificing Palestinian young man loaded himself with explosives and went into a shopping mall in Netanya. He detonated the explosion killing himself and five more Israeli civilians, seventy other Israelis were also injured. The young man Mahmoud Marmash performed the morning prayers in his home, bought some sweets to his mother and then left home for the last time.
• A Jewish settler serving as an officer in the Israeli occupation army was killed yesterday near the settlement of 'Neve Tsuf' west of Ramallah. Two other passengers travelling with him in the car were injured, one of them, the dead soldier's mother was seriously injured.
• European members of Parliament issued a statement yesterday condemning Israel's settlement policies. Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are the biggest obstacle facing the peace process. Head of the International Red Cross in Palestine and Israel stated that: ' The policy of settlement as such in humanitarian law is a war crime.'
• King Abdullah of Jordan says: Peace and stability in the Middle East can not be achieved until the Arabs regain their full legitimate rights.
• President Bush expresses his deep concern from the escalating violence in the Middle East and calls on Middle East leaders to stop it and condemn it.
• Palestinian Medical Relief Organization received the World Health Organization prize for the year 2001.
• US Secretary of State calls on an unconditional cease-fire in the area. An Israeli minister said that Israel will continue to use its airforce jets to hit the Palestinian people under occupation.
• According to American official sources, Crown Prince Abdulah of Saudi Arabia refused visiting Washington and calls on the United States to interfere to stop the Israeli aggression.
• The PNA warns Israel and call on the international community to stop the Israeli barbaric attacks and massacres against the Palestinian people. The PNA also rejected Peres' position on Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
• Israel accuses the PNA of having mortar shells in the West Bank.
• The PNA condemns the killing of civilians both Palestinians and Israelis. Olmert, the 'mayor' of West Jerusalem says: No peace settlement will be achieved during the coming 15 years.
• Egypt's new foreign minister Ahmad Maher conditions meeting Shimon Peres on Israel stopping its aggression.
• American and British jets attacked civilian targets in Iraq. The United State and Russia did not agree on how to lift the inhumane sanctions imposed on Iraq. France, on the other hand is willing to discuss American and British suggestions on a 'supposed 'lifting of sanctions on Iraq.
• The British government appoints a new Consul General in Jerusalem. Geoffrey Adams says, the Foreign Office decision to appoint a Consul General In Palestine pleased me very much, and he is looking forward to establishing a good working relations with President Arafat and the Palestinian leadership for the sake of peace and stability in the region.

Thursday May 17, 2001

Main Headlines

• On orders from Sharon and his chief of staff Mofaz, American made Apactchi Israeli helicopters and tanks bombarded Palestinian towns, refugee camps and cities last night. Jenin, Jabalai refugee camp, Jerico and Rafah were hit by missiles, bombshells and heavy machine guns. 15 Palestinians ten of whom civilians including women and children were injured in the Israeli attacks.
• As per the same orders, a Palestinian boy 15 years old returning from school with his bag on his back was shot and killed by Israeli occupation forces in Gaza yesterday. The boy is the 450th Palestinian victim killed by Israeli occupation forces since Oct 2000.
• Jewish settlers burn agriculture fields in the Palestinian village of Dir Dibwan. Israeli bulldozers manned by settlers and protected by Israeli occupation soldiers ripped through Palestinian farmland in the village. Jewish settlers also attacked the village of Hareth and Israeli tanks bombed the Palestinian village of Silwad last night.
• Sharon and his criminal government is not satisfied with just killing Palestinian policemen and civilians mostly young men and children, he is destroying homes, land, trees, water wells, electricity grids, milk, butter and yogurt plants, businesses, causing much damages to schools, clinics, vehicles, and believe it or not destroying roads. Never in history things like that had happened. Only under the current Israeli fascist government headed by Sharon could this happen while the world is watching. Imagine what would Sharon and his people would do if the world were not watching. Imagine what they did to the 530 Palestinian towns and villages Israel destroyed in 1948 when the world was not watching… the number of massacres Sharon and his people perpetrated in 1948 and after that are countless, many of which are not exposed yet… think of the Tantura massacre in which 250 man woman and child were slaughtered by the 'enlightened' Haganah, let alone Dir Yassin, Qibya and many others.
• President Clinton said yesterday that Sharon is to blame for the current deterioration in the Middle East and warns that Sharon might cause strategic damage to Israel.
• The Palestinian people buried three of its most generous martyrs yesterday. Abdul Jawad Shadeh, Mohammad Abu Jaser in Gaza and Burhan Shakhsheer in Ram north of Jerusalem.
• Palestinian citizens living in villages and towns west of Ramallah speak of strange objects thrown from Israeli helicopters on fields closed to their villages.
• The Palestinian National Authority denies Israeli claims that a mortar factory exists in Jenin, describing the accusation as ludicrous.
• The Palestinian National Authority announces its unreserved acceptance of the Mitchell report in its entirety. President Arafat dismisses a report that he received an invitation from Qatar to meet Sharon in that country saying to the reporter forget it. It will not happen.
• It is reported that Washington is preparing a new initiative based on the Jordanian Egyptian ideas and the Mitchell Committee report and will bring it into the open in the near future. President Arafat and US Secretary of State Powell might meet in Paris on May 23. Answering a question from the press, a Palestinian spokesman said, President Arafat is not aware of such a meeting yet.
• President Arafat ended a visit to Egypt, met President Mubarak , his newly appointed foreign minister Ahmad maher and held an important meeting with the new Arab League General Secretary Amre Mousa.
• Washington refuses holding a meeting for the UN Security Council to discuss the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories. Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Nasser Al- Qudwa said, we will call again for the international community represented by the UN and the Security Council to provide protection for the Palestinian people.
• President Mubarak warns Washington of the continuing deterioration in the region. President Mubarak and President Bashar Al- Assad of Syria met in Sharm Al- Shiekh yesterday to discuss the efforts made to stop the Israeli continuing aggression.
• Shimon Peres apologizes for the killing of five Palestinian policemen on Monday. The Palestinian National Authority rejected Peres apologies asking what about the other 445 Palestinians killed and the thousands of injured on the hands of the Israeli occupation forces since September.
• Europe demands Israel freeze settlement construction and expansion in the occupied Palestinian territories including Arab East Jerusalem and call on it to return to the negotiations table. Products made in Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories will not be allowed into Europe as products made in Israel.
• A Palestinian taxi driver discover a bomb planted in Arab East Jerusalem, throw it away into an empty area and saved Palestinian passerby's mostly school children going home. This is the third bomb explosion in Arab East Jerusalem in the last few weeks, all planted close to Palestinian crowded areas. Israeli police sources deny those bombs are planted their by Jewish extremists.

Wednesday May 16, 2001

Main Headlines

• Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians stood in silence Tuesday as a three-minute siren sounded to mark the 53rd anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba - the catastrophe that befell the Palestinian people in 1948 when 900,000 were forced out of their homeland, Palestine.
• Two Palestinian young men were murdered in Ramallah by Israeli troops who deliberately targeted Palestinian demonstrators with live fire yesterday. Another two Palestinians were murdered in Gaza. Hospital sources throughout the occupied territories spoke of more than 250 Palestinian injuries - all Palestinian civilians, hit by Israeli live fire, rubber coated steel bullets and tear gas bombs.
• A Palestinian participating in the demonstrations said the Palestinian struggle to achieve our legitimate goals for freedom and independence will be intensified. Sharon and his government will be defeated because the Palestinian people will not surrender- no matter how many of us the Jews and Israel will kill.
• Addressing the Palestinian people, President Arafat called for patience and steadfastness – “Sabr Wa Sumoud” -. Addressing the Israeli people and the world, President Arafat said: " We will never be defeated, no matter how destructive the weapons that are used against our people and children. Israeli rockets smash and penetrate the small bodies of our children and infants, their blood is shed. But the world is in a state of slumber, failing to pay attention to the acts that are committed by the Israeli aggressors."
• On the 53rd anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, President Arafat called on the world’s conscience to wake up to the Palestinian tragedy and to rectify it, adding, “The only way to peace is a total Israeli withdrawal from all Arab territories occupied by Israel in the war of 1967 and finding a solution for Palestinian refugees in accordance with UN relevant resolutions.”
• The Israeli foreign minister yesterday tried to camouflage Israel's atrocities against the Palestinian people, in interviews with the international media, particularly CNN and BBC. Shimon Peres dodged questions on the murder of five Palestinian policemen near Bitunia last Monday, and was not ashamed to tell straight lies when he said that Israeli soldiers do not shoot live fire at civilian demonstrators. He lied when he said that his government will not confiscate Palestinian land. Ironically, one day earlier, his boss Sharon gave the go ahead to build a ring road around Jerusalem. For this settler bypass road large parts of Palestinian land will be confiscated and many Palestinian homes will be demolished. As a matter of fact, the expansion and building of new settlements is taking place in the West bank and Gaza as we speak. Shimon Peres speaks of peace, but he is as deadly as his boss Sharon is, if not more. Peres is not empowered, his statements and declarations do not carry any weight. Only Sharon's declarations, actions and statements matter now. Sharon's statements and actions are for building new settlements and expanding others, for allocating huge sums of money for Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, for giving his occupation army free hand to destroy and kill Palestinians and Palestinian life, land, homes, tress, culture etc…
• Apparently contradicting his boss, the Israeli defense minister said, Israel is ready to drop everything and begin negotiations with the PA tomorrow morning.
• The PNA, Israel and the UN handed their respective responses on the Mitchell Report to the US administration.
• Yesterday after noon and during the nighttime, Israeli tanks shelled Palestinian homes in the Bethlehem area, Tulkarm, Shweikeh, Rafah, Ramallah and Al- Bireh.
• An Israeli woman settler was killed yesterday while travelling from the Jewish settlement of 'Romanim' to Jerusalem. The settler's car was hit by a number of bullets. Israeli reports say Palestinian gunmen are behind the killing.
• A Palestinian Arab member of the Israeli Knesset says: Israel's chief of staff is a murderer and accused the Israeli occupation army of cold-blooded murder.
• Israel expects Jewish settlement in and around Arab Jerusalem to be hit by mortar fire.
• President Arafat and President Mubarak held discussions on the deteriorating situation in the region. Egypt's new foreign minister Ahmad Maher said: extensive contacts are taking place to stop the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Palestinian people and the PNA.
• Few Arab capitals witnessed limited solidarity activities with the Palestinian people commemorating Nakba Day.
• Palestinian Minister of International Cooperation calls on the Bush Administration to 'adopt' the Mitchell Committee report. Jordanian sources reveal that the US suggested changes on the Jordanian Egyptian peace initiative.
• Ahmad Maher, a veteran Egyptian diplomat succeeds Amre Mousa as Egypt's Foreign Minister. Amre Mousa is the new Secretary General of the Arab League. Under his leadership, the Arab League is expected to see much re-invigoration.

Tuesday May 15, 2001

Main Headlines

• The ongoing catastrophe that befell the Palestinian people witnesses its 53rd anniversary this day. The West, who bear a major responsibility, are still the same West who participated in causing our Nakba, the calamity that caused 900,000 Palestinians to become refugees outside their own country Palestine. On this day 53 years ago, Israel was establish and declared a state on the ruin of Palestine. After preparing the ground for the Jews, the British who ruled Palestine since 1918, evacuated their last soldiers from mandatory Palestine paving the way for BenGurion to declare Israel. Ten minutes later, the United States of America recognised Israel. Today, and fifty three years on, the Palestinian people have never been able to return home. Four million Palestinians are now in refugee camps and in the Diaspora, and 4 million Palestinians are still in their land Palestine turned Israel.
• The Western mentality is still the same. Ignoring the massacre perpetrated by the Israeli occupation army yesterday against Palestinians in which 7 young men were murdered by the Israeli government and its criminal army, the Herald Tribune chose to carry on its front page a picture of a Jewish soldier allegedly carrying a Jewish settler to 'safety'. The children standing on the ruins of their destroyed homes, or 4 month baby Iman murdered by Israel, or the countless tragic pictures representing the Palestinian ongoing tragedy did not merit a front page picture for the Herald Tribune. In his interview with CNN yesterday, US Secretary of State Colin Powell ignored the continuous genocide perpetrated by Sharon and his fascist government, the killing of men, women and children, the destruction of Palestinian homes and farmland, and the barbaric continuing occupation of Palestinian land since 1948 and 1967. Instead, they chose to criticise President Arafat for saying Israel will pay a high price for its dirty assassinations of Palestinian policemen.
• Their blood mixed with bread, five Palestinian young policemen did not finish their Last Supper. Israeli cold-blooded murderers on orders from war criminal Sharon and his criminal chief of staff shot them dead in the middle of the night. All five were from Gaza, and none of them had seen his family since last June. Israel prevents Palestinians from travelling between Gaza and Ramallah in the West Bank.
• President Arafat says: “The massacre of five young Palestinian policemen at the hands of Israeli occupation troops in Bitunia near Rammallah is a savage, dirty and disgusting act.”
• The Palestinian National Authority condemned the Israeli massacre and called on the UN Security Council to assume its responsibilities and provide international protection for the Palestinian people.
• Israel kills two more Palestinian young men in Gaza and Khan Younis.
• Israeli tanks protecting the Jewish settlement of Gilo bombarded the Palestinian town of Biet Jala and the Azza refugee camp close to Bethlehem. Israeli tanks fired indiscriminately also at Nablus, Al Bireh and Rafah injuring ten Palestinian civilians, including a child.
• Today, on this 53rd anniversary of Al- Nakba, President Arafat will address the Palestinian people. Demonstrations will cover the length and breadth of Palestine, commemorating this sad day, the day Israel was established on the ruins of Palestine in 1948.
• The Israeli occupation forces tighten its grip on the occupied Palestinian territories and intensify its presence.
• Citing Israeli atrocities against the Palestinian people under occupation, Amnesty International was said to have asked the European Union to impose sanctions on Israel.
• Palestinian Minister of Finance says: “Israel began facing international isolation.”
• Sharon's government gives the go ahead for constructing a so-called ring road around Arab Jerusalem. In order to build this road for the benefit of its Jewish settlers, Israel will destroy more Palestinian homes and will confiscate large areas of Palestinian land.
• PLC head Ahmad Qurai said, “ The escalating Israeli aggression on the Palestinian people threatens a wide scale explosion in the whole region.”
• In the wake of the massacre perpetrated by the Israeli occupation forces, the European Union urges the stopping of the catastrophic escalation of violence in the area.
  The Jordanian foreign minister calls on the world community to urge Israel to halt its violence against the Palestinian people and end the occupation.
• Minister of Culture and Information Yasser Abd Rabbo says: “The Mitchell Committee report requires a mechanism for its implementation.”
• US Secretary of State Colin Powell and PLO Secretary General Mahmoud Abbas are scheduled to meet in Washington today.

Monday May 14, 2001

Main Headlines

• On orders from Sharon and Mofaz the Israeli occupation forces, its airforce and navy gunboats attacked several Palestinian residential areas and police positions in Gaza. Tens of Palestinian civilians including 23 children were seriously hurt.
• Another Jewish massacre in Bietunia near Ramallah, Israeli army units attacked and murdered five Palestinian policemen manning a Palestinian post agreed upon by the signed agreements. The murderers killed the five in cold blood while some of them were asleep.
• Israeli tanks and bulldozers attacked parts of the Palestinian town of Tulkarm. Houses and farmland were destroyed. This morning a Jewish settler hit a Palestinian pedestrian near the Palestinian village of Medieh in the West Bank. The old man was taken to hospital and is in a critical state.
• Over the last thirty days, Israel and its occupation forces killed 13 Palestinian children, and tens of others were wounded including 23 in last night's attack on Gaza.
• In Rafah, Israeli bulldozers destroyed two homes and made its people destitute, like thousands of other Palestinians made homeless over the last few months.
• Palestinian school children suffer tremendously when travelling to schools and on their return home. In Gaza, Israeli soldiers blocking roads and areas open some gates at certain times allowing children to go to school and to return home ate certain times. Some school children stay for hours waiting for the soldiers to open the gates. Children capacity to learn and concentrate is diminishing and the education process is severely affected. This is perhaps one of the Israeli aims, creating an ignorant and hungry society.
• In Arab Jerusalem, Israeli occupation troops fire at Palestinian cars near Jerusalem airport and in Ras-AlAmud. In the first instance a whole Palestinian family was injured and in the second a Palestinian woman was moderately injured.
• Jewish settlers storm the Palestinian villages of Housan, Tekoa and Sinjel. Settlers supported and protected by soldiers attacked and Palestinian property, businesses and homes. The Israeli soldiers used tear gas bombs and stun grenades to further terrify the Palestinian population.
• Right wing ministers in Sharon's government demand destroying Palestinian TV and radio stations. Jewish settlers threaten Palestinian journalists.
• Annan describes the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories as catastrophic, and accuses Israel of using excessive force against the Palestinian population.
• The Palestinian National Authority calls for an urgent meeting for the UN Security Council.
• On his visit to Israel, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Manley said that there is a need for the international community to press Israel to freeze all construction in the Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. Manley said: " I think that without international pressure, the recommendations of the Mitchell Committee will probably not go anywhere," Earlier, the Canadain Minister for Foreign Affiars said the Mitchell report ' provides a sound basis for moving forward from here. I very strongly urged Mr. Peres to get me the ability to say that Israel is prepared to act on the recommendations of the Mitchell report, including recommendations on the settlements.'
• The PNA accepted the Mitchell report, before that, the PNA accepted the Jordanian Egyptian initiative to resume peace negotiations. Sharon and the Israeli government have selective acceptance of the Mitchell report, they accept what suits them and reject the terms they do not like. Sharon is rejecting freezing the construction and expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories as required by the terms and recommendations of the Mitchell report.
• The PNA is seriously considering asking the UN Security Council to officially adopt the Mitchell Committee recommendations.

Sunday May 13, 2001

Main Headlines

• American made helicopter gunships and Israeli missiles hit a Palestinian car and many other Palestinian homes in Jenin, instantly killing two Palestinians one of them a policeman directing traffic, and injuring 18 civilians on the roads close to the city center in Jenin.
• After midnight last night, Israeli tanks shelled Al- Mghazi refugee camp in Gaza killing a Palestinian man and injuring 15 other civilians. Al-Maghazi refugee camp is home to tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees' majority of whom are children born in the camp, and have a subsistence living.
• Israeli occupation soldiers manning, a now, permanent checkpoint on the road connecting Jerusalem and Ramallah opened machine gunfire on a Jerusalemite family travelling on the road injuring a father, his son and two daughters, the mother received light injuries and suffered from shock. The entire family was later transferred to Makasid hospital in Arab Jerusalem for treatment.
• Fifteen Palestinian civilians were hurt including two five-year-old children after Jewish settlers and Israeli occupation soldiers attacked both the city of Hebron and the town of Biet Ommar. A family home was totally destroyed in Alkhader when Israeli shells fell on it destroying it completely. The family of eight left their home five minutes before the shells landed on the house destroying it completely.
• In northern Gaza, four Palestinian families had miraculous escape when missiles fired by the Israeli occupation forces landed close to their homes Friday night.
• Israeli tanks and heavy equipment are moving closer to the green line close to Tulkarm and the neighboring Palestinian areas. Israeli occupation troops last night fired its heavy machine guns and tank shells on Tulkarm and the Palestinian village of Rramin.
• Palestinian human rights organizations call on the UN and the international community to provide protection to the Palestinian people under occupation.
• A senior aid to Sharon warns against the adoption of the Mitchell Committee by the UN. Israel effectively dumped the Egyptian Jordanian initiative and announced that it opposes the Mitchell Committee report on freezing Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. The Israeli minister of finance said yesterday that Israel will not accept the American position on Jewish settlements. Sharon's government will go ahead with its plans to allocate more than US$ 200 million for Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
• President Arafat will meet the French president on May 23 in Paris. PLO Secretary General Mahmoud Abbas and Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat travel to Washington today. The Palestinian delegation is due to hold talks with Secretary of State Collin Powell tomorrow or the day after.
• President Mubarak of Egypt calls on President Bush to move towards peace in the Middle East.
• According to an American reporter - Jim Anderson-, the American Israeli relations are witnessing a state of cooling down. Two days ago, American Secretary of State Colin Powell described the Mitchell Committee report as excellent, something the Israeli government does not like.
• In an interview with Radio Cairo yesterday, ex- Mk Abdel Wahab Darawsheh accused the Israeli occupation forces of planning to assassinate President Arafat. He added that the Israeli occupation army is also under instruction to bring about the collapse of the PNA. Sharon's ministers and actions taken by the Israeli occupation forces in the occupied Palestinian territories on orders from Sharon, his defense minister and chief of staff confirmed this.
• The editorial of the Jerusalem post accuses the Pope of committing sin. Under the title 'A Papal sin of silence' the J. Post wrote the following:
  " For the past 2000 years, the Jewish people suffered terribly at the hands of the Catholic Church. Persecution, forced conversions, inquisitions, crusades, and torture were how the faith that preached love, but practiced hostility, treated the children of Israel throughout Europe. In the Middle Ages, the Church hurled vicious falsehoods against the Jews, accusing them of poisoning Christian wells, ritually murdering Christian children, and using sorcery and magic in alliance with the devil. During the Holocaust, the Vatican remained silent, doing nothing to stop the wholesale slaughter of the Jews on the hands of Nazis."

Saturday May 12, 2001

Main Headlines

• Today, yesterday, the day before and every day, Israeli tanks and bulldozers under cover of heavy fire enter into Palestinian residential areas, destroy homes, schools, farm land and cause the total destruction of whole Palestinian communities. Palestinian children, women young men are amongst the victims of the Israeli bombardments and heavy gunfire. The Destruction caused by Sharon's government is colossal. Sharon's spokespeople like Ranan Gissin and Dory Gold keep reiterating that Sharon's occupation army is pinpointing Palestinian targets involved in 'terror', are Palestinian homes, nurseries, schools and farm land terrorists? Is Palestinian children, teenagers and women terrorists? Sharon, the war criminal is targeting life in Palestine, and his spokespeople are testifying to that. Yesterday, three more Palestinian young men were killed and more than 30 wounded in Gaza and the West Bank. The problem is the world can see what is happening and is not doing anything.
  It is our belief that the American Administration is empowering the Israeli government to commit such genocidal acts, to defy international law and human decency.
• Over the last few months, and under the current American administration, particularly when draft resolutions are submitted to the Security Council calling for sending international protection forces to protect the Palestinian people under occupation, the American administration always veto such resolutions, effectively depriving the Palestinian people protection, not just that, the American administration is effectively a partner with Israel in its atrocities against the Palestinian people. Justifying its position, the American administration keeps repeating an Israeli dictated ploy: the Israelis and Palestinians must settle their differences themselves. This Israeli dictated ploy makes sure no body interferes with their treatments of the Palestinian people. This is the same as if the police told a child rape victim,' Go work it out with your rapist."
• Jewish settlers near Khan Younis leashed their dogs on the Palestinian boy Kifah Zorob when he was returning home from school. The wild dogs attacked Kifah and caused him very serious injuries. Kifah's father decided to defy the siege and to take his son to hospital, the Israeli occupation soldiers prevented the father from taking his son to hospital and forced him to turn back, the school boy Kifah died of his wound after a full night of pain and agony. The agony of the father, the mother and any human being is no less painful than that of Kifah.
• The Israeli government keeps accusing Palestinian TV and newspapers of incitement. The reason according to the Israeli government is that Palestinian TV keep showing pictures of murdered Palestinian children. This Israeli government has no shame, they want to kill our children, destroy our homes and farmland, torture our people and wants us to stay quite. Is there any worse arrogance than this?
• At the same the Israeli president Moshe Katsav says: We'd never stoop to Palestinian's brutality. Katsav better understand that the Palestinian people as a whole are more caring and more humane than what he thinks. It would be more constructive if Katsav waited until the murderers of the two Jewish boys are found. In any case, we say it again, the Palestinian people does not condone such killing and condemn it in the clearest way possible. Driven by despair, pain and desire for revenge, Palestinian individuals may commit actions that can be described as terror. On the Israeli side, it is the Israeli government and the Israeli army who are perpetrating terror against the Palestinian people as a society and as individuals. In addition to the Israeli government, individual and collective Jewish settlers' terror takes place against the Palestinian community. Katsav must look closer to home for the terrorists.
• Sharon to push for settlement budget despite U.S. criticism. Ex under Secretary of State Ned Walker says: Sharon's settlement plan is more than natural growth.

Thursday May 10, 2001

Main Headlines

• Israeli occupation forces comprising heavy tanks and bulldozers storm Biet hanoun and Rafah once again in the Middle of the night, terrorizing people destroying homes and Palestinian police positions. A baby girl 3-month-old and her mother were injured yesterday when shrapnels from shells fired from Israeli tanks hit them.
• Israeli bulldozers root out fruit trees and razed Palestinian farmland and homes to the ground.
• Sharon's government confiscated 5000 dunums of land to construct settlers' roads near on land belonging to the Palestinian town of Yabad near Jenin in the northern West Bank.
• Two Israeli settlers young boys 14 years old were found dead in a cave close to the Jewish settlement near Tekoa in the occupied West Bank. Israel claims Palestinians beat the boys to death. No proof of that has been forthcoming yet. In any case, Palestinian chief negotiator expressing the view of the PNA and a majority of Palestinians -inspite of the pain and the primitive instinct for revenge- denounced the killing of children be they Palestinians, Israelis, Muslims Christians or Jews. The Israeli occupation authorities arrested 18 Palestinians and plan another Jewish settlement in the area.
• President Arafat says: The Israeli continuing invasion of Palestinian territories under PNA control is a very dangerous escalation and must be stopped.
• Sharon repeats his assertions to increase financial aid and more funds for the illegal Jewish settlements constructed on Palestinian land in the West Bank including Arab East Jerusalem and Gaza. Jewish settlers began erecting another settlement near Nablus.
• PLC head Ahamad Qurai calls on the U.S. administration to stop watching the deteriorating situation from a distance.
• Warnings are issued to Israeli planes flying in the Palestinian airspace in the West Bank and Gaza.
• A hand grenade was found and defused in the courtyard of the American Consulate in Arab Jerusalem.
• An Israeli coalition for peace including members of the Labor and Meretz political parties call for freezing Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. The coalition for peace also called on the current Israeli government to accept the Mitchell Committee report and the Jordanian Egyptian initiative for the resumption of Palestinian Israeli peace talks.
• An Israeli minister without portfolio will visit Cairo toady and a French envoy places an invitation for the Israeli prime minister to visit Paris. Nave's visit to Cairo comes within the same frame work of Sharon's visit to Cairo and Amman justifying Sharon's effective rejection of the initiative and of the Mitchell Committee report. The invitation from Paris comes as an attempt by France to influence Sharon to move in the direction of peace talks. Hopes that any thing will materialize from those visits are very slim. Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories and peace can not meet. Sharon is the father of Jewish settlements. He is not and will not change this position.
• Ben Ami, Israel's previous foreign minister says: Settlements are the root cause of the problem. No peace can be achieved unless Israel withdraws its forces and Jerusalem is divided between the two people, the Palestinian people and the Israeli people.
• President Arafat will receive in Gaza today Yossi Bielin and other Israeli members of the newly establish peace coalition.
• Sharon defies the American criticism regarding Jewish settlements and emphasizes his intention to increase budgets for these settlements. Israeli occupation troops kidnap 3 Palestinian young men from Toubas.
• 2300 Palestinian prisoners still in Israeli jails, hundreds of the young children. 850 young Palestinian men were arrested during the current Palestinian Intifada.
• Egypt's foreign minister Amre Mousa says: The Israeli policies are behind the continuing violence.

Wednesday May 9, 2001

Main Headlines

• Israel embarks on what it called a PR campaign to cover its killing of the Palestinian baby 4 month old Iman Hajjo. As an Israeli source said was likely, Sharon's government decided to make public a story of an alleged smuggling of weapons into Gaza to deflect international criticism surrounding the killing of the Palestinian baby Iman.
• Neither the BBC nor CNN or major newspapers in the West showed the pictures of the baby Iman:
  Back on March 26, 200, in the divided city of Hebron on the West Bank, a Jewish baby Shalhevet, was killed and became the subject of headlines, which highlighted her story. The baby's sad death and Israeli claims about a Palestinian sniper killing her from a Palestinian controlled neighborhood was stressed in front page stories.
  According to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society covering the period from Sept. 29, 2000 to midnight of May 6, 2001, 454 Palestinians have been killed and 13,406 wounded, mostly civilian, unarmed protesters. The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development further estimates that 76 percent of those killed were shot with live ammunition in the head or upper body and 34 percent were under the age of 18. An incomprehensible figure of more than 150 children have been killed, including 45 Palestinians students on their way home from school.
  On Monday, Israel murdered yet another Palestinian child, baby Iman, a four-month-old Palestinian girl. Sadly, however, her death, like the death of the many other Palestinian children, is nowhere covered on par with that of little Shalhevet's. Clearly, Palestinian lives are less worthy of the headlines than the lives of Israeli children.
  In the name of fairness and the pursuit of truth, I insist that you promote the highest journalistic standards by providing a balanced coverage. Only by such standards will you contribute to peace in the Holy Land. ( Raed Hussien- Jeddah)
• Eleven more Palestinian children were injured yesterday when Israeli tanks and heavy machine guns fired at Palestinian demonstrators in Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza yesterday morning. A 16-year-old young man died yesterday from wounds he sustained last Friday from Israeli tanks shelling Almintar crossing area in Gaza. Twenty others were injured yesterday, one of them seriously, in various parts of the occupied Palestinian territories.
• Israeli tanks shell Tul Karm, Bethlehem and impose a curfew on the village of Hiwwara. A Jewish settler was killed near the settlement of Itamar in the Nablus area. The settler is an immigrant originally from Brazil.
• A Jewish settler confessed that he deliberately hit and killed a Palestinian man near the Palestinian village of Hizma. When caught by the Israeli police, he told them he does not consider Palestinians as human. Last week while Sharon was visiting the Jewish settlement of Ofra, an Israeli child asked Sharon, why don’t you fulfill your promises and destroy Palestinian villages? This is the mentality Sharon and the Israeli right is nurturing, this is the Israeli mentality we in Palestinian have to face.
• President Arafat received the Foreign Minister of Holland in Gaza yesterday. The President calls for a European and American stand against the continuing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian civilian population in the occupied Palestinian territories.
• The Israel minister of police Uzi Landau calls on Sharon to wage a real war against the Palestinian people
• President Mubarak of Egypt excludes war in the region and says: Sharon's policies are catastrophic. Egypt's foreign minister Amre Mousa called on the US yesterday to assume the role of an honest broker in the Israeli Arab conflict.
• Washington says: Israel's plans to allocate additional funds for Jewish settlements construction in the occupied Palestinian territories are provocative.
• Ex American Senator George Mitchell urged Washington yesterday to play a more active role in the Middle East. The Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres said the Mitchell Report could bring an end to violence. In the meantime, Sharon plans to ratify the construction of five Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, close Palestinian institutions in Arab Jerusalem and plans to desecrate the Aqsa Mosque.
• An increase in Israeli military activities near Bitunia close to Ramallah. Israeli tanks shell Al Fadileyya School in Tulkarm.
• The Danish foreign minister criticizes Israel and calls on it to stop its settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, stop its siege and violence against the Palestinian population.
• Before he left Syria, the Pope stressed the need to establish peace in the region. The Jordanian Monarch and the Austrian Chancellor call on Israel to accept the Jordanian Egyptian peace initiative.
• President Bashar Al- Assad of Syria adopts a new affirmative tone and a more advanced discourse in dealing with Israel, its practices and its occupation. President Bashar Al- Assad calls on the West not to shy away from telling the truth and to call 'a spade' 'a spade.' Bashar added that, the Arabs are Semites, and in the West, still, there are those who adopt double standards in their dealings with the Arab and Palestinian just cause.
• The Foreign minister of Canada says: We are ready to receive Palestinian refugees once a solution to the Palestinian Israeli problem is found.
• The Israeli prime minister refuses to freeze Jewish settlements and lectures representatives of the foreign press on his ideology.

Tuesday May 8, 2001

Main Headlines

• Sharon's occupation army in Gaza attacked and indiscriminately shelled a Palestinian refugee camp in Khan Younis /Gaza. One shell hit the home of the Hajjo family in the camp, instantly killing 4-month-old Iman, with shrapnel tearing an orange-sized hole into the infant's back. The girl's 19-year-old mother, as well as three children belonging to the extended family, were wounded.
• One of the children, 18-month-old Mahmoud, was in intensive care at Nasser Hospital in Gaza with shrapnel wounds over his body, doctors said.
• The baby's uncle, Wael Hajjo, carried the infant from the hospital's autopsy room to the X-ray department. In the emergency room, four children were treated, including the baby's 7-year-old aunt, Dunya, who sat on a bed with a dazed look on her face, her frilly white-and-green dress pulled up above scraped and bandaged legs. "They killed the baby," Dunya said, then burst into tears.
• In the West Bank, the Israeli occupation army shelled Palestinian homes and residential neighborhoods in Tul Karm , Biet sahur, Ayda and Arroub refugee camps, shells landed close to schools and children were in a state of fear searching for places to hide from Israeli shelling. One retired teacher and a Palestinian security officer were killed and many other civilians were wounded. Israeli tanks destroyed many homes and bulldozers levelled and ruined fertile land and uprooted large numbers of fruit trees.
• Scores of Jewish settlers from Bitar settlement in the West Bank attacked the village of Housan near Bethlehem. The settlers numbering around 50 protected by Israeli occupation soldiers damaged Palestinian homes and property. Some of the settlers fired at a Palestinian man in the village injuring him in the legs. The Israeli soldiers protecting the settlers prevented Palestinian ambulance from entering the village to transfer the injured man to hospital. This is the third consecutive night in which Jewish settlers attacked Palestinian villages in the area. The settlers and soldiers are trying to spread fear amongst the Palestinian civilian population in the area. The settlers supported by the Israeli government are trying to render the area untenable to the Palestinian people. However, nothing of this will work, as the Palestinians would rather die than leave their homes, fields and farms.
• Sharon is reported to have had discussions with his ministers on building the ' Jewish Temple' on the Aqsa Compound in Arab Jerusalem.
• President Arafat said, our people will not weakened and will not succumb to the escalating criminal aggression of Sharon's government and occupation army.
• Israeli shelling targets two ambulances carrying injured Palestinians. A Palestinian man was killed when the ambulance carrying him to hospital was hit by fragments of an Israeli tank shell near Tulkarm.
• The Israeli prime minister Sharon threatens the Palestinian people with more saying that " he will not just respond to attacks" but his army will take the initiative. Sharon's initiatives are taking the lives of little Palestinian children. Not just that, Sharon made a point of apologising for the Palestinian baby's death. Sharon did not apologise to the hundreds of Palestinian children killed and maimed by his occupation soldiers before.
• The Israeli prime minister Aric Sharon asks his security organs to find ways to allow Jews and tourists to enter the Aqsa Mosque Compound. Sharon's minister of police is planning to close 12 Palestinian Arab offices in Arab East Jerusalem.
• PLC head Ahmad Qurai says: Israel trivializes all international efforts to resume peace talks. Qurai describes the Israeli plan to begin settlement construction in Sheik Jarrah neighbourhood as threatening the whole Palestinian neighbourhood, and creating more friction points as well as being another step in the process of judiazing the Arab city.
• Secretary General of the presidential Office Tayyeb Abdulrahim calls on the UN and the international community to protect the Palestinian people immediately. Abdulrahim cited the ongoing killing of Palestinian civilians including women and children and the destruction of Palestinian homes and society by the Israeli government and its occupation soldiers. In Gaza and the West Bank yesterday, three Palestinians were killed by Israeli indiscriminate gun and tank fire. A Palestinian infant 4 months old, a teacher and a security officer were killed and more than twenty civilians many of them children were injured some very seriously. The mother of the 4-month old girl had her two legs amputated.
• In the remains of a destroyed church in Quniatra in the occupied Golan, the Pope conducts prayers for the 4 month old Iman and for peace. Quniatra is a Syrian village occupied by Israel in 1967 and was evacuated in 973. The Israelis destroyed the village before they withdrew from it in 1973. The Syrians kept it as a reminder that the Golan Height is still occupied by Israel and that the struggle to liberate the Golan height is not over yet.
• Israeli naval sources said that they intercepted and forced a Lebanese boat into Haifa port. The Israeli government says the boat is loaded with a wide range of weapons and was destined for Gaza. An Israeli spokesman said the Israeli navy ordered 4 people on the boat to strip naked and to jump into the seawaters.
  The PNA said that it has nothing to do with the boat or the weapons found on it.
• The US yesterday accused Israel of escalating the situation on the ground with its incursions into Palestinian controlled territories and described the killing of the 4-month-old Palestinian baby by Israeli forces as a terrible tragedy.
  State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said: " The Israeli incursions perpetuates the cycle of violence, it directly undermines the efforts to diffuse the situation, and continuation of these kinds of actions makes it increasingly difficult to bring the violence to an end."
• The Jerusalem Post reflecting the opinion of right wing circles in Israel " now a majority in the Israeli current government' described the Mitchell Committee report as 'flawed' and advised the Bush administration to dismiss it. The Mitchell Committee report was a product of five months work carried out by impartial, experienced and wise men of renowned international reputation in the service of peace. Two of whom are former American Senators, the 9th President of Turkey, the Foreign Minister of Norway and the High European Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy - European Union.
• Radio active and poisonous material origins of which is in Israel are found dumped in Palestinian territories.
• Four parties to the Sharm el- sheik summit agreed to take part in another summit to discuss the implementation of the Mitchell Committee recommendations.

Monday May 7, 2001

Main Headlines

• A five month old baby girl was killed when shrapnel from Israeli tank shells penetrated her little body this morning in Khan Younis. The baby's mother was seriously injured.
• The Israeli occupation forces wanted to put some meat on Sharon's statement that he has a plan to return security to the Israeli public. This he began by 'taking the war to the enemy', the enemy is a Palestinian civilian population, the enemy is a Palestinian boy who lost one of his arms yesterday in Beit Jala, and a Palestinian girl who was blinded in one eye and a 60 year old woman and others who all fell victim to indiscriminate Israeli gunfire and tank shelling targeting Palestinian homes and residential areas in Beit Jala near Bethlehem in the West Bank. Due to the intense assault, Palestinian rescue workers and fire fighting services were unable to immediately reach the injured and houses that had burst into flames. Thick smoke filled the air and residents of Beit Jala and nearby Bethlehem shut themselves up in their homes. According to witnesses only a ' miracle' had prevented more people of being killed and injured.
• The Israeli defence minister said that he updated U.S. Ambassador to Tel Aviv Martin Indyk on the 'incident'. The United States recently lost its seat on the United Nations human rights commission for the first time since the Commission was established back in 1947. According to the New York Times, President bush and secretary of state Collin Powel must be mindful of the erosion of international respect for the United States. The position taken by the United States in support of Israel's violations of Palestinian human rights and the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestinian land undoubtedly was a factor in the decision to vote the U.S. Seat on the commission down. Other factors are the Administration's withdrawal from talks about global warming and President Bush's contempt for the 1972 ABM Treaty.
• Sharon's government plans to construct 12 housing units for Jewish settlers on Palestinian land in Arab East Jerusalem. Jewish settlers under the protection of the Israeli occupation army attacked the Palestinian village of Housan again yesterday. Israel threatens to attack headquarters of Palestinian intelligence.
• Palestinian Minister of information and Culture said yesterday that: Recommendations made by the Mitchell Committee are suitable for a beginning to end the current crises in Palestinian Israeli relations and means to solve the conflict. Abd Rabbo added, we are ready to go back to the negotiation table and to deal positively with the Mitchell Committee report and recommendations.
• The Palestinian leadership calls for the convening of another peace summit in Sharm el- Sheik to enforce the need to implement the Mitchell Committee recommendations. The leadership also requests that the international community take practical steps to end the Israeli aggression and Jewish settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territories.
• The Israeli defence minister gave his occupation army the green light to invade Palestinian areas, the European Union demanded an immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from Beit Jala stating that Israel is not allowed under signed agreement to enter Palestinian areas classified as area A.
• Not giving any due regard to the U.S., the EU, the international community or the signed agreements, Israeli occupation forces continued its incursions into Palestinian areas. Early this morning, Israeli tanks entered the Palestinian city of Tulkarm and began indiscriminate bombardment of the city. Seven civilians were badly injured: Linda Lutfi Ali was injured in the head, the Child Ammar Fayeq Olayyan was badly hit in the head and the shoulders, Sadi Katawi, Maram Kurmish, Suhad Srouji and As'ad Abu Tabikh were hit by bomb shrapnel's and bullets from heavy machine guns.
• According to a France press report Israel is preparing for a long armed confrontation with the Palestinian people.
• U.S Secretary of State Collin Powel said yesterday that the American administration will have an effective role in the Middle East.
• France expects 'limited explosions' in the Middle East, those explosions might expand to become a regional conflict.
• Egypt's foreign minister Amre Mousa said yesterday: We will not agree to any fundamental adjustment on the Jordanian Egyptian initiative to resume Palestinian Israeli peace negotiations.
• The Pope visited the Omayyad Mosque in Damascus and calls for a Christian Islam dialogue. Today the Pope will visit Quniatra in the Syrian occupied Golan. Qunietra is a Syrian town that was destroyed by Israel in 1967 and 1973. The Pope will visit the remainders of a church in the town and will conduct prayers for the faithful.

Sunday May 6, 2001

Main Headlines

• Sharon's occupation forces assassinate a Palestinian near his home in Artas village close to Bethlehem. Jewish settlers attacked the Palestinian villages of Housan and Nahalin near Bethlehem. Many Palestinians were hurt and property was damaged.
  Missiles fired by Israeli occupation troops stationed at Jabal Qrontol over looking Jericho hit Palestinian security offices in Jericho injuring 15 Palestinians. Another Palestinian security officer died of wounds he sustained when Israeli tanks bombed Gaza last week. The cycle of Israeli violence and terror goes on unabated. The Israeli government denies targeting and assassinating Palestinians and bombing Palestinian homes. In his meeting with Jewish settlers in Ofra, Sharon said to them: "There are things we will tell the public about, there are things we will deny and there are things that will remain hidden forever." On another occasion, Sharon said " In war time, you don’t have to expose everything to the world, to stand in public and reveal everything, in the name of that hypocritical and lie filled concept known as honesty."
• The Mitchell Commission report on the causes of the Intifada was released on Friday and copies of which were handed to the American government and to both the Palestinian and Israeli sides.
• The report calls on the Israeli government to freeze all settlement activity, including the 'natural growth' of existing settlements. The report said that Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories as the most formidable obstacle impeding peace. The report also alluded to the position held by the European Union and other world countries that Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal.
• The Mitchell report urged Israel not to embrace any description that fails to distinguish between terrorism and protest, and criticized the Israeli occupation for not investigating cases in which Israeli soldiers kill and injure Palestinian civilians.
• In analyzing the causes that triggered the Palestinian Intifada, the report attach the blame on events which occurred in the after math of Sharon's 'visit' to the Aqsa mosque compound, stating that Israeli security forces used lethal gunfire against unarmed Palestinian demonstrators. The report also said that the PNA did not apply sufficient efforts to restrain its own public. The report said: " There were incidents where Israeli soldiers used lethal force, including live ammunition and modified metal- coded rubber rounds against unarmed demonstrators throwing stones."
• The Mitchell Commission's central proposal is to link a cease-fire between the Palestinian and Israeli sides to a complete freeze on settlement building. According to an Israeli analyst, the demand for a settlement freeze is the price Israel has to pay for the change of power and Ariel Sharon's rise to power.
• President Arafat called for the convening of a follow-up summit at Sharm el- Shiekh to discuss the implementation of the Mitchell Committee report.
• On his part and according to Ha'aretz newspaper today, Israel's prime minister Sharon ordered the submitting to his cabinet next week a proposal to increase state support for Jewish settlements on the West bank and Gaza strip by 1.5 billion Israeli Shekel, the equivalent of US$ 375 million. This comes as the paper says as a diametric opposition to the Mitchell Committee's call for a freeze on settlement activity.
• An Israel reporter Joseph Algazy says: Some 350 Palestinian youths under the age of 18 have been arrested by Israel since the start of the Al-Aqsa Intifada. The Palestinian children and teenagers in Israeli prisons are subjected to beatings and torture and rape by adult inmates.
• The Palestinian man who was lynched by a Jewish mob in Netanya two months ago returned home. Bassam Salah returned home to his village near Nablus brain damaged and unable to function and certainly unable to support his wife and four children. According to Israeli sources Salah was attacked mercilessly by over thirty people in a Jewish market place in Netanya for one reason- being a Palestinian. For this reason also according to Israeli sources, Salah is being denied justice. On previous occasions, a Jew was given a 6-month community service sentence for beating to death the Palestinian boy Helmi Shousheh.
• The Pope arrived in Damascus yesterday. His visit to Syria is a first Papal visit and will mark the first ever visit by a Pope to a Muslim mosque. In a speech in Damascus, the Pope called on all sides in the Arab Israeli conflict to change attitudes and seek lasting peace. Addressing Israel indirectly the Pope said, "It is time to return to the principles of international legality: the banning of acquisition of territory by force, the right of people to self- determination, respect for the resolutions of United Nations and the Geneva convention."
• The European Union supports the Egyptian Jordanian initiative to resume peace negotiations and will discuss EU Israeli bilateral relations in two weeks time.

Saturday May 5, 2001

Main Headlines

• According to the Jerusalem Post "Friday edition", President Bush was reported as asking Israel's foreign minister Shimon Peres: How can Palestinians send kids to die? Palestinians sending their kids to die!? This is the line Jewish propaganda and Israeli propagandist been pushing all along in the West since the current Palestinian Intifada against the Israeli occupation started back in September 2000. The Palestinian people do not send their kids to die.
  However, should President Bush try to live in the occupied Palestinian territories under the Israeli occupation, he might do the same as the young Palestinian men who chose and prefer to die rather than continue living under this most barbaric inhuman and savage Israeli occupation. One might wonder and say, these Palestinians are exaggerating the description of the Israeli occupation. In answering that, it is important that people all around the world particularly in the West understand that there is nothing worse than having your being cancelled, you past, present and future systematically destroyed.
  This is what the Israeli occupation is doing to the Palestinian man, culture, land, plant and life. The Jews are inflecting slow mass genocide against the Palestinian people, not just physically, but most importantly mentally. The Jews have been and are trying to destroy our will to live, they have been and still are trying to break our moral, they have been and still are killing us physically, they have been and still are eating away every bit of Palestinian land and water, bring Jewish settlers to replace our people on our land. How can any body exaggerate what the Jews are doing to us in Palestine? President Bush, your question although very difficult and strange, can be seen as very encouraging, this could be the beginning for you to learn about the Palestinian suffering and tragedy. Your question should have been addressed to the Palestinian leadership and people, not to Peres.
  Mr. President: The Palestinian people are not the Nazis… you must remember that. The Palestinian people do not have tanks, helicopter gunships, fighter jets, missiles and heavy machine guns. The Palestinian people have stones, have few light machine guns and have the most powerful weapon humans ever had, the will and the determination to be free. Think about it Mr. President. All that we want is to be free from the Israeli occupation. Israel is asked to withdraw to the pre 1967 borders. The United States is a powerful enough country to guarantee the security of Israel in its pre 1967 territories. The world community of nation can guarantee that.
  Mr. President, we want what the most ordinary man in the United States love and want, freedom, freedom to live and freedom to choose, freedom to travel, and freedom to learn, we want our freedom from the Israeli occupation. We want them out of our lives and land.
• The Israeli minister of infrastructure calls on his government to destroy the PNA and to create four self-autonomous areas in the Palestinian territories with alternative leaderships. This Russian immigrant, more of a Mafia character and a gang boss who arrived in Palestine in 1987 is competing with Uzi Landau, Olmert, Netanyahu, Sharansky on who can be more extreme, more brutal, more barbaric than the others against the Palestinian people.
• Israeli occupation paramilitary police desecrated the Aqsa Mosque compound and stormed it through all its entrances.
• Israeli tanks and heavy machine guns shell Palestinian residential areas and police positions in Al- Bireh/ Ramallah and in Gaza. Twenty-f