PRESS RELEASE

By

LUISA MORGANTINI
 

Vice President of he European Parliament

(GUE/NGL)

Brussels 11th October 2007,  

 

Further info Luisa Morgantini  0039 348 39 21 465 or Francesca Cutarelli 0039 340 56 49 335

Luisa.morgantini@ europarl. europa.eu  www.luisamorgantini .net

 _{By Akiva Eldar, Haaretz Correspondent}

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/910763.html
The Israel Defense Forces recently issued an order expropriating over
1,100 dunams of land from four Arab villages located between
East Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim.

The land is slated to be used for a new Palestinian road that would connect East Jerusalem with Jericho. That in turn would "free up" the E-1 area between Jerusalem and Ma'aleh Adumim - through which the current Jerusalem-Jericho road runs - for a long-planned Jewish development consisting of 3,500 apartments and an industrial park.

The Palestinians and the international community, including the United States, have long objected to the E-1 plan on the grounds that it would cut the West Bank in two and sever East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank. Israel claims that the new road will solve this latter problem.

Due mainly to American objections, the E-1 plan has been frozen since 2004, other than construction of a thus-far empty police station in the area. Public Security Minister Avi Dichter told Haaretz last week that police would move into the station by the end of this year. However, Israel promised the U.S. at the time that the station would not serve as an initial stage of the full housing project.

The land is being confiscated from the villages of Abu Dis, Arab al-Sawahra, Nebi Musa and Talhin Alhamar. The expropriation order was signed on September 24.

The new road will run along a route originally planned by the Ma'aleh Adumim municipality in 2005. According to that plan, the route was meant to ensure "transportational contiguity among Palestinian population centers."

The plan also noted that the proposed housing development in E-1 would create an uninterrupted urban expanse between Jerusalem and Ma'aleh Adumim. Such an expanse would effectively sever the territorial contiguity between the northern and southern West Bank.

Ma'aleh Adumim's plan also called for building several other new roads to ensure "transportational contiguity" among Palestinian cities after work started on E-1. For instance, it proposed a ring road east of Ma'aleh Adumim that would link Hebron and Bethlehem, south of the settlement, with Ramallah to its north. Until the current expropriation order was issued, however, no steps had been taken toward building any of these roads.

Vice Premier Haim Ramon, the minister in charge of the "seam" region that runs along the border between Israel and the West Bank, told Haaretz that he was not consulted about the expropriation order and knows nothing about it.

The Defense Ministry said that the land was expropriated to pave the road and "has nothing to do with the E-1 issue."

An official in the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv, who asked to remain anonymous, said that he could not comment on the expropriation order, "since we don't yet know all the details," but in general the U.S. opposes any move that could impair the chances of an Israeli-Palestinian final-status deal.

Barak Ravid contributed to this report.

Related articles:

·  Tom Segev: Heading to December

·  JNF heads oppose law allowing leasing of land only to Jews

·  Police to move W. Bank district HQ to contentious J'lem corridor

·  Israel takes land to ease way to build in E-1 area

Ha’aretz Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Rabin supported it, too

http://www.haaretz. com/hasen/ spages/910756. html

 

Hebrew: http://www.haaretz. co.il/hasite/ spages/910673. html [Hebrew title: ‘Just between us, what’s another 1000 dunam?’]

_{By Akiva Eldar}

Before State Department officials preparing for the Annapolis conference get too excited about the remarks of senior cabinet ministers Haim Ramon and Avigdor Lieberman about dividing Jerusalem, it is worth their while to ask another senior minister, Ehud Barak, for a copy of the new order "for appropriating lands," which refers to the lands of four villages that lie on the capital's outskirts. This order is synonymous with putting an end to working on an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians on the basis of the principle of two states with territorial contiguity.

The order prepares the ground for annexing a large and controversial area known by the name of E1, which connects Ma'aleh Adumim to Jerusalem. In order to allow the Jews to enjoy territorial contiguity, the Defense Ministry and the Israel Defense Forces, which are commanded by Ehud Barak, will grant the Palestinians "transportational contiguity."

This is no new invention. The patent for it was registered many years ago in the name of Ariel Sharon, who claimed he had proposed building bridges and tunnels throughout "Judea and Samaria" for use by the Palestinians. We on top and they below.

The new order calls for the appropriation of 1,129 dunams of land from the villages of Abu Dis, Arab a-Suahara, Nebi Moussa and Talkhan al-Hamar. The common link between all these towns is that they are located near Jerusalem's eastern border, on the way to Ma'aleh Adumim. The motive for appropriating the lands has undergone a thorough cleansing in the laundry of phrases of the occupation; the OC Central Command Gadi Shamni, whose signature is affixed to the document, declares that the lands will be appropriated in order to establish "a lifeline" in the area of Ma'aleh Adumim.

In other words, we are talking about paving a road that will bypass Ma'aleh Adumim, designed for Palestinians who want to travel between Jerusalem and its environs and the Jericho area. A map affixed to the order demonstrates this "lifeline." Even with the naked eye, it is possible to make out a great deal of similarity between this route and the blue line that twists and turns around Ma'aleh Adumim on the map prepared by this large settlement's municipality as far back as April 2005. There, the line is described as "the Ma'aleh Adumim East bypass road, for Palestinian traffic."

The mayor of Ma'aleh Adumim, Benny Kashriel, is showing this map to politicians from the left in an attempt to overcome their objections to the E1 plan. A working paper attached to the map notes that, "As can be seen from the map, the continuum of free transportation will be preserved between the Palestinian population centers."

Kashriel proposes to the Palestinians that they should console themselves with the employment and commercial center that is due to be established in the E1 area and promises that he will provide them with places of work. Naturally, the Palestinians are not mentioned in the paragraph dealing with a plan to erect 3,500 housing units in three suburbs planned there. The E1 area is almost the last reservoir of land for the Arabs of East Jerusalem.

Kashriel mentions that prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, the man who signed the Oslo Accords, was the person who ordered that E1 be added to Ma'aleh Adumim's jurisdiction, way back in 1994. And indeed, already then it was possible to discern a considerable gap between the peace accords and what was happening in the territories. The order stipulates that Palestinian landowners are invited to visit the Civil Administration' s offices in order to study its terms and that they are entitled to present a request to receive fees for usage or compensation. By the way, surely by chance, the order that was signed on September 24, two days before the interim days of the Sukkot holiday, was placed on the notice board of the Army Command responsible for the areas of the security fence.

Needless to say, those who are affected are entitled to petition the High Court of Justice against the appropriation. But it is doubtful whether the justices will use their own discretion when they are presented with a document signed by the OC that states this move is "necessary for military purposes and in view of the special security situation that exists in the area and the need to take essential steps to prevent acts of terror."

During a briefing at the U.S. Congress last week, Danny Zeidman, the founder of the Ir Amim (City of Nations) organization, who specializes in East Jerusalem, was asked about the completion of the police headquarters building in the E1 area. The Jerusalem lawyer joked that the police at the station would be able to supervise the goats of the Bedouin shepherds who roam this desert region. He said that President George W. Bush had committed himself at one stage to then British prime minister Tony Blair that the E1 plan would only be realized over his dead body. Until April 2004, when Bush sent Sharon his letter of support for annexing Jewish population centers in the territories, did anyone believe that the American president would recognize the settlements? That was how it all started. Today a (transportational contiguity) road for Arabs is being paved and tomorrow territorial contiguity for Jews will be approved.

A spokesman for Haim Ramon, who is in charge of the seam area, responded that he knew nothing about the new order.

Persona non grata

Israelis such as Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni who expect the Arabs to give Israel a little normalization before Israel commits itself to return their territories to them should find out what happened to Dr. Ibrahim (Abe) Suleiman after his visit to the Knesset and Yad Vashem (the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority). Suleiman, 72, a Syrian Allawite who has been living in the U.S. for many years, was a secret and partially official envoy of Syria to the Swiss channel. Last April he accepted the invitation of Meretz-Yahad faction chairwoman Zahava Gal-On to come to Jerusalem to present Syria's point of view on relations with Israel to the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Since then, he has received numerous invitations to appear in capitals throughout the world alongside Dr. Alon Liel, his partner to the talks. But in one capital, Suleiman is a persona non grata - Damascus.

In a telephone conversation a few days before he left for the region, Suleiman told me that he would stop over in Damascus for a briefing from senior officials on his way to Israel. It turns out that a few hours before he left, Suleiman received a telephone call from the office of General Mohammed Nassif, the person who served as liaison between Suleiman and the Swiss, and between him and President Bashar Assad. The bureau director ordered Suleiman to stay home - without any further explanation and without excuses. Apparently our Syrian friend was confused by the long years he has lived in a free country. Suleiman decided he was going to Jerusalem, no matter what. Even though no government official thought it was worthwhile to listen to what the envoy had to say, Suleiman's visit to Jerusalem was widely reported in the international and Arab media.

The attitude of official Damascus toward the Swiss initiative in general, and Suleiman in particular, is truly representative of Syria's attitude toward peace with Israel. On the one hand, in one of his recent speeches, Assad bragged about the indirect contacts Syria has made with Israel through Syrian expatriates living in the West in an attempt to reach a diplomatic arrangement. The hint is obvious. On the other hand, since his visit to Jerusalem, Suleiman has become a persona non grata in Damascus. His Swiss colleagues are also not very welcome there. At the end of May, Suleiman visited Berne and met with the president and foreign minister, Micheline Calmy-Rey.

The two decided that the time was ripe to visit Damascus together to congratulate Assad on his election for a second term. At the same time, they tried to convince the Syrian president to reopen the channel that was closed last summer after the special Swiss envoy, who was in charge of the talks, left empty-handed following his meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's adviser, Yoram Turbowicz.

As Suleiman reported to American friends, he called the bureau of Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mualem from Berne and told the head of the bureau, an official by the name of Samir, that the Swiss president wished to visit Damascus in two weeks' time in his company. According to Suleiman, Samir immediately responded that "this is not the time." Since then, Suleiman has been sitting at his home in a Washington suburb, waiting for a telephone call from Damascus and remembering the good times he had with Hafez the elder.

By Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondent, and news agencies
The High Court of Justice Tuesday ordered the state to redraw, partially dismantle and rebuild the route of a 1.7 kilometer section of the West Bank separation fence, which was built on land belonging to Bili'in, a Palestinian village which has become a focus of opposition to the barrier.   For nearly three years, the fence has been at the focus of weekly demonstrations at Bili'in, punctuated by violent confrontations between protesters and soldiers and police   deployed at the site. The existing fence route is built around a part of the Matitiyahu East neighborhood of Modi'in Illit settlement. The government had argued that the route was necessar  y to protect residents of Modi'in Illit, and completed the section of fence that cut through Bilin despite the protests.
The three-judge panel, headed by Chief Justice Dorit Beinish, unanimously accepted an appeal petition by the head of the Bili'in local council against the route of the fence and its presence on land belonging to the village. They ordered defense planners to change the barrier's route so it causes less harm to the village's residents The fence occupies 260 dunams of village land. It also blocks access to another 1,700 dunams between the barrier and the pre-1967 Green Line border. Residents of the village went to court arguing that the current route, built on village land, kept them from their fields and orchards, which remained on the other side of the barrier. Rejecting the government's argument, Beinish wrote in her decision that "We were not convinced that it is necessary for security-military reasons to retain the current route that passes on Bili'in's lands." The judges specified that this will require destroying the existing fence in certain places and building a new one, and ordered the government to come up with a new route in a reasonable period of time. Abdullah Abu Rahma, one of the leaders of the weekly protest at Bili'in, called the court decision "wonderful." "We want the decision to be implemented immediately," he said. The Defense Ministry said in a statement that it would study the ruling and respect it. Israel began building the 680-kilometer (425-mile) barrier along the West Bank in 2002, crediting the fence with contribuiting to a decline in suicide bombings. But the barrier juts into West Bank territory, provoking Palestinian claims that Israel is using security arguments to mask a land grab. Related links. West Bank barrier change ordered by the BBC

By Luisa Morgantini*

Yesterday, the Israeli Parliament approved, in preliminary reading, a bill that calls for all lands under the control of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) to be allocated to Jews only. In this way Israel strikes another blow against democracy, fueling discrimination and Apartheid. The proposal of the bill, initiated by the Israeli right wing, Kadima and Likud, prevents non-Jews from participating in bids to purchase land owned by the JNF (Jewish National Fund), 13 percent of all state land.

The bill passed by a massive majority of 64 MKs to 16, despite a pre-vote debate in the Knesset Presidency, in which many raised their voices against the bill, calling for it to be cancelled. These requests were rejected by the legal advisor to the Knesset on the grounds that “racism is not explicit in the proposal".

 So what shall we call the exclusion of Arab citizens of Israel from participation in bids to purchase lands? What can we call it except racist; this bill defined by some Knesset Deputies an "abominable legislation” that serves only to institutionalize discrimination towards non-Jews and to legitimate a democracy on an ethnic basis? This law is just one more expression of racism and discrimination in Israel, where demolition houses owned by its Arab citizens, illegal expropriation of their lands, uprooting of their trees is ongoing.  The only opposition to the proposal came by Meretz-Yachad Representatives, left wing party, committed in social justice.

"The bill approved yesterday by the Knesset shows the real face of the government -they declared- and risks representing Israel as an apartheid state". The Arab parties, Balad and Raam-Taal, and Hadash, the Jewish and Arab left, also denounced the risk of legalizing the "great robbery of lands" that has continued since1948 to our own days towards Israeli Arabs".

The Knesset's real face cannot be the face of Uri Ariel, the radical of the settlers first supporter of this bill, otherwise the increase in the level of racism, and the consequent decrease in the level of democracy, will cause a serious shift in the direction of institutionalized apartheid and of the cancellation of all rights.

*Vice President of the European Parliament

The present article has been published in the Italian newspaper "Liberazione".

By The Associated Press (haaretz)

The mayor of a Palestinian village on Monday called for the end of pilgrimages by Jewish groups to a holy site in his village after the desecration of Muslim graves last week.

Ahmed Bouzia, mayor of Kifl Hares in the northern West Bank, said villagers discovered the desecration Friday morning after 1,300 Jewish pilgrims came there to pray with Israeli army protection the night before. Nine tombstones were damaged, he said - some broken and others bearing graffiti like Death to Arabs and Revenge

Israel Edri, spokesman for the pilgrims group, criticized the desecration, adding that members of his group saw some suspicious people in the cemetery but were unable to catch them. They could have been settlers who sneaked in with the group or even Palestinians, Edri said.

There have been three large pilgrimages to this site, which settlers believe to be the graves of biblical figures Joshua and Caleb, since February, Bouzia said, but smaller groups of armed settlers come more frequently.

Village feelings were further ruffled when Israeli soldiers returned early Sunday morning with pilgrimage organizers to fix the damaged graves and paint over graffiti.

"This was desecration on top of desecration," Bouzia said, "adding that Muslim graves can be repaired only by Muslims." The village leaders are planning to consult with Islamic authorities on how to restore the graves.

The village filed a complaint Sunday with Israeli police in Ariel, the Jewish settlement next to Kifl Hares. Bouzia warned that his villagers would confront future pilgrimages, and that this could cause serious friction between the residents and the settlers.

ISRAEL AND THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

STATE OF ISRAEL

Head of state: Moshe Katzav
Head of government: Ehud Olmert (replaced Ariel Sharon in April)
Death penalty: abolitionist for ordinary crimes
International Criminal Court: signed but declared intention not to ratify

Increased violence between Israelis and Palestinians resulted in a threefold increase in killings of Palestinians by Israeli forces. The number of Israelis killed by Palestinian armed groups diminished by half. More than 650 Palestinians, including some 120 children, and 27 Israelis were killed. Israeli forces carried out air and artillery bombardments in the Gaza Strip, and Israel continued to expand illegal settlements and to build a 700-km fence/wall on Palestinian land in the Occupied Territories. Military blockades and increased restrictions imposed by Israel on the movement of Palestinians and the confiscation by Israel of Palestinian customs duties caused a significant deterioration in living conditions for Palestinian inhabitants in the Occupied Territories, with poverty, food aid dependency, health problems and unemployment reaching crisis levels. Israeli soldiers and settlers committed serious human rights abuses, including unlawful killings, against Palestinians, mostly with impunity. Thousands of Palestinians were arrested by Israeli forces throughout the Occupied Territories on suspicion of security offences and hundreds were held in administrative detention. Israeli conscientious objectors continued to be imprisoned for refusing to serve in the army. In a 34-day war against Hizbullah in Lebanon in July-August, Israeli forces committed serious violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes. Israeli bombardments killed nearly 1,200 people, and destroyed or damaged tens of thousands of homes and other civilian infrastructure. Israeli forces also littered south Lebanon with around a million unexploded cluster bombs which continued to kill and maim civilians after the conflict.

For the full report visit amnesty international website.

by Electronic Intifada
On Saturday, 17 March 2007, Israeli linguist and activist Tanya Reinhart  
  

                                                   

passed away in New York at the age of 63. Tanya's was a vital and rare
Israeli voice that never wavered when it came to criticizing Israel's systematic
violations of Palestinians' rights, including making a professional sacrifice by
contributing to the discourse over the academic boycott of Israel. The
 following article, penned by Tanya and published by EI on 25 May 2005,
reminds us what a void she leaves behind.


Why us? On the academic boycott

A boycott decision -- like that passed by Britain's Association of University Teachers to boycott two Israeli universities -- naturally raises a hue and cry among Israelis. Why us? And why now just when negotiations with the Palestinians might be renewed?

It may be worthwhile, however, to consider how the world perceives us. In July 2004, the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that Israel must immediately dismantle those parts of the wall that were built on Palestinian lands. We disregarded the ruling. We are turning the West Bank into a prison for Palestinians, as we have already done in Gaza in the course of 38 years of occupation, every one of which is a violation of UN resolutions. Since 1993 we have been engaged in negotiations with the Palestinians, and in the meantime, we have continued expanding settlements. In its judgement, the Court recommended to the UN that sanctions be imposed on Israel if its ruling is not obeyed. The Israeli reply: no need to worry! As long as the United States is behind us, the UN will do nothing.

In the eyes of the world, the question is what can be done when the relevant institutions do not succeed in enforcing international law? The boycott model is drawn from the past: South Africa also disregarded UN resolutions. At that time as well, the UN (under pressure from the United States), was reluctant to impose immediate sanctions. The South African boycott began as a grass roots movement initiated by individuals and independent organizations. It grew slowly but steadily until it finally became an absolute boycott of products, sport, culture, academia and tourism. South Africa was gradually forced to abrogate apartheid.

The international community is beginning to apply the same model to Israel in all domains, from the Caterpillar bulldozers that demolish Palestinian homes, to sports and culture. In the eyes of the international community, the relevant question is whether the Israeli Academy is entitled, on the basis of its actions, to be exempt from this general boycott. Many in the Israeli Academy oppose the occupation as individuals. But in practice, no Israeli university senate has ever passed a resolution condemning, for example, the closure of Palestinian universities. Even now, when the wall cuts off students and lecturers from their universities, the protest of the Academy is not heard. The British boycott is selective -- two universities were selected to signal to the Israeli Academy that it is being watched. But the Israeli Academy still has the option of removing itself from the cycle of passive support of the occupation.

One puzzle still remains: why only us? Why is Israel being singled out? What about Russia in Chechnya? What about the United States? What the United States did in Fallujah, no Israeli General has yet dared to try. Indeed, the logic behind a boycott of Israel dictates that a boycott of the great powers is fully justified. It is only because at the moment there is a greater likelihood of success in stopping a small state that Israel became the focus. Still, if an effort is made to save first the Palestinians and at least stop the wall, can we condemn that effort as unethical? Is it more ethical to refrain from trying to save anyone until it is possible to save everyone?

As usual, we believe that the solution lies in the realm of force. When the Valencia basketball team tried to boycott Israel in March 2004, and announced that it would not participate in the League Championship if it took place in Israel, the steamroller was set in motion. There were threats and there were mutterings about contracts, until Valencia was forced to relent and play here. Similarly, in the case of the academic boycott, the global Israeli lobby has tracked down, one by one, those who have declared support of the boycott, and have tried to make their lives miserable. The attempt by Haifa University to dismiss Dr Ilan Pappe in 2002 was not instigated because of the Teddy Katz affair, but because Dr Pappe openly supported the boycott and signed the original British petition calling for it.

It is possible that the bulldozer, which has come to symbolize Israel, will succeed in reversing the decision of the Association of University Teachers in England. But will this prevent researchers from boycotting us quietly, without involving the media? Perhaps it would be more worthwhile for the Israeli Academy to direct its anger at the government and demand that it finally put a stop to this wall.


This article first appeared in Yediot Aharonot on 13 April 2005 and was translated from Hebrew by Mark Marshall.

3 February 2007

by the International Women's Peace Service – Palestine

 

With the intention of forming a human chain across Ramallah from the Hamas-controlled parliament building to the Fatah-controlled PA headquarters, an estimated 500 to 1,000 Palestinians gathered yesterday in the West Bank city of Ramallah to protest the internal violence plaguing Palestine.  The demonstrators, from towns all over the West Bank, held hands and stretched out from the parliament to the center of town, at which point everyone began marching, singing and chanting with signs and banners towards the PA Headquarters.

 

Organized by the Palestinian Farmer's Union, the demonstration gathered farmers, workers, schoolchildren, women's groups and international activists together to demand an end to the recent violent conflict between Fatah and Hamas.  The infighting has resulted in numerous injuries and deaths, mainly in Gaza, leaving many Palestinians calling for national unity and support from leaders in ending the violence.  Many demonstrators feel such internal conflict weakens Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupation. One large banner which depicted a destroyed olive tree, read, "Let's work together to protect the land, and halt Palestinian bloodshed." 

 

At the PA headquarters, the crowd chanted for about ten minutes outside the entrance when the gates opened and armed Palestinian guards welcomed the demonstrators inside the government compound.  After a few moments, a presidential spokesperson arrived and informed the people of President Abbas' strong support for national unity and an end to the fighting among Fatah and Hamas members. 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information:(c) +970-(0)59-817-3953,or (c) + 970-

(0)59-378-278 (email) info@righttoenter.ps

Despite a written announcement by the Israeli military Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (CoGAT) on December 28, 2006

that Israel has changed its policy of denying entry to foreign nationals traveling to the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), the Campaign for 

the Right of Entry/Re-entry continues to receive information from foreign nationals being denied entry on a regular basis. For every case that

 contacts the Campaign, numerous others remain undocumented. The following indicative cases are the tip of the

iceberg:

·        Mahmmoud M. Alie, 70, US national from Chicago, has been trying to enter the West Bank for nine months to be with his 70-year-old wife.

He was last denied entry at the Jordanian border on 20 January. He was told that the reason was that "he was on a list on the

computer." (Tel. Chicago: 001-4147593558)

·      Nader Rahwan Hadallah, 43, US national from Florida, went to Amman with his Palestinian wife and was denied entry when they tried to

return on 18 January. (Tel. Dubai: 00971-508250067)

·     Dr. Dirgham Abu Ramadan, a German national, has been working as one of the few open-heart surgeons in the occupied West Bank since 2001.

He was denied a visa extension on 15 January and 25 January and threatened with deportation. After legal intervention he received a

three-month visa, instead of the long-term permission to stay he requested. (Tel.: 0599-412274)

·      Suzy Salamy, US national from New York who came to do a documentary on Jewish American peace activists, was denied entry and deported from

Ben Gurion airport on 5 January. (Tel. New York: 001-6462494435 // Email: rohee43209@yahoo.com)

·          Abdel Jamal Wadoud Ali, 67, and his wife Kuthar Khuri Ali, 52, both US nationals from Florida, came to visit their daughters and to care

for Kuthar's 80-year-old mother. They were held for seven days at Ben Gurion airport and then deported to Jordan on 16 January. (Tel. Amman: 00962-53990934)

·         Mrs. A. and her two-year-old daughter, US nationals, have tried to reunite with her husband six times over the past year with no success.

They were last denied entry on 8 January with no reason given.

·            Riad Sharma, US national from Georgia who has two daughters living in al-Bireh, in the West Bank, was last denied entry on 3 January

2007. He spent in total about NIS 40,000 hiring a Israeli lawyer and paying court fees including a NIS  25,000 deposit that will only be

paid back if/when Mr. Sharma leaves the country, just to be allowed in for two weeks. After another costly legal procedure he obtained a last-

minute visa extension for two and a half months.(Tel. West Bank: 972-2-2403551;email: lena_shrm@yahoo.com )

In their response to a recent CoGAT presentation presented to the international community which restated Israel's supposed change in

policy of access for foreign citizens, Israeli human rights group.

B'Tselem noted:

All aspects of Israel's policies with regard to the Palestinian civilian population have been characterized by arbitrariness and a

complete lack of transparency. The COGAT presentation does not mention any mechanisms that will be established to ensure that even the

limited improvements presented will be implemented. Such mechanisms are crucial to ensure that the Palestinian population benefits from

the measures described.... Today tens of thousands of families remain forcibly separated, and cannot even get short-term visitors permits.

Israel continues its grave violations of International and Humanitarian Law by prohibiting families remaining together and thus

forcing them to relocate. The policy of obstructing foreign nationals from reaching the oPt is causing extreme damage to all sectors of

Palestinian society, namely education, business and civil society.

*The CoGAT letter and presentation, Btselem's response and details of

cases denied entry are available on request.

 

 

For further details:
Wael: 052-2444898 or 0598-160099
Avichai Sharon at the Hadassa Ein Karem hospital: 0509266294
Yasser Akawi AIC, at the Anata school   056-63750


Abir Aramin, ten years old, who was wounded by an Israeli border policeman Tuesday the 16th was announced brain dead this morning at the Haddasa Ein Karem hospital and is being examined by a committee to determine whether or not to unplug her from life support machines.

Bassam Aramin, the girl's father, is a member of Combatants for Peace, the Israeli-Palestinian peace organisation.  Israeli and Internationals supporters have gathered at the girls School in Anata to express their solidarity and protect the traumatised students from the ongoing threat of the Israeli border police.

Hassan, a sixteen-year old student who witnessed Abir's injury and carried her back to the girls school stated "the students of the girls school and the boys school had both just come out of an examination. A border police jeep approached the gathering of girls. The girls were afraid and started running away. The border police jeep followed them in the direction in which they were retreating. Abir was afraid and stood against one of the shops at the side of the road, I was standing near her. The border policeman shot through a special hole in the window of the jeep that was standing very close to us. Abir fell to the ground. I picked her up and took her to the girls school. I saw that she was bleeding from the head."

According to Avichai Sharon of Combatants for Peace and a friend of the family "The Israeli border police have been entering Anata frequently when students go and return from school for the last year and eight months. This began with the construction of the Wall near Anata, supposedly in order to protect the construction workers from the students, but construction of the wall was completed over a month and a half ago". According to Wael Salameh, a close friend of the family and a member of Combatants for Peace, "This week border police would invade the village twice a day when the students were going and returning from school."

 

Targeted killing in Gaza (Archive photo) Photo: AFP

http://www.ynetnews .com/articles/ 0,7340,L- 3339905,00. html

 

Hebrew:  http://www.ynet. co.il/articles/ 0,7340,L- 3339859,00. html

Petitioners claim State of Israel has no right to take human life, asks judges to prohibit IDF's 'assassination policy.' Court rejects petition, rules 'it cannot be determined in advance that every targeted killing is prohibited according to customary international law, just as it cannot be determined in advance that every targeted killing is permissible according to customary international law'
Aviram Zino

High Court Judges, headed by retiring Supreme Court President Aharon Barak, on Thursday morning rejected the petition to prohibit the Israel Defense Forces' targeted killing policy.  

The ruling established that restrictions and limitations must be put on the policy, such that each instance will be thoroughly examined. 

In its justification of the ruling, the court wrote that "it cannot be determined in advance that every targeted killing is prohibited according to customary international law, just as it cannot be determined in advance that every targeted killing is permissible according to customary international law." 

Justice Barak wrote in the ruling that "at times democracy fights with one hand tied behind her back. Despite that, democracy has the upper hand, since preserving the rule of law and recognition of individual liberties constitute an important component of her security stance. At the end of the day, they strengthen her and her spirit, and allow her to overcome her difficulties. "  

Supreme Court President Dorit Beinish added, "I also believe that it cannot be said in an all-embracing way that using targeted killing is forbidden."  

Beinish put a condition on her opinion, and established that "in light of the extreme nature of target killing, it must not be used in accordance with the limitations and restrictions delineated in the ruling."   

About a month ago, hundreds of intellectuals, Nobel Prize laureates, former generals, left-wing and human rights organizations petitioned the High Court of Justice, demanding that it rule as soon as possible on a petition dealing with the targeted killings and not allow any "additional fudging," according to them.  

The last and final hearing on the petition was held in February.  

"We cannot wait anymore. Any additional delay causes the deaths of more innocent people," the left-wing organizations claimed following last month's Beit Hanoun incident.

look at palsolidarity website for the full report

UPDATE, 12.30 am: The villagers of Bil'in have successfully inaugurated their project to build a hotel on their land in the illegal settlement. A sign detailing their plans was erected and the foundation stone laid. No-one was detained or arrested. As of this writing, the sign is still standing.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

This morning at 10 am, residents of Bil'in, the Palestinian village that has become the very symbol of non-violent resistance to the Israeli occupation announced their intention to build a hotel on land belonging to the village, but occupied by Israel. Villagers erected a 5×3 meter sign-post advertising the forthcoming hotel called 'Falastin', and intend to submit a planning application to the Israeli Civil Administration which is responsible for civilian matters on occupied Palestinian land.

The village land is behind the illegal apartheid barrier that the Israeli military has enforced on the village. The sign has been erected in the illegal settlement of Matityahu East near to the apartments Bil'in villagers tried to move into in July, and the project was inaugurated with the laying of a foundation stone.

In a similar way to Bil'in villagers' attempt back in July to legally move into an apartment building in the Israeli settlement, this measure is both symbolic and practical. The intention is genuinely to build a hotel on the land. At the same time, the action is being undertaken to highlight the apartheid nature of the Israeli legal system. The Israeli Supreme Court issued an injunction forbidding the occupation of apartments in the Matityahu East settlement as this land was stolen from Bil'in through fraudulent land purchases - the affidavit affirming the transfer of ownership was signed by an attorney representing the settlers, instead of by the head of Bil'in, as is required. However, Jewish settlers have been moving into apartments in Matityahu East in defiance of the Supreme Court and with the complicity of the police and military.

In stark contrast to this treatment of settlers, during the attempted move-in in July, after the Bil'in arrvived in the empty apartments in Matityahu East, the military declared the area a closed military zone and Border Police forcibly evicted the families and removed them to the other side of the apartheid wall.

In July the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the construction company responsible for the expansion of the illegal settlement to demolish two partial structures, restore some of the land to its previous pre-colonial agricultural state and build an access road for Bil'in villagers. The company demolished the structures last month in order to boost their chances of gaining retrospective permission for the other apartments built illegally, but no attempt has yet been made to fulfill the other parts of the court's decision.

For more information contact:

Popular Committee Members:
Abdullah Abu-Rahme: 054 725 8210
Mohammed Katib: 054 5573285
Iyad Burnat: 054 784 7942

Yonatan Pollack: 054 623 7736
ISM Media office: 02 297 1824 or 0599 943 157

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Sept. 16 — Sam Bahour, an American citizen of Palestinian descent, would seem to be the kind of neighbor Israel would
welcome.

 Mr. Bahour, 41, has a master's degree in business from Tel Aviv University and runs a successful consulting firm. He developed a gleaming $10 million shopping center in Ramallah, where he has lived for 13 years with his Palestinian wife, Abeer, and their two daughters.

 Yet in all that time, Israel has never approved Mr. Bahour's application for a Palestinian identity document, which would allow him to live
permanently in the West Bank with his family. He has had to rely instead on repeated renewals of a three-month tourist visa since he moved from Ohio to Ramallah in 1993. And now Israel says he cannot renew it anymore.

 "I'm facing a tough choice," Mr. Bahour said. "If I leave, I may not be able to come back here, which is where my life is. If I stay, I will be here illegally."

 Mr. Bahour is one of thousands, or perhaps tens of thousands, of people ensnared by an Israeli policy that has effectively frozen immigration to the Palestinian areas of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since the current Palestinian uprising began in 2000. This spring, after the radical Islamic group Hamas came to power, Israel severed most contacts with the Palestinian Authority and moved to close the last loophole in its immigration policy —the renewable tourist visa.

 Over the past six years, more than 70,000 people, a vast majority of them of Palestinian descent, have applied without success to immigrate to the West Bank or Gaza to join relatives, according to B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights group that tracks the issue. Many who followed Mr. Bahour's route and worked around the ban with tourist visas now have no legal way to remain.

 "These people are not really tourists — they are living and working without legal permits," said Shlomo Dror, the spokesman for the Israeli government agency that handles Palestinian affairs.

 "I know these people have a difficult life living this way, and I feel sorry for them," he said. "I think we can solve this when we renew relations
with the Palestinian Authority, but right now, we are not talking to them."


 Mr. Bahour acknowledges that he has options that others in the same situation may lack. His daughters, ages 12 and 6, are also American citizens, and his wife has a green card that would allow her to live and work in the United States. He and his wife own a second home in Youngstown, Ohio, where Mr. Bahour was born and raised, and his profession as a business consultant is portable.

 But the family is committed to building a future here, he said.

 "People ask why I don't just leave," Mr. Bahour said. "I tell them it's because I want to make a contribution here."

 More common are families in which one spouse has only a Palestinian identity document while the other has a foreign passport, making it difficult or impractical for them to live elsewhere.

 Many Palestinians say Israel is pursuing a systematic policy of limiting the population in the Palestinian areas, even if it means separating family members.

 "Most every Palestinian knows someone with this kind of problem," said Sarit Michaeli, a spokeswoman for B'Tselem.

 In her view, the Israeli policy has several purposes: to apply political pressure on the Palestinians, to create a bargaining chip that could be used in future negotiations and to be a tool in a battle of demographics.

 The largest single category of people affected by the Israeli policy is Jordanian women of Palestinian descent who have married Palestinian men and want to move to the West Bank to live with their husbands, Ms. Michaeli said.

 Many of those women come to the West Bank on tourist visas and stay on after their visas expire. Complications arise when the women eventually want to travel or visit relatives in Jordan. If they leave the West Bank or Gaza, they face the risk that Israeli authorities will not allow them to return.

 Palestinians also say the Israel policy will keep out well-educated, middle-class and politically moderate members of the Palestinian diaspora who could play an important role in developing Palestinian society.

 Ali Aggad, a Jordanian citizen of Palestinian origin, has been working in the West Bank since 1999. He is now the general manager at the Unipal General Trading Company, which distributes consumer products for international companies like Procter & Gamble.

 For seven years, Israel has routinely granted him a tourist visa that has allowed him to spend weekdays working in the West Bank and weekends in Amman, Jordan, with his wife and two sons. Without warning, Israeli authorities denied him entry to the West Bank twice recently, he said.

 Procter & Gamble's office in Tel Aviv is trying to resolve his case with the Israeli authorities, Mr. Aggad said, adding, "All I can do now is wait and hope it works out."

 In the past few months, about 50 United States citizens have notified American diplomatic offices that Israel has prevented them from entering the West Bank, said Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm, a spokeswoman at the United States Consulate in Jerusalem.

 "This is an issue we've been monitoring for several months, and it has been raised with the Israeli authorities," she said.

 Many people of Palestinian origin sought to return to the Palestinian areas of the West Bank and Gaza after Israel and the Palestinians signed an interim peace agreement in 1993.

 Under a 1995 accord, Israel initially agreed to allow 3,000 immigrants to the Palestinian areas each year, as part of a family reunification process, said Mr. Dror, the Israeli official.

 Demand proved to be so great, he said, that Israel later increased the number to as many as 20,000 a year. Even so, there was a backlog of some 50,000 applications when Israel froze the process in 2000. Israel resumed allowing immigration last year, but soon froze it again when Hamas won power.

 One of the applications stuck in the pile is Mr. Bahour's. He said he applied for permanent residency in 1994 and had not received a reply.

 Meanwhile, his current tourist visa expires Oct. 1, and Israeli authorities have written "last permit" in his United States passport.

 "I still don't know what I'm going to do," he said. But he will not leave if he can help it. "If I walked away now," he said, "I feel I would be letting my community down."


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/18/world/middleeast/18palestinians.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin

 

Martin Siepermann, The Electronic Intifada (18 September 2006)
http://electronicin tifada.net/ v2/article5742. shtml

Research undertaken by United Civilians for Peace, a Dutch NGO-platform dedicated to promoting justice and peace in Palestine and Israel, has revealed that Dutch company Lima Holding BV, in Spijkenisse, is involved in the construction of the illegal Wall that Israel is building in the occupied West Bank.

Lima Holding, which operates in Israel under the Riwal brand name, provides mobile cranes for putting into place the up to 9-metres high concrete elements that make up the Wall.The exact scope and nature of the company's involvement in the construction of the Wall is yet to be determined.

The company's role in the construction of the Wall became known after a report by Dutch television's Netwerk, which showed one of Lima Holding's cranes building the Wall and carrying the Riwal logo. A Dutch journalist of RTV Rijnmond recognised the Riwal brand name as belonging to a company in Dordrecht, a city near Rotterdam. In Dordrecht, Riwal is the main sponsor of soccer club FC Dordrecht.

The journalist of RTV Rijnmond did an item about the issue, for which he approached the Dutch company. In a statement, the company admitted its involvement in the building of the Wall and argued that the related activities were accepted and executed purely as a "commercial order".

Following the item of RTV Rijnmond, Bert Koenders, foreign affairs spokesperson of the Dutch Labour party, asked Ben Bot, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, parliamentary questions. In one of his answers, Bot claimed that Lima Holding was in fact an Israeli company and that the Dutch Riwal company was not directly involved in the construction of the Wall. Remarkably, the Minister based this answer exclusively on information provided by the Dutch company.

To clarify the ownership of the company participating in the construction of the Wall, United Civilians for Peace approached research firm Profundo. With little effort, Profundo proved that Lima Holding is 100 per cent owned by two Dutch holding companies: D.Schalekamp Beheer BV and MDN Holding BV. Dick Schalekamp owns D.Schalekamp Beheer, while Doron Livnat, an Israeli businessman living in the Netherlands, owns MDN Holding.

Moreover, Schalekamp and Livnat are two of the three owners of Schalekamp Beheer BV, the holding company that runs the Riwal Group's activities in countries such as the Netherlands, Denmark and France.

On 16 September, the research by United Civilians for Peace was made public through an article in Het Financieele Dagblad (the Dutch version of The Financial Times). Bert Koenders announced he would seek further clarification from the Dutch government.

Martin Siepermann is the lobby & campaign coordinator of United Civilians for Peace.

RELATED LINKS

United Civilians for Peace
http://www.unitedci vilians.nl

Profundo Research (in Dutch)
http://www.unitedci vilians.nl/ documents/ docs/UCP_ onderzoek_ Riwal_en_ de_muur.pdf

Riwal
http://www.riwal. nl/

On the Hebron Mountain in the most southern part of the West Bank there are a number of small Palestinian villages, where a unique way of life is led in permanent cave homes. Because they are small and remote, these villages are under constant pressure from the occupying government and the new Israeli settlements in the area. The aim of this pressure is to destroy the special way of life of the cave dwellers, and to force them to move to close by Palestinian towns, in order to annex the territory to the Israeli State. The fate of the cave inhabitants of Susia is an extreme example of the fate of the cave villages in the whole area.

Twenty years ago the cave dwellers of Susia were evacuated from their original village on the pretext of archeological digs in the area. Some of the evacuees went to live on their lands close to the Israeli settlement, which was founded a short time before. Five years ago the Israeli army destroyed the caves of these families, and since then they continued to live there in impermanent and improvised housing. During this time, because of constant harassment by the nearby Israeli settlers, the cooperation between volunteers from Israel and abroad, and between the Palestinians, has strengthened.

One of the important results of this cooperation is arranging transport for the children of Susia to the nearby school in the village of Tweni. Up until last year, the occupying authorities did not permit the transport of children from Susia to the school in Tweni, ten minutes' drive, and the parents were forced to send their children to school in Yata (the main town of the region). Because of the barriers and the long road, which is in a bad condition, the children had to stay in Yata all week, and return to their parents for only one day at the weekend.

As a result of efforts made by Israeli organizations, during the last year the occupying authorities allowed the inhabitants of Susia to send their children to school in Tweni. This enabled the children to return home every day, and caused a significant improvement in their self confidence, and a clear rise in their learning achievements.

The inhabitants of Susia are very poor. Their existence as shepherds and farmers was greatly cut down after a large part of their land was taken over by Israeli settlers, and they don't have the means to finance the transport of their children to Tweni.

The Palestinian authorities who are now on the verge of financial bankruptcy abstain from giving help to this cause. The only way left to allow the children to get to school in the coming school year, is by raising donations from Israel and abroad.

The minimum amount needed in order to finance the transportation for the whole of the next school year is $5,000. About third of this sum is needed to pay for fuel and the upkeep of the vehicle for transporting the children. The remainder is to cover the salary of the driver.

The situation is serious. If the sum of money is not raised, it means that the families of the children may decide to move to Yata and the area where they now live will be annexed by the occupying Israeli government, which is doing everything to make this happen.

We are asking for your generous help in our name and in the name of the
Palestinian inhabitants of Susia.

Ehud Krinis and Erella
Dunayevsky,

More details:

Ehud krinis kibbutz Shoval, d.n. hanegev 85320.

Email: ehudkr@shoval. org.il tel. no. 08-9916539

Erella Dunayevsky kibbutz Shoval d.n. hanegev 85320.

Email: danidun@shoval. org.il tel.no. 08-9916313

Ha’aretz Wednesday, August 23, 2006

_{Last update - 19:32 23/08/2006}

_{By Amira Hass}

On Jerusalem's Jabotinsky Street, opposite the President's Residence, a medium-sized plaque is fixed on a locked gate, enclosing a broad building and a lovely garden: "This building was the location of the British Mandate Government's High Military Court, which held the trials of the Hebrew resistance fighters from the Haganah, Etzel and Lehi." The sign bears the emblems of the Jerusalem municipality and the three resistance organizations. It further notes: "The resistance fighters refused to acknowledge the authority of the court to judge them, and asked to be recognized as prisoners of war."

The speaker of the Palestinian Authority's parliament, who was arrested two weeks ago by the Israel Defense Forces, also refused to acknowledge the authority of the Military Court to judge him. Obviously the two latest detainees, whose arrest was deemed by Israel to be the appropriate solution to its shortcomings in releasing kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, will make the same declaration. Nasser A-Shaer, the Palestinian education minister and deputy prime minister, and Mahmoud Ramahi, chief whip of the Palestinian Legislative Council, were arrested on Saturday and Sunday. Incidentally, the Palestinians have lately ceased using the verb "arrested" in regards to the arrests of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers. Instead they use the verb "abducted."

These three detainees/abducted join about 10,000 other Palestinian prisoners and detainees. As with the prisoners of the Hebrew resistance, who saw themselves as POWs regardless of their actions (killing British soldiers or Arab civilians), some Palestinians request that their prisoners be declared POWs. Others prefer the definition of political prisoners. Let's let the definitions rest. In any case, from the offense to the jailing, Israel, as an occupying force, plays around with the definitions as it sees fit.

On Sunday, at 4:30 A.M., IDF soldiers shot and killed a worker, Jalal Uda, 26, and injured three other Palestinian civilians. This happened not far from the Howara checkpoint, south of Nablus. Palestinian newspapers referred to it as the "crime scene." The young men rode a taxi in a road bypassing the checkpoints. For the last several weeks the army has again forbid young men under age 32 from leaving Nablus. But people have to make a living, and thousands are looking for hidden routes. An offense punishable by death, so it seems. The soldiers acted as prosecutor, judge and executioner. According to the rules of occupation, when soldiers kill Palestinian civilians, they and those who sent them are never criminals, suspects, accused or convicts. The brigadier general who limits the age of those who exit the Nablus compound, by virtue of his belonging to the "Defense Army" can also not be considered a criminal, suspect or convict.

When a Palestinian kills an Israeli - soldier or civilian - his name, picture and details of his indictment will be published. He will automatically be condemned to life in jail, and his prime minister or the leader of his organization will be considered responsible and hence a target for arrest or assassination. The soldiers who kill Palestinian civilians are sheltering under the wide apron of the occupation army. Their names will not be known in public, and their prime minister and commanders will not be deemed accountable.

The Palestinian detainees are led to a military court: The same military establishment that occupies and destroys and suppresses the civilian population is the one that determines that to resist occupation - even by popular demonstrations and waving flags, not only by killing and bearing arms - is a crime. It is the one to prosecute, and it is the one to judge. Its judges are loyal to the interest of defending the occupier and the settler.

Allegedly every Palestinian is tried, convicted and jailed as a private person who committed a criminal offense. But a sharp discrimination in the conditions of imprisonment proves that the Palestinian security prisoner is punished not as an individual, but as a representative of a group, as part of its overall suppression. Contrary to international law, the majority of Palestinian prisoners and detainees are not held in the occupied territory, but rather inside Israel. Contrary to popular myth, Israel does not respect the right to regular family visits.

The army does its best to disrupt the visitation schedule, using various security and technical excuses. Only relations of the first degree (parents, siblings and children) are allowed to visit the prisoners, but hundreds of them have not had the privilege of any visits for several years. The right to make daily use of a telephone is given to the most dangerous of criminal prisoners, and is denied from Palestinian security prisoners, among them citizens and residents of Israel. This is done via a weak and unconvincing excuse of a security establishment that has advanced and effective surveillance devices. The path of sentence reduction and clemency is open to the Jew (especially when he is a settler) and is almost hermetically shut to the Palestinian.

It is no wonder that the Palestinians support every action - such as kidnapping soldiers - that tries to break the rules of this discrimination game. Every Palestinian prisoner's personal history is an _expression of the freedom Israel allows itself in the implanting of an extreme subculture of double standard, discriminating blood from blood, human being from human being, nation from nation.

The tramline is meant to serve illegal settlements such as Pisgat Ze'ev (pictured) and further entrench Israel's illegal annexation of East Jerusalem (Maureen Clare Murphy)

 The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) is delighted to announce a small but significant victory in the international struggle against Connex and the illegal Israeli tramline being built by them on occupied Palestinian territory. Connex had been planning to allow the Israeli staff of an illegal tramline project in occupied Easy Jerusalem to train on Dublin's Luas light railway.

Connex (who in Ireland now operate under the name Veolia) also runs the Luas system. The Luas has only been running for a few years and it is likely that the tramline currently being built by Connex in occupied East Jerusalem is a near identical system. For this reason, representatives from Israel had been in negotiations with Veolia Ireland to have Israeli engineers and drivers trained on the Dublin Luas, with a view to then operating the illegal tramline in Jerusalem. The training was due to begin next month, and a contract was being finalised.

But in recent days, Veolia has been forced to cancel the proposed deal with its Israeli counterpart following pressure from Irish trade union representatives, in turn responding to overtures from the IPSC.

An IPSC spokesperson stated: "This is a small but significant victory for the Palestinian right to self-determination. This tramline, like the Apartheid Wall, is an integral component of Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem. You would expect a tramline to be fairly innocuous, but the lesson is no: when you do business with Israel, you invariably do business with the Occupation. Veolia clearly understand that there is a growing awareness of this within Irish society. People are realising that diplomacy has utterly failed to curb Israeli crimes. We must cut ties with Israel in order to force it to end its Occupation,"

The spokesperson further stated, "Veolia's position, however, is extraordinary. In cancelling this contract, Veolia acknowledge that the Israeli line is illegal and unsupportable. Yet it is they who are building it! The hypocrisy is inexcusable, and their attempts to deny that they bowed to pressure are laughable. Since the Minister for Transport and the Railway Procurement Agency have ultimate control over who runs the Luas, the IPSC now calls on Martin Cullen and the RPA to cancel Veolia's contract unless they cease building this illegal tramline on occupied Palestinian territory."

The tramline being built by Connex/Veolia will run between Israeli settlements in occupied East Jerusalem. The settlements, which have been built on annexed Palestinian land, are illegal under the 4th Geneva Convention, and are recognised as such by the Irish government. If completed, the Israeli tramline will permanently link Jewish-only settlements such as Pisgat Ze'ev, French Hill, Neve Ya'akov and Gilo, to Israeli West Jerusalem, thereby cementing Israel's hold on occupied East Jerusalem, and ensuring that there can never be a Palestinian state.

The IPSC had initially learned that a delegation from Israel was in Dublin last month to inspect the Luas. Subsequently, it has emeged that Veolia have hosted three Israeli visits to Dublin in the last eighteen months. The IPSC will ensure that there will be no further cooperation between the Dublin Luas and the Jerusalem tram, and indeed we will step up our campaign for the Irish government to cancel Veolia's contract. However, the IPSC would also stress that we were completely unaware of the previous two visits from Israel. We thus urge solidarity campaigns, in countries where Connex operates, to contact the relevant unions and determine whether any support or assistance is being given to the Israeli tramline. Clearly, the Israeli drivers and engineers must get training from somewhere, and soon, if they are to operate this line in occupied East Jerusalem. This campaign thus has great potential. If human rights groups and Palestinian solidarity campaigns can ensure that no country will train Israeli engineers and drivers, then perhaps we can help to "derail" this criminal project entirely.