Madison Rafah Journal

Agence France Presse, May 31, 2009

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Sunday there would be no let-up in Israel's much-criticised blockade of Gaza, warning that the ceasefire with the territory's Hamas rulers remained fragile.

"We are being asked to ease the living conditions of the population and allow goods and equipment in, but we have other priorities in the Gaza Strip," a senior official quoted Netanyahu as telling a cabinet meeting.

"We do not want to strengthen Hamas, not by allowing them to rebuild their defences," he said.

Israel tightened a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip after Hamas, an Islamist group pledged to the destruction of the Jewish state, violently seized power in the territory in June 2007.

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Jean-Luc Renaudie, Agence France Presse, May 31, 2009

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel refused on Sunday to bow to US calls for a freeze to all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, as it fumed over the "unfair" demands that have raised tensions between the close allies.

"I want to say in a crystal clear manner that the current Israeli government will not accept in any fashion that legal settlement activity be frozen," said Transport Minister Yisrael Katz, a close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The premier himself did not address the issue at the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting but the fighting words were echoed by other members of the largely right-wing cabinet, including from its most liberal party, Labour.

A senior Israeli official complained that Washington under President Barack Obama — who has vowed to pursue Middle East peace talks as part of a changed approach to the region — was placing unfair demands on its close ally.

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Agence France Presse, May 31, 2009

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Nearly half of the land occupied by Israeli settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank is private Palestinian property, a watchdog group said on Sunday.

Forty-four percent of the land where the wildcat settlements were built belong to private Palestinian owners, Peace Now said.

The vast majority of the outposts — 80 of the more than 100 in the territory — were either partially or wholly built on private Palestinian land without authorisation of the owners, it said.

"Defence Minister Ehud Barak said recently that he wanted to dismantle the outposts built on private Palestinian land — he is going to have lots of work in the coming weeks and months," Peace Now head Yariv Oppenheimer told army radio.

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A bill that would muzzle Arab-Israelis

The Economist, May 28th 2009 | JERUSALEM

(Reuters)

A BILL to outlaw expressions of grief or mourning on the anniversary of Israel’s independence is unlikely, in the end, to get onto Israel’s statute book. Even if it did, it would probably be struck down by the Supreme Court. Still, the bill’s endorsement on May 24th by the cabinet committee on legislation sent a shudder through liberal circles in the Jewish state—and appalled Palestinians everywhere. For it was a sign that the anti-Arab campaign of the new foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, earlier this year was not just electoral hype.

“This is a Zionist and patriotic bill,” said Alex Miller, a parliamentarian in Mr Lieberman’s party, who submitted it. Palestinian Israelis who mark Israel’s independence day as their people’s nakba (catastrophe) “exploit the democratic and enlightened character of the State of Israel in order to destroy it from within”—and would be punishable under the bill by up to three years in prison.

Next on the agenda of Mr Lieberman’s party, Yisrael Beitenu (Israel Our Home), is a “loyalty law” to require an oath of allegiance to the state on pain of forfeiting citizenship, or, in a less draconian version, welfare benefits. This, too, is aimed at citizens of Arab origin who make up a fifth of Israel’s 7m people.

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Ahmed Al-Sourani, Agricultural Development Association (PARC) – Gaza, May 24, 2009
Article in Arabic

Recently, at the local and international levels, both governmental and non-governmental, there has been decided the urgent needs for the relief of the agricultural sector in Gaza Strip. However, as it is apparent, there are numerous challenges and risks that a large number of people, institutions, and authorities concerned do not apprehend such as:

The general atmosphere which determines the majority of the interventions intended by the international community in Gaza, in at least, the coming two years, are relief efforts and with little real impact on the genuine reconstruction of the agricultural sector in Gaza Strip. Unfortunately, this situation is applicable to the economic and housing sectors which have been badly damaged.

With all respect to the role of the international organizations in assessing a large part of the destruction and damage ensued with little role played by the community and its local grassroots organizations. Add to that the reality of the split and disorganization between the governmental and non-governmental Palestinian parties, in the process of assessing the damages and the needs, and in deciding the priorities of interventions, based upon the reality of the Palestinian situation and the political and economic challenges it encounter, within a framework of a whole Palestinian national plan.

Many of those developmental international organizations have altered its characteristics of development into relief and recovery, following the international and regional agendas of Gaza support. Thus, the "whole Palestinians," governmental or non-governmental, or small local advocacy groups, or friendly organizations, encounter a real challenge. They are required to systematically pressurize the intervention programs of the international organizations to intervene for a real reconstruction and systematic pressure on Israel to gain permits for the needed construction material to rebuild Gaza Strip and save time, effort and funds. This needs more pressure to alter the current direction and intervention strategy adopted in Gaza Strip nowadays. It is to be altered from the strategy of "eat to survive" into the strategy of "rehabilitation and reconstruction from a developmental perspective," based upon a real assessment of community's needs and assets.

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Caterpillar Bulldozers Used to Devastate Gaza

According to an article in the Jerusalem Post, the Israeli military, in addition to armor fitting and weaponizing D-9 Caterpillar bulldozers, has been utilizing a new unmanned, remote controlled version of the killing machine. Dubbed "Black Thunder," the drone demolisher first came into use during the 2006 invasion of Lebanon and was most recently put to use during Operation Cast Lead, contributing to the more than 4,000 houses destroyed by the Israeli military during its most recent Gaza invasion.

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