Madison Rafah Journal

Reuters, Dec 21, 2009

LONDON – The international community has betrayed the people of Gaza by failing to end an Israeli blockade to allow the territory to be rebuilt, a group of 16 rights groups said in a report on Tuesday.

The report argued that Israel was in violation of international humanitarian law by enforcing a “collective punishment” with an indiscriminate blockade on Gaza — punishing all for the acts of a few.

The Israeli authorities have allowed only 41 truckloads of construction materials into Gaza since the end of its three-week offensive last January, the report said, adding that thousands of such deliveries would be needed to repair homes.

“World powers have … failed and even betrayed Gaza’s ordinary citizens,” said Jeremy Hobbs, Oxfam International’s executive director.

“They have wrung hands and issued statements, but have taken little meaningful action to attempt to change the damaging policy that prevents reconstruction, personal recovery and economic recuperation,” he added in a statement. (Read on …)

“We don’t intend to restrict or suspend new building permits”

Reuters, Dec 11, 2009

JERUSALEM – The population of Jewish settlements in the West Bank could grow by 10,000 in the coming year despite a declared “freeze” on Israeli building in the occupied territory, an Israeli Cabinet minister has said.

Benny Begin, a rightist minister and member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, told a conference on Thursday night that the moratorium would be painful but was not a full construction “freeze” in the accepted sense of the word.

He noted that 3,000 homes already started would be completed regardless of the freeze, and said about 10,000 more settlers would move in, according to reports by Israel Radio and the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

“This is neither a freeze nor a suspension,” the paper quoted Begin as saying. “Construction in Judea and Samaria will continue in the next 10 months,” he said, using the Biblical term for the West Bank.

“We are now clarifying the conditions on the ground and saying that we don’t intend to restrict or suspend new building permits.” (Read on …)

The Erez crossing, where people from Gaza cross into Israel for medical treatment. Many say they have been pressed to become informants. Photograph: AP

Rory McCarthy, The Guardian, 6 December 2009

Israeli security agents held a Palestinian patient for three weeks without charge, interrogated him repeatedly and offered access to hospital care if he agreed to become an informant, the Guardian has learned.

The treatment of Abd al-Karim al-Atal, 28, is the latest in a series of cases over the past two years in which patients from Gaza referred for hospital treatment in Israel have been held without charge and pressed to become Israeli collaborators, human rights groups say.

Atal, who is losing his sight, is still waiting for a permit to travel from his home in the Jabaliya refugee camp, in Gaza, to an eye hospital in east Jerusalem for a cornea transplant operation now scheduled for tomorrow. (Read on …)

Palestinian children at Nahr Al-Bared refugee camp outside the Lebanese city of Tripoli

Rita Daou, Agence France Presse, Dec 6, 2009

BEIRUT (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s visit to Beirut on Monday casts the spotlight on the plight of nearly 300,000 Palestinians in Lebanon who fear they are doomed to be refugees for life.

His brief trip comes amid renewed efforts to revive the Middle East peace process and concern in Lebanon’s political circles that any deal struck on the refugee issue would be at the expense of the Lebanese. (Read on …)

What could be better than holiday gifts that will not only be a delight for the recipient but will help us build a playground in Beit Sahour as part of the Ush Ghurab Peace Park AND will support small-scale Palestinian and Latin American farmers? If that sounds to could to believe, how about this: we deliver in the Madison area FOR FREE!

Playgrounds for Palestine has the following items available immediately and we can guarantee delivery before Christmas. If you would like to order, please send an email to pfpmadison[at]gmail.com with the following info:

your name
address to deliver to (with zip code)
phone and email
date by which you need your items
and what you would like and in what quantity

Here are some great gift combos, all of which are packed in a festive gift bag with tissue paper at no extra cost!:

Tea Lovers Sampler: 4 different varieties of delicious fair trade, organic teas $22 (save $2) (Read on …)

Charly Wegman, Agence France Presse, Dec 2, 2009

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel last year stripped a record number of Palestinians of their Jerusalem residency status, and the accompanying freedom of movement and insurance benefits, government figures revealed on Wednesday.

In 2008, a total of 4,577 Palestinians lost the so-called “blue ID,” the Israeli identification card that entitles holders to national insurance and freedom of movement throughout the country, according to the interior ministry which issues the cards.

By comparison, 8,558 Jerusalem Palestinians lost their residency status between 1967, when Israel captured the Arab eastern part of the city, and the end of 2007, the figures showed.

Palestinians living in east Jerusalem, which Israel later annexed in a move not recognised by the international community, hold Israeli IDs but not passports.

They are entitled to all the insurance benefits of Israeli citizens and can vote in municipal — but not national — elections. (Read on …)