updates on the Israeli Palestinian conflict

[Lord Sidious]

I hope and pray that the parasites feeding off of the arabs and jews who want peace don't have long left on this earth.
I would love to see both peoples live together again as the brothers and sisters that they are.
Thanks for your posts Pathwalker.

[Lord Sidious]

'47% of Germans think Israel exterminating Palestinians'
Study shows a strong presence of “anti-Semitism that is linked with Israel and is hidden behind criticism of Israel" in Europe.
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=212326
I find this part
She termed the outbreak of Jew-hatred in Germany “remarkable” because there were widespread Holocaust remembrance and education events in Germany. to be interesting on two levels.
First, it seems that she is linking the holocaust programmes to silencing critics and secondly, it makes it look like mind conditioning.

[Rocky_Shorz]

Indeed the area is heating up...


lots going on right now, any updates for us PathWalker?

PM stops expansion into Green Zone...
troops getting ready to pull out of West Bank...

[ktlight]

Fatah, Hamas set to agree on unity govt.

A top Fatah official says the party is determined to establish a unity government with rival group Hamas despite the criticism by Israelis and the United States.


The senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath made the remark following his meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza against the backdrop of ongoing talks between Fatah and Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) to agree on the make-up of a unity government, AFP reported on Sunday.

The two Palestinian rival groups Hamas and Fatah are expected to agree the composition of a transitional government of independents by June 6, and the two will stand united against Israel as Tel Aviv has no intention of making peace, Shaath said at a news conference after the meeting.

Asked about the potential ministers in the new government, the senior Fatah official replied that it's not his role to talk about the candidates, adding that a joint committee was studying potential ministers.

"There will be agreement between the parties on all the names by June 6," he noted.

Palestinian factions signed a deal to establish a unity government in early May in Cairo and agreed to form an interim government of technocrats and non-partisan figures to prepare for national elections within a year.

The Fatah movement came under severe attack in the wake of signing the unity deal with Hamas. The US threatened to cut aid to the party and Israel said Fatah must choose either peace with Israel or peace with Hamas.

Meanwhile, Shaath stated that both Fatah and Hamas are seeking to enhance the recognition of the upcoming unity government regardless of mounting pressure from Israelis and Americans.

Under the unity agreement, the parties also agreed to release all Palestinian prisoners from the West Bank and Gaza within a year.

The senior Fatah official also turned the spotlight on the thorny issue of political prisoners, saying that he expected that the two groups would close the political arrests "file" soon as "There is full agreement on that."

"The number of prisoners remaining in detention has shrunk and the file will be closed in upcoming days in accordance with the (unity) agreement," Shaath said.

source
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/182349.html

[loveandgratitude]

Hundreds of Palestinians cross reopened Gaza-Egypt border

Post-revolution move is hailed as 'first step towards breaking the siege', but Israel voices concerns

Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 28 May 2011 21.54 BST

Egypt has opened its border with Gaza, letting Palestinians leave the blockaded territory, in a move seen as indicating a more supportive policy since February's revolution.

Hundreds of people laden with luggage gathered at the Rafah crossing in the south of Gaza before the border opened at 9am. Around 300 crossed in the first hours and officials said they expected up to 1,000 to leave Gaza by the end of the day. Women, children and men over the age of 40 will be permitted free travel from Gaza to Egypt, but men under 40 will be required to apply for and be granted a visa. A large proportion of Gaza's 1.5 million population is aged between 18 and 40.

The crossing will open for eight hours a day, six days a week. In the four years since Hamas took control of Gaza, 18 months after winning elections, and Israel imposed a stringent blockade, the Rafah border has opened intermittently and only students, businessmen and people needing medical treatment have been allowed through.

All other border crossings are with Israel, which has tightly controlled the movement of people and goods. Despite easing the blockade almost a year ago, Israel continues to proscribe certain goods, such as construction materials, from entering Gaza and blocks nearly all exports. Rafah will not be open to commercial traffic.

Israel's government has expressed concern that the reopening of the border will lead to the shipment of weapons and militants into Gaza and is also alarmed at the prospect of closer ties between the new Egyptian government and Gaza. Former president Hosni Mubarak, who was forced out in February's revolution, was seen as an ally of Israel. The new government last month brokered a reconciliation deal between rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas, including an agreement to open the border.

"People are happy Rafah is open, they say it's the first step towards breaking the siege of Gaza," said local journalist Hazem Balousha. "They see it as a result of the Egyptian revolution and reconciliation."

Ghazi Hamed, the Hamas official who oversees the border from the Gaza side, said he hoped that 1,000 people would be able to cross each day. "We will co-operate with the Egyptian brothers to make sure the new arrangements get implemented smoothly and accurately," he said.

The numbers wanting to cross the border is expected to rise when the school year ends in around two weeks.

[ktlight]

'Israel determined to stop aid flotilla'


The Israel military will use all its potentials to stop a new international aid flotilla from reaching the Gaza Strip, a top navy official says.


The official said the Israeli Navy commandos have undergone specialized trainings over the past months and are now fully prepared to stop the aid convoy challenging Israel's blockade of the Palestinian territory.

A coalition of 22 activist groups said, on Monday during a ceremony marking the first anniversary of Israel's deadly attack on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, that the second Freedom Flotilla will set sail for Gaza in late June.

At least nine Turkish activists were killed and many others wounded after Israeli navy commandos attacked the aid flotilla in international waters on May 31 last year.

According to Israeli military sources, the members of the Israeli Navy commando unit, Shayetet 13, who carried out last year's attack, are preparing to counter the new aid convoy.

According to the Israeli media, commandos have revised their tactics in the wake of the May 31, 2010 raid that drew international condemnation.

International activists say 15 ships, including the Mavi Marmara which was the lead ship in the first Freedom Flotilla, with some 1,500 activists from about 100 countries on board will leave for Gaza from various Mediterranean ports around June 20.

The vessels carrying humanitarian aid and construction materials would meet in international waters south of Cyprus before heading to Gaza, organizers said.

The activists have also called on government to ensure that the deadly incident would not happen again.

Meanwhile, Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman have reportedly asked their counterparts abroad to prevent their nationals from boarding the ships.

source
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/182764.html