Biden meets Abu Mazen in Ramallah

American Vice-President Joe Biden was received with red carpet treatment at the Palestinian Presidential Headquarters in the Muqata’a in Ramallah today — by polite and mildly-friendly Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and an irritated and angry, even sullen, Palestinian negotiating team.
As Biden was leaving the Muqata’a more than three hours later, Yasser Abed Rabbo (Secretary of [...]

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Why is Palestinian Authority against Richard Falk?

A shocking story: Ma’an News Agency reported from Chicago today that “Richard Falk, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, said on Monday the Palestinian Authority (PA) urged him to step down after he criticized the PA’s treatment of a UN war crimes report”.
Ma’an added that Falk “said [...]

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Palestinians: “It’s only four months…”

Palestinian officials are saying that they were under too much pressure from the Europeans and the Arabs to resist any longer accepting an American proposal to undertake “indirect” or “proximity” talks with Israel after more than a year of no negotiations. “It’s only for four months”, Palestinian officials say, apologetically, with a shrug of [...]

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Will Hamas extend British journalist Paul Martin’s detention in Gaza? Yes?

The 14-day detention order issued by a Gaza prosecutor for “security concerns” against British freelance film maker and journalist Paul Martin is due to expire today. There were reports yesterday that the prosecutor may ask to extend Martin’s detention for another 14 days.
Martin had returned to Gaza 14 days ago to testify in court [...]

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UN General Assembly: Israel and Palestine should investigate Goldstone report war crimes concerns

The UN General Assembly has asked UNSG BAN Ki-Moon to report back in five months about Israeli and Palestinian progress in investigating concerns about war crimes during the IDF’s three-week Operation Cast Lead in Gaza last year.
That does not mean, however, that there is a five-month deadline for the completion of the investigations. [...]

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Update on UK journalist detained by Hamas in Gaza

It has gone largely quiet.
Paul Martin, freelance British journalist and documentary filmmaker, who is now in Gaza’s central jail after being detained in a Gaza City courthouse, has apparently been able to speak to a lawyer. According to AP, Martin had just begin testifying in the Gaza courtroom when he was ordered detained.
Here [...]

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Is Hamas accusing British journalist detained in Gaza of looking for captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit?

Freelance British Journalist Paul Martin — apparently a documentary filmmaker — was detained yesterday at a courthouse in Gaza City by Hamas authorities on “suspicion of breaking local/’Palestinian’ laws”, and Gaza’s Attorney General has now ordered him held for 15 days.  Martin is reportedly now in Gaza City’s central prison.  As the AP reports, this [...]

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What else happened here today?

(1). The Israeli Air Force attacked the Yasser Arafat International Airport in the Gaza Strip, very near the Kerem Shalom crossing at the tri-point where the boundaries of Gaza, Israel, and the Egyptian Sinai meet.  The only Palestinian airport has been out of commission since its runways were dug up and other damage caused following [...]

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Despite stalemate, Palestinian Local and Municipal Elections to be held in West Bank in July

Palestinian Presidential and Legislative Council Elections are on hold — but local and municipal elections will be held in the West Bank on 17 July, it was announced today.
It must be because the elections for the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) went so well this past Friday and Saturday…
(Apparently, one reason may be that there [...]

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Palestinian journalists head toward controversial union elections today

UPDATE: By 10 pm in Jerusalem on Saturday evening, it was clear that the 63 candidates of the “Unity” list had won the controversial elections in the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, and will form a new governing “Council”.
According to one journalist involved, there were 510 journalists who participated in the voting today in El-Bireh/Ramallah (out [...]

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