A Dubai 'palm tree' off the coast of Gaza? What are the Israelis thinking? It's being sold as an economic opportunity but the main aim seems to be to try to further detach the people of Gaza from Palestine with all border crossings through Israel to be permanently sealed - in other words to get Gazans to look west and not east to the lost land of Palestine, and of course families on the West Bank and Gaza would be even more separated. Also, there's the little matter of Gaza's offshore gas reserves -Israel builds an 'open' port and takes the gas in return. Whatever the motives it is difficult to see this plan getting off the ground. No one seems to have bothered to ask people in Gaza what they think either. Israel has been developing a secret plan over the past several months to build an eight square kilometers artificial island, 4.5 kilometers off the Gaza Strip coastline, which would be connected to the shore by a bridge, a source closed to the Israeli gove...

To commemorate Land Day a flashmob took place today in New York City's Grand Central Station (see video below). Land Day, March 30, is an annual day of commemoration for Palestinians of the events of that date in 1976. In response to the Israeli government's announcement of a plan to expropriate thousands of dunams of land for "security and settlement purposes", a general strike and marches were organized in Arab towns from the Galilee to the Negev.[1][2] In the ensuing confrontations with the Israeli army and police, six Arab citizens were killed, about one hundred were wounded, and hundreds of others arrested. See wiki for more .

Leading Israeli authors rally behind Jersusalem-born bookshop owner Munther Fahmi who is facing deportation. Sign the petition here . Leading Israeli authors Amos Oz and David Grossman have added their support to efforts to head off the deportation of an East Jerusalem bookstore owner whose shop at the American Colony Hotel specializes in works about the Arab-Israeli conflict and has been a major destination over the years for diplomats and foreign journalists. more Palestine Festival of Literature has a page for Munther here .

RAMALLAH ( Ma'an ) -- Thirty-five years on from the uprising, in which six young protesters were killed by Israeli forces, Palestinians constitute almost half of the population of the Palestine under the British Mandate, but have access to less than 15 percent of the land, the PCBS report said Israel's separation wall has confiscated around 733 square kilometers of occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank, the report notes. Israel says the wall was built to prevent attacks, but its route runs deep inside the West Bank, often as far as 22 kilometers, according to UN reports. Land between the wall and the Green Line has been used for illegal Israeli settlements and military bases. PCBS (Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics) found that in 2010, Israel built 6,794 Jewish-only housing units on occupied Palestinian land, four times more than in 2009. more Downlaod the PCBS press release here

Islamic Jihad fighter killed in Rafah this morning. An Israeli aircraft attacked a pair of Palestinian militants riding on a motorcycle in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing one and wounding the other, the Islamic Jihad group said. The Israeli military said it had "targeted and hit a terrorist squad" that had launched rockets toward southern Israel the previous day. The military said the air force carried out an additional airstrike overnight that hit a smuggling tunnel in southern Gaza. more

By Roi Maor - The State of Israel is building a town in the country’s north. Its purpose: to make sure “the Arabs won’t rear their heads” and to “put them in proportion.” Anybody objecting to this goal should “go live with the Palestinians” and is “harming Israel’s security.” Last week, the Knesset passed a bill that legalizes “acceptance committees” in small localities, a tool that is used to maintain segregation between Jews and Arabs (as well as keeping out various other “undesirables”). As I wrote, this bill is just one of the many policies through which Israel denies its Palestinian citizens the right for adequate housing, even on their own private land. Another one of these policies is called “Judaization.” It is aimed mainly at Israel’s northern and southern periphery, where most Israeli Palestinians reside. Its purpose is to prevent Palestinians from forming a majority in any area of Israel, so that they will not be able to secede or demand autonomy in that area. This aim is ...

IDF seals off town of Beit Ommar on the West Bank and arrests teenagers, all because a stone was thrown at a settler four days ago, while settlers themselves are allowed to attack Palestinians with near impunity. On 21 March a settler jumped from a car and fired his gun at a funeral procession in the town. A stone was thrown at a settler car in retaliation and this latest IDF action is the response. From the International Solidarity Movement – On Monday 28th March the Israeli army blockaded the town of Beit Ommar after arresting 15 young men the previous day. On the evening of March 27th troops entered the town arresting the young men all between the ages of 14 and 19. No reasons were initially given for the arrests of Jameel Ahmad Za’aqeeq (14), Allam Yousif Awad (14), Hasan Majed Solieby (14), Mahamad Yasir Za’aqeek (19), Ahmad Yasir Za’aqeek (19), Ahmad Mohamed Ehklail (16), Ahmad Yousif Sabarnah (18), Mohamad Yousif Sabarnah (16), Mohamad Azzam Za’aqeek (16), Montasir Mohamed Ehkl...

Abbas has met with Hamas leaders on the West Bank while a Fatah leader accuses Israel of trying to block moves towards national unity . This morning the IDF has launched yet another incursion into the Strip, this time near Khan Younis. No casualties reported so far. A Palestinian official on Sunday accused Israel of working to thwart President Mahmoud Abbas' initiative to visit the Gaza Strip that aims to restore national unity. "Israel is interested in blocking Abbas' choices regarding the reconciliation," said Azzam al-Ahmad, a senior leader of Abbas' Fatah party. Abbas said recently that he would go to Gaza to declare a unity government with its rival the Hamas movement which has been controlling Gaza since it routed pro-Abbas forces in 2007. more

Despite an offer of a ceasefire by the Palestinian side if Israel stops its continual attacks on Gaza, the Israelis are intent on racheting up the tension. GAZA, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The atmosphere of tension was back to the Gaza Strip, after an Israeli airstrike hit the Islamic Jihad movement militants, killing two and injuring three, while the group's armed wing Saraya al-Quds vowed revenge. Medics and witnesses said two Islamic Jihad militants, Adham Namrooti, 26, and Sabri Assaleya, 22, were killed and three others were wounded early Sunday morning in an Israeli aerial attack on the northern Gaza Strip. more

Israel's education minister is threatening an even more murderous war than Cast Lead in 2008 and Netanyahu talks about using the 'utmost strength' against Gaza. Meanwhile Palestinians continue to live under the terror of aerial attack with the latest air strikes coming in on Thursday evening. Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar (Likud) on Friday said that he estimates that the IDF will eventually have to carry out a large-scale operation in the Gaza Strip, bigger than Operation Cast Lead. Sa'ar made the comments in an interview with Israel Radio. more

No one has claimed responsibility for the remotely detonated bomb in Jerusalem that killed one yesterday. Israel has struck the tunnels near Rafah in the south and a power transformer, described by the IDF as a 'terrorist target'. The tunnels are a lifeline for Gaza and have cost the lives of many in the dangerous work of keeping them in operation. On 16 March two people were killed in an explosion involving the transportation of gas cannisters. Netanyahu says Israel will act 'forcefully' with an 'iron will to defend the country'. Israeli jets have staged three air strikes over Gaza, hours after a bomb struck a crowded bus stop in West Jerusalem, killing at least one person and wounding 30 in what authorities said was the first major attack in the city in several years. Hamas, the Palestinian group which controls the Gaza Strip, said on Thursday that the strikes targeted smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border, as well as one of its training camps in ce...

There are calls today from the 'political echelon' in Israel for a renewed war on Hamas - or, more accurately, on the people of Gaza. It's not just the rockets they are worried about (although no one has been injured by them, in contrast to deaths running into double figures on the Palestinian side) - it's the revolutions sweeping the Arab world, the dissipation of international support, moves towards reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas and another Freedom Flotilla due to arrive in May. There's a meeting of the Israeli security council today. The Israeli vice-premier, Silvan Shalom, said the situation recalled the runup to Israel's 2008-2009 Gaza war, in which around 1,400 Palestinians died. Hamas has mostly held its fire from the enclave since. "We may have to consider a return to that operation," Shalom told Israel Radio. "I say this despite the fact that I know such a thing would, of course, bring the region to a far more combustible situat...

Four members of Islamic Jihad were killed late yesterday in addition to the civilian casualties earlier. GAZA — Palestinian militants fired rockets far into southern Israel late Tuesday and early Wednesday and Israel responded with airstrikes in Gaza. Tensions were running high after Israeli mortar fire killed three Palestinian youths and a 60-year-old man in response to a rocket attack a day earlier. In an unrelated attack on Tuesday night, the Israeli Air Force killed four militants in a car, all members of Islamic Jihad, the organization and the Israeli military said. The army said the men were preparing to launch rockets at Israel. more

More civilians killed in Gaza, another useless IDF inquiry set up. Several mortars and a rocket have been fired from the Strip today resulting in no casualties. Palestinian sources said four people were killed Tuesday afternoon from Israeli artillery fire towards Gaza City's Tufah neighborhood. Two youths, aged 11 and 16, were among the victims, according to the sources. Eyewitnesses said one of the IDF shells landed at the entrance of a home in Tufah, killing four people and injuring five others. Among those killed were three members of the same family. more

Sign the petition in support of Munther Fahmy's (pictured right) fight to live in his own country. He is now only allowed to enter Jerusalem as a tourist. Munther has been a leading light behind the Palestine Festival of Literature for some years. This, from Mondoweiss : a year ago we took the Interior Ministry to court to reinstate my residency status and I lost because they invoked a racist law they have on the books which strips any resident of Jerusalem (all residents of Jerusalem who holds ID cards are Arabs, Jews in Jerusalem and everywhere in Israel are citizens) who left Jerusalem for 7 years or more and holds a foreign passport of his or her blue Israeli residency ID card and right to live there... ...On that day, my request was rejected in the first minute of the session! To add insult to injury, I was told to consider myself lucky that I was allowed to come and go as a tourist that long and even dare to start a business while I am a tourist, and then finally saying that...

Israeli human rights group B'Tseselem draws attention to a UN report on the dire state of the water system in Gaza. Israel refuses to allow the importation of the necessary equipment and machinery to fix Gaza's water problems. Almost 95 percent of the water pumped in the Gaza Strip is polluted and unfit for drinking. This warning was recently issued by the UN Environment Programme, the Palestinian Water Authority, the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, and international aid organizations. They estimate it will take at least 20 years to rehabilitate Gaza's underground water system... more

The ethnic cleansing campaign against the Arab population of Jerusalem continues apace, with not a murmur from the West, although a US representative on the UN Human Rights Council, Richard Falk, has spoken out. Falk is accused of being biased by ISrael and is not allowed into the country. He has also called for Israel to be refereed to the International Court. Israel's expansion of settlements in East Jerusalem and eviction of Palestinians from their homes there is a form of ethnic cleansing, a United Nations investigator said on Monday. United States academic Richard Falk was speaking to the UN Human Rights Council as it prepared to pass resolutions condemning settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The "continued pattern of settlement expansion in East Jerusalem combined with the forcible eviction of long-residing Palestinians are creating an intolerable situation" in the part of the city previously controlled by Jordan, he said. This situation "c...

From the Alternative Information Center Israel launched a public campaign Tuesday (22 March) against the international organizations planning the Freedom Flotilla II aid convoy, set to sail to Gaza in May of this year. Mavi Marmara, part of the original Freedom Flotilla to the Gaza Strip in May 2010 Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon plans to meet with foreign ambassadors at the ministry on Tuesday to seek their help in stopping this year's flotilla, reported the Israeli news daily Haaretz. The Foreign Ministry has also been asking foreign governments, including Spain, Britain, Ireland and Sweden, to publish travel advisories warning their citizens against sailing to Gaza. Britain and Ireland have in fact done so, according to Haaretz. The Freedom Flotilla II will sail for Gaza sometime between May 15, in commemoration of the "Nakba" ("catastrophe"), and May 31, the first anniversary of the deadly 2010 flotilla mission, which left nine activists dead....

One person has so far been injured today , in an eastern district of Gaza City, on top of Monday's total. At least 19 Palestinians were said to have been wounded in the Gaza strip as a result of air strikes launched by Israel on Monday after militants launched mortars and rockets into Israeli territory. Among the wounded were seven children, two women and four militants, according to officials from Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza. more

IDF killed two teenagers on Sunday claiming they were approaching the 'no-go zone'. Three Palestinian rockets were fired by the PFLP today , one landing near Ashkelon. The bodies of two Gaza teenagers were retrieved by Palestinian medics late Sunday morning, after being killed by Israeli fire some 12 hours earlier in the border area east of Gaza City. Medical crews said they were only permitted to access the site, east of Juhor Addik and north of the Al-Bureij refugee camp, when they got a call advising them of the deaths Sunday morning. The bodies were taken to the Ash-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, where they were identified as Imad Farajallah, 17, and Qasim Salah Iteiwa, 17, both from the An-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. more