Imagine doing this in your own backyard…having to crawl around like criminals when you actually own the land.
Two Palestinian men crawl through an opening not much larger than a shoe box and descend a shaky ladder, into a space filled with the rank smell of urine and cigarette smoke.
This underground, unfinished mall near the junction of two Tel Aviv highways is home for dozens of Palestinian laborers who can’t get scarce work permits. It’s where they disappear each night, living out of sight of Israeli authorities to fill jobs offered by Israeli businesses.
“When you want to work, you are not afraid of anything,†said 23-year-old Abdul Jalil Hamad, who lights a candle on a concrete wall to shed light on his bed, a mattress that he found in the garbage.
To avoid discovery by police, Hamad and his friends send only those with the best Hebrew and cleanest clothes to buy food at a minimarket on a back street. When the police catch him, he returns home to the West Bank with empty pockets, to face 14 family members who rely on his pay.
Israel admits that it has now been severely weakened by Hizbullah due to the Second Lebanese War. Interesting admission.
Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday lashed out against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s Knesset speech that touched on the Second Lebanon War.
Netanyahu addressed the plenum after Olmert spoke and said the prime minister’s functioning during the crisis had weakened Israel’s position.
“The greatest failure as a result of the war is that Israel’s deterrent capability has been severely harmed,” Netanyahu told the Knesset plenum.
The opposition had given the government “full support to achieve the [war’s] goals, but [it] failed to do so,” he said.
A criminal state will beget criminals. A team of Israeli police will be leaving for Australia next week to question a prominent billionaire on allegations that Ehud Olmert tried to help him in a bank sale before becoming Prime Minister.
Israel to Question Billionaire in Probe
Friday April 27, 2007 7:16 AM
By MATTI FRIEDMAN
Associated Press Writer
JERUSALEM (AP) - A team of Israeli police will leave for Australia next week to question a prominent billionaire about suspicions that Ehud Olmert tried to help him in a bank sale before becoming prime minister, a police spokesman said Thursday.
The case is one of several corruption investigation that have dogged Olmert’s year in office. On Wednesday, Israel’s government watchdog agency recommended opening a criminal investigation against him in a separate influence peddling case.
Officers from the police fraud squad will question Frank Lowy in Australia, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told The Associated Press. Lowy, a real estate developer and friend of Olmert’s, was No. 172 on Forbes magazine’s latest ranking of billionaires.
The investigation concerns Olmert’s role as finance minister in the government’s 2005 sale of a controlling interest in Bank Leumi, one of the country’s largest financial institutions.
Palestinian FM is only stating the obvious. Israel is not ready for peace talks at all. They can only talk about peace but things on the ground, in the West Bank and Gaza, are very much the opposite of the reality Israel is talking about.
Palestinian FM: Israel not ready for peace talks
Wed, 04 Apr 2007 22:14:12
The Palestinian foreign minister says Israel’s prime minister is not going to start “serious negotiations” with Arabs to find a peaceful solution to the Middle East conflict.
“I think Olmert is not prepared to take part in serious negotiations with the Arab side,” Abu Amr told a press conference after meeting his Austrian counterpart Ursula Plassnik in Vienna on Wednesday.
“Whoever does not accept this initiative is not really interested in peace in the Middle East,” Abu Amr added.
Continue reading ‘Palestinian FM: Israel not ready for peace talks’
A Palestinian unity government will cause problems for Israel and further advance the Palestinian struggle for justice and equality in the long run. It is therefore in the best interest of Palestinian factions to unite against the common enemy that is Israel.
Israeli sources reported on Tuesday morning that Israeli officials are worried that a Palestinian Unity Government would create international pressure to negotiate with it even if the new government does not fully recognize Israel.
Israeli newspaper, The Jerusalem Post, reported that Israel is still skeptical that Hamas and Fateh will be able to agree on a unity government after the recent violence between Fateh and Hamas and the large number of casualties.
Israeli sources said that even if Hamas and Fateh agree on a unity government, fighters of the two movements might still reject it.
Israeli officials are worried that Hamas, which achieved an overwhelming victory in last years’ legislative elections, will be able to maintain its standards of not recognizing Israel, or recognizing the previously signed peace agreements after a unity government is formed.