TagsPalestine

Israeli soldier and Palestinians freed in captive swap

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Jeffrey Heller 19/10/11
ISRAELI soldier Gilad Shalit and hundreds of Palestinians crossed Israel's borders in opposite directions yesterday as a thousand-for-one prisoner exchange brought joy to families but did little to ease decades of conflict.In one of the biggest such exchanges between the two sides, Sergeant Shalit was flown to his parents' home in northern Israel after more than five years held incommunicado by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, while a first 477 of over 1,000 Palestinians in the deal left Israeli jails for Gaza, the West Bank and abroad... 1 comment

Palestinian prisoners released to Gaza, West Bank

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Jeffrey Heller 18/10/11
Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and hundreds of Palestinians crossed Israel's borders in opposite directions on Tuesday as a thousand-for-one prisoner exchange brought joy to families but did little to ease decades of conflict.Sergeant Shalit, 25, returned home to a national outpouring of emotion in Israel after five years in captivity in the Gaza Strip, while the first few hundred of over a thousand Palestinians being freed in stages from Israeli jails were greeted with kisses and flags in Gaza and the West Bank."I missed my family," a gaunt Shalit, his breathing laboured at times, said in an interview with Egyptian TV conducted before he was transferred to Israel and broadcast after he went free... 1 comment

America's dangerous game at the UN

By John V Whitbeck 09/10/11
 THE NUMBER of UN member states extending diplomatic recognition to the State of Palestine has now risen to 128 (including Cyprus), leaving only 65 UN member states on the wrong side of history and humanity.If one ignores small island states in the Caribbean and the Pacific, almost all of the non-recognisers are Western states, including all five of the settler-colonial states founded on the ethnic cleansing or genocide of indigenous populations and all eight of the former European colonial powers... 2 comments

Palestine vote a delicate balancing act for Cyprus

By Stefanos Evripidou 23/09/11
Turkey’s sabre-rattling over the start of drilling in Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone has kept all Cypriot eyes on the Mediterranean, but for the rest of the world, the question of Palestinian statehood in New York has dominated the agenda. President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas has had diplomats around the world clocking overtime with his pledge to request Palestinian statehood at the UN Security Council (UNSC). ... 2 comments

Thanks for police motorbikes for Palestinians

22/09/11
THIRTY-ONE police motorcycles, bought with Cypriot and Italian money through UNOPS and EUPOLL COPPS, were handed over to the Palestinian police in Ramallah on Tuesday. During the reception ceremony, the Cyprus Representative in Ramallah, Andonis Sammoutis, stressed the long tradition of Cypriot-Palestinian cooperation in the training of Palestinian police. He also mentioned that a Cypriot police instructor stationed in Ramallah, Lieutenant Ioannis Mavrochanna was working for EUPOLL COPPS. The leaders of the Palestinian UNOPS police branch were also present, together with representatives from EUPOLL COPPS and the Consul General of Italy in Jerusalem, Luciano Pezzotti.The motorcycles are to be distributed between a number of Palestinian cities. ... 2 comments

Abbas tells UN chief Palestinian bid on track

By Ali Sawafta 20/09/11
President Mahmoud Abbas told U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday that he would push ahead with plans to seek full U.N. membership for a Palestinian state, a move the United States and Israel say could lead to disaster.Abbas met Ban at the U.N. headquarters and reaffirmed that he planned to ask this week for a Security Council vote on Palestinian membership despite the certainty of a U.S. veto, his spokesman Nabil Abu Rdaineh said.Ban, through whom any application must be made, told Abbas he would "perform his duties under the U.N. charter," and called for the Israelis and the Palestinians to resume negotiations "within a legitimate and balanced framework," U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said... Read on

Palestine: The Vatican Option

By Gwynne Dyer 17/09/11
PALESTINIAN president Mahmoud Abbas said early this month:“We will go to the United Nations (to request the recognition of Palestine as a state) and then we will return to talks”.But he is actually going to the UN because there are no peace talks, and there is little likelihood of them even if he doesn’t go. He has to give Palestinians some sign of progress, even if it is a purely symbolic UN recognition of a Palestinian state... Read on
Syndicate content