Word: palestinian
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Aviv No Settlement on Settlements Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved plans for the construction of 455 additional housing units in the West Bank while saying Israel would consider a freeze on building in Palestinian-claimed territories afterward--a political compromise that displeased both Israeli hard-liners and Palestinians. The Obama Administration, which has pressured Israel to halt construction in order to kick-start stalled peace talks, expressed "regret" over the plans. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, meanwhile, dismissed talk of a moratorium, noting that Israel's decision to continue building "nullifies any effect that a settlement freeze, when...
Rafah is one of only two operating entry/exit points for human traffic into Hamas-held Gaza - the other is Erez on the border with Israel. Gaza, home to an estimated 1.5 million people, has been under Israeli blockade since June, 2007, when Hamas forces routed loyalists of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Israel, the United States, and the European Union consider Hamas a terrorist organization. (Read "Behind Hamas' Own War on Terror...
Every one to two months, Egypt opens up Rafah for two or three consecutive days. During that period of time, a couple of thousand people cross in and out, according to Palestinian human rights monitor Al-Mezan, compared to the tens of thousands who traversed the crossing every month when it was operating regularly. According to a March 2009 report by Gisha, an Israeli rights group that tracks border activity, the sporadic openings at Rafah meet the travel needs of only 3% of Gaza's residents...
...unlucky Palestinians were the foreign passport holders who didn't have Palestinian identification cards. All were born in Gaza, but some had been away for a decade or more. They carried Swiss, German, Spanish, and Australian passports. "No Palestinian ID card, no entry," a border guard shouted back at a Spanish-Palestinian couple who had been pulled off a bus at the checkpoint while their luggage continued on to Gaza. Last year, the couple said they had tried to enter the territory through Erez. They made it into Israel, but were denied entry to Gaza. "I don't want...
Israel controls the Palestinian population registry, and according to Al-Mezan, it is nearly impossible for Palestinians like El Frani to obtain an ID card. "There is only one mechanism, which is family reunification," says Mahmoud Abu Rahma, the group's communications director. "It's very complex and it takes years of trying to obtain this ID card...