IDF order will enable mass deportation from West Bank Israel's latest military orders facilitating the illegal expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland are simply the latest in a string of Zionist attempts to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians, Islamic Jihad officials stated Sunday ... At the same time, chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat and Fatah Central Committee leader Nabil Sha'ath issued their own condemnations of the orders, with Erekat calling them "an assault on ordinary Palestinians, and an affront to the most fundamental principles of human rights," and the tools of an "apartheid state." 
...In a letter, 10 Israeli human rights groups urged Defense Minister Ehud Barak to rescind the new rules. The rights groups said the orders are so vague and sweeping that virtually all West Bankers are at risk. For example, the military does not define what permits are required to shield against deportation, the groups said. "This order is part of a series of steps taken by the military to empty the West Bank of Palestinians, especially by removing them to Gaza," said Sari Bashi of Gisha, one of the rights groups that wrote to Barak. The activists said they believe the initial targets will include Gazans living in the West Bank and the foreign spouses of West Bank residents. Tens of thousands of people are at risk in these two groups, said the rights group HaMoked.
Israel, April 11, (Pal Telegraph) Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, said that Israel would continue building settlements in Jerusalem, calling U.S. President Barack Obama to stop trying to intervene in this matter. Lieberman said, in an interview broadcast by Israeli television last night, that construction in Jerusalem will resume in next October referring to the commitment of the Prime Minister Netanyahu and all the political leadership on this matter.
For decades, Jews and Palestinians have fought over who has the legal right to reside in the small area of Karm al Jaouni -- JERUSALEM // “Liars,” the elderly woman cried out. Her barb was aimed at two young Jewish men giving an interview to a camera crew. “Don’t listen to them, they only lie.”
10 Apr - This demonstration, which took place on the 6 April, is one of several weekly demonstrations happening in different places alongside Gaza’s border with Israel. They are held in protest against the arbitrary decision by Israel to instate a 300 metre buffer zone as no-go area for Palestinians where shoot to kill policy is implemented. In fact, people have been shot with worrying regularity as far as 2 kilometres away from the border.
Israeli forces detained five members of a Palestinian popular committee during its weekly march north of Hebron on Saturday, as well as five international activists, a statement read. 
Those detained include Moussa Abu Maria, external relations officer for the local committee against the wall and settlements in Khirbet Safa, who was briefly detained by Palestinian Authority forces less than one week earlier.
The 11th April marks the seventh anniversary of the ultimately fatal shooting of British ISM activist, Thomas Hurndall. Tom was shot in the head by an Israeli sniper in Rafah, Gaza, whilst attempting to move two young girls out of the line of fire. He went in to a coma, and died in hospital 9 months later, on the 13th January 2004. Tom was 21 years old when he was shot.
Turkish architect Filiz Erol, a graduate of the University of Westminster’s architecture department, is taking part in the reconstruction of an abandoned neighborhood in Ramallah, a Palestinian city in the central West Bank.
Report at Pulse on two events of note in Scotland: the First Minister calls for a review of trading relationships with Israel because of the Dubai passport abuse, and five Palestinian protesters who had disrupted the Edinburgh festival in 2008 to decry actions in Gaza were cleared of an anti-Semitism charge.
...Each year, about 700 West Bank children, under 18, are arrested, detained, interrogated, and prosecuted in Israeli military courts, in total about 6,500 since 2000. DCI lawyers represent 30 - 40% of them. The report focuses on their torture and abuse in custody. 
Since the 1967 occupation, an estimated 700,000 Palestinian men, women, and children passed through Israel's judicial system, over 150,000 tried in military courts from 1990 - 2006, the remainder handled through plea bargains for lighter sentences. On average, over 9,000 Palestinians a year are affected, including 700 children treated the same as adults. 
Four days after an Israeli minister threatened to restrict the West Bank's water supply, Israeli authorities closed off the main water source used for agriculture in a Jordan Valley village on Sunday, committee members and lawyers said ... Ikheirait said the Israeli water company Mokorot built three aquifers since the 1970s, dispensing 5,000 cubic meters of water per hour, largely benefiting the nearby settlements as "Bardalah only gets 65 cubic meters of water per hour before they stopped pumping water. The last aquifer was built two years ago underneath the village. We hear the sound of water passing through the pipes in the middle of the village, but we can't drink from it or use it."
The Israeli border police closed the 300 checkpoint at Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem Sunday morning, stranding West Bank permit holders and foreign nationals attempting to enter and exit the West Bank. Representatives said the closure was in anticipation of a demonstration at the military terminal
Residents in the no-man's land east of the Shu`fat refugee camp checkpoint have grown increasingly concerned that "structural improvements" to the military terminal will serve to further limit Palestinian access to the city ...  Built on lands illegally annexed by Israel in 1967, the residents of the Shu`fat refugee camp, As-Salam, Ras Khamis, and Ras Shahada neighborhoods are in what Israel calls the Jerusalem municipality. The areas, however, were pushed to the eastern side of the state's separation wall. The area thus became a de facto no-man's land where Palestinian Authority police are forbidden to operate, and Israeli police go only to sniffle unrest. 
GAZA CITY (AFP) – The Gaza Strip's sole power plant resumed limited operations on Sunday two days after it was forced to shut down for lack of fuel, with Israel and the Palestinians blaming each other for shortages. Suheil Skeik, the director of Gaza's electricity distribution company, said industrial fuel was being pumped in from Israel but only in limited amounts. Palestinian officials blamed the shortage in industrial diesel needed to power the plant on an Israeli blockade of Gaza tightened in June 2007 after the Islamist Hamas movement seized control of the territory. But the Israeli military said the shut-down was caused by a feud between the Islamist Hamas movement ruling Gaza and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. It said the Palestinians had stopped buying fuel in recent days after Hamas failed to pay its share of the costs.
11 Apr - The Gaza Electricity Company transferred 3 million US dollars to the Palestinian Authority treasury in Ramallah on Sunday, after Palestinian factions met to discuss the means to bring an end to blackouts experienced across the Gaza Strip ... The official told Ma'an the meeting included all Palestinian factions and independent figures, as well as various heads, board members, directors and representatives of the private sector in Gaza and NGOs. Meanwhile, head of PR at the Gaza Electricity Company, Jamal Ad-Dardasawi, said fuel transfers for Gaza's sole power station had resumed, with three truckloads carrying 220,000 liters of diesel permitted into the besieged coastal enclave via its southern crossing wit Israel, Kerem Shalom. This fuel transfer will be spread over five days, with 1,100,100 liters fuel to be delivered within a week, Ad-Dardasawi said. The Israeli permits the maxim entry of 2,200,000 liters into Gaza, he added. "This is only enough to operate one out of four generators in the plant." 
Gaza, April 11, (Pal Telegraph) I met today with a soft-spoken village man named Abu Ala’a (see picture) who is suffering from a serious but treatable spinal condition which is causing him to slowly loose sensations in his limbs. He walks with a limb and can barely feel his left leg. His condition has reached a critical point, and if does not get emergency surgery within the month, he could suffer permanent paralysis, according to his doctor. The Gazan health ministry has requested permission from the Israeli, Egyptian and Jordanian authorities to have him treated abroad, because doctors in Gaza do not have the skills and equipment necessary for the delicate and dangerous operation.
Palestinian security forces uncover explosive devices near Tulkarem, hand them over to Israel where they are detonated. IDF official says cooperation with PA security helps maintain high level of calm
Al-Jazeera Sports has banned Palestinian stations from re-airing a Real Madrid vs. Barcelona football match on Saturday, despite Palestinian enthusiasm for the sport ... Saturday's match will test Palestinian football fans' resolve, who are often prohibited from traveling to matches abroad as they are deemed "security threats," or because they cannot afford travel expenses. Moreover, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are restricted from movement outside the coastal enclave, resulting from Israel's siege. 
This is a society in crisis. Can you imagine an American newspaper printing this column? Akiva Eldar in Haaretz: Right now, hundreds of clerks and officers are sitting in the Defense Ministry, the Foreign Ministry and the army lacking the courage to contact a journalist and divulge that the ministers or commanders in charge are endangering their children's future. Some are keeping to themselves the real story behind the big lie peddled by Ehud Barak, Shaul Mofaz and Moshe Ya'alon - the falsehood that "Yasser Arafat planned the intifada," which gave rise to the disastrous "there is no partner" ideology. The real story, of course, is contained in documents stamped with the words "Top Secret". 
Sydney: Australia's spy agencies are investigating the apparently fake passports linked to the assassination of Hamas official Mahmoud Al Mabhouh in Dubai early this year after a police probe failed to yield enough answers, the foreign minister said on Sunday.
PARIS — Spain aims to revive the Middle East peace process, working with France and Egypt in the run-up to a Mediterranean summit in Barcelona in June, the Spanish foreign minister said Saturday. "We are talking to France and Egypt ... to restart the peace process in the Middle East," Miguel Angel Moratinos said during a forum on the Mediterranean in Paris.
Reports in the New York Times and Washington Post that the Obama administration is considering presenting its plan for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have created a lot of buzz and pushback from supporters of Israel.  However, the reports do not address the fundamental question: what would the plan mean for Palestinians and Israelis? In a sentence, it would mean the continuation of a pattern where the Palestinian leadership agrees to major concessions to secure an agreement with Israel, an agreement that would have little basis in international law. The basic outline being talked about is based on the so-called "Clinton Parameters" that were presented after the breakdown of the Camp David talks. Here’s Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera English’s senior political analyst, on what the “Clinton Parameters” mean:
The US-Israeli spat has reached a temporary conclusion. Israel has no intention of halting construction of settlements in East Jerusalem, as both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat recently revealed. The White House correspondingly went silent for Passover and the peace process remains frozen until further notice. Whether US officials have truly pressured Israel to the limit or we’re watching an elaborate show remains uncertain, though many indications lean towards stagecraft over statecraft.
Stephen Walt responds to WINEP's Satloff in FP/ here -- Regarding the first question, there is abundant evidence that Ross has a strong -- some might even say ardent -- attachment to Israel ... This brings us to the second question: While all Americans certainly have the right to hold different attachments and to express them openly, is it a good idea for someone with a strong attachment to a foreign country -- in this case, Israel -- to be given responsibility for making and executing U.S. Middle East policy?
By Sydney Levy and Yaman Salahi. A coalition of nearly 20 Jewish groups, ranging from the right-wingDavid Project and the Jewish National Fund to the liberal J Street, is distributing a misleading statement condemning a Student Senate bill at UC Berkeley.  The ground-breaking bill calls for divestment from companies that profit from the perpetuation of the Israeli military occupation in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza.  They refer to the bill as "dishonest" and "misleading" and "based on contested allegations."
PARDES HANNA, Israel (AP) — Some patients refuse to shower because it reminds them of the gas chambers. Others hoard meat in pillow cases because they fear going hungry. At the Shaar Menashe Mental Health Center in northern Israel, it's as though the Holocaust never ended. As Israel on Sunday night begins its annual 24 hours of remembrance of the Nazi genocide, the focus is on the 6 million Jews murdered and on the survivors who built new lives in the Jewish state. Much less is ever said about the survivors for whom mental illness is part of the Holocaust's legacy.
Sixty five years have passed since the Holocaust, and still we only know what happened, without being able to grasp what we need to do with this information. You feel that the Shoah is supposed to change something in you – as a Jew, a human being, and an Israeli – but what? The Holocaust dismantled everything human beings knew about themselves, and then taught us two unforgettable lessons: The first one is that we must survive at any price. The second one is that we must be moral. The thing we still don't know is what to do when these two lessons contradict each other.
He has been called the "Arab Schindler", and hailed as a man who risked his own life to save Jews during the Holocaust. Now Khaled Abdul-Wahab, a wealthy Tunisian landowner, is the object of a campaign to bestow on him the title of "righteous among the nations", the recognition by Israel for gentiles who helped to rescue Jews from the Nazis.
This video will answer the following questions: -How were the Jews treated by Arab before 1948? -Where and how did Zionism start? -Was Palestine empty when the Jews came? -What was the population of Arabs in Palestine between 1878 and 1948? -How many Jewish immigrants arrived to Palestine between 1878-1948 and how did the UN partition plan divided Palestine between Arab and Jews? Did Israel stick to this plan?....
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iran urged leaders in neighboring Iraq on Saturday to form a national unity government that included Sunni Muslims. Iranian Ambassador Hassan Kazemi Qomi said the Iraqiya coalition, which includes Sunnis and Shi'ites and won the largest share of seats in last month's parliamentary election, would hold discussions in Tehran in the coming days.
Independent journalist Dahr Jamail discusses the common occurrence of unprovoked US military violence like the incident revealed by Wikileaks, Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s two-month window to eliminate the competition and stay in power, the inability of Americans to parse through media nonsense to get the real story on Iraq, “atrocity producing” situations in Iraq fed by dehumanization and arbitrary rules of engagement and why it’s difficult to turn off the boot camp-indoctrinated killer instinct.
Seventeen Egyptians deported from Kuwait for holding a meeting in support of potential Egyptian presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei, have arrived in Egypt. The 17 were among 33 Egyptians detained by Kuwaiti authorities in Kuwait City on Friday.
Daphne Eviatar, Senior Associate in Law and Security for Human Rights First, discusses the inefficient and bizarre proceedings of Guantanamo’s military commissions, the steady erosion of Constitutional protections for foreigners and US citizens alike, the few indications that Obama has improved on Bush administration torture practices and the revelation from Lawrence Wilkerson (former chief of staff  to Secretary of State Colin Powell) that Bush knew many Gitmo inmates were innocent.