Click on Link to download or play MP3 file || 3 m 30s || 3.20 MB ||

Palestine Today 101308 Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org for Monday October, 13 2008 The ruling Hamas party in Gaza confirmed on Monday that its position regarding a prisoner swap with Israel will remain unchanged, meanwhile, Israeli military detentions of Palestinian residents in the West Bank continued. These stories and more is coming up, stay tuned. Hamas's spokesman in Gaza, Ayman Taha, confirmed on Monday that his party's position regarding a possible prisoner swap in exchange for the captured Israeli soldier, Gil'ad Shalit will remain unchanged. Taha said that the party's demands regarding names of Palestinian prisoners, to be swapped for Shalit, will never change, saying that the ball is still in Israel's court. One month ago, Israel prepared a list of its own, and so far no concrete progress has been maintained, pending Egyptian mediation efforts. Hamas captured Shalit in a cross-border attack in southern Gaza in June 2006, and since then Israel has failed to get its soldier released, despite several months of Egyptian-mediated talks, as well as previous massive Israeli offensives against the Gaza Strip. In the West Bank, the Israeli military continued on Monday detention campaigns against Palestinian residents, rounding up five residents from the city of Hebron. An Israeli military court, meanwhile, extended the detention time of two residents and sentenced a third from the Jenin city. In other news, the outgoing Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, admitted that Palestinian residents of Israel are discriminated against in the state of Israel. Olmert's statement came during a meeting with representatives of the Arab community in Israel, following clashes between Jewish and Arab residents of the Israeli-Arab city of Akka. At the internal Palestinian level, the exiled chief of the politburo of Hamas, Kahled Mash’al, said in Qatar that the intra-Palestinian dialogue underway in Cairo requires a reciprocal step of halting political arrests in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, outlawed Hamas before the latter wrestled control over Gaza in June 2007. Since then, the Hamas government in Gaza and the Fatah-loyal government in the West Bank have been trading arrests of each other members and supporters in both ends of Palestine. Meanwhile, President Abbas has been holding a series of meetings with concerned Arab parties such the Egyptians and Syrians, in order to ensure success of the Cairo dialogue for national unity. Thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem. You have been listening to Palestine Today from the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org. This report has been brought to you by Rami Al-Meghari, and George Rishmawi.

The Israeli military detained five Palestinian residents on Monday from the West Bank city of Hebron, as an Israeli military court sentenced a sixth from the Jenin city.

The Palestinian Prisoners Society of Hebron confirmed today that an Israeli contingent stormed the Dahiriya, Surif and Nuba neighborhoods of Hebron city , detaining five Palestinians.

Among those rounded up were two brothers, who study and stay at the University of Bethlehem.

Also, Israeli soldiers broke into several Palestinian homes early on Monday morning in said neighborhoods, under the pretext of searching for illicit substances.

In the meantime, Israeli occupation authorities sentenced a Palestinian prisoner on Monday and demanded the imprisonment of two others from Jenin city.

The Jenin-based office of the prisoners society told media outlets that Abdeljabbar Khalil of was sentenced to a 9-month-long imprisonment, and that detention of Walid Jradat and Raed Hantouli, was extended until October 19.

On a related note, the advocate of the prisoners society, who follows up with the prisoners conditions inside the Israeli jails, Mo'amar Sabbah, confirmed that the prisoners suffer lack of proper medical care and that many urgent cases are still pending treatment.

Sabbah appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to intervene to alleviate the suffering of Palestinian prisoners inside the jails.

In the meantime, political leader of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Talal Abu Dareefa, called on the international community to pressure the Israeli government for an immediate halt of all its actions against Palestinian prisoners.

Currently, Israel holds more than 11.500 Palestinian prisoners including men, women and juveniles inside many detention facilities in Israel and in the occupied West Bank.

The ruling Hamas party in Gaza said on Monday that its position over the captured Israeli soldier Gil'ad Shalit will remain unchanged, asserting it would rather have Egyptian mediators rule over the case.

Ayman Taha, spokesman of Hamas, told media outlets that his party was committed to its original demands that supported of a swap deal with Shalit.

He revealed that the talks with Israel through Egyptian mediators have resulted in an agreement on the number of Palestinian prisoners to be exchanged for the Israeli soldier, yet there is still a gap in terms of the prisoners' names.

"We will never change the names and if this is to happen, we would rather accept that theses prisoners remain inside Israeli jails forever," Taha is quoted as saying.

He maintained that his party would resume talks over a possible prisoner swap deal yet he was unsure of Israel's response, saying that resumption of such talks would be based upon an Egyptian request.

In an unrelated prisoners issue, the Hamas spokesman denied that any of the Hamas members, whom Egypt arrested early this year, has been released yet, despite Egyptian pledges to Hamas.

In January 2008, a number of Hamas members made their way to Egypt as the border wall with the Gaza Strip was torn down by Palestinian crowds amidst a debilitating Israeli blockade, in place since Hamas took over Gaza in June 2007.

In June 2006, fighters from Hamas managed to capture soldier Shalit during a cross-border attack on an army base on southern Gaza-Israel border lines. Israel responded in turn with repressive measures, killing more than 450 Palestinian men, women and children.

Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, stated on Sunday that the Arabs in Israel have long suffered from discrimination, and urged Arab and Israeli leaders to act for improving the relations between all citizens of Israel.

Olmert said that he had no doubt that discrimination against the Arab population had existed for so many years and that this discrimination stemmed from a variety of reasons, Israeli online daily, Haaretz, reported.

Olmert's statements came during a meeting with Arab leaders and representatives of the Arab community in Israel, including Shawki Khatib, head of the Higher Follow-up Committee, and several Arab members of the Knesset, Haaretz added.

 The Arab officials handed Olmert a petition signed by more than 250.000 citizens who demanded the formation of a probe committee which would be in charge of re-examining the decision of Israeli Attorney General who decided not to indict any officer involved in the deadly shootings of October 2000 when Israeli policemen opened fire, killing Arab protesters 13.

 Olmert responded by saying that he did not have the power to alter or appeal the decision of the attorney general, and added that there would be a chance for discussing how to improve relations between Jews and Arabs.

 Also, Haaretz said that Israeli President, Shimon Peres, met with several Arab leaders on Sunday.

Both Olmert and Peres made comments that indicated that justice had not been served in the case of October 2000, but they also said that they had limitations regarding the decisions of the Attorney General.

Khatib stated that the Or Committee which was formed to investigate the 2000 events reached several findings, and added that if those findings had been implemented, the clashes in Acre could have been avoided.

The exiled supreme political leader of the Hamas party, Khaled Masha'al, called from the Qatari capital on Sunday to stop political arrests in both the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

The Hamas leader called for the release of all detainees being held in Gaza's Hamas prisons and those in Fatah's of the West Bank, urging both sides to stop incitement campaigns against each other.

In a speech he delivered during the sixth conference on Jerusalem in Douha under the patronage of the Emir of Qatar, Mash'al pointed out that current Hamas-Fatah dialogue in Cairo is expected to produce an agreement and that therefore all forms of incitement should come to a halt.

He voiced his party's willingness to have fruitful national unity talks, making clear that there were parties in the West Bank that intend to undermine such a unity by continuing arrests of Hamas supporters and members.

"You are too late to intervene to end the Palestinian division in a time you have been able to do so," Mash'al blamed the Arab states.

On another note, the Hamas leader warned of what he called Israeli plans to transform the occupied city of east Jerusalem by digging beneath the Al-Aqsa mosque, making clear that all Palestinian rights could not be restored through negotiations with Israel.

Masha'al's comments came while representatives of his Islamist party and the Fatah party of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas are taking place in the Egyptian capital of Cairo.

Hamas took over Gaza in June 2007 amidst factional fighting with the secular Fatah party, as President Abbas outlawed Hamas one month later due to what Abbas described 'Hamas coup against legitimacy'.

Since then, the Hamas-led government has been arresting Fatah loyalists in Gaza, as the Abbas-led caretaker government in Ramallah has been cracking down on Hamas members in the West Bank

Hamas and Fatah have been at loggerheads since Hamas took power after January2006's parliamentary elections.