MalarkyNews

The family of a US student activist killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza has launched a case against the Israeli government. Rachel Corrie, whose family is seeking $324,000 in damages from the defence ministry, was one of several foreign activists killed in confrontations with Israel in occupied territory in the past decade. She was nonviolently protesting against Palestinian home demolitions when the army bulldozer crushed her to death.

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Joe Biden, the US vice-president, condemned a plan by Israel to build 1,600 homes on occupied Palestinian land in an East Jerusalem settlement. The Israeli interior ministry's approval of the plan cast a cloud over a visit to the country by Biden just hours after he pledged strong support for the Israeli government. Biden said: "I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units."

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This week, when I return to my village in the occupied West Bank, I face possible arrest by Israel for engaging in nonviolent protests against abusive Israeli policies opposed by our own government. This prospect is difficult after 29 years of living in the United States, where such activities are fully protected. It was this openness that attracted me to the U.S. I became a proud citizen and pursued work not only in my profession but also as a human rights advocate.

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Male leaders fail to break the Mideast impasse. Enter women from Israel and the Palestinian territories working together. And, it would have been nice to say they succeeded where the men failed. They didn't. The women have been ahead of the times, in speaking of solutions others thought unmentionable once, but now increasingly accept. And yet, peace seems more difficult than ever.

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Seven years after Rachel Corrie, a US peace activist, was killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza, her family is to put the Israeli government in the dock today. A judge in the northern Israeli city of Haifa is due to be presented with evidence that Corrie, 23, was killed unlawfully as she stood in the path of the bulldozer, trying to prevent it from demolishing Palestinian homes in Rafah.

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The Israeli government last night managed to overshadow a high-profile visit by the US Vice-President, Joe Biden, with an announcement of controversial and politically highly sensitive plans to build 1,600 new homes for Jewish residents in Arab East Jerusalem. The announcement from the Interior Ministry - which drew a sharp and swift rebuke from Mr Biden himself - came only hours after the Vice-President had personally congratulated the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for "taking risks for peace".

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De facto Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh announced Tuesday that his government intends to appoint a female minister to head a Women's Affairs Ministry in the Gaza Strip. "The government is planning to appoint a number of female ministers to better include them in the decision-making process," Haniyeh told attendees at an event honoring women in the workforce in Gaza City.

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Israel and the Palestinians have agreed to hold "indirect" talks mediated by Washington, the US special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, said yesterday. The announcement came just hours after Israel enraged Palestinians by announcing new West Bank settlement construction on the same day US Vice President Joseph Biden landed in the region to promote negotiations.

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Amid the wave of violence that swept through the occupied Palestinian West Bank, including East Jerusalem, over the last few days, there are signs that the Israeli left may be emerging from its collective coma. On Saturday night over 3,000 Palestinian, Israeli and foreign peace activists, waving Palestinian flags and shouting "Free Sheikh Jarrah", gathered in the East Jerusalem suburb in support of Palestinians threatened with home demolitions and evictions.

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Israel has been told that its accession to an exclusive club of the world's most developed economies is all but assured when the 30 member states meet in May. But a draft report of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), seen by The National, concedes that Israel has breached one of the organisation's key requirements on providing accurate and transparent data on its economic activity.

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