Explosives Set Off In West Bank
Guardian, August 29, 2002
NABLUS, West Bank (AP) - Israeli soldiers set off explosives inside the main Palestinian government building in the West Bank city of Nablus Thursday, witnesses said.

4 Palestinians Die In Gaza Shelling
Guardian, August 29, 2002
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - A Palestinian woman, her two sons and a cousin were killed early Thursday when Israeli tank shells exploded in a Bedouin encampment near an Israeli settlement, residents and doctors said.

Arafat rage over Gaza attack
BBC, August 29, 2002
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has accused Israel of committing a "deliberate crime" and attempting to sabotage Middle East peace efforts, after an attack on a village in the Gaza Strip early on Thursday which killed four Palestinians.

Palestinian family killed by Israeli tank fire
Al-Bawaba, August 29, 2002
Israeli tanks in the middle of the Gaza strip fired shells into a Palestinian neighborhood late last night, killing a mother, two sons, and a cousin. Four others were wounded. Following the tragedy, doubts arise over implementation of the new agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

Top officer urges law that would permit expulsions
Ha'aretz, August 29, 2002
The state should enact legislation explicitly permitting the deportation of terrorists' relatives should the High Court of Justice rule such moves illegal under current law, Brigadier General Yitzhak Gershon, the commander of the Israel Defense Forces in the West Bank, urged Interior Minister Eli Yishai yesterday.

Germany stops Israeli ship carrying military equipment destined for Iran
Ha'aretz, August 29, 2002 
A private Israeli ship carrying military equipment was stopped by customs officials at Hamburg yesterday on suspicion that its cargo was bound for Iran, the Israeli Defense Ministry said.

Iran denies link to boat carrying Israeli military equipment
Ha'aretz, August 29, 2002 
The Iranian government denied Thursday any connection to a private Israeli ship impounded one day earlier by German customs officials who allege it was carrying military equipment bound for Iran.

Sharon will not recognize new council for Palestinian authority
Arabic News, August 29, 2002
Sources at the office of the Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon said that Sharon will not recognize any new council in the Palestinian authority unless its establishment will be preceded by what he called genuine and fundamental reforms in security and fighting what he had called terrorism.

Israel ‘Sorry’ for Gaza Crime, Hamas to Retaliate, PA Calls Off Security Meetings
Islam Online, August 29, 2002
GAZA CITY, August 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - While Israel expressed regret for the tank attack on a coastal village in the Gaza Strip that killed four people, including a 50-year-old mother and her two sons, Palestinian resistance group Hamas vowed bloody retaliation. Also, the Palestinian Authority called security talks scheduled for Thursday, August 29, 2002, with the Israelis.

Germany Returning Cargo To Israel
Guardian, August 29, 2002
BERLIN (AP) - Germany said Thursday it is returning to Israel an impounded cargo of military equipment that Israel says a private firm was shipping to Iran without government approval.

New Israeli campaign targets the Aqsa Mosque 
Alternative Information Center, August 29, 2002
The Islamic Higher Commission condemned on August 27th, the Israeli provocative statements made by Head of the Israeli Municipality in Jerusalem Ehud Olmert and Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishay on the issue of the Islamic sovereignty on the Aqsa Mosque; the statements came a few days after the anniversary of the burning of the Aqsa Mosque while the occupation was watching then.

IDF draws up plan to quit Gaza and seven settlements
Ha'aretz, August 29, 2002 
But Sharon refuses to discuss the proposal: The Israel Defense Forces has a plan for an interim agreement with the Palestinians that would include another withdrawal and the evacuation of settlements in the West Bank and Gaza in exchange for a temporary Palestinian state and the postponement of a permanent agreement for a lengthy period time.

PMO: Sharon didn't know of IDF plan for interim deal with PA
Ha'aretz, August 29, 2002 
In response to a Ha'aretz report Thursday that the Israel Defense Forces has a plan for an interim agreement with the Palestinians, the Prime Minister's Office denied Ariel Sharon or any of his aides had any knowlege of the plan.

Urgent letter campaign: stop expulsion of Palestinian cave dwellers from south Hebron hills 
Alternative Information Center, August 29, 2002
On 10 September 2002 we are to have the supreme court hearing about the cave dwellers from the south Hebron hills region. As part of the campaign against the intention of the Israeli government to throw them out of their homes and lands we ask for this letter campaign. Please help us to spread it as much as posible.

Israeli arms shipment headed for Iran seized in Germany
Al-Bawaba, August 29, 2002 
The passage of an Israeli ship, loaded with military equipment, was blocked by German customs officials in Hamburg claiming its cargo was headed for the Iranian port of Bander Abbas.

Al-Natsha Warns of Agricultural Catastrophe
Palestine Media Center, August 28, 2002
Palestinian Minister of Agriculture Rafeeq al-Natsha on Monday warned of an agricultural catastrophe and said that Palestinian losses in agriculture have reached one billion US dollars in the last two years.

Weekly Review of the Arab Press in Israel: The Last Session of the Or Commission
Arab Association for Human Rights, August 26, 2002
The Or Commission investigating the October 2000 events that left 13 Israeli Arabs dead from police fire, finished last week its second round of testimonies with two days devoted to the testimony of the former Prime Minister. After 92 sessions, 400 testimonies, and 16,000 pages; the lawyers for the 14 warned people will hand in summations by October 15 and the commission will retire for a few months as it prepares its final report and recommendations.

Report: Excessive, unjustified Israeli gunfire killed Palestinian journalist
Reporters Without Borders, August 29, 2002
Report on an investigation into the death of Imad Abu Zahra in Jenin on 12 July 2002: Reporters Without Borders and Damocles Network, an organisation which combats impunity, today released the report of their joint on-site investigation into the fatal bullet injury sustained by Palestinian press photographer Imad Abu Zahra on 11 July 2002 in Jenin, in the Occupied Territories. Abu Zahra was hit in the leg and died the following day as a result of this injury.

IDF plan puts Rachel's Tomb inside Jerusalem's new security boundaries
Ha'aretz, August 29, 2002 
The Israel Defense Forces has prepared a plan for the de facto annexation of Rachel's Tomb to Jerusalem, in the context of the "enveloping Jerusalem" plan for constructing a security barrier around the city.

Arab sector to strike Sunday in protest of Yishai plan
Ha'aretz, August 29, 2002 
Following a meeting Thursday between Interior Minister Eli Yishai and Arab municipality heads, Shawki Hatib, the Chairman of the Supreme Arab monitoring committee said that as of next Sunday, the Israeli Arab sector would be on strike.

Using the tools democracy makes available
Ha'aretz, August 29, 2002 
Adalah, a group protecting Israeli Arab's rights, is gathering international support, but trying to play fair: A large poster with the portrait of Malcolm X, hanging on the wall behind the desk of one of the attorneys, Marwan Dalal, immediately catches one's eye. "It's not our hero, only Marwan's," laughs director Hassan Jabareen. Dalal explains that he "appreciates mainly the internal honesty, the dedication and the frankness of Malcolm X," as though to emphasize that the radical leader - the Muslim isolationist who disdained integration and called on the blacks in the United States to confront the whites proudly - is not the ideological model of the Adalah ["Justice" in Arabic] organization.

U.S. envoy: No security progress means no progress at all
Ha'aretz, August 29, 2002 
American envoy David Satterfield arrived in Israel Wednesday to present the U.S. State Department's plan for gradual progress on the Israeli-Palestinian political track. But Satterfield, who will meet with various senior officials on both sides during his stay, stressed that the security issue was key, and that without progress on this front, no progress on other fronts would be possible.

US Jews launch pro-Israel TV ads
Arab News, August 29 , 2002
WASHINGTON, 29 August — Concerned by polls showing increasing American neutrality regarding the Israeli-Palestinian war, US Jewish organizations are launching a television advertising campaign designed to improve Israel’s image in the United States.

Contrasting causes for comic clash
Daily Herald, August 29, 2002
To hear Jackie Mason's camp tell it, it was Ray Hanania's chutzpah, not his heritage, that prompted organizers to give Hanania the boot.

Bethlehem breathes easier, but still stifled by checkpoints
Jordan Times, August 29, 2002
BETHLEHEM — Israel may have handed Bethlehem back to the Palestinian security forces last week, but the long lines of people trying to enter or leave the biblical city Wednesday showed the soldiers still have control over the lives of people here.

New hope for West Bank Bedouins
Jerusalem Times, August 29, 2002
The United Nations Development Programme / Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People (UNDP/PAPP) signed August 21 a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Italy and the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) on the development of Bedouins in the West Bank. The signing ceremony was attended by Gianni Ghisi, the Italian Consul in Jerusalem;  Rafiq Al-Natsha, Palestinian Minister of Agriculture and Timothy Rothermel, the Special Representative of the UNDP/PAPP.

The last of 10 'salon' dissidents are sentenced to prison
Jordan Times, August 29, 2002   
DAMASCUS (AP) — Three Syrian dissidents who expressed their views in drawing room meetings were convicted of incitement Wednesday and sentenced to prison terms of between two and five years.

Unemployment in West Bank, Gaza hits 44.7% in 2nd quarter
Jerusalem Times, August 29, 2002
Unemployment in the Palestinian areas reached 44.7% in second quarter 2002, or 366,000 persons, according to the most recent report on unemployment in the West Bank and Gaza issued by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS).

Denmark to Present New Middle East Peace Plan
Palestine Chronicle, August 29, 2002
BRUSSELS: Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller is to present a new peace plan for the middle East Friday during a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Denmark. The current Danish EU presidency is behind the new plan, Denmark radio reported Wednesday.

UAE Red Crescent Society invests $5.5 million in West Bank
Jerusalem Times, August 29, 2002
Officials at the United Arab Emirates Red Crescent Society said that construction projects undertaken by the Society in the West Bank total $5,702,000, of which $3,528,000 has already been paid.