www.cflweb.org

PALESTINE
Kadima MK: Jewish area of Hebron will grow, be connected to Israel: It was the first time a lawmaker has said Israel intends on retaining the volatile area, located well inside the West Bank, under Olmert's plan to unilaterally set Israel's final borders by 2008. Kadima MK Otniel Schneller, who is helping to formulate Olmert's plan, said that the Jewish neighborhoods of Hebron will be connected to the nearby settlement of Kiryat Arba, and the two communities included in Israel.
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/719856.html

Israeli military says it is expanding four settlements in Qalqilia area: An Israeli military spokesperson says they are expanding four settlements in the northwestern West Bank area, including Oranit Settlement south of Qalqilia, built on lands of Sineria and Azzun Atma villages. Settlers dredged 86 dunams of land belonging to farmer Ahmed Mahmoud Abu Sheikh.
www.imemc.org/content/view/18885/1/

18,000 Palestinians in W. Bethlehem villages about to be enclosed into a 'ghetto': In West Bethlehem, between al-Khader and the villages to be isolated in a ghetto on the west side of the Wall, Israeli forces have begun building a tunnel under the settler-only road. This construction and the associated land devastation will finalize the isolation of the villages into a ghetto, completely surrounded by the Israeli Wall and isolated from the rest of Palestine.
www.imemc.org/content/view/18883/1/

House Vote Harms Palestine, Israel, US: "Innocent Palestinian people are being treated like animals, with the presumption that they are guilty of some crime," argues Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner whose involvement in the Middle East peace process has extended across three decades. Instead of checking and balancing the president's misguided approach to an election result that displeased him, Congress has added fuel to the fire.
www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat

Palestinian delegation attacked by congressman: A New York congressman is declaring partial victory in his campaign to force the Palestinian delegation to the UN to leave the US. "They should start packing their little Palestinian terrorist bags," Anthony Weiner said after the House of Representatives passed a bill banning financial aid to the Palestinian Authority.
www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1782451,00.html

Interview with Prof. Norman Finkelstein: Thus Israel's position both historically and in terms of its current human rights record as that position became more indefensible; it was then (in the late 1980s and 1990s) that the charges of anti-Semitism began to be hurled with reckless abandon. Because there was no other way to respond to the charges that Israel has done and is doing. It's wrong.
electronicintifada.net/v2/article4739.shtml

'How can people live, I wonder?': Hassan al-Shafei, a 55-year-old fruit and vegetable farmer, died in hospital. His cousin, Ahmed al-Shafei, carries to the mourning tent five large pieces of shrapnel he picked up in the field. Each is more than six inches long, heavy and jagged. "Imagine this thing, so hot and fast. Just one piece would tear a person's body. It's horrible," he says.
www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1782436,00.html

Study Alleging Dominant Influence of Israeli Lobby Sparks Heated Fallout: Well, the paper by the two professors, it's a very strongly argued case that U.S. foreign policy has been sort of taken into a counterproductive direction by the power of the Israel lobby, and they define the Israel lobby in very broad terms. They include not only groups like AIPAC, but Christian Zionists, neoconservatives, media monitor groups from a pro-Israel perspective, and so on.
www.democracynow.org/article.pl

Time for Abbas to Retire: Palestine needs strong leadership now more than ever. Abbas should either step down or be removed before the bloodshed escalates.
palestinechronicle.com/story-05250603013.htm

Weekly Report: On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
www.pchrgaza.org/

Right-Wing Israel Lobby Seizes on Olmert Visit: On his maiden visit to the United States as Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert received a first-hand look at the political muscle of the right-wing "Israel Lobby"
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp

West Bethlehem in Final Stages of Ghettoization: In West Bethlehem, between al-Khader and the villages to be isolated in a ghetto on the west side of the Wall, the Occupation has begun building a tunnel under the settler-only road. This construction and the associated land devastation will finalize the isolation of the villages in an unbearable ghetto.
stopthewall.org/latestnews/1165.shtml

Despite High Court ban, settlers occupy Matityahu East homes: At least two settler families moved Tuesday into apartments in a neighborhood of the West Bank settlement of Upper Modi'in that was built illegally on land belonging to the neighboring Palestinian village of Bil'in.
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/719412.html

Settlers continue to install barbed wire around annexed Palestinian land in Tubas: The settlers are increasing the number of the olive trees planted on the stolen lands and guard dogs are being let loose in order to keep the original owners off of the land, residents said.
www.imemc.org/content/view/18841/1/

Bush open to Israeli plan to set border: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert prepared to address a joint session of the US Congress after winning qualified support from President George W. Bush for his scheme to set Israel's final borders unilaterally if necessary.
news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060524/pl_afp/mideastisraelus_11

Minus the facts, Olmert's health offer is hypocritical: I must, reluctantly, tip my cap to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his propaganda machine for their sheer audacity. The more that Israeli troops, settlers and official occupation policies injure and kill Palestinians and make life miserable for the whole population, the more eloquently Israeli officials praise their own humanitarianism in front of the world.
www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp

Elderly Palestinian dies of heart failure after being beaten at Israeli checkpoint: Eyewitnesses reported that the soldiers refused to let Muheissin pass, despite documentation of his medical appointment and his poor state of health. According to the witnesses, after a long delay at the military checkpoint Muheissni attempted to pass through the checkpoint but the occupation soldiers punched and kicked him violently resulted in his death.
www.imemc.org/content/view/18855/1/

Israeli forces kill 4 Palestinians and injure 40 in major invasion of Ramallah: Sources at Sheikh Zaid Hospital in Ramallah told reporters that Israeli forces prevented ambulances from reaching the injured and dead in the midst of the invasion. It was not until Israeli forces began to withdraw that Palestinian ambulances could reach them.
www.pnn.ps/english/archive2006/may/week4/240506/report4.htm

World Council of Churches slams Israel: The WCC claimed a double standard was at work in the international community that favored Israel, saying, "The side set to keep its unlawful gains is garnering support from part of the international community. The side that, despairing at those unlawful gains, used legitimate elections to choose new leaders is being isolated and punished."
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite

Study: 59 percent of J'lem residents live in post-1967 areas: Forty-four percent of the city's 413,000 residents - 182,000 people - are Jews, and 56 percent are Arabs. The Arabs living in the post-1967areas constitute 98 percent of the city's Arab population, while Jews living in those sections constitute 39 percent of the Jewish population.
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/719410.html

Army arrests two children and imposes curfew in Howwara town: Yunis Damidi, 16, and Sanad Isma'el, 15, were arrested when troops entered the town and provoked students leaving school, local sources said. No clashes occurred but the soldiers arrested the two children anyway, and imposed a curfew on the town.
www.imemc.org/content/view/18852/1/

Church of Scotland wants clear labeling of settlement products: The decision by the church's General Assembly, which met in Edinburgh, came after delegates were informed that the church had no investments related to what it regards as oppression of the Palestinians.
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/719426.html

Blockade guts PA industries that rely on exports: Export-dependent Palestinian industries such as agriculture and manufacturing have been among the sectors most affected since Israel closed its borders and the United States and the European Union imposed sanctions on the Hamas-led government. In 2005, exports from the Palestinian Authority totaled $3.4 billion, amounting to 83 percent of Gross Domestic Product, according to a report by the World Bank released in April.
www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp

Democracy Now: President Bush Embraces “Bold” Israeli Plan To Annex West Bank Settlements: President Bush condemned Hamas and said he believes a negotiated settlement could still be reached between Israel and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
www.democracynow.org/article.pl

ANALYSIS / George Bush wants the convergence plan too: In the press conference that followed their first round of talks, Bush warmly adopted Olmert's initiatives for an extensive withdrawal in the West Bank, terming them "bold ideas" that "could be an important step" to peace.
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/719151.html

Time to Question 39 Years of Failed Israeli Occupation: How much longer should the United States underwrite the Israeli occupation of Palestinian Territories?

www.kevinzeese.com/

TAKE ACTION!
www.cflweb.org