Middle East Monitor - The Latest from the Middle East

Poll result shows that "the majority of Palestinians oppose the resumption of negotiations without the pre-conditions"
An independent Palestinian news agency says that the majority of Palestinians are opposed to any resumption of negotiations with the Israelis without pre-conditions. According to a poll conducted by Sama on its website, 836 out of 1356 participants, 62%, said they oppose the resumption of indirect negotiations, as is now proposed, without any pre-conditions set by the Palestinians. Of those who took part, 486 (36%) supported unconditional negotiations, with 34 (2%) saying, "I don't know".

Sama claims that although some of the participants in the poll live in other parts of the world, most live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, 45.6% and 32.6% respectively.

Source: Sama

Archaeological sites across the West Bank should be included in the Israeli government's plan to rehabilitate "Israeli heritage sites" according to two members of the Israel parliament. MKs Zeev Elkin and Arieh Eldad (Likud Party and National Union Party respectively) have written to Benjamin Netanyahu on behalf of the "For the land of Israel" lobby group.

Netanyahu was told, "A large number of significant heritage sites are in the West Bank, and it is appropriate to include these heritage sites in your plan." The letter went on to urge the Israeli Prime Minister to annex such sites including the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem, Joseph's Tomb in Nablus and the tomb of prophet Samuel.

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Yesterday morning, four Palestinian fishermen were arrested off the northern coast of the Gaza Strip by Israeli naval forces. Their captain, Mr. Nizar Ayash, reported that the four were seized by the navy while fishing a few miles from the Sudanese coast.

The four men, all in their twenties, have been named as Uday Abdul-Bari al-Sultan and Muhammad al-Sultan, who are brothers, along with [deep full] Alonqah and Ahmed Alonqah who are also brothers.

They were all taken to an undisclosed location.

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As part of the Europe-wide campaign to highlight the issue of Palestinian MPs who have been abducted by the Israeli authorities, Baroness Jenny Tonge has had informal discussions with the Speaker of Britain's House of Commons. Sixteen Palestinian MPs remain in Israeli custody, without charge. Baroness Tonge spoke to Speaker John Bercow, MP, about an invitation from the Palestinian Legislative Council to visit Gaza, meet fellow parliamentarians and see for himself the devastation caused by Israel's disastrous invasion a year ago, in the hope that such a visit could be the first of many such links between the two parliaments. The Baroness visited Gaza herself last month as part of a delegation made up of national MPs and MEPs from across the European Union; the delegation included Sir Gerald Kaufman, the veteran Labour MP who has been an outspoken critic of the Israeli government.

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Introduction

• Since the beginning of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967 the number of Palestinians detained is in excess of 700,000 men, women and children, representing 20% of the Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories.
  
  
• The current number of prisoners and detainees is estimated at between 8,000 – 10,000 spread around 30 prisons and detention centres. This includes prisons in the desert, where prisoners are held in tents in the searing heat of the summer and bitter cold of winter.
  
  
• Around 400 women have been jailed since the first Intifada started in 1987; a few dozen are still held in detention, some having given birth in prison and since separated from their children. The Israeli Prison authorities do not allow children to stay with their mothers past the age of two.

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Washington's efforts to ease the siege on Gaza are "not serious"
A Palestinian MP has said that if the US administration was "genuinely interested" in helping to ease the suffering of his people, it could do so. Instead, claims Jamal Al-Khadry, who is also the President of the Popular Committee Against the Siege in Gaza, recent calls by Washington were to be seen in the context of helping Israel to face UN accusations that it committed war crimes in Gaza a year ago. The Americans, he believes, "are not serious" about ending the Israeli-led siege on Gaza.

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