Mustafa Barghouthi: the Arabs gave Netanyahu timeout four months; he gave four hours
Nablus

The Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative has called for the reversal of the decision to reopen negotiations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government has announced the construction of 112 housing units in an illegal settlement on the occupied West Bank. Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi said that the Palestinians were giving Netanyahu a "timeout" for four months with regards to settlement building, but he did not even give the Palestinians four hours. In what Dr. Barghouti calls "acts of provocation", the Israeli government has announced in quick succession the proposed new settlement building, similar units in occupied Jerusalem, the decision to incorporate important West Bank mosques as "Israeli national heritage sites" and brutal acts of repression against Palestinians demonstrating against the occupying authority's actions.

Palestine's Mufti condemns Israeli plan to Judaize Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood
The Mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories and rector of Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Mohammed Ahmed Hussein, condemned the right wing deputy mayor of Jerusalem, David Hadari for touring the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood which included a visit to the Palestinian houses that were seized to be used as his new office.

Sheikh Hussein said, "This policy, pursued by the Israeli occupation authorities, seeks the Judaization of the Palestinian neighbourhood as a whole, and the expulsion of civilians from their homes so that the settlers could build thousands of housing units in the neighbourhood and impose new facts on the ground." He criticized the recently announced Israeli decision pertaining to building hundreds of housing units in the Betar Illit settlement situated on the Palestinian land in Bethlehem.

A civil servants’ syndicate in the Gaza Strip denounced on Tuesday the Palestinian government in Ramallah for blocking the salaries of about 500 staff from the Gaza Strip and dozens of staff in the West Bank during the past three months.

Speaking at the syndicates headquarters yesterday the teachers’ head, Mohamed Siyam, said "the salaries of 323 workers in Gaza, including 14 detained prisoners, were stopped due to the wage cutting policy adopted by the Fayyad government."

Siyam stressed that the job discrimination and staff wage cutting policy "adopted by" Fayyad's government is "an insult to the Palestinian people and an infringement on the rights and career prospects of the public servants."

Reports in the Israeli media claim that the Israeli security forces have threatened to increase their incursions into the West Bank unless the Palestinian Authority (PA) suppresses popular protests against settlements and Judaisation policies.

According to the head of Shin Bet (Israel's internal security service chief), Yuval Diskin, he has conveyed several messages to the PA Prime Minister, Ismail Fayad and other senior officials. Together with the head of the Israeli Army Middle Zone, Diskin told the PA that it "must contain the popular protests that have recently erupted in the West Bank and keep them from turning violent, and the PA itself must reduce incitement regarding the Temple Mount [sic] and Jerusalem".