News Highlights:
- April 28th – peaceful anti-wall demo in Beilin including Palestinian and Israeli activists is savagely attacked by Israeli undercover and security forces (see feature).
- Israeli cabinet approves establishment of a settlers’ university in Ariel in the West Bank, claiming “national importance”; this is the same college that contributed to the boycott by British academics.
- Israeli Palestinians denounce the cabinet move, adding there has been a four-year delay in establishing the first Arab college in Nazareth.
- Greek Orthodox Patriarch is denounced by Christian Palestinians and others within his church for selling land in Jerusalem to Israelis.
- Russian President Putin visits Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, after visiting Israel.
Feature:
An Eyewitness Palestine, written by Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery, about the April 28th demo in Beilin and how the Israeli security forces intentionally and viciously attacked the peaceful protest. Avnery compared the response of the Israeli forces to this demo with the way they protected a settler demo the same day, and also detailed how an undercover Israeli unit (Massada) infiltrated the Palestinian demo and started to throw rocks to give an excuse to their own security forces to be more violent.
Focus on Zionism:
A May 2nd, 2005 report from the International Solidarity Movement about the demolition of a Palestinian family home in Jerusalem. 125 Israeli border police, some on horseback, protected the bulldozer and held back journalists and human rights activists.