In October 2004, we reported on the struggle of traditional Palestinian cave-dwellers in the South Hebron region to maintain their lands from Israeli settler theft and encroachment. An update is now provided by Neve Gordon, who witnessed an inspiring joint action by the cave-dwellers and Israeli solidarity activists to plant trees as a means of claiming the cave community's traditional lands, as well as recognizing coinciding Islamic and Jewish religious festivals that honor trees. Unfortunately, the settlers wasted no time in fencing off the trees after they were planted, appropriating the reclaimed lands—with the connivance of the occupation forces. A Feb. 20 account on the alternative media website Press Action:

The Dalai Lama just visited Israel, where no Israeli official would meet with him. According to the following account, a Palestinian NGO also agreed to cancel his visit to the occupied Palestinian territories at China's request. From the Middle East Times, Feb. 20:

Dalai Lama visit to Bethlehem canceled to avoid China clash
BETHLEHEM, West Bank -- The Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, had a visit to Bethlehem canceled at the request of the Palestinian Authority, which is unwilling to antagonize China, organizers said on Monday.

The Palestinian press is raising the possibility that Israel may be trying to provoke a response with a recent large spate of "targeted killings." From the International Middle East Media Center, Feb. 10:

Ongoing Israeli Assassinations by Missile said to be 'Baiting' Palestinian militants
While the Israeli government refuses all contact with the future democratically elected Palestinian government, it has returned to its policy of assassination, targeting alleged Palestinian terrorists without trial or formal accusations, killing 13 this week in aerial missile attacks.

In a big boost to the sclerotic campaign to divest from companies that do business with Israel's occupation of the West Bank, which includes East Jerusalem, the Church of England reversed earlier expectations, voting to divest from the Caterpillar corporation:

Danny Rubinstein, longtime journalist and Palestinian affairs analyst for the respected Israeli daily Ha'aretz, believes that Arafat was poisoned, but felt proscribed from writing about his conclusions in Ha'aretz. Rubinstein explained why in an interview to Keshev, The Center for the Protection of Democracy in Israel:

Arutz Sheva, arch-reactionary organ of the Israeli settler movement, is clearly overjoyed by this Nov. 13 tidbit:

(IsraelNN.com) New York Senator and former US First Lady Hillary Clinton voiced her support for the Partition Wall Sunday.

For years, apologists for Israeli policy in the occupied territories, such as CAMERA, have claimed the system of "Jewish-only" roads did not exist, since they are intermittently open to Palestinian traffic. The system has been de facto and not de jure. According to the Israeli paper Ma'ariv, that may be about to change and become official Israeli policy, with a set of little-travelled Jewish-only superhighways scarring the West Bank, whilst Palestinians are consigned to use a system of smaller roundabout roads.

Plia Albeck, legal advisor to the Israeli government and known as the "mother of settlements," died Sept. 27 at age 68, according to the Oct. 7 edition of New York's weekly Jewish Press. In 24 years as head of the Civil Department of the State Prosecutor's Office, Albeck, an ultra-orthodox Jew, used her expertise to outline the legal framework under which Israel would seize land to build its settlements in the occupied West Bank. Under this framework, 1.5 million dunams, or approximately 370 acres—26% of the West Bank—was declared "state land," in order to be exploited for building Jewish settlements. Albek signed the documents that determined if privately held Palestinian land could be taken over by the Israeli government.