New Israeli minister, Matan Vilnai, calls for re-occupation of Gaza, extremist right-wingers to march in Um Al-Fahim Tuesday

Instead of stopping Israeli violations and attacks on Gaza, which trigger Palestinian rocket retaliation, new Israeli leaders of the Netenyaho government call for more Palestinian bloodshed!!!

New Israeli minister calls for re-occupation of Gaza

Sunday March 22, 2009 23:31 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

Matan Vilnai, the deputy Israeli defense minister under the newly-formed Israeli government, stated Sunday that he believes the Israeli military should re-occupy parts of the Gaza Strip with military force in order to stop the Palestinian resistance.

"We need to conquer the areas from which mortar shells are being fired," said Vilnai in a speech at a conference of the Institute for National Security Studies in Israel. He continued, "Mortar shells are the main threat. They are (fired from) a limited (distance) of 5-6 km and we just need to be there.”

Israeli forces pulled out of Gaza in 2005, but still maintain a tight military presence on all borders between Gaza and Israel, preventing Palestinians in Gaza from leaving the Strip, and implementing a siege that has paralyzed the economy of Gaza and made commerce impossible.

Vilnai called for the re-occupation in order to, as he said, stop the Palestinian resistance from firing homemade shells across the border into Israel. He didn't address the fact that the shelling had only resumed after Israeli forces engaged in multiple violations of a six-month ceasefire implemented between Israel and the Hamas government in Gaza.

He also criticized the system of alerts that was meant to inform citizens of Israel of Palestinian shelling, saying that there were malfunctions in the system that kept some alerts from going off. But he didn't mention the fact that in the last Israeli invasion of Gaza, Palestinians were killed at a rate of 100 to 1, in comparison to Israeli casualties, and the Palestinians have no alert system whatsoever.

Um Al-Fahim on strike, extremist right-wingers still intend to march Tuesday

Sunday March 22, 2009 11:50 by IMEMC & Agencies

Baroch Merzil and Itamar Ben Ghafir, two extremist Israeli right-wingers stated Sunday that their planned march in Al-Fahim Arab town will be held on Tuesday as planned. Arab residents in the town and their leadership declared a general strike.

Extremist Israeli right-wingers were allowed to hold their procession in the Arab town after a court ruling in their favor.

Merzil and Ben Ghafir told the Israeli Radio that they will hold the protest as planned and called on the police “to strike hard against any attempt to stop them”.

The Higher Follow-up Committee in Um Al-Fahim called on the Arab residents and their supporters to protest and bar the right-wingers, who do not recognize the Arab history and presence, from holding their march in the town.

On Saturday, the city hall in Um Al-Fahim declared a general strike which will include all institutions, schools, economical facilities and stores.

The Committee called on the Israeli peace groups to join them and to form with them a human chain to block the extremist from entering the town.

The right-wingers are planning to hold their procession in the Arab town of Tuesday morning at 9.

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