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NEWS: Israeli officials claim injuries to a Palestinian who died in custody are consistent with heart attack resuscitation attempts. (New York Times) The PA says it is going to try to ensure that an independent physician evaluates the case. (Ma'an) Israel's allies increasingly warn it that it is undermining its own security in the occupied Palestinian territories. (LA Times) A Hamas official predicts a third intifada. (Al Monitor) A local Fatah leader tells Israelis they must either make peace with his generation of leaders or face a future of open-ended conflict. (Ha'aretz) Israeli troops practice combating mass protests in the occupied West Bank. (Xinhua) Israel may be suspending highly controversial settlement construction in the occupied territories in advance of Pres. Obama's visit. (Washington Times) PM Fayyad joins a protest at a village deeply affected by Israel's West Bank separation barrier. (YNet) PM Netanyahu criticizes reported comments about Zionism by PM Erdogan. (Reuters) PM Erdogan is sharply criticized for comments equating Zionism with other trans-historical evils. (AP) Sec. Kerry will reportedly raise the issue with him. (Reuters) UNSG Ban calls the comments "hurtful." (YNet) A Fatah official says Israel is increasing "oppressive measures" in occupied East Jerusalem. (PNN) Republicans push a congressional bill ensuring the United States would support Israel in a confrontation with Iran. (AP) Syria protests an Israeli decision to go ahead with oil exploitation in the occupied Golan Heights. (AP) Palestinian doctors say three are wounded in Israeli shelling of Gaza, but Israel denies this. (Ma'an) Croatia says it's going to pull its peacekeeping troops from the border with the occupied Golan Heights. (AP) More Palestinian citizens of Israel are volunteering for National Service. (The Media Line) According to a new poll, most Americans sympathize with Israel, but want equal treatment for Israel and the Palestinians. (Real Clear World)
COMMENTARY: David Makovsky and Ghaith al-Omari say the rhetoric of leaders is crucial to laying the groundwork for renewing progress towards peace. (Washington Post) Gideon Levy and Alex Levac ask what really happened to Arafat Jaradat, the Palestinian prisoner who died in Israeli custody. (Ha'aretz) Yossi Sarid says it's absurd that the issue of National Service for the ultra-Orthodox in Israel is overshadowing the question of the occupation. (Ha'aretz) Alon Pinkas says with Sec. Hagel, Israel has a friend in the Pentagon. (YNet) Yehuda Bauer says "Netanyahu doesn't know history." (Ha'aretz) Adnan Abu Amer says Israel is preparing for cyber warfare with Palestinians. (Al Monitor) Jonathan Schanzer says Palestinians aren't ready for a third intifada… Yet. (Foreign Policy) Peter Beinart asks if Pres. Obama has lost interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (Daily Beast) Amos Harel says tensions between Israel and Palestinians are continuing to accumulate and simmer. (Ha'aretz)
The Health Ministry said Thursday that tests showed that the hemorrhages and fractured ribs found during the autopsy of a Palestinian [7] prisoner who died in Israeli detention last weekend were “characteristic of the resuscitation attempts that were performed on the deceased,” efforts that lasted for 50 minutes.
Israel will grant a request from the Palestinian Authority to bring an independent doctor to investigate the death of a detainee who died in Israeli custody, an official said Friday.
Civil Affairs Minister Hussein al-Sheikh told Ma’an that the foreign doctor would investigate the death of Arafat Jaradat, who died last week in an Israeli prison.
“This is the first time Israel agrees that a non-Israeli doctor will participate in an issue related to Palestinians in Israeli jails,” al-Sheikh told Ma'an.
As Israel [10] pursues an expanded settlement agenda in Palestinian territory, even its friends are beginning to sound like its adversaries.
The Palestinian Authority is “dragging its feet” on reconciliation due to US President Barack Obama’s scheduled visit in March, senior Hamas leader and Gaza parliamentarian Salah Bardawil told Al-Monitor in an exclusive interview. Bardawil touched on this along with the latest disputes between Hamas and Fatah and said that little progress is expected until after the Obama trip.
Illegal settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem poses the greatest threat to peace between Israel and Palestine, the European Union said [13] in a report that urges all EU states to end all financial investments or transactions that could directly or indirectly aid the settlement-building process.
Residents of the Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem have prepared a cemetery plot for the fatalities of the third intifada, although speculation of another armed popular rising seemed premature in the camp this week.
“We don’t want another intifada,” says Fatah leader in Dheisheh Mohammed al-Jafari, facing the rows of new, empty graves. “We are the last generation you can make peace with. There’s a five-year window of opportunity.”
Ahead of a possible escalation of violence in the West Bank, the Israel [16]i military is training combat units on how to deal with planned protests by thousands of angry Palestinian demonstrators.
During the workshop, the troops practiced using crowd-control measures largely considered non-lethal, like flash bangs, rubber- tipped bullets and stench bombs.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu [18] has suspended all housing construction in contested areas of east Jerusalem and the West Bank as a diplomatic nod at President Obama’s upcoming visit.
Palestinians are clashing with security forces who are attempting to disperse them in Hebron, after settler's windows were broken as a result of stone throwing.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu [21] accused Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan [22] of
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will upbraid Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Friday for his description of Zionism as a crime against humanity, comments which could overshadow his first trip to a Muslim nation since taking office.
Kerry is meeting Turkish leaders in talks meant to focus on Syria's civil war and bilateral interests from energy security to counter-terrorism.
But Erdogan's comment at a U.N. meeting in Vienna this week, condemned by his Israeli counterpart, the White House and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, has clouded his trip.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [25] said on Friday Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan [26]'s description of Zionism as a crime against humanity was "hurtful and divisive", adding to criticism of comments that risk deepening Turkey's rift with Israel.
Dimitri Diliani, a Member of Fatah Revolutionary Council, said on Thursday, 28 February, that Israel is constantly escalating its oppressive measures against the Palestinians of East Jerusalem, especially in Silwan and Issawiya.
He said that Israeli police regularly raid the homes of Palestinians, arrest children and teens, and assault women and the elderly. Diliani said that in Issawiya alone, about 170 Palestinians were arrested in January. In Silwan, the youngest detainee was six-year-old.