Sunday, July 7, 2002

The IDF says it captured 2 Palestinians following a gun battle nr. Aley Sinai settlement. The IDF fires on Palestinians at a Nablus checkpoint for no apparent reason during a lifting of the curfew, wounding 2; sends bulldozers into Shaykh Ajlin, damaging part of an agriculture storehouse and a well, leveling land; sends tanks into Bayt Lahia, firing on residential areas, crushing a car. A Palestinian child dies of injuries received on 6/27. (NYT 7/8; LAW, PCHR 7/10; MEI 7/12)

The Israeli cabinet endorses (17-2) a bill that would amend existing law to bar Israeli Arabs fr. leasing homes built on state land, declaring state land (90% of land in Israel) to be "for Jewish settlement only." State land cannot be purchased by anyone, only leased long term. (BADIL press release 7/7; HA 7/8; MM, NYT, WT 7/9; WJW 7/11; HA 7/12)