Israel kicks off pullout



Israel closed the roads to the Gush Katif settlement bloc in Gaza at Midnight on August14, marking the start of the official pullout from all Gaza settlements.

The Israeli army lowered down a notice board saying "Entrance into the Gaza Strip closed; Presence there is forbidden by law" at the kissufim junction, signaling that the historic moment has finally arrived.

In accordance with the decision made by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, starting from the night of August 14, civilians will be barred from entry into all settlements slated for evacuation in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, a nationwide alert went into effect with a state of emergency set to last until after the disengagement is concluded.

Israel is set to pull out more than 8,000 settlers from Gaza settlements in one month, and hand over the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) within two months.

But thousands of Jewish people ignored the deadline, defying the Israeli government's order to leave the Gaza Strip. The Gaza settlers are made up largely of middle-class families with children, and their resistance is considered to be mostly passive.

Following the formal start of the pullout, Aryeh Yitzhaki, a resident of the Gaza settlement of Kfar Yam, announced the establishment of a Jewish Authority in the strip in order to resist the evacuation. Yitzhaki said many residents of the Gush Katif settlement bloc support his initiative, and that elections in the authority would be held in three weeks.

While in the northern West Bank, some settlers clashed with Israel Defense Force troops after the army attempted to impose a seal on the area surrounding the settlements set to be evacuated.

If the Israeli withdrawal goes relatively smoothly, and if the Palestinian leadership can establish itself in Gaza, it would increase the prospects for a return to negotiations. But if the pullout or its aftermath leads to future conflict, Gaza could represent an impediment to any future peace efforts.

An Israeli man prays over a grave in the Gush Katif cemetery, August 14, before the Israeli government began forcibly removing them from the settlements on August 17.

Vocabulary
pullout 撤离
Gaza 加沙
evacuation 撤退
disengagement 脱离
defy 违抗
infiltrator 渗入者
initiative 第一步
impose 强加
seal 封闭
aftermath 后果

 

 

World in Pictures
Photo source: ImagineChina

	Steam bicycle 德国举办第6届蒸汽机会议 Englishman Geoff Gudspith rides his unique steam bicycle to the 6th Steam Engine Meeting in Waren Mueritz, Germany, August 4. The bicycle, made in 1945, now features a 1 cylinder horizontal engine with 0.25 HP and reaches top speeds of 20 kilometers per hour. Starting August 5, steam engine collectors from all over Europe gathered with their fully functional engines for the 6th Steam Engine Meeting.
	Bronze Age life restored 德国一家尝试铜器时代生活 Family Borngraeber, lit a small bonfire at the open-air Federsee Museum in Bad Buchau, Germany, August 4. The family moved into a Bronze Age restored house attempting to experience the lives of people at the time for a week. For the experiment, the family used replicas of everyday objects manufactured according to the authentic tools of the time, some 3,000 years ago. The family cooked and ate from a clay pot, sat around the campfire and worked with the various tools and equipment of Bronze Age.
	Canine swimmer 金毛犬参加五百人游泳赛 排名72 Jake, a four-year-old Golden Retriever, swam from Alcatraz towards San Francisco with Jeff Pokonosky of San Diego during the 10th Annual South End Rowing Club Alcatraz Invitational on July 30, in San Francisco. The canine was the first of his species to make the swim and did it in a time of 41:45, 72nd out of 500 swimmers.
	Cop in a soapbox 慕尼黑举办肥皂箱赛车大赛 The picture shows a German police officer taking part in a soap box derby in Munich, Germany, July 31.
	Orangutan water skied 猩猩滑水庆祝APEC会议进入百日倒计时 An orangutan water skied to mark 100 days to the APEC economic meeting at Gwanghalri resort in Busan, South Korea, August 10. The annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting will be held in South Korea's second largest city of Busan in November.

 

 

World in Words
Collected & translated by Beverly

"The name becomes a powerful organizing principle. It's the words and imagery of how the institution is going to be identified in the marketplace."
"名字已经成为一条十分有效的组织原则. 它代言着一种形象, 即这个学校将以怎样的姿态在市场上获得认可. "
To woo students, colleges in the U.S. choose names that sell.
--为吸引生源, 美国许多院校纷纷更名, 以求叫座.

"I don't see what the problem is. Moving Khodorkovsky is a normal prison procedure."
"我不认为有什么问题, 把霍多尔科夫斯基转到普通监房不过是正常的监禁程序. "
Said Director Kalinin. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russia's richest man jailed after his conviction for fraud and tax evasion, has been moved from the comparative luxury of a three-man cell with television and fridge, to a standard Russian cell with 10 other men.
--因欺诈、偷税而沦为阶下囚的俄罗斯首富米哈伊尔·霍多尔科夫斯基已从配有电视和冰箱的"豪华"3人间监房转到普通的11人间. 狱卒长卡林宁对此不以为然.

"In a country like Spain, with such a dramatic lack of water, we are proposing a new and different way of doing things."
"在像西班牙这样极度缺水的国家里, 我们提倡一种全新而迥然不同的处事方法. "
Paco López, a sports lecturer at a Madrid university as well as a crusading eco-golfer, has opened the country's first water-free course.
--帕科·洛佩斯是马德里一所大学的体育讲师, 也是一位狂热的环保高尔夫爱好者. 最近他设计出了西班牙首座几乎不用浇水的高尔夫球场.

"We've been losing the foundation of our customer base because their eyesight is getting worse, and the books are getting harder and harder to read."
"我们的顾客群正在流失, 因为他们的视力越来越差, 看起书来越来越艰难. "
Publishers are issuing new paperbacks in a bigger size to make them easier to read.
--出版商们纷纷发行大号的新型平装书, 以方便读者阅读.