Ma'an
The Israeli military said on Thursday it detained nine Palestinians during overnight operations in the West Bank....
The military said the “wanted” Palestinians were “taken for questioning.”
...In another overnight raid, Israeli troops invaded the house of Diya Hoshiyeh, a reporter for Palestine television, he told Ma’an.
Hoshiyeh said soldiers created “a huge mess” while searching the house, adding that troops raided his brother’s house in the same building, assaulting his nephews and forcing the family into the street.
He said the soldiers left without arresting anyone. Full story
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Researcher calls for increased attention to long-term prisoners
Ma'an
Sixty-five-year-old prisoner Ibrahim Jaber, the fifth oldest Palestinian in Israeli detention, was moved to the Ramon facility in the Negev desert last week, researcher in prisoners affairs Abdel Nasser Farawneh said Wednesday.
... Jaber, who has been in prison for 27 years, has been ignored and deserves more attention from international organizations. He called on human rights groups to highlight the plight of men who have spent almost half their lives in prison... Full story
Sixty-five-year-old prisoner Ibrahim Jaber, the fifth oldest Palestinian in Israeli detention, was moved to the Ramon facility in the Negev desert last week, researcher in prisoners affairs Abdel Nasser Farawneh said Wednesday.
... Jaber, who has been in prison for 27 years, has been ignored and deserves more attention from international organizations. He called on human rights groups to highlight the plight of men who have spent almost half their lives in prison... Full story
Report: Israeli troops training for new Gaza war
Ma'an
Israeli forces completed a large-scale military drill in the Negev, the country's Channel 10 news reported, preparing troops for a military offensive against the Gaza Strip.
The report, aired Tuesday evening, speculated that the training could even be seen as preparation for a re-occupation of the area.
Drills during the training reportedly focused on re-training around military mistakes that occurred during the last war on Gaza in December and January last year. Nine Israeli soldiers were killed in the war, which saw 1,400 Palestinians perish, and reports at the time said six of the deaths were the result of "friendly fire." At least one of those incidents involved fire on a kidnapped soldier.
According to Channel 10, training saw soldiers educated in the use of a new digital device on Merkava Tanks, the largest of the armored vehicles, which allows soldiers in the units to track troops on the ground in densely-populated areas. It is intended to prevent "friendly fire" incidents. Full story
Israeli forces completed a large-scale military drill in the Negev, the country's Channel 10 news reported, preparing troops for a military offensive against the Gaza Strip.
The report, aired Tuesday evening, speculated that the training could even be seen as preparation for a re-occupation of the area.
Drills during the training reportedly focused on re-training around military mistakes that occurred during the last war on Gaza in December and January last year. Nine Israeli soldiers were killed in the war, which saw 1,400 Palestinians perish, and reports at the time said six of the deaths were the result of "friendly fire." At least one of those incidents involved fire on a kidnapped soldier.
According to Channel 10, training saw soldiers educated in the use of a new digital device on Merkava Tanks, the largest of the armored vehicles, which allows soldiers in the units to track troops on the ground in densely-populated areas. It is intended to prevent "friendly fire" incidents. Full story
MADA documents violations of press freedoms in Palestine
Ma'an
Most of December's six violations of press freedom coincidde with the commemoration of Hamas' anniversary on the 14th of the month, a report from the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) released Wednesday said.
The report noted a decline in violations over a recorded 21 in November, but expressed concern over continued Israeli press freedom violations targeting Palestinian journalists in Jerusalem.... Full story
Most of December's six violations of press freedom coincidde with the commemoration of Hamas' anniversary on the 14th of the month, a report from the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) released Wednesday said.
The report noted a decline in violations over a recorded 21 in November, but expressed concern over continued Israeli press freedom violations targeting Palestinian journalists in Jerusalem.... Full story
Israel approves Jerusalem settlement expansion
Ma'an
The Israeli government approved on Wednesday the construction of a new settlement in the Palestinian town of Shufat, in occupied East Jerusalem.
Israel Radio reported that the plan includes three new five-story buildings on a 5,000-meter plot of land, funded by Jewish American gambling tycoon Irving Moskovitz.
On Tuesday Israel’s Jerusalem Planning and Building committee approved the construction of four new settler buildings on the Mount of Olives, in the heart of East Jerusalem.
Moskovitz was also behind the Mount of Olives project, which is intended to house 24 settler families adjacent to a Jewish religious school.
Moskovitz caused a diplomatic storm last year when he obtained a permit to bulldoze East Jerusalem’s historic Shepherd Hotel in order to build a settlement.
Last week, the US, Europe, and other world powers condemned a plan announced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to add 700 apartments to settlements in the vicinity of Jerusalem.
"The United States opposes new Israeli construction in East Jerusalem. The status of Jerusalem is a permanent status issue that must be resolved by the parties through negotiations and supported by the international community," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in reaction to the announcement.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967 along with the rest of the West Bank. Israel annexed a swath of the central West Bank stretching from Bethlehem to Ramallah, declaring the land part of annexed Israeli territory, a status never recognized internationally. Full story
The Israeli government approved on Wednesday the construction of a new settlement in the Palestinian town of Shufat, in occupied East Jerusalem.
Israel Radio reported that the plan includes three new five-story buildings on a 5,000-meter plot of land, funded by Jewish American gambling tycoon Irving Moskovitz.
On Tuesday Israel’s Jerusalem Planning and Building committee approved the construction of four new settler buildings on the Mount of Olives, in the heart of East Jerusalem.
Moskovitz was also behind the Mount of Olives project, which is intended to house 24 settler families adjacent to a Jewish religious school.
Moskovitz caused a diplomatic storm last year when he obtained a permit to bulldoze East Jerusalem’s historic Shepherd Hotel in order to build a settlement.
Last week, the US, Europe, and other world powers condemned a plan announced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to add 700 apartments to settlements in the vicinity of Jerusalem.
"The United States opposes new Israeli construction in East Jerusalem. The status of Jerusalem is a permanent status issue that must be resolved by the parties through negotiations and supported by the international community," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in reaction to the announcement.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967 along with the rest of the West Bank. Israel annexed a swath of the central West Bank stretching from Bethlehem to Ramallah, declaring the land part of annexed Israeli territory, a status never recognized internationally. Full story
Israel to raze 28 buildings in Nablus area
A 75-year-old farmer tends his fieldson the outskirts of the West Bank city of NablusMa'an
Twenty-eight homes and agricultural buildings were issued demolition orders by Israeli military personnel on Wednesday, all located on the outskirts of Aqraba village southeast of Nablus...
...Israeli forces gave the farmers only 48 hours to evacuate their houses, clear out their farms and sheds before the orders were implemented.
Dozens of Palestinian farmers and their families live in the area, about five kilometers from the Gittit settlement and three kilometers from the Mekhora settlement, raising sheep and cattle as well as planting crops. The crops help sustain the local community, Doughlas said.
"Israeli forces issued this decision to protect the settlers only without taking into consideration the families who will be rendered homeless," ..... Full story
Following clashes, convoy enters Gaza
Ma'an
Medical aid and 518 activists entered Gaza Wednesday night after protests against the Egyptian government refusal to admit 400 of the group lead to clashes along the divided border town.
An Egyptian soldier was shot dead during the clashes, Egyptian state television reported, and at least 12 Palestinians were injured during a a demonstration against perceived Egyptian complicity in an Israeli-led blockade called by the de facto government of the Strip as they denounced what they said were attacks on the Viva Palestina convoy...... Full story
Hamas to investigate shooting of Egyptian soldier
De facto government security called on their Egyptian counterparts to open a parallel investigation file into the shooting death of an Egyptian soldier during Rafah border riots Wednesday.
The Hamas investigators said they had already opened a file and were looking into the incident to insure it would not be repeated, and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank publicly expressed its regret over the death of the soldier...
The riots began when Hamas officials in Rafah called a gathering in condemnation of what it called Egyptian attacks on a group of 500 activists travelling to Gaza with 220 cars and ambulances loaded with medical aid....
Senior Hamas leader in Gaza Salah Bardawil applauded Egypt for their decision to open the crossing for the convoy, and recalled what he described as the "historic role" Egypt has played supporting the cause of Palestine. He called on the Egyptian leadership to make the mission of Viva Palestina 3 as easy as possible in order to help ease the suffering of the Gazan people. He also called on Egypt to reconsider the erection of an iron wall under the borders between Egypt and Gaza, and to open the Rafah crossing.
Bardawil also expressed regret over the death of an Egyptian soldier during what he called a peaceful demonstration at the Rafah border. He called for self-restraint and cautioned the media to avoid incitement "that would only deepen the crisis."
In Jordan, the Islamic Labor Front condemned “Egyptian assaults against the Viva Palestina 3 convoy," calling the Egyptian actions “ugly and disgraceful.”
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) released a statement following the Rafah border events calling on Egypt and Hamas to investigate the incident so it could be avoided in the future. Full story
Medical aid and 518 activists entered Gaza Wednesday night after protests against the Egyptian government refusal to admit 400 of the group lead to clashes along the divided border town.
An Egyptian soldier was shot dead during the clashes, Egyptian state television reported, and at least 12 Palestinians were injured during a a demonstration against perceived Egyptian complicity in an Israeli-led blockade called by the de facto government of the Strip as they denounced what they said were attacks on the Viva Palestina convoy...... Full story
Hamas to investigate shooting of Egyptian soldier
De facto government security called on their Egyptian counterparts to open a parallel investigation file into the shooting death of an Egyptian soldier during Rafah border riots Wednesday.
The Hamas investigators said they had already opened a file and were looking into the incident to insure it would not be repeated, and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank publicly expressed its regret over the death of the soldier...
The riots began when Hamas officials in Rafah called a gathering in condemnation of what it called Egyptian attacks on a group of 500 activists travelling to Gaza with 220 cars and ambulances loaded with medical aid....
Senior Hamas leader in Gaza Salah Bardawil applauded Egypt for their decision to open the crossing for the convoy, and recalled what he described as the "historic role" Egypt has played supporting the cause of Palestine. He called on the Egyptian leadership to make the mission of Viva Palestina 3 as easy as possible in order to help ease the suffering of the Gazan people. He also called on Egypt to reconsider the erection of an iron wall under the borders between Egypt and Gaza, and to open the Rafah crossing.
Bardawil also expressed regret over the death of an Egyptian soldier during what he called a peaceful demonstration at the Rafah border. He called for self-restraint and cautioned the media to avoid incitement "that would only deepen the crisis."
In Jordan, the Islamic Labor Front condemned “Egyptian assaults against the Viva Palestina 3 convoy," calling the Egyptian actions “ugly and disgraceful.”
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) released a statement following the Rafah border events calling on Egypt and Hamas to investigate the incident so it could be avoided in the future. Full story
Gaza Freedom March
FastTimes - Pam olson
Something exciting has been happening in Egypt this holiday season. Around 1,400 people from all over the world — traveling at their own expense, or through fund-raising drives in their communities — converged on Cairo to travel to the Gaza Strip on New Year’s Eve and march with the people of Gaza to the Erez crossing (the border that separates Gaza from Israel in the north).
Their aims? To draw attention to Israel’s siege on the Gaza Strip, deliver humanitarian aid, and try to end Israel’s brutal blockade, which started when Hamas took over the Strip in 2007 (after Fatah, backed by the CIA, tried to overthrow them) and intensified a year ago after Operation Cast Lead.
The blockade is something so evil, it’s difficult to describe or comprehend. Israel has essentially turned the Gaza Strip, home of 1.5 million souls, into the world’s largest open-air prison. Some go further and liken it to a ‘concentration camp,’ because prisoners in any normal country are at least given enough to eat, a set date when they can leave, and decent sanitation and medical care.
A year ago, in an assault the Israelis dubbed Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli army killed around 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, including hundreds of children, destroyed hospitals, schools, factories, businesses, farms, and sewage and electrical systems. Until now they have refused to allow building materials or spare parts to enter the Gaza Strip, leaving their devastation frozen in time.
The Israeli government claims it’s necessary because Palestinians might use the materials to build more home-made, unguided rockets, which have a 0.5% kill rate (i.e., one out of every 200 rockets finds a victim) with which to terrorize Israel’s southern population. (The rockets are themselves retaliations for Israel’s blockade, assassinations, mass arrests, illegal land grabs, violations of ceasefires, etc.)
Blocking some materials is debatably justifiable, though principles of proportionality and laws against collective punishment should be taken into account. But what can possibly explain Israel’s blocking shipments of pasta, cheese, and chickpeas? Israel later allowed these items into Gaza due to US pressure, but they still don’t allow things like toilet paper, soap, toothpaste, chocolate, cigarettes, or spare parts for generators or water treatment plants, creating among other things a dangerous shortage of drinking water.
In addition, “U.S. and Western officials complain that Israel frequently changes the list of humanitarian goods allowed into the Gaza Strip, creating major logistical problems for aid groups and donor governments which are unable to plan ahead.”
Meanwhile, the production of textbooks by the UNRWA ceased long ago “because there is no paper, ink or glue in Gaza.” Many life-saving medicines and machines can’t get through the blockade, and dozens of men, women, and children have died because Israel refused to allow them to leave the Gaza Strip to seek medical care not available in the Strip. The only way anyone has managed to survive in a human way is through smuggling tunnels linked with Egypt. Egypt is threatening to cut that off soon as well.
This is collective punishment on a historic scale.* It is illegal under international law and immoral under any sane moral code.
Meanwhile, Operation Cast Lead was so brutally disproportionate (a greater than 100-to-1 kill rate, roughly 300-to-1 if you count civilians only), with so many credible allegations of deliberate Israeli strikes against civilian targets, it was made the subject of a UN war crimes investigation. The author of the report was renowned international jurist and South African Jew, Judge Richard Goldstone.
His report alleged devastating war crimes committed by Israel and lesser war crimes committed by Hamas. Israeli journalist Amira Hass explained, “The Goldstone report asks Israel to open an independent inquiry to the allegations [of war crimes], and if, within six months, there is no sufficient or satisfying response from Israel — and Hamas, for that matter — it can be transferred to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.”
On a more human note, Judge Goldstone told PBS’s Bill Moyers that the things he witnessed and reported on in Gaza were so horrific, “It… will give me nightmares for the rest of my life.”
(Watch a two-minute clip from the interview here. You can find the full Goldstone Report here.)**
Israel laughed in the face of the report, knowing the US government would kill it in its cradle. Indeed, President Obama pressured Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to renounce it (a story I’ll tell in a forthcoming post), and the US Congress passed a bill condemning the report as “irredeemably biased and unworthy of further consideration or legitimacy.”
Judge Goldstone sent a letter to Congress explaining that the bill was full of misrepresentations, factual errors, and utter nonsense. Congress, taking its cue from the Israel lobby, ignored him (with a few brave exceptions).
So Israel shrugs and moves along, keeps Gaza under siege, and kicks a few more Palestinian families out of their homes in East Jerusalem for good measure — throwing families out of their home in the dead of night, dumping their possessions by the side of the road, protecting Jewish settlers who march in and take their place, and arresting or beating anyone who protests. (I’m not even going to talk about Israel’s increasingly brutal repression of Palestinian non-violent protest in the West Bank or the fact that I have two friends in Israeli jails, one without charge, the other on bogus charges.) And the world’s governments do nothing.
Never has it been more clear that our governments have failed. Never has it been more clear that it’s up to us.
Back in the summer of 2005, Palestinian civil society called for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions against Israel until it obeyed international law...
The Gaza Freedom March is another prong in the civil society counter-attack against Israel’s crimes...
Unfortunately, the Egyptian government — a dictatorial police state propped up by American tax dollars and political support — refused to allow the marchers to get near the Gaza Strip, much less enter it through the Rafah border crossing. They claimed the security situation was too unstable. (Um, when is the security situation in Gaza ever stable?) So instead of protesting in Gaza, the marchers found themselves stuck in Cairo protesting against the Egyptian government and their own embassies for doing nothing in the face of another assault on liberty........
The mainstream media is mostly ignoring it, as noted by Stephen Walt, co-author of The Israel Lobby....
.....They never did make it to Gaza. But they planted the seeds of a more sustained, organized, and motivated world-wide movement to end Israel’s illegal policies and American and European complicity. Here is the “Cairo Declaration,” a document drafted by the Gaza Freedom March as a blueprint for going forward. It calls for intensified action for academic, cultural, and economic boycotts of Israel until it complies with international law, continued legal actions against suspected Israeli war criminals, speaking tours, and other non-violent means... Full story
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Egyptian police beat & injure 'Viva Palestina' convoy during Al Arish protest
IMEMC
Several dozen people with the Viva Palestina convoy have reportedly been injured Tuesday evening after 2000 Egyptian riot police attacked a sit-in at the Port of Al Arish, where the convoy was re-routed on its way to the Gaza Strip.
Several dozen people with the Viva Palestina convoy have reportedly been injured Tuesday evening after 2000 Egyptian riot police attacked a sit-in at the Port of Al Arish, where the convoy was re-routed on its way to the Gaza Strip.
520 people and 220 vehicles full of humanitarian aid have faced one obstacle after another, as the Egyptian government re-routed the convoy hundreds of miles from their original route through Aqaba, Jordan. When they finally arrived in Al-Arish, Egypt, almost a week behind their schedule, the Egyptian government walked out of negotiations with the convoy's organizers, saying that one quarter of the 220 vehicles would have to be re-routed yet again – through Israel. Viva Palestina organizers said that sending vehicles through Israel would result in the aid not reaching the people of Gaza as intended.
Most recently, the Viva Palestina convoy has reported that at least 11 convoy members have been arrested by Egyptian police and several dozen have been injured, when Egyptian riot police moved in on a non-violent sit-in held by the activists to challenge the refusal of ¼ of the humanitarian aid that they have collected for the people of Gaza.
Alexandra Lort-Phillips, 37, from North London, said, “I have 42 people in my team, and out of those three Britons have been injured. There are head injuries, cuts. We started getting pelted with stones by people in plain clothes, then the police started moving in, using tear gas and batons. People were quite severely beaten.”
......This is an update from the following press release from Viva Palestina posted Tuesday afternoon:
Viva Palestina Faced With 2,000 Riot Police In The Port Of Al-arish To all friends of Palestine, Our situation is now at a crisis point! Riot has broken out in the port of Al- Arish. This is a press release by Viva Palestina.
This late afternoon we were negotiating with a senior official from Cairo who left negotiations some two hours ago and did not return. Our negotiations with the official were regarding taking our aid vehicles into Gaza.
He left two hours ago and did not come back. Egyptian authorities called over 2,000 riot police who then moved towards our camp at the port.
We have now blocked the entrance to the port and we are now faced with riot police and water cannons and are determined to defend our vehicles and aid... Full story
Fighter Killed, Four Wounded, In An Israeli Airstrike Targeting Khan Younis
IMEMC
The fighters are members of the Salah Ed Deen Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees.
.........The Brigades vowed retaliation, and said that it cannot stand idle while Israel is ongoing with its violations against the Palestinian people.
The fighter was identified as Jihad Al Sameery, 22.
Abu Mojahid, spokesperson of the Salah Ed Deen Brigades, said that the Israeli invasions, assassinations and attacks prove that “the Zionist enemy is seeking escalation”.
... called on the fighters to retaliate and remain ready to defend the people and to counter the Israeli aggression. Full story
The fighters are members of the Salah Ed Deen Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees.
.........The Brigades vowed retaliation, and said that it cannot stand idle while Israel is ongoing with its violations against the Palestinian people.
The fighter was identified as Jihad Al Sameery, 22.
Abu Mojahid, spokesperson of the Salah Ed Deen Brigades, said that the Israeli invasions, assassinations and attacks prove that “the Zionist enemy is seeking escalation”.
... called on the fighters to retaliate and remain ready to defend the people and to counter the Israeli aggression. Full story
Israel To Build More Jewish-only Apartments In East J'lem
Florida-based bingo and gambling magnate Irving Moskowitz - Over the past 20 years, his bingo hall has funnelled tens of millions of dollars in to what its opponents — including rabbis serving the Hawaiian Gardens area — describe as an ideologically-driven strategy to grab land for Israel, as well as contributing to influential American groups and thinktanks backing Israel’s more hawkish governments.
IMEMC
Four new residential buildings in East Jerusalem were approved by the Jerusalem planning and building committing on Monday, the Israeli daily Haaretz reports. The four buildings, which will house a total of 24 apartments, will be constructed in an area east of the borders of Jerusalem's Old City.
... the project in question "was initiated and constructed by American Jewish millionaire Irving Moskowitz, who also owns the Shepherd Hotel in East Jerusalem. That hotel made headlines last year when Moskowitz obtained a permit to build 20 apartments for Jews there, sparking angry protests from the U.S. government."
The approval comes just a week after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel intends to build another 700 apartments in East Jerusalem. Both the Obama Administration and the European Union have voice criticism, saying Israel's ongoing annexation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank makes the two-state solution all the more difficult to implement. According to an Israeli Basic Law adopted in 1980, "Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel."
All of the planned apartments will be available only to Jews, meaning not even Palestinians holding Israeli citizenship will have access to them. Full story
Israeli tanks stage limited Gaza incursion
Ma'an
Israeli tanks and a bulldozer invaded Palestinian territory in the central Gaza Strip on Wednesday morning, local officials said.
... three tanks and a bulldozer razed land 200 meters from the Green Line east of the city of Deir Al-Balah.
Israeli vehicles are seen operating along the border almost daily. The military uses live fire to enforce a 300-meter “exclusion zone” along the border, from which Palestinians are banned.
On Tuesday night an Israeli airstrike killed a Palestinian fighter affiliated with the Popular Resistance Committees near the city of Khan Younis. Full story
Christian Peacemakers deported from Israel
IMEMC
Two members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams have been refused entry into Israel, and deported by Israeli authorities.
Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv
One of them told the IMEMC that she was scheduled to be part of a Christian Peacemaker delegation to the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank, which was planning to meet with Palestinian civil society groups and Christian leaders in the Holy Land.
But she and another member of the group were detained at the Israeli airport in Tel Aviv and denied entry, after a lengthy interrogation.
According to the American peace activist, she was singled out along with all other passengers of Arab descent who were on the flight. After a twelve-hour interrogation and several full-body searches, she was told that she was considered a ‘security risk’ to the state of Israel, and put in a holding cell to await deportation.
While in the holding cell, she met a young woman from Germany whose father was killed while serving in the Israeli military.
The German woman was deported after telling the Israeli border security that she had Palestinian friends in Bethlehem. One of the interrogators told her; “You are Jewish, how can you be friends with an Arab?"
She also said that she believes she was deported because of her Arab roots, and her public statements calling for equal rights for the Palestinian people. Full story
Arab Child Hurt By Explosive Near Shfa-Amr
IMEMC
Haaretz added that the child was playing with the explosive after finding it near his town.
He was moved to the Rambam Israeli hospital in Haifa suffering wounds to his hands and lower torso. ... either an explosive device or a grenade.
The Israeli Police initiated an investigation into the incident.
Many Arabs and Palestinians, including children, were killed and wounded in similar previous incidents. Full story
Israeli sources reported Monday that a 13-year-old Arab child was hurt when an explosive, apparently dropped by the Israeli army during training, detonated as he carried it.Israeli online daily, Haaretz, reported that the child, herding his family’s sheep, suffered serious wounds.
Haaretz added that the child was playing with the explosive after finding it near his town.
He was moved to the Rambam Israeli hospital in Haifa suffering wounds to his hands and lower torso. ... either an explosive device or a grenade.
The Israeli Police initiated an investigation into the incident.
Many Arabs and Palestinians, including children, were killed and wounded in similar previous incidents. Full story
Bethlehem celebrate Orthodox Christmas, local Christians protest at the Manager Square
IMEMC
Scores flocked on Wednesday to the Manager Square in the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem celebrating Christmas according to the Gregorian calender.
Scores flocked on Wednesday to the Manager Square in the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem celebrating Christmas according to the Gregorian calender.
As the Greek Orthodox Church leader, Patriarch Theophilos III, made his way to the nativity church local Palestinian orthodox Christians protested his visit. The gathered crowed holding Palestinian flags and banners chanted “we do not welcome those who sell our land to Israel.”
Reasons given for the protest include the accusations made in April of
last year, that approximately 18 acres, of land around Mar Elias Monastery, situated between Jerusalem and Bethlehem have been leased to an Israeli construction company for development, and the failure of his promise to reverse similar actions of his predecessor, Irenaios I. Said actions led to Irenaios I being voted out of his position as head of the church.
Today’s actions kicked off with a press conference held by the council of Arab orthodox organization in Palestine announcing the start of the protest moves. Marwan Toubasi, Presidents of the council of Arab orthodox organization in Palestine told reporters:
“We will not accept a compromise over the Patriarch’s selling of land. He has taken the land that belonged to our forefathers and our ancestors. We, the Greek Orthodox Association and Organizations condemn the Patriarch’s actions. We demand that the sale and leasing of land must stop and that the Palestinians are represented as part of the church.”
Tubasi continued to say ” We have three conditions. 1- That the land is returned to its rightful owners. 2 – That no more land is sold. 3 – That the church recognizes and involves the Palestinian Christian community in church affairs. If these conditions are not met then we will split from the Greek Orthodox Church and form our own Arab Orthodox Church, separate from the Greek Church.”
“When the last land that was leased to an Israeli development company, a Palestinian company offered a better deal to the church but they decided to work with the Israeli’s and the settler community. Abu Gneim is an example of sneaking land away from the Palestinians. The land was leased to the Jerusalem Municipality, and then used as the site of the Har Homa settlement.” Tubasi Concluded
Dr. Elias Ise’ed, a member of the council of Arab orthodox organization in Palestine, told IMEMC that Palestinian orthodox Christians demand their rights for the church.
......Unanimously voted to the position in 2005, Theophilos III had promised to undo much of the harm caused by Irenaios I, who in 1999 signed a deal with a British development company that lead to construction linking the illegal settlements of Har Homa and Gilo, outside of Jerusalem, in the occupied West Bank. It is estimated that the total volume of land leased by Irenaios I was approximately 700 dunums.
Israel orders Hamas legislator held for six more months
Ma'an
Israel has extended the detention of Abdul Jaber Fuqaha, a Hamas-affiliated member of the Palestinian Legislative Council from Ramallah first arrested in 2006.
...The order was the third such order...
... not charged with any crime. Fourteen Hamas legislators are still in Israeli prisons, including seven in administrative detention.
Israel seized dozens of Hamas officials in June 2006...
In March Israel detained ten more top Hamas officials, including lawmakers, from the West Bank... Full story
Israel has extended the detention of Abdul Jaber Fuqaha, a Hamas-affiliated member of the Palestinian Legislative Council from Ramallah first arrested in 2006.
...The order was the third such order...
... not charged with any crime. Fourteen Hamas legislators are still in Israeli prisons, including seven in administrative detention.
Israel seized dozens of Hamas officials in June 2006...
In March Israel detained ten more top Hamas officials, including lawmakers, from the West Bank... Full story
Israeli forces seize two in night raids
Ma'an
The Israeli military said it detained two Palestinians during raids on Tuesday night south of the West Bank city of Ramallah... Full story
PA defense crews assist in rescue of settlers in bus fire
Ma'an
Palestinian rescue crews intervened Sunday when an Israeli settler bus en route to a West Bank colony broke down and caught fire Sunday night.
...The bus was en route to the West Bank settlement of Noqedim, where Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman lives...
...General Director of the Civil Defense in Bethlehem Ibrahim Ayesh said..... crews continued with their work when they arrived at the scene and realized the bus was a settler vehicle, because the incident was a humanitarian action. Full story
Palestinian rescue crews intervened Sunday when an Israeli settler bus en route to a West Bank colony broke down and caught fire Sunday night.
...The bus was en route to the West Bank settlement of Noqedim, where Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman lives...
...General Director of the Civil Defense in Bethlehem Ibrahim Ayesh said..... crews continued with their work when they arrived at the scene and realized the bus was a settler vehicle, because the incident was a humanitarian action. Full story
Mossad ex-chief: Time to overthrow Abbas
Ma'an
Former Israeli spy chief Efraim Halevy berated the Palestinian Authority (PA) and President Mahmoud Abbas during an interview with Army Radio on Tuesday.
"The PA is useless and nothing but students of Israel and the US. As soon as the US and Israel stop funding the PA it will fade away. Abbas and his PA should know that and know to behave modestly with their threats against Israel," Halevy said during the program Good Morning Israel, hosted by Ghazi Burqai.
“Abbas is unnecessary and it is time to overthrow him. Israel has to find alternatives.”
Halevy, who also heads the Strategic Research Unit at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, added that the alternative to the PA would be Hamas, asserting that Israel had begun "opening lines [of communication]...
Moreover, Halevy admonished Fatah leader Muhammad Dahlan......, adding that the PA had failed to abort security attacks against Israel and that, in fact, Shabak had been the force behind apprehending them...... Full story
Former Israeli spy chief Efraim Halevy berated the Palestinian Authority (PA) and President Mahmoud Abbas during an interview with Army Radio on Tuesday.
"The PA is useless and nothing but students of Israel and the US. As soon as the US and Israel stop funding the PA it will fade away. Abbas and his PA should know that and know to behave modestly with their threats against Israel," Halevy said during the program Good Morning Israel, hosted by Ghazi Burqai.
“Abbas is unnecessary and it is time to overthrow him. Israel has to find alternatives.”
Halevy, who also heads the Strategic Research Unit at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, added that the alternative to the PA would be Hamas, asserting that Israel had begun "opening lines [of communication]...
Moreover, Halevy admonished Fatah leader Muhammad Dahlan......, adding that the PA had failed to abort security attacks against Israel and that, in fact, Shabak had been the force behind apprehending them...... Full story
Israeli officers cancel UK trip over arrest fears
Ma'an
Israel cancelled the departure of a military delegation to Britain last week after authorities there said they could not guarantee the officers would be safe from arrest.
The Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Tuesday that the delegation included a colonel, lieutenant colonel and a major. Approached by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affiars, the UK government said it could not promise the three would not face arrest.
Israeli officials are facing increasing international legal action over allegations of war crimes committed during last winter’s three-week Israeli offensive on Gaza.
Hundreds of women and children were among 1,400 Palestinians who were killed in the attack. Thirteen Israelis also died.
...In early December, a London court issued an arrest warrant for Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni, who was foreign minister during the Gaza offensive. The warrant is no longer in effect, but diplomatic protest from Israel compelled Britain to move to change rules governing arrest orders, for instance by requiring the attorney general to approve them.
Israeli officials continue to insist on a change. The country’s Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon told Yedioth that "should we not get the appropriate securities and if the British law remains unchanged, Israeli officers and seniors will not be able to travel to Britain..... Full story
Israel cancelled the departure of a military delegation to Britain last week after authorities there said they could not guarantee the officers would be safe from arrest.
The Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Tuesday that the delegation included a colonel, lieutenant colonel and a major. Approached by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affiars, the UK government said it could not promise the three would not face arrest.
Israeli officials are facing increasing international legal action over allegations of war crimes committed during last winter’s three-week Israeli offensive on Gaza.
Hundreds of women and children were among 1,400 Palestinians who were killed in the attack. Thirteen Israelis also died.
...In early December, a London court issued an arrest warrant for Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni, who was foreign minister during the Gaza offensive. The warrant is no longer in effect, but diplomatic protest from Israel compelled Britain to move to change rules governing arrest orders, for instance by requiring the attorney general to approve them.
Israeli officials continue to insist on a change. The country’s Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon told Yedioth that "should we not get the appropriate securities and if the British law remains unchanged, Israeli officers and seniors will not be able to travel to Britain..... Full story
Monday, January 4, 2010
Targeting human rights defenders
EI - Nadia Hijab
I remember the day I first met Jamal Juma'. He was speaking at a United Nations conference in 2003 about the damage being done by Israel's wall....this articulate, handsome Palestinian used facts and visual evidence to show how the wall was expropriating yet more Palestinian land and separating Palestinian communities from each other.
One picture Jamal showed us still breaks my heart: a middle-aged Palestinian farmer with a tear trickling down his cheek. The olive grove he had inherited from his father had just been bulldozed to make way for the wall. He had not only lost his livelihood; he had also been unable to protect his family's trust, the symbol of everything that had gone into making them Palestinian.
Now Jamal is in jail. Israel's occupation army detained him on 16 December. After interrogating him, they brought him back home, handcuffed and searched his house while his wife and three children watched. Then they took him off to prison.
......Jamal is the third anti-wall activist to be arrested in the last few months. Their arrest is an Israeli acknowledgement of their success, at great personal cost.
Civil resistance has spread widely throughout the occupied territories, in spite of Israel's attempts to crush it. On 9 November, the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, protesters managed for the first time to topple a few of the wall's massive concrete panels.....
Moreover, the Stop the Wall Campaign made a strategic decision to link to the movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. The first Stop the Wall activist to be arrested was Mohammad Othman on his return from Norway...
Omar Barghouti, a founder of the academic boycott movement, says that Israeli analysis of the impact of BDS has changed after "academic and commercial organizations started feeling the heat and demanding action."
He sees Israel's latest arrests as a test. "Either we meet this challenge and the world supports our right to civil resistance, or they will intensify their repression of all human rights defenders. If they can get away with arresting civil society leaders that are clearly committed to nonviolence, then everyone's at risk."... Full story
I remember the day I first met Jamal Juma'. He was speaking at a United Nations conference in 2003 about the damage being done by Israel's wall....this articulate, handsome Palestinian used facts and visual evidence to show how the wall was expropriating yet more Palestinian land and separating Palestinian communities from each other.
One picture Jamal showed us still breaks my heart: a middle-aged Palestinian farmer with a tear trickling down his cheek. The olive grove he had inherited from his father had just been bulldozed to make way for the wall. He had not only lost his livelihood; he had also been unable to protect his family's trust, the symbol of everything that had gone into making them Palestinian.
Now Jamal is in jail. Israel's occupation army detained him on 16 December. After interrogating him, they brought him back home, handcuffed and searched his house while his wife and three children watched. Then they took him off to prison.
......Jamal is the third anti-wall activist to be arrested in the last few months. Their arrest is an Israeli acknowledgement of their success, at great personal cost.
Civil resistance has spread widely throughout the occupied territories, in spite of Israel's attempts to crush it. On 9 November, the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, protesters managed for the first time to topple a few of the wall's massive concrete panels.....
Moreover, the Stop the Wall Campaign made a strategic decision to link to the movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. The first Stop the Wall activist to be arrested was Mohammad Othman on his return from Norway...
Omar Barghouti, a founder of the academic boycott movement, says that Israeli analysis of the impact of BDS has changed after "academic and commercial organizations started feeling the heat and demanding action."
He sees Israel's latest arrests as a test. "Either we meet this challenge and the world supports our right to civil resistance, or they will intensify their repression of all human rights defenders. If they can get away with arresting civil society leaders that are clearly committed to nonviolence, then everyone's at risk."... Full story
Israeli forces 'deliberately let him bleed to death'
Samouni family membersMa'an
Part nine of a series recounting the findings of South African jurist Richard Goldstone's UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict.
On 4 January 2009, one year ago today, Iyad Samouni, his wife, and five children were together with about 40 other members of their extended family in the house of Asaad Samouni, a relative.
At around 1am, they heard noise on the roof. At about 5am, Israeli soldiers walked down the stairs from the roof, knocked on the door, and entered the house. They asked for Hamas fighters. The residents replied that there were none.
Stationing themselves in the house, soldiers separated women, children and the elderly from the men. Iyad and all the other men were forced into a separate room, blindfolded and bound with plastic handcuffs. They were allowed to use the bathroom only after one of the men urinated on himself.
The next morning, Iyad and everyone in Asaad’s house walked out and down Al-Samouni Street to take Salah Ad-Din Street in the direction of Gaza City. They had been instructed by the soldiers to walk directly there without stopping or diverting from the direct route. The men were still handcuffed and the soldiers had told them that they would be shot if they attempted to remove the handcuffs.
On Salah Ad-Din Street, a single or several of the Israeli soldiers opened fire positioned on the roofs of houses. Iyad was struck in the leg and fell to the ground. Muhammad Asaad Samouni, who was walking immediately behind him, moved to help him, but an Israeli soldier on a rooftop ordered him to walk on. When he saw the red point of a laser beam on his body and understood that an Israeli soldier had taken aim at him, he desisted.
The Israeli soldiers also fired warning shots at Muhammad Samouni’s father to prevent him from assisting Iyad to get back on his feet. Iyad’s wife and children were prevented from helping him by further warning shots.
Fawzi Arafat, who was part of another group walking from the Al-Samouni neighborhood to Gaza City, said he saw Iyad lying on the ground, his hands shackled with white plastic handcuffs, blood pouring from the wounds in his legs, begging for help. Arafat stated that he yelled at an Israeli soldier “we want to evacuate the wounded man.” The soldier, however, pointed his gun at Iyad’s wife and children and ordered them to move on without him.
The final report produced by South African jurist Richard Goldstone's UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict notes that witnesses who spoke about Iyad "appeared to be profoundly traumatized by the recollection of his pleading for help from his wife, children and relatives...
Iyad’s family and relatives were forced to abandon him and continue to walk toward Gaza City. At Ash-Shifa hospital they reported his case and those of the other dead and wounded left behind. Representatives of the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) told them that the Israeli armed forces were not permitting them to access the area.
Salah Samouni, who was part of a group up ahead of Iyad's, said that "they were handcuffed, and one of them was hit with a bullet in the foot and he profused [sic] blood for three days until he met with his end."
A PRCS staff member told the UN mission that three days later, on 8 January 2009, medics were granted permission by Israeli armed forces through the International Committee of the Red Cross to evacuate Iyad. The PRCS staff member found him on the ground on Salah Ad-Din Street in the place described by his relatives. He was still handcuffed. He had been shot in both legs and had bled to death..... Full story
Settler tunnel causes another road collapse in Silwan, East Jerusalem
Endangered Palestinian kindergarteners ask for helpPalSolidarity
At around 4pm, on Saturday 2 January 2010 part of a main road in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Silwan collapsed. The section of road runs above tunneling work carried out by the Elad settler organisation. Despite the road collapsing in the mid-afternoon, it was not until 8pm that Israeli police arrived at the scene, after an Israeli bus serving the settler population drove into the hole in the road.
Silwan is a Palestinian village on the hills south of the Old City of Jerusalem, captured in 1967 by the Israeli army. It is one of several neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem where the Israeli state and settler organisations are forcing Palestinians from their homes. Almost 90 houses in the area are currently threatened with demolition, potentially displacing 1,000 – 1,500 residents and no construction permits have been issued for Palestinians in the area since 1967. Excavation works represent another threat to Palestinian residents; literally undermining their homes.
Tunneling by the Elad settler organisation, which also runs the ‘City of David’ tourist site in Silwan, has been frequently criticised for undermining the Palestinian neighbourhood. Elad director David Be’eri was filmed admitting that his excavations are carried out under people’s houses. He described the excavation method in which “we built from the top down” and “everything’s standing in the air” [due to the removal of fill]....
Land located under people’s houses is considered their property under Israeli law, and digging in densely populated areas without the permission of property owners is therefore illegal. Despite this, ‘archaeological’ digging continues throughout the Old City and its surroundings with the complicity of Israeli authorities, police and courts. Also in the tape mentioned above, made about a year ago, the founding head of Elad, David Be’eri, says: “At a certain point we came to court. The judge approached me and said, ‘you’re digging under their houses.’ I said ‘I’m digging under their houses? King David dug under their houses. I’m just cleaning.’ He said to me, ‘Clean as much as possible.’ Since then, we’re just cleaning; we’re not digging.”
Less than six months ago a large part of the same road gave way meters from the most recent collapse. Local people say they are concerned that their homes may also collapse in the future...
... A Palestinian kindergarten opened in 1990 is located directly next to the opening of the tunnel. In recent months several large cracks have appeared in the building. Classes were affected by today’s road collapse. Several children protested the undermining of their school and the whole area... Full story
Two 16-year-olds from Bil’in arrested in order to testify against Popular Committee member still held by Israeli military
PalSolidarity
...arrested on 29 December 2009 during a night raid on the West Bank village, are still being held by the Israeli military.
...arrested on 29 December 2009 during a night raid on the West Bank village, are still being held by the Israeli military.
The boys were arrested at 2am on Tuesday, 29 December 2009, when the Israeli army, composed of a number of military jeeps and approximately 50 soldiers on foot, invaded the village and raided their houses. They are still being held by the military, while their relatives are being kept in the dark as of when they will be released and the legal reasons for their detention.
The only explanation given by the Israeli authorities was that they detained Hamouda and Khalil in order to ensure their presence as witnesses at a hearing with Mohammad Khatib, member of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, that was scheduled to take place later that day, 29 December 2009 at the Ofer military prison. He is charged with stone throwing, incitement and providing service to an unpermitted group. In a previous court hearing, the judge found the evidence presented to support the stone throwing charge to be falsified as it emerged that photographs shown of Mohammad Khatib allegedly throwing stones were taken on a day when he was abroad....... Full story
US citizen held in Israeli prisons for over two weeks
PalSolidarity
Israeli authorities continue to detain Ryan Olander... who was illegally arrested on 18 December 2009 for his support of Palestinian families evicted from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah.
Minnesota resident Ryan Olander is facing deportation after being held in Israeli prisons for over two weeks...
Ryan Olander was arrested from a tent the Palestinian al-Kurd family built in their own backyard following a recent setter take-over of a section of their house. He was drinking tea and talking to the family members when six Israeli police walked into the tent and took him for questioning at the Russian Compound police station in west Jerusalem. Despite being released without charges the following day, Ryan was illegally re-arrested by immigration police only a few moments later, right outside of the same police station that told him he was free to go.
.....During the time Ryan Olander spent in Israeli prisons, the residents of Sheikh Jarrah in Occupied East Jerusalem have been subjected to further harassment and violence from the Israeli settlers and their supporters who recently took over the houses of several Palestinian families:
- 21 December 2009: An attack of about 40 settlers throwing stones at the Ftyaney family house left the Palestinians with two broken windows and fear of future attacks.
- 23 December 2009: Several hours of settler harassment following a Christmas celebration in Sheikh Jarrah included spray-painting ‘Death to Arabs’ in Hebrew, throwing fruit at Palestinians sitting in front of occupied al-Kurd house, violently pushing Palestinian residents and international activists, spray-painting one in her face.
- 25 December 2009: Around 30 settlers attacked the Palestinian Sabbagh family, breaking into their house and injuring seven family members. Two of the injured were cut with a knife and a pregnant woman, who was kicked in her stomach, had to be taken to hospital. Another family member was hit in the face and had a gun pointed at her.
- 26 December 2009: A group of settlers attacked Palestinians from the neighbourhood with stones. Three children and one adult were injured as result, and a French man who took pictures of the episode was violently attacked by a settler.
- 2 January 2010: A Palestinian woman, Nadia al-Kurd (65), had to be hospitalised with respiratory problems after being attacked by a settler in her own garden.
Background on Sheikh Jarrah
Approximately 475 Palestinian residents living in the Karm Al-Ja’ouni neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, located directly north of the Old City, face imminent eviction from their homes in the manner of the Hannoun and Gawi families, and the al-Kurd family before them. All 28 families are refugees from 1948, mostly from West Jerusalem and Haifa, whose houses in Sheikh Jarrah were built and given to them through a joint project between the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the Jordanian government in 1956.....
......The ultimate goal of the settler organizations is to evict all Palestinians from the area and turn it into a new Jewish settlement and to create a Jewish continuum that will effectively cut off the Old City form the northern Palestinian neighborhoods. .....
Implanting new Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank is illegal under many international laws, including Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention...
Legal background... Full story
Palestinian woman hospitalised following settler attack in Sheikh Jarrah
PalSolidarity - Jan. 2
Nadia al-Kurd, from Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in Jerusalem was taken to hospital today after being attacked by an Israeli settler in her own garden.
At around 2pm, Nadia al-Kurd, 65, was violently pushed by a settler in an unprovoked attack. The settler, one of those currently occupying her neighbours’ house, forced open the gate of her garden, pushing Nadia to the ground... Full story
Anti-wall activists rally outside prison
Ma'an
Anti-wall activists demonstrated outside Israel’s Ofer Prison near the West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday to demand the release of detained activist Jamal Juma to concide with the convening of his military court hearing.
Jamal Juma, 47, the coordinator of the Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall campaign was detained on 16 December 2009 without being charged...
.........Juma, a high profile human rights defender and activist, was detained in the recent wave of Israeli arrests against Palestinian and pro-Palestinian activists across the West Bank..... Juma’s “arrest is part of an Israeli campaign to break the growing civil resistance movement.”
In addition to Juma, other prominent civil society activists including Bil’in’s Abdallah Abu Rahmeh and boycott advocate Mohammed Othman have been detained by Israel. Full story
Anti-wall activists demonstrated outside Israel’s Ofer Prison near the West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday to demand the release of detained activist Jamal Juma to concide with the convening of his military court hearing.
Jamal Juma, 47, the coordinator of the Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall campaign was detained on 16 December 2009 without being charged...
.........Juma, a high profile human rights defender and activist, was detained in the recent wave of Israeli arrests against Palestinian and pro-Palestinian activists across the West Bank..... Juma’s “arrest is part of an Israeli campaign to break the growing civil resistance movement.”
In addition to Juma, other prominent civil society activists including Bil’in’s Abdallah Abu Rahmeh and boycott advocate Mohammed Othman have been detained by Israel. Full story
Israeli forces detain 6 civilians near Hebron
Ma'anIsraeli forces detained six Palestinian civilians in Hebron and the Al-Arrub refugee camp early on Monday morning...
Israeli forces raided the camp Hebron and stormed houses, detaining four civilians: Khaled Al-Badawi, 22, Rami At-Titti, 25, Muayyad At-Titti, 26, and Abdul Fattah Abu Wardeh, 22.
Soldiers also detained two other civilians in Hebron city. They were not immediately identified... Full story
Israeli forces detain 3 Palestinians in Jenin
Ma'an
Israeli forces stormed the eastern neighborhood of Jenin and detained three Palestinians after raiding their homes early on Monday morning.......
Witnesses at the scene said that Israeli forces further raided the home of Jenin's former mayor... Full story
Galloway Gaza convoy leaves Syria
Ma'an
A British-led aid convoy bound for the Gaza Strip is on its way to the Egyptian port of Al-Arish after departing Syria by boat, organizers said on Sunday.
The Viva Palestina convoy, led in part by firebrand British MP George Galloway, loaded 210 truckloads of food and medical supplies onto a ferry in the Syrian port of Latakia.
The group, which set out from London nearly a month ago and drove through Turkey and Syria, spent five days stranded in Jordan after Egypt denied it permission to travel to the Red Sea port of Nuweiba, insisting that aid convoys should transit through the port of Al-Arish, on the Mediterranean.
The convoy had originally planned to enter Gaza on 27 December, the one-year anniversary of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip which left more than 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead.
.........Another group, the Gaza Freedom March, also faced opposition from Egyptian authorities with a plan to bring 1,300 international demonstrators to the Strip for a march against the Israeli-led blockade. Fewer than 100 from the group were allowed into Gaza, the rest stranded in Cairo.
...Israel has maintained a siege of Gaza since June 2007 when the elected Hamas government took full control of the territory, shutting down security forces loyal to rival group Fatah. Full sstory
A British-led aid convoy bound for the Gaza Strip is on its way to the Egyptian port of Al-Arish after departing Syria by boat, organizers said on Sunday.
The Viva Palestina convoy, led in part by firebrand British MP George Galloway, loaded 210 truckloads of food and medical supplies onto a ferry in the Syrian port of Latakia.
The group, which set out from London nearly a month ago and drove through Turkey and Syria, spent five days stranded in Jordan after Egypt denied it permission to travel to the Red Sea port of Nuweiba, insisting that aid convoys should transit through the port of Al-Arish, on the Mediterranean.
The convoy had originally planned to enter Gaza on 27 December, the one-year anniversary of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip which left more than 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead.
.........Another group, the Gaza Freedom March, also faced opposition from Egyptian authorities with a plan to bring 1,300 international demonstrators to the Strip for a march against the Israeli-led blockade. Fewer than 100 from the group were allowed into Gaza, the rest stranded in Cairo.
...Israel has maintained a siege of Gaza since June 2007 when the elected Hamas government took full control of the territory, shutting down security forces loyal to rival group Fatah. Full sstory
PFLP: Peace talks are an 'endless maze'
Ma'an
....The secular PFLP has joined Islamists historically in opposing the peace process with Israel, which it sees as slanted toward coaxing Palestinians to make more concessions.
The group called on the international community, “if they are interested in justice and peace, move responsibly and urgently to lift the siege of Gaza and rebuild tens of thousands of homes and establishments and release thousands of prisoners from Israeli jails.”
..........The PFLP also warned that Israel’s intention is to impose a Palestinian state with temporary borders through a process of eviscerating Palestinians’ political, geographic and social cohesion.
“Returning to an endless, so-called peace process became an end in itself for US diplomacy,” the Front said.
Negotiations, the PFLP said, “will bring more disappointment, loss of dignity and violations of rights.” Full story
....The secular PFLP has joined Islamists historically in opposing the peace process with Israel, which it sees as slanted toward coaxing Palestinians to make more concessions.
The group called on the international community, “if they are interested in justice and peace, move responsibly and urgently to lift the siege of Gaza and rebuild tens of thousands of homes and establishments and release thousands of prisoners from Israeli jails.”
..........The PFLP also warned that Israel’s intention is to impose a Palestinian state with temporary borders through a process of eviscerating Palestinians’ political, geographic and social cohesion.
“Returning to an endless, so-called peace process became an end in itself for US diplomacy,” the Front said.
Negotiations, the PFLP said, “will bring more disappointment, loss of dignity and violations of rights.” Full story
Daily Situation Report: Jan. 2, 2010
PMG
Israeli actions on Palestinian Territories (West Bank & Gaza)
Israeli actions on Palestinian Territories (West Bank & Gaza)
- Arrest (per person) — 1 Detentions 19 — 19 Incl. 5 civilian women abused verbally
- Raids – 20 Incl. 5 in Hebron & 4 in Tulkarm
- Checkpoints — 10 Access impeded at 5 checkpoints
- Flying Checkpoints — 37 Incl. 10 in Nablus & 6 in Qalqiliya
- Attacks – 4, 3 in confrontations & 1 in a raid
- Provocation of Pal. Forces — 1 Position troops near Custom Police
- House Occupation — 1 Roof of building converted into post
- Destruction of Property — 1 Road collapses from digging tunnels
- Wall Construction — — — Suspended for the weekend
- Closure (per District) — 7 Jer., Beth. (2 villages) & Hebron (4 areas)
- Closure of Main Roads — 38 Incl. 3 in Salfit & 3 in Ramallah
- Closure of Crossing Points — 6 Only Rafah open on exceptional basis
- Settler Violence — 3 Incl. level land to seize it in Salfit district
- Demonstration — 1 Against settler violence & to allow farming Full report
Sunday, January 3, 2010
A Précis of Israeli Violations during the Year 2009
PMC
The main Israeli violations during the year 2009:
1-The Judaization of Jerusalem:
90 Palestinian Jerusalemite houses were demolished under the pretext built without obtaining the required Israeli permissions, leaving the inhabitants without any shelter; the Palestinian owners of 18 houses were forced to demolish the houses by their own hands.
11,000 Palestinian Jerusalemite houses in the Occupied Jerusalem are under the threat of demolition because of the aforementioned pretext. The Israeli Authorities isn’t revealing the actual number of the houses to be demolished in order not to provoke the International point of view. The last 9 demolitions orders were against 9 Palestinian houses and a mosque in Jabal Al-Mokaber neighborhood near the Occupied Jerusalem city.
After an Israeli formal green light, Israeli extremist settlers had expropriated tens of the Palestinian Jerusalemite houses; the Palestinian owners were expelled out under the threaten of weapon.
Being protected by the Israeli police, Israeli extremist groups broke into Muslim and Christian religious places... ...2 Israeli extremist Jews conducted 2 attempts to break into Al-Aqsa mosque compound during the Fajer (dawn) prayer to commit massacres amongst the Palestinian Muslim worshippers.
The Israeli police prevented the access of Palestinian religious and political leaders to Al-Aqsa mosque compound for different periods of time.
The Israeli Authorities has continued its excavations under Al-Aqsa mosque compound to open more tunnels and tie it together, endangering the foundations of the Mosque and the area around, and resulting the collapse of the ground of a school belonging to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
The Israeli ministry of Interior prevented all the PNA activities and events celebrating Jerusalem as the Capital of Arab Culture 2009, by suppressing the Palestinian Jerusalemites’ participation.
...Israeli authorities plan to build 900 new settling units in Gilo settlement and another 3500 settling units in E1 Area to the east of Occupied Jerusalem city.
The Israeli authorities has begun the construction of a Light Railway (20 km long) inside the Occupied Jerusalem Palestinian neighborhoods, confiscating more of the Palestinian lands to ease the movement of more than 100 thousands Israeli Settlers. The Israeli Authorities also approved plans to construct a railway connecting the Occupied Jerusalem city with Tel Aviv. The railway will pass through a number of Palestinian villages located northwest of the Occupied Jerusalem city, particularly Beit Iksa and Beit Surik, confiscating 50 dunums (1 Acer = 4 dunums) of the Palestinian lands.
...the Israeli Ministry of Interior stripped 4,577 Palestinian Jerusalemites of their right to live in East Jerusalem during the year 2008.
...........Israeli extremist settlers groups stole historical blocks of stone from AL-Aqsa Mosque, parts from Islamic Omayyad Palaces and located near the southern wall of the holy Mosque, and put one of them in front of the Israeli Knesset (parliament) building in the Occupied Jerusalem.
By the time, the Israeli Authorities converted Bab Al-Rahmah “Mercy Gate” Muslim cemetery (1800m2 area) into a recreational biblical public park, Muslim corpses and bones are exhumed from at least 350 Historical Islamic graves in Ma'man Allah 'God's Safe Place' cemetery in the Occupied Jerusalem city. The Israeli Municipality has planned to establish a museum on the land of the cemetery, which will be named the "Tolerance Museum".
2-Gaza
During the period 2008-2009, 5000 Palestinian houses in Gaza Strip were demolished by the Israeli Armory; for the second consecutive year, tens of thousands Gazian families are still living in tents on the wreckage of their demolished houses. 1.5 million people are being denied their basic rights, including freedom of movement, and their rights to appropriate living conditions, work, health and education. The Living conditions of the Palestinian Gazian families have seriously deteriorated; the level of unemployment has sharply mounted to 70% and poverty to 80%.
The number of the Palestinian patients that passed away due to being denied Israeli permissions to cross Gaza borders for further treatment abroad, escalated to 329.
3-Willful Killings & Wounds:
During the year 2009, 1061 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli troops (85% were Palestinian citizens, 40% of whom were children and women), including 395 children, 112 women, 3 journalists, , and 20 paramedics.
About 4810 Palestinian citizens were wounded, including 2773 children.
January 2009 was the bloodiest month, due to the Israeli Aggression against Gaza Strip, in which Israel had employed it’s full-fledged arsenal to attack Palestinian populated areas, ambulances, medics, universities, mosques, and schools...
4- The Israeli Settling:
During the year 2009, the Israeli Occupation confiscated 156560 dunums; 151,000 dunums were confiscated to expand Ma’aleh Adomim and Kidar settlements near to the Occupied Jerusalem city, and another 5,500 dunums were confiscated in different Palestinian areas.
The IOA issued military orders No. (S/03/09) and (S/06/09) to close 45,000 dunums in Hebron district and 3,000 dunums in Yatta town /Hebron, thus, preventing the Palestinian owners’ access to the land so as to cultivate it.
Israeli extremist settlers uprooted and burnt 1400 fruitful trees and more than 2,000 dunums of land planted with winter crops in Nablus city.
The IOA constructed 800 new settling units, and established a new settlement under the name “Sinsinah” on Palestinian lands near to Hebron city; 440 new settling units will be built to be inhabited by 2,500 Israeli settlers.
The Israeli Occupation Authorities intend to construct 104 new settling units, a synagogue and swimming pool in Ras Al-Amoud neighborhood near the Occupied Jerusalem. The land was confiscated from Palestinian families in the past for the sake of the Israeli Occupation police General Headquarters.
5- The Palestinian Prisoners:
More than 7,500 Palestinian and Arab prisoners, including 337 children, 36 female, 326 administrative prisoners, and 1,500 sick prisoners, are still suffering of visits deprivation, isolation, and medical negligence.
During the year 2009, the IOA detained 4294 Palestinian citizens, 10% of whom were children.
Another 2000 Palestinian co-workers were detained during the Israeli police chasing campaigns against the Palestinian co-workers under the pretext working in Israel without obtaining the required permissions. Tens of whom were sentenced, while others were fined with vast penalties.
6- Palestinian Journalists Preferred Targets For Israel:
During 2009, 3 Palestinian journalists were killed, and tens were wounded during the IOA aggression against Gaza Strip.
The IOA closed Radio Bethlehem 2000; tens of Palestinian journalists were detained during covering different incidents in the Occupied Jerusalem and the peaceful manifestations against the AW.
7- Houses Demolition:
4000 Gazian houses were demolished ... about 100,000 families were left without any shelter except the hospitals and schools, which were also targeted by the IOA bombardment.
29 educational institutions, 10 sports clubs, 5 press agencies, 50 mosques and 1500 industrial and commercial establishments, were completely destroyed, while the 3 Gazian churches were partially destroyed. Full story
Saturday, January 2, 2010
A look back at "Break the Bones" Policy
A news report from about 1988:
Israel Declines to Study Rabin Tie to Beatings
New York Times - July 12, 1990
Israel's Parliament decided today not to investigate charges that former Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin [later Prime Minister] ordered soldiers to break the bones of Arab militants at the beginning of the Palestinian uprising...
Israel Declines to Study Rabin Tie to Beatings
New York Times - July 12, 1990
Israel's Parliament decided today not to investigate charges that former Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin [later Prime Minister] ordered soldiers to break the bones of Arab militants at the beginning of the Palestinian uprising...
.....Soldiers testifying at Colonel Meir's trial said Mr. Rabin and other senior commanders told them privately that beatings should be used to punish Arabs known to be troublemakers.
...a company commander under Colonel Meir, testified in April that he was told by Colonel Meir to ''break the arms and legs'' of Arabs ''because the detention camps are full.'' Full story
Barak eases freeze, okays 100 more units
Ma'an
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak gave settlement leaders the power to issue building permits, further relaxing an already loose and unenforced moratorium applying to some construction in West Bank settlements.
Israel's daily newspaper Haaretz reported Friday that Barak issued a "revised" version of the settlement freeze that "dictates that the planning powers be returned to local authorities."
... the practical outcome will be that once the freeze is over, the paperwork to permit the construction of what could be thousands of settlement homes will already be in order, so building can start immediately.
The revised order also permits the expansion of existing structures, such as adding rooms, turning garages and balconies into closed rooms. This expanded the earlier relaxation, applied only three weeks after the initial ban was put in place, allowing for more minor renovations and construction.
The announcement came the same day Israel's Ma'ariv newspaper published a plan that okayed the construction of an additional 100 housing units in East Jerusalem settlements. Full story
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak gave settlement leaders the power to issue building permits, further relaxing an already loose and unenforced moratorium applying to some construction in West Bank settlements.
Israel's daily newspaper Haaretz reported Friday that Barak issued a "revised" version of the settlement freeze that "dictates that the planning powers be returned to local authorities."
... the practical outcome will be that once the freeze is over, the paperwork to permit the construction of what could be thousands of settlement homes will already be in order, so building can start immediately.
The revised order also permits the expansion of existing structures, such as adding rooms, turning garages and balconies into closed rooms. This expanded the earlier relaxation, applied only three weeks after the initial ban was put in place, allowing for more minor renovations and construction.
The announcement came the same day Israel's Ma'ariv newspaper published a plan that okayed the construction of an additional 100 housing units in East Jerusalem settlements. Full story
Army orders 'did not include instructions to kill'
Ma'an
An army unit that assassinated three Fatah members during a night operation in Nablus was under orders to "carry out a raid and capture the wanted men," the Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Saturday.
"The orders did not include instructions to kill any of the three wanted men. The senior officers who spoke with Haaretz stressed that the soldiers were not given any verbal instructions that were different from those in writing," according to the report.
The attack infuriated Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah, particularly security officials who had already detained 150 people the day before on suspicion of involvement in the shooting death of a settler, the incident thought to have sparked the retaliatory raid. "Israel trades in Palestinian life as if it were worthless," said chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat in response to the bloodshed.
Family members and witnesses told Ma'an that the men, Raed Sarakji, 38, Ghassan Abu Sharkh, 39, Anan Subih, 33, were extra-judicially assassinated, echoing the results of an investigation conducted by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), which concluded they "were executed in cold blood."
Sarkaji's wife, Tahani, 38, on Wednesday took Ma'an's correspondent through her home, recounting the assassination step by step. She pointed out chunks of walls and doors taken out by gunshots and what she suspected was some kind of explosive used to burst through the front gate. Dozens of bullet holes riddled the walls, doors, ceiling, mirrors and windows both inside and outside the bedroom where her husband died.
"That's blood," she explained, pointing toward the ceiling. "From when they sprayed his corpse with bullets. Our daughter saw that."
Tahani and Raed were asleep when Israeli soldiers burst into the home yelling "get out, get out," she said, insisting that her husband told the soldiers he would leave voluntarily, but that they opened fire anyway. "He fell between my hands bleeding. ... Then soldiers broke the door and got in. He was already dead, but they continued to riddle his body with bullets to make sure he was killed."
Haaretz quoted an Israeli military officer who was there. "The wanted man came out of the room and realized that it was the army, and rushed back inside," the officer said. "The force commander called to his soldiers to make sure he did not have a weapon. Several minutes later he came out again, behind his wife. His hands were hidden. The soldiers called out to him repeatedly, in Arabic, to lift his hands, and he did not do so. There was little choice. The threat to the soldiers was just too great," the officer added.
"No matter what they tell you, no matter what, I swear we were sleeping when this happened," Tahani insisted, although the military never actually alleged that her husband resisted arrest, nor that weapons of any kind were found in the house after they killed him. "Do we look like terrorists? This is a family living here, kids living here," she added, surrounded by children and cousins preparing lunch.
"We want peace," Tahani said. "I really don't know how many more times I can say it: we want peace."
Haaretz reported that the army's Duvdevan commando unit received its orders late on Christmas night, several hours before it stormed the northern West Bank city. Conceding that even according to the military two of the men were unarmed and none attempted to flee, the report states, "An evaluation of the testimonies of family members and the IDF officers suggests that this was not an operation to assassinate."
"But it is difficult not to wonder how two unarmed men, nearly 40 years old, sleeping in bed near their children and not behaving as wanted men, were killed without even having attempted to escape," the author notes. "It appears that, like in many other operations of this sort, the reality on the ground, and especially early intelligence on the three suspects [that they were dangerous], predetermined the result of the operation."
In fact, however, similar results of operations of this sort are rare. The Israeli military's version of events, in which all three of the supposed arrest targets were killed "as they refused to surrender," stands in contrast to most outcomes of the army's nightly house raids in the West Bank, which typically end without violence.
Statistically, if Israel's explanation were accurate, the unintentional deaths of three targets in a single night would be an unprecedented coincidence. In the month preceding Saturday's killings, the army invaded Nablus district and detained Palestinians on at least 29 occasions. In none of these operations was a soldier or Palestinian seriously injured, even when the incursion was accompanied by clashes.
On the night of 8 December, for example, Israeli forces detained 10 Palestinians in five Nablus-area locales. No injuries were reported, even though soldiers reported finding guns and ammunition in one of the homes. On 13 December, Israeli forces stormed Nablus and detained an elderly woman from her home, as well as two teenagers allegedly found to be in possession of explosives near a checkpoint. Again, no injuries. Clashes accompanied a raid outside of Nablus on 28 November, when another teenager was arrested, but no one was hurt. This was despite that the army reportedly opened fire during the operation.
Other such incidents included the abductions of three teenage boys at a Nablus checkpoint on 9 December, nine Palestinians from Nablus on 16 December, at least one from a Nablus-area refugee camp on 25 December, and a night raid on a Nablus home on 14 December. None of these resulted in injury, either.
In contrast with each of these incursions in and around Nablus over the past month and hundreds of others elsewhere in the West Bank that ended without incident, early last Saturday, in three separate "arrest raids" in three separate neighborhoods, all three of the army's intended targets managed to die. Full story
Gaza police - legitimate targets or targeted civilians?
Ma'an
Part six of a series recounting the findings of South African jurist Richard Goldstone's UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict.
Jerusalem — Ma'an — As Israel's massive air assault entered its sixth consecutive day on New Year's Day one year ago, some 410 Gazans were dead and as many as 2,000 injured.
Among 70 airstrikes on 40 targets on 1 January 2009 was a police command center in Rafah, the then-latest security site to be leveled. No one was hurt in that attack, but 248 members of the Gaza police were killed during Israel's overall assault. By late January 2009, more than one out of every six casualties was a member of the de facto government's security forces.
On the same day, Gaza police spokesperson Islam Shahwan announced to the media that police commanders had managed to hold three meetings at secret locations since the beginning of the assault.
Shahwan added that "an action plan has been put forward, and we have conducted an assessment of the situation and a general alert has been declared by the police and among the security forces in case of any emergency or a ground invasion. Police officers received clear orders from the leadership to face the enemy, if the Gaza Strip were to be invaded."
This statement has become key to supporters of what they view was Israel's right to target police during its assault. "Except for the statements of the police spokesperson, the Israel Government has presented no other basis on which a presumption can be made against the overall civilian nature of the police in Gaza," noted South African jurist Richard Goldstone's UN inquiry into the assault.
His team sought clarification from the police spokesperson, who responded that he had been correctly quoted, except that the instructions given at that meeting were to the effect that in the event of a ground invasion, and particularly if Israeli forces were to enter urban areas in Gaza, police were to continue their work of ensuring basic food stuffs reached the population, of directing the population to safe places, and of upholding public order in the face of the invasion.
Shahwan further stated that not a single policeman had been killed in combat during the armed operations, proving that the instructions had been strictly obeyed by the policemen, according to the final report of the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict.
After an exhaustive explanation of its findings on the matter, the report concludes that the official's statement "cannot, on its own, justify the assertion that the police were part and parcel of the armed forces," noting that the remarks came days after the main attacks on police forces were carried out on 27 December 2008.
The general rule of international humanitarian law is that members of law-enforcement agencies are considered part of the civilian population, unless they have been incorporated into the armed forces of a party to the conflict.
"The obligation to distinguish at all times between the civilian population and combatants and to direct attacks only against military objectives (the principle of distinction) therefore generally prohibits attacks against members of the law-enforcement agencies," the Goldstone report states. "This principle is accepted by the Israeli Government."
...............Goldstone's report states that ..... the policemen killed cannot be considered to have been combatants by virtue of their membership in the police."
...............Regarding specifically the attack on the police headquarters in Gaza, the report notes that in all likelihood, the policemen killed there "were neither engaged in any military activity at the time of the attacks nor carrying out preparations for combat." Full story
Part six of a series recounting the findings of South African jurist Richard Goldstone's UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict.
Jerusalem — Ma'an — As Israel's massive air assault entered its sixth consecutive day on New Year's Day one year ago, some 410 Gazans were dead and as many as 2,000 injured.
Among 70 airstrikes on 40 targets on 1 January 2009 was a police command center in Rafah, the then-latest security site to be leveled. No one was hurt in that attack, but 248 members of the Gaza police were killed during Israel's overall assault. By late January 2009, more than one out of every six casualties was a member of the de facto government's security forces.
On the same day, Gaza police spokesperson Islam Shahwan announced to the media that police commanders had managed to hold three meetings at secret locations since the beginning of the assault.
Shahwan added that "an action plan has been put forward, and we have conducted an assessment of the situation and a general alert has been declared by the police and among the security forces in case of any emergency or a ground invasion. Police officers received clear orders from the leadership to face the enemy, if the Gaza Strip were to be invaded."
This statement has become key to supporters of what they view was Israel's right to target police during its assault. "Except for the statements of the police spokesperson, the Israel Government has presented no other basis on which a presumption can be made against the overall civilian nature of the police in Gaza," noted South African jurist Richard Goldstone's UN inquiry into the assault.
His team sought clarification from the police spokesperson, who responded that he had been correctly quoted, except that the instructions given at that meeting were to the effect that in the event of a ground invasion, and particularly if Israeli forces were to enter urban areas in Gaza, police were to continue their work of ensuring basic food stuffs reached the population, of directing the population to safe places, and of upholding public order in the face of the invasion.
Shahwan further stated that not a single policeman had been killed in combat during the armed operations, proving that the instructions had been strictly obeyed by the policemen, according to the final report of the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict.
After an exhaustive explanation of its findings on the matter, the report concludes that the official's statement "cannot, on its own, justify the assertion that the police were part and parcel of the armed forces," noting that the remarks came days after the main attacks on police forces were carried out on 27 December 2008.
The general rule of international humanitarian law is that members of law-enforcement agencies are considered part of the civilian population, unless they have been incorporated into the armed forces of a party to the conflict.
"The obligation to distinguish at all times between the civilian population and combatants and to direct attacks only against military objectives (the principle of distinction) therefore generally prohibits attacks against members of the law-enforcement agencies," the Goldstone report states. "This principle is accepted by the Israeli Government."
...............Goldstone's report states that ..... the policemen killed cannot be considered to have been combatants by virtue of their membership in the police."
...............Regarding specifically the attack on the police headquarters in Gaza, the report notes that in all likelihood, the policemen killed there "were neither engaged in any military activity at the time of the attacks nor carrying out preparations for combat." Full story
Jordan asks Canada to seize stolen artifacts
Ma'an
Canada was asked to take custody of a series of scrolls and parchment fragments uncovered in the West Bank and currently on loan to Toronto from the Israel Antiquities Authority.
The ancient artifacts were seized from an East Jerusalem museum in 1967, when Israel occupied the West Bank and illegally annexed Jerusalem. Since the artifacts were uncovered while the area was under Jordanian control between 1948 and 1967, it is the Jordanian government that requested Canada step in and protect the artifacts.
.... Jordan cited the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, to which both Jordan and Canada are signatories. On that basis, Jordan asked that Canada keep the scrolls until the international court can determine their rightful owner.
.........Canada, as a signatory of the cited Hague convention, is legally required “to take into its custody cultural property imported into its territory either directly or indirectly from any occupied territory. This shall either be effected automatically upon the importation of the property or, failing this, at the request of the authorities of that territory.” Full story
Canada was asked to take custody of a series of scrolls and parchment fragments uncovered in the West Bank and currently on loan to Toronto from the Israel Antiquities Authority.
The ancient artifacts were seized from an East Jerusalem museum in 1967, when Israel occupied the West Bank and illegally annexed Jerusalem. Since the artifacts were uncovered while the area was under Jordanian control between 1948 and 1967, it is the Jordanian government that requested Canada step in and protect the artifacts.
.... Jordan cited the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, to which both Jordan and Canada are signatories. On that basis, Jordan asked that Canada keep the scrolls until the international court can determine their rightful owner.
.........Canada, as a signatory of the cited Hague convention, is legally required “to take into its custody cultural property imported into its territory either directly or indirectly from any occupied territory. This shall either be effected automatically upon the importation of the property or, failing this, at the request of the authorities of that territory.” Full story
Qalqiliya residents report settler attack, army harassment, theft
Ma'an
Brothers were attacked in their car by rock-throwing settlers near the Yakir settlement in the northern West Bank on Friday.
... injured when settlers threw stones at their car as they passed a junction serving the nearby settlement... one of the boys was in serious condition.
... were driving home from Ramallah at the time of the attack......
.........A Qalqiliya resident filed a suit Saturday, against Israeli border police he said stole his horse and handed it over to a kibbutz.
Sulaiman Ghannam from Suffin, east of Qalqiliya, said the incident began at midnight on Tuesday when several Israeli military jeeps entered the village. His property was among those targeted and soldiers entered the home after looking through his barns.
The soldiers asked about a horse in the barns, which Ghannam confirmed as his own.
“The soldiers left and came back minutes later saying they wanted to take the horse for checks,” Ghannam said. He was told he could go to Checkpoint 109 south of Qalqiliya the following day to ask about the animal.
The next morning, Ghannam said, “I headed to that checkpoint and soldiers asked me to wait.” He was questioned for an hour and a half, and asked to provide papers for the horse and proof that it was indeed his. According to Ghannam, he told the soldiers to get a blood sample from the horse so he could provide samples from its mother, still boarding at the family farm. “But they refused,” he said.
Ghannam said he also provided soldiers with vaccination records for the horse, but he was told they were not valid.
“At 10am, an Israeli woman came in a truck with an animal trailer attached and soldiers said it would be taken to a Kibbutz for further checks.”
Ghannam filed a suit through the Palestinian liaison department, but said he was told by his lawyer that he would not be able to get the horse back without sufficient proof of ownership. Full story
Brothers were attacked in their car by rock-throwing settlers near the Yakir settlement in the northern West Bank on Friday.
... injured when settlers threw stones at their car as they passed a junction serving the nearby settlement... one of the boys was in serious condition.
... were driving home from Ramallah at the time of the attack......
.........A Qalqiliya resident filed a suit Saturday, against Israeli border police he said stole his horse and handed it over to a kibbutz.
Sulaiman Ghannam from Suffin, east of Qalqiliya, said the incident began at midnight on Tuesday when several Israeli military jeeps entered the village. His property was among those targeted and soldiers entered the home after looking through his barns.
The soldiers asked about a horse in the barns, which Ghannam confirmed as his own.
“The soldiers left and came back minutes later saying they wanted to take the horse for checks,” Ghannam said. He was told he could go to Checkpoint 109 south of Qalqiliya the following day to ask about the animal.
The next morning, Ghannam said, “I headed to that checkpoint and soldiers asked me to wait.” He was questioned for an hour and a half, and asked to provide papers for the horse and proof that it was indeed his. According to Ghannam, he told the soldiers to get a blood sample from the horse so he could provide samples from its mother, still boarding at the family farm. “But they refused,” he said.
Ghannam said he also provided soldiers with vaccination records for the horse, but he was told they were not valid.
“At 10am, an Israeli woman came in a truck with an animal trailer attached and soldiers said it would be taken to a Kibbutz for further checks.”
Ghannam filed a suit through the Palestinian liaison department, but said he was told by his lawyer that he would not be able to get the horse back without sufficient proof of ownership. Full story
Israeli jets pound targets across Gaza
M
a'anIsrael's air force bombed at least two sites in the Gaza Strip shortly after midnight on Saturday, an official said.
...Israeli F16 fighter jets targeted an open area east of the Shuja’iyya neighborhood of Gaza City while military tanks launched several artillery shells at the Shuja’iyya and Tuffah neighborhoods simultaneously.
Israeli warplanes also fired three missiles at an open area in Jabal Ar-Ra'is east of Gaza City and targeted another open area east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
Other airstrikes targeted the town of Izbat Abed Rabbo in the northern Gaza Strip as well as the village of Al-Qarara east of Khan Younis...
An Israeli military spokesman told Ma'an the strikes targeted "two terrorist tunnels" near the the Gaza-Israel border, which he said were intended for attacks on targets inside Israel. He added that the airstrikes came in retaliation for a mortar shell that was fired on the Israeli city of Netivot on Thursday, which caused no injuries...
A day earlier, residents of the Jabaliya Refugee Camp said Friday night explosions in the camp were caused by at least one Israeli shell that landed in an area believed to be used by guerillas to fire homemade projectiles into Israel...
Locals believed the explosions were Israeli fire in retaliation for mortar fire aimed at Israel earlier in the day....
Hours earlier, the PRC blamed Israel for an attempt to assassinate its secretary-general, Abu Al-Qasem Dughmush, in Gaza...
On Thursday, PRC militants engaged in an exchange of gunfire with Israeli soldiers along the coast in the northern Gaza Strip, according to both the group and the Israeli military. Full story
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