Maan News Agency - Israeli artillery fire killed three Palestinians and injured 40 others in a major escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, after an anti-take missile struck a school bus in Israel and injured two people, Palestinian and Israeli medical officials said.
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Thursday, April 7, 2011
Israeli troops storm Awarta village in West Bank after midnight, arrest over 100 women
Ma'an – Israeli troops stormed a Palestinian village early Thursday, arresting more than 100 women in what local officials said was part of the ongoing investigation into the murder of five settlers in March.
Hundreds of troops entered Awarta -- the village adjacent to Itamar, an illegal settlement where the murders took place -- shortly after midnight and imposed a curfew after which they began rounding up the women, local council head Tayis Awwad said.
Officials told Ma'an that men and women were taken in the raids, which involved house-to-house searches in the early morning. Some of the women, witnesses said, were in their 60s, and many were taken by force.
Soldiers continued to conduct house-to-house searches through the night, the officials added. Palestinian security sources confirmed the report.
This was the fourth intensive raid of the village where scores were detained, the first coming the day after an unidentified attacker stabbed to death five members of the Fogel family, including two children and an infant.
But Thursday's raid marked the first time they had arrested any women, Awwad said.
In the wake of the murders, Awarta has been the center of a massive manhunt. The village was put under military closure, and a curfew was imposed for five days between March 12 and 16. Some 40 men were detained during the closure, and since then two more mass roundups were reported.
Those detained have been questioned and subjected to DNA testing, officials said last week.
So far no one has been charged, with the military refusing to comment on the operation.
The Detainees’ Center in Nablus condemned the overnight arrest raid.
The mass detentions, a statement from the center said, were illegal and arbitrary and "go against the human rights of the residents."
Awarta was the second village put under closure overnight, with locals in the Tubas area saying the Israeli army, backed by military bulldozers, entered the village of Aqaba where two homes were demolished.
Hundreds of troops entered Awarta -- the village adjacent to Itamar, an illegal settlement where the murders took place -- shortly after midnight and imposed a curfew after which they began rounding up the women, local council head Tayis Awwad said.
Officials told Ma'an that men and women were taken in the raids, which involved house-to-house searches in the early morning. Some of the women, witnesses said, were in their 60s, and many were taken by force.
Soldiers continued to conduct house-to-house searches through the night, the officials added. Palestinian security sources confirmed the report.
This was the fourth intensive raid of the village where scores were detained, the first coming the day after an unidentified attacker stabbed to death five members of the Fogel family, including two children and an infant.
But Thursday's raid marked the first time they had arrested any women, Awwad said.
In the wake of the murders, Awarta has been the center of a massive manhunt. The village was put under military closure, and a curfew was imposed for five days between March 12 and 16. Some 40 men were detained during the closure, and since then two more mass roundups were reported.
Those detained have been questioned and subjected to DNA testing, officials said last week.
So far no one has been charged, with the military refusing to comment on the operation.
The Detainees’ Center in Nablus condemned the overnight arrest raid.
The mass detentions, a statement from the center said, were illegal and arbitrary and "go against the human rights of the residents."
Awarta was the second village put under closure overnight, with locals in the Tubas area saying the Israeli army, backed by military bulldozers, entered the village of Aqaba where two homes were demolished.
Israel demolishes Palestinian homes, roads in a West Bank village
Maan News Agency - Witnesses said six bulldozers and hundreds of soldiers were deployed throughout the Jordan Valley village of Aqrava on Thursday morning, when two homes and road entrances were taken down by Israeli forces.
Sami Sadeq, head of the village council, said two streets leading out of the village were torn up, effectively rendering them useless for travel, forcing residents to take long detours and exit via the main entrance of the village.
Sadeq said some 95 percent of the structures in the village have demolition orders issued on them, including the village's grand mosque, kindergarten and homes.
The bulldozing destroyed electricity poles at the entrance of the village, and the homes of Mohammad Hassen Subieh and Abed An-Naser Ahmad Subieh, the official said.
Israeli daily news site Ynet said the military and Civil Administration "destroyed 3 illegal Palestinian structures and two pathways in Jordan Valley," saying all were in an areas designated as a firing field.
The demolitions come as UN figures show a continued increase in home demolitions hit a record high during the first three months of 2011...
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Sami Sadeq, head of the village council, said two streets leading out of the village were torn up, effectively rendering them useless for travel, forcing residents to take long detours and exit via the main entrance of the village.
Sadeq said some 95 percent of the structures in the village have demolition orders issued on them, including the village's grand mosque, kindergarten and homes.
The bulldozing destroyed electricity poles at the entrance of the village, and the homes of Mohammad Hassen Subieh and Abed An-Naser Ahmad Subieh, the official said.
Israeli daily news site Ynet said the military and Civil Administration "destroyed 3 illegal Palestinian structures and two pathways in Jordan Valley," saying all were in an areas designated as a firing field.
The demolitions come as UN figures show a continued increase in home demolitions hit a record high during the first three months of 2011...
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Israel fires on Gaza, killing one
Maan News Agency - Israeli artillery fire killed an elderly Palestinian man and injured six others after a projectile fired from the Gaza Strip struck a school bus in southern Israel, injuring two people, medical and security officials said.
Witnesses said artillery fire injured four relatives of Mahmoud Al-Manasra, 50, who was killed when shells landed near his home in the Ash-Shuja’ya neighborhood of Gaza City.
Two people were injured after shells struck near the former Yasser Afarat International Airport in Rafah. Another round of shelling struck Khan Younis, but there were no reports of injury in that attack.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said that two people were injured, including a teenager, when an anti-take missile fired from the Gaza Strip struck a school bus in the Sdot Negev Regional Council.
There was no claim of responsibility for the projectile.
The strikes follow two sets of overnight air strikes, in which warplanes carried out three bombing missions targeting the southern Gaza Strip, and a forth on an area east of Gaza City, injuring one.
In the south, strikes targeted an area near the Rafah refugee camp, locally known as the Yebna camp, a second strike hit tunnels near the Salah Ad-Din area and a third in the Barazili neighborhood. The third strike saw one man injured by debris from the strike.
Medics said the man was transferred to the Abu Yousef An-Najjar Hospital in Rafah for treatment.
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Witnesses said artillery fire injured four relatives of Mahmoud Al-Manasra, 50, who was killed when shells landed near his home in the Ash-Shuja’ya neighborhood of Gaza City.
Two people were injured after shells struck near the former Yasser Afarat International Airport in Rafah. Another round of shelling struck Khan Younis, but there were no reports of injury in that attack.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said that two people were injured, including a teenager, when an anti-take missile fired from the Gaza Strip struck a school bus in the Sdot Negev Regional Council.
There was no claim of responsibility for the projectile.
The strikes follow two sets of overnight air strikes, in which warplanes carried out three bombing missions targeting the southern Gaza Strip, and a forth on an area east of Gaza City, injuring one.
In the south, strikes targeted an area near the Rafah refugee camp, locally known as the Yebna camp, a second strike hit tunnels near the Salah Ad-Din area and a third in the Barazili neighborhood. The third strike saw one man injured by debris from the strike.
Medics said the man was transferred to the Abu Yousef An-Najjar Hospital in Rafah for treatment.
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Video: Jen Marlow and the Jenin Freedom Theatre commemorate Juliano's Mer-Khamis' death
Dear friends,
Many of you may have already heard about the murder of Juliano Mer-Khamis. The co-founder and director of the Freedom Theatre in Jenin Refugee Camp, he was gunned down (five bullets to the head) this afternoon outside the theatre by an unknown assailant.
I first met Juliano in 2006, when I began working with a group of activists in New York to support the Freedom Theatre. I have visited the Freedom Theatre multiple times over the years, watching Juliano teach and direct young acting students. Most recently, I watched Juliano as he coached acting students three months ago, preparing for the much-acclaimed production of "Alice in Wonderland."
I have no words at this moment to describe Juliano, the work of the Freedom Theatre and the scope and scale of this horrific event, both for his family (Juliano leaves behind two children, one still a baby, and a pregnant wife), for the theatre, for the community in Jenin Refugee Camp and for Palestine as a whole.
I can only offer this video, which I made in collaboration with my colleagues in 'Friends of the Jenin Freedom Theatre'.
Please take a moment to watch Juliano, in his own words, as he talks about his vision for Palestine and how the Freedom Theatre is an integral part of that vision.
And please take a moment to share this video, to post it, to spread it.
Juliano was killed. But he has not been silenced.
With deep sadness,
Jen Marlowe
Humanitarian Interventionism by the Numbers
AntiWar - If there was any doubt about why the United States is involved in an increasingly messy military engagement in Libya, President Barack Obama cleared the air in his speech on March 29th. The US has no vital interest at stake but is involved in a humanitarian mission, to save innocent lives, akin to the Balkan enterprise of the 1990s. Other evidence provided by top administration officials suggests that the ultimate intention is to replace Muammar Gadhafi, in other words regime change, similar to the military action that removed Saddam Hussein from Iraq.
Obama could have made a plausible case for removing Gadhafi based on imminent threat. Gadhafi has been a major state supporter of terrorism, no doubt about it, and he did down both American and French commercial airliners in 1988 and 1989, resulting in major loss of life. He also ordered his agents to bomb a club frequented by American soldiers in Berlin in 1986, killing three, and resulting in a punitive attack by US military aircraft on Tripoli. Though the United States has come to terms with Libya and its regime it is indisputable that Gadhafi is a murderous thug and he is eminently capable of resorting to the terrorism card if he feels his interests demand it. Now that he has been condemned by the UN and attacked by NATO, he almost certainly will again exploit his considerable financial resources to fund terrorism. But President Barack Obama did not cite the danger posed by Gadhafi and instead chose to emphasize the humanitarian aspect of a US military intervention.
Recall for a moment that when Iraq occupied Kuwait in 1991 there were tales of Iraqi soldiers hurling infants out of incubators. Additional atrocities were described tearfully by a young woman who turned out to be the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States. Almost everything being reported about the bloodthirsty Iraqis turned out to be false, deliberately so, to make the case for war. In light of the deliberate deception that has been part and parcel of every American intervention anywhere since the end of the Second World War, how can anyone believe the official narrative? Why should anyone assume that Muammar Gadhafi will decide to slaughter his own people, particularly since he has a major interest in making the rebellion to his rule go away, an unlikely outcome if he engages in wholesale massacres...
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Obama could have made a plausible case for removing Gadhafi based on imminent threat. Gadhafi has been a major state supporter of terrorism, no doubt about it, and he did down both American and French commercial airliners in 1988 and 1989, resulting in major loss of life. He also ordered his agents to bomb a club frequented by American soldiers in Berlin in 1986, killing three, and resulting in a punitive attack by US military aircraft on Tripoli. Though the United States has come to terms with Libya and its regime it is indisputable that Gadhafi is a murderous thug and he is eminently capable of resorting to the terrorism card if he feels his interests demand it. Now that he has been condemned by the UN and attacked by NATO, he almost certainly will again exploit his considerable financial resources to fund terrorism. But President Barack Obama did not cite the danger posed by Gadhafi and instead chose to emphasize the humanitarian aspect of a US military intervention.
Recall for a moment that when Iraq occupied Kuwait in 1991 there were tales of Iraqi soldiers hurling infants out of incubators. Additional atrocities were described tearfully by a young woman who turned out to be the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States. Almost everything being reported about the bloodthirsty Iraqis turned out to be false, deliberately so, to make the case for war. In light of the deliberate deception that has been part and parcel of every American intervention anywhere since the end of the Second World War, how can anyone believe the official narrative? Why should anyone assume that Muammar Gadhafi will decide to slaughter his own people, particularly since he has a major interest in making the rebellion to his rule go away, an unlikely outcome if he engages in wholesale massacres...
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Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Israeli army invades Palestinian village, kidnaps residents, imposes curfew
IMEMC - Israeli soldiers invaded on Wednesday evening Awarta village, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, imposed curfew after sealing the village, and kidnapped several residents.
Local sources reported that several armored military jeeps and vehicles invaded the village and stationed themselves in several neighborhoods.
The sources added that dozens of residents, including women, were loaded onto military buses and were moved to the Huwwara military camp, near Nablus. The residents believe that the army will be back to conduct further invasions and arrests.
The army escalated its invasions into the village following the murder of a settler family (the father, mother, and three children) who were stabbed to death as they slept in their home, in Itamar settlement near Nablus.
No Palestinian group claimed responsibility for the attack while media sources reported that Israel apprehended a foreign worker on suspicions of stabbing the family to death.
Later on, the police arrested several workers from Asia following the attack as part of its ongoing investigation as the attack was not ruled out as being criminally motivated although Israeli officials rushed to blame Palestinian armed groups.
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Local sources reported that several armored military jeeps and vehicles invaded the village and stationed themselves in several neighborhoods.
The sources added that dozens of residents, including women, were loaded onto military buses and were moved to the Huwwara military camp, near Nablus. The residents believe that the army will be back to conduct further invasions and arrests.
The army escalated its invasions into the village following the murder of a settler family (the father, mother, and three children) who were stabbed to death as they slept in their home, in Itamar settlement near Nablus.
No Palestinian group claimed responsibility for the attack while media sources reported that Israel apprehended a foreign worker on suspicions of stabbing the family to death.
Later on, the police arrested several workers from Asia following the attack as part of its ongoing investigation as the attack was not ruled out as being criminally motivated although Israeli officials rushed to blame Palestinian armed groups.
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United Nations must reject Israeli campaign to avoid accountability for Gaza war crimes, says Amnesty International
Statements by Leading Israeli Politicians Are Based on “Deliberate Misinterpretation” of Justice Goldstone’s Comments in Newspaper Opinion Article
Amnesty International - Recent Israeli government calls for the United Nations to retract the 2009 report of its Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict are a cynical attempt to avoid accountability for war crimes and deny both Palestinian and Israeli victims of the 2008-2009 conflict the justice and reparations they deserve, Amnesty International said today.
Statements by leading Israeli politicians that Israel’s conduct in the 22-day conflict in Gaza and southern Israel has been vindicated, following the publication of a Washington Post opinion piece by Justice Richard Goldstone on April 1, 2011, are based on a deliberate misinterpretation of Justice Goldstone’s comments. The international community must firmly reject these attempts to escape accountability and act decisively for international justice, as it has done on Libya, Sudan and other situations where war crimes and possible crimes against humanity have been committed.
The UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, composed of Justice Goldstone and three other eminent international jurists, examined violations of international humanitarian and international human rights law committed by all sides during the 2008-2009 conflict. Its September 2009 report echoed the findings documented by Amnesty International, other human rights organizations and independent observers, and called on the Israeli and Palestinian authorities to conduct credible, independent investigations into alleged war crimes and possible crimes against humanity within six months or face potential U.N. Security Council referral to the International Criminal Court.
The report’s recommendations concerning potential international justice mechanisms remain unimplemented more than 18 months later, despite the fact that the Israeli authorities and Hamas de facto administration have both failed to conduct investigations that are prompt, thorough, independent, impartial, and effective, as required by the U.N. General Assembly.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and other senior Israeli politicians have seized on Justice Goldstone’s new statement that the Israeli military did not intentionally target civilians during the conflict and has conducted some investigations to call for the entire Fact-Finding Mission’s report to be retracted – or, as Prime Minister Netanyahu put it, “tossed into history’s trash can.” The U.S. State Department has supported this position, with a spokesperson saying that the U.S. government did not see any evidence that the Israeli government had committed any war crimes during the conflict.
As a spokesperson for the Human Rights Council made clear today comments made in an opinion piece do not provide a sufficient legal basis for overturning a U.N. report that has been discussed and endorsed by both the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly. Nor are the self-serving calls of Israeli political leaders, some of whom were members of the Israeli war cabinet which made the policy decisions during Operation “Cast Lead,” the 22-day conflict in which some 1,400 Palestinians, including some 300 children, were killed by Israeli forces. Aborting the process towards an international justice solution would also preclude any possibility of justice or reparations for Israeli victims of the conflict, who suffered from hundreds of indiscriminate rockets and mortars launched into southern Israel by Hamas’ military wing and other Palestinian armed groups in Gaza.
Amnesty International has monitored and critiqued the Israeli military investigations into its actions during Operation “Cast Lead” and has condemned both the continuing failure of the Hamas authorities to investigate alleged violations committed by Palestinian armed groups during the conflict and the ongoing firing of indiscriminate rockets into southern Israel...
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Amnesty International - Recent Israeli government calls for the United Nations to retract the 2009 report of its Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict are a cynical attempt to avoid accountability for war crimes and deny both Palestinian and Israeli victims of the 2008-2009 conflict the justice and reparations they deserve, Amnesty International said today.
Statements by leading Israeli politicians that Israel’s conduct in the 22-day conflict in Gaza and southern Israel has been vindicated, following the publication of a Washington Post opinion piece by Justice Richard Goldstone on April 1, 2011, are based on a deliberate misinterpretation of Justice Goldstone’s comments. The international community must firmly reject these attempts to escape accountability and act decisively for international justice, as it has done on Libya, Sudan and other situations where war crimes and possible crimes against humanity have been committed.
The UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, composed of Justice Goldstone and three other eminent international jurists, examined violations of international humanitarian and international human rights law committed by all sides during the 2008-2009 conflict. Its September 2009 report echoed the findings documented by Amnesty International, other human rights organizations and independent observers, and called on the Israeli and Palestinian authorities to conduct credible, independent investigations into alleged war crimes and possible crimes against humanity within six months or face potential U.N. Security Council referral to the International Criminal Court.
The report’s recommendations concerning potential international justice mechanisms remain unimplemented more than 18 months later, despite the fact that the Israeli authorities and Hamas de facto administration have both failed to conduct investigations that are prompt, thorough, independent, impartial, and effective, as required by the U.N. General Assembly.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and other senior Israeli politicians have seized on Justice Goldstone’s new statement that the Israeli military did not intentionally target civilians during the conflict and has conducted some investigations to call for the entire Fact-Finding Mission’s report to be retracted – or, as Prime Minister Netanyahu put it, “tossed into history’s trash can.” The U.S. State Department has supported this position, with a spokesperson saying that the U.S. government did not see any evidence that the Israeli government had committed any war crimes during the conflict.
As a spokesperson for the Human Rights Council made clear today comments made in an opinion piece do not provide a sufficient legal basis for overturning a U.N. report that has been discussed and endorsed by both the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly. Nor are the self-serving calls of Israeli political leaders, some of whom were members of the Israeli war cabinet which made the policy decisions during Operation “Cast Lead,” the 22-day conflict in which some 1,400 Palestinians, including some 300 children, were killed by Israeli forces. Aborting the process towards an international justice solution would also preclude any possibility of justice or reparations for Israeli victims of the conflict, who suffered from hundreds of indiscriminate rockets and mortars launched into southern Israel by Hamas’ military wing and other Palestinian armed groups in Gaza.
Amnesty International has monitored and critiqued the Israeli military investigations into its actions during Operation “Cast Lead” and has condemned both the continuing failure of the Hamas authorities to investigate alleged violations committed by Palestinian armed groups during the conflict and the ongoing firing of indiscriminate rockets into southern Israel...
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Why Did Richard Goldstone throw the Goldstone Report under the bus?
Foreign Policy in Focus - I spoke to Richard Goldstone several times after his eponymous Report came out, and it was obvious that the personal slander and vilification from so many in his own community was wearing him down. He was certainly naive and did not expect the excreta storm that would head his way.
He had always been a person of integrity and his editorial in the Washington Post, allegedly “retracting” the Report named after him is saddening. If it had appeared the day before, one would almost suspect it of being an April Fool’s parody.
Indeed, the wording of the editorial, while confused and evasive, was eloquently indicative of heavy pressure -- not least since only two days before at a debate at Stanford University, he is reported as maintaining that “all the investigations showed that, thus far, the facts were as they were reported.”
One cannot help wondering what happened in the next two days to change his mind. Did his daughter, ex IDF and self-confessed Israeli patriot, pull the family chains? It certainly betokens a personal tragedy, since it will detract from his reputation and integrity in the human rights and international law field, with no chance at all of earning the forgiveness of the rabid and vindictive Zionists who have been hounding him mercilessly for two years.
Indeed, reading the editorial reminded me of Comrade Rubashov in Arthur Koestler’s “Darkness At Noon” -- a true believer doing one last duty for the group he had lived with for so many years. It reads like a “confession” rung out from someone trying to free hostages near and dear to him by giving the kidnappers what they want while trying to hold on to one’s own integrity and dignity. Sadly, of course, those who attacked his morals and probity before, will never, ever forgive him for telling the truth originally -- and like Rubashov, he will be shown no mercy once his confession has served its purpose for the cause...
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He had always been a person of integrity and his editorial in the Washington Post, allegedly “retracting” the Report named after him is saddening. If it had appeared the day before, one would almost suspect it of being an April Fool’s parody.
Indeed, the wording of the editorial, while confused and evasive, was eloquently indicative of heavy pressure -- not least since only two days before at a debate at Stanford University, he is reported as maintaining that “all the investigations showed that, thus far, the facts were as they were reported.”
One cannot help wondering what happened in the next two days to change his mind. Did his daughter, ex IDF and self-confessed Israeli patriot, pull the family chains? It certainly betokens a personal tragedy, since it will detract from his reputation and integrity in the human rights and international law field, with no chance at all of earning the forgiveness of the rabid and vindictive Zionists who have been hounding him mercilessly for two years.
Indeed, reading the editorial reminded me of Comrade Rubashov in Arthur Koestler’s “Darkness At Noon” -- a true believer doing one last duty for the group he had lived with for so many years. It reads like a “confession” rung out from someone trying to free hostages near and dear to him by giving the kidnappers what they want while trying to hold on to one’s own integrity and dignity. Sadly, of course, those who attacked his morals and probity before, will never, ever forgive him for telling the truth originally -- and like Rubashov, he will be shown no mercy once his confession has served its purpose for the cause...
Read More
Goldstone rethinks but human rights groups steady
AntiWar - Israeli leaders have barely hidden their jubilation at an opinion article in last Friday’s Washington Post by the South African jurist Richard Goldstone reconsidering the findings of his United Nations-appointed inquiry into Israel’s attack on Gaza in winter 2008.
For the past 18 months the Goldstone Report had forced Israel on to the defensive by suggesting its army—as well as Hamas, the ruling faction in Gaza—had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during Israel’s three-week Operation Cast Lead. Some 1,400 Palestinians were killed, including hundreds of women and children.
Goldstone’s report, Israeli officials worried, might eventually pave the way to war-crimes trials against Israeli soldiers at the International Criminal Court in the Hague.
In what appeared to be a partial retraction of some of his findings against Israel, Goldstone argued that he would have written the report differently had Israel cooperated at the time of his inquiry.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, immediately called on the United Nations to shelve the Goldstone Report; Ehud Barak, the defense minister, demanded an apology; and Avigdor Lieberman, the foreign minister, said Israel’s actions in Gaza had been “vindicated.”
Israel would certainly like observers to interpret Goldstone’s latest comments as an exoneration. In reality, however, he offered far less consolation to Israel than its supporters claim...
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For the past 18 months the Goldstone Report had forced Israel on to the defensive by suggesting its army—as well as Hamas, the ruling faction in Gaza—had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during Israel’s three-week Operation Cast Lead. Some 1,400 Palestinians were killed, including hundreds of women and children.
Goldstone’s report, Israeli officials worried, might eventually pave the way to war-crimes trials against Israeli soldiers at the International Criminal Court in the Hague.
In what appeared to be a partial retraction of some of his findings against Israel, Goldstone argued that he would have written the report differently had Israel cooperated at the time of his inquiry.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, immediately called on the United Nations to shelve the Goldstone Report; Ehud Barak, the defense minister, demanded an apology; and Avigdor Lieberman, the foreign minister, said Israel’s actions in Gaza had been “vindicated.”
Israel would certainly like observers to interpret Goldstone’s latest comments as an exoneration. In reality, however, he offered far less consolation to Israel than its supporters claim...
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Israeli forces raid north Jordan Valley villages
Maan News Agency - The Israeli army and police raided villages in the northern Jordan Valley near Tubas on Wednesday morning, seizing tractors from farmers in the area.
Israeli forces and armored vehicles entered homes in a number of villages in the Tubas district and captured several tractors from residents, a villager whose tractor was seized told Ma'an.
Local witnesses said Israeli soldiers took the tractors to the nearby settlement of Mechola.
A military spokeswomen said, "There was activity by the army and police in the area to track vehicles for licenses and permits, and vehicles are being confiscated by police."
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Israeli forces and armored vehicles entered homes in a number of villages in the Tubas district and captured several tractors from residents, a villager whose tractor was seized told Ma'an.
Local witnesses said Israeli soldiers took the tractors to the nearby settlement of Mechola.
A military spokeswomen said, "There was activity by the army and police in the area to track vehicles for licenses and permits, and vehicles are being confiscated by police."
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Palestinian children demand international protection
IMEMC - Hundreds of children in the Gaza Strip participated in a Tuesday event organized by the Palestinian Ministry of Sports and Education – The General Administration of Children’s Affairs, demanding the international community to provide them with the needed protection against the ongoing Israeli violations.
The children started their procession at the Al Saraya Street in the center of Gaza City, and marched towards the Legislative Council building.
They carried Palestinian flags and posters demanding their rights to a healthy childhood and protection from physical and psychological harm.
Deputy head of the Legislative Council, Dr, Ahmad Bahar, demanded the international community and the United Nations to protect the children in Gaza and to act on halting the Israeli attacks and violations against the coastal region.
Minister of Culture and Sports, Mohammad Al Madhoun, called for providing the children with a secure life, far away from death, fear and destruction.
Al Madhoun said that the ministry put in place several programs and activities that are meant to help the children deal with the stress caused by the Israeli violations.
He said that the international community must stop the Israeli attacks and its usage of internally banned weapons, and slammed that latest Israeli escalation against the Gaza Strip.
Several children performed different songs, and asked the world to provide them with protection and security.
They also commemorated the children of Al Hilo family who were killed last month after the army bombarded a playground east of Gaza City.
On Tuesday evening, four Palestinians, including two children and a pregnant woman, were injured after the Israeli army bombarded several areas in Gaza.
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The children started their procession at the Al Saraya Street in the center of Gaza City, and marched towards the Legislative Council building.
They carried Palestinian flags and posters demanding their rights to a healthy childhood and protection from physical and psychological harm.
Deputy head of the Legislative Council, Dr, Ahmad Bahar, demanded the international community and the United Nations to protect the children in Gaza and to act on halting the Israeli attacks and violations against the coastal region.
Minister of Culture and Sports, Mohammad Al Madhoun, called for providing the children with a secure life, far away from death, fear and destruction.
Al Madhoun said that the ministry put in place several programs and activities that are meant to help the children deal with the stress caused by the Israeli violations.
He said that the international community must stop the Israeli attacks and its usage of internally banned weapons, and slammed that latest Israeli escalation against the Gaza Strip.
Several children performed different songs, and asked the world to provide them with protection and security.
They also commemorated the children of Al Hilo family who were killed last month after the army bombarded a playground east of Gaza City.
On Tuesday evening, four Palestinians, including two children and a pregnant woman, were injured after the Israeli army bombarded several areas in Gaza.
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Israeli soldiers abduct three residents from West Bank town
IMEMC - The Israeli military abducted, on Wednesday morning, three Palestinians from the town of Hebron, while a group of Israeli settlers plowed Palestinian lands in the east of Yatta, south of Hebron.
Security sources reported to the Wafa News Agency that the Israeli army abducted three citizens after invading their houses and took them to an unknown destination. The citizens were identified as Mohannad Siyaj, 25 years old, ‘Ala Abu Isbeh,18, and Yahya Shenyour, 17.
The sources added that the Israeli Military searched houses of Palestinian residents and handed them orders to appear at the nearest police station for questioning.
Furthermore, The Israeli army erected military checkpoints at the entrances of towns including Beit ‘Awa, Yatta, Halhoul, Doura, Beit Kahil and al-Fawwar Refugee Camp, stopping vehicles to search the identity of passengers.
A witness reported that a number of Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian lands in Khirbat Janba, east of Yatta, under the protection of Israeli military personell and the forces of the Israeli border guards.
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Security sources reported to the Wafa News Agency that the Israeli army abducted three citizens after invading their houses and took them to an unknown destination. The citizens were identified as Mohannad Siyaj, 25 years old, ‘Ala Abu Isbeh,18, and Yahya Shenyour, 17.
The sources added that the Israeli Military searched houses of Palestinian residents and handed them orders to appear at the nearest police station for questioning.
Furthermore, The Israeli army erected military checkpoints at the entrances of towns including Beit ‘Awa, Yatta, Halhoul, Doura, Beit Kahil and al-Fawwar Refugee Camp, stopping vehicles to search the identity of passengers.
A witness reported that a number of Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian lands in Khirbat Janba, east of Yatta, under the protection of Israeli military personell and the forces of the Israeli border guards.
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PCHR highlights key issues relating to report of UN fact-finding mission on Gaza conflict (the ‘Goldstone Report)
Palestinian Center for Human Rights - In light of the media debate and confusion triggered by Justice Richard Goldstone’s 1 April opinion piece in the Washington Post, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) wishes to highlight a few key issues regarding the current status of the UN Fact-Finding Mission’s Report, and the search for accountability in the aftermath of Israel’s 27 December 2008 – 18 January 2009 offensive on the Gaza Strip.
PCHR represent 1,046 victims of the offensive, and have submitted 490 criminal complaints to the Israeli authorities on behalf of these individuals.
As noted by Justice Goldstone, the UN Fact-Finding Mission was not a judicial body. Rather, it was a fact-finding mission mandated to conduct initial investigations on the ground, and to make recommendations on this basis. The Mission found sufficient evidence to indicate the widespread commission of war crimes, and possible crimes against humanity. This finding was consistent with the result of investigations conducted by other organisations, including PCHR, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the UN Board of Inquiry, and the Fact-Finding Mission of the Arab League.
Appropriately, and consistent with the requirements of international law, the Fact-Finding Mission recommended that these allegations be investigated. The Mission noted that if domestic authorities failed to conduct effective investigations, the International Criminal Court became the most appropriate forum to investigate these serious charges. Responsibility would thus fall on the Security Council to activate the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, in accordance with Article 13(b) of the Court’s statute. According to the timeline established by the Mission, this referral should have taken place approximately one year ago. The Security Council took such action most recently with respect to the current situation in Libya.
The most serious allegations regarding Israel’s conduct of hostilities during the offensive relate to the direct targeting of civilians, widespread indiscriminate attacks, the choice of targets and methods of combat, and the extensive destruction of public and private infrastructure, including the total or partial (rendered uninhabitable) destruction of 7,872 civilian housing units. A few significant cases in this regard include the attack on UNRWA headquarters, the attack on Fakhoura school, the Abdul Dayem case, the Al-Daia case, the Abu Halima case, and the attack on Arafat Police compound. Policies including those related the conduct of hostilities, the choice of targets, the use of white phosphorous, and the artillery bombardment of civilian areas may also give rise to individual criminal responsibility. None of these cases have been effectively addressed, and have not been ‘reconsidered’ by Justice Goldstone.
International law clearly requires that allegations of international crimes, as detailed in the Fact-Finding Mission’s Report and elsewhere, must be subject to genuine investigation, and if appropriate, those responsible prosecuted...
Read More
PCHR represent 1,046 victims of the offensive, and have submitted 490 criminal complaints to the Israeli authorities on behalf of these individuals.
As noted by Justice Goldstone, the UN Fact-Finding Mission was not a judicial body. Rather, it was a fact-finding mission mandated to conduct initial investigations on the ground, and to make recommendations on this basis. The Mission found sufficient evidence to indicate the widespread commission of war crimes, and possible crimes against humanity. This finding was consistent with the result of investigations conducted by other organisations, including PCHR, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the UN Board of Inquiry, and the Fact-Finding Mission of the Arab League.
Appropriately, and consistent with the requirements of international law, the Fact-Finding Mission recommended that these allegations be investigated. The Mission noted that if domestic authorities failed to conduct effective investigations, the International Criminal Court became the most appropriate forum to investigate these serious charges. Responsibility would thus fall on the Security Council to activate the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, in accordance with Article 13(b) of the Court’s statute. According to the timeline established by the Mission, this referral should have taken place approximately one year ago. The Security Council took such action most recently with respect to the current situation in Libya.
The most serious allegations regarding Israel’s conduct of hostilities during the offensive relate to the direct targeting of civilians, widespread indiscriminate attacks, the choice of targets and methods of combat, and the extensive destruction of public and private infrastructure, including the total or partial (rendered uninhabitable) destruction of 7,872 civilian housing units. A few significant cases in this regard include the attack on UNRWA headquarters, the attack on Fakhoura school, the Abdul Dayem case, the Al-Daia case, the Abu Halima case, and the attack on Arafat Police compound. Policies including those related the conduct of hostilities, the choice of targets, the use of white phosphorous, and the artillery bombardment of civilian areas may also give rise to individual criminal responsibility. None of these cases have been effectively addressed, and have not been ‘reconsidered’ by Justice Goldstone.
International law clearly requires that allegations of international crimes, as detailed in the Fact-Finding Mission’s Report and elsewhere, must be subject to genuine investigation, and if appropriate, those responsible prosecuted...
Read More
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Israeli-Palestinian peacemaker killed by masked man in Jenin
IMEMC - Juliano Meir-Khamis, a well-known Israeli actor and co-director of the Jenin Freedom Theatre, was shot to death in his car Monday, just outside his theatre in Jenin refugee camp, in the northern part of the West Bank. Meir-Khamis, the son of a Palestinian father and a Jewish-Israeli mother, lived in Jenin with his family for the last seven years.
Meir-Khamis is known for his anti-Occupation and anti-Zionist stance, and has in the past received death threats due to his peace activism and his work in Jenin. After the original Freedom Theatre, founded by his mother, was destroyed by Israeli forces in 2002, Meir-Khamis worked to rebuild the theatre, which re-opened in 2005 under the dual management of Meir-Khamis and Zakariya Zubeidi, a former leader of the al-Aqsa Martyr Brigades in Jenin.
In a 2004 interview, Juliano Meir-Khamis said, “We have a dream to have a theatre...we hope that this theatre will generate the political, artistic movement of artists who want to raise their voice against discrimination of women, discrimination of children, unnecessary violence against civilians.”
He also directed the movie 'Arna's Children' in Israel, which is about the stories of ten children from Jenin who attended the Freedom Theatre that Juliano and his mother founded and operated in Jenin refugee camp. The movie tells the story of the Israeli invasion of Jenin camp in 2002, when Israel leveled hundreds of homes and killed over 100 Palestinians. Some of the children featured in the film grew up to be resistance fighters, and some were killed by Israeli forces in the years since the film's release.
Juliano's father, Salibeh Khamis, was a political leader in the Israeli Communist party and a prominent leftist. His mother, Arna Meir, is a leftist Jewish Israeli who is well-known in Israel for her anti-Zionist political position, and her work against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.
The governor of the Jenin district, Qaddoura Mouseh, said that the Palestinian security forces have initiated an investigation into the attack. Mouseh said that it is unlikely that the assailant did not know Juliano, who is a well-known and well-regarded member of the peace movement in Palestine. He added that this assassination is a conspiracy against the peaceful aspirations of the Palestinian people.
In addition, the appointed Palestinian Prime Minister, Dr. Salam Fayyad, strongly condemned the attack, saying, "We cannot stand silent in the face of this ugly crime. It constitutes a grave violation that goes beyond all principles and human values and it contravenes with the customs and ethics of co-existence."
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Meir-Khamis is known for his anti-Occupation and anti-Zionist stance, and has in the past received death threats due to his peace activism and his work in Jenin. After the original Freedom Theatre, founded by his mother, was destroyed by Israeli forces in 2002, Meir-Khamis worked to rebuild the theatre, which re-opened in 2005 under the dual management of Meir-Khamis and Zakariya Zubeidi, a former leader of the al-Aqsa Martyr Brigades in Jenin.
In a 2004 interview, Juliano Meir-Khamis said, “We have a dream to have a theatre...we hope that this theatre will generate the political, artistic movement of artists who want to raise their voice against discrimination of women, discrimination of children, unnecessary violence against civilians.”
He also directed the movie 'Arna's Children' in Israel, which is about the stories of ten children from Jenin who attended the Freedom Theatre that Juliano and his mother founded and operated in Jenin refugee camp. The movie tells the story of the Israeli invasion of Jenin camp in 2002, when Israel leveled hundreds of homes and killed over 100 Palestinians. Some of the children featured in the film grew up to be resistance fighters, and some were killed by Israeli forces in the years since the film's release.
Juliano's father, Salibeh Khamis, was a political leader in the Israeli Communist party and a prominent leftist. His mother, Arna Meir, is a leftist Jewish Israeli who is well-known in Israel for her anti-Zionist political position, and her work against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.
The governor of the Jenin district, Qaddoura Mouseh, said that the Palestinian security forces have initiated an investigation into the attack. Mouseh said that it is unlikely that the assailant did not know Juliano, who is a well-known and well-regarded member of the peace movement in Palestine. He added that this assassination is a conspiracy against the peaceful aspirations of the Palestinian people.
In addition, the appointed Palestinian Prime Minister, Dr. Salam Fayyad, strongly condemned the attack, saying, "We cannot stand silent in the face of this ugly crime. It constitutes a grave violation that goes beyond all principles and human values and it contravenes with the customs and ethics of co-existence."
Read More
In memory of our beloved friend Juliano Mer-Khamis
Iyad Burnat, Friends of Justice and Freedom in Bilin - Juliano Mer-Khamis embodied the uncompromising struggle for freedom and for dignity. With his brutal murder the Palestinian struggle has lost a brilliant charismatic and courageous fighter for justice and freedom. Both parts of his life's work were seamlessly joined. His art was inseparable from his political commitment. The dignity and humanity which his art sustained were just as important to Palestinian resilience -sumud as his explicitly political work. His life was tragically cut short but he nevertheless managed to live a life full with purpose and meaning. In his typical way he fully dedicated himself to realizing his principles and gave up the comfort of life in Haifa to move to Jenin.
The Freedom theater which Mer-Khamis founded enriched the lives of countless young participants who all loved Juliano and their audience. It demonstrated the resilience of Palestinians, who transcended the most difficult situations to create a lasting legacy of art and consciousness. The effect of the Freedom theater reached far beyond Jenin and even the West Bank. People throughout the world were inspired to support the work of the theater and Palestinian solidarity in general.
We offer his family our condolences and support. We will always remember and miss him. His legacy will continue to inspire us to struggle for dignity and liberation. We will follow Juliano's example in his work and in his spirit.
the Popular Committees against the wall and israeli occupation.
The Freedom theater which Mer-Khamis founded enriched the lives of countless young participants who all loved Juliano and their audience. It demonstrated the resilience of Palestinians, who transcended the most difficult situations to create a lasting legacy of art and consciousness. The effect of the Freedom theater reached far beyond Jenin and even the West Bank. People throughout the world were inspired to support the work of the theater and Palestinian solidarity in general.
We offer his family our condolences and support. We will always remember and miss him. His legacy will continue to inspire us to struggle for dignity and liberation. We will follow Juliano's example in his work and in his spirit.
the Popular Committees against the wall and israeli occupation.
Another war on Gaza?
Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah - In recent weeks an escalation in violence between Israel and Palestinian resistance factions in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip has claimed the lives of more than a dozen Palestinians, the youngest of them 10-year-old Mahmoud Jalal al-Hilu.
Does this escalation increase the likelihood of another large-scale assault on Gaza similar to "Operation Cast Lead" in winter 2008-2009 that killed more than 1,400 Palestinians? There are worrying signs Israel -- by its words and deeds -- could be laying the ground for an attack.
The ratchet of violence took another turn in the small hours of 2 April when Israel carried out an air attack on the Gaza Strip killing three members of Hamas' military wing.
Israel did not claim that the three Hamas men were engaged in any hostile activity at the time they were killed (riding in a car), but a statement from the Israeli army alleged that they were "planning to kidnap Israelis over the upcoming Jewish holiday of Passover" -- several weeks in the future.
Israel's latest attack constituted an extrajudicial killing, in which Israel, the occupying power, acted as judge, jury and executioner, issuing allegations for which it offered no evidence, after it had already carried out the death sentence. Under international law, this is a war crime.
Global media tend to report these events as Israeli "retaliation" for Palestinian attacks, but a close reading of Israeli media presents a very different picture: deliberate provocation and escalation by Israel.
On 23 March, Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel writing in the Israeli daily Haaretz reported that, "The current tensions began exactly a week ago when Israel launched an air attack on a Hamas base in the ruins of the settlement of Netzarim, killing two Hamas men. That attack came in response to a Qassam [rocket] fired from Gaza that landed in an open area." Palestinians responded with a barrage of 50 projectiles into Israel.
Israel then "launched a series of air attacks in which a number of Hamas militants were wounded." And on 22 March Israeli forces launched the shelling which killed Mahmoud al-Hilu and three other civilians, allegedly in response to mortar fire from an olive grove on the Gaza side ("A small war is starting along Gaza border").
On 24 March, Issacharoff and Harel observed, "Despite the escalation, Hamas does not seem to want large-scale clashes yet. The organization actually has good reasons to believe that Israel is the one heating up the southern front. It began with a bombardment a few weeks ago that disrupted the transfer of a large amount of money from Egypt to the Gaza Strip, continued with the interrogation of engineer and Hamas member Dirar Abu Sisi [whom Israeli agents kidnapped from Ukraine] in Israel, and ended with last week's bombing of a Hamas training base in which two Hamas militants were killed. It is noteworthy that Hamas has not fired at Israel over the past two days, even after four Palestinian civilians were killed by errant IDF [Israeli army] mortar fire on Tuesday [22 March]" ("Hamas not likely behind Jerusalem bombing").
Issacharoff and Harel added in a 25 March analysis that the Israeli attack on the Hamas outpost at Netzarim "is believed to have been authorized by the defense minister and the chief of staff, who should have known there would be people at the outpost during the day and that causing casualties would have different consequences than a routine attack on empty offices. Israel assumed -- mistakenly -- that Hamas would not respond to the bombing. In fact, Hamas responded by firing 50 mortar shells on Saturday morning" ("Escalation approaching").
It is difficult to believe, especially in light of the extrajudicial executions on 2 April, that Israeli leaders did not know that killing Palestinians would prompt further retaliation from the Palestinian side. It seems very likely this was their intention...
Read More
Does this escalation increase the likelihood of another large-scale assault on Gaza similar to "Operation Cast Lead" in winter 2008-2009 that killed more than 1,400 Palestinians? There are worrying signs Israel -- by its words and deeds -- could be laying the ground for an attack.
The ratchet of violence took another turn in the small hours of 2 April when Israel carried out an air attack on the Gaza Strip killing three members of Hamas' military wing.
Israel did not claim that the three Hamas men were engaged in any hostile activity at the time they were killed (riding in a car), but a statement from the Israeli army alleged that they were "planning to kidnap Israelis over the upcoming Jewish holiday of Passover" -- several weeks in the future.
Israel's latest attack constituted an extrajudicial killing, in which Israel, the occupying power, acted as judge, jury and executioner, issuing allegations for which it offered no evidence, after it had already carried out the death sentence. Under international law, this is a war crime.
Global media tend to report these events as Israeli "retaliation" for Palestinian attacks, but a close reading of Israeli media presents a very different picture: deliberate provocation and escalation by Israel.
On 23 March, Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel writing in the Israeli daily Haaretz reported that, "The current tensions began exactly a week ago when Israel launched an air attack on a Hamas base in the ruins of the settlement of Netzarim, killing two Hamas men. That attack came in response to a Qassam [rocket] fired from Gaza that landed in an open area." Palestinians responded with a barrage of 50 projectiles into Israel.
Israel then "launched a series of air attacks in which a number of Hamas militants were wounded." And on 22 March Israeli forces launched the shelling which killed Mahmoud al-Hilu and three other civilians, allegedly in response to mortar fire from an olive grove on the Gaza side ("A small war is starting along Gaza border").
On 24 March, Issacharoff and Harel observed, "Despite the escalation, Hamas does not seem to want large-scale clashes yet. The organization actually has good reasons to believe that Israel is the one heating up the southern front. It began with a bombardment a few weeks ago that disrupted the transfer of a large amount of money from Egypt to the Gaza Strip, continued with the interrogation of engineer and Hamas member Dirar Abu Sisi [whom Israeli agents kidnapped from Ukraine] in Israel, and ended with last week's bombing of a Hamas training base in which two Hamas militants were killed. It is noteworthy that Hamas has not fired at Israel over the past two days, even after four Palestinian civilians were killed by errant IDF [Israeli army] mortar fire on Tuesday [22 March]" ("Hamas not likely behind Jerusalem bombing").
Issacharoff and Harel added in a 25 March analysis that the Israeli attack on the Hamas outpost at Netzarim "is believed to have been authorized by the defense minister and the chief of staff, who should have known there would be people at the outpost during the day and that causing casualties would have different consequences than a routine attack on empty offices. Israel assumed -- mistakenly -- that Hamas would not respond to the bombing. In fact, Hamas responded by firing 50 mortar shells on Saturday morning" ("Escalation approaching").
It is difficult to believe, especially in light of the extrajudicial executions on 2 April, that Israeli leaders did not know that killing Palestinians would prompt further retaliation from the Palestinian side. It seems very likely this was their intention...
Read More
Israel to promote itself on Facebook
Deputy foreign minister meets networking site's managers to discuss plans for online PR
Palestine News - The government intends to turn the social network Facebook into the main platform for Israeli online public relations, investing a lot of resources on creating an efficient strategy to utilize the 600 million-large' network.
Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon visited the California offices of the network on Friday, and met with company heads including Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and VP of Advertising and Global Operations David Fischer, who is the son of Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer.
The Foreign Ministry is set on turning the famous social network into the main platform forIsraeli online public relations both in English and in Arabic. Officials in Jerusalem have expressed their belief that Facebook is a friendly platform for communication with young people around the world, allowing for distribution of messages through video clips and games.
Israeli embassies around the world have already begun to manage Facebook pages, but now the Foreign Ministry intends to make more efficient use of the network to improve Israel's image.
Ayalon's meetings are intended to foster a relationship between the Israeli government and Facebook heads. Ayalon has also invited Facebook managers to visit Israel in order to meet with internet entrepreneurs and participate in the Presidential Conference expected to take place in Jerusalem next June.
The deputy foreign minister displayed before them Israel's high-tech abilities, noting that Intel Company is the biggest private employer in Israel, with more than 7,000 employees.
Following Facebook's slow response in closing the internet page calling for a "third Intifada" and a violent protest against Israel, Facebook managers clarified that in the future they intend to deactivate any pages preaching violence. They also stated Facebook plans to open a marketing center in Israel...
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Palestine News - The government intends to turn the social network Facebook into the main platform for Israeli online public relations, investing a lot of resources on creating an efficient strategy to utilize the 600 million-large' network.
Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon visited the California offices of the network on Friday, and met with company heads including Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and VP of Advertising and Global Operations David Fischer, who is the son of Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer.
The Foreign Ministry is set on turning the famous social network into the main platform forIsraeli online public relations both in English and in Arabic. Officials in Jerusalem have expressed their belief that Facebook is a friendly platform for communication with young people around the world, allowing for distribution of messages through video clips and games.
Israeli embassies around the world have already begun to manage Facebook pages, but now the Foreign Ministry intends to make more efficient use of the network to improve Israel's image.
Ayalon's meetings are intended to foster a relationship between the Israeli government and Facebook heads. Ayalon has also invited Facebook managers to visit Israel in order to meet with internet entrepreneurs and participate in the Presidential Conference expected to take place in Jerusalem next June.
The deputy foreign minister displayed before them Israel's high-tech abilities, noting that Intel Company is the biggest private employer in Israel, with more than 7,000 employees.
Following Facebook's slow response in closing the internet page calling for a "third Intifada" and a violent protest against Israel, Facebook managers clarified that in the future they intend to deactivate any pages preaching violence. They also stated Facebook plans to open a marketing center in Israel...
Read More
Andrew Cockburn: Exaggerated reports on Libya
CounterPunch, "Battling the Beast" - Andrew Cockburn - Libya has dislodged from the headlines a nuclear catastrophe in Japan, on top of a seismic one, that’s one of the epic dramas of the past half-century and what’s doubly weird is that the actual fighting in Libya is a series of tiny skirmishes. The muscle-bound adjectives and nouns used to describe the military engagements – if they even deserve that word – in press reports remind me of a Chihuahua trying to mount a Newfoundland. Ambition far outstrips reality, which is in this case is a nervous rabble motley insurgents – maybe 1,500 or so at most, posing for television crews and then fleeing back down the road to the next village (“strategic stronghold”) at the first whiff of trouble.
By my count, the mighty armies contending along the highway west of Benghazi would melt into the bleachers at a college baseball game. News stories suggest mobile warfare on the scale of the epic dramas of the Kursk salient in World War Two. But most of the action revolves around one tank. I’ve seen it in hundreds of video feeds. Like the tooth passed from witch to witch in Greek myththis tank performs many functions and to judge from the graffiti on its turret, it’s always the same vehicle. Maybe that’s why there’s endless bickering about whether the U.N. resolution covers the supply of arms and heavy equipment. The war’s PR men want to freshen up the visuals.
The “no-fly zone” prompted, just as it did in Iraq, endless US sorties aimed at destroying antennas that might be picking up data useful to Libya’s anti-aircraft defenses, which scarcely exist. As with any bombing, civilians died. A team of Russian doctors wrote to the president of the Russian Federation, the oleaginous Dmitry Medvedev, as follows (as cited on the Global Research site on March 28):
“Today, 24 March 2011, NATO aircraft and the U.S. all night and all morning bombed a suburb of Tripoli - Tajhura (where, in particular, is Libya's Nuclear Research Center). Air Defense and Air Force facilities in Tajhura were destroyed back in the first 2 days of strikes and more active military facilities in the city remained, but today the object of bombing are barracks of the Libyan army, around which are densely populated residential areas, and next to it - the largest of Libya's Heart Centers. Civilians and the doctors could not assume that common residential quarters will be about to become destroyed, so none of the residents or hospital patients was evacuated.
“Bombs and rockets struck residential houses and fell near the hospital. The glass of the Cardiac Center building was broken, and in the building of the maternity ward for pregnant women with heart disease a wall collapsed and part of the roof. This resulted in ten miscarriages whereby babies died, the women are in intensive care, doctors are fighting for their lives. Our colleagues and we are working seven days a week, to save people. This is a direct consequence of falling bombs and missiles in residential buildings resulting in dozens of deaths and injuries, which are operated and reviewed now by our doctors. Such a large number of wounded and killed, as during today, did not occur during the total of all the riots in Libya. And this is called ‘protecting the civilian population?”
NATO planes fly thither and yon looking for targets. There was a rumor that George Monbiot had handcuffed himself to the Libyan nuclear research center to show solidarity with Qaddafi’s alleged commitment to research into nuclear power as an alternative to fossil fuels, but the word from Monbiot HQ was that that the silliest man in Great Britain is planning a symbolic flyover of Chernobyl as a monument to the safety of nuclear power, before inaugurating a “nuke camp” next to Daiichi 2 at Fukushima...
Read More
By my count, the mighty armies contending along the highway west of Benghazi would melt into the bleachers at a college baseball game. News stories suggest mobile warfare on the scale of the epic dramas of the Kursk salient in World War Two. But most of the action revolves around one tank. I’ve seen it in hundreds of video feeds. Like the tooth passed from witch to witch in Greek myththis tank performs many functions and to judge from the graffiti on its turret, it’s always the same vehicle. Maybe that’s why there’s endless bickering about whether the U.N. resolution covers the supply of arms and heavy equipment. The war’s PR men want to freshen up the visuals.
The “no-fly zone” prompted, just as it did in Iraq, endless US sorties aimed at destroying antennas that might be picking up data useful to Libya’s anti-aircraft defenses, which scarcely exist. As with any bombing, civilians died. A team of Russian doctors wrote to the president of the Russian Federation, the oleaginous Dmitry Medvedev, as follows (as cited on the Global Research site on March 28):
“Today, 24 March 2011, NATO aircraft and the U.S. all night and all morning bombed a suburb of Tripoli - Tajhura (where, in particular, is Libya's Nuclear Research Center). Air Defense and Air Force facilities in Tajhura were destroyed back in the first 2 days of strikes and more active military facilities in the city remained, but today the object of bombing are barracks of the Libyan army, around which are densely populated residential areas, and next to it - the largest of Libya's Heart Centers. Civilians and the doctors could not assume that common residential quarters will be about to become destroyed, so none of the residents or hospital patients was evacuated.
“Bombs and rockets struck residential houses and fell near the hospital. The glass of the Cardiac Center building was broken, and in the building of the maternity ward for pregnant women with heart disease a wall collapsed and part of the roof. This resulted in ten miscarriages whereby babies died, the women are in intensive care, doctors are fighting for their lives. Our colleagues and we are working seven days a week, to save people. This is a direct consequence of falling bombs and missiles in residential buildings resulting in dozens of deaths and injuries, which are operated and reviewed now by our doctors. Such a large number of wounded and killed, as during today, did not occur during the total of all the riots in Libya. And this is called ‘protecting the civilian population?”
NATO planes fly thither and yon looking for targets. There was a rumor that George Monbiot had handcuffed himself to the Libyan nuclear research center to show solidarity with Qaddafi’s alleged commitment to research into nuclear power as an alternative to fossil fuels, but the word from Monbiot HQ was that that the silliest man in Great Britain is planning a symbolic flyover of Chernobyl as a monument to the safety of nuclear power, before inaugurating a “nuke camp” next to Daiichi 2 at Fukushima...
Read More
Israel okays 942 new settler homes in East Jerusalem
Maan News Agency - Jerusalem city council on Monday approved the construction of 942 new Jewish-only homes in Gilo settlement in occupied East Jersualem, a councillor told AFP.
Elisha Peleg, from the right-wing Likud party, confirmed that the new construction in Gilo, close to the West Bank city of Bethlehem, had been approved during an afternoon session of the district planning council.
"Of course we approved it, it is only the first step," he told AFP, saying it was approved by five in favor and one against.
The municipality said this project was in addition to an earlier tranche of more than 900 new homes in Gilo approved in November 2009, which brought sharp condemnation from Washington which expressed "dismay" over the move.
The latest decision came a day ahead of a top-level meeting at the White House between Israeli President Shimon Peres and US President Barack Obama...
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Elisha Peleg, from the right-wing Likud party, confirmed that the new construction in Gilo, close to the West Bank city of Bethlehem, had been approved during an afternoon session of the district planning council.
"Of course we approved it, it is only the first step," he told AFP, saying it was approved by five in favor and one against.
The municipality said this project was in addition to an earlier tranche of more than 900 new homes in Gilo approved in November 2009, which brought sharp condemnation from Washington which expressed "dismay" over the move.
The latest decision came a day ahead of a top-level meeting at the White House between Israeli President Shimon Peres and US President Barack Obama...
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Israelis shoot and kill Palestinian man in the Gaza buffer zone
IMEMC - A Palestinian man has been killed in the buffer zone of the Gaza Strip, on Tuesday. The Israeli military has claimed that they shot the man as he was armed, and approaching the border, but Palestinian medical sources have stated that no weapon was found at the scene.
The attack occurred in the northern Gaza Strip, Reuters reports, and is the latest in the ongoing of killings of Palestinians in the buffer zone Israel imposes on the Gaza Strip.
The area has increased from 50 to 300 meters since it was first imposed following the Oslo Accords, with the Israeli military claiming that the area is enforced with live fire to prevent militants from approaching the border with Israel. Palestinian sources in the Gaza Strip claim that the zone is imposed arbitrarily, with live fire reported upwards of 2 km from the border.
A UN report stated in 2010 that with the expansion of the zone to 300 meters, approximately 30% of Gaza’s agricultural land was rendered unusable.
Despite this, Palestinian farmers have continued to work in the area, both on their agricultural lands, and in the reclamation of ruble and debris from destroyed buildings.
The collection of these materials is a source of income for residents of the strip, where unemployment is over 50%, and counteracts Israel’s policy of prohibiting the required volumes of construction material into Gaza following he decimation of the coastal enclave’s infrastructure during Operation Cast Lead in December 2008 and January 2009.
Read More
The attack occurred in the northern Gaza Strip, Reuters reports, and is the latest in the ongoing of killings of Palestinians in the buffer zone Israel imposes on the Gaza Strip.
The area has increased from 50 to 300 meters since it was first imposed following the Oslo Accords, with the Israeli military claiming that the area is enforced with live fire to prevent militants from approaching the border with Israel. Palestinian sources in the Gaza Strip claim that the zone is imposed arbitrarily, with live fire reported upwards of 2 km from the border.
A UN report stated in 2010 that with the expansion of the zone to 300 meters, approximately 30% of Gaza’s agricultural land was rendered unusable.
Despite this, Palestinian farmers have continued to work in the area, both on their agricultural lands, and in the reclamation of ruble and debris from destroyed buildings.
The collection of these materials is a source of income for residents of the strip, where unemployment is over 50%, and counteracts Israel’s policy of prohibiting the required volumes of construction material into Gaza following he decimation of the coastal enclave’s infrastructure during Operation Cast Lead in December 2008 and January 2009.
Read More
Monday, April 4, 2011
Ilan Pappe: Goldstone's shameful U-turn
Electronic Intifada - Ilan Pappe [Israeli historian and author Ilan Pappe is Professor of History and Director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter] - "If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone report would have been a different document." Thus opens Judge Richard Goldstone's much-discussed op-ed in The Washington Post. I have a strong feeling that the editor might have tampered with the text and that the original sentence ought to have read something like: "If I had known then that the report would turn me into a self-hating Jew in the eyes of my beloved Israel and my own Jewish community in South Africa, the Goldstone report would never have been written at all." And if that wasn't the original sentence, it is certainly the subtext of Goldstone's article.
This shameful U-turn did not happen this week. It comes after more than a year and a half of a sustained campaign of intimidation and character assassination against the judge, a campaign whose like in the past destroyed mighty people such as US Senator William Fulbright who was shot down politically for his brave attempt to disclose AIPAC's illegal dealings with the State of Israel.
Already In October 2009, Goldstone told CNN, "I've got a great love for Israel" and "I've worked for many Israeli causes and continue to do so" (Video: "Fareed Zakaria GPS," 4 October 2009).
Given the fact that at the time he made this declaration of love he did not have any new evidence, as he claims now, one may wonder how could this love could not be at least weakened by what he discovered when writing, along with other members of the UN commission, his original report.
But worse was to come and exactly a year ago, in April 2010, the campaign against him reached new heights, or rather, lows. It was led by the chairman of the South African Zionist Federation, Avrom Krengel, who tried to prevent Goldstone from participating in his grandson's bar mitzvah in Johannesburg since "Goldstone caused irreparable damage to the Jewish people as a whole."
The South African Zionist Federation threatened to picket outside the synagogue during the ceremony. Worse was the interference of South Africa's Chief Rabbi, Warren Goldstein, who chastised Goldstone for "doing greater damage to the State of Israel." Last February, Goldstone said that "Hamas perpetrated war crimes, but Israel did not," in an interview that was not broadcast, according to a 3 April report the website of Israel's Channel 2. It was not enough: the Israelis demanded much more.
Readers might ask "so what?" and "why could Goldstone not withstand the heat?" Good questions, but alas the Zionization of Jewish communities and the false identification of Jewishness with Zionism is still a powerful disincentive that prevents liberal Jews from boldly facing Israel and its crimes.
Every now and again many liberal Jews seem to liberate themselves and allow their conscience, rather than their fear, to lead them. However, many seem unable stick to their more universalist inclinations for too long where Israel is concerned. The risk of being defined as a "self-hating Jew" with all the ramifications of such an accusation is a real and frightening prospect for them. You have to be in this position to understand the power of this terror.
Just weeks ago, Israeli military intelligence announced it had created a special unit to monitor, confront, and possibly hunt down, individuals and bodies suspected of "delegitimizing" Israel abroad. In light of this, perhaps quite a few of the faint-hearted felt standing up to Israel was not worth it.
We should have recognized that Goldstone was one of them when he stated that, despite his report, he remains a Zionist. This adjective, "Zionist," is far more meaningful and charged than is usually assumed. You cannot claim to be one if you oppose the ideology of the apartheid State of Israel. You can remain one if you just rebuke the state for a certain criminal policy and fail to see the connection between the ideology and that policy. "I am a Zionist" is a declaration of loyalty to a frame of mind that cannot accept the 2009 Goldstone Report. You can either be a Zionist or blame Israel for war crimes and crimes against humanity -- if you do both, you will crack sooner rather than later...
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This shameful U-turn did not happen this week. It comes after more than a year and a half of a sustained campaign of intimidation and character assassination against the judge, a campaign whose like in the past destroyed mighty people such as US Senator William Fulbright who was shot down politically for his brave attempt to disclose AIPAC's illegal dealings with the State of Israel.
Already In October 2009, Goldstone told CNN, "I've got a great love for Israel" and "I've worked for many Israeli causes and continue to do so" (Video: "Fareed Zakaria GPS," 4 October 2009).
Given the fact that at the time he made this declaration of love he did not have any new evidence, as he claims now, one may wonder how could this love could not be at least weakened by what he discovered when writing, along with other members of the UN commission, his original report.
But worse was to come and exactly a year ago, in April 2010, the campaign against him reached new heights, or rather, lows. It was led by the chairman of the South African Zionist Federation, Avrom Krengel, who tried to prevent Goldstone from participating in his grandson's bar mitzvah in Johannesburg since "Goldstone caused irreparable damage to the Jewish people as a whole."
The South African Zionist Federation threatened to picket outside the synagogue during the ceremony. Worse was the interference of South Africa's Chief Rabbi, Warren Goldstein, who chastised Goldstone for "doing greater damage to the State of Israel." Last February, Goldstone said that "Hamas perpetrated war crimes, but Israel did not," in an interview that was not broadcast, according to a 3 April report the website of Israel's Channel 2. It was not enough: the Israelis demanded much more.
Readers might ask "so what?" and "why could Goldstone not withstand the heat?" Good questions, but alas the Zionization of Jewish communities and the false identification of Jewishness with Zionism is still a powerful disincentive that prevents liberal Jews from boldly facing Israel and its crimes.
Every now and again many liberal Jews seem to liberate themselves and allow their conscience, rather than their fear, to lead them. However, many seem unable stick to their more universalist inclinations for too long where Israel is concerned. The risk of being defined as a "self-hating Jew" with all the ramifications of such an accusation is a real and frightening prospect for them. You have to be in this position to understand the power of this terror.
Just weeks ago, Israeli military intelligence announced it had created a special unit to monitor, confront, and possibly hunt down, individuals and bodies suspected of "delegitimizing" Israel abroad. In light of this, perhaps quite a few of the faint-hearted felt standing up to Israel was not worth it.
We should have recognized that Goldstone was one of them when he stated that, despite his report, he remains a Zionist. This adjective, "Zionist," is far more meaningful and charged than is usually assumed. You cannot claim to be one if you oppose the ideology of the apartheid State of Israel. You can remain one if you just rebuke the state for a certain criminal policy and fail to see the connection between the ideology and that policy. "I am a Zionist" is a declaration of loyalty to a frame of mind that cannot accept the 2009 Goldstone Report. You can either be a Zionist or blame Israel for war crimes and crimes against humanity -- if you do both, you will crack sooner rather than later...
Read More
Israeli army invades Palestinian town searching for peace activists
IMEMC - Under the pretext of searching for international peace activists, Israeli soldiers and policemen invaded on Monday at dawn Bil’in village, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah, broke into and searched several homes.
The Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, in Bil’in, reported that soldiers invaded the village approximately at 1:30 after midnight and broke into the homes of Ali Burnat and Khamis Fathi Abu Rahma.
Troops violently broke into the homes under the pretext of searching for international peace activists who participate in nonviolent protests against the Annexation Wall and settlements in the village.
The Committee said that soldiers prevented local reporters from performing their duty, and that the offensive against the village last for more than an hour.
Bil’in village plays an essential and a leading role in creative nonviolent resistance against the Wall and settlements.
Its activities started in 2004 and managed to garner a large international attention attracting hundreds of international and Israeli peace activists.
Israeli troops use excessive force against the popular nonviolent resistance in the village, and in several other West Bank villages and towns, inflicting hundreds of injuries and several deaths.
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The Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, in Bil’in, reported that soldiers invaded the village approximately at 1:30 after midnight and broke into the homes of Ali Burnat and Khamis Fathi Abu Rahma.
Troops violently broke into the homes under the pretext of searching for international peace activists who participate in nonviolent protests against the Annexation Wall and settlements in the village.
The Committee said that soldiers prevented local reporters from performing their duty, and that the offensive against the village last for more than an hour.
Bil’in village plays an essential and a leading role in creative nonviolent resistance against the Wall and settlements.
Its activities started in 2004 and managed to garner a large international attention attracting hundreds of international and Israeli peace activists.
Israeli troops use excessive force against the popular nonviolent resistance in the village, and in several other West Bank villages and towns, inflicting hundreds of injuries and several deaths.
Read More
Israel plans expansion of several West Bank settlements
IMEMC - A committee of the Israeli Jerusalem municipal government began on Monday to implement a plan to expand the illegal settlement of Gilo, located on the land of the Palestinian town of Beit Jala, by 942 houses. Another illegal settlement, Nofim, received recognition by the Israeli government and will be allowed to proceed with expansion plans.
All Israeli settlements constructed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are considered illegal under international law, and are also a violation of signed peace agreements and the so-called 'road map to peace' agreed to by the Israeli government.
The 942 homes approved in Gilo settlement expected to be followed by another 850 houses, as well as the expansion of water and electric services and Israeli-only roads.
Next week, the Jerusalem Planning and Building Committee is expected to approve a further 1,608 houses to be constructed in settlements beyond the 1967 'Green Line' border between Israel and the West Bank.
Over 500,000 Israeli settlers currently live in colonial settlements constructed on Palestinian land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The vast majority of these settlers moved into these settlements, many from former Soviet Republics, in the last 15 years.
The plan to expand Gilo settlement, located south of Jerusalem on the land of Beit Jala, near Bethlehem, was criticized in 2009, when it was introduced, by the US and United Kingdom. The US called the Gilo expansion an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians, and requested that the Israeli government not move forward with the plan.
Israeli settlement expansion has markedly increased since September 2010, when a supposed ten-month freeze on settlement construction was not renewed. But even in the year of the so-called 'settlement freeze' (2010), statistics show that four times more units were constructed in Israeli settlements than in 2009.
A recent United Nations Security Council Resolution condemning Israeli settlement expansion was vetoed by the US, although it was approved by the other 14 members...
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All Israeli settlements constructed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are considered illegal under international law, and are also a violation of signed peace agreements and the so-called 'road map to peace' agreed to by the Israeli government.
The 942 homes approved in Gilo settlement expected to be followed by another 850 houses, as well as the expansion of water and electric services and Israeli-only roads.
Next week, the Jerusalem Planning and Building Committee is expected to approve a further 1,608 houses to be constructed in settlements beyond the 1967 'Green Line' border between Israel and the West Bank.
Over 500,000 Israeli settlers currently live in colonial settlements constructed on Palestinian land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The vast majority of these settlers moved into these settlements, many from former Soviet Republics, in the last 15 years.
The plan to expand Gilo settlement, located south of Jerusalem on the land of Beit Jala, near Bethlehem, was criticized in 2009, when it was introduced, by the US and United Kingdom. The US called the Gilo expansion an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians, and requested that the Israeli government not move forward with the plan.
Israeli settlement expansion has markedly increased since September 2010, when a supposed ten-month freeze on settlement construction was not renewed. But even in the year of the so-called 'settlement freeze' (2010), statistics show that four times more units were constructed in Israeli settlements than in 2009.
A recent United Nations Security Council Resolution condemning Israeli settlement expansion was vetoed by the US, although it was approved by the other 14 members...
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Israeli forces detain Palestinian teenager, continue to surround West Bank town
Maan News Agency - Israeli forces detained a teenager in Beit Ummar on Sunday as the army's siege on the West Bank town continues, local officials said.
Popular committee spokesman Mohammad Ayad Awwad said Israeli troops had surrounded Beit Ummar for 13 days, since the army blocking all entrances to the town with barriers and cement blocks.
Soldiers detained Ahmad Ibrahim Ali IIkhlieyel, 16, and took him to an unknown location, Awwad added.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said Ali Ikhlieyel was detained "for security questioning."
Israeli forces have stepped up military activity in Beit Ummar since an Israeli settler opened fire on a funeral procession in the town on March 21, injuring two...
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Popular committee spokesman Mohammad Ayad Awwad said Israeli troops had surrounded Beit Ummar for 13 days, since the army blocking all entrances to the town with barriers and cement blocks.
Soldiers detained Ahmad Ibrahim Ali IIkhlieyel, 16, and took him to an unknown location, Awwad added.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said Ali Ikhlieyel was detained "for security questioning."
Israeli forces have stepped up military activity in Beit Ummar since an Israeli settler opened fire on a funeral procession in the town on March 21, injuring two...
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Settlers attack Palestinian man in the West Bank
Maan News Agency - Israeli settlers on Sunday attacked a Palestinian man south of Nablus and destroyed water pipes in the area, officials said.
Imad Husni Salahat, 47, was severely beaten by settlers in Kawkab Salah near Ma'ale Efrayim, said Palestinian Authority settlement affairs official Ghassan Doughlas.
Doughlas said Salahat was taken to the Rafadea Hospital in Nablus.
In the same area, village council official Hasan Zieyada said residents of the illegal Yitzhar settlement destroyed water pipes south of Madama...
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Imad Husni Salahat, 47, was severely beaten by settlers in Kawkab Salah near Ma'ale Efrayim, said Palestinian Authority settlement affairs official Ghassan Doughlas.
Doughlas said Salahat was taken to the Rafadea Hospital in Nablus.
In the same area, village council official Hasan Zieyada said residents of the illegal Yitzhar settlement destroyed water pipes south of Madama...
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Sunday, April 3, 2011
New Egyptian foreign minister says Egypt will not remain 'strategic treasure' to Israel
Palestine Information Center - The new Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil al-Arabi has criticized the Egyptian position as Israel launches a new aggression on the Gaza Strip, saying a national security council consisting of foreign ministers and experts should have been created to deal with the position in Gaza.
He said that Egypt requires a national security council to examine decisions and provide ideas according to the systems of developed countries.
According to Arabi, under the old regime, Egypt's foreign policy was turned into not more than a ”reaction” for current events, and issues were managed randomly and improvised.
Arabi explained Israel's intent behind the Camp David Accord was to naturalize the Arab state's treatment of Israel. Egypt had signed the treaty and must abide by it, he said. And Israel must also abide by its clauses.
”We will stick to all of the treaties we signed, and we will demand that they keep their side of the deal,” Arabi said.
”There must be some decisiveness in the issues Israel has not abided by, such as the clause that states that Israel must maintain peace with countries that want [peace], which has not happened with Palestine, which has agreed to peace with Israel,” he said. ”The conflict between Palestine and Israel should be ended and not managed...for the benefit of Israel, Palestine and the entire world.”
He added: ”We will not be a strategic treasure for Israel as they used to say during the time of Mubarak. We will only abide by the treaties.”
The Egyptian delegation had opposed the Camp David Accord and had told Pres. Sadat not to sign. But Sadat insisted on doing so.
Arabi said Egypt will revive its national role as the largest country in the Arab region and has paid a high price for standing for what is right and maintaining agreements or rights.
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He said that Egypt requires a national security council to examine decisions and provide ideas according to the systems of developed countries.
According to Arabi, under the old regime, Egypt's foreign policy was turned into not more than a ”reaction” for current events, and issues were managed randomly and improvised.
Arabi explained Israel's intent behind the Camp David Accord was to naturalize the Arab state's treatment of Israel. Egypt had signed the treaty and must abide by it, he said. And Israel must also abide by its clauses.
”We will stick to all of the treaties we signed, and we will demand that they keep their side of the deal,” Arabi said.
”There must be some decisiveness in the issues Israel has not abided by, such as the clause that states that Israel must maintain peace with countries that want [peace], which has not happened with Palestine, which has agreed to peace with Israel,” he said. ”The conflict between Palestine and Israel should be ended and not managed...for the benefit of Israel, Palestine and the entire world.”
He added: ”We will not be a strategic treasure for Israel as they used to say during the time of Mubarak. We will only abide by the treaties.”
The Egyptian delegation had opposed the Camp David Accord and had told Pres. Sadat not to sign. But Sadat insisted on doing so.
Arabi said Egypt will revive its national role as the largest country in the Arab region and has paid a high price for standing for what is right and maintaining agreements or rights.
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Goldstone reneges on report, yet the documented record still stands: Israel intentionally targets civilians and civilian infrastructure
Alex Kane, Mondoweiss - Judge Richard Goldstone’s mea culpa in the Washington Post today is indeed “confusing and potentially damaging,” as Adam Horowitz writes.
Key findings in the U.N. report–that “Israeli armed forces had carried out direct intentional strikes against civilians” in eleven incidents examined in detail and that Israel destroyed civilian infrastructure like the Sawafeary chicken farm in a systematic and deliberate fashion–is muddied up by Goldstone’s claim that “civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy.”
....In the Gaza Strip, civilians are routinely shot at and sometimes killed if they step into the so-called “buffer zone,” which constitutes some 35 percent of the Strip’s arable land. An October 2010 report by Defense of Children International states:
"Between 26 March and 14 October 2010, DCI-Palestine documented 14 cases of children shot whilst collecting building gravel near the border fence between Gaza Strip and Israel. Due to a severe lack of job opportunities and a shortage of construction material entering Gaza from Israel, hundreds of men and boys scavenge for building gravel amongst the destroyed buildings close to the border fence. The gravel is collected into sacks, loaded onto donkey drawn carts and sold to builders for use in concrete. Children can earn up to 50 shekels (US $13) per day which is used to help support their families. Reports indicate that Israeli soldiers on duty in the observation towers which line the border between Gaza and Israel frequently fire warning shots to scare workers away from the border region. Reports also indicate that these soldiers sometimes shoot and kill the donkeys used by the workers, and also target the workers, usually, but not always, shooting at their legs. In the cases documented by DCI-Palestine, the children report being shot whilst working between 50 to 800 metres from the border fence."
A separate U.N. study on the “buffer zone” reports:
"Since the end of the “Cast Lead” offensive in January 2009, the Israeli army has also killed a total of 22 civilians and injured another 146 in these circumstances."
The examples are endless, but what they make clear is that the Israeli persecution of Palestinians documented in the Goldstone report and numerous other sources was not confined to “Operation Cast Lead.” Goldstone’s “reconsideration” in the Post today doesn’t change the documented history.
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Key findings in the U.N. report–that “Israeli armed forces had carried out direct intentional strikes against civilians” in eleven incidents examined in detail and that Israel destroyed civilian infrastructure like the Sawafeary chicken farm in a systematic and deliberate fashion–is muddied up by Goldstone’s claim that “civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy.”
....In the Gaza Strip, civilians are routinely shot at and sometimes killed if they step into the so-called “buffer zone,” which constitutes some 35 percent of the Strip’s arable land. An October 2010 report by Defense of Children International states:
"Between 26 March and 14 October 2010, DCI-Palestine documented 14 cases of children shot whilst collecting building gravel near the border fence between Gaza Strip and Israel. Due to a severe lack of job opportunities and a shortage of construction material entering Gaza from Israel, hundreds of men and boys scavenge for building gravel amongst the destroyed buildings close to the border fence. The gravel is collected into sacks, loaded onto donkey drawn carts and sold to builders for use in concrete. Children can earn up to 50 shekels (US $13) per day which is used to help support their families. Reports indicate that Israeli soldiers on duty in the observation towers which line the border between Gaza and Israel frequently fire warning shots to scare workers away from the border region. Reports also indicate that these soldiers sometimes shoot and kill the donkeys used by the workers, and also target the workers, usually, but not always, shooting at their legs. In the cases documented by DCI-Palestine, the children report being shot whilst working between 50 to 800 metres from the border fence."
A separate U.N. study on the “buffer zone” reports:
"Since the end of the “Cast Lead” offensive in January 2009, the Israeli army has also killed a total of 22 civilians and injured another 146 in these circumstances."
The examples are endless, but what they make clear is that the Israeli persecution of Palestinians documented in the Goldstone report and numerous other sources was not confined to “Operation Cast Lead.” Goldstone’s “reconsideration” in the Post today doesn’t change the documented history.
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Students on trip to IDF base simulated shooting targets with Arab headdres
Incident took place during at a military base where students were being escorted as part of an 'IDF preparation' project, sanctioned by the Education Ministry.
Haaretz - Twelfth-grade students from Herzliya's Hayovel High School took part in a simulated shooting attack in which the targets were figures decked out with the Arab keffiyeh headdress, Haaretz has learned.
The incident took place at a military base last week during the annual 12th grade trip. The students were being escorted to a commanders' base in the Negev as part of an "IDF preparation" project, which is sanctioned by the Education Ministry.
According to a person familiar with the details, the event was tantamount to "educating toward hatred of Arabs."
"Some citizens of the State of Israel wear keffiyehs," the source said. "Now they are viewed as legitimate targets for a shooting simulation."
The trip concluded on Thursday. In a notice that was sent to parents, the school said that "the course of the trip is an inseparable part of the educational curriculum in general, and the 'IDF preparation' in particular."
The first day of the trip included "activities with soldiers in commanders' school," according to the notice. The students met with soldiers on the base and heard lectures about the army and the importance of conscription...
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Haaretz - Twelfth-grade students from Herzliya's Hayovel High School took part in a simulated shooting attack in which the targets were figures decked out with the Arab keffiyeh headdress, Haaretz has learned.
The incident took place at a military base last week during the annual 12th grade trip. The students were being escorted to a commanders' base in the Negev as part of an "IDF preparation" project, which is sanctioned by the Education Ministry.
According to a person familiar with the details, the event was tantamount to "educating toward hatred of Arabs."
"Some citizens of the State of Israel wear keffiyehs," the source said. "Now they are viewed as legitimate targets for a shooting simulation."
The trip concluded on Thursday. In a notice that was sent to parents, the school said that "the course of the trip is an inseparable part of the educational curriculum in general, and the 'IDF preparation' in particular."
The first day of the trip included "activities with soldiers in commanders' school," according to the notice. The students met with soldiers on the base and heard lectures about the army and the importance of conscription...
Read More
Goldstone's daughter: My father's participation softened UN Gaza report
Haaretz, Sept. 16, 2009 - Had Richard Goldstone not served as the head of the UN inquiry into the Gaza war, the accusations against Israel would have been harsher, Goldstone's daughter, Nicole, said in an interview conducted in Hebrew with Army Radio on Wednesday.
"My father took on this job because he thought he is doing the best thing for peace, for everyone, and also for Israel," Nicole Goldstone told Army Radio.
She added that her father wrestled with the decision to take on the task. "It wasn't easy [for him]," Nicole Goldstone said. "My father did not expect to see and hear what he saw and heard."
Nicole Goldstone, who currently lives in Canada with her family, spoke of her great love for Israel.
"Every time I dream of returning to the country or that my son will one day immigrate there," she told Army Radio.
"Israel is more important to me than anything. I'm not there at the moment, but my heart is always there."
Nicole Goldstone said she expects to host her father for the upcoming Rosh Hashanah holiday.
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"My father took on this job because he thought he is doing the best thing for peace, for everyone, and also for Israel," Nicole Goldstone told Army Radio.
She added that her father wrestled with the decision to take on the task. "It wasn't easy [for him]," Nicole Goldstone said. "My father did not expect to see and hear what he saw and heard."
Nicole Goldstone, who currently lives in Canada with her family, spoke of her great love for Israel.
"Every time I dream of returning to the country or that my son will one day immigrate there," she told Army Radio.
"Israel is more important to me than anything. I'm not there at the moment, but my heart is always there."
Nicole Goldstone said she expects to host her father for the upcoming Rosh Hashanah holiday.
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UN: Israel's demolitions of Palestinian homes hit record high
Maan News Agency - Israel's demolitions of Palestinian homes and buildings reached a record high in March for the third consecutive month, according to figures from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
The UN Relief and Works Agency recorded 76 demolitions of Palestinian buildings in March, forcibly displacing 158 Palestinians including 64 children.
So far this year, Israel has demolished the homes of 333 Palestinians, including 175 children, UNRWA reported.
Meanwhile, Israel has built a record number of Jewish-only homes on occupied Palestinian land, in contravention of international law.
Commenting on the unprecedented figures, UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness told Ma'an that they revealed ethnic discrimination.
"I am not saying this is classic ethnic cleansing, but the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has condemned this discrimination and make no mistake, it is discrimination against one ethnic group."..
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The UN Relief and Works Agency recorded 76 demolitions of Palestinian buildings in March, forcibly displacing 158 Palestinians including 64 children.
So far this year, Israel has demolished the homes of 333 Palestinians, including 175 children, UNRWA reported.
Meanwhile, Israel has built a record number of Jewish-only homes on occupied Palestinian land, in contravention of international law.
Commenting on the unprecedented figures, UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness told Ma'an that they revealed ethnic discrimination.
"I am not saying this is classic ethnic cleansing, but the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has condemned this discrimination and make no mistake, it is discrimination against one ethnic group."..
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Saturday, April 2, 2011
Rabbi says Jewish law prohibits couples from conceiving using non-Jewish sperm
Ynet News - Rabbi Dov Lior, a senior authority on Jewish law in the Religious Zionism movement, asserted recently that a Jewish woman should never get pregnant using sperm donated by a non-Jewish man – even if it is the last option available.
According to Lior, a baby born through such an insemination will have the "negative genetic traits that characterize non-Jews." Instead, he advised sterile couples to adopt.
Lior addressed the issue during a women's health conference held recently at the Puah Institute, a fertility clinic. His conservative stance negated a ruling widely accepted by rabbis, which states that sperm donated by a non-Jew is preferable to that of an anonymous Jew, who might pose a genealogical risk.
"Sefer HaChinuch (a book of Jewish law) states that the character traits of the father pass on to the son," he said in the lecture. "If the father in not Jewish, what character traits could he have? Traits of cruelty, of barbarism! These are not traits that characterize the people of Israel."
Lior added identified Jews as merciful, shy and charitable – qualities that he claimed could be inherited. "A person born to Jewish parents, even if they weren't raised on the Torah – there are things that are passed on (to him) in the blood, it's genetic," he explained. "If the father is a gentile, then the child is deprived of these things.
"I even read in books that sometimes the crime, the difficult traits, the bitterness – a child that comes from these traits, it's no surprise that he won't have the qualities that characterize the people of Israel," he added...
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According to Lior, a baby born through such an insemination will have the "negative genetic traits that characterize non-Jews." Instead, he advised sterile couples to adopt.
Lior addressed the issue during a women's health conference held recently at the Puah Institute, a fertility clinic. His conservative stance negated a ruling widely accepted by rabbis, which states that sperm donated by a non-Jew is preferable to that of an anonymous Jew, who might pose a genealogical risk.
"Sefer HaChinuch (a book of Jewish law) states that the character traits of the father pass on to the son," he said in the lecture. "If the father in not Jewish, what character traits could he have? Traits of cruelty, of barbarism! These are not traits that characterize the people of Israel."
Lior added identified Jews as merciful, shy and charitable – qualities that he claimed could be inherited. "A person born to Jewish parents, even if they weren't raised on the Torah – there are things that are passed on (to him) in the blood, it's genetic," he explained. "If the father is a gentile, then the child is deprived of these things.
"I even read in books that sometimes the crime, the difficult traits, the bitterness – a child that comes from these traits, it's no surprise that he won't have the qualities that characterize the people of Israel," he added...
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Settlers attack home, shop in the West Bank
Maan News Agency - Israeli settlers attacked a shop and a home in the West Bank city of Hebron on Thursday, witnesses said.
Onlookers said settlers destroyed the contents of a store in Jaber neighborhood and damaged a Palestinian home in Tel Rumeida in central Hebron.
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Onlookers said settlers destroyed the contents of a store in Jaber neighborhood and damaged a Palestinian home in Tel Rumeida in central Hebron.
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Israeli soldiers attack Palestinian youth planting olive trees
Maan News Agency - A group of Palestinian youth said they were attacked by Israeli soldiers while planting olive trees on Wednesday.
Around 30 young men and women from a group "Ihna Gheir" (We are different) planted around 100 olive trees in A'bud village north west of Ramallah to commemorate Land Day.
One of the participants told Ma’an that Israeli military jeeps raided the area and threatened the group. The soldiers were followed by a group of settlers, who uprooted the trees, and two Palestinians were injured in ensuing clashes.
The Palestinian youth said they moved to another area to continue planting the trees...
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Around 30 young men and women from a group "Ihna Gheir" (We are different) planted around 100 olive trees in A'bud village north west of Ramallah to commemorate Land Day.
One of the participants told Ma’an that Israeli military jeeps raided the area and threatened the group. The soldiers were followed by a group of settlers, who uprooted the trees, and two Palestinians were injured in ensuing clashes.
The Palestinian youth said they moved to another area to continue planting the trees...
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Israel builds more checkpoints in the West Bank
Maan News Agency - Israeli forces on Saturday erected several military checkpoints on the road to Wadi Qana south of Nablus in the northern West Bank, denying local farmers access to their fields in the area.
Meanwhile, 13 busloads of Israeli settlers from the nearby Alfe Menashe and Qarne Shomron settlements were escorted to the Wadi Qana valley by heavy police and military forces.
The mayor of Deir Istiya, Nathmi Salman, said he was denied access to Wadi Qana at gun point and was told the area was a "closed military zone."
He said that Palestinian farmers had gathered in a building near Wadi Qana and an Israeli military jeep was stationed there preventing them from leaving...
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Meanwhile, 13 busloads of Israeli settlers from the nearby Alfe Menashe and Qarne Shomron settlements were escorted to the Wadi Qana valley by heavy police and military forces.
The mayor of Deir Istiya, Nathmi Salman, said he was denied access to Wadi Qana at gun point and was told the area was a "closed military zone."
He said that Palestinian farmers had gathered in a building near Wadi Qana and an Israeli military jeep was stationed there preventing them from leaving...
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Israel strikes southern Gaza, 3 killed
Maan News Agency - Israeli war planes struck the southern Gaza Strip overnight Friday killing three Palestinians and seriously injuring a fourth, medics said.
Gaza medical services spokesman Adham Abu Salmiya said the deceased were transferred to the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Khan Younis, adding that their bodies were charred from the intensity of the strike.
The three were identified as Isma’il Labad, 31, and his brother Abdullah, 24, from Ash-Shati refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, and Muhammad Ad-Dayah, 31, from the Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City.
A fourth man was seriously wounded in the attack and taken to the same hospital, Abu Salmiya said.
Witnesses said Israeli drones fired a missile at a white Toyota traveling on Salah Ad-Din road between Khan Younis and Deir Al-Baleh. They said the car was totally destroyed, and that the explosion shook the city of Khan Younis...
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Gaza medical services spokesman Adham Abu Salmiya said the deceased were transferred to the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Khan Younis, adding that their bodies were charred from the intensity of the strike.
The three were identified as Isma’il Labad, 31, and his brother Abdullah, 24, from Ash-Shati refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, and Muhammad Ad-Dayah, 31, from the Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City.
A fourth man was seriously wounded in the attack and taken to the same hospital, Abu Salmiya said.
Witnesses said Israeli drones fired a missile at a white Toyota traveling on Salah Ad-Din road between Khan Younis and Deir Al-Baleh. They said the car was totally destroyed, and that the explosion shook the city of Khan Younis...
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Friday, April 1, 2011
Israeli troops open fire on anti-wall protest, three injured
Palestine News Network - Three villagers were injured on Friday by Israeli troops as the forcibly suppressed weekly anti-wall protests in several locations across the West Bank.
Today protesters commemorated Palestinian land day. The first Land Day was held in 1976, when Palestinians inside Israel organized massive popular protests in response to an Israeli government plan
to appropriate large tracts of Arab land in the Galilee for security and settlements. Israeli police gunfire on that day left six Palestinians dead.
In the village of Bil’in, where anti wall protests have been organized for the past six years, three men were injured when Israeli troops fired tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets at protesters.
After the midday prayers in the local mosque finished, villagers were joined by international and Israeli peace activists and marched up the gate of the wall separating villagers from their lands.
Troops stationed there opened fire at protesters injuring Bassem Yassen, 34 years old, Rani Burnat, 29 and Kamel Al Khateb, 19. The men sustained injuries when soldiers fired tear gas canisters directly at them. Many others were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation.
The nearby village of Ni'lin held a similar protest on Friday. After conducting the Friday prayers on lands near the wall, villagers and their supporters marched up to the gate of the wall separating local farmers from their land. Israeli troops used tear gas and sound bombs to force people back. Many were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation...
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Today protesters commemorated Palestinian land day. The first Land Day was held in 1976, when Palestinians inside Israel organized massive popular protests in response to an Israeli government plan
to appropriate large tracts of Arab land in the Galilee for security and settlements. Israeli police gunfire on that day left six Palestinians dead.
In the village of Bil’in, where anti wall protests have been organized for the past six years, three men were injured when Israeli troops fired tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets at protesters.
After the midday prayers in the local mosque finished, villagers were joined by international and Israeli peace activists and marched up the gate of the wall separating villagers from their lands.
Troops stationed there opened fire at protesters injuring Bassem Yassen, 34 years old, Rani Burnat, 29 and Kamel Al Khateb, 19. The men sustained injuries when soldiers fired tear gas canisters directly at them. Many others were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation.
The nearby village of Ni'lin held a similar protest on Friday. After conducting the Friday prayers on lands near the wall, villagers and their supporters marched up to the gate of the wall separating local farmers from their land. Israeli troops used tear gas and sound bombs to force people back. Many were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation...
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Report: Israel abducted 43 Palestinian civilians this week
IMEMC - In its Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories for the week of 24-30 March 2011, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) found that 3 Palestinian resistance fighters were killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, one of whom was extra-judicially executed.
Israeli forces abducted 27 Palestinian civilians, including 14 children, during invasions into the West Bank, and abducted 16 non-violent activists at demonstrations in the West Bank.
In addition, 3 Palestinian resistance fighters were wounded in the Gaza Strip, and a number of Palestinian civilians were injured by shattered glass when Israeli warplanes bombed the Ship Building in the northern Gaza Strip. In addition, 30 houses and two schools were damaged by Israeli troops in Gaza...
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Israeli forces abducted 27 Palestinian civilians, including 14 children, during invasions into the West Bank, and abducted 16 non-violent activists at demonstrations in the West Bank.
In addition, 3 Palestinian resistance fighters were wounded in the Gaza Strip, and a number of Palestinian civilians were injured by shattered glass when Israeli warplanes bombed the Ship Building in the northern Gaza Strip. In addition, 30 houses and two schools were damaged by Israeli troops in Gaza...
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Settler ran over three year old Palestinian girl
Maan News Agency - An Israeli settler ran over a three-year-old girl and fled the scene in central Hebron on Thursday, locals said.
Lana Al-Ja'bari was transferred to hospital with moderate injuries, her relatives said
She was run over near the Al-Ibrahimi Mosque in the presence of Israeli soldiers, witnesses said.
On Monday, an Israeli settler ran down a Palestinian girl on her way to school south of Hebron. He remained in the area until police arrived.
However, in two other incidents in March, Israeli settlers driving in the West Bank struck Palestinians and drove away.
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Lana Al-Ja'bari was transferred to hospital with moderate injuries, her relatives said
She was run over near the Al-Ibrahimi Mosque in the presence of Israeli soldiers, witnesses said.
On Monday, an Israeli settler ran down a Palestinian girl on her way to school south of Hebron. He remained in the area until police arrived.
However, in two other incidents in March, Israeli settlers driving in the West Bank struck Palestinians and drove away.
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Israeli army arrests 3 east of Bethlehem
Maan News Agency - Israeli soldiers arrested three Palestinians at a checkpoint in Beit Sahour east of Bethlehem, locals said.
Soldiers stopped a taxi that was on its way from Hebron to Ramallah and ordered all the passengers out, including two disabled people.
They searched the vehicle and detained the driver, Ahed Ibrahim Abu Sbeih, 33, from Hebron, and two other passengers.
An Israeli army spokeswoman did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
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Soldiers stopped a taxi that was on its way from Hebron to Ramallah and ordered all the passengers out, including two disabled people.
They searched the vehicle and detained the driver, Ahed Ibrahim Abu Sbeih, 33, from Hebron, and two other passengers.
An Israeli army spokeswoman did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
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