Israeli forces prevent Palestinians from reaching their fields as gov’t announces another 650 settlement units

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- A joint Muslim and Christian organization warned Thursday that the rabbi of the Western Wall plans to build a second level at the holy site abutting Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The Islamic Christian Commission in Support of Jerusalem and the Holy Sites said the design was highly dangerous to the Haram al-Sharif compound as it would involve drilling directly under complex housing the mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

Earlier this year, the group 1948 Lest We Forget filed an application to the World Monuments Fund (WMF) to include the Palestinian village of Lifta in its 2012 World Monuments Watch List. The WMF was chosen because it accepts nominations from individuals, institutions and organizations without the need for national or state endorsement. The fund is an independent organization registered as a charity and based in New York City. It is concerned with saving some of the world’s most treasured places, whether great buildings, sites or singular monuments. In preparing the application, we carried out extensive research on Lifta — its rich history, its unique architectural, cultural and social character — and found it to be an embodiment of everything Palestinian.

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- Israeli forces closed the West Bank's Allenby crossing to Jordan on Thursday evening, witnesses told Ma'an. The terminal, the sole entry and exit point for Palestinians in the West Bank to travel abroad, was shut down around 5 p.m. as ambulances, fire services, and Israeli police entered the closed zone, travelers said.  Crossings authorities could not be reached to comment on the unscheduled closure. 

HEBRON (Ma’an) -- Israeli forces blocked a group of Palestinians from working on their land in southern Hebron on Thursday, farmers told Ma'an.  Ibrahim Abu Subha said around 30 farmers went to the fields near Susiya village, close to the southern edge of the West Bank, on Thursday morning. When they began work, Israeli forces arrived and ordered them off the land, declaring the 2,000 dunum area a closed military zone. Settlers from nearby Jewish-only communities inside the West Bank "incited forces against the Palestinians," when the group told soldiers they owned the fields, Abu Sabha said. 

Israeli academics have condemned the construction of the so-called "Museum of Tolerance" on the site of a historic Muslim cemetery in Occupied Jerusalem. They have also warned that should the museum on top of the Ma'aman Allah Cemetery go ahead, Israel risks major and bitter confrontation with the Muslim world. The comments were made at a seminar organised by the Jerusalem Institute for Israeli Studies on Wednesday, November 30, to mark the publication of a book by Yitzhak Reiter about the Ma'aman Allah Cemetery and the construction of the museum in question. Speakers said that building the museum in such a location will have dangerous repercussions at local and international levels. They suggested that the decision to build should be reversed, especially in the light of the increasing international objections to the project.

 

Jewish settlers attack Salem village in Nablus
Dozens of Jewish settlers under military protection savagely attacked Saturday morning Salem village east of Nablus city and assaulted its Palestinian farmers. Palestinian children imprisoned in violation of international law
In September 2009 Israel established the Military Youth Court. Two years later, in September 2011 Israel finally met its obligations under international law and raised the age of majority in the military courts from 16 to 18. However, none of these changes brought major improvements in practice and the abuse of Palestinian children arrested and detained by Israeli authorities continues…

 

Israeli occupation forces (IOF) detained a Palestinian young woman at a roadblock leading to the Ibrahimi mosque in Al-Khalil on Thursday, local sources said.

IOF soldiers round up 9 PFLP activists including one with disability
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) launched a large scale search operation in Jenin before dawn Thursday and rounded up nine activists of the popular front for the liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Soldiers Attack Detainees In Nafha Prison
Israeli soldiers attacked on Thursday several detainees held in the Nafha detention camp, in the Negev Desert. In a letter sent to Husam Society, the detainees said that they have been without electricity since more than three days. Palestinian prisoners in Nafha jail on 2nd day of hunger strike
Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli desert prison of Nafha have gone on hunger strike since Wednesday in protest against Israeli penal measures, the Wa’ad for prisoners affairs said on Thursday. Large participation in the sit-in to demand release of political prisoners

Palestinians in large numbers on Thursday participated in the weekly sit-in to demand the release of political prisoners from PA jails in light of the claimed major progress in the reconciliation. Hezbollah seeks to reassure Lebanon over probe (AP)
AP - The leader of Hezbollah sought to reassure Lebanon on Thursday that he has no interest in stirring up trouble over an international investigation that has targeted members of his Shiite militant group. Soon after Republican presidential candidates Rick Perry and Mitt Romneysuggested in a debate that U.S. foreign aid--including to Israel--should start at zero, campaign statements were issued by the Democratic Party boasting about their commitment to Israel while the GOP candidates quickly clarified their positions. Next week, in a forum organized by the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC), the GOP candidates will seek to fight what they call Democratic "smears" by highlighting their devotion to Israel. Hebron: Occupation and Sterilization, Markus Balázs Göransson
The center of Hebron is surreal and terrifying. It is strange and overwhelming to see this schizophrenic place with my own eyes. As I walk along the streets, my senses are heightened yet I cannot fully process what I see. It feels like I am walking in a dream or on an empty movie set. The legacy of violence is stark and in your face and I am reminded of the ruins and craters that I saw when visiting Srebrenica in Bosnia several years ago. Yet, unlike Srebrenica, there has been no attempt to move past the divisions in Hebron. Instead, the divisions have been frozen and institutionalized and today Hebron is relatively quiet only because people are kept physically apart. Netanyahu Tries to Hide the Occupation, Jonathan Cook
As protests raged again across the Middle East, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, offered his assessment of the Arab Spring last week. It was, he said, an "Islamic, anti-western, anti-liberal, anti-Israeli, undemocratic wave," adding that Israel’s Arab neighbors were "moving not forwards, but backwards." It takes some chutzpah – or, at least, epic self-delusion – [...] The popular internet magazine Slate recently published an excerpt from The Unmaking of Israel, a new book by the historian Gershom Gorenberg. The title of the excerpt asked “Did Israel actually plan to expel most of its Arabs in 1948? Or not?” (“The Mystery of 1948,” 7 November 2011). In October, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department turned parts of the campus of the University of California in Berkeley into an urban battlefield. The occasion wasUrban Shield 2011, an annual SWAT team exposition organized to promote “mutual response,” collaboration and competition between heavily militarized police strike forces representing law enforcement departments across the United States and foreign nations.