Poland presses Israel over destruction of West Bank village supported by Polish charity

Israeli army destroys West Bank well restored by Polish charity
Polskie Radio 15 Feb — Israel’s ambassador was summoned by the Foreign Ministry in Warsaw, to explain why Israeli forces demolished an ancient water well in the West Bank, restored by a Polish charity …Israeli army bulldozers also demolished much of the small Palestinian village, which is situated in the Area C district of the West Bank, which is under direct Israeli control. “In the morning I received a text message about demolition of the village,” Marta Kaszubska coordinator of the Polish Humanitarian Action (PAH) mission in Jerusalem told the Onet.pl web site. “I immediately went to the place. El Rahawia was razed to the ground […] leaving only three tents. I met people who lost their possessions – their entire lives,” she added. Eighty three people, including 48 children, were made homeless by the Israeli army raid.
http://www.thenews.pl/1/10/Artykul/90243,Israeli-army-destroys-West-Bank-well-restored-by-Polish-charity

Land theft / Ethnic cleansing / Apartheid / Attacks on Palestinian culture/religion

Jerusalem

PA works in Jerusalem despite Israeli measures, says Fayyad
RAMALLAH (WAFA) 15 Feb – Prime Minister Salam Fayyad Wednesday stressed that the Palestinian authority is working in Jerusalem in order to provide more sources to enable them to work more efficiently despite of the Israeli obstacles. He said that working in Jerusalem is the PA’s right and duty toward Palestinian Jerusalemites … Fayyad concentrated in his speech on Jerusalem and the Israeli serious violations against its Palestinian residents.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18998

Khatib: IOA uses chemical material to accelerate digging under the Aqsa
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 15 Feb — The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) is using chemical materials to accelerate excavation underneath the Aqsa mosque in occupied Jerusalem, Kamal Al-Khatib, the deputy leader of the Islamic movement in 1948 occupied Palestine, said. He said in a press release on Tuesday that the use of chemical materials was meant to speed up the erosion of the rocky layer or foundation that protects the Aqsa mosque.
linnk to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Israeli forces destroy ‘the only place for children in Silwan’
EI 15 Feb by Josie Shields-Stromsness — …Palestinians living in Silwan and other areas of occupied East Jerusalem are facing increased attacks from the Israeli authorities and Israeli settlers. Life for these Palestinian families is now complicated by endless legal battles and fear of the future. Simple things like living in their homes, sending their children to school, and creating spaces for kids to play can’t be taken for granted as homes are given over to Israeli settlers or threatened with demolition, as children as young as six are picked up by Israeli police for interrogation, and as community centers are destroyed. Jawad Siyam, director of the Madaa Creative Center in Silwan that runs the cultural café and the sports field directly in front of the café, lamented: “this was the only place in the area to meet, to sit together. It was the only place for children in Silwan.” Though Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem pay taxes to the Israeli-run Jerusalem municipality, the authority does not provide services like public parks and community centers so the local communities have to create their own.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/israeli-forces-destroy-only-place-children-silwan/10940

Jerusalem ‘squatter’ discovers that his home is rightfully his
Haaretz 10 Feb — Decades-old documents could stymie state’s plans to evict veteran residents from neighborhoods throughout the country — …Putting new immigrants in abandoned Palestinian houses initially served two purposes: alleviating the country’s housing shortage, and preventing the Palestinians from returning. Since then, however, thousands of people have been evicted from these houses – either by the state, because it wanted to promote some new building plan, or by private entrepreneurs to whom the state sold the land. Yohanan charges that for decades, the state concealed procedures that would have allowed the residents to acquire the legal right to their houses, but not from everyone: While thousands were evicted, thousands of others did acquire rights. “The procedures were honored for people of a certain color,” Yohanan said bluntly. In other words, Ashkenazim were allowed to legally acquire their houses; Sephardim weren’t. [Haaretz commenter: “a thief claiming his right from another… and what about the real original owners who were prevented from returning to their homes?!” Another: “So the Ashkenazim demonstrated their racism against the Sephardim by refusing to give them a fair cut of the houses they stole from the Palestinians. I’m SHOCKED at this terrible injustice to the Sephardim.”]
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/jerusalem-squatter-discovers-that-his-home-is-rightfully-his-1.412050

Elsewhere

Nablus village ‘refuses Israeli decision to curtail mosque’
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 14 Feb — Israel’s Supreme Court has ruled that a Nablus-district Palestinian village remove speakers and lights from its minaret in order to placate Israeli settlers living nearby, village residents said on Tuesday. Village Council head Ali Eid said Burin would refuse the court ruling, which was received by the village on Monday. He added that the village is waiting for instructions from the Nablus governor who is following up on the case … Burin is encircled by Jewish-only settlements and settler outposts, which have confiscated 12,000 out of 32,000 dunams of Palestinian villagers’ land, Eid said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=460392

A plea to the world from the principal of a Palestinian school about to be demolished
14 Feb — In November we reported with joy about the new school structure at Susiya (Susya). (see also an earlier report here). Only a few weeks later, the Occupation regime’s fraudulently named “Civil Administration” handed down demolition orders to the school. In a rare direct expression of an Occupied Palestinian voice in the Israeli printed press, the school’s prinicipal Muhammad A-Nawwajeh published an editorial in Israel’s Haaretz newspaper about the demolition order on his school. Unlike most of Haaretz op-eds, this article was apparently not translated to the newspaper’s English site. We provide the translation below: What Will You Tell My Students? Muhammad Jaber Hamed A-Nawwajeh
http://villagesgroup.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/a-plea-to-the-world-from-the-principal-of-a-palestinian-school-about-to-be-demolished/

Israeli forces demolish shed, wells, barns south of Hebron
HEBRON (WAFA) 15 Feb – Israeli forces Wednesday demolished several tin shacks, water wells and animal barns east of the town of Yatta, south of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, according to a local official … Hafiz Hreiny, head of al-Litwani village council, told WAFA that Israeli bulldozers demolished two tin shacks, two water wells and a number of animal barns. The shacks were used as shelter for many families and the wells were considered the only source of water for residents and their livestock.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18997

Soldiers destroy 5 agricultural sheds in Nablus
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 14 Feb — Israeli forces demolished five iron corrugated structures in Nablus on Tuesday, a PA official said. “Israeli bulldozers stormed Furush Beit Dajan in the Jordan Valley, east of Nablus and demolished three agricultural tin-roof sheds … Israeli forces also entered the village of Aqraba south of Nablus and demolished a tin-roof structure used for agricultural purposes. Munadel Hanini, a local official from Beit Furik village in Nablus, told Ma‘an that another agricultural shed was demolished by soldiers.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=460367

Israeli forces demolish three Palestinian sheds in Nablus
NABLUS (WAFA) 14 Feb — …Meanwhile, forces also demolished two more tin shacks in Khirbet Tana and al-Taweel, locales east of Nablus.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18985

Settlers, soldiers uproot olive trees in West Bank village
RAMALLAH (WAFA) 15 Feb – Israeli settlers backed by a large army force Wednesday uprooted olive trees in the West Bank village of Turmus Ayya, north of Ramallah, forcing clashes with local residents, said a local resident. Rajeh Abu al-Sukkar told WAFA that settlers and soldiers came to his land and started uprooting trees then loading them on a truck to take them away. He denied claims by the soldiers and settlers that the land was state-owned stressing that he had a court order three months ago confirming that the land is his and that he can work on it.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18994

IOF serves demolition notices in Jenin village
JENIN (PIC) 15 Feb — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) delivered demolition notices to two inhabitants in Arraba village, south of Jenin city. Local sources told PIC reporter that IOF troops in a number of armored vehicles stormed the village last night accompanied by employees in the civil administration’s organization and construction department and delivered the notices. They said that the IOF soldiers warned the citizens that they should raze their tin houses because of their proximity to Mabo Dotan settlement.
Other IOF units stormed the nearby village of Kafr Ra‘ee and delivered summonses to two citizens for questioning at the intelligence headquarters.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk/

oh, but they also did this:
3 structures razed in Oz Zion outpost
Ynet 14 Feb –  Civil Administration officers accompanied by security forces razed three structures at the illegal West Bank outpost of Oz Zion overnight Tuesday as IDF soldiers set up road blocks nearby to prevent residents from entering the outpost. The Civil Administration identified three structures that were built on private Palestinian land.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4189295,00.html

Violence

Clashes in Jenin village ‘injure 4’
JENIN (Ma‘an) 14 Feb — Four Palestinians were injured by rubber bullets when Israeli forces raided Zubaba village near Jenin on Tuesday, residents told Ma‘an. Locals said the raid provoked residents to throw stones and empty bottles at the soldiers, who responded by firing on them using rubber bullets and tear gas grenades. Soldiers stopped by a funeral gathering and held a number of people to check their identity documents, before raiding other houses in the village, the residents said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=460460

Israeli forces raid mayor’s house in Qalqilya [again]
QALQILYA (WAFA) 14 Feb – Israeli forces late Monday night raided the house of the mayor of Jayyous village, east of Qalqilya, Mohammad Jaber, according to the mayor son. He told WAFA that more than 15 Israeli patrols raided the mayor’s three story house, which is a home for more than 18 family members, tampering with its contents and beating his 56 year-old mother who was transferred to hospital for treatment. He added that Israeli forces forced the whole family to stay outside in the winter cold and used police dogs while searching the house, spreading terror among the family. He said that this is the second time this week that the Israeli army raided his house; they raided the house on Saturday, arresting an 18 year-old after bombing the house’s main entrance and destroying many of its contents,
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18982

Night clashes in occupied Jerusalem
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 15 Feb — Young Jerusalemites engaged Israeli occupation forces in occupied Jerusalem’s Shu‘fat refugee camp on Tuesday night after the IOF tried to arrest a young man in the camp. Local sources said that the clashes erupted after an IOF unit tried to arrest a young man in a chase near the Shu‘fat military roadblock. They said that the soldiers fired tear gas while the young men threw stones and empty bottles at them. Similar confrontations were reported in Aisawiye town on Tuesday night following a provocative visit for the Israeli racist mayor Nir Barkat. In the Old City of Jerusalem a number of young men were wounded in similar clashes.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk/

AFP: NGO says Israeli army targets photographers at protests
JERUSALEM 14 Feb — International press advocacy group Reporters Without Borders on Tuesday accused the Israeli military of deliberately targeting news photographers covering Palestinian protests in the occupied West Bank. “Reporters Without Borders strongly condemns the violence used by Israeli forces against Palestinian, Israeli and foreign photojournalists covering demonstrations against Israel?s West Bank separation barrier and the continuing colonisation of Palestinian territory,” it said in a statement. “The press freedom organisation deplores the total impunity enjoyed by the soldiers responsible for these abuses,” it added in the statement
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hwGIW_4n0QboOMI_VQKWBMoPOOGQ?docId=CNG.020ab95fd734a2034432628fe2fe29a7.8b1

Red Crescent expresses concern over Israeli targeting of its teams
RAMALLAH (WAFA) 15 Feb– The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) Wednesday expressed the uttermost concern over the Israeli occupation targeting of its medical teams and preventing it from conducting its humanitarian duty, according to a statement issued by PRCS. PRCS condemned the Israeli forces’ targeting of an ambulance, firing rubber bullets at it during a sit-in protest outside Ofer military camp near Ramallah … It also condemned the Israeli forces attacking of an ambulance and breaking its glass while it was transferring a journalist who was hurt in Al-Issawiya neighborhood in East Jerusalem during confrontations that took place on Tuesday night.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=19002

Report: Last five years has seen a 315% rise in settler violence; this violence is ‘structural and symptomatic of occupation’ / Adam Horowitz
Mondo 15 Feb — Yesterday, the Palestine Center released “When Settlers Attack,” a new report on settler violence in the occupied territories. Is is the result of of a two-year project which cataloged over 3,700 instances of settler violence from 2004-2011 … From 2010 to 2011 there was a 39 percent increase in incidents of Israel Settler violence. In the five year period from 2007 through 2011 there has been a 315 percent increase. Conversely, over the same 5-year period, there has been a 95 percent decrease in Palestinian violence in the West Bank.
https://mondoweiss.net/2012/02/report-last-five-years-has-seen-a-315-rise-in-settler-violence-this-violence-is-structural-and-symptomatic-of-occupation.html

Gaza

Bahar appeals to Egyptian leadership to end Gaza power crisis
GAZA (PIC) 15 Feb — Acting speaker of the Palestinian legislative council Dr. Ahmed Bahar has appealed to the Egyptian leadership to help in ending the power crisis in Gaza Strip. Bahar urged Cairo in a press release on Wednesday to expedite linking Gaza to the regional grid endorsed by the Arab League more than two years ago. He said that urgent assistance should be extended to the coastal enclave to deal with the stoppage of the sole electricity generation station in Gaza such as fuel and maintenance.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk/

For no electricity in Gaza … 80% of patients at death risk
Alresalah 15 Feb — Exclusive–The Ministry of Health in Gaza warned that health situation of Gazan patients is getting worse due to the lack of electricity in hospitals of the besieged Gaza Strip. Dr. Ashraf Al-qidra , the director of Public Relations and Information Department at the Ministry, said  in a statement to “Alresalah Paper” that “More than 80% of patients in the Gaza Strip are threatened to terrible health status and possibility of death due to lack of electricity.” Al-qidra said that some 404 of dialysis patients are at risk of death for their treatment is totally based on electricity, beside there are 100 children existed in special care are threatened with death. He pointed out that 72% of the diesel spare storage has just run out from Gaza hospitals, indicating that Gaza hospitals will be in a complete paralysis in case of not being provided with more fuel.
http://www.alresalah.ps/en/index.php?act=post&id=180

OPT: Promises of exports fall short for Gaza’s manufacturers
GAZA CITY (IRIN) 15 Feb — Mu’min Najar drags open the massive door to the goods depot of his father’s furniture factory, the Modern Industrial Group (MIG), in Rafah in the Gaza Strip. “Everything you see here is waiting to be sold abroad,” he says. On the left side of the depot, writing desks are piled up several metres high. Further towards the back, hundreds of chairs have been waiting to be sold for more than a year now, and are covered in dust. Encouraged by Israeli announcements in 2010 of an ease in restrictions on exports, the factory owner, Mohamed Najar, produced furniture worth about US$150,000 for orders from abroad. But he has little hope he will be allowed to export these items any time soon.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=94872

Gaza runner ready to fly Palestinian flag in London
GAZA (Reuters) 13 Feb — Gaza runner Bahaa al-Farra treads carefully, braving the elements and potholed roads ravaged by years of conflict between Palestinian militants and the Israeli army, as he prepares to race at the London Olympics … Palestinian athletes complain of a paucity of financial support at home and a lack of vital equipment and coaches that are crucial for success and to nurture talented youth, but by competing in London, a national dream will be realised … Four Palestinians will participate in London. Joining Farra will be Cairo-based swimmer Ahmed Jabreel and two West Bank women, swimmer Sabin Hazboon from Bethlehem and runner Worood Maslaha from Nablus.
http://in.news.yahoo.com/corrected-gaza-runner-ready-fly-palestinian-flag-london-150847846–spt.html

4 rockets fired at western Negev
Ynet 15 Feb — Qassam rockets hit Hof Ashkelon, Sdot Negev and Eshkol Council. No injuries, damage reported
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4190440,00.html

Khader Adnan

Video: Hunger striker Khader Adnan’s father says son’s morale high and appeals to parents of Gilad Shalit
15 Feb — Khader Adnan is in good spirits and his morale is as high as the sky, said his father today, despite 60 days of hunger strike that puts him at risk of imminent death. Jihad Khader Adnan spoke today after visiting his son at Ziv Hospital where he is being held, manacled to the bed, according to reports. A YouTube video shows Adnan’s father speaking in Arabic to reporters and supporters shortly after the visit.
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/video-hunger-striker-khader-adnans-father-says-sons-morale-high-and-appeals

Video: Solidarity with Khader Adnan from family of late Irish hunger striker Francis Hughes
15 Feb — Francis Hughes died on 12 May 1981 in Belfast’s Maze Prison after 59 days on hunger strike. Oliver Hughes, his brother, sent this video message of solidarity with Khader Adnan, the Palestinian prisoner who has been on hunger strike in Israeli prison for 60 days.
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/video-solidarity-khader-adnan-family-late-irish-hunger-striker-francis-hughes

Adnan Khader’s family to visit in prison
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 15 Feb – Israel agreed after efforts by the Palestinian Authority to let the family of detainee Adnan Khader see him after 61 days of hunger strike, a Palestinian official said Wednesday. Minister of Civil Affairs Hussein al-Sheikh said that the Palestinian Authority was making every effort to free the detainee, and he said the PA will hold Israel responsible for Adnan’s well-being.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=460573

Palestinians rally in support of prisoner on hunger strike
RAMALLAH (WAFA) 15 Feb – Palestinians throughout the West Bank rallied Wednesday in support of Khader Adnan, the prisoner who has been on hunger strike for 60 straight days, according to various reports … The Palestinian Council of Human Rights Organizations (PCHRO), a coalition of several human rights groups in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, released a statement expressing grave concern for what it described as the critical health condition of Adnan. It said a doctor from the Israeli branch of Physicians for Human Rights had visited Adnan on Tuesday and said he was “under a very direct threat of death.” “All of his muscles, including his heart and his stomach, are under threat of disintegrating and his immune system could cease to function at any moment,” said the doctor. “Khader’s body is at high risk of sudden heart attack or total organ failure, which would cause imminent death.”
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18995

Elderly woman starts hunger strike to support Adnan
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 15 Feb – Despite her chronic illness, an elderly Palestinian woman has decided to start a hunger strike to express solidarity with Khader Adnan, who has been on strike for 60 days. Zakiyya Qudeih, 72, from Khaza‘a east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, started her hunger strike on Tuesday at 7:00 a.m. She will only take her medicine, but no food.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=460615

Urgent request to release or try Khader Adnan Mohammad Musa
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel 14 Feb — Dear Mr. Minister: I am writing to ask for your urgent intervention to ensure the immediate release of Khader Adnan, currently in administrative detention, who has been on a hunger strike for 60 days; or alternatively – if the evidence so warrants – to put him on trial.
http://www.acri.org.il/en/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Sami-Michael-re-Adnan-English-CLEAN.pdf

Activism / Solidarity

Video: Solidarity with Khader Adnan in the No Go Zone
ISM by Nathan Stuckey — …Today, in Beit Hanoun, we marched in solidarity with him.  We gathered by the half destroyed Beit Hanoun Agricultural College, we passed out posters of Khader Adnan, we raised the Palestinian flag, and we set off into the buffer zone.  Above us were three Israel Apaches, a drone, and an observation balloon, in front of us was a giant concrete wall with towers full of soldiers, and a jeep and a tank on a hill.
http://palsolidarity.org/2012/02/solidarity-with-khader-adnan-in-the-no-go-zone/

Bruqin avoids arrests: Planting hope for Khader Adnan
ISM 13 Feb by Jonas Weber — Villagers of Bruqin and supporters went out today to plant trees in the field by the factory. While trees were planted alongside pictures of Khader Adnan, two young men sneaked over to the fence of the factory and put up Palestinian flags. In the outskirts of Bruqin, a small village in the Salfit area, there is a field where old Roman ruins slumber amongst the olive trees. The field would be a peaceful place if it was not for the huge Israeli factories built on stolen land right next door. The Israeli factories have caused pollution in the area, contaminating crops and pastures. The rapid settler expansion in the Salfit area is stirring up distress among the residents in Bruqin who worry that even more of their land will be stolen.
http://palsolidarity.org/2012/02/bruqin-avoids-arrests-planting-hope-for-khader-adnan/

Al Ma‘sara: House on the seam of looming apartheid wall becomes center for peaceful resistance
ISM 14 Feb by Aaron — There is a place where a ground-level concrete line runs beside a country road through olive orchards, grape vines, blossoming almond trees, and homes — all Palestinian. This is the projected path of a new segment of Israeli Apartheid Wall through Al-Ma‘sara, a small village 13 km south of Bethlehem … One of the few remaining obstacles to the Wall’s extension is the Taqatqa house, a private home in the path of the wall extension, that has become the target of settler attacks and vandalism. In coming weeks the people of Al-Ma’sara, together with Palestinian, International, and Israeli solidarity activists, will converge on the house to restore it and transform it into a center for resistance against the Wall and settlement land theft … As long as it is inhabited, it cannot be taken by the antiquated Ottoman land laws — another tool used to rescind Palestinians’ property rights after they are driven off their land.
http://palsolidarity.org/2012/02/al-masara-house-on-the-seam-of-looming-apartheid-wall-becomes-center-for-peaceful-resistance/

American musicians to perform in Ramallah
RAMALLAH (WAFA) 14 Feb – American guitarist John McLaughlin and tabla Maestro Zakir Hussain will perform in a one-off concert with their world-re-owned group  ‘Remember Shakti’ in Ramallah, said a press release by the sponsors on Tuesday … McLaughlin said: “There are situations in which musicians wish to express their solidarity with certain groups, associations and countries.”
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18986

Other political detentions / Court actions

Palestinian student seized in raid on Nablus village [22 arrested since Monday]
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 15 Feb – Israeli forces detained a young man from his home in the Salem village east of Nablus overnight and nine others across the occupied West Bank, witnesses and security officials said Wednesday. Soldiers aided the house of Abdul Rahman Eshtayeh, 22, a student at Al-Najah University in Nablus, before he was arrested, they said … Among the detainees were one each from Salem and Dharaiya villages, two each from Ramallah and Beita village, and four from Hebron in the southern West Bank, she said … Around 40 percent of Palestinian men living in the occupied territories have been detained by Israel at some point in their lives, prisoners rights groups say.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=460506

Israeli forces arrest 12 Palestinians, including 3 released prisoners, in West Bank
WEST BANK (WAFA) 14 Feb – Israeli forces Tuesday arrested three former Palestinian prisoners, released in the Gilad Shalit prisoners’ exchange swap between Israel and Hamas, in addition to eight more Palestinians from across the West bank, according to local and security sources. Sources said that Israeli forces arrested two 19-year-old former prisoners from the town of Azzoun, east of the northern West Bank city of Qalqilya, after storming the town. Forces also arrested another 30-year-old released prisoner after raiding and conducting a search campaign in an area south of Hebron. Sources said that forces locked the family members in one room, seizing an amount of money that was in the house, handcuffing and blindfolding two of Ahmad’s brothers for two hours as well as searching the house and tampering with its contents.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18984

Hamas: Re-arrest of released prisoners breaks deal
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 14 Feb — A Hamas spokesman said Tuesday that Israel has violated the terms of a prisoner exchange deal by recently re-arresting two men released under the agreement. Sami Abu Zuhri called on Egypt, which mediated the October deal to release over 1,000 Palestinians from Israeli jail, to hold Israel responsible for breaking guarantees not to re-arrest those released. Zuhri said the detention of Ahmed Abu Daoud from Hebron on Monday evening, and Ayman Sharawna from nearby town Dura on Jan. 30, were a serious breach of the deal, and warned of “consequences” for Israel.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=460422

State reaches settlement with Jack Teitel
Ynet 15 Feb — Teitel’s lawyers to confess to murder on his behalf as part of new deal; court set to rule on whether ‘Jewish terrorist’ can be held accountable for his actions
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4190367,00.html

Israel’s justice minister advises rightists on how to seek pardons for Jewish terrorists
Haaretz 15 Feb — Television report captures Yaakov Neeman instructing right-wingers on how to formulate pardon requests — Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman told right-wing activists how best to formulate pardon requests on behalf of convicted Jewish terrorists, thus advising them on requests he might later have to approve.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israel-s-justice-minister-advises-rightists-on-how-to-seek-pardons-for-jewish-terrorists-1.412913

Political developments

Egypt to monitor work of reconciliation committee
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) 14 Feb — Egypt is to start monitoring the performance of the public freedoms committee, a member told Ma‘an on Monday. Khalil Assaf, a committee member from the West Bank, said that a meeting was held Sunday in Cairo with Egyptian officials, who recommended that Egypt monitors the committee’s work in order to overcome obstacles it has been facing in the West Bank and Gaza. Another meeting is scheduled to be held on Feb. 21 to follow up with what has been achieved on the ground.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=460247

Haniya, Mashaal deny dispute over reconciling with Fatah
AFP 15 Feb — Hamas Politburo Chief Khaled Mashaal and Hamas Prime Minister in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh denied reports claiming that they have differences of opinion over the reconciliation with Fatah. Hamas posted a statement on its website saying that “there is no dispute within the movement over the reconciliation. The Doha declaration is to be carried out.”
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4190412,00.html

Palestinians to give Israel three weeks to to respond to peace talks messages
Xinhua 15 Feb — Palestinians will give Israel three weeks to respond to their upcoming messages on peace talks resumption before taking other steps, a Palestinian official said on Wednesday.  Within a week, the Palestinian leadership will send its messages to Israel, asking the Jewish country to recognize the two- state solution, halt its settlement activities in the West Bank and east Jerusalem and release the Palestinian prisoners.
http://english.cri.cn/6966/2012/02/15/2561s681315.htm

Israel renews refusal to apologize over flotilla massacre
ANKARA (PIC) 15 Feb — Israel’s deputy premier Sylvan Shalom has reiterated his government’s refusal to apologize to Turkey over the killing of nine of its nationals in the Israeli navy attack on the Freedom Flotilla that was carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza in May 2010. He told the semiofficial Turkish news agency Anatolia, “We have said more than once, we want good relations with Turkey,” but if Turkey insisted on its request for an apology no progress would be made in those relations.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Israeli racism / discrimination

The documenter of the Israeli Jewish DNA / Zvi Bar’el
Haaretz 15 Feb — …In June 2011, MKs discussed appointing a “liaison person for minority matters” at the airport authority. Such a person already exists, but the problems haven’t ended. In that discussion, the authority’s Shlomo Oren said his organization would invest about NIS 300 million in sophisticated equipment to eliminate the need to separate Arabs from others for the security check. Everyone would be equal before the machines. The equipment is supposed to be installed this year or at the beginning of next year. The thing is, even then Israeli Arabs won’t stop being considered “threat potential” for carrying out terror attacks. It’s just that they won’t be marked out a priori and equality will reign happily ever after. Don’t hold your breath. The security check of Israeli Arabs at the airport, with or without the “egalitarian equipment,” is not a question of technology
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-documenter-of-the-israeli-jewish-dna-1.412943

Israel to announce names of foreign workers’ children set for deportation
Haaretz 15 Feb — Some 375 families of foreign workers with children in Israeli schools will find out on Wednesday if they will be allowed to stay in the country — Some 18 months after applying for permission to stay in Israel with their children, a first batch of foreign workers will finally learn today whether or not their residency requests have been accepted.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israel-to-announce-names-of-foreign-workers-children-set-for-deportation-1.412908

Journalism [if that’s the word for it]

BBC wins Supreme Court battle after spending hundreds of thousands of pounds of licence fee payers’  money to keep report on its ‘biased’ journalism a secret
Daily Mail 15 Feb — The BBC will keep secret a report into its coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Supreme Court has ruled after a legal battle in which the corporation spent hundreds of thousands of pounds of licence fee payers’ cash. The corporation has spent seven years trying to cover up an internal investigation into whether its reporting is biased … The legal row began in 2005 when the corporation refused a Freedom of Information request to make the so-called Balen Report into its coverage of the Middle East publicly available.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2101629/BBC-wins-battle-report-biased-journalism-secret.html?ITO=1490

Israeli apartheid is never fit to print in the Times, only in Haaretz / Matthew Taylor
15 Feb — NYT’ Jerusalem bureau chief Ethan Bronner’s reassignment is unlikely to change the fundamental bias of the Paper of Record. When has the Times ever filed a serious report on Israeli apartheid policies, and will it ever? Meanwhile, Haaretz today runs an editorial page broadside against the colony/settlement Ariel’s University expansion plans that you will never see from the editors or reporters of the Paper of Record:
https://mondoweiss.net/2012/02/israeli-apartheid-is-never-fit-to-print-in-the-times-only-in-haaretz.htm

New ‘NYT’ bureau chief faces outcry from Israel advocates over Twitter messages / Alex Kane
15 Feb — Barely a day went by before Jodi Rudoren, the spanking new Jerusalem bureau chief for the New York Times (NYT), got her first lesson in how quickly advocates for Israel could raise a media firestorm. Rudoren’s offense is writing “cozy” Twitter messages to the likes of Ali Abunimah, Mondoweiss and Peter Beinart.
https://mondoweiss.net/2012/02/new-nyt-bureau-chief-jodi-rudoren-faces-outcry-from-israel-advocates-over-twitter-messages.html

Other news

Despite domestic cuts, US aid to Israel up by $25 million in proposed budget
IMEMC 15 Feb …Last year, the US government gave $3.075 billion in unrestricted aid to Israel, and this year’s proposed budget includes $3.1 billion. This aid is given in addition to around $3 billion in loan guarantees which, unlike other loans, do not have to be paid back.
http://www.imemc.org/article/63007

Valentine’s Day in the West Bank – 15 images
http://www.upi.com/News_Photos/Features/Valentines-Day-in-the-West-Bank/6290/?spt=htc&or=5

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