Spotlight on Gaza
Gaza Live: a snapshot of life amid blockades and daily gunfire / Harriet Sherwood
Guardian 7 June — The Guardian launches a 12-hour project to document life in Gaza, featuring families, fishermen and business people … Gaza has made many headlines in the past five years. But the experiences of ordinary people trying to go about their daily business are often obscured behind the frequent rockets, bombings, shootings and demolitions. Now, in a unique venture for a mainstream news organisation, the Guardian is attempting to redress that. Over 12 hours, we will tell the stories from Gaza on our website, which we hope will draw a picture of life behind the fences and walls. Some of this material has been gathered over recent days, but much of it will be reported and published in real time during the course of the day.
link to www.guardian.co.uk
Gaza Live — editor’s note
Guardian 8 June — Everything you need to know about our Gaza Live coverage
link to www.guardian.co.uk
Gaza live blog
Guardian 8 June — 7 a.m. This month is the fifth anniversary of Hamas securing control of the Gaza Strip and Israel tightening its blockade. The Guardian will be reporting on and about Gaza for the next 12 hours, to dig beneath the headlines to find out what the impact of Hamas rule and economic and political isolation from Israel has had on Gaza’s 1.7m people. Through text, video, audio and pictures from our correspondents on the ground, we will be telling their stories and also carrying interviews, blogposts and commentary about Gaza 7:20 a.m. Among those hardest hit by the blockade are Gaza’s fishermen (see photo above), who are restricted to three nautical miles from the shore. Harriet Sherwood is at the fishing port, where I’ve just spoken to her … 7:55 a.m. …It’s 10am in Gaza City and Alaa Al-Ashi, 17, has less than 24 hours until her first exam tomorrow morning: religion. This is the first of 10 exams she’ll sit in the next two weeks. She says she has been studying day and night for the past few weeks and looks pale. But she’s sacrificed 10 minutes to drink some strawberry juice and speak with me….
link to www.guardian.co.uk
Daily life in Gaza — in pictures
Guardian 8 June — As our live blog follows a day in Gaza, these photographs capture ordinary life for some of its 1.7 million inhabitants
link to www.guardian.co.uk
Video — Gaza fishermen: ‘We are no longer fishermen, we have become traders’
Guardian 8 June — The Israeli blockade means Gaza’s fishermen are restricted to catching fish within three miles of the coast. Lifting the sea blockade to six miles would make all the difference, one man says. The fishermen explain how they have resorted to buying fish smuggled through tunnels from Egypt, unable to fish in their own waters
link to www.guardian.co.uk
Video — Gaza’s schoolchildren: ‘The good things about Gaza are the weather and the sea’
Guardian 8 June — Pupils from three schools in Gaza City discuss their hopes for the future and for the Palestinian people. The children talk candidly about everyday life in Gaza, their favourite subjects at school and how things differ for boys and girls. ‘When I see my friends and play, I forget all of the terrible things that happen in Gaza,’ one says.
link to www.guardian.co.uk
Video — Gaza beach: ‘We suffocate in the city. Here we can breathe’
Guardian 8 June — Away from the claustrophobia of a city under siege, bathers and surfers enjoy the peace and open space offered by Gaza’s seaside. Most of the beaches are severely polluted with sewage water. People in Gaza largely blame the problem on Israel’s blockade of the Strip. ‘God willing, it will improve,’ one man says.
link to www.guardian.co.uk
Video — Welcome to Gaza’s zoo, where stuffed animals are the main attraction
Guardian 8 June — The South Forest zoo opened three months after Israel tightened its blockade of Gaza in 2007. Most of the zoo’s creatures – which range from hyenas to wolves, ostriches and chimpanzees – came through the tunnels with Egypt, but all is not as it first seems. Zookeeper Mohamed Owida explains how he has been forced to resort to taxidermy to preserve his lion and tigress, apparently killed by white phosphorus in an Israeli attack
link to www.guardian.co.uk
Video — Gazan artist Maha al-Daya: ‘I paint what I feel. I have nothing to do with politics’
Guardian 8 June — Despite the privations of the past five years — and, in some cases, the disapproval of Hamas — Gaza’s musicians and artists have continued to produce impressive works, often related to the conditions in which they live. Here, painter Maha al-Daya discusses the effect of the blockade on her work. There are colourful seascapes, vibrant depictions of the beach and fishing boats, and an olive tree growing into the ground rather than towards the sky
link to www.guardian.co.uk
Gaza’s young unemployed find link to jobs through technology
Guardian 8 June by Angela Robson in Gaza — For an economy like Gaza, where movement is restricted, ICT presents unique opportunities for a jobless generation … For the past year, in conjunction with Ucas and six other local partners, Oxfam has been supporting young people, an often isolated and marginalised sub-sector of Gazan society, in a three-year economic recovery programme. Funded by Danida, the aim is to create job opportunities for 5,000 young people in the ICT sector by providing vocational training for school and university graduates, and for young entrepreneurs.
link to www.guardian.co.uk
Segregating Gazans has made them easier to demonise / Amira Hass
Guardian 8 June — Separating Israelis and Palestinians has broken the bonds between us, making Gazans easier to target in the Israeli press – … Even 25 years ago, the relationship between Gazans and Israelis was very different. Back then, Gazans were a reservoir of cheap labour and still flocked to the streets of Israeli towns – to be found in every restaurant, clothing factory, garage and construction site. How were they seen then by the ordinary Israeli? Were they mere functional shadows who disappeared in their dorm shanties? Dispensable ghosts? Savages? An Uncle Tom? Then in 1991, Israel imposed the closure – an under-discussed policy of movement restrictions on Palestinians, especially in Gaza, which was gradually streamlined into the reality of a separate, cut-off entity that exists today ... When I entered Gaza, a few days after the 2008/9 onslaught ended, I heard it over and over again, from people old enough to have worked in Israel and whose fields, houses and factories were just destroyed: they spoke warmly of their ex-employers and Israeli business partners who had just called them, worried about their plight.The welcome astonishment with which such stories were received by my young editors told me yet again of how the strict policy of separation was bearing its fruits.
link to www.guardian.co.uk
Gaza Live: How the internet has transformed news of Gaza and beyond / Emily Bell
Guardian 8 June — Digital media, bloggers and tweeters have enriched our understanding of news events by offering a personal dimension
link to www.guardian.co.uk
Gaza Live: We Palestinians are reclaiming our destiny / Ismail Haniyeh
Guardian 7 June — …As Palestinian Arabs inhabiting these ancient lands, our destiny dictated that we should become like a fruit overhanging a garden fence: each passer-by would try to pluck us, while we struggled to cling to the vine. But our right to our land and our nation is not a matter of discussion or debate: it is an inalienable right guaranteed by all norms and laws. The “Palestinian problem” has many dimensions, but at its root is Israel’s occupation, which denies this inalienable right, and attempts to look for so-called “solutions” within its framework. Unfortunately, some of the major world powers provide it with political cover.
link to www.guardian.co.uk
Palestinian killed in tunnel accident in Rafah
IMEMC 7 June — Palestinian medical sources reported Thursday that a Palestinian was killed and another was injured when a siege-busting tunnel, on the Gaza Egypt border, collapsed while they were working inside it. The Higher Committee for Medical and Emergency services reported that the killed resident is in his twenties.
It is worth mentioning that more than 200 Palestinians have been killed in similar tunnel incidents, and more than 800 have been injured since 2006. The Palestinians started digging tunnels and after Israel enforced its deadly siege on the coastal region.
link to www.imemc.org
Gaza farmers rush to grow wheat under fear of Israeli fire
Gaza City (EI) 7 June by Rami Almeghari — Despite the midday sun, Amin Khalaf and Ali al-Dous were happily and tirelessly harvesting wheat with the help of a large combine harvester on their land, just 500 meters away from Gaza’s boundary with Israel. The wheat yet to be harvested, and about 500 kgs of grain already gathered, shined like gold. Amin’s son, Ahmad Khalaf, 22, packed the grain into large white sacks, within view of an Israeli army watchtower overlooking the family’s farmland.
link to electronicintifada.net
Water desalination projects to solve Gaza’s problems: a wolf in sheep’s clothing?
EI 8 June — For years, Israel has promoted desalination as the solution for Gaza’s water supply problems – while it has bombed water infrastructure systems — The Palestinian Contractors Union recently warned UNICEF, the UN agency for children, of a boycott if it proceeds with offering tenders for the construction of a desalination plant in the Gaza Strip to two Israeli companies, Nirosoft and Odis Filtering … The issue is far from resolved as there are questions pending on how UNICEF has allowed these two Israeli companies to bid for tendering … This affair has brought the spotlight on the conduct of aid agencies working in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and their role in dodging accountability.
What hasn’t been put to scrutiny yet is the rationale for the construction of a desalination plant in the Gaza Strip … Gaza’s sole source of fresh water is the Coastal Aquifer, a trans-boundary waterway shared with Israel running along the coast up to Haifa. The aquifer is severely deteriorated with up to 95 percent of the extracted water unsuitable for human consumption with dangerous levels of nitrates and chlorides, well above World Health Organization guidelines, with potential for serious health risks for the 1.6 million Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip
link to electronicintifada.net
Kiwi team off to Gaza with Malaysian & European partners
Scoop 8 June — Today a four-person team from New Zealand flies out to Cairo to join an international aid convoy to Gaza. In a first for New Zealand, the Kia Ora Gaza convoyers have received official authorisation from the Egyptian Foreign Ministry to enter Gaza, which is blockaded by Israel with the help of Egypt. The convoy will depart Cairo this weekend for the drive through Egypt’s Rafah land crossing into Gaza.
link to www.scoop.co.nz
Trucks carrying Qatari fuel finally enter Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) updated 8 June 15:19 — Trucks carrying Qatari fuel crossed into southern Gaza on Thursday after weeks of delays at the Egyptian border, a Palestinian official said. The arrival of the fuel came less than a day after the power authority announced that Gaza’s sole power station had ceased to function as Egypt delayed entry of the fuel. Gaza border official Raed Fattuh told Ma‘an that the first truck loaded with Qatari gas had entered Gaza, while four more were expected to arrive before Friday … Israeli authorities will also open a southern crossing point, as an exception, to pump fuel being carried in a separate shipment. Some 20 million liters are arriving in total, he said.
link to www.maannews.net
Land, property theft & destruction / Apartheid / Suppression of resistance / Refugees
‘Israel wants to ‘expand settlement into West Bank’
AFP 8 June — The city of Jerusalem is seeking to expand the settlement of Gilo beyond Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem with 2,500 new homes in the adjacent West Bank, an Israeli lawyer said on Friday. Daniel Seiderman, a lawyer active in the anti-settlement movement, told AFP that the idea was endorsed at a city planning meeting last month. “Ten days ago the municipal planning board deliberated on a plan to build another 2,500 units in Gilo,” he said. “The precise area is beyond the municipal… line of Gilo.” He said the intended enlargement would be in addition to plans formally announced last month for 2,000 new homes in Gilo, which lies just a few kilometres (miles) north of Bethlehem.
link to www.france24.com
The settler behind shadowy purchases of Palestinian land in the West Bank
Haaretz 8 June by Uri Blau — The next time a new settlement is established in East Jerusalem or a settler outpost is built on land purchased from Palestinians, the person behind the deal will probably be someone you have never heard of: Tzahi Mamo, from the West Bank settlement of Ofra. Here Haaretz exposes for the first time the legal battles, mysterious methods of operation and the close ties with the settlement establishment of the man who bought land at Migron, Sheikh Jarrah, around Rachel’s Tomb (near Bethlehem) and elsewhere … Mamo is considered a protégé of former tourism minister Rabbi Benny Elon, who is known as an avid supporter of what the Greater Israel advocates call “land redemption.” … Elon is a central figure in a legal battle that is currently being fought over a building adjacent to Rachel’s Tomb, which is located south of Jerusalem, on the outskirts of Bethlehem.
link to www.haaretz.com
Israel unmoved by US criticism of settlement plans in West Bank
[with map] — OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (Daily Star) 8 June — Israel shrugged off U.S. criticism of its plans to erect 851 more settler homes in the occupied West Bank Thursday, projects that appeared aimed at placating settlers angry with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “They need to condemn. We need to build,” Construction and Housing Minister Ariel Attias told Army Radio … Attias, in a Reuters interview, said the U.S. criticism came as no surprise and “there would have been stronger condemnation” of Israel if the law to legalize the Beit El homes had passed. “It’s not as if we can build as much as we want to,” he said. “We appreciate what the Americans ask from us, so we build a lot less than what is needed there. There is natural growth: people get married, they want to live near their parents, they want to expand their house.”
link to www.dailystar.com.lb
Twilight Zone — After Ulpana ordeal, are Palestinian landowners close to justice? / Gideon Levy and Alec Levac
Haaretz 8 June — ‘Imagine I would come to Tel Aviv, take a plot of land, build on it and forge documents,’ says Hasan, who has not been able to access his land for 20 years … “Those people, the justices, believe in democracy,” he says. “The Israelis say they are the only democracy in the Middle East and I say, ‘Prove it.’ Your High Court of Justice has ruled that this is private land, and all we are asking is that you return this land to its owners. In every democracy, property rights and the freedom of movement are maintained. “I say to the Israelis: Now you are violating the Palestinians’ rights and the next step will be violation of your own rights, the Jews’ rights. Then you will be able to say good-bye to your democracy and there will no longer be any difference between you and the Arab dictatorships. I hope the court’s decision will be implemented in full and the land will be returned to us...”
link to www.haaretz.com
Farmer spurns Israel’s cash offer, refuses to allow settlers on his land
Ramallah (EI) 8 June by Aghsan Barghouti — Khalid Abdullah Yassin had a clear response for the Israeli government when it offered him a huge sum of money to lease from him the land upon which Israeli settlers had illegally built. He replied that the only compensation he would accept would be “your complete withdrawal from all Palestinian land.” A farmer from Dura, a village near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, Yassin owns no more than 11 acres of land. Yet this small patch of Palestine, and what happens to it over the coming weeks, could forecast Israel’s outright contempt and blatant disregard for not only international law, but also its own. In 1995, the villagers of Dura — already living in the shadow of the Israeli settlement of Beit El — began to notice that settlers were regularly encroaching on their land.
link to electronicintifada.net
Visit Jerusalem’s new Museum of Tolerance. Feel your blood boil / Bradley Burston
Haaretz 7 June — Who owns this place? What is behind those walls, which have no signs or marks of identification? Why, of all the construction sites in the city, is this one off-limits to public view, on penalty of arrest? And why, in Jerusalem, the neediest of Israel’s cities, is an American rabbi spending some 100 million donated dollars to build what appears, more and more, to be a monument to himself? … From the outset, the choice of the site outraged Arabs and Jews alike. The walled complex was carved from the land of Mamilla cemetery, a compound declared by Israel’s Religious Affairs Ministry in 1948 to be “one of the most prominent Muslim cemeteries, where seventy thousand Muslim warriors of [Saladin’s] armies are interred along with many Muslim scholar.” … Although it may be argued that the central issue of tolerance in Jerusalem is the tension between the city’s some 500,000 Jews and 300,000 Palestinians, the Israeli-Palestinian divide will not fall under the museum’s purview.
link to www.haaretz.com
Wednesday: Israeli patrol harasses shoppers, and three Palestinians are arrested: justice?
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 8 June — Israeli forces arrested three young residents of Silwan in an unprovoked ambush on a shopping street on Wednesday 6 June. 23-year old Khader Ibrahim Sumran was taken from Silwan following an attack by an Israeli patrol harassing a group of local youth outside a shop in Samer Sarhan Street (named after Sarhan when he was martyred by an Israeli settler guard in 2010) belonging to one of the boys’ families. When the officers failed to arrest any of the youth, they instead seized Khader Sumran, a customer doing his shopping.
Ahmad Sarhan (29) and his brother Saleh Samih Sarhan (21) were arrested later that day at Salah al-Din Street police station when they attempted to press charges against the patrol for harassment. The two brothers’ father states that the patrol is notorious in the neighborhood for provoking residents. The two young men, however, have been detained and held as suspects alongside Khader Sumran. Local youth responded to the arrests in anger, with Molotov cocktails being hurled at Israeli patrols in several areas of Silwan.
link to silwanic.net
Thursday: Youth on trial for clashes outside City of David
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 8 June — A group of young residents of Silwan are currently on trial on charges of attacking Israeli settlements in Wadi Hilweh neighborhood of Silwan. Yazan Siyam and Ibrahim Raed Siyam both are 16 years old stood trial yesterday in Magistrates’ Court and are awaiting an outcome to their case.
The notorious City of David settlement in Wadi Hilweh is a perpetual flashpoint for clashes in Silwan, with hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned due to confrontations there; dozens injured; and a handful have lost their lives, now remembered as martyrs. Despite Palestinian attempts to press charges and seek justice, no settler has ever been arrested by Israeli authorities for the spike in violence brought to the neighborhood by the settlement project, built on annexed Palestinian land.
link to silwanic.net
Al-Aqsa’s Sheikh Bekerat released on bail as trial continues
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 8 June — Al-Aqsa Mosque cleric Sheikh Najeh Bekerat has been granted conditional release by an Israeli court while his trial continues, with the mosque’s Head of Records forced to pay a 3,000 NIS bail and sign over a further 5,000 NIS until the legal process’ conclusion. Bekerat has also been placed under a six-month ban on communication with all press and is not permitted to enter or approach Al-Aqsa Mosque, his place of work and worship, for a period of one month … He faces accusations of incitement by the Israeli prosecution, who in court screened recorded interviews with Bekerat where, they claim, he incites Arab people to revolt against Israel. Bekerat’s wife stated in an interview with Silwanic that her husband is denying all charges. She points to Bekerat’s public speaking as awareness-raising, not incitement. “Israel is trying to intimidate my husband into thinking that it is not he nor any Palestinian’s right to even talk about the oppression East Jerusalem is facing.”
link to silwanic.net
Imprisoned for civil disobedience against Israel’s new ‘apartheid’ light rail system
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 8 June — Local youth Mosa Muhammad Abu Khder has been sentenced to 18 months imprisonment by the district Court of Jerusalem, following a lengthy trial and 9 months house arrest. Khder faced charges of throwing stones at the new light rail system in Jerusalem that exclusively connects Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem with predominantly Jewish West Jerusalem, serving no Palestinian neighborhoods. The rail system has come under heavy criticism by human rights groups and foreign governments, and has been the successful target of a divestment campaign led by Palestine solidarity activists.
Khder’s family have denounced the sentence as both disproportionate and unexpected, saying that it is likely the judge sought to make an example of their son … Khder was arrested on 4 August 2011 during the month of Ramadan along with 6 other youth from the same neighborhood, a few of whom have since been acquitted, while one other (Muhammad Abed Abu Khder, 16) received a 2 month sentence.
link to silwanic.net
Netanyahu promotes settlement, calls the West Bank “ancestors’ land”
NAZARETH (PIC) 8 June — The Israeli occupation PM Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to continue “the process of construction” of Jewish only settlements in all the occupied Palestinian territory in an effort to appease the powerful settler movement … Netanyahu stressed, in a statement issued by his office, commenting on the Israeli Parliament’s decision, “the West Bank is our ancestors’ land, and Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.”
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Friday: Cars vandalized in Jewish-Arab village: ‘Regards from Ulpana”
Ynet 8 June – Violent response to government’s decision to evacuate Ulpana: Unknown vandals punctured the tires of 14 parked cars in Neve Shalom Friday morning. The words “revenge,” “death to Arabs” and “regards from Ulpana” were spray-pained on the vehicles. Neve Shalom is a cooperative village that was jointly founded in 1969 by Israeli Jews and Arabs to promote coexistence. It is located about seven kilometers (4.3 miles) north of Beit Shemesh.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Thursday: Israeli bulldozers destroy six water wells in West Bank
JENIN, June 7, 2012 (WAFA) – Israeli bulldozers Thursday destroyed six water wells east of the northern West Bank city of Jenin, according to local and security sources. They said that Israeli bulldozers, accompanied by 10 Israeli military vehicles, destroyed two artesian water wells, which were used to irrigate dozens of dunums of agricultural land at a crossroad with the village of Beit Qad east of Jenin. Meanwhile, Israeli bulldozers, protected by soldiers, destroyed four other water wells in Deir Abu Daif village east of Jenin.
link to english.wafa.ps
Thursday — Agricultural fields caught fire due to IOF bombing
GAZA (PIC) 8 June — Agricultural fields to the east of Khan Younis, Southern of Gaza strip, caught fire, on Thursday, causing the farmers heavy losses. Local sources told PIC reporter that the IOF opened fire and fired smoke bombs targeting wheat and barley fields located to the east of the of Abasan al-Kabira to the east of Khan Younis, causing a huge fire to reignite.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
International Refugee Day: Palestinian Refugees issue at British Parliament
LONDON (PIC) 8 June — The Palestinian Return Centre (PRC) will commemorate international refugee day by hosting a number of events across Europe. The events will commence in the UK on 18 June and end in Geneva 22 June. International Refugee Day is an annual event launched by the United Nations to highlight the plight of millions of refugees worldwide who are forced to flee their homes … A key event will take place at the British House of Commons on Monday, 18th of June. Key speakers will include Ian Murray, Jeremy Corbyn MP, a Palestinian refugee representative, Salman Abu Sitta, Muhamad al Hamid and others to be confirmed. Palestinian refugees comprise [one] of the largest and longest standing cases of refugees and displaced persons in modern history.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Violence / Raids / Provocations / Arrests
PCHR Weekly Report: 3 killed, 23 wounded, including 8 children, by Israeli troops this week [31 May-6 June]
IMEMC 8 June — the Palestinian Center for Human Rights found that Israeli forces launched 10 air strikes on the Gaza Strip, killing 3 members of the Palestinian resistance and wounding 3 others. 10 Palestinian civilians, including 7 children, were also injured. A number of animal farms, a factory of dairy products, a workshop, a well, 3 agricultural rooms and a greenhouse were destroyed. 8 houses and a company were damaged. A Palestinian civilian was seriously wounded by Israeli forces in Hebron. Israeli forces use force to disperse peaceful protest organized by Palestinian civilians in the West Bank. 9 demonstrators, including a child, were wounded. Full Report
link to www.imemc.org
Thursday: 3 detained; Israel raids ex-prisoner’s house
JENIN (Ma‘an) 7 June — Israeli forces seized at least three Palestinians near Ramallah and Hebron and raided a prisoner’s home in the northern West Bank, residents said Thursday. Locals said two men were arrested from Yamoun and Araba villages near Jenin and soldiers broke into a former prisoner’s home in Tora village, where they questioned him … An Israeli military spokeswoman said three Palestinians were detained overnight, but she said the arrests were of two people in Aram village near Ramallah and another in Beit Awa in Hebron.
link to www.maannews.net
Thursday: Jewish settlers rampage through the West Bank
NABLUS, June 7, 2012 (WAFA) – Jewish settlers Thursday rampaged throughout the West Bank, attacking Palestinians and stealing property, according to local sources. Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors Israeli settlement activities in the north of the West Bank said a group of settlers from the illegal settlement of Gilad set up ambushes for Palestinian vehicles travelling on a main road near the town of Howara, south of Nablus, attacking and stoning them.
Ratib al-Jabour, coordinator of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements in southern West Bank city of Hebron, told WAFA that settlers from the illegal settlements of Maon and Havat Maon attacked Palestinian shepherds and farmers east of the town of Yatta, south of Hebron, and prevented them from harvesting their crops of wheat and barley and from replanting the trees the settles had cut down a few days ago.
Meanwhile, coordinator of the National Committee against the Apartheid Wall, Ahmad Salah, told WAFA that a number of settlers from the illegal settlement of Eliezer removed and stole metal bars marking borders of land in the village of al-Khader, south of Bethlehem, in addition to stealing the barbed wire that surrounded the land. e said residents found a flyer left by the settlers in their land in which an Israeli settlers group called the Green Berets claimed its responsibility for the damage caused to the land
link to english.wafa.ps
Activism / Solidarity / BDS
Palestine Place brings resistance to the heart of London
London (EI) 8 June by Asa Winstanley — Activists in London have a tradition of reclaiming abandoned buildings, sometimes to use them as social centers, sometimes for definite periods of mobilization. On the last weekend in May, the latest such center was opened, but this time with a very singular focus. In their foundational statement, the activists behind the initiative describe Palestine Place as “a radical center for discussion, action and education around the issue of Palestine.” Planned as a temporary s.pace for the first two weeks of June, Palestine Place has generated a massive buzz among Palestine solidarity campaigners in London. I went along to cover the opening night for The Electronic Intifada.
link to electronicintifada.net
Government asked: Why are you allowing tainted G4S to handle Olympic security?
Independent 8 June — Donald Macintyre reveals the growing row about a company which also works in the West Bank’s ‘illegal’ Jewish settlements – The government will be challenged in parliament next week over the services provided in Israeli settlements within occupied Palestinian territory by the company chosen to run security for London 2012. G4S, designated as “official provider of security and cash services for the Olympics,” also operates in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, seen by the UK – and nearly all other countries represented at the Games – as illegal in international law.The prominent businessman and Labour peer Lord Hollick will table a written question on Monday asking ministers what steps they have taken to ensure that the UK-based company does not provide security services in illegal settlements in the West Bank.
link to www.independent.co.uk
Ahead of London Olympic Games, BDS campaign steps up pressure on security firm over West Bank activity
Haaretz 8 June — Only several weeks before the 2012 Olympic games are set to take place in London, the activity of the Israeli subsidiary of the British-based global security giant G4S – the main body charged with securing the events – is coming under increasing scrutiny. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators staged a protest outside the Annual General Meeting of G4S shareholders at the London Stock Exchange on Thursday and on Friday morning.
link to www.haaretz.com
Electronic Intifada weekly podcast 7 June 2012
This week on The Electronic Intifada podcast, time is running out for hunger striking footballer Mahmoud Sarsak, as rights groups demand urgent pressure on Israel, which has reneged on agreements made last month during the mass hunger strikes in Israeli jails. We’ll have updates from Ali Abunimah on this developing story. Also, villagers in the South Hebron Hills are determined to remain on their land despite home demolitions by Israel; campaigners for Palestinian refugees’ right of return strategize in South Africa and learn from the post-apartheid struggle there. In a blow to Zionist censors, California’s attorney general backs a professor’s right to call for an Israel boycott on his state university website; and news from the global boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.
link to electronicintifada.net
Avraham Burg: Even I, an Israeli, think settlement goods are not kosher
Independent 7 June — Preventing the mislabelling of products as ‘Made in Israel’ would be a giant leap for Middle East peace — Amid the darkness surrounding the Middle East peace process, we now see a ray of light. Since 2009, the United Kingdom has been taking measures, in accordance with European consumer protection rules, to ensure that settlement products – goods you might find on your supermarket shelves that have been produced in the occupied Palestinian territories – are no longer labelled as “made in Israel”. After a meeting of the EU Council of Foreign Ministers last month, several European member states now appear ready to follow the British initiative…
Contrary to what you may think, EU member states which take these measures act in Israel’s interest. They do so because they take steps that defend and reinforce the Green Line, the pre-1967 border between Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.The Green Line is of decisive importance to achieving Middle East peace.
link to www.independent.co.uk
Political developments
Hamas official says Cairo deal moving forward
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 8 June — Hamas leader Ismail Radwan said Thursday that officials were committed to easing restrictions in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip … “As for the security issue, there will be a security committee sponsored by Egypt according to the Cairo agreement,” he told Ma‘an, referring to restrictions imposed on rival factions in the territories. Hamas and Fatah have accused each other of making politically motivated arrests while imposing other restrictions like banning partisan media, although the Cairo agreement, signed in May 2011, was meant to end such restrictions.
link to www.maannews.net
Haniyeh: Bomb plot targeted election HQ
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 8 June — Security forces in the Gaza Strip detained someone suspected of planting a bomb near the Central Elections Committee which recently reopened, a top official said … [Haniyeh] said the Ministry of the Interior was able to detain the suspect, who he did not identify but said he was not affiliated to Hamas or any other faction and was working for someone in Ramallah. The suspect allegedly planted an explosive device inside the home of an independent figure located opposite the elections headquarters and set it to explode as commission staff arrived. “When we accepted the elections commission, it was a commitment to accomplish reconciliation,” Haniyeh said, adding that Hamas made many concessions in the spirit of restoring unity.
link to www.maannews.net
Palestinian leader says he’ll seek non-member status at UN unless talks with Israel resume
Paris (AP) 8 June — Abbas, speaking Friday in the French capital, said seeking non-member status would be the next move “if we are not returning to the negotiations.” Palestinians have refused to resume talks unless Israel stops settlement building in the West Bank. The Security Council blocked the Palestinian’s bid to become a full member last September after they failed to get the required support of nine of the Security Council’s 15 members. Abbas suggested Friday that the Palestinians would be content with being a non-member state “as is the case for the Vatican or Switzerland.”
link to www.startribune.com
France says Mideast peace process must relaunch
PARIS (Reuters) 8 June — French President Francois Hollande said today everything must be done to relaunch a long-stalled Middle East peace process that could lead to the recognition of a Palestinian state. “Today, we must do everything to facilitate the recognition of a Palestinian state via a negotiated process,” Hollande told a news conference following a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris. “I affirm this before President Abbas: dialogue must start again and the sooner the better,” Hollande, flanked by Abbas, said.
link to www.themalaysianinsider.com
EU representative says no viable Palestinian state without Area ‘C’
MEMO 8 June — John Gatt-Rutter, the European Union Representative in Jerusalem, has expressed his belief that it is impossible to establish a viable Palestinian state without area ‘C’ … of the West Bank over which Israel has full security and administrative control as part of the Oslo Accord.
link to www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk
Erekat calls Mofaz statement about borders and security ‘unfounded red herring’
MEMO 7 June — A senior member of the executive committee of the PLO has called a statement made by Israel’s first Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz an “unfounded red herring”. Saeb Erekat made his remarks after Mofaz had claimed that the Israelis and Palestinians are about to reach an understanding on the issues of borders and security arrangements. Erekat told official Palestinian radio, “This unfounded claim is a red herring to show the world that there is a political process when that has no basis in fact.” He challenged the Israeli government to reveal any background negotiation channels. “The Palestinian leadership has not negotiated with Israel since 2010,” he said.
link to www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk
PLO and Hamas call on UNRWA to seek new funding sources
MEMO 8 June — …Robert Turner had announced a 70 per cent cut in UNRWA’s unemployment programme in the Gaza Strip and warned that the emergency programme dedicated to the distribution of food among refugees has been stopped due to the $70m shortfall in UNRWA’s budget. The PLO and Hamas agreed to reject these cuts and called on UNRWA to search for other sources of income to fund its services. The two groups called on donor countries, including those in the Arab world, “to fulfil their financial pledges to UNRWA so that it will be able to carry out its mission to help Palestinian refugees”.
link to www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk
Detention / Hunger strikes / Court actions
Friday: IOF arrest 7 Palestinians in the West Bank
RAMALLAH (PIC) 8 June — IOF troops arrested on Friday morning 7 Palestinians from various parts of the West Bank, according to Israeli occupation military sources. The sources said that IOF troops and intelligence raided a number of homes in more than a district in the West Bank, arrested a number of “wanted persons” and transferred them to detention and interrogation centres.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Thursday: Hunger-striking soccer player briefly hospitalized
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 7 June — Israeli authorities transferred a long-term Palestinian hunger-striker to hospital on Thursday after prison health officials expressed concern about his condition, an official said. Israeli Prison Service spokeswoman Sivan Weizman said Mahmoud al-Sarsak, who has been on hunger strike for 81 days, was taken to Assaf Harofeh Medical Center on Thursday afternoon. He was moved upon the advice of doctors at the prison clinic in Ramle who “thought he might need medical care,” Weizman told Ma‘an.
However, the hospital decided he did not need to be admitted.
link to www.maannews.net
Thursday: Military judge acquits 2 Palestinians in ‘unprecedented’ case
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 7 June — An Israeli military judge on Thursday acquitted two Palestinians after finding the prosecution negligent, a lawyer said. Dawood al-Reesh, 23, and Mohammad al-Reesh, 24, from East Jerusalem, were acquitted of all charges at Ofer military court near Ramallah, said Tareq Barghouti, a lawyer for the PA Ministry of Prisoner Affairs. They were both detained on Dec. 28, 2012, and accused of throwing Molotov cocktails and stones. The young men were acquitted because the court found the Israeli intelligence had been negligent in its investigation, Barghouti said in a statement, adding that the decision was unprecedented.
link to www.maannews.net
Visits for prisoners from Gaza to start on 20th June
GAZA (PIC) 7 June — Tawfiq Abu Naeem, head of the Palestinian Prisoner’s Association, revealed that the Israeli prisons’ administration informed the prisoners of the Gaza Strip about its intention to transfer them to three main prisons to facilitate the process of their families’ visits during the next few days. Abu Naeem said, in a written statement, that this step came within the agreement between the prisoners’ leadership and the prison administration last week…
He explained that the visits’ dates will be as the following, Raymond prison on March 20, Nafha prison on March 27 and Eichel prison on June 4. He pointed out that the total number of prisoners who will be visited in these three days will be between 100 to 120 prisoners…
The Zionist authorities prevented the visits of the Gaza Strip’s prisoners since 2007 after Shalit’s capture by the Palestinian resistance.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Red Cross spokesman: ‘No information about Gaza prisoners’ visits’
MEMO 7 June — The International Committee of the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip has said that it has not received any information from the Israeli authorities regarding visit schedules for Gazan prisoners in Israeli jails. The Committee confirmed that it is in touch with the authorities concerned, as well as with the prisoners’ families.
link to www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk
RSF calls on Israel to free Hebron radio journalist
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 7 June — Reporters Without Borders on Thursday called on Israel to release a Palestinian radio journalist and explain the reasons for his “arbitrary” arrest in Hebron last week. Soldiers detained Sharif Rajoub in the village of Dura on June 3, his brother Mahmoud told Ma‘an at the time. The Al-Aqsa radio reporter was taken to an unknown destination. “If the Israeli authorities say nothing or prove unable to provide valid grounds for Rajoub’s arrest, we will have to regard it as yet another deplorable attempt to gag the Palestinian media,” Reporters Without Borders said. The group pointed out that although Rajoub’s station is affiliated with Hamas, there is no indication Israel intends to charge him or that the grounds for his arrest are connected to Israel’s security.
link to www.maannews.net
The release of the Jerusalemite captive Dargham Abu Sakran
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 8 June — The Israeli prison service in Ramon prison has released on Thursday the Jerusalemite captive Dargham Abu Sakran, 27, from Mount Scopus after serving five years in Israeli jails where he had participated in all protests and strikes with his brothers. He received his mother’s death news in the jail two years ago without seeing her and he was even deprived from going to her funeral.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Jenin theater says PA arrest of director unlawful
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 7 June — The Palestinian Authority’s arrest of the Jenin Freedom Theatre’s founder in a sweeping security crackdown did not follow due process, his attorney said Wednesday. Supporters of Zakaria Zubeidi say he has not been allowed to have contact with family or his lawyer. Attorney Farid Hawash said in a statement from the theater that he could not determine if Zubeidi was being treated correctly “since I haven’t been able to talk with him.” … Zubeidi co-founded the Jenin Freedom Theater with Palestinian-Israeli Juliano Mer-Khamis, who was killed last year. No one has been brought to justice for the murder. On Wednesday, the art director at the theater Nabil al-Raee was detained in an early morning raid by the Israeli army, his lawyer said in the same statement.
link to www.maannews.net
Racism / Discrimination
Right sponsors self-defense course in south TA
Ynet 8 June — Residents get self-defense lessons at local park to deal with ‘growing violence instigated by African migrants.’ Flyer signed by MK Ben-Ari, Barch Marzel reads: Our blood has been let … Naomi Elimelech told reporters, “It pains me to see the entire country filling up with foreigners. I want them out of here.” Another resident said, “What do I need these self-defense lessons for? I can always hit someone in the head with my bicycle chain.”
link to www.ynetnews.com
Israel to lock thousands of Africans in detention camp
Al-Akhbar 8 June — Israel’s interior minister said on Friday he hoped to soon start moving tens of thousands of illegal African migrants from Tel Aviv and elsewhere to a detention camp being built, one of the largest in the world. An Israeli court cleared the way on Thursday for the deportation of an estimated 1,500 South Sudanese asylum seekers, after ruling that their lives were no longer threatened in their homeland, despite South Sudan having fought a bloody border dispute with Sudan in recent months. Interior Minister Eli Yishai told public radio 40,000 Sudanese and Eritreans were next in his sights. The move comes as racist fever sweeps Israel, with anti-African pogroms by Jewish extremists targeting the asylum seeker community fleeing from warfare and persecution in their homelands.”There are still about 15,000 from north Sudan and some 35,000 from Eritrea,” he said. “I am not allowed to get them out at the moment.”
link to english.al-akhbar.com
Other news, comment
Barak acknowledges Israeli cyberwarfare capability for first time; Shin Bet ‘flamed’ Israeli defense officials; computer
Tikkun Olam 7 June — Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak confirmed one of the worst-kept Israeli military-intelligence secrets by acknowledging that his nation has a cyber warfare capability. His comments came on the heels of revelations here that the recent attacks by an ambitious cybervirus called Flame, were the product of Israeli military cyber-hackers … Barak’s comments appear to be an attempt to control and modulate the debate so that Israel is seen in a more flattering light than it otherwise deserves. One of the especially egregious claims he made is that Israel’s cyber war program is essentially defensive in nature:
link to www.richardsilverstein.com
Be fruitful and multiply, then go to hell
Haaretz 8 June by Ravit Hecht — Israel is the world’s record-holder for fertility treatments, thanks to its extremely generous in-vitro funding policy … Since its early days, the state has been affected by nightmares and terror, in which the demographic demon stars. Israel feverishly counts and maps out demographic changes, and with great fear compares “our” birthrate to “theirs.” Awake and asleep it dreams that tens of millions of Arabs are devouring its sons, and that for every Jewish child walking around, there are four non-Jewish thugs ready to attack that child. How will we survive? What can we do in response? We’ll produce children because children are a joy. “A Jewish woman who brings fewer than four children into the world is forsaking her Jewish mission,” Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, said. That pretty much sums up the importance of a high birthrate in the eyes of the Israeli public and its leaders, and the national ambition they all want to create … When the huge investment in fertility is compared with the neglect in the other fields of health and welfare, it is difficult not to reach a gloomy conclusion: Israel does everything it can to bring its children into the world, but the moment they are born, it shakes off responsibility for them and takes no steps to ensure their existence or quality of life.
link to www.haaretz.com
Israelis nationwide report seeing UFO
Ynet 7 June — Hundreds flood police with reports of UFO in nation’s skies; Astronomical Association chairman says object isn’t a meteor, flew above Lebanon. Similar sighting in Norway in 2009 turned out to be failed missile test
link to www.ynetnews.com
groups.yahoo.com/group/f_shadi (listserv)
www.theheadlines.org (archive)
