Signs from the West Bank from Trocaire on Vimeo
.</p>
Land Theft & Destruction / Ethnic Cleansing / Apartheid / Refugees
Israel demolished 467 buildings and displaced 700 Palestinians in 2012
The IOF demolished 10 Palestinian-owned structures in Area C of the West Bank this week, including five residential structures, displacing 32 Palestinians, including 14 children, OCHA said.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Hundreds of Silwan natives participated in a rally near the entrance to Wadi Hilweh neighborhood to protest the holding of a Jewish archeological conference in their area.
A prominent analyst says home demolitions in villages in south of Hebron, is a systematic policy to expel Palestinians from the land that Israel wants to steal from them.
Occupation bans Sheikh Bkeirat from al-Aqsa Mosque
Israeli occupation forces banned on Friday Sheikh Najeh Bkeirat from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque for six months.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Ten-year old boy offered hash and cash by Israeli police
Israeli police accosted a 10-year old Palestinian boy on Wednesday evening, 5 September, offering him marijuana and money. Muhammad Nasser al-Kak was outside Salah al-Din Street police station when al-Kak says he was offered a joint and money by police officers. “I was outside the police station with my father because one of my relatives had been arrested,” said al-Kak. “When my father walked away, I was approached by two police officers who asked me if I wanted to smoke hash with them. When I refused, they offered me money. I left immediately to find my father.”
The Baramki House: The Absent / Present
We in the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) call upon international civil society to support our efforts to return the Baramki House in Jerusalem to its rightful Palestinian owners, the Baramki family.
link to www.pacbi.org
‘
Not sacred, not stolen
Settler Elad Movshovitz doesn’t think he stole property from nearby Palestinians, some of whom live in caves without water and electricity.
Agriculture in Beit Ommar
Palestinian citizens are currently struggling to withstand a severe economic crisis which is gripping the country. Excessive taxation on sales, as well as unfairly imposed conditions in favour of Israeli imports, mean that many Palestinian producers are struggling to survive. Low customs duties or import tariffs, the responsibility for which lies with Israel under the Paris Protocol (Oslo 1), contribute to the flooding of the market with foreign products, with the effect of significantly reducing the competitiveness of Palestinian goods.
This week marked the beginning of the daily journey from home to school for thousands of children in the West Bank. Barriers, checkpoints, the Apartheid Wall, settlers, and fences all imposed bt the Israeli occupation are only some of the obstacles Palestinian students will have to overcome. For example, in order to reach their school in the village of at-Tuwani, the children of Tuba and Maghayr al-Abeed, two remote villages in the South Hebron Hills, must cross two illegal Israeli settlements, Ma’on and the ultra-nationalist outpost of Havat Ma’on, incidentally both built on land confiscated from at-Tuwani.
“If I wasn’t running for my life I would never set foot in Lebanon,” said Um Ahmad. “We Palestinians are treated by the Lebanese as if we are not human. But we’ve learned to cope, breathe hope and live in the hope that we will finally return to our land in Palestine and experience how it feels to live in dignity in our own country. Dignity is something we have not been able to experience since 1948.”
Gaza Blockade
Egyptian decision to open Rafah crossing welcomed
Spokesman for the Resistance Committees, Mohammed al-Brim, hailed the Egyptian leadership for its decision to open Rafah crossing all weekdays, including Fridays.
The Egyptian Army says it has destroyed 31 Gaza supply tunnels in its recent operation in the Sinai Peninsula.
Israeli Terrorism
PCHR Weekly Report: Israeli forces kill 3 Palestinians, wound 7 in air strikes and ground attacks
In its Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory for the week of 30 Aug.- 05 Sep. 2012, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) found that Israeli forces launched a number of air strikes and opened fire at areas in the Gaza Strip. 3 members of the Palestinian resistance were killed and a fourth one was wounded in the central Gaza Strip.
Three Palestinians injured in confrontations south of Nablus
Three Palestinians were injured on Saturday evening during confrontations between the Israeli occupation forces and the residents of the village of Qasra to the south of Nablus.
Four Workers Hospitalized After Being Assaulted By Soldiers
The Maan News Agency reported that four Palestinian workers were injured, late on Saturday at night, after Israeli soldiers violently attacked them south of Hebron, in the southern part of the West Bank. The four were moved to a local hospital.
Palestinian youth arrested and pepper sprayed outside his home
A Palestinian youth was arrested and physically assaulted by Israeli police in Ein al-Luza neighborhood of Silwan on Wednesday evening, 5 September. Shadad al-A’war, 15, was arrested by Israeli forces outside his family home and sprayed with pepper spray. When relatives attempted to intervene they were pepper sprayed too, forcing several of them to seek medical treatment later on. Al-A’war faces accusations of throwing Molotov cocktails and is currently under investigation at Salah al-Din Street police station. A Silwanic photographer caught the arrest of Shaddad on camera, when he was handcuffed and blindfolded by police.
Police say three of the suspects, aged 16, confessed to assaulting Ibrahim Abu Ta’a, 28, for ‘taking advantage of a Jewish girl’
Gas station attendant says he was targeted by drunk Jewish youths because he is Arab. A wave of racist assaults appears to be sweeping the capital, according to recent reports. A day after an Arab employee of the Mamilla Hotel was assaulted by a group of Jewish teens who broke his leg, a gas station attendant claims to have also been attacked for racist reasons. Nassim Abu Ramuz, 21, from Ras al-Amud, said he was attacked by Jewish youths who entered the station to fuel up around 1 am on Friday. According to Abu Ramuz, having noticed that the customers’ car was not facing the pump, he asked the driver to turn his vehicle.
Palestinian Retaliation
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Islamist militant faction the Shura Council of Mujahideen on Saturday claimed responsibility for firing two rockets towards Israel a night earlier. The group said in a statement it had aimed grad rockets at the “Israeli settlement Netivot,” a town in southern Israel. An Israeli military spokeswoman said a rocket hit Israel’s Eshkol region early Saturday, without causing injuries or damage, and another missile alert had sounded.
Israel: “Two Missiles Fired From Gaza”
Israeli sources reported that two Grad shells were fired, overnight Saturday, from the Gaza Strip into the Netivot settlement, leading to a number of mild injuries. The latest incident comes a few days after the Israeli army killed six Palestinians in the coastal region.
Illegal Arrests / Prisoner News
IOF arrest 4 Palestinians, including 2 children in al-Khalil
IOF troops, at a late hour Friday night, arrested four Palestinians from the southern West Bank city of al-Khalil. Two of those arrested are children.
Court reduces Suhaib A’war’s house arrest to attend school
Silwan child Suhaib Arafat al-A’war has had his house arrest sentence reduced by the to allow him to return to school. In a Magistrates Court ruling on Monday, A’war’s house arrest will be lifted from 7am to 3pm weekdays, allowing him to attend school in Shuafat, under his mother’s supervision. A’war was placed under house arrest in Mukaber outside his family home on 3 May this year until 4 April while he was investigated by police for throwing stones and a Molotov cocktail at Israeli forces and settlers in an incident wherein no-one was injured. He is due to return to court on 1 October for the final ruling on his case, said his lawyer Muhammad Mahmoud. A’war’s mother told Silwanic that her son’s performance in school had been gravely affected since he was prevented from attending school, being permitted to attend only his final exams. She also commented that her requirement to supervise him at all times outside the home “takes a lot of time. We live in Silwan but his school is in Shuafat, and as we take public transport we have to leave the house very early so Suhaib can be at school on time.” A’war was arrested for the first time at age 13 outside his old school in Ras al-Amoud by an undercover Musta’revim unit. He was arrested again in Ramadan last year outside his family home, and held for five days by police.
Samer al-Barq may have only minutes to live, his father explains in a telephone call with The Electronic Intifada blogger Shahd Abusalama.
Imprisoned Palestinian national leader Ahmad Sa’adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, is scheduled to appear in an occupation court on Sunday, September 9 in Jerusalem, Addameer stated. This will be Sa’adat’s first appearance in public in over three years, since he was released from isolation in May 2012 following the prisoners’ hunger strike. He had been held in solitary confinement since March 2009. Addameer reports that Sa’adat will be speaking about the latest hunger strike of April-May 2012, and the conditions of Palestinian prisoners in occupation jails following the strike.
Palestinian Activism / BDS / Solidarity
The Palestinian people are rising due to their economic needs, said Comrade Khalida Jarrar, member of the Political Bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, stating that popular protest cannot and will not be confined to this level, but must also include popular action to confront the occupation, ending the Oslo Accords in their entirety and all of their corollaries, including the Paris economic convention.
TULKAREM (Ma’an) — Dozens of protesters closed down several streets in Tulkarem and Ramallah on Saturday, a Ma’an correspondent said, as protests against rising living costs continue across the West Bank. A main road in Tulkarem was blocked with rocks and burning tires and protesters in Ramallah closed off several streets in the city center. PLO official Wasel Abu Yousef told Ma’an that if the Palestinian street does not feel any immediate solutions to the financial crisis then the situation will escalate.
Palestinians stage fiery protest against PM Fayyad
Dozens of Palestinians from Al-Amari refugee camp in the West Bank burned tires, blocked the road into the camp and chanted slogans against prime minister Salam Fayyad late Saturday. An AFP correspondent said the protest demanding that the Palestinian premier resign over the government’s economic policies came after Fayyad was surrounded earlier by angry protesters at a local radio station, shouting “Fayyad, out!” Soaring prices have sparked an unprecedented wave of social protest across the West Bank, with angry demonstrators demanding Fayyad’s ouster.
Prices have skyrocketed in Palestine recently. Key articles like petrol, flour and milk have all increased by more than 25%. The price of a 50 kg sack of flour is now about 60% higher than it was just recently. This has led to a mass strike throughout the West Bank, a strike that includes everybody from taxi drivers to the teachers at schools and universities. The strikers are demanding the resignation of Salam Fayyad, whom they claim has not done enough to solve the problems regarding the sudden price increase. The strikers also call for the PA to abolish the Paris Protocol, a part of the Oslo 1 agreement that enables Israel to dictate and collect the import taxes for products imported to Palestine.
West Bank’s weekly marches denounce U.S. support for the occupation
Israeli occupation forces suppressed, on Friday, three peaceful marches launched in different parts of the occupied West Bank, against the apartheid wall and settlements.
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — A Palestinian journalist said she was lightly injured by Israeli forces on Saturday during a solidarity protest for prisoners in Jerusalem. Diala Jweihan, a freelance photographer, told Ma’an that she was covering a protest in Jerusalem’s Old City when Israeli soldiers threw her to the ground. She was taking pictures of a man who was being arrested by soldiers at the time. Jweihan said she suffered light neck and back injuries. Dozens of people gathered in a peaceful protest to support prisoners who are on hunger strike, Jweihan said, adding that one man was arrested by Israeli forces.
A call for London was made in conversation with the father of 150 day hunger striker administrative detainee Hassan Safadi. He asked us to protest to save the life of his son and the other 3 hunger strikers. Today Hassan Safadi entered his 150 day hunger strike and he is very near to death. His death is now imminent. This Sunday was called for international protest. We will protest in London: Date: Sunday 9 September Time: 5-7pm Place: at the steps of St Martin in the Fields Address: London WC2N 4JJ [near Trafalgar Sq and the Mall's Paralympics Marathon] Please bring posters to show your solidarity with the hunger strikers.
Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs has told Haaretz newspaper that his country regards goods produced in Israeli settlements as illegal under international law. Jonas Gahr Store said that his country must consider how to deal with such produce. On the eve of his visit to Jerusalem and Ramallah, Mr. Gahr Store also said that Norway is studying several possibilities for the adoption of a policy which opposes the expansion of Israeli settlements. All settlements are considered to be illegal under international laws and conventions.
Nancy Kricorian of the Stolen Beauty BDS campaign on the significance of a new report by Al Haq designating Israel’s resource theft in the Dead Sea as a crime of pillage; and much more.
Regiona Developments / Other News
In special statement, Peres says Ottawa has proven once again ‘that morals come before pragmatism’
Army announces co-ordination in security sweep that began last month after 16 soldiers were killed in Sinai.
EL-ARISH, Egypt (Ma’an) — Masked gunmen attacked an Egyptian military and police base in northern Sinai on Saturday morning, security officials said. Assailants rode in on two vehicles and opened fire on the Sheikh Zuwaid police station, prompting return fire from officers stationed in guard towers, a Ma’an correspondent said. It was not immediately clear if there were any injuries. Egyptian security officials told reporters they believe the attack was intended as a message to Egyptian forces that Jihadists are still present in Sinai and can attack police stations at will.
Senior Administration Officials: ‘A greater confidence that the Israelis will not take unilateral action against Iran’
The essential question is how, as Clinton put in her remarks in Beijing, an ‘established’ power will respond to a ‘rising’ power. With regard to the South China Sea, Washington and Beijing have very different interpretations of the situation on the ground. As one senior Pentagon official put it to us: “We are not looking for a quarrel with the Chinese, but nor we will allow them to push us around.” To bolster its alliances in the region, US officials are pushing for a strengthening of ASEAN, alongside their traditional alliances with South Korea and Japan. On Iran, the regular pattern of visits to Israel by senior US military officers continues. Despite some conservative commentary about advances in Tehran’s nuclear program to include the IAEA report of a doubling of the number of centrifuges, Administration analysts still believe that weaponization – if that is what the Iranians decide upon – is still some time ahead and there is no urgency for military action. This is the message that Washington is pressing on Tel Aviv. From our conversations with senior contacts, our sense is that there is now greater confidence – or at least hope – in Washington that the Israelis will not take unilateral action. Their focus is on Defense Minister Ehud Barak as the key decision-maker. Despite some optimistic interviews by the Pentagon, Afghanistan remains the “forgotten war”. It does not feature as a campaign issue.
Germany’s Bild tabloid newspaper reported Wednesday that Israel protested an Egyptian submarine deal at the highest reaches of the German government.
Sinai leader says Mossad and Dahlan are behind Ramadan terrorist attack
A senior leader of the north Sinai Arabs said he has information about the involvement of the Mossad and Mohamed Dahlan in the terrorist attack that claimed the lives of Egyptian soldiers in Ramadan.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak is said to be backing down from his support for an autumn attack on Iran, but is he just going to substitute Gaza? It’s an open question today after Barak openly discussed the idea of attacking. “If the cabinet deems it needed, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) can conquer and rule Gaza,” Barak insisted, praising the military for the 2008-2009 invasion of Gaza though saying he believes the war could have ended 10 days earlier.
Palestinian leader says government short of funds
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says that government employees will not receive full salaries this month because donor countries have not delivered promised aid.
link to news.yahoo.com
Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas says that government employees won’t receive full salaries next month because donor countries have not delivered promised aid. The US and Arab countries have failed to come through this year with the aid money they have pledged, leaving the Palestinian Authority that governs much of the West Bank in a budgetary shortfall that has contributed to rising prices and delays in the payment of government salaries. The economic conditions have helped spark small but growing protests in the West Bank. Last week demonstrators halted traffic in key Palestinian cities.
RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Asserting that the ongoing protests against the rising cost of living in the West Bank are legitimate, President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated that Israel and some Arab countries share the blame for the PA’s financial crisis. The Palestinian Authority, he said, will not seek to stop the popular protests as long as they remain peaceful and do not harm public interests. However, he stressed that the government would not allow any attacks on public properties.
RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Thursday that the protest movement focused on his economic policies could not be characterized as the arrival of the “Palestinian Spring”. Speaking to reporters at a conference broadcast on official PA TV, Fayyad said the Palestinian Spring began in 1948, the year of Israel’s founding and the exodus of Palestinians from their ancestral homes. ”We will not reproduce the Arab Spring here, because we are not a state,” he said.
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The ongoing protests in the West Bank mark the beginning of a new uprising against the Israeli occupation motivated by economic crises and could extend to the Gaza Strip, says Hamas official in exile Mousa Abu Marzouq. Speaking by telephone late Friday, the deputy chief of Hamas’ politburo said President Mahmoud Abbas “should take a courageous decision before it’s too late. The Palestinian Authority was meant to become an independent entity, but the opposite happened.”
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Islamist Hamas group ruling Gaza on Saturday strongly denied responsibility for the failure of national reconciliation efforts.
TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma’an) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says President Mahmoud Abbas’ refusal to re-enter negotiations is the reason his government faces growing domestic opposition, Israeli media reported Friday. The Hebrew-language daily Maariv said Netanyahu, speaking Wednesday with Norway’s foreign minister, rejected allegations that Israeli restrictions were causing the Palestinian economy to suffer. Jonas Gahr Store accused Israel of being behind the collapse of economic institutions, the report said.
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — The nephew of late President Yasser Arafat said on Thursday it was not necessary to re-investigate the leader’s death as everyone knows who was behind it, Al Jazeera reported. Nasser al-Qudwa, who heads the Yasser Arafat Foundation, in July said he was behind the renewed calls for a thorough probe into the sudden death of Arafat in 2004, after Al Jazeera broadcast new findings that the leader’s belongings had traces of the radioactive element polonium-210.
ISRAEL-OPT: Upping sticks and heading for Ramallah
JERUSALEM 07 September 2012 (IRIN) – An increasing number of Palestinian citizens of Israel are moving to Ramallah in the West Bank in search of jobs, education or what they perceive as a more congenial environment.
www.TheHeadlines.Org
This is a good one.
link to haaretz.com
No time to comment more extensively, but basically, a poor innocent settler pulls a gun out. The Palestinian the gun is intended for fairly reasonably runs him over and kills him. Screeches of ‘terrorism.’
The entire incident was filmed by Farhi’s friend but a gag order has been issued in the case. The driver hit Farhi “intentionally,”
why the gag order? did he intentionally hit him in self defense? did he use his vehicle as a weapon against a weapon aimed against a person with a weapon aimed him? i do not advocate running over anyone with a car but as i recall there are precedents already set in israel wrt using vehicles as self defense against children with rocks.
I’d think if I was in a car and somebody whom I have every reason to believe is going to shoot me pulls out a gun, I’d run him over.
It’s a good way to keep him from shooting me. Anyway, nice to see a ‘man bites dog’ story. Usually, it’s the weekly ‘running over the Palestinian child.’
That, of course, is quite acceptable. Palestinian children in the roadway appear to have roughly the moral sanctity of tin cans.
if i thought my life, or the life of an innocent, was in danger and my only recourse was using my car as a weapon i might use it. but i don’t know if that is the case in this circumstance although the video could clear that up.
Well, the ‘man bites dog’ aspect of it is what I like.
I’m all for settler activists getting killed, to be frank. If they don’t want to get killed, they can leave.
>> Danny Dayan, head of the Yesha Council of West Bank settlements, said that “the event near Shaarei Tikva is a murderous terror attack. It is no accident. One time it’s a stone, then it’s a knife, or a rifle or a vehicle, but it’s the same terror.”
Meanwhile, for 60+ years, the “Jewish State” has been and continues to be the same terror to Palestinians.
“Palestinian children in the roadway appear to have roughly the moral sanctity of tin cans.”
Of course. It’s because they are depraved and bigoted misogynists. Swarthy and unshaven, too.
“…murderous terror attack…”
That gives us a new Ziofinition. Defending yourself against someone visibly about to kill you is ‘a murderous terrorist attack.’
re ‘Five Jewish teens suspected of breaking Arab’s leg.’
What’s interesting about this is the explanation they offered:
“According to police, three of the suspects, agd 16, confessed to attacking the man and said they did so because they thought he was” taking advantage of a Jewish girl.” …”
Obviously, they feel that’s a legitimate justification. Popular mythology notwithstanding, kids really aren’t terribly original. They’re basically parrots — they repeat what they have been taught.
Very impressive video. Trocaire is an Irish charity. The word means “mercy” in Gaelic.
Every year for Lent, the period of fasting before Easter, the charity organises Trocaire boxes which are like piggy banks for the money people save by giving up something for Lent. It’s a bit like the Muslim tradition of Zakat.
And some of the money goes to Israel/Palestine.
Trocaire goes where there is injustice.
They are one of the supporters of Zochrot.
link to youtube.com
Thanks for the background, seafoid.