Gaza woman succumbs to wounds at Jerusalem hospital
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 4 Sept — A Palestinian woman from Gaza passed away at a Jerusalem hospital due to wounds sustained during the latest Israeli assault on Gaza. Mariam Abu Amra, 23, died at al-Makased hospital in Jerusalem as a result of critical wounds she sustained in her chest in Deir al-Balah, sources at the hospital said. Her body was taken to Gaza through Erez crossing in order to be buried. Her death brings the total death toll in Gaza as a result of the more than 50-day Israeli assault to 2,154, as many Palestinians critically injured in the offensive have passed away. More than 11,000 Palestinians were also injured. The Gaza Ministry of Health said Thursday that 530 of the injured were transferred over the course of the conflict from Gaza to be treated in the West Bank, Egypt, Turkey, Germany, and Jordan.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=725556
Elderly Palestinian woman died from Gaza war injuries
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 4 Sept — A Palestinian woman from Gaza died in an Egyptian hospital on Thursday from injuries suffered during Israel’s assault on the besieged coastal enclave. Gaza medical sources said Itaf Muhammad Jarour was pronounced dead at the Nasser Medical Institute in Cairo. Jarour was injured in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on July 29, which killed one man and injured several others.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=725341
Violence / Raids / Illegal arrests — West Bank / Jerusalem
Palestinian teen shot by Israeli police declared clinically dead
Haaretz 5 Sept by Nir Hasson — A Palestinian teenager who was critically wounded earlier this week during a protest in East Jerusalem, is clinically dead, doctors at Hadassah Ein Kerem told the family Thursday. The 16-year old’s relatives said an Israeli soldier shot him at close range in the head with a rubber-coated steel bullet. Jerusalem police sources said the boy, Muhammad Abd Al-Majid Sunuqrut, had been shot in the leg with a sponge-tipped bullet in Wadi Joz, fell and hurt his head. Sunuqrut is the first person to be seriously hurt in the wave of violence washing over East Jerusalem since the beginning of July. If he dies and is declared a shaheed (an Islamic martyr), it could trigger more violence in the city, Palestinian officials said. The teen’s uncle, Motabi Sunuqrut, said the boy had not even taken part in the demonstrations on August 31 and the area was quiet at the time of the incident. “Ten minutes earlier I returned home and nothing was happening. He left home and was talking to his aunt on the phone, when suddenly he was shot at close range. After he fell the soldiers went on beating him and wouldn’t let anyone come near him to treat him,” he said.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.614245
Israeli forces shoot, detain Fatah activist in Nablus
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 3 Sept — Israeli forces detained a Fatah activist in Nablus on Wednesday after shooting him in the foot following a two-hour standoff, Palestinian security sources said. Israeli forces surrounded Sama Sports Club in Nablus after attempting to detain Husam al-Din Abu Riyala, 26, who was issued a summons order last month. A two-hour standoff followed as Abu Riyala refused to turn himself in to Israeli forces. Israeli soldiers then raided the building and shot him in the foot before detaining him. He was taken away in an ambulance for treatment. Meanwhile, Israeli forces detained five Palestinian workers who were trying to cross into Israel without permits.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=725106
Israeli soldiers shoot, injure Palestinian in Nablus
NABLUS (WAFA) 3 Sept — Israeli forces shot and injured early Wednesday a Palestinian youth in the city of Nablus, said local sources. Israeli forces raided the city, where they broke into Sama Sports Center, a preschool and a society for the disabled, triggering clashes with Palestinian locals. Forces fired live ammunition at Amir Qamhiyya, 20, injuring him in the chest. He was admitted into the Rafidia Hospital, where medics described his situation as stable
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=26448
PHOTOS: Israeli forces damage youth centers in Nablus raid
Activestills 4 Sept — A youth sports club and center for children with disabilities in Nablus sustain serious damage after Israeli forces raid a multi-story building in search of wanted Palestinians — Text and photos by: Ahmad Al-Bazz. As happens almost every night in Palestinian cities, towns and villages throughout the West Bank, Israeli forces raided Nablus neighborhoods at 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday. Military jeeps spread out to different areas of the city, especially to refugee camps. The biggest military operation took place in the southern part of the city, where Israeli forces targeted six Palestinians who were sleeping in a local youth sports club. Their main target was Husam Al-Din Abu Riyala, 26, a Fatah activist who had been issued a summons order last month. Soldiers surrounded the building of the sport club, which was located on the third floor of an apartment building, while another group of soldiers occupied the roof of a neighboring house. Locals reported that the military fired a heavy barrage of live ammunition towards the club while another group of soldiers used explosives to blow open the main door and enter the building. Five youths managed to escape from windows, while Abu Riyala was shot in the foot with live bullets before being arrested, according to Ma’an News. Following the arrest, the military operation ended with a raid on a health center for handicapped children and nursery school located in the same building. At 3:30 a.m., one of the workers from the health center managed to enter the building, discovering that doors had been bombed and other extensive damage.
http://972mag.com/photos-israeli-forces-damage-youth-centers-in-nablus-raid/96317/
Night raid in Far‘a refugee camp
FAR‘A, Occupied Palestine (ISM, Nablus Team) 3 Sept 2014 — We arrived around one o’clock in the afternoon of September 1st to the Far’a Refugee Camp and found that we had awakened the three Mansour family households. “We didn’t have much sleep last night,” explained one sister. “The army kept us awake all night and made a horrible mess in my brothers’ flats.” On the floor below, her brother Khaled and his wife Hanan took us around the flat. They pointed out where seven soldiers, who barged into their home at 2:00 a.m. with their dogs, had intruded and what they’d done. Soldiers went from room to room, ordering all the family members out of their beds, and departed almost two hours later, leaving the contents of all the cupboards and wardrobes strewn out on the floor. Soldiers became suspicious when they saw photo on the wall of Khaled Mansour speaking to a crowd of protesting Palestinians. The resident Khaled said that the soldiers asked him if he was politically active and what party he belonged to. Every bit of each room was searched by soldiers and sniffed by dogs. A collection of silk Palestinians scarves Khaled was given by different organisations attracted particular attention, to the extent that one ended up in a pocket of a soldier when they who thought nobody was watching … After 15 minutes of questioning, Asim was hand-cuffed and taken down narrow camp lanes, in the dead of the night. The army used his body as a shield, placing him at the front of the group of soldiers and exposing him to the stones thrown in protest from the surrounding houses. Using people as human shields is an illegal practise under Israeli law and a war crime under international law. Yet the Israeli Army has been reported committing this crime in the occupied Palestinian Territories day in and day out. About 10 more camp residents were treated in the same way … “Because we will not accept to live under the occupation, our life is not different from the life of our fathers, and now our children live the same life too,” said Khaled. “Our father, who has passed away, spent time in the British jail in 1947, then in the Jordanian jail in 50’s when they had control here, and then in the Israeli jails sons in the 80′s, and that is the life of our sons too.”
http://palsolidarity.org/2014/09/night-raid-in-fara-refugee-camp/
In pictures: the arrest of Tamer Jweihan after searching his family’s house in the neighborhood of Al-Thori
SILWAN, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 2 Sept — The Israeli forces arrested on Tuesday afternoon 23-year old Tamer Nayef Jweihan after raiding his family’s house in the neighborhood of Al-Thori in Silwan. Wadi Hilweh Information center was informed by journalist Diala Jweihan that a large Israeli force including Special Forces, Intelligence, Must‘aribeen (undercover police) and a K-9 unit raided the family’s houses and was supported by a helicopter that flew above the house. The force precisely searched the house (bedrooms, living rooms and bathrooms) and also searched the garden; note that the forces had a map of the house in hand. Jweihan explained that the Israeli forces arrested her brother Tamer and then searched the house for more than three hours. She added that the police dogs brutally raided the house which terrified the family members. The Israeli police extended the arrest of Tamer Jweihan in order to present him to court on Wednesday.
http://silwanic.net/?p=52602
Soldiers kidnap 14 Palestinians in the West Bank
IMEMC/Agencies 3 Sept — Israeli soldiers invaded on Wednesday, at dawn, several Palestinian communities in different parts of the occupied West Bank, searched and ransacked several homes and properties, and kidnapped 14 Palestinians. Media sources in Jenin, in the northern part of the West Bank, stated that several Israeli military vehicles invaded the al-‘Arqa village, west of the city, and kidnapped two brothers identified as ‘Ala Tawfiq Yahia, 28, and Ahmad Tawfiq Yahia, in addition to resident Maher Khader Waked. Soldiers also invaded the homes of Nizar and Ahmad Khader, searched the properties and interrogated the families for several hours. Another Palestinian, identified as Mohammad Ahmad Barghoush, was kidnapped from his home in Kafr al-Labad village, in the northern West Bank district of Tulkarem. In addition, soldiers kidnapped six Palestinian youths close to the Annexation Wall section, in Qalqilia, in the northern part of the West Bank. Local sources said the six are from the Jenin district, and were trying to enter Israel to search for work … In related news, soldiers invaded Beit Ummar town, north of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, and kidnapped one Palestinian identified as Maher Ibrahim Sabarna, 33. Sabarna, a former political prisoner, was moved to the Etzion Israeli military and security base for interrogation. The soldiers also broke into the home of former political prisoner, Torky Mohammad al-‘Allami, and confiscated his computer and a number of mobile SIM cards … Israeli policemen and soldiers also kidnapped three Palestinians in the yards of al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem, after around 40 extremist Israeli settlers invaded it through the al-Magharba Gate. A number of settlers tried to climb to the rooftop of the mosque, but local worshipers managed to stop them.
http://www.imemc.org/article/69020
Soldiers kidnap 12 Palestinians in the West Bank
IMEMC/Agencies 4 Sept by Saed Bannoura — Israeli soldiers kidnapped on Thursday, at dawn, eleven Palestinians in various invasions targeting homes and areas in the West Bank districts of Bethlehem, Hebron, Jenin, Tulkarem and Qalqilia. Local sources in the Bethlehem district stated that dozens of military jeeps invaded Husan town, broke into and searched several homes and kidnapped three Palestinians. The kidnapped have been identified as Mohammad Ismael Sabateen, 20, Mohammad Fares Suleiman, 20, and Mahmoud Ishaq Sabateen, 19. Soldiers also invaded ‘Arraba and Ya‘bad towns, near the northern West Bank city of Jenin, and kidnapped two Palestinians, after searching and ransacking their homes. Local sources said resident Mohammad Hussein Sheebani, was kidnapped in ‘Arraba, while Abdul-Jabbar Eqab Nfei’at, 27, was kidnapped from his family home in Ya‘bad. Soldiers also broke into the homes of Yahia al-Keelani and Ahmad Ali al-Jazzar, in the al-‘Amarna neighborhood in Ya’bad, detained the families and used the homes as military posts and monitoring towers. They further invaded Silet al-Harithiyya and al-Yamoun towns, near Jenin, and searched several homes causing property damage. In Qalqilia, also in the northern part of the West Bank, soldiers kidnapped two Palestinians at a roadblock, near the northern entrance of the city. The two have been identified as Mahdi Bassem Lebat, 24, and Ahmad Omar Salama, 19. In addition, soldiers invaded the northern West bank city of Tulkarem, and kidnapped Mohammad Jawad Qfeiny, 21, after violently searching his home. Various armored Israeli military jeeps also invaded the southern West Bank city of Hebron, searched and ransacked several homes, and kidnapped three Palestinians identified as Arqam Ahmaro, Ayman al-Hashlamoun and Samer al-Qawasmi. Forces also raided ‘Azzoun, where they abducted a 22-year-old Palestinian who had been previously imprisoned by Israel, after breaking into and ransacking his home.
http://www.imemc.org/article/69028
MADA condemns ‘assassination’ attempt of critical Palestinian MP
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 4 Sept — A media watchdog on Thursday condemned what it called an “assassination attempt” in the West Bank earlier in the day against a Palestinian member of parliament known to be a government critic, calling it a “serious violation of freedom of expression.” The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms said in a statement that it was “gravely concerned” by the attack on Palestinian MP Hasan Khraisha, whose car was shot at with live bullets as he was driving from his home in Tulkarem Thursday morning. MADA said that Khraisha was well known for his opposition to the policies of the Palestinian Authority, and quoted the lawmaker — who was not injured in the attack — as saying: “This was a direct attempt to assassinate me, not just a threat to silence me.” Khraisha was also quoted as telling MADA that the likely cause of the attack was for speaking his mind, adding: “It seems that my straightforwardness has angered some politicians.” Khraisha, who is also the second deputy speaker of the parliament, said that he had not received any warnings prior to the attack or in recent years, and MADA said the assailants were still unknown. The attack occurred just before 9 a.m. near the residence of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, but MADA quoted Khraisha as saying that the security guards told him they had heard the gunfire but not seen the shooter.
MADA said the attack was the second such targeting in recent weeks, noting that Abdulasattar Qasem — an al-Najah University professor of political science also known as a critic of the Palestinian Authority — was shot with live bullets near his home in Nablus on Aug. 5. The shooting occurred only six days after he was punched and threatened by a man during a live TV interview, the group added.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=725502
Land, property theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing
Israel issues tenders for 283 homes in W. Bank settlement
JERUSALEM (AFP) 5 Sept — Israel said Friday it published tenders for 283 new homes in a West Bank settlement, just days after announcing its biggest land grab on occupied Palestinian territory for three decades. The expansion of the Elkana settlement, in the northwest of the West Bank, was approved in January and the tenders published Thursday, Israel’s Land Authority said on its website. The Jewish state in January said it would advance the construction of some 5,000 new settler homes in annexed east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, including in Elkana, Haaretz newspaper reported at the time. Haaretz said that move was aimed at diffusing Israeli public anger over the release of Palestinian prisoners under US-brokered peace talks that later collapsed. The process for those units had been put on hold over the summer during the Gaza war, housing ministry spokesman Ariel Rozenberg told AFP.
http://news.yahoo.com/israel-issues-tenders-283-homes-w-bank-settlement-095116999.html
West Bank’s Wadi Fukin big loser in newest Israeli land grab
Alternative News 3 Sept by Elizabeth Austwick & Ahmad Abu Haniya — More than 25% of the land newly confiscated in the West Bank belongs to the village of Wadi Fukin. Residents fear the likely outcome of being completely surrounded by Israeli settlements while gearing up to fight this expected loss of land, property and livelihood — Ahmed Sokal, mayor of the West Bank village of Wadi Fukin, has no doubts as to the goal of Israel’s recently announced expropriation of 4,000 dunams of land from the West Bank’s Bethlehem area. “Israel’s plan for Wadi Fukin is clear,” Sokal told the AIC. “It aims to step by step surround our village so that it becomes a prison, trapped between settlements. It wants to drive out our residents. We are already surrounded by Tsur Hadassah to the west, with Beitar Illit and Hadar Beitar to the north. Now our land to the east has been taken from us, and a new settlement will be built.” Wadi Fukin, located 10 kilometers southwest of Bethlehem, had already lost some three-quarters of its lands to confiscations following Israel’s 1967 occupation for the construction of two settlements – Beitar Illit and Hadar Beitar – in addition to bypass roads and the Separation Wall … Wadi Fukin residents told the AIC of their fears that the village’s sole entrance – a narrow road – could easily be cut off by Israel to strangle the village surrounded by Israeli settlements.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/features/economy-of-the-occupation/8431-west-bank-s-wadi-fukin-big-loser-in-newest-israeli-land-grab
Several Palestinians injured near Bethlehem
IMEMC/Agencies 6 Sept by Saed Bannoura — Medical sources reported, on Friday evening, that several Palestinians were been injured during clashes with Israeli soldiers invading Wadi Fukin village, west of Bethlehem. The sources said the soldiers attacked protesters marching against an Israeli decision to illegally confiscate at least 4000 dunams (988.42 acres) of farmlands. The villagers were peacefully marching against the Israeli decision, which was made to enable the construction and expansion of Israel’s illegitimate Jewish-only settlements, on villagers’ lands. Ahmad Sokkar, head of the Wadi Fukin village council, said the soldiers violently attacked nonviolent activists, and residents, peacefully marching against Israel’s latest decision, that would rob them of their livelihoods. The Israeli decision was made last week; the lands in questions are located in the Kaneesa area, east of the village. The villagers started their protests by planting olive saplings in their orchards and lands to challenge Israel’s illegitimate decision.
http://www.imemc.org/article/69049
Land grab seen as Netanyahu’s attempt to restore standing on the right
Haaretz 5 Sept by Yossi Verter — With a single decision, Netanyahu fueled Palestinian PR efforts and painted Israel into the corner it’s so familiar with – the one inhabited by ostracized, wayward, irritating countries — The dust has settled, the echoes of the rocket-alarm sirens have faded, the reservists have been sent home. The homes in the kibbutzim are filled again with wailing babies, the barns with lowing cattle. What better symbol of the return to normality than the headlines about the expropriation of land in the West Bank, new building plans for settlements and furious condemnations from the international community? … Foreign diplomats were quoted as saying that the latest Israeli provocation was tantamount to poking a finger in the eye of the international community, which was silent and supported Israel during the 50 days of the pounding of Gaza. While we’re on the subject of body parts, the decision to confiscate 4,000 dunams (1,000 acres) of land in the Gush Etzion area can be compared to the decision maker, namely the Israeli government, shooting itself in its already-punctured, battered and perforated leg. Instead of utilizing the coming weeks and months to execute subtle, complex consensus-demanding moves of forging an anti-Hamas and pro-Palestinian Authority alliance with the United States and Europe, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who won praise across the political spectrum for his restrained, responsible and judicious approach during the war has, as usual, overturned the bucket.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.614185
US mulls more steps in response to Israel’s land grab in West Bank
Haaretz 5 Sept by Barak Ravid — Israeli official says expropriation announcement ‘drove the Americans nuts’; Netanyahu’s advisers say move was not coordinated with them — The Obama administration is considering taking further action regarding Israel’s expropriation of 1,000 acres of West Bank land this week, on top of the condemnation Washington has already issued. “Maybe our reaction will find expression in other ways,” a senior U.S. official told Haaretz, but declined to give details … In recent days attempts have been made by the national security adviser, Yossi Cohen, and other Netanyahu advisers to calm the Americans down. The Israeli officials told the Americans it would take years until any construction was carried out in the area. The move was a long process that still required a number of stages of approval. Netanyahu’s advisers added that the move had taken the prime minister’s aides by surprise; Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon had not coordinated it with them. The aides had not been informed in advance about the Civil Administration’s announcement, or the timing.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.614260
West Bank: Israeli forces close agricultural roads, confiscate water pipes
IMEMC/Agencies 4 Sept — Israeli forces, on Thursday, closed agricultural roads in Idhna and confiscated water pipes from al-Baq‘a, located respectively to the west and east of Hebron, according to municipal sources and witnesses. WAFA Palestinian News & Info Agency has reported that several agricultural roads were closed in al-Bas springs, al-Khirbi al-Bayda, Khirbet al-Ras, and Khalet Mhareb Road, opposite to the section of the Segregation and Annexation Wall to the west of Idhna. The closure of these roads, which are the linking point between Idhna and the Palestinian agricultural lands in these areas, has resulted in the loss of access to land owned by Palestinian farmers in the region.
Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers confiscated a number of water pipes from Palestinian agricultural lands in Al-Baq‘a, to the east of the city. Troops, accompanied by officers from the so-called Israeli Civil Administration and Israeli water company ‘Mekorot’, raided the area and confiscated pipes used by a local Palestinian farmer to irrigate turnip seeds in his 4-dunam-sized land.
In related Thursday news, WAFA further reports that Israeli forces destroyed the contents of a Palestinian home in an-Nassariya, to the east of Nablus, according to a local witness. Israeli troops stormed the area, upon which they they broke into several homes without warning and occupied the rooftops, said one Muhammad Abu Rwis, adding that the soldiers ransacked his own home and destroyed the contents. Head of An-Nassariya Local Council, Yaser Nayef, stated that large Israeli reinforcements were deployed in the village, as well as in the villages of ‘Ein Shibli, al-Aqrabaniya and al-Nawaji, nearby.
http://www.imemc.org/article/69036
Israeli forces demolish Palestinian shops in Jerusalem village
JERUSALEM (WAFA) 3 Sept – Israeli forces demolished Wednesday Palestinian-owned shops at Al-Khalayla neighborhood in al-Jib to the northwest of Jerusalem, under the pretext of being ‘built without a permit’, said a local witness. Israeli military bulldozers, escorted by large troops, raided al-Jib, cordoning it and demolishing a parking lot, an auto body repair and painting shop and an aluminum profile workshop in addition to others, according to Anas ‘Adel ‘Abeid
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=26450
Israeli demolitions leave 5 homeless in East Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 3 Sept — Israeli forces demolished a Palestinian family’s home in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina as well as several rooms of a nearby house being used to store aid supplies for Gaza on Wednesday, the owner of the property told Ma‘an. Israeli bulldozers arrived in Beit Hanina and demolished two 60-meter rooms belonging to Hajj Izz Abu Nijma, in what he said was the fifth time that part of his property had been demolished by Israeli authorities. At the time to the demolition, the rooms were being used to collect food supplies to send to the Gaza Strip. All of the supplies, including rice, sugar, pasta, and canned goods, were destroyed during the demolition. Abu Nijma said he has been trying to obtain the necessary building permits from Jerusalem’s municipality since 1996, but has been rejected every time. Israeli forces also demolished a housing structure belonging to Abu Nijma’s brother, Nadim, where five family members lived. Tariq was detained after Israeli forces raided the property while he was sleeping, before demolishing the structures. Bulldozers also demolished a wall surrounding Tariq’s land and a structure used to keep horses, dogs and cattle.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=725272
Palestinian Bedouin houses demolished by Israel
Electronic Intifada 5 Sept by Patrick Strickland — Israeli authorities demolished several Palestinian homes in the Naqab (Negev) region on Wednesday. During the early hours of the morning, Israeli bulldozers razed three buildings in Um Beten and additional structures on the outskirts of Hura, villages located in the northern part of the Naqab region, the Arabs48 website reported later that day. The southern Naqab region is home to approximately 160,000 Palestinian Bedouins, according to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel’s estimates. As part of the estimated 1.7 million Palestinian citizens of Israel, they face more than fifty discriminatory laws that limit their access to state resources and stifle political expression, the Haifa-based Adalah Legal Center reports. Yet in addition to these hardships, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel also notes that around 80,000 Palestinians in the Naqab live in communities that Israel refers to as “unrecognized villages,” where they “are denied basic services and infrastructure, such as electricity and running water.” Many of these communities predate the Nakba, the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Israeli policy aims to push Bedouins off their land and into ghetto-like planned communities. The Prawer Plan, a program approved by Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, intended to displace tens of thousands of Palestinians in the Naqab, according to Adalah’s estimates. After sparking outrage and widespread protests among Palestinians, Israel announced the cancellation of the Prawer Plan in December last year. Arabs48 reports that “demolitions are still continuing” unabated in Hura and Um Beten, among other villages. Such demolitions have also continued without pause across the entire region and, to a lesser extent, have also occurred in Palestinian communities in the northern part of present-day Israel. A video of Wednesday’s demolitions was published on YouTube:
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/patrick-strickland/palestinian-bedouin-homes-demolished-israel
Israeli soldiers set fire to olive trees in Hebron
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 5 Sept — Israeli soldiers set fire to Palestinian-owned olive trees near the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba in Hebron late Thursday. Witnesses told Ma‘an that Israeli soldiers deployed in the area pushed a burning tire into an area of olive trees, causing severe damage. Local Palestinians called the fire brigade to extinguish the blaze but were prevented from arriving in the area by Israeli forces.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=725599
Orphans protest demolition of dairy factory
HEBRON, Occupied Palestine (ISM, Khalil Team) 5 Sept — Yesterday, 300 orphans staged a protest following the demolition of Al-Rayyan Dairy Factory, north of Hebron, which occurred in the early hours of 1st September 2014. The future of the children remains unclear as the two orphanages they live in, the Hebron Charity House for Girls and The Hebron Charity House for Boys, are dependent on the profits made by the dairy factory. Both the orphanages and the dairy factory are owned by the Islamic Charitable Society. The dairy factory, which housed 150 cows and produced six tones of milk products, such as yogurt and cheese, had run for 24 years, ever since the Islamic Charitable Society received funding from the Kuwait government in 1991 to set up the factory. The purpose was for the Society’s orphanages and schools to have their own source of regular income, rather than relying on donations. The dairy products were distributed to Hebron and the surrounding villages. The Israeli government, since 2002, has targeted the dairy factory. The first demolition order was based on concerns about environmental regulations, saying that the waste produced by cows was not dealt with suitably. Despite solving this problem, the dairy farm continuously fell under threat by the Israeli military, especially since it was located in Area C, the area of the West Bank completely under Israeli military control. Claims were also made by the Israeli Council for Planning that parts of the farm were illegally built; however, Abed Al-kareen Farrah, one of the lawyers working with the Islamic Charitable Society, confirmed that the farm received approval from the Israel Antiquities Authority for a license to build. He said, “The farm has been under fire for years with a lot of administrative issues, and Israel constantly put pressure on it to close.” In June 2014, the dairy farm received a second demolition order, accusing the Islamic Charitable Society of having affiliation with Hamas because one of the dairy farm’s workers had been an administrative detainee for the past twenty months. The Chair of the Islamic Charitable Society’s Board of Directors, Hatim al-Bakri, stated that the society is not funding Gaza. On the 3rd of July 2014, Israeli forces confiscated all of the farm’s machinery before demolishing the entire farm a few days ago. Hatim al-Bakri added that the farm would be impossible to rebuild, not only because it would cost two million dollars to do so, but also because of the heavy resistance they would face from the Israeli forces. The demolition of the dairy farm is yet another example of how collective punishment affects hundreds of Palestinian people every day. Not only does the entire workforce of the farm have to lose their jobs because of one administrative detainee working there, but children, far removed from the workings of the farm, will also suffer the consequences.
http://palsolidarity.org/2014/09/orphans-protest-demolition-of-dairy-factory/
WATCH: Suspects flee scene of price tag attack
Ynet 4 Sept by Itay Blumenthal — Four teenagers – residents of Arad, Beit El, and another community in the southern West Bank – were caught on camera fleeing the scene after allegedly setting fire to a café in the town of Dura, near Hebron. The suspects allegedly spray-painted “revenge” on the door to the establishment. The incident occurred some two weeks ago; the police and Shin Bet claimed that the price tag attack was a response to an arson case in a structure within a settlement near Beit El … The video shows four masked teenagers wearing tzitizit, fleeing through a wadi that passes through an olive tree orchard. Later they are seen removing their masks, likely to plan the rest of the escape.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4567755,00.html
Jerusalem approves major housing plan for Arab neighborhood
Haaretz 4 Sept by Nir Hasson — Barkat overcomes years of opposition from right-wing, Haredi forces — The Jerusalem Local Building and Planning Committee on Wednesday approved a large construction plan for an Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem over the objections of right-wing city councilors. The plan for the Arav al-Swahara neighborhood extends over 1,500 dunams (375 acres) and calls for building 2,200 homes. Although Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and Deputy Mayor Koby Kahlon, who chairs the building and planning committee, had been trying to get this plan passed for several years, it was repeatedly blocked by right-wing activists in conjunction with Haredi city councilmen. Following legal action by neighborhood residents, with the help of the Hebrew University’s International Human Rights Legal Clinic and attorney Ziad Kawar, the Jerusalem District Court ordered the city council to debate the plan and make a decision. Right-wingers, among them Mati Dan, head of the Ateret Cohanim association, which sponsors numerous initiatives to purchase Arab properties in East Jerusalem and settle Jews there, and City Councilman Aryeh King, tried to get the plan voted down. King even posted a Facebook status threatening to bolt the municipal coalition if the plan was approved. In the end, however, it passed with the support of Kahlon, Yerushalmim representative Tamir Nir, and Meretz councilor Yosef Alalu … Barkat praised the decision, saying, “The planning of neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem by the municipality is a clear expression of Israeli sovereignty over all parts of the city and strengthens the unity of Jerusalem.”
http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/.premium-1.613997
PM orders removal of wooden ramp at Temple Mount, following pressure from Jordan
Haaretz 3 Sept by Barak Ravid and Nir Hasson — The structure was an unauthorized solution for non-Muslims entering the area, and the Jordanians complained — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered Israeli authorities to dismantle a wooden footbridge between Jerusalem’s Western Wall plaza and the Temple Mount, in response to Jordanian pressure. Work began Wednesday to remove the footbridge, less than two weeks after construction began. The order came after the royal palace expressed anger over the lack of coordination with Jordan. A senior Israeli official said the walkway was the initiative of local officials who lacked authority and did not notify or request the permission of Israel’s government … “We wanted to avoid a situation in which Israel is accused of igniting the Middle East,” says a senior Israeli official … “This isn’t the first time an archaeological dig has turned into construction that’s playing with fire in the Old City,” said archaeologist Yoni Mizrahri of Emek Shaveh, a group that focuses on archaeology’s role in the Arab-Israeli conflict. “It’s amazing to see how Israel is playing with fire, trying things and then reconsidering.”
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.613890
Prisoners / Court actions
Prisoner hospitalized after being tortured in Israeli jail
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 3 Sept — A Palestinian prisoner has been moved to a hospital ward after undergoing torture at Israel’s Russian Compound detention center, a Palestinian Authority prisoners committee said Wednesday. Muhammad Hussein Rabee, 33, from Beit Anan village near Ramallah, suffered health complications as a result of being tortured while being held at the Jerusalem detention center for 40 days, the committee said. He was first moved to Hadassah hospital last week, and is now in the Shaare Zedek Medical Center. Rabee was detained on July 27 and his family did not find out his whereabouts until 30 days later. “We did not know where Muhammad was until after a month of his detention, and his lawyer was not allowed to visit him until after 35 days of being at the Russian compound,” his brother Usama told Ma‘an. Rabee’s lawyer said he had been “harshly tortured.” Former prisoner Khaldun Jumhur, who was being held in the Russian Compound with Rabee, said that interrogators used a method of putting pressure on the victim’s neck, as well as beating him on his hands, legs and head. A doctor at the detention center requested an x-ray for Rabee, but was refused by the Shin Bet agency.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=725204
Postponing the trial of the killers of the child Mohammad Abu Khdeir
SILWAN, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 3 Sept –The District court judge postponed on Wednesday a court session against the killers of the child Mohammad Abu Khdeir who was kidnapped and burnt alive on the 3rd of last July. The child’s father explained that the session was postponed to 20/10/2014 after the killers’ lawyer requested to postpone the session in order to study the case; note that the previous defense team withdrew. Concurrently, Jerusalemites protested outside the District court in Salah Eddin Street and held banners calling for punishing the killers and demolishing their homes.
http://silwanic.net/?p=52606
Israeli forces fail to detain elderly Hamas MP for 4th time
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 3 Sept — Israeli forces on Wednesday attempted and failed to detain an elderly member of the Palestinian parliament for the fourth time in two months, family members said. A Ma‘an reporter said that more than 10 Israeli vehicles raided Nablus on Wednesday and encircled the al-Zahraa building in which Hamas MP Sheikh Ahmad al-Hajj Ali, 77, lives near al-Ein refugee camp. The MP was not home at the time of the raid, and sources close to al-Hajj Ali’s family told Ma‘an that this was the fourth time that Israeli forces had failed to detain him. Israeli authorities reportedly issued him orders to turn himself in over the summer as part of the massive arrest campaign launched against Hamas members of Parliament, but the sources said he had refused to turn himself in. Israeli forces have raided al-Hajj Ali’s house several times before in order to detain him, and the sources told Ma’an that the forces threatened to assassinate him if he does not turn himself in.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=725157
Israel says close to cracking Hamas cell behind teens’ slaying
JERUSALEM (Reuters) 4 Sept by Dan Williams — Israel has arrested eight Palestinians who had supporting roles in the abduction and killing of three Jewish teenagers in June but the two kidnappers themselves remain at large, Israeli officials said on Thursday. They said interrogation of the suspects, all from the West Bank city of Hebron and linked to Hamas, had turned up evidence of funding from the Gaza Strip, which the Islamist faction controls, but not yet of any direct orders by Hamas leaders. The account underscored the often diffuse structure of Hamas, hundreds of whose activists were rounded up by Israeli forces in the West Bank after the abductions, stoking hostilities from Gaza that led to a seven-week-long war there. After initially denying involvement in the deaths of Jewish seminary students Eyal Yifrach, 19, and 16-year-olds Gilad Shaer and Naftali Fraenkel, Hamas last month acknowledged responsibility. But Khaled Meshaal, the group’s exiled leader, said Hamas members had struck without informing the top echelon in advance … Israel’s Shin Bet security service said the Palestinians detained included Hussam Kawasme [or Qawasmeh], who confessed to bankrolling the attack using some $50,000 provided to him by a brother in Gaza and arranged for the three youths to be buried on his private land, and two men who procured guns and a car for the abductions. Another five men are being held for helping the kidnappers evade capture and trying to spirit Kawasme to Jordan. “As far as we are concerned, the cell that carried out this terrorist attack has almost been cracked,” a Shin Bet official told Reuters. But he said it was too early to rule out a command role by more senior Hamas figures. “Our interrogations are not over yet, and three of those who were involved are not in our custody,” the official said, referring to the alleged source of Hamas funds in Gaza and the two alleged kidnappers, Amar Abu Aysha and Marwan Kawasme. The official said the Shin Bet believed Aysha and Kawasme, posing as Israeli motorists, planned to take two live captives, but were surprised when the three youths got into their car at a hitch-hiking station in the West Bank. That raised the possibility that the kidnappers then panicked and opened fire.
http://news.yahoo.com/israel-says-close-cracking-hamas-cell-behind-teens-164136006.html
Israel charges chief suspect in W. Bank teens’ kidnap
AFP 4 Sept — A prime suspect in the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank has been charged with organising and financing the crime, Israeli security officials said Thursday. The deaths, which Israel immediately blamed on Hamas, triggered a series of events that led to a devastating 50-day war in Gaza that killed more than 2,100 Palestinians and 71 Israelis. Israel’s internal security service Shin Bet accused Hossam Qawasmeh, who was arrested on July 11, of organising the June 12 kidnapping and spending some 220,000 shekels ($61,300, 47,200 euros) on weapons and cars used in the crime. According to the charge sheet seen by AFP, Qawasmeh was charged in a military court for “transferring enemy funds”, carrying out services for an illegal organisation (Hamas) and “deliberately causing the death” of the three Israelis. The indictment noted that Qawasmeh had asked and obtained the money from his brother Mahmud, “a Hamas operative who had been expelled to Gaza”
http://news.yahoo.com/israel-charges-chief-suspect-w-bank-teens-kidnap-170508861.html
Gaza
Gazan succumbs to wounds from Israeli offensive, total dead hits 2,152
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 3 Sept — A Palestinian died Wednesday of injuries sustained during the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip over the last two months. Medical sources said Nasir Abu Marahil, 40, passed away in a Jerusalem hospital as a result of injuries he sustained in al-Nusairat refugee camp on July 25.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=725290
Pregnant women and the unborn among the many casualties in Gaza
GAZA (Al-Akhbar) 4 Sept by Ibtisam Mahdi — “The fetus is alive.” The scream of medic Mohammed Ghaith made the medical team at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah race against time before the oxygen ran out. The doctors decided to open the womb of a nine-month pregnant woman who had just died in an attempt to pull her unborn child out. The body of 25-year-old Nabila Eid al-Louh from the Heker al-Jameh area in the city of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza arrived with eight other martyrs from her family. The doctors rushed to perform the necessary tests on the fetus who turned out to be alive, so she was taken to the operating room to extract the fetus out of the uterus before it was too late. This wasn’t the first story of its kind. During the war, operating rooms in all of Gaza’s hospitals were full of surgeons and obstetricians who worked hard to extract these unborn children alive from the wombs of their dead pregnant mothers, or in some cases, from injured mothers who had suffered serious wounds. But many of these babies did not make it. Nabila’s child died before he was transferred to the nursery section. The physical trauma that the mother sustained when her house collapsed on top of her was too severe. During the war, operating rooms in all of Gaza’s hospitals were full of surgeons and obstetricians who worked hard to extract these unborn children alive from the wombs of their dead pregnant mothers. Prior to this incident, there was another case of a stillborn baby at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. When the body of 26-year old Fatima Abu Jameh – who was nine months pregnant – arrived, she was taken to the operating room where a cesarean section was performed on her to pull out the baby because tests had shown that he was still alive. However, injuries that the fetus had sustained from shrapnel led to his death while the doctors were trying to pull him out of his mother’s womb. Other babies, however, were destined to live, such as Mohammed Mattar….
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/pregnant-women-and-unborn-among-many-casualties-gaza
Army opens fire at Gaza fishermen, kidnaps two
IMEMC/Agencies 3 Sept by Saed Bannoura — Israeli soldiers opened fire, on Wednesday morning, at a number of Palestinian fishing boats close to the shore in the Sudaniyya area, west of Gaza City, and kidnapped two. Eyewitnesses said that Israeli navy boats opened fire at random, before attacking the fishing boats, and kidnapped two fishermen identified as Mohammad Zayed and Mousa Sultan. On Monday, at dawn, soldiers also attacked a number of Palestinian fishing boats, close to the shore, in Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. On Tuesday, Israeli warships opened fire at Palestinian fishermen in Gaza territorial waters.
http://www.imemc.org/article/69021
Fishing in Gaza
[with photos] GAZA, Occupied Palestine (ISM Journals) 3 Sept by Charlie Andreasson — We sailed out from Gaza City’s harbor just before dusk with the 13-man crew, including two boys, and we had a theoretical possibility to reach six nautical miles for fishing. But that the limit determined by the occupying power would have been moved from three to six miles is mostly a play with words. After the previous war that ended two years ago, the limit was moved to six nautical miles, which was again reduced to three, only two days before Israel launched its operation ‘Defensive Edge’ no fishing was allowed at all. For those who are engage in kiddle, hook fishing, it has been a definite improvement, and it is likely that even trawl fishermen will be able to get better catches, so the question was how it will turn out for the once fishing with purse-seine, who primarily are fishing after sardines. We are more or less cruising out from the coast, following the sonar display closely. It shows nothing but the structure of the bottom, the screen is black, no sign of fish. The crew are every now and then checking for the red light from the Israeli patrol boats, wise from experience that they attack whenever and wherever they want, not bound to the limits or agreements. Rade Bakr, the skipper, has been arrested four times in the past and his boat has been seized. Over time he has managed to recover his boat, but he does not want to be arrested a fifth time, not just for his own sake; approximately 80 people depend on the boat’s income.Eventually, some small, pale spots appear on the sonar screen. We are between four and four and a half miles from the coast, and the captain decides that we should anchor….
http://palsolidarity.org/2014/09/fishing-in-gaza-2/
Gaza fishermen see shrimp-sized gains from Israel-Hamas ceasefire
Christian Science Monitor 4 Sept by Christa Case Bryant — The only change on the ground under the current cease-fire is the doubling of the fishing zone to six miles. But the daily catch is already less than half what it was last week — “This is a big lie from the Israelis that they opened [the fishing zone],” said Mahmoud Saidi, as traders milled around crates piled with shrimp and fish one morning this week. “Before the war, we were already going out to six miles.” Gaza’s last conflict with Israel in 2012 also ended with an agreement that extended the fishing zone to six miles, and fishermen say this was mostly honored by Israel’s Navy until tensions spiked again with Hamas. And even a six mile zone is still a far cry from the 20 miles outlined under the Oslo Accords two decades ago and never implemented. Israel says its maritime blockade is necessary to stop arms smuggling to Hamas, which took control of Gaza seven years ago. Since then, Gaza’s waters have become severely overfished. Fishermen – some of whom used to spend as much as a week at sea – often end up catching immature fish closer to shore that haven’t had a chance to reproduce and replenish the sea’s stocks. They also fetch less at the market than larger fish. The break for the war meant bigger catches when the boats headed out last week for the first time in nearly two months. On the first and second days, fishermen caught 20 tons, but that is already decreasing quickly….
http://news.yahoo.com/gaza-fishermen-see-shrimp-sized-gains-israel-hamas-170148702.html
Gazans dig deep after ceasefire as water shortage bites
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) 4 Sept by Sakher Abu El Oun — After two weeks with no water following Israel’s 50-day offensive, Abu Osama took matters into his own hands, and like hundreds of others, sank a well beside his Gaza home. After nearly two months of Israeli bombardment, power cuts and water shortages, he seized upon the ceasefire to get down to work. “Water supplied by the municipality had not been arriving for more than two weeks and there were 50 of us in the house, including many children, so I decided to sink a well” to draw water directly, the 45-year-old said. Water shortages are nothing new for Palestinians in the densely populated Gaza Strip enclave, and more and more people have been digging their own wells since 2006. Israel imposed a blockade on the territory that year after Gaza militants snatched one of its soldiers. Since then “more than 10,000 wells have been dug”, said Monzer Shoblak, an official in Gaza’s water authority. “All these wells were dug without legal authorisation, but without them may people would not have water throughout the day,” he said. But this direct access to water comes at a cost, and Abu Osama, who did not give his full name, had to shell out 2,000 Jordanian Dinars ($2,820 or 2,180 euros) to dig and maintain his well. It is a price that many residents of Gaza, where unemployment is running at around 40 percent, are unable to afford … the United Nations has warned that Gaza’s already short water supplies could be running out. The aquifer could be unusable by 2016 and the damage it has suffered may be irreversible by 2020, experts believe. Shoblak said that some 95 percent of Gaza’s water is already contaminated. “The volume of nitrate in the water should not go above 50 milligrams per litre. In Gaza the levels are about 200-250 milligrams,” he said. Chloride, which should be kept to 250 mg per litre, in some areas of Gaza reaches 2,000 mg, Shoblak said….
http://news.yahoo.com/gazans-dig-deep-ceasefire-water-shortage-bites-003807195.html
Haunted by war, Gaza residents try to rebuild
KHAN YUNIS, Gaza Strip 3 Sept by Asmaa al-Ghoul — The war in Gaza is over, but the approximately 10,000 residents of Khuza‘a do not yet believe it. The sound of reconnaissance aircraft flying nearby continues to make them think of death. Mohammed al-Najjar, 23, standing near the rubble that used to be his home, said, “The war will be resumed, we know it. Can’t you hear the sound of drones? It is not enough for them that they left us with destroyed homes and painful memories. They want to maintain the threat.” … Located in the southern Gaza Strip, east of Khan Yunis on the border with Israel, Khuza‘a was one of the main confrontation lines during the war. Bakr al-Najjar, 26, said, “The army told us to get out, and as we walked amid the bombs and rockets falling on us like rain, they opened fire on us. My uncle and my cousin died in front of me. We were unable to turn back. We had to leave the bodies behind. We just had to keep walking.” Human Rights Watch reported on Aug. 4 that it had “investigated several incidents between July 23-25 when, local residents said, Israeli forces opened fire on civilians trying to flee Khuza‘a, but no Palestinian fighters were present at the time, and no firefights were taking place.”
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/09/khuzaa-gaza-war-aftermath-destruction-killing-arrests.html
Palestinians put Gaza reconstruction cost at $7.8 billion
RAMALLAH West Bank (Reuters) 4 Sept by Noah Browning — Rebuilding Gaza will cost $7.8 billion, the Palestinian Authority said on Thursday, in the most comprehensive assessment yet of damage from a seven-week war with Israel during which whole neighborhoods and vital infrastructure were flattened. The cost of rebuilding 17,000 Gazan homes razed by Israeli bombings would be $2.5 billion, the Authority said, and the energy sector needed $250 million after the Strip’s only power plant was destroyed by two Israeli missiles. “The attack on Gaza this time had no precedent, Gaza has been hit with a catastrophe and it needs immediate help because many things can’t wait long,” Mohammed Shtayyeh, a Palestinian economist and a senior member of the West Bank’s dominant Fatah party, told reporters in Ramallah. Rebuilding Gaza would depend heavily on foreign aid and would require an end to Palestinian rivalry and Israel opening its border crossings, said Shtayyeh, who heads the Palestinian Economic Council for Research and Development (PECDAR) which ran the survey. But none of the factors mentioned by Shtayyeh appeared forthcoming. A donor conference in Cairo has yet to be formally scheduled, Palestinian institutions remain divided between Gaza and the West Bank and Israel has yet to fundamentally ease the movement of people and goods at its Gaza border. The PA’s assessment also found that the Strip’s education sector would need around $143 million to get back on its feet. About half a million children have been unable to return to their schools due to damage or because the buildings are being used to house refugees….
http://news.yahoo.com/palestinians-put-gaza-reconstruction-cost-7-8-billion-140748072.html
UNRWA research teams to begin work Sunday in Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 3 Sept — UNRWA researchers and engineers will begin evaluation and assessment of damages to the homes of the displaced across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, an official said. UNRWA media adviser Adnan Abu Hasna said that “hundreds of researchers and engineers were fully trained on how to deal with the remains of explosives and shells and on how to extract the best results of their research.” Abu Hasna added that the research and evaluation form was being conducted under the United Nations Development Program. “As soon as the evaluation and assessment ends, we will pay for the houses that were slightly damaged through donations from the UAE worth $41 million.” Abu Hasna added that the UNRWA will launch a campaign to provide financial support for those displaced to be able to rent a house or an apartment. More than 100,000 Gazans were left homeless by the more than 50-day Israeli assault over July and August that left more than 2,000 dead.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=725250
EU source: Gaza reconstruction aid is ‘made in Israel’
Euractiv 3 Sept — SPECIAL REPORT: A row is brewing over claims that Israel is earning millions of euros from a de facto policy of preventing non-Israeli reconstruction aid from entering the Gaza Strip. At least 65,000 people in the Gaza Strip are homeless after the recent seven-week conflict. Infrastructure ranging from water desalination centres to power plants lies in ruins. No formal Israeli ban prevents the import of reconstruction materials that were not made in Israel, but EU sources speaking on condition of anonymity say that in practice, Israeli security demands present them with a fait accompli. “If you want aid materials to be permitted to enter, they will almost inevitably come from Israeli sources,” an EU official said. “I don’t think you’ll find it written down anywhere in official policy, but when you get to negotiate with the Israelis, this is what happens. It increases construction and transaction costs, and is a political problem that has to be dealt with.” As well as Israel’s security restrictions on aid, “it can be very difficult to export materials to Gaza,” the official said. “A lot of goods for a Gaza private sector reconstruction project we had, ended up being held in Ashdod port for very lengthy periods of time – months if not years – so there was de facto no alternative but to use Israeli sources.” The source added that the policy had benefited Israel’s economy to the tune of millions of euros and was, in his view, deliberate.
http://www.euractiv.com/sections/development-aid-under-fire/eu-source-gaza-reconstruction-aid-made-israel-308169
In pictures: the former glory of Gaza’s international airport
The National 4 Sept — Once a symbol of Palestinian hopes for statehood, the Yasser Arafat or Dahaniya international airport has become a constant reminder that Gaza is largely cut off from the outside world. Israeli forces hit the airport’s radar tower in 2001 during the second intifada, when Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza launched an uprising against the Israeli occupation, forcing it to stop work. Today, the airport is barely recognisable from its days of former glory.
http://www.thenational.ae/world/middle-east/in-pictures-the-former-glory-of-gazas-international-airport#1
After ceasefire, Gazans dream of reopened airport
DAHANIYA, Palestinian Territories (The National) 4 Sept — Standing in front of the crumbling control tower of Gaza’s devastated airport, one-time air traffic controller Anis Arafat dreams of the day planes will land and take off here again. Re-opening this airport, closed since 2001, and ending Gaza’s isolation is a key demand of the Islamist Hamas movement. It was also at the heart of the 50-day Gaza-Israel conflict that ended with a ceasefire last week. Once a symbol of Palestinian hopes for statehood, the Yasser Arafat or Dahaniya international airport has become a constant reminder that Gaza is largely cut off from the outside world … As well as the Gazans themselves, the opening of the airport would give their goods a chance to reach outside markets – in a major potential boost for the territory’s battered economy. “We know the people of Gaza are tremendously entrepreneurial, it is a vibrant economy that has really been affected by the blockade in the last years,” said Maria-Jose Torres of the UN humanitarian agency OCHA in the occupied Palestinian territories. “If they were able to export textiles or goods, that would be a great opportunity for them.”
http://www.thenational.ae/world/middle-east/after-ceasefire-gazans-dream-of-reopened-airport
Young Gazans risk lives to escape to Europe
RAFAH, Gaza Strip 4 Sept by Hana Salah — Illegal immigration through the shores of Italy to European countries has become the last resort for hundreds of young people escaping war and misery in Gaza. On June 24, two weeks before Israel’s war against the Gaza Strip and after dreaming about immigration for three years, brothers Amr, 20, and Khaled, 19, (both pseudonyms) began their illegal journey from Gaza to Sweden. The two young men took a hazardous path to escape the hell of living in Gaza. First, they crossed one of the border tunnels that had not been destroyed by the Egyptian army and then sailed from the Egyptian port of Alexandria to Italy on a ship transporting many other illegal immigrants. Al-Monitor visited their humble asbestos-filled home in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza. Their father related their story, saying, “I knew that the risk of death threatened my children every second of their illegal immigration trip, but I was forced to accept their decision to save them from poverty.” … “We kept sending distress signals to the Italian authorities for four days. They told our smugglers that they could not locate our place in the sea. Finally, they came to take us. Another immigrant ship also reached the Italian coast, but 80 people died during the journey.” Khaled explained that after they reached the mainland, “The immigrants were taken to camps near the border and the Italian authorities asked them to leave.” He added, “Then, we illegally traveled to Sweden across five countries after we contacted our uncle, who sent someone to accompany us.” … Iyad al-Bezem, a Hamas interior spokesman, categorically denied the existence of any tunnels on the border with Egypt to smuggle individuals. In an interview with Al-Monitor, Bezem stated, “All tunnels linking the Gaza Strip to the Egyptian territory were destroyed nearly a year ago.” He indicated that there are no such networks or individuals forging passport stamps. “Palestinian national security forces are deployed on the border and do not allow any smuggling of individuals,” said Bezem. But Al-Monitor reported in June on smuggling networks in Gaza that work through travel agencies to offer illegal immigration to Europe.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/09/gaza-youth-illegal-immigration-europe-rafah.html
Gazans reject Israel’s calls to disarm
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (Al-Monitor) 2 Sept by Rasha Abou Jalal — Gaza’s factions appear to be united in rejecting Israel’s demand that the area should become a weapons-free zone — Palestinians believe it’s necessary that the Palestinian resistance remains armed as long as the Israeli occupation persists in the Palestinian territories. They are convinced that the resistance’s disarmament will lead to further losses of their rights. Cease-fire talks between the resistance in the Gaza Strip and Israel, under the auspices of Egypt, collapsed multiple times before both parties reached an agreement on Aug. 26. A Palestinian source familiar with these talks told Al-Monitor that they had repeatedly failed because of “Israel’s insistence on disarming Gaza.” “The disarmament of the resistance is completely rejected by us, and it was the reason talks faltered multiple times. The agreement was made after the scrapping of the Israeli demand to remove these weapons,” said the source, who was a member of the Palestinian delegation in Cairo.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/09/disarming-gaza-resistance-after-end-israel-occupation.html
Trees to protect train from Gaza attackers
Ynet 5 Sept by Matan Tzuri — As part of a solution to protect train lines in the south, workers and bulldozers spread out Thursday morning along the Ashkelon-Sderot railways to plant a long continuous line of trees meant to hide the train in the sections exposed to Gaza rocket fire. Even before Operation Protective Edge, there were concerns that Hamas may try to attack the train along the Ashkelon-Sderot route, which was recently inaugurated. It eventually became clear that in certain areas, the train is completely exposed to fire from Gaza and its movement can be seen from the Strip.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4567688,00.html
Jittery Israel gears up for war crimes battle
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) 4 Sept by Josef Federman — A jittery Israeli military is gearing up for what could become its next big battle: dealing with U.N. investigations that could result in war-crimes allegations. The army has beefed up its legal staff, is conducting internal investigations of its wartime actions and has prepared a detailed PR campaign of satellite photos and video clips — hoping to persuade the world that its war against Hamas was justified … Israel argues that the heavy civilian death toll is Hamas’ fault, accusing the militant group of launching rockets — and drawing retaliation — from school yards, residential areas and mosques. This claim will be central to any defense of the military’s conduct … The argument will be weighed against the principle of proportionality — which is essentially a judgment call on whether the force applied was reasonable … The threat of international action against Israel is real. Following a similar military operation in 2009, a U.N. fact-finding mission headed by South African jurist Richard Goldstone found strong evidence that both Israel and Hamas had committed war crimes — Israel by deliberately or recklessly targeting Gaza civilians, and Hamas by launching indiscriminate rocket attacks at Israeli cities. While Goldstone later backtracked from his main conclusions, the report was never changed. The U.N. Human Rights Council, which has a long history of criticizing Israel, has already appointed a commission of inquiry to look into the latest fighting. The commission’s report is expected next March.Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is also threatening to seek membership in the International Criminal Court in order to press charges against Israel … unlike in 2009, Israel appears to have decided not to boycott the Human Rights Council. Instead, it is vigorously mounting a defense, though it remains unclear to what extent it will cooperate with the probe … The military has launched an investigation into its wartime conduct headed by a major general and has brought in legal and military experts — who did not participate in the war themselves. In a briefing with reporters this week, a senior intelligence official compared Hamas to a well-trained army, with some 16,000 soldiers and thousands of sophisticated weapons … The official said that Israel is conducting a painstaking process of trying to identify how many militants and how many civilians were killed. While Palestinians say roughly three-quarters of the dead were civilians, Israel says the balance is closer to half and half.
http://news.yahoo.com/jittery-israel-gears-war-crimes-battle-185238069.html
Other news and analysis
The month in pictures: July and August 2014
Electronic Intifada 5 Sept – photos from both Gaza and the West Bank
http://electronicintifada.net/content/month-pictures-july-and-august-2014/13802
1948 Palestinians pay a high price for their solidarity with Gaza
HAIFA (Al-Akhbar) 3 Sept by Jamal Sweid — In the occupied territories, expressing solidarity with Gaza means losing your job and even receiving death threats. Collectively, the price has included an Israeli economic boycott of Arab markets and shops. That is how the Palestinians living in the 1948 occupied territories are taking part in the confrontation — During the last Israeli war on Gaza, the Palestinians in the 1948 occupied territories were not far from the fray. Especially that the war began while the West Bank, Jerusalem and the 1948 territories were engaged in confrontations against the occupation. Solidarity with Gaza began with carrying on with these confrontations. But the rockets of the Resistance falling on occupied cities limited the ability to organize protests, and so people took to social networking sites and even store signs. In return, official and popular Israeli parties called for holding 1948 Palestinians who express sympathy with Gaza accountable by taking punitive measures against them. These measures included firing them from their jobs by putting pressure on their Israeli employers and boycotting Arab-owned shops and businesses … Attorney Maha Shehadeh from the organization Unwan al-Aamel in Nazareth said that posts sympathetic with Gaza were shared on more than 25 Facebook pages administered by “Arab workers and employees whose employers were pressured to fire them.” She explained that she has dealt with dozens of similar cases … Threats were not restricted to employees, there was incitement as well against university students, political activists and journalists….
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/1948-palestinians-pay-high-price-their-solidarity-gaza
Report: Hamas’ Meshal agrees to Palestinian state based on 1967 borders
Haaretz 5 Sept by Jack Khoury — The head of Hamas’ political wing, Khaled Meshal, has agreed to accept a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders during a recent meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar reported Friday. According to the report, Meshal demanded Hamas be included in all policy decisions in the West Bank and not only in the Gaza Strip. The statements appear in a protocol of the second meeting held between the two Palestinian leaders in Doha, on August 21-22, as published by Al-Akhbar. Unlike the first meeting, during which harsh accusations were exchanged, the second meeting was efficient. According to the protocol, Palestinian intelligence chief Majid Faraj informed the officials at the meeting that the head of Israel’s Shin Bet security service, Yoram Cohen, met with Abbas in Ramallah and claimed that the Palestinian president had crossed the line, and that a harsh Israeli response will follow. Cohen, Faraj said, accused Abbas of defending Hamas and demanded that he dismantle the Palestinian unity government. Abbas replied that the unity government is a Palestinian interest that he intends to defend.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.614309
Egypt: Israeli delegation expected to arrive soon for talks
CAIRO (Ma‘an) 4 Sept — Egyptian officials expect the Israeli negotiating delegation to arrive in Cairo within a week to continue indirect talks, sources in Egypt said. Egypt has been in contact with both Palestinian and Israeli officials this week to determine a date for further talks following a cessation to hostilities last week. Egypt is expecting the arrival of PA security teams in Cairo for training in order to deploy at the Rafah crossing and along the Gaza-Egypt border, the sources said. On Monday, Israel’s Channel 10 TV said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not send a delegation to Egypt for further talks.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=725499
Israel credits ‘gloves off’ targeting for ceasefire in Gaza
Jewish Voice 3 Sept by Barbara Opall-Rome — After 11 collapsed cease-fires in 50 days of war, Israel had to employ “extraordinary escalation,” a general officer said, to force Hamas to accept the latest Egyptian-brokered truce that promises to end Operation Protective Edge. The officer, a member of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) General Staff, said Israel may never know what event or convergence of factors compelled Hamas to accept an Aug. 26 truce whose terms were “virtually identical” to those offered in the first days of the war. Operationally, he surmised it was a string of “spectacular airstrikes” leveling at least three luxury towers that followed “high-value” killings of senior Hamas leaders that triggered the turning point in Israel’s longest single operation since the 1948 war of independence. “We were able to document in real time how these people or places were used to wage terror attacks against us,” the officer said. “The enemy eventually understood that nothing is off-limits, not schools, not mosques. Nothing. As the prime minister said, ‘No one is immune.’ ”
http://jewishvoiceny.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8465
Netanyahu renews efforts to define Israel as Jewish state
Alternative News 4 Sept by Sergio Yahni — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to renew efforts at legislating a basic law that will legally anchor Israel’s status as “the nation-state of the Jewish people”. The law was initiated last winter and as Netanyahu stated then, it aims to allow legal status to a “basic ingredient in our national lives” … Although basic laws were originally meant to be draft chapters of a future Israeli constitution, there is no clear rule determining the precedence of basic laws over regular legislation; this issue is left to the interpretation of the judicial system. Nonetheless,basic laws are already used on a daily basis by the courts as a de jure formal constitution. The prime minister announced his intentions of renewing this legislative effort during a meeting Wednesday night with an association of national religious rabbis, Rabanei Tzohar. At the meeting Netanyahu repeated that “there is an attempt to undermine the national identity of the Jewish people and the legitimacy of the State of Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people” … “There are of course those who do not want the State of Israel to be the national homeland of the Jewish people. They want to establish a national state for the Palestinian people on our side, and that Israel will gradually become a bi-national Arab-Jewish state within its shrunken borders”.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/politics/politico/8434-netanyahu-renews-efforts-to-define-israel-as-jewish-state
Palestine exports surplus guavas to Jordan
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 3 Sept — The Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture exported 20 tons of guavas to Jordan on Wednesday and is working to export another 15 tons this week, a PA official said. Tareq Abu Laban, marketing manager at the Ministry of Agriculture, told Ma‘an that the PA received permission from Jordan to export 70 tons of Palestinian guavas … Israel maintains complete control over all border crossings in and out of the West Bank, restricting Palestinian imports and exports. In recent months, however, Palestinian authorities have tried to increase the territory’s economic independence and increase trade relations with Jordan and other regional states.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=725145
Islamic Relief turns down Gaza funds after Israeli ban
The Telegraph 3 Sept by Inna Lazareva & John Bingham — Britain’s biggest Muslim charity has agreed not to use funds raised jointly with other charities for emergency relief in Gaza after Israeli claims that it was acting as a front for Hamas. Islamic Relief said it had decided not to use cash raised by the Gaza Crisis Appeal, run by the Disasters Emergency Committee, until it had completed an investigation into the allegations from the Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon. He placed the charity on a banned list in June, preventing it operating in Israel or the West Bank, claiming that he had evidence that it had been funnelling funds to Hamas. The Israeli offensive in Gaza began less than three weeks later. The Birmingham-based charity, which is widely respected, strenuously denied that it had any links with Hamas and said it was “extremely surprised and concerned” by the minister’s claims. But it said was investigating the allegations and had chosen to effectively suspend its involvement in DEC until the process was completed. It has played a full part in the relief operation in Gaza during the summer, providing medical aid and emergency shelter but said it had chosen to use funds raised through its own appeal.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/11073602/Islamic-Relief-turns-down-Gaza-funds-after-Israeli-ban.html
Israel is again demolishing homes of Palestinian terror suspects / Naomi Zeveloff
JERUSALEM (The Forward) 4 Sept by Naomi Zeveloff — Does Punitive Tactic Really Work as Deterrent? — It’s a controversial tactic that Israel once disavowed. But punitive home demolitions against Palestinians are back now, resurrected by the government in response to the apparent terrorist murders of three teenage yeshiva students in June in the occupied West Bank. As its war in Gaza against Hamas died down in August, the Israeli army destroyed two homes and sealed a third with cement in the West Bank in retaliation against the three Palestinians it suspected were involved in the youths’ kidnapping and murder. (One of the three, Hussam Qawasmeh, has now been charged.) Several weeks earlier it demolished the West Bank home of a Palestinian indicted in the killing of a Jewish police officer in Hebron. The army’s actions renew one of Israel’s most controversial practices in the human rights arena. Punitive home demolitions were used extensively during the second intifada, between 2000 and 2005, as a form of deterrence against suicide bombing. But in 2005 the Defense Ministry halted the practice on the grounds that it was both ineffective at stopping potential bombers and possibly contravened international law. Reached by phone, Gen. Ehud Shani, who conducted the IDF policy review that led to the halt, said that a key finding of his report then was that Palestinian resolve was actually strengthened by the demolitions and that the motivation of individual Palestinians to fight against Israel was likely heightened by them … A senior government official cited a “resurge in violence” in the West Bank, culminating in the murder of the three teens, as justification for renewing the home demolitions. Israel, he said, wants to provide a counterincentive to the symbolic and financial rewards it says the Palestinian Authority government gives to the families of those who attack Israel. “The idea of this policy is to even out the playing field,” said the government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the remarks were based on sensitive national security assessment. “If I am involved in terrorism, in the ledger there should not only be a plus side but a minus side as well.” Tahseen Elayyan, a researcher with the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq, said that the families of the three terrorist suspects in the yeshiva students’ case had not received any compensation from the P.A. And the Israeli government official acknowledged that he did not yet know if, in these cases, the suspects’ families had received such payments.
http://forward.com/articles/205090/israel-is-again-demolishing-homes-of-palestinian-t
Sprawling Abu Khdeir family spreads deep roots in Jerusalem — and US / Naomi Zeveloff
East Jerusalem (Jewish Daily Forward) 2 Sept — State Dept. Worries Family ‘Singled Out’ for Arrest by Israel — Every summer, the Abu Khdeir family is visited by dozens of cousins from the United States. The largest family in Shu‘afat — there are more than 800 members — includes dozens of people who hold U.S. passports and green cards. And it’s common knowledge in this East Jerusalem neighborhood that the Abu Khdeirs speak great English. Now, it is the Palestinian family’s American ties that have put it on the radar of the U.S. Department of State. Several weeks after Jewish extremists in Jerusalem murdered 16-year-old Muhammad Abu Khdeir, and Israeli police beat his American cousin, 15-year-old Tariq Abu Khdeir, another cousin with U.S. citizenship has been arrested. This cousin, also named Muhammad Abu Khdeir, was visited in jail by an American consular official in the middle of August. “We are concerned that the U.S. consulate general in Jerusalem was not notified of his arrest by the Israeli government,” Marie Harf, a state department spokeswoman, told reporters in a briefing August 20. Harf also said that the Abu Khdeir family appears “to be singled out for arrest by the Israeli authorities.” The Abu Khdeirs say that more than two dozen members of the family have been arrested. Hana Abu Khdeir, a 43-year-old mother of two in Shuafat, said that the family has been targeted for its outrage over Muhammad Abu Khdeir’s death. The Israeli authorities “want to calm us down because our kid got killed,” she said. “Controlling Abu Khdeir means controlling Shu‘afat.” The Abu Khdeirs are one of five main families in Shu‘afat, a neighborhood in northeast Jerusalem that has become an increasingly desirable place to live among Palestinians because of its proximity to Ramallah. Most of the land in Shu‘afat — including the remains of the original village — is owned by the Abu Khdeir family, which operates several grocery stores on the main street. Even the muezzin in the Shu‘afat mosque is an Abu Khdeir. Just as many Israeli Jews have large extended families in the United States, the Abu Khdeirs are firmly connected to their sprawling American family in the Palestinian diaspora. But unlike Israeli Jews, the Abu Khdeir family lives with the day-to-day reality of the occupation, which limits their political autonomy and their freedom of movement. (Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1967, but the international community considers it occupied territory.) Now, the incidents that have befallen the Abu Khdeirs this summer — and the family’s response to them — have brought the family increased attention from both the Israeli police and American authorities. The Abu Khdeir family has been in Shu‘afat for more than 500 years. Around 1918, Hana Abu Khdeir’s grandfather and great-uncles went from Jerusalem to Chicago for work in the railroad industry, putting down roots in the United States. Today there are around 800 Abu Khdeirs living in Illinois, New York, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, California, Florida and beyond….
http://forward.com/articles/204853/sprawling-abu-khdeir-family-spreads-deep-roots-in
It’s time for a diagnosis: Israel’s settlement disease is terminal / Gideon Levy
Haaretz 4 Sept — Now it’s official: the settlements are a punishment. A collective one, of the sort considered a war crime under international law — We should be grateful to the Netanyahu government for its straightforwardness. It determined this week that the settlements are a punishment – from now on, it’s official. We should also ask the same government to order the cessation of all investigations, real and fabricated, of “price tag” attacks, because then the nationalization of roughly 4,000 dunams of land belonging to five Palestinian villages, in response to the murder of the three teenagers, is a price tag that is much heavier (and a greater crime) than all the defamatory graffiti, burned mosques and slashed tires. It is also a clear case of collective punishment, of the sort that is considered a war crime under international law. So leave the investigations of trifling incidents alone. Leave the shrieks over the appropriations alone too; they will not change anything. The battle has been decided. The settlers have won. The settlements have accomplished their goal. The two-state solution is dead. Anyone who does not believe that should go to Gush Etzion. It is not clear when or how Gush Etzion became a “consensus.” Suddenly – like the man in the old song made famous by Shlomo Artzi, who got up in the morning feeling like he was a nation – Gush Etzion arose and felt it was a national consensus. Everyone is in agreement that it has been agreed upon; Gush Etzion from time immemorial. And it is not the only bloc that is agreed upon; so are the Jordan Valley and Ma’aleh Adumim, with its terrifying and hilly area, and Ariel goes without saying. Look at the map and you will realize how the supposed Palestinian state-to-be was put to death. From what remains it might be possible to establish another amusement park, “Mini-Palestine,” but no more than that.
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.613988
groups.yahoo.com/group/f_shadi (listserv)
www.theheadlines.org (archive)
Thanks Kate, for all your work here.
Haaretz: “The Obama administration is considering taking further action regarding Israel’s expropriation of 1,000 acres of West Bank land this week, on top of the condemnation Washington has already issued. “
This is not true. Washington did not give a “condemnation” of Israel’s land grab. Kerry only said he was “deeply concerned.” Psaki said it sent a “very troubling message”. The administration never “condemns” Israel.
Thought folks would be interested :
“Exclusive: Israel’s Video Justifying Destruction of a Gaza Hospital Was From 2009
….On July 17, the hospital was hit by a total of 15 rockets, according to Dr. Basman Alashi, Al Wafa’s director. After the first few rockets, a phone call from the IDF “asked how much time do you need to evacuate?” he told Truthout. After the second and third floors were largely destroyed, the patients’ rooms were filled with smoke and the hospital lost electricity, he gave the order to evacuate the hospital.
An IDF spokesman told Allison Deger of Mondoweiss that Hamas rocket launches had come “from exactly near the hospital, 100 meters near.” A slide show released by the IDF August 19 includes an aerial view of Al Wafa Hospital with two alleged rocket launching sites marked that are clearly much farther from the hospital than the 100 meters.
Even if that IDF claim of 100 meters were accurate, however, it was more than sufficient to allow the IDF to hit the launch site with precision-guided munitions without damaging the hospital. Israeli air to ground missiles, especially those fired from drones, are known to be able to hit small targets without causing collateral damage to nearby buildings. An IDF video posted on August 9, for example, shows a missile destroying what is said to be a hidden rocket launch site without harming a mosque only a few meters away from the explosion.
IDF spokesman Captain Eytan Buchman nevertheless blandly suggested that it was collateral damage from striking the launch site. He said the IDF was “left with no choice” but to “target the launcher with the most precise munitions capable of ensuring its destruction.”….”
much more of Gareth Porter’s excellent investigation here:
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/25999-israels-video-justifying-destruction-of-a-hospital-was-from-2009
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There are always very few comments to posts like these.
I can’t speak for anyone else but it’s not because I don’t care.
It’s that I care too much and I just can’t bear to read them.
I’m not proud of it.
I understand, Pixel. There are also people who can’t decide what to comment on if there are 50 or so different articles included so they just don’t comment.
Personally I wish that there were some way to indicate that my posts are compilations – I’m not certain that everyone knows this. I can visualize readers (esp. new readers) looking at the headline, deciding that they’re not interested in that particular topic, and so not opening the page – thus missing all the other articles on subjects they might well be interested in.
This particular post has some messed-up formatting – whoever chose the headline and moved the relevant article to the top of the post apparently didn’t know how to make the paragraphs come out exactly right. It isn’t easy — to get it right in the first place I have to gmail my post to myself, copy it into Word, fix various formatting problems, copy it back into gmail, send it to myself again and then copy it into Mondoweiss. And then preview it to find the things that still didn’t come out right, and fix those! Takes forever. It used to be much easier, when you could just copy the Word file in, but this version of WordPress doesn’t allow that.
Thank you, just, for all your kind words!
Annie, just saw your comment. I wasn’t really complaining about the formatting – I know it’s a pain. My greatest fear is that the next update of WordPress will wreck the workaround I’m using now for the formatting! It was Shadi Fadda (originator of the Today in Palestine list) who pointed out to me, after the direct MS Word-to-WordPress copying suddenly ceased to work after an update and I was pulling my hair out, that sending the list via Gmail automatically HTML’s it. That helps a lot, though it isn’t sufficient to do only that to post the list with proper formatting.