Israel begins using drones to monitor West Bank protests

The IDF’s new tool for tracking Palestinian protesters: drones
+972 mag by Haggai Matar — What has four propellers and a camera? Participants in the weekly protests against the separation wall in the West Bank village of Bil‘in were surprised Friday to find that the army was using a new tool to put down the demonstrations. For the first time, a small drone equipped with four propellers and a camera hovered above the protesters as they marched toward the wall and chanted slogans. I asked the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit what the purpose of the drone was; I have yet to receive a response. The camera can be used for a number of purposes, although in light of past experience, it is likely to be used to assist soldiers in dispersing demonstrations or photographing protesters for arrests or to use in future trials. Bil‘in photojournalist Haitham Khatib managed to snap a photo of the drone as it hovered above the protesters on Friday: Photos taken at the demonstrations help the army arrest and interrogate protesters, especially young ones, are often used to incriminate protest organizers. In April 2014, the army revealed yet another weapon for suppressing demonstration: a remote-controlled water canon that was installed atop the separation wall in Bethlehem, which allows the tracking and dispersal of protesters without the presence of soldiers.
http://972mag.com/the-idf-has-a-new-way-of-tracking-palestinian-protesters-drones/110419/

Violence / Clashes / Suppression of protests / Detentions

Israel settler allegedly runs over Palestinian teen near Nablus
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 16 Aug — An Israeli settler on Sunday reportedly ran over a Palestinian teen in Yatma village in southern Nablus, a local monitor of settlement activity told Ma‘an. Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settler activities in the northern West Bank, said that an Israeli settler ran over Muhammad Mustafa Najjar, 19, and then fled the scene. Daghlas added that the teen, who was moderately injured, was taken to Rafidia hospital in Nablus.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=767073

Palestinian shot dead after stabbing Israeli officer
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 15 Aug — Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian after he stabbed a Border Police officer near Beita in southern Nablus, Palestinian medics and Israeli police said.Israeli police identified him as 21-year-old Rafeeq Kamil Rafeeq al-Taj, based on his identity card. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society earlier identified him incorrectly as his younger 16-year-old brother, Ahmad al-Taj. Medics from the society who arrived on the scene said that Taj was shot five times. Abdelhalim Jaafreh, head of the Red Crescent in Nablus, said, “He was critically wounded by five bullets. We tried to save him but he died.” Israeli police confirmed Taj’s death. A police spokesperson said that Israeli forces opened fire on him after he stabbed a border police officer in the back. The policeman, who was on patrol with other officers, was lightly wounded, police said.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=767062

Israeli forces shoot, injure Palestinian after alleged stabbing attack
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 15 Aug — Israeli forces on Saturday shot and lightly injured a Palestinian man after he allegedly stabbed an Israeli soldier west of Ramallah, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society told Ma‘an. The society said that Israeli forces shot the Palestinian twice in the hand on Route 443 near the village of Beit Ur al-Tahta. The Israeli confirmed the incident, alleging that Israeli forces opened fire on the man after he stabbed and lightly injured an Israeli soldier. The Red Crescent said an ambulance was sent to aid the Palestinian man, who is currently in Israeli custody. Witnesses said large numbers of Israeli military vehicles arrived in the area after the shooting.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=767055

Another view of the incident immediately above:
IDF soldier lightly wounded in stabbing attack in West Bank
Haaretz 15 Aug by Gili Cohen — A Palestinian stabbed an Israeli soldier on Route 443 near Beit Horon on Saturday noon, according to an initial IDF report. The soldier was lightly wounded. The alleged assailant was arrested after soldiers opened fire, lightly wounding him. The IDF said the soldier was stabbed in the back, and that he was sent to receive medical treatment. The Red Crescent told the Palestinian news agency Ma‘an the assailant was wounded in his hand. The Palestinian’s relatives told Haaretz he is 19 years old and resides in the village of Beit Anan. They added the youth had quarreled with his father in the morning over his work at the family’s factory. According to a Palestinian source, the Palestinian approached the soldier and asked him for some water, and then stabbed him. A Palestinian ambulance driver who said he witnessed the incident said the youth asked for water and was attacked by the soldiers. He then stabbed the soldier in self-defense, the ambulance driver said.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.671234

Israeli forces punish Kafr Qaddum by damaging the water supply system
[with photos] KAFR QADDUM, Occupied Palestine 16 Aug by ISM, Al-Khalil Team — On Saturday the 15^th of August 2015, the villagers from Kafr Qaddum once again demonstrated against the blockage of the road leading to Nablus as well as the nearby Kedumin settlement. In solidarity with the local people there were few international activists and journalists to cover the demonstration. The non-violent protest was immediately suppressed by the Israeli occupation forces by shooting dozens of teargas canisters and live ammunition. Instead of the frequently used bad-smelling skunk water, the army drove a bulldozer into the village. This bulldozer destroyed the only water pipe in the village, leaving the people Kafr Qaddum without any connection to water until the pipe is repaired. Especially during the hot summer months, water is a scarce and essential good. Murad Shtaiwi, one of the leaders of Kafr Qaddum Popular Committee, understands the damage to the water pipe as a way to collectively punish the village for its ongoing resistance. The costs of a new pipe have to be paid for by the municipality. As Murad explains, damaging the water pipe is a deliberate attempt by the Israeli army to suppress the support amongst the villagers to continue to protests and thus block future demonstrations.
http://palsolidarity.org/2015/08/israeli-forces-punish-kafr-qaddum-by-damaging-the-water-supply-system/

Israeli forces open fire at memorial for slain infant in Susiya
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 15 Aug — Israeli forces opened fire at Palestinian and foreign activists on Friday during a memorial in the village of Susiya south of Hebron for 18-month-old ‘Ali Dawabsha who was killed in an arson attack by Israeli settlers on July 30, a spokesperson from the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee told Ma‘an. No injuries were reported. During the memorial, activists and local children were flying kites above a nearby illegal Israeli settlement when Israeli soldiers in the area responded by opening fire at the kite flyers, a PSCC spokesperson told Ma‘an. An Israeli army spokesperson did not immediately respond for comment. Organizers said the memorial signified that the arson attack on the 18-month-old was just one piece of a series of crimes committed by the state of Israel and Israeli settlers across the Palestine territory. Activities went on until late in the evening, as night-guard committees provided protection for residents and activists. Head of PSCC Munther Amireh said that the organized activities came under the committee’s local and international campaign to support the resistance of villagers in Susiya against Israel and settlements. Last month Israeli authorities ordered the demolition of around half of the homes in Susiya, sparking international outrage.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=767057

Israeli forces attack march protesting settlers’ attempt to take over church property near Hebron
HEBRON (WAFA) 15 Aug – Israeli forces quelled Saturday a weekly march protesting Israeli settlers’ attempts to takeover al-Baraka church compound near al-‘Arrub refugee camp between Hebron and Bethlehem. Palestinian and international activists together with Christian clergymen took part in the march, raising Palestinian flags and crosses and chanting slogans condemning Israeli plans to turn the church compound into a settlement outpost. Israeli forces attacked the march and assaulted protesters using their rifle butts, leaving several protesters bruised and injured. The church compound has turned recently into a scene of ongoing Palestinian marches against its takeover with Israeli forces each time violently quelling protesters and beating.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=29091

Clashes outside hospital of hunger-striking Palestinian
ASHKELON/ OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AFP) 17 Aug — Arab supporters and Jewish detractors of a Palestinian held by Israel without trial clashed Sunday with police near the hospital treating him after he lost consciousness during a hunger strike. Police said they arrested more than 10 Jews and 1948 Palestinians, including Palestinians from occupied East Jerusalem, for throwing stones at officers and disrupting public order in the southern city of Ashkelon where 31-year-old Mohammed Allan is being treated. Palestinians had planned to stage a rally outside the Barzilai hospital, but Jewish right-wing activists confronted them, chanting racist slogans and saying they hoped Allan died. Clashes with police, including stone-throwing from both sides, erupted outside the hospital where Jewish protesters also broke the windows of a Palestinian television news vehicle. The clashes continued as officers began removing the 1948 Palestinians to the city’s entrance to prevent further confrontations with the Jewish protesters. Police prevented additional busloads of demonstrators from entering Ashkelon, an AFP reporter said. Police separated hundreds of people from each side, with the 1948 Palestinians waving Palestinian flags, chanting their support for Allan and calling for his release.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb//News/Middle-East/2015/Aug-17/311413-clashes-outside-hospital-of-hunger-striking-palestinian.ashx

Palestinian vigilante groups are last line of defence
DOUMA, West Bank (Gulf News) 14 Aug by Mel Frykberg — It is close to midnight. The silhouettes of ink-black hills across the valley are outlined against a sky splashed with hundreds of stars. A cool breeze causes the branches of the surrounding olive trees to wave in unison while bringing relief from the heat wave currently scorching the Middle East. This peaceful and picturesque idyll is suddenly broken when the headlights of a car on the sand road below prompts one of Douma’s four civil defence units, comprising 10 volunteers each, to spring into action from the top of the valley at the edge of the village’s perimeter where the group is stationed. One volunteer shines a search light from the top of the pick-up truck searching the wadi for any signs of Israeli colonists. Volunteer head Habib urgently phones members of the other guard units which are stationed at other points on the village outskirts to enquire about unusual movement or activity. “It’s ok it’s not colonists. The car is from the village so we can relax but we will be on duty till 4am after starting our patrol at 10pm,” Habib tells Gulf News. The volunteers will not give their names as they are afraid of being arrested by the Israelis . . . From the hill across the valley Israeli soldiers can be seen monitoring the village with binoculars and search lights. Other soldiers are placed at the entrance of the village checking the IDs of all who enter and leave the village. However, most Palestinians are too afraid to leave at night while Israeli colonists roam the roads freely under the protection of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) This scenario is taking place in dozens of Palestinian villages throughout the West Bank as Palestinians try to protect their homes, crops, livestock and lives from Israeli colonist attacks which are becoming increasingly deadly . . . The Palestinians are virtually defenceless. The civil defence units are armed with sticks, torches, phones, raw courage and seething anger only – against heavily armed colonists backed by the world’s fourth most powerful military. The Palestinian security forces are impotent in terms of their inferior weapons and training but more specifically the security coordination between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel. A security PA President Mahmoud Abbas has vowed to uphold despite the rising number of attacks on his people . . . “I was told by Israeli members of the Peace Now group, who themselves have served in the IDF, that the attack which killed the baby was probably carried out by professionals,” a senior Palestinian policeman who spoke off the record told Gulf News. “The night the attack was carried out there was an Israeli drone hovering over and observing the village for over four hours before the murders,’ Anwar Dawabshe, a village elder and family member of the murdered baby tells Gulf News. “The attackers came into the middle of the village and they knew what they were doing. “They first threw Molotov cocktails inside the house and when the parents ran out they used a chemical substance because the bodies continued to burn after the fire had been doused and they then attacked Riham and Sa’ad with machetes. “How could the Israeli soldiers, in the military observation towers and the drones not have seen anything?” asks Dawabshe.
http://gulfnews.com/news/mena/palestine/palestinian-vigilante-groups-are-last-line-of-defence-1.1564070#

UPDATE: Israel detains 5 Palestinians, seizes tractor
BETHLEHEM (WAFA) 16 Aug — At least five Palestinians were detained by the Israeli military during predawn raids across the West Bank in the past 24 hours. The army also seized a tractor belonging to one of the locals in the Jordan Valley area on Sunday, according to local and security sources. Israeli forces stormed the city of Bethlehem, in southern West Bank, and detained two Palestinians, identified as Mohammad Jamal Zaghoul, 20, and Mohammad Ali Hamamreh, 21, after raiding and searching their homes. The army also stormed the nearby village of Marah-Rabah and handed a local resident a summon notice ordering him to appear for interrogation before the Israeli intelligence at the nearby Gush Etzion military base. Meanwhile in Hebron district, the army detained 28-year-old Khalil Abu-Hashem at the entrance of the town of Beit Ummar. Army forces further broke into the town of Dora, south of Hebron, and notified a number of Palestinians to appear for interrogation. Later Sunday, Israeli forces detained two Palestinian brothers from the village of Faroun near Tulkarm. The two were identified as Suhaib, 24, and Shadi Mousa, 26.
Meanwhile on Sunday, Israeli army seized a Palestinian-owned tractor in the village of Wadi Ibzeq, in northern Jordan Valley. The tractor is owned by Hatem Fawadleh, a local Palestinian. The village has been a frequent target of daily Israeli violations, including forced evictions, demolition of animal barns, residential structures and other properties.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=29096

PA forces open fire at sit-in staged by political detainees’ families
NABLUS (PIC) 15 Aug — Palestinian Authority (PA) security apparatuses on Saturday opened fire at a protest march staged in the West Bank city of Nablus by the families of the political detainees who are held in PA jails. The PIC reporter said that armed PA security men attacked the participants and tried to disperse them. Shots were fired in the air causing a state of panic among the detainees’ families who were mostly women. Musab al-Khatib, a reporter at al-Quds TV channel, was dragged by the PA apparatuses to a vehicle; they confiscated his private cellphone and then released him. Families of the political detainees, MPs of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), and leaders in Hamas movement participated in the sit-in. They raised photos of the detainees and chanted slogans calling for releasing them. The participants lashed out at the harsh incarceration conditions the prisoners are exposed to; especially after transferring most of them to Bethlehem jail to the north of WB which they described as a “slaughterhouse”; as the detainees there are tortured, forced to stand for long hours in painful physical conditions and distorted body positions, deprived from sleeping, in addition to forcing them to sign confessions of committing fabricated charges. Most of the prisoners in PA jails are ex-detainees in Israeli jails, pro-prisoners activists, and students from al-Najah University, according to the demonstrators. [Note that PIC is a Hamas site, though this doesn’t necessarily mean its reporting on the PA is inaccurate]
http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=73034

PA security arrests and summons six citizens in W. Bank
WEST BANK (PIC) 16 Aug — The Palestinian Authority (PA) security apparatuses on Saturday detained four Palestinian citizens, summoned two others for interrogation, and extended the detention of many political prisoners illegally as part of its security cooperation with the Israeli occupation. In al-Khalil, the preventive security forces kidnapped 18-year-old Abdul-Qadder al-Qawasmeh after he attended a soccer game in the city.  The detainee is the son of martyr Abdullah al-Qawasmeh from al-Qassam Brigades of Hamas. The preventive security apparatus also refused to comply with a court verdict ordering the release of Rami al-Rajoub, a university student, and extended the detention of another one named Hamza al-Qawasmeh for eight days. In Ramallah, the PA intelligence agency kidnapped a young man identified as Zakariya Hashayka from outside a mosque in the city and summoned another man for interrogation. The PA security forces also tried to kidnap two young protesters during a march held Saturday in Ramallah in solidarity with hunger striking prisoner Mohamed Allan, but they failed after other protesters intervened and saved them.
http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=73044

PA security helps Israel arrest one of its members in Jericho
TUBAS (PIC) 16 Aug — The Palestinian Authority (PA) security on Saturday coordinated with the Israeli side to arrest one of its own elements following his release from its jail in Jericho. The man, who still works for the PA national security apparatus, was detained by the PA intelligence for about one year in Jericho jail because of his opposition to PA security practices in the West Bank. A family source told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) that the Palestinian intelligence officers of Jericho jail forced Samih Bisharat, 36, to leave the prison in order to be arrested by Israeli soldiers in a nearby area. Once he arrived at the entrance to Jericho city, Israeli soldiers ambushed him at a makeshift checkpoint and took him handcuffed to one of their patrols in the 1948 occupied lands, the source explained.
http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=73045

Land, property, resources theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Judaization

Israeli authorities confiscate land adjacent to Al-Aqsa Mosque
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 16 Aug – The Israeli authorities on Sunday morning confiscated a tract of land adjacent to the eastern wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque near the Golden gate, Palestinian sources told Ma‘an. Jawad Siyam, the director of Wadi Hilweh Information Center in occupied Easy Jerusalem, told Ma‘an that Jerusalem inspectors from the Israeli Nature and Parks Authority stormed and confiscated land belonging to the al-Husseini and al-Ansari families. The nature authority inspectors were escorted by Israeli troops during the confiscation, Siyam said. Siyam added that security guards from a private security company installed barbed wire fence around the land. The Palestinian Authority’s governor of Jerusalem and Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Adnan al-Husseini also told Ma‘an that the Israeli forces and inspectors stormed the land without prior notice. He highlighted that the tract of land measures more than 7000 square meters (1.7 acres). A lawyer representing the Palestinian owners is taking the case to the Israeli court in an attempt to stop the confiscation, the minister added. One of the owners of the land from the al-Husseini family told Ma‘an that he believes the Israelis plan to confiscate the land for settlement expansion.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=767067

Another account:
Israel seizes land near Al-Aqsa Mosque to establish national park
JERUSALEM (WAFA) 16 Aug – Israeli authorities on Sunday seized a piece of land adjacent to the eastern wall of al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem as a prelude to establish a national park at the site, according to Wadi Hilweh Information Center (WHIC). WHIC said staff from the Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA) accompanied by special police units broke into the area, located near the Islamic Rahma cemetery, and cordoned off the area before proceeding to place barbed wires around the tract of land without any prior notice. The land, which has an area of about seven dunums, is owned by the Husseini and Ansari families of East Jerusalem. The INPA staff told Mohammad Elayyan, an attorney for the Husseini family, that this step was taken to prevent the spread of graves from the Rahma grave site to the targeted land, which INPA said would be used for the establishment of a national park. The attorney demanded the INPA staff to show the legal papers that authorizes them to work on the land after they purportedly claimed to have obtained a court order . . . He said INPA temporarily suspended its work at the site until they show the legal papers they claim to have obtained.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=29095

Neighbours gather to protest West Bank eviction order
SILWAN, Occupied West Bank (Al Jazeera) 16 Aug by Ylenia Gostoli — Abdullah Abu Nab was ordered to leave his home to allow Israeli settlers to move in, but he refuses to comply — For days, neighbours, friends and family have been gathering at the home of Abdullah Abu Nab in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Silwan, hoping to stop his family’s looming eviction. A recent ruling from Israel’s Supreme Court gave Abu Nab’s family – comprised of 16 people living in two separate homes – until August 11 to leave. The ruling determined that Jewish settlers were entitled to the land, based on a presumption of historical Jewish ownership. But Abu Nab says he has no intention of complying. Instead, he has erected a makeshift tent in front of his home, lined up plastic chairs, and ensured the supply of coffee never runs low for the friends and neighbours who visit every evening, amid a significant police presence. “My family has been renting this house since 1948,” Abu Nab told Al Jazeera, noting his family had been previously expelled from the Jurat el-Anab neighbourhood in present-day West Jerusalem, which fell under Israeli control after the Arab-Israeli war in 1948. Located just outside of Jerusalem’s Old City walls, Silwan’s narrow streets and simple, cinder-block homes stand in the shadow of Al-Aqsa Mosque, whose dome can be seen from the terrace of Abu Nab’s house. Visible from the same terrace is Israel’s national flag, erected in front of a nearby home by settlers. Three months ago, Jewish settlers moved into two homes on Abu Nab’s small housing block after they struck a financial deal with the families previously living there . . . According to settlement watchdog Peace Now, the case is part of a larger scheme by Jewish settlers to seize 5,200 square metres in the area of Silwan’s Batan al-Hawa neighbourhood, where an estimated 80 Palestinian families live in more than 30 buildings. A number of families living here are currently embroiled in legal proceedings, and residents fear Abu Nab’s eviction could create a precedent. On August 9, another family from Batan al-Hawa was handed an eviction notice by a lawyer representing Ateret Cohanim.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/08/neighbours-gather-protest-west-bank-eviction-order-150815091446323.html

Restrictions on movement

Israel continues to bar Palestinians from using road in Ramallah
RAMALLAH (PIC) 15 Aug — The Israeli occupation army has continued for the 13th day running to prevent the Palestinians from using the road adjacent to the illegal settlement of Beit El, which was established on Palestinian-owned lands in Ramallah. Local sources told Quds Press that the Israeli army closed the road with concrete blocks on July 31 following violent clashes with angry Palestinian young men who reacted to the deadly arson attack on al-Dawabsheh family in Nablus. The Palestinian citizens were using the road to travel between Ramallah city and the northern cities and towns of the West Bank, according to the sources. The closure forced the citizens to use other unpaved routes to reach the northern West Bank areas and al-Jalazoun refugee camp.
http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=73030

Israeli forces close 3 of 4 entrances in East Jerusalem’s ‘Issawiya
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 15 Aug — Israeli forces last week closed the eastern entrance of ‘Issawiya village in occupied East Jerusalem as well as a dirt road entrance known to locals as Zaafarana, a local committee member told Ma‘an. Muhammad Abu al-Hummus said that the southwestern entrance to the town has been closed for 14 months, leaving only one of the four entrances of the village accessible. Abu al-Hummus said that 18,000 residents have now been forced to use the same entrance in the village’s north. Israeli forces cited security reasons as the motive behind the closures. They said that youths were throwing stones at Israeli vehicles and clashing with Israeli troops near the three entrances that were shut. The eastern road connected ‘Issawiya with the nearby Zayim neighborhood, as well as the Jerusalem-Jericho highway, while the Zaafarana road is a dirt road local farmers use to access agricultural land. Abu al-Hummus said that closure of roads is “collective punishment” imposed on residents who are forced to take long and difficult alternative routes to reach their homes. He pointed out that the lack of appropriate road infrastructure makes the situation worse. A member of a local committee to defend land in ‘Issawiya, Hani al-‘Issawi, told Ma‘an that the closure of roads impedes the freedom of movement and makes it difficult for residents to access different services. Al-Issawi explained that southwestern road is the shortest route to Hadassah hospital. After the route was closed last year, residents had faced serious difficulties traveling there. He said that in the past, the road was closed by Israeli forces for some ten years. Al-‘Issawi added that a Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset, Osama al-Saadi, visited ‘Issawiya on Friday to see how residents in Issawiya were coping with the road closures.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=767058

Prisoners / Hunger strikers

PA: Israel preventing Palestinian doctor from visiting hunger striker
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 16 Aug — Senior Palestinian Authority officials on Sunday accused Israeli authorities of preventing a Palestinian doctor from visiting Palestinian hunger striker Muhammad Allan at Barzilai Medical Center. Issa Qaraqe‘, the head of the PA Prisoners’ Affairs Committee, and PA Minister of Health Jawwad Awwad accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of personally interfering in the case and preventing Dr. Hani Abdeen from visiting Allan to examine his health. They said that it was an attempt to conceal Allan’s state of health, and that it indicated Netanyahu’s “intention” to allow Allan to die. Netanyahu’s chief spokesperson, Mark Regev, said he could not confirm whether Netanyhu had interfered, but added that he “did not know that to be true.” The official Palestinian news site in Gaza, Al-Ray, said earlier on Sunday that Israeli authorities had decided to allow Dr. Abdeen to visit Allan. Dr. Abdeen was selected by the PA Prisoners’ Affairs Committee and the Ministry of Health after Palestinian members of the Israeli Knesset requested that a Palestinian doctor be allowed to examine Allan. Allan, who is a lawyer from the West Bank village of Einabus, has been on hunger strike 62 days. He slipped into a coma on Friday after his health deteriorated sharply, and Barzilai Medical Center has since connected him to ventilators and is giving him fluids and sodium intravenously.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=767075

Official: Health of hunger strike Allan at stake
RAMALLAH (WAFA) 16 Aug — Chairman of the Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, Minister Issa Qaraqe, said on Sunday that the health condition of hunger striking Palestinian prisoner in Israeli jails Mohammad Allan has significantly deteriorated.  According to Qaraqe, physicians at Barzilai Medical Center, where Allan is being hospitalized, discovered a bile leakage from his gallbladder that spread into his liver and intestines; which would poison his body if left untreated. Allan was moved from Soroka hospital in Beersheba – which refused to force-feed Allan – to Barzilai medical center, as the latter’s administration expressed willingness to force-feed him. However, according to media, the Barzili center has not forced-him yet.  A statement issued regarding the position of the center’s director, Chezy Levy, stated that although force-feeding is unacceptable, they would intervene if he needs urgent treatment to save his life and without Allan’s consent. Qaraqe stressed that efforts are being exerted to ensure Allan’s release and provide him with the much needed treatment.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=29098

Prisoners’ society: Israel keeping hunger striker alive ‘unethically’
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 16 Aug — The head of the Palestinian Prisoners Society said Sunday that Israeli medical procedures to keep Palestinian hunger striker Mohammad Allan alive were “unethical” and the society would ask for them to be halted. Qadura Fares told Ma‘an that doctors at Barzilai Medical Center in southern Israel had decided to prolong the hunger striker’s life “on his behalf,” although he said that he did not believe it amounted to force-feeding. “They’re deciding on his behalf,” he said. “It’s unethical.” Allan, who has been on hunger strike 62 days, slipped into a coma on Friday. Since then, Barzilai Medical Center has connected the hunger striker to ventilators to assist his breathing, and also given him fluids and sodium intravenously. Jawad Bolous, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society’s chief lawyer, said Friday that the medical center was treating Allan according to Israel’s Patients’ Rights Act. However, Fares made clear on Sunday that the prisoners’ society no longer accepted the medical center’s methods. “We will ask to stop this,” he said. Physicians for Human Rights Israel said on Friday that once Allan lost consciousness “medical ethics requires that his doctors act in accordance to their understanding of the patient’s will and their discretion.” On Friday, a former Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset, Talab al-Sane, said that providing Allan with nutrition while he was unconsciousness amounted to “manipulating his free will.”
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=767078

Palestinian hunger strike tests Israel force-feeding law
JERUSALEM (AFP) 16 Aug by Mike Smith — A nearly two-month hunger strike by a Palestinian detainee now in a coma may test a controversial new Israeli law on force-feeding, with doctors vowing to refuse to carry it out. Mohammed Allan, 31, slipped into a coma on Friday after ingesting only water since June 18 in protest at his detention without charge by Israeli authorities. After Allan fell into the coma, doctors began treating him with artificial breathing, fluids and vitamins to keep him alive, based on discussions with him before he lost consciousness. His condition has now stabilised, but his life is still in danger, according to the head of the hospital where he is being treated.  If and when he regains consciousness — and if he continues to refuse to eat — Israel’s government must decide whether it will invoke a law passed in July allowing the force-feeding of prisoners when their lives are endangered. It was not clear how such force-feeding would take place.  Doctors and rights activists strongly oppose the law, including those who say force-feeding amounts to torture and robs Palestinians of a legitimate form of protest. The law has provoked intense debate, particularly with doctors saying they will decline to carry out force-feeding since the new legislation gives them the choice of whether or not to do so. – ‘It’s a test’ –  “I think it’s a test to many institutions,” said Hadas Ziv, ethics committee coordinator for Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, an activist group which opposes the force-feeding law. “It’s a test to the medical community in Israel… It’s a test to the authorities — how serious are they going to be with this legislation?” . . .  Should Israel decide to invoke the new law, authorities would be required to seek a court order. Beyond arguing that the patient’s life was in danger, they could also present arguments that allowing him to die would lead to security risks, according to Physicians for Human Rights . . . Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan, who championed the legislation, said it was necessary since “hunger strikes of terrorists in prisons have become a means to threaten Israel”.
http://news.yahoo.com/palestinian-hunger-strike-tests-israel-force-feeding-law-152759944.html

Palestinian prisoners start hunger strike in solidarity with Allan
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an)  16 Aug — Two Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli prisons on Sunday began hunger strikes in solidarity with Palestinian prisoner Mohammad Allan who has been on hunger strike more than 60 days. The family of prisoner Samir al-‘Issawi, who is being held in Israel’s Jalbou jail, told Ma‘an that their son had begun a hunger strike, while the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said that Mohammad al-Aqraa, in Ella prison, has also started one. Al-‘Issawi is one of a number of Palestinian prisoners who was freed as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange in 2011 only to be detained again afterward.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=767076

Lawyer: Allan refused 2-year administrative detention deal before coma
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 15 Aug  — Muhammad Allan, who has been on hunger strike more than 60 days, refused an Israeli offer to continue his administrative detention for a period of two years, Allan’s lawyer told Ma‘an Saturday. Allan’s lawyer Jamil al-Khatib told Ma‘an that the offer was made before his health condition was critical.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=767056

Administrative detention: ‘Because I said so’ ruling / Talal Jabari
+972 Blog 14 Aug — Administrative detention does not allow the accused to learn the charges against him, and therefore cannot defend himself against it. It’s a sort of parallel universe where due process doesn’t exist, and you go to jail simply because someone said so — In February, a viral video showed an Israeli passenger on an Israeli airline who really wanted to purchase duty-free chocolate and who felt that she was being neglected by the flight attendant. That feeling of neglect quickly turned into anger, and she began shouting, “What am I, an Arab?” to the support of at least one other passenger, who echoed, “What is she, an Arab? Sell her the chocolate!” How horrific it must have felt for them to be treated as Arabs, which, in their eyes, as naturally inferior.  And if Israelis get that riled up about chocolate, I can’t even begin to imagine how they must feel about their government’s recent decision to implement administrative detention against Israeli citizens.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with the concept of administrative detention, because so far it’s been a Palestinian affliction, and as such, not of major concern, the practice is, to me understood as the “because I said so” ruling. You know, when you were a child and you asked your parents for something that you thought was reasonable and they said no. You asked why, and they said, “because I said so.” It’s the same thing with administrative detention. If there is concrete evidence of any wrong-doing–and that’s a big if–you are not privy to it, and therefore cannot defend yourself against it. It’s a sort of parallel universe where due process doesn’t exist, and you go to jail simply because someone said so. Currently, there are 370 Palestinian administrative detainees in Israeli facilities according to the human rights watch group B’Tselem. The majority of them were sentenced to six months, which many times is repeatedly extended before the period is over, with the same disregard for due process. The overwhelming majority of those detainees have done nothing wrong besides belonging to Palestinian political factions. In some cases, the security establishment’s crystal ball indicates that they might do something to compromise the security of the state at some point in the future. In many cases, they are directly related to someone who has committed an offense, thus, guilty by association.
http://972mag.com/administrative-detention-because-i-said-so-ruling/110377/

I was force-fed by Israel in the ’70s: This is my story
MEE 14 Aug by Linah Alsaafin — Mousa Sheikh, a 69-year-old former prisoner from the village of Aqraba in Nablus, participated in the first mass hunger strike in 1970 and again in 1976. Describing prison conditions back then as “no better than the Bastille or the Auschwitz Nazi camps,” Sheikh painted a forbidding reality of the environment that engulfed prisoners in Israeli jails. “The Israeli prison services back then would receive any new prisoner by shaving his head, followed by a welcome party,” Sheikh told Middle East Eye. “He would be encircled by a group of soldiers who would beat every inch of him in the most savage way, leaving the prisoner in a bad state before finally going to his cell.” Sheikh, who now lives in Ramallah, was arrested at the age of 21 in 1963 after engaging in an armed confrontation with the Israeli army. Five of his comrades were killed, and he was given three life sentences plus an additional 20 years. He was transferred from Nablus Prison to one in Ashkelon, where conditions were so dire that in 1970, 400 prisoners were motivated to launch the first hunger strike . . .  The strike barely lasted for one week, and none of the demands were met. According to Sheikh, the prison warden told them that the Israeli government ordered the prisoners to be humiliated every day, because their hands were stained with blood. The force-feeding began almost immediately . . . “The prisoner enters the room handcuffed and legs shackled,” Sheikh said, recalling force feeding at the prison in Ashkelon. “There are two police officers on either side of the prisoner, who terrorise him physically and mentally. They poke him harshly in the ribs and on the back of the neck, talking the whole time in a way that is meant to break the prisoner’s spirit, saying things like ‘you are practically dead now.’ The prisoner is tied to a chair so that he can’t move. The doctor then sticks the tube up the nose of the prisoner in a very harsh way,” he said. “When it was done to me, I felt my lungs close as the tube reached my stomach,” Sheikh recounted. I almost suffocated. They poured milk down the tube, which felt like fire to me. It was boiling. I could not stay still and danced from the pain. I danced a lot.” Sheikh said that the prisoners were all subjected to the painful procedure until his cell mate, Abd al-Qader Abu al-Fahm, died as a result.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/former-palestinian-prisoner-recounts-experience-force-feeding-45-years-ago-2078639559

Gaza

Gaza woman dies of wounds from Israeli ordnance explosion
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 16 Aug — A Palestinian woman from the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday morning succumbed to wounds sustained earlier this month when an unexploded ordnance last summer’s Israeli military offensive went off. Palestinian medical sources at Abu Yousif al-Najjar hospital in Rafah said that 77-year-old Amina Abu Naqira on Sunday morning died after fighting for her life for more than a week. Four other Palestinians were killed and more than 30 injured when the unexploded ordnance went off while a family was clearing rubble from a destroyed house in the Shabora neighborhood of Rafah on Aug. 6. The other fatalities were all relatives of Amina Naqira and were identified as Bakr Hasan Abu Naqira, Abdul-Rahman Abu Naqira, Ahmad Hasan Abu Naqira, and Hassan Ahmad Abu Naqira. More than 7,000 unexploded ordnances were left throughout the Gaza Strip following last summer’s war between Israel and Palestinian militant groups, according to officials of the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Palestinian territories.Even before the most recent Israeli assault, unexploded ordnances from the 2008-9 and 2012 offensives were a major threat to Gazans. A 2012 report published by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that 111 civilians, 64 of whom were children, were casualties of unexploded ordnance between 2009 and 2012, reaching an average of four every month in 2012.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=767068

Brushing your teeth with white phosphorus?
Palestine Chronicle 16 Aug by Vacy Vlazna — One year ago, on 15 August – 40 days into Israel’s 51 day monstrous assault on Gaza that was clocking up 1800 innocent Palestinian deaths – Adrian Orr, the CEO of the New Zealand Superfund (NZSF) took a cheap shot, a morally cheap low shot, at concerned young protesters who chained themselves in the NZSF office demanding that the NZSF immediately divest from Israel Chemicals (ICL) – a supplier of lethal white phosphorus to the US army for the manufacture of munitions sold back to Israel to barrage fire and death on Gaza. In response to spokesperson Nadia Abu-Shanab’s passionate urging for divestment, Adrian Orr’s smug retort was, “Do you brush your teeth? ( Nadia: “Sorry?”) “Do you brush your teeth? White phosphorus is used in many places.” Orr is not stupid, paid NZ$800,000 p.a, he knows that phosphate is used in toothpaste whereas the pure evil of white phosphorus, derived from phosphate through an industrial process, is so highly reactive to oxygen it has to be stored under water. Exposed to air, it sears human flesh to the bone, damages the immune system and causes neurological damage. Nadia then goes on to say, “Palestinians have actually identified the company “ and  Orr butts in with appalling callous flippancy, “I can identify lots of companies that annoy me in life” Annoy? Annoy? Annoyance is not how Mus’ab Almadani’s feels about Israel Chemicals supplying the white phosphorus that seared the innocent flesh of his little son Hamza, 3. The terror and agonising pain has branded horrific physical, emotional and psychological scars on Hamza for life. Orr admits that Israeli Chemicals (ICL), “sells some to the US defense force, the US defence force then sells some to the Israeli defense force.” This offhand comment glosses over the evidence that  ICL’s white phosphorus is integrated in munitions used in Gaza:
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/brushing-your-teeth-with-white-phosphorus/

Egypt to open Rafah crossing for 4 days
CAIRO (Ma‘an) 15 Aug — Egyptian authorities on Saturday announced that they will open the Rafah crossing into and out of the Gaza Strip for four days starting Sunday. An Egyptian official said that the administration of the border terminal had been notified of the decision. The Palestinian embassy in Cairo said Saturday that Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas had asked the Egyptian authorities to open the crossing so as to ease the suffering of “our people in the Gaza Strip.” His request followed an urgent appeal from the Hamas-run Ministry of the Interior in Gaza, who asked that humanitarian cases be permitted to exit the besieged coastal enclave. Iyad al-Buzm, a spokesperson for the ministry, said in a statement last week that conditions in Gaza represent a “humanitarian catastrophe,” with up to 20,000 humanitarian cases and thousands of other Palestinians waiting to leave the territory.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=767059

Designed to fail: Gaza’s reconstruction plan / Charlie Hoyle
BETHLEHEM (IPS) 16 Aug — The rubble of twisted concrete and metal bakes in the hot Mediterranean sun of a regional heat wave. Eight months ago, the infrastructural devastation in the Gaza Strip was the same, except floodwater and freezing winter temperatures swept over the heaped remnants of people’s homes and businesses. A year on from Israel’s 51-day military operation – in which over 2,200 Palestinians were killed, including more than 500 children – not a single one of the 11,000 destroyed homes has been rebuilt. The task of large-scale reconstruction work was entrusted to the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism (GRM), a United Nations-brokered agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority which would oversee the distribution of building materials entering Gaza. To date, only 5.5 percent of the building materials needed to repair and rebuild homes and other damaged infrastructure has entered the coastal enclave, according to Israeli rights group Gisha, founded in 2005 to protect the freedom of movement of Palestinians, especial Gaza residents. Failed promises by donor countries which pledged 5.4 billion dollars last October, political tensions between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, and Israel’s continued restrictions on materials entering the territory have all impeded reconstruction efforts.
However, many hold the GRM directly responsible for the glacial pace of reconstruction, arguing that the terms of the agreement have entrenched Gaza’s underdevelopment by granting Israel control over nearly every aspect of the rebuilding process. Israel actually has deep power over every single house built in Gaza,” says Ghada Snunu, a reporting officer at Ma‘an Development Centre in Gaza. “We cannot build a house if Israel says no. Israel decides whether homes are built or not.” As part of the GRM, Israel has case-by-case approval over individual applications for building materials, veto power over construction companies put forward by the Palestinian Authority to provide those materials, and access to the Authority’s Ministry of Civil Affairs database, which registers the ID numbers and GPS coordinates of Palestinians whose homes were destroyed. According to Gisha, private owners, building plans, locations and the quantities all require Israeli approval, with companies and merchants who store the construction materials – mostly aggregate, cement and steel bars – forced to place security guards and install cameras to supervise the goods 24 hours a day. This lengthy and expensive bureaucratic process, designed specifically to meet Israel’s stated security concerns, has meant the process is at a virtual standstill. “The GRM has failed because it gives Israel veto power over everything. There are no changes on the ground so far,” complains Snunu.
http://www.thecitizen.in/NewsDetail.aspx?Id=4782&Designed/to/Fail:/Gaza%E2%80%99s/Reconstruction/Plan

Red Cross conducting workshops on international law for Hamas militants in Gaza
I24NEWS 16 Aug — The International Committee of the Red Cross is gearing up to conduct a workshop in international law for Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip this week, the latest in a series that it has performed in the coastal enclave since last summer’s bloody conflict with Israel. The workshops are aimed at trying to convince the militant Islamists that international law should govern their resistance against Israel, according to the New York Times. The war last summer took a heavy toll on Gaza, killing 2,251 Palestinians, including at least 1,500 civilians and more than 500 children. Seventy-three people were killed on the Israeli side, including 67 soldiers. A UN report released in June said both sides may have committed war crimes during the 50-day conflict, which has left more than 100,000 Gazans homeless in the impoverished enclave of 1.8 million people. It was the third war in Gaza in six years, and by far the deadliest and most destructive of the three on both sides. The Red Cross developed the program to to educate Hamas members in conjunction with Islamic scholars several years ago, but accelerated it following the 50-day battle last year. The international organization has already conducted six sessions this year for a total of 210 fighters from Hamas’s Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades and two other Gaza armed groups, the NYT reported. The United States and the European Union classify Hamas as a terrorist organization, and it has been criticized for using Gaza residents as human shields during its battles with Israel. According to the NYT, Red Cross leaders say they have seen an increasing commitment from Hamas leaders to engage in these workshops focusing on the importance of international law, if only because they now consider their international image a critical component of their struggle.
http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/middle-east/82239-150816-red-cross-conducting-workshops-on-international-law-for-hamas-militants-in-gaza

Family of Ethiopian Israeli missing in Gaza launches campaign for his freedom
Haaretz 16 Aug by Shirly Seidler — The family of an Israeli man missing in the Gaza Strip for the past 10 months has taken its first steps in their campaign to have him freed. Avera Mengistu, a 28-year-old Israeli of Ethiopian origin, has been missing since September 2014 when he left his home in southern Israel and crossed into the besieged costal enclave. Though he has been missing for over 10 months, the Israeli public was kept in the dark due to a court-imposed gag order placed on the case, until it was lifted a month ago. It is not clear what has happened to him, whether Hamas is still holding him and what his condition is. Mengistu’s family, along with social activists, are expected to demonstrate on Monday in front of the Hadarim Prison in the Sharon, and call for his release. The protest will coincide with the time when families of Palestinian security prisoners visit their relatives. In the first demonstration on Megistu’s behalf since the gag order was lifted last month, the activists will ask the prisoners’ families to pass on a message to Hamas to release him immediately . . . The family has decided to take responsibility for Mengistu’s release without help from the government in order to speed up the process, say sources involved with the family
http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel/.premium-1.671368

Gaza doctor invents stethoscope which is ‘better than world’s best’ but costs only 30 cents
Haaretz 15 Aug — Design for 3-D printed stethoscope is available for free online; Tarek Loubani, a Canadian doctor of Palestinian descent, says came up with idea during 2012 conflict between Israel and Gaza — . . . The stethoscope’s design was published on Friday and is available for free. It can be used to print the device by anyone with a 3-D printer, Tarek Loubani, a Canadian of Palestinian descent, said. Loubani, who has been working in Gaza’s Shifa hospital for several years, heads the Glia Project which aims to supply the blockaded Strip with low-cost medical devices. According to Loubani, Glia was founded when the meager supply of medical tools during the 2012 conflict between Israel and Gaza forced him and his fellow doctors to press their ears against patients’ chests to listen to their heartbeat. Loubani funded the project himself with the $11,000 necessary for the research, coming up with the design which he said was “as good as any stethoscope out there in the world.” . . . 3-D printers are already used in Gaza to build medical devices and prosthetics.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/1.671241

‘Ariel Sharon designed 2005 Gaza disengagement to save West Bank settlements’
I24NEWS/AFP 16 Aug — Former chief of staff says Sharon got written promise from President Bush that blocs would be part of Israel — . . . Sharon, also known as “the bulldozer” for his determination, ordered Israeli troops to began evacuating more than 8,000 Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip — first voluntarily, but later forcefully removing those who refused. Dov Weisglass, who served as Sharon’s chief of staff, explained why the prime minister made the decision in 2003 to pull out of Gaza during a seminar to mark 10 years since Israel’s disengagement from the coastal enclave held at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya.  He recalled how at the time Sharon held a stormy meeting with settler leaders during which he explained to them that the dream of a Greater Israel, in which Israel held on to all of the West Bank and Gaza was no longer possible . . . Weisglass said that Sharon secured a pledge from former US President George Bush over Palestinian refugees in exchange for pulling out of Gaza. According to Weisglass, Bush promised Sharon that in any final status agreement for a two-state solution, Palestinian refugees would settle in a newly established Palestinian state and not return to Israel if Israel pulled out of Gaza. Weisglass referenced a letter that Bush sent to Sharon in 2004 in which the US president promised the Israeli leader that the West Bank settlement blocs would be included within Israel’s final borders.
http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/diplomacy-defense/82230-150816-ariel-sharon-designed-2005-gaza-disengagement-to-save-west-bank-settlements

One man’s mission to preserve Palestinian heritage
JABALIYA, Gaza 16 Aug by Asmaa al-Ghoul — Saeed al-Ashkar has spent 20 years interviewing elderly members of various Palestinian families who emigrated to the Gaza Strip from the villages that Israel occupied in 1948, villages that are now inside the Green Line. Through these interviews, Ashkar collects information about each family’s origins and what its members remember about their original villages. In early 2000, Ashkar used the elderly’s memories to make maps of 20 Palestinian villages located beyond the Green Line. He is still roaming neighborhoods and towns and meeting elderly in the Gaza Strip. For each village, Ashkar noted the habits of its members, food, clothing and folk dances, such as Dabke, al-Samer and Dahiya. These types of dances originate from the Bedouin in the desert and are often accompanied by traditional poems. Ashkar said he has been interested in Palestinian heritage since “the occupation’s army arrested me in 1989 and put me in the Negev prison.” “There, I read a book about the customs and joys of the village of Turmus Ayya in the West Bank. I found myself living in another world while I was in prison. So when I was released in 1993, I decided to write about my original village, Berbera,” he said. “I collected information from the elderly in the family until I finished my book.” Ashkar’s book, “Berbera Village,” contains a family tree for each family that lived there and now lives in the Gaza Strip. The family trees contain the names of the children and grandchildren. The book, which includes examples of village songs, was published in 2005 by the National Center for Studies and is now available in public and university libraries in Palestine. Ashkar hopes there will be more official interest and funding for what he is doing so that he can publish similar books about every village and finish drawing maps for 60 villages, as well as maps for the two cities of Jaffa and Ashkelon.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/08/palestinian-heritage-1948-villages-interview-elderly.html

Syrian refugees in Gaza face limited job opportunities
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip 13 Aug by Huda Baroud — Syrian women who have fled the war in Syria to Gaza with their Palestinian husbands are denied institutional financial aid, under the pretext of being part of a Palestinian family not eligible to receive assistance dedicated to Syrian refugees —  Rent is accumulating for the family of Asmaa al-Qassar, a Syrian woman who has not been able to find a job ever since she fled the fighting in Syria to the Gaza Strip in September 2011 with her Palestinian husband and two children. Qassar, who lives in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, fears she will not be able to pay her rent, which is 550 shekels ($145) per month, and the electricity and water bills that add up to about 100 shekels ($26) per month . . . Mona Mrad, a Syrian woman whose husband’s family home was destroyed during the Israeli war on Gaza in 2014, received a temporary work assignment from the Gaza Ministry of Labor under the provision of aid to war-affected people. Mrad, along with her husband, left Damascus and sought refuge in the Gaza Strip. “Although I got a three-month employment opportunity after my husband’s family home was destroyed, we, as Syrians in Gaza, are unfortunately treated as if we are under the jurisdiction of a sponsor. We were denied several employment opportunities under the pretext that our husbands got temporary employment opportunities, whose salaries are not sufficient for our basic needs. In addition, we are unable to travel through the Erez crossing since our families are half Syrian,” Mrad told Al-Monitor. In April 2014, UNRWA — which is encountering a financial deficit — had stopped providing the quarterly payout of $1,200 for rent to Palestinian refugees from Syria. Qassar said that she is finding it difficult to make friends in Gaza despite the hospitality of its people — mainly because of the different customs and traditions, but also for fear of getting attached to Gazan friends, which would make it harder for her to leave in the future.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/08/syria-refugees-palestine-gaza-job-aid.htm

Other news

Foreign ministry condemns Israel’s killing of teenager Taj south of Nablus
RAMALLAH (WAFA) 16 Aug – The Palestinian Foreign Ministry Sunday condemned the Israeli forces’ ‘assassination’ of a teenager near the village of Yatma to the south of Nablus late Saturday. Israeli forces, late Saturday, shot and killed 16-year-old Rafik Kamel al-Taj at Huwwara’s main street to the south of Nablus. The ministry, in a statement, said that a file on Israel’s policy of field execution committed against the Palestinian people is being prepared in preparation to take it to the international Criminal Court (ICC) in Hague. It stressed that the field executions carried out by Israeli forces against Palestinians are part of the Israeli government and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policy, which gives its soldiers the green light to pull the trigger and shoot Palestinians in cold blood, a policy, which the ministry noted, was confirmed in Israeli ‘Defense’ Minister Moshe Ya’alon’s statement, in which he called to kill anyone who attempts to attack Israeli soldiers.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=29100

Administrative detention being used to push controversial ‘terror law’
+972 Blog 16 Aug by Sawsan Khalife‘ — A week after the Shin Bet recommended that Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon sign off on administrative detention for two Jewish Israelis following the attack in the Palestinian village of Duma, he also recommended the Knesset pass an “anti-terrorism bill.” The bill, which has been sitting on the shelf of the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, authorizes the defense minister to use administrative detention without the standard prerequisite of declaring a “state of emergency” (which has been in place, essentially, since Israel’s founding). The law refers specifically to the administrative detention of Israeli civilians, since Palestinians in the occupied territories already live under a military regime . . . According to the bill, a terrorist act is carried out of political, ideological, religious, or racist motivations. It is also an act that intends to inspire fear among the public in order to place pressure on the government to act or cease acting a certain way. This general definition can easily be used as a means of blocking any type of struggle against government policy, social or otherwise. The use of administrative detention against settlers is a slippery slope, which could one day affect social activists, human rights workers, and Palestinian citizens of Israel.
http://972mag.com/administrative-detention-being-used-to-push-controversial-terror-law/110495/

Mohammed Alaan’s blood is on our hands / Gideon Levy
Haaretz 16 Aug — A state in whose prisons hundreds of people are confined without trial is not a democracy, and all the excuses about ‘security’ will not help — Mohammed Allaan’s blood is on our hands, on the hands of the State of Israel. The state will bear full and sole responsibility for his death if, perish the thought, he dies. No excuses will cover the shame, no propaganda will atone for the offense. While these lines are being written, Saturday afternoon, he tottered between life and death, in an induced coma and on a respirator. The death of this 31-year-old lawyer from the village of Einabus is liable to not only cause “damage to Israel’s image” and lead to a conflagration in the West Bank and Gaza – first and foremost, Allaan is the victim of one of the basest acts of the Israeli occupation: administrative detention. That, they do not see here. Allaan is a freedom fighter. There is no one who suits this definition more, no other way to describe him. Allaan is striking until death for his freedom, to which he is entitled according to any constitutional, democratic or moral criterion. Even if thugs of Ashkelon and its violent nationalists scream until the end of time “terrorist,” and even if inciting television reports talk about “blood on the hands,” Allaan will remain a freedom fighter, innocent.
As we recall, he was never indicted nor tried. The security establishment has not a shred of evidence against him or against hundreds of his friends, not even evidence that could lead a military court astray – which is the easiest thing to do in a system that has no connection whatsoever with justice. Not by chance were almost all the longtime hunger-strikers administrative detainees. They did not fight against the settlements or against the occupation. They fought for their personal liberty, which is their absolute right. They are not prisoners, they are detainees of arbitrariness. Their administrative detention has become a terrifying normality, obvious, like a checkpoint, senseless killing and nighttime abductions. Over the past 15 years the number of such detainees has ranged from 150 to 1,000 at any given moment. Even in the most promising of quiet times their number does not decline. Right now there are about 400. In other words, there are hundreds of people being held without trial in Israeli prisons. If there is a reason to turn to the International Criminal Court – that is the reason, perhaps even before the killing, expulsions and the settlements. If there is evidence that can put the lie to “the only democracy in the Middle East” – that is the clear evidence . . . .
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.671264

Otherwise Occupied: Enjoying a peaceful picnic in the settlement-free northern West Bank / Amira Hass
Haaretz 16 Aug — 10 years since the disengagement: A recreation area was set up near the spot of the evacuated settlements of Ganim and Kadim, but it’s under IDF control — Driving in the Jenin area in the northern West Bank is pleasant. This is the Palestinian region with the largest contiguous area. You can drive for 21.5 kilometers length-wise and 14.5 kilometers breadth-wise without encountering a single settlement. If one starts counting a bit further to the south, in the Nablus area, one can add another 5.5 kilometers of tranquility for one’s eyes and soul: soft hills on which village houses spread out, wide expanses of fields that are waiting to be ploughed and sown, roads of human dimensions. There are no settlements, no pillboxes, no threatening guard towers and barbed wire that blotch the green. The districts of Jenin and Tubas are the vegetable gardens of the West Bank. 65 percent of the Jenin district is agricultural. It’s a poor and unpretentious area, which is why there are few flashy and large houses, such as the numerous ridiculous-looking ones near Ramallah, which look as though they were transplanted from the set of the TV series “Dallas.” . . . The joy of landowners on whose land Homesh was built (mainly from the village of Burqa, in the Nablus area) was premature. The tilled land has been confiscated for military purposes and was never returned to them. There is one settler, they say, who has moved in under the protection of the army, intimidating the entire area . . . Now the army is protecting that lone settler and his pals, preventing the villagers from using the less steep road that passes right by the evacuated settlement, forcing them to use a very steep road that reaches the higher part of the village. In any case, the farther one gets from the former settlement of Homesh, the more relieved one feels . . . The prohibition on building on the sites of former settlements has its benefits: in the northern section, the sites of the evacuated settlements of Ganim and Kadim have turned into large public picnic areas on Fridays and into an isolated rest area on other days. We were welcomed there a week ago by some cheerful young men, tipsy after some cans of beer. On a paved area a few girls – what a rare sight! – were practicing riding their bikes. The pleasant wind, on one of the hottest days this year, reminded us of why Israelis wanted to come and live amidst Palestinian villages. The evacuation of these settlements opened up some roads that were previously blocked to Palestinians.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/.premium-1.671303

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