Participating in “Youth for the Right to Water and Sanitation” project (YRWS) has opened our eyes to a deeper and wider range of information regarding the water crisis that Palestinians have been suffering from, for years. Previously, we lacked awareness of such deadly facts. However, during the project, we are keen to better understand the key factors behind our water and sanitation crisis, and we have absorbed a lot of information concerning the daily frequent Israeli violations of international human rights law leaving water and sanitation on the edge of collapse.

In the light of thirsting for truth, as youth leaders, we feel responsible for raising up this cause internationally to speak on behalf of the unheard vulnerable Palestinians. So, after one of the project's meetings about the Israeli attacks, which are the origin of our current water crisis, we determined to reveal the bitter truth; therefore, we traced the road to Alsabra area located in the middle of Gaza City.

It was all in Alja’al’s house consisting of 16 members, including the 50-year householder, Ehmoud Alja’al who was a taxi driver but currently he is jobless due to healthy malaises he suffers from. His wife, Ateyat Alja’al, starts telling her tale aged 15 years!

“We are obliged to purchase gallons of clean water which cost US$18 a week instead of the salty and polluted water; we even use this clean water for bathing and washing. At the time we do not have enough money to purchase sufficient amounts of clean water, I am forced to cook and knead with the salty water which causes dermal diseases, vomiting, diarrhea and dysentery to my children”, said Ateyat.

In the last war in Gaza in 2008, Israel destroyed most of the facilities of water: 11 water wells, 4 water treatment plants as well as the sewage discharge plants.
It is also worth mentioning that Israeli restrictions on entry of fuel and electricity have resulted in 60-80 million liters of untreated or partially treated sewage flowing daily into the sea and contaminating the underground aquifer, which is the only available source of water to the 1.5 million people in Gaza, causing high levels of nitrates (330 mg/liter) which led to saltiness of water.

As Israel is a state party to Article 24, Child rights’ convention which declares that "the contracting countries must combat diseases and malnutrition by affording nutritive foods and pure water for children", it is obliged to implement what is stated by this convention; nevertheless, Ateyat's story proves the exact opposite!

“We only receive water 3 days a week at midnight; my eldest son has to stay awake till 12:00 am when water is available in the taps in order to store as much water as he can because we do not have a generator for pumping water”, she added.

Back to 2006, Israel bombed Gaza’s only power plant; consequently, water crisis is reaching alarming proportions because irregular supply of electricity leads to disorder of water distribution. “Electricity is another predicament; when water is available, electricity is not and vice versa!” Ateyat said. Noting that “Water must be healthy, sufficient, affordable and accessible”, Article 1, 11, Human rights’ accord

Israel, as an occupying power, has legal responsibilities to the under international humanitarian law as it is declared in the Fourth Geneva Convention, relative to the protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War “An occupying power is responsible for maintaining public health and hygiene in an occupied territory which necessitates the provision of clean drinking water and adequate sanitation.” Whereas the following states the contrast, "the salty water my neighbor receives once caused her sever digestive disease, so she always borrows clean water, which she can not afford, to avoid such diseases," she said.

SOS
“We complained about water problems to the concerned party but no response because the ones we complain to also suffer from the same problem, we really need help!" appealed she.

Take Action
To respond her appeal and many others', be part of the change by joining us on our global campaign ‘Thirsting for Justice’ and take part in  Facebook: Thirsting for Justice, and Twitter @thirsty4justice

As thirsty for justice and volunteers in (YRWS), we call upon international community to immediately intervene to advocate our rights of water as human beings and pressure Israel to abide by its obligations under international law and ensure that Palestinians in the OPT are enjoying their right to water.
Palestine is sorely appealing you for help and justice as its people have been bearing a lot under the Israeli’s violations of all water resources which are going to run out by 2015.

Remind your mind that Right to Water is Right to Life!

Hebron: At least 10 children arrested by Israeli military in one week
The extreme Golani Unit of the Israeli military is escalating its arrests of Palestinian children in Al Khalil (Hebron), targeting boys between the ages of 12 to15 years old with at least 10 reported cases of child arrests made just in the span of one week.
link to palsolidarity.org

Ethnic Cleansing / Destruction of Homes & Property / Apartheid 

The Israel military court has extended administrative detention for two months in addition to three months already detained for civil rights lawyer Dr. Yousef Abdul Haq, a lecturer at An-Najah National University and the Cultural Coordinator for the Tanweer Palestinian Cultural Enlightenment Forum, currently detained in Ofer Prison near Ramallah.

Yousef Abdul Haq was arrested November 7th, 2011 at his home at 2:00 AM, suffering from illness which requires constant dosage of medicine, forcing his transfer to a hospital immediately after his arrest in Ramla.

He was sentenced to two months in administrative detention immediately.

This arbitrary administrative detention is legally incompatible with the most basic international standards of human rights, because it is without any specific charge against the prisoner. These arbitrary detentions depend on the military file and “secret evidence” which cannot be seen by the detainee or defense lawyers. This file is prepared by Israel intelligence and is “collected” illegally.

This type of detention is internationally banned and is impacting lawmakers in the Palestinian Legislative Council, members of local councils, university students, political activists, academics, trade unionists and even women and children.

The imposition of administrative detention by Article 111 of the military state of emergency imposed by the British colonial authorities of Palestine September, 1945 is illegal on the grounds that Article 43 of the Hague international agreement of 1907 prohibits an occupying power to change the legislative reality of the country occupied.

Administrative detention is the endless suffering of the prisoners because they may de detained for a decade, physically and psychologically impacting the detainee and their family based on the expectation that the next decision will be an extension of detention.

The International Solidarity Foundation for Human Rights received from the Israeli military court in Ofer, that the number of additional administrative detentions issued by the Israeli military governor reached a total of 5,971 since the beginning of 2004 until the end of 2010.

We in the Tanweer Enlightenment Forum, call for the release of our colleague Dr. Yousef immediately from behind bars, and we hold the Government responsible for the conditions of Israel’s occupation, in respect to his health. We demand the end of the administrative detentions which are contrary to international law..

On this occasion, we declare our solidarity with the prisoner hero Khader Adnan, who is continuing his hunger strike battle in his 55th day to end the administrative detentions. We also call on international institutions and the Arab and local media to expose the policy of administrative detention. We uphold the work of a united front for the release of Palestinian prisoners including lawyers, members of the Legislative Council, academics, students, children and women.

                 We call for the end of administrative detentions forever.

                                    Freedom for political prisoners.

                 Close the detention camps and prisons and abolish                                               administrative detention.

 

A recent response to a subpoena from the United States Capitol Police has revealed the main assailant of a peaceful demonstrator who was physically attacked and injured on May 24, 2011, to be Stanley Anthony Shulster, allegedly a member of the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). According to the lawsuit, Mr. Shulster, a retired lawyer, admitted to assaulting Rae Abileah, a member of CODEPINK, in the House of Representatives while she protested the Israeli occupation of Palestine during the speech by Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel. The Capitol Police issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Shulster for this attack.

Mr. Shulster’s biography on the Jackson County, Oregon Republican Women website identifies him as “an Unpaid Lobbyist,” and a “Volunteer in the Israel Defense Forces Medical Unit and a member of AIPAC.” The bio states: “At the last AIPAC meeting in May of 2011 Stan was present to hear the stirring address that Prime Minister Netanyahu gave to Congress and he grabbed the woman who heckled the Prime Minister while he was speaking.”

Abileah protests Israeli occupation
during the speech by Netanyahu 5.24.2011

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach also attested to the assault when he wrote in his blog, “The elderly gentleman to my right, whom I had been talking to just before the speech started, pulled the flag out of her hands, cupped his hands over her mouth, and assisted in subduing her.”  Additional witnesses have been identified by the U.S. Capitol Police.

According to the complaint, Mr. Shulster grabbed the banner held by Ms. Abileah, used his hand to attempt to gag and suffocate Ms. Abileah, and yanked her head back, injuring her neck. As a result of the attack, Ms. Abileah sustained a neck strain, swollen neck and muscle strain, and has since suffered from frequent head and neck aches as well as emotional trauma.

Ms. Abileah is a 29 year old American Jew of Israeli descent, who works as the Co-Director of CODEPINK, a women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice organization that seeks to end U.S. wars and the U.S. funded occupation of Palestine.

“I was shocked that the biography of the person who attacked me would brag about his use of violence. This lawless behavior echoes the routine actions of the Israeli government and military in carrying out violent acts daily against the Palestinian people. I am hopeful that my filing suit will be a clear signal to those who attempt to silence peaceful protesters, that they will be held accountable for their illegal actions,” said Ms. Abileah.

Photos of the action and assault can be found here.

AIPAC’s 2012 annual policy conference will be held from March 4 to 6 in Washington, D.C. It is expected that peaceful protesters will challenge AIPAC’s policies of supporting Israel’s ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people and its threats of attacking Iran.

(Plans for OCCUPY AIPAC are under way and will take place March 2-6 in Washington DC.)

When Israel’s conservative Supreme Court judge Asher Grunis wrote the majority opinion in the Citizenship Law case a few weeks ago, he quickly became the mascot for a particularly naked kind of discrimination, one that proudly subordinates human rights and equality to racism and nationalism. “Human rights are not a prescription for national suicide,” Grunis wrote in the decision upholding the law that prevents Palestinians who marry Israelis from living with their spouses.

Well, now it looks like Grunis is getting a promotion. Earlier today, he was confirmed as the new president of Israel’s Supreme Court, an institution which, even under the most “liberal” of judges, has been eyeball-deep in the discrimination business.

Grunis’s path to the chief judgeship was recently cleared with the help of the “Grunis bill,” a handy bit of legislative intervention that did away with the rule preventing judges with less than three years until retirement from being appointed chief justice. Under the old law, Grunis, who has less than three years until he retires, would be ineligible. But Grunis had strong backers among National Union types like Yaakov Katz, who were only too eager to massage the process and secure the top judicial spot for a fellow conservative traveler with a long record of judicial passivity. As a former Supreme Court justice told Haaretz, "It is no secret that Grunis holds rigidly to the idea of reducing the powers of the Supreme Court, and that is why 'wild weeds' on the right want him as president. He is their 'favorite son.'"

With Grunis’s ascent, Israel's Supreme Court officially ends its so-called "liberal-democratic" phase (though, truth be told, it was neither liberal or democratic) and enters what might be called its radical-fanatical right-wing phase. Just last month, the court got its first settler-judge, Judge Noam Sohlberg -- that's right, a man who regularly violates international law is now a member of the highest court in the land, as Eyal Clyne pointed out -- and Grunis will have vast authority over future judicial appointments.

As a prominent lawyer told Haaretz:

"He will wield the greatest influence on the Judicial Appointments Committee, whose members already include right-wing MKs and the justice minister, and they are fighting tooth and nail to do what they did in the army: to introduce religiously observant settlers into the middle ranks of the courts," the lawyer says. "Not only in the district courts but in the Supreme Court as well. They expect Grunis to help them. I am not sure they can count on that - let's hope he will surprise us. He is not a great hero and not one for doing battle. He is certainly not brave."

Make no mistake: even during its "liberal-Democratic" heyday, the Israeli Supreme Court, to say nothing of the lower courts was not terribly brave. It upheld occupation, settlement, siege, torture and a host of other moral outrages. So in some ways, the rise of Grunis represents little more than the stripping down, or disrobing, if you will, of the myth of the robust Israeli justice system. On the other hand, it is a distinct shift and with it, another critical moment in Israel's long moral suicide.

Yesterday, an Israeli judge postponed a decision for hunger striker Khader Adnan’s final appeal in the military court system, which was heard in his hospital room. The judge requested more documents as the reason for the delay in either ordering a continuation of Adnan’s administrative detention, or possible release from Israeli custody.

The unusual trial was held in Zeif Hospital and media were not permitted on site. Currently, Adnan is held without charge, based on secret evidence the prosecution has not disclosed to the political prisoner or his legal representation. However, the prosecution previously noted that the current evidence against Adnan as so-called leader in Islamic Jihad is not sufficient to press charges against the hunger striker.

Adnan’s case sits at an impasse. It is unknown when the Israeli judge will make release a decision on the hunger striker’s appeal. In the absence of judicial release, human rights organizations and activist are petitioning for his release, and pressuring news agencies to cover Adnan’s detention.

The North Coast Coalition for Palestine  in the San Francisco North Bay are preparing to present a letter to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors opposing the county's contract with Veolia. The French multinational company currently operates the county's bus system and has come under international pressure due to its involvement in a light rail line in Occupied East Jerusalem. Activists plans to collect signatures and present the letter to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors.

Recently Palestinian Freedom Riders challenged Israeli laws banning Palestinians from riding on Israeli-only bus lines. The action draws the parallel between segregated buses in the US and the current situation in Palestine.

The full text of the letter is below. Sonoma County residents are encouraged to sign. Other comments are encouraged and can be directed to the county here.

Open Letter to Sonoma County Board of Supervisors concerning SCTA Veolia contract

As residents of Sonoma County we are asking the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors to reconsider Sonoma County's transportation contract with Veolia unless it stops aiding and abetting human rights violations by the Israeli government in the occupied West Bank of Palestine.

The French company, Veolia, which operates the Sonoma County Transit buses under a contract with the county, also operates buses that carry Israeli citizens between Jerusalem and illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine’s West Bank. This is in direct violation of international law which has declared these settlements to be illegal.

Seven hundred thousand Israelis now live in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) in Jewish-only settlements. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has condemned the settlements as an obstacle to peace. The last six U.S. administrations have taken similar stances and President Carter has described the situation as apartheid.

According to Israeli Human Rights organization, B'Tselem, there are 144 miles of roads in the Occupied West Bank that, "Israel classified for the sole, or almost sole, use of Israelis, primarily of settlers. Israel also prohibits Palestinians from even crossing some of these roads with vehicles, thereby restricting their access to nearby roads that they are ostensibly not prohibited from using. In these cases, Palestinians travelers have to get out of the vehicle, cross the road on foot, and find an alternative mode of transportation on the other side."

In 2005 Palestinian civil society called for the boycott of companies that profit from, or are complicit in, the occupation of Palestine. As a result ,Veolia has lost several contracts with government agencies and other public institutions.

In 2008 Matthijs Bierman, the director ot the Dutch Bank Triodos, announced that the bank will not invest in Veolia, comparing this new policy to the bank’s past divestment targeting apartheid South Africa.

In 2009 the Stockholm Community Council in Sweden announced that Veolia, which had operated the subways in Stockholm County for 10 years, had lost its contract.

In December 2010 the monitoring network Banktrack noted that financial investment in Veolia is "risky" because of its illegal activities in the OPT based upon Veolia’s violations of international law.

In November 2011 Veolia was removed from selection for construction of a waste treatment facility in South London worth £ 1 billion. Again, in 2011, Cambridge University students voted to break a contract with Veolia because of Veolia’s connection to Israeli human rights abuses. Jewish student Daniel Benjamin, who was involved in the campaign, said, “With this vote, Cambridge students make a strong statement against Veolia’s criminal actions in the OPT (Occupied Palestinian Territories).

Sonoma County Transit Authority has a contract with Veolia. Citing human rights violations, and discrimination based on race and religion, we, as Sonoma County residents, are requesting that Sonoma County officials work with Veolia to discontinue its contract in Palestine, or face possible termination of its contract with Sonoma County Transit.

Yesterday, MSNBC reported that Mossad agents trained an Iranian group on the U.S. terror list, in order to carry out assassinations of nuclear scientists. Active since the 1970s, the People’s Mujahedin of Iran are credited as responsible for five deadly attacks on scientists since 2007.

Rock Center with Brian Williams MSNBC report.

MSNBC spoke with Mohammad Javad Larijani, a senior aide in the Iranian government whose assertion the terror organization was linked to Mossad was confirmed.  The group was "financed, trained and armed by Israel’s secret service."  MSNBC reports:

Moreover, [Larigani] said, the Mossad, the Israeli secret service, is training MEK [the Iranian terror group] members in Israel on the use of motorcycles and small bombs. In one case, he said, Mossad agents built a replica of the home of an Iranian nuclear scientist so that the assassins could familiarize themselves with the layout prior to the attack. [Emphasis added]

The news station’s evidence is based upon interviews with Iranian officials, and documents apprehended from a thwarted assassination attempt in 2010.

The Iranian terror organization denies allegations of a relationship with Mossad, citing the report as "absolutely false." Conversely, U.S. government officials stated to MSNBC "all your inclinations are correct," and affirm no involvement.  However, skepticism remains, Al Jazeera previously chronicled the group's strong U.S. ties:

George W. Bush's attorney general Michael Mukasey has described MEK members as 'courageous freedom fighters'. President Barack Obama's former national security advisor, General James L. Jones, gave a speech at a MEK conference dominated by non-Iranians. Their events have also been attended by former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge, former NATO supreme commander Wesley Clark and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Hat tip to Paul Mutter for catching this**
 

Khader Adnan enters the 55th day of his hungry strike in Israeli detention, he has not been charged with anything

Ethnic Cleansing / Destruction of Homes & Property / Apartheid

Palestinian family forced to destroy their home
Palestinian family in Occupied East Jerusalem have until Friday to clear the rubble from their house which they were forced to destroy with their own hands.
link to gulfnews.com 

Settlers take more land in occupied West Bank
Jewish settlers have seized a large area of the town of Yatta, south of the city of Hebron. The land grab is to expand an illegal settlement. The Yatta coordinator of the Popular Committees Against the Wall and Settlements, Rateb El-Jabour, told Quds Press that the settlers cordoned-off around 3,000 square metres in the early morning. This, he said, was a prelude to the land's confiscation for expansion of a settlement near ancient Susya. 
link to www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk

This article was originally published on February 9, 2012 for the Alternative Information Center.

In 2004, Israeli officials were up in arms about an impending Bedouin Intifada. But the Bedouin didn't rebel and now, despite plans to expel tens of thousands of Bedouin from their homes in the West Bank and the Negev, things remain relatively quiet. Why?

As Israel steps up its expansionist policies both inside and outside the Green Line, the Bedouin community has come under particularly intense pressure.

Inside of Israel, the state seeks to Judaize the Negev (Naqab) desert. This "development" includes last year’s Prawer plan which recommends that Israel relocate some 30,000-40,000 Bedouin citizens, ripping them from their villages and sticking them in impoverished townships, to clear the area for Jewish-only settlements.

After the Israeli cabinet passed the Prawer plan in September 2011, Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel likened it to "a declaration of war."

Al Arakib could be considered an opening battle. The state first demolished the unrecognized village in July 2010—destroying homes and tearing olive trees from the ground to make way for a forest to be planted by the Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF). After the Bedouin residents of Al Arakib rebuilt their village, Israeli forces returned and destroyed it again. Since then, Al Arakib has been demolished and rebuilt over 30 times.

Israel’s policies are just as inhumane on the other side of the Green Line, where the so-called "Civil Administration" seeks to remove 27,000 Bedouin from Area C in order to expand illegal Israeli settlements. The Civil Administration’s plans will be carried out over the next three to six years.

The United Nations reports that Israeli forces demolished 44 Palestinian-owned buildings in East Jerusalem and the West Bank last month, including 14 houses. 66 people were displaced, 40 of whom were Bedouin.

Recent years have seen Israel escalate its campaign to push Palestinians and Bedouin out of their homes. According to the UN, nearly 1100 Palestinians and Bedouins were displaced by Israeli house demolitions in 2011—approximately 80 percent more than 2010.

So where is the Bedouin Intifada?

In 2004, the Israeli daily Haaretz called a Bedouin uprising "practically inevitable." Lurching from one alarmist quote to the next, the article labeled the Bedouin a “ticking bomb,” a “keg of dynamite,” depicting them not as native inhabitants but as criminals who have taken over the Negev.

Amidst the hysteria came a fetishizing remark from Reuven Gal, then-Deputy National Security Advisor for Domestic Policy, who commented that, to the Bedouin, "honor is more precious than money."

The writer concluded, ominously, "every plan to develop the Negev is likely to face violent opposition because of the Bedouin who live in the area."

The article drips with racism and colonialism—Israeli plans to displace the Bedouin constitute "development." Not only are the Bedouin sure to oppose such "progress," they are likely to be "violent." And then there are the Orientalist depictions of the Bedouin as reactionary, volatile beings unable to control their impulses, especially when "honor" is at stake.

But it would be wrong to blame the writer and his interviewees alone.

In his book Good Arabs, Hillel Cohen describes an incident that took place in 1950, when the Israeli army’s chief of staff visited a Bedouin tribe, reporter in tow. The journalist recounted a "royal meal," eaten against the backdrop of "the echoes of gunshots" and "riders’ galloping." The evening climaxed with a ceremonial "presentation of the sword of the desert."

Cohen explains that the reporter’s depiction "fit well with that period’s common portrayal of the Bedouin as hospitable noble savages...." An Orientalist view of the Bedouin is deeply rooted and, as the 2004 Haaretz article suggests, persists. So feverish proclamations about a Bedouin Intifada should be taken with a camel-sized grain of salt.

We should also consider the motives behind such "warnings." As, Jaber Abu Kaf, a representative of the Regional Council for Unrecognized Bedouin Villages told Haaretz in 2004, claims of an imminent Bedouin Intifada "are baseless and are intended to promote a political agenda."

But, for argument’s sake, let’s say that the Bedouin would like to revolt, violently, against Israel’s discrimination.

Let’s set aside the quiet acts of resistance, the small, silent intifada, already taking place: rebuilding demolished homes; the day-long general strike held in December of 2011; the massive protest outside the Prime Minister’s office on the same December day.

And let’s set aside individual agency and pretend the Bedouin can only react, collectively, to Israeli policies.

So why hasn’t that "ticking bomb" exploded?

The answer lies, in part, in the state’s founding. Before Israel was established in 1948, some 91,000 Bedouin lived in the Negev. After the war, only twelve percent of the original population remained. Many of the Bedouin facing forced transfer from the West Bank today are refugees whose families fled or were driven from the Negev during the nakba.

Shattered and scattered, the Bedouin were subject to additional Israeli efforts to divide and rule. A number of those who had managed to hang on to their land in the Negev were pushed off of it. In some cases, the state appointed local mukhtars, pitting families against one another, and putting weak leaders, or those who would serve Israeli interests, at the head of villages.

Israeli authorities also sowed seeds of disunity by actively encouraging--and rewarding--collaboration. That some took the bait undermines the Orientalist assertion that the Bedouin value honor more than money.

Israel has also fomented poverty in the Bedouin community. In the 1970s, the state built seven townships for the Negev Bedouin that are home today to approximately 80,000 Bedouin. These ghettos have the country’s highest unemployment and school dropout rates as well as the social problems that accompany poverty and hopelessness, including rampant drug abuse.

Those that remained in the desert have not had it much easier. Despite the fact that many Bedouin live in villages that predate the state itself, Israel does not recognize most of these communities. Some 80,000 Bedouin live in the unrecognized villages that lack infrastructure and high schools. Rawia Aburabia, an attorney with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), calls the status of Bedouin education, "catastrophic," pointing out to a drop out rate that tops 40 percent.

There is also the contentious issue of military service. Some Bedouin tribes serve in the Israeli army; many do not. This creates tension within the community and serves as yet another obstacle to the unity needed for a successful uprising.

With Palestine’s Bedouin divided between Israel and the surrounding countries; split between those who serve in the Israeli army and those who don’t; struggling to survive; lacking leadership and a cohesive national strategy, an organized and sustainable uprising is unlikely. The international community, then, has a responsibility to stop the home demolitions and forced transfers that Palestinians and Bedouin face in the West Bank and inside Israel.

Advocating for outside intervention runs the risk of sounding patronizing, at best, colonial, at worst. That’s the beauty of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement. The call for BDS comes from Palestinian civil society and is self-empowering.

While some Palestinians don’t consider the Bedouin to be Palestinian—and many Bedouin don’t consider themselves Palestinian, either—BDS is an appropriate response to Israel’s treatment of the Bedouin. They suffer from the same discriminatory policies that plague the Palestinians. And the two communities share common hopes for human and civil rights, to return to their homeland, and to live in freedom, justice, and dignity.