Report: UN panel rules IDF boarded Marmara ‘to kill’
Ynet 24 July — The Turkish newspaper Hurriyet said Sunday that the Palmer report on last year’s Gaza-bound flotilla is expected to be released this week. According to the newspaper, the UN-appointed panel to investigate the raid on the Mavi Marmara vessel has ruled that IDF soldiers boarded the ship with an intention to kill. The Turkish daily claimed that this assertion is what prompted the debate within Israel’s government on whether the Jewish State should issue an apology to Turkey … The Turkish daily claimed that this assertion is what prompted the debate within Israel’s government on whether the Jewish State should issue an apology to Turkey.
And more news from Today in Palestine:
Settlements
Barak seeks to delay Migron razing
Ynet 24 July — Defense minister set to seek High Court approval for postponement of outpost demolition in bid to prevent violence … The State made a commitment to the Supreme Court to demolish the three structures, which were built in April, within 45 days. The demolition date passed on Sunday.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4099522,00.html
Israeli forces
IDF’s reply confirms collective punishment of Palestinian village / Noam Sheizaf
22 July — On Saturday night, I posted a clip showing IDF forces shooting tear gas and throwing stun grenades at Palestinian houses in the middle of the night. The incident occurred in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, where unarmed protest against the confiscation of the village’s land takes place every Friday … Here is the video again … Note that there is nothing else happening in the street, and there is no Palestinian in sight. The soldiers aren’t under any kind of threat. On Sunday morning, I contacted IDF Spokesperson for a comment on the video. It took them the entire week, but I finally got a reply … From my own personal experience as a soldier and an officer in the West Bank, I can testify that these forms of collective punishment against Palestinian civilians who happen to live where protest is taking place is very common. The only unique thing about this incident is that it was caught on tape.
http://www.promisedlandblog.com/?p=4059
Violent confrontations after IOF storms Doheisha refugee camp
BETHLEHEM (PIC) 24 July — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stormed the Doheisha refugee camp in Bethlehem in six armored vehicles before dawn Sunday and fired sonic bombs when they reached its outskirts. Local sources said that the sound of the explosions woke up the inhabitants and some of the young men ventured into the streets to confront the invading troops. They said that the soldiers responded to the stone throwing youths by firing rubber bullets and teargas canisters in which they described as “violent” confrontations. The sources noted that some of those canisters fell in the yards of many houses causing fainting among a number of citizens, while a youth sustained burns in his shoulder when one of those canisters directly hit him.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2
IOF armored vehicles roll into central Gaza
GAZA (PIC) 24 July — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in armored vehicles raided the central Gaza Strip near Breij refugee camp on Sunday morning and bulldozed cultivated land lots, local sources said. They added that the IOF troops advanced 300 hundred meters east of Breij and leveled agricultural land amidst heavy shooting, but no casualties were reported. The IOF troops routinely raid Gaza border areas in a bid to impose a buffer zone, a thing rejected by the Palestinians.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd
Gaza
IDF shoots live ammunition at ISM activists at sea
ISM 24 July — On Saturday the ISM crew for CPS Gaza rode out on the trawler that rescued us during the second attack on the Oliva on Thursday, July 14th. As I mentioned before, the Oliva project is currently on an indefinite hiatus. Nils, Joe and I went to the port at 7:10 am and we rode out to sea around 7:30. There were 3 adult Palestinian men on the boat and two young boys. Joe, Nils and I sat on the deck of the ship’s bow and the captain and other passengers stayed in the middle and back of the vessel. Around the 2 to 2.5 mile point we spotted the Israelis coming towards us from the north. When they were still about a mile’s distance from us I called them over the radio and said that we were “Unarmed international observers on board, 2 United States citizens and one Swedish citizen.” I repeated this a number of times but they continued to approach us at a high speed. Joe and I were on the bow of the boat when we noticed that the Israeli Navy was now about 100 meters from us and had fired 2 shots into the water. We retreated to the center of the boat where the steering cabin is and I repeated again over the radio that we were “unarmed international observers.” This did nothing to sway their actions and they fired live rounds both in the water and directly at the boat for around 15 or 20 minutes.
http://palsolidarity.org/2011/07/19602/
Video: Gaza fishermen swamped by Israeli gunboats and water cannon
Guardian 24 July — Harriet Sherwood watches the Israeli navy force back Palestinians who dispute ‘security’ fishing limit — Hani al-Asi, a fisherman since the age of 11 and a father with 12 mouths to feed, had just begun throwing his lines into the Mediterranean when an Israeli gunboat sped towards his traditional hasaka. With a machine gun mounted at the rear and half a dozen armed soldiers on the bridge, the navy vessel repeatedly circled the small fishing boat. The rolling waves caused by the backwash threatened to swamp it. Asi had stopped his boat over an artificial reef created by dumped cars to attract the dwindling fish population. He was just beyond the limit of three nautical miles from the Gaza shoreline set by the Israeli military for Palestinian fishermen, beyond which they are forbidden to fish for “security reasons”.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/24/gaza-fishermen-gunboats-israel-navy
Gaza’s tunnels: an inside perspective / Alexandra Robinson, Gaza
MEO 24 July — “Complimentary tour of the Rafah tunnels.” I received this offer a few weeks after arriving in Gaza. In a conversation I was having with my colleague, Joe Catron, it came up that a friend of ours from Gaza City had given an open invitation for us to tour the tunnels. For the purpose of this article we’ll refer to her as ‘X’ … We visited two different tunnel zones, the first one, Salah Din Gate, is right at the border with Egypt. The Egyptian side is visible and the tunnels in this area are short, on average ranging a distance of only 10 to 50 meters before reaching the Egyptian side. We visited two working tunnels in this area and one tunnel that was still being built. There are different types of tunnels, most of them are well-like structures covered by tents … Risks and reputation aside, the tunnels seem to be functioning as a legitimate and important economic mechanism in Gaza, providing for all sectors imaginable. http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=47302
Popular committee for refugees suspends UNRWA protests
GAZA (PIC) 24 July — Mu‘een Ukel, the head of the popular committee for refugees in the Gaza Strip, has declared that popular protests against UNRWA were halted due to promises to meet demands … The popular committee had started a series of protests against UNRWA in Gaza that culminated last Thursday with closing the gate to its main premises, which blocked the agency staffers from assuming their work and their inability to reach their offices.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd
UNRWA responds to Gaza protests
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 24 July – …Ma‘an asked [UNRWA spokesman Chris] Gunness for UNRWA’s position on the crisis … The refugees and their representatives are naturally angry about the slashing of emergency services and have threatened further action. How worried is UNRWA about this? Because of a $35 million shortfall in its emergency budget, UNRWA in Gaza has been forced to make drastic cuts to its emergency programs. The original emergency appeal of $300 million had already been scaled back to $150 million because of the inadequate donor response and even against this minimum spending requirement, we are $35 million short. The core of the $300 million emergency appeal had been for food assistance to 600,000 people, jobs for 53,000 people, cash assistance for 300,000 abject poor (living on less than $1.6 per day) and basic assistance to public health infrastructure … The real problem is that we are asking our donors to fund emergency programs which aim to mitigate the effects of Israel’s illegal collective punishment of 1.5 million people.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=407732
Flotilla activists still have much to learn about Gaza siege / Amira Hass
Haaretz 24 July — …And in fact, a Canadian-Syrian doctor asked me in amazement, after I tried to explain something about the denial of right of movement of the Palestinians: “Do you mean to say that the closure in Gaza has been going on for 20 years”? Yes, I said, since 1991. I explained to a Spanish actor, who had come straight from the 15-M protest encampment in Madrid, that neither Rafah nor the Israel Navy are the main barriers that must be removed to enable the Palestinians in Gaza to have the freedom of movement to which every human being is entitled. “Cutting off the natural link to the West Bank, which is 50 to 70 kilometers away, is the worst thing in terms of the lives of the residents of the Strip,” I explained to him … But I did repeat the words of my friends in Gaza: “We are not lacking food. Nor clothing and electrical appliances. Medications are lacking because of the quarrel between Ramallah and Gaza. What we lack is the freedom to come and go, to study, to manufacture and export, to go on vacation, to visit friends, to host people here. Like all human beings.”
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/flotilla-activists-still-have-much-to-learn-about-gaza-siege-1.374913
Video: ‘Gazans mostly suffer from racism’
Press TV 24 July — Press TV interviewed James Haywood from Campaign for Palestine who led members of university groups on a trip to Gaza to see with their own eyes conditions on the ground in Gaza. Press TV: What did they say they wanted? Haywood: Freedom, simple as that, the freedom to live normal lives, the freedom to do simple things, just like to go and visit Egypt, simple things like that. It is incredibly difficult for them. The freedom to go and visit where their grandparents grew up, you know, which is now mostly in Israel. The fact that we could go and visit where their grandparents lived, where they were expelled from in 1948, we as Europeans could visit those areas, those towns, those villages but they could not, as Palestinians who had family there. I mean, that is just something that shows how much racism they actually suffer. So it is that basic freedom that they are after more than anything else.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/190600.html
In Gaza: the grades
For the past week students have been counting the days until their high school exam results are released. Tawjihi, the last year of high school, is notoriously difficult in Palestine, and many students feel that this year was among the more difficult tests. Some here feel that the reason the test has become more difficult Palestine-wide is, with over 20,000 university and college graduates already sitting unemployed in Gaza alone, not to mention thousands more in the occupied West Bank and occupied Jerusalem, more challenging exams might persuade potential students to go to trade schools or open small businesses like small grocery stores, to decrease the number of new university students and future unemployed. An ironic solution for a nation which prides itself on its high rates of education and higher education.
http://ingaza.wordpress.com/2011/07/24/the-grades/
Army: Projectile lands in Negev
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 24 July — A rocket fired from Gaza landed in the Negev desert Sunday afternoon, Israel’s army said after a militant group reportedly claimed responsibility for launching five projectiles.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=408097
European parliamentarians to visit Gaza Strip
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 24 July — A high-profile delegation of European parliamentarians is scheduled to arrive Sunday in the Gaza Strip via the Rafah crossing on Egypt’s border … The delegation includes the chairman of the British Labour Party Tony Lloyd and Liberal Democrat spokeswoman for the British Ministry of Justice Baroness Falkner.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=407881
Dughmush discusses Rafah crossing, reconciliation with Egyptian intelligence
CAIRO (PIC) 23 July — Secretary general of the popular resistance committees Zakaria Dughmush met in Cairo on Friday night with Egyptian intelligence officials for a discussion on easing traffic restrictions on the Rafah border crossing and inter-Palestinian reconciliation … The Egyptian intelligence officials promised that conditions at Rafah terminal would witness more facilities in the few coming days.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcO
Rafah crossing reopens after 2-day closure
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 24 July — The Rafah border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip will reopen Sunday after a two-day closure, crossings director Ayyoub Abu Shaar said. Abu Shaar told Ma‘an that patients and people who reside in Egypt would be given priority to leave the Gaza Strip and those who had been listed to depart on July 19 would be allowed to travel Sunday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=407892
Detention
Israeli court extends prison period of longest-held administrative detainee
NABLUS (PIC) 24 July –Tadamun researcher and legal expert Ahmed Tubasi said that an additional three months in administrative detention has been pinned on prisoner Ahmed Nabahan Saqr, from the Askar refugee camp near Nablus. Saqr was first arrested on 28 November 2008 after a night raid on his home. He was then immediately transferred to administrative detention, without charge or trial. The instance was the ninth time his period of detention had been extended.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI4
Palestinian prisoner dies seven months after his release
GAZA (WAFA) 24 July – The Palestinian Prisoners Study Center said Sunday that released prisoner Walid Shaath from Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip died after a stroke, only seven months since his release. Shaath was arrested in 1993 and sentenced to 18 years that he fully served in Israeli prisons. The Palestinian Prisoners Study Center called for an opening of the issue of prisoners’ medical treatment in Israeli prisons, after the rising number of fatalities among Palestinian prisoners due to chronic diseases. The Center warned of Israeli policies of medical neglect and delays in treatment, whose price is paid by Palestinian prisoners immediately after their release, adding that these policies are among the leading causes of death of these prisoners.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=16786
Political / Diplomatic / International news
Barak: Focus on Europe to stop UN bid
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 24 July — Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Sunday that Israel must exert all efforts to avoid a confrontation with the Palestinian Authority over its plan to seek recognition at the United Nations in September. Barak told Israel’s Army Radio that his government’s main concern was to mobilize European support to stop the PA’s bid.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=408011
Peru, Ecuador to vote for Palestinian membership in UN
ISTANBUL (WAFA) 24 July — Palestinian ambassador to Peru and Ecuador, Walid Abdul Rahim, said Sunday that both countries will vote for Palestinian membership in the UN this September.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=16787
France to buy Israeli-made drones ending 42-year weapons embargo
Haaretz 24 July — Israel’s Aerospace Industries will sell France its largest and most sophisticated drone, the Eitan, four decades after President Charles de Gaulle banned weapons sales to Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/france-to-buy-israeli-made-drones-ending-42-year-weapons-embargo-1.374991
Iran: Murder of nuclear scientist is Israeli-American ‘act of terror’
Haaretz 24 July — Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani blamed Israel and the U.S. for the murder of an Iranian nuclear scientist on Saturday, AFP reported Sunday. Larijani was quoted in the Mehr news agency calling the killing an “American-Zionist act of terror.”
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/iran-murder-of-nuclear-scientist-is-israeli-american-act-of-terror-1.374975
‘West’s involvement in hit on scientist uncertain’
Ynet 24 July — Mystery surrounding death of Iranian university lecturer intensifies as Tehran’s intelligence minister says hit may not have been carried out by foreign agents
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4099535,00.html
Norway youths discusses Palestine prior to attack
The teenagers who took part in Norway’s ruling party youth camp in the island of Utoya met with Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere and demanded he recognize Palestine on Wednesday, two days before the deadly terror attack which left many of them dead.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4099122,00.html
Other news
Tamar partners in talks to sell gas to Palestinians
Globes 24 July — Delek and Noble Energy are in talks with the Palestinian Authority to sell one billion cubic meters of natural gas to three power stations due to be built … “Globes” found that the Tamar partners and the Palestinians have held several meetings in neutral locations in Amman, Jordan, Cyprus, and Greece … Supplying gas to the Palestinian Authority would enable Israel to end its commitment to supply electricity to Palestinian customers in the West Bank, which will greatly increase Israel Electric Corporation’s (IEC) (TASE: ELEC.B22) reserves. The Palestinian Authority is IEC’s largest customer, consuming 7% of its output.
http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000667111&fid=1725
Israel seeks to strip convicted terrorists’ families of state allowances
Haaretz 24 July — Bill part of the ‘citizenship and loyalty’ initiative by Yisrael Beiteinu party; proposed law aims to revoke pension, welfare of families of Israeli citizens convicted of terror against the State of Israel. [Does this include Jewish terrorists’ families? And this is collective punishment again, like the demolition of suicide bombers’ families’ homes in the past, and like arresting the relatives of detainees to get them to talk.]
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-seeks-to-strip-convicted-terrorists-families-of-state-allowances-1.375035
Israelis rank economy as top concern, survey finds
Haaretz 24 July — More Israelis dissatisfied with the government’s social, economic policies than with international political situation, says poll conducted by the War and Peace Index.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israelis-rank-economy-as-top-concern-survey-finds-1.374894
New soldiers want Golani
Ynet 23 July — IDF says new recruits show high motivation to join combat units, Golani most popular choice
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4099082,00.html
New: ‘Segregated Facebook’ for haredim
Ynet 24 July — Welcome to FaceGlat – ‘kosher’ social network for ultra-Orthodox public. Women please sign up on the left, men on the right. And why can’t married people connect? ‘They can meet at home, on the sofa in their living room,’ says website’s manager
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4098443,00.html
Analysis / Opinion
Video: ‘PLO seeks to redefine Israel conflict’
Press TV 24 July — interview with international law researcher Munir Nuseibah. The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) seems to be trying to redefine the conflict with Israel as state versus state, says an international law expert.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/190563.html
The promise of the tent protests / Gideon Levy
Haaretz 24 July After generations of apathetic and submissive Israelis that blindly put their fates in the hands of politicians, perhaps the young people of Rothschild [Boulevard], who are a little bit spoiled, will teach them that they were mistaken.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-promise-of-the-tent-protests-1.374916
Israelis protest housing problem but make no connection to the occupation / Aziz Abu Sahah
972mag 24 July — The current Israeli government’s focus on improving living standards in settlements and neglect of the rest of the Israel is a moral failure … According to a Peace Now report published on July 20, settlers in the West Bank receive 69 percent discount on the value of the land (so that buyers have to pay only 31 percent of the price of the land) and 50 percent funding of the development costs of the building project. In 2009 Israel investment of settlements public building (excluding East Jerusalem) was 431 million shekels, which was 15.36 percent of all public investment in construction for housing that year, despite the fact that they compose only 4 percent of the residents of Israel. Israel’s focus on sustaining the occupation and growing settlements is paid for by reducing development and the quality of life in the rest of Israel.
http://972mag.com/israelis-protest-housing-problem-but-make-no-connection-to-the-occupation/
If only Rothschild were a settlement / Dror Etkes
Haaretz 24 July — Six governments preferred to encourage Israelis to go and live on settlements rather than in the periphery of the country. This had a critical effect on the level of supply in various regions, and therefore on the prices of real estate.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/if-only-rothschild-were-a-settlement-1.374919
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