VIDEO: Silwan targeted
AIC 9 Aug — Over 55,000 Palestinians live in Silwan, 50 percent of whom are under the age of 18. In recent years, Jewish-Israeli settlers have gradually moved into the neighborhood, bringing with them private security guards, and an increased Israeli police and military presence. In the last year, major clashes have erupted between Palestinian youth and Israeli forces, children are regularly arrested and taken in for interrogation and community leaders have been under extreme pressure. Ultimately, the entire neighborhood is being targeted.
And more news from Today in Palestine:
PHOTOS: Images reveal the extent of construction violations in Wadi Hilweh
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 9 Aug — The following images reveal the continuing Israeli construction work in Wadi Hilweh, despite a Supreme Court ruling that the work be halted. These photos, obtained by Silwanic, show a newly-drilled set of holes. Another collapse occurred in Wadi Hilweh Street yesterday. Residents have sought to secure the safety of their streets themselves by fitting an iron cover over one of the holes, in the hopes of preventing further personal and vehicle damage. Vast amounts of construction rubble has been left unshifted from the pavement, making the streets impossible for residents to enjoy amidst the dust.
http://silwanic.net/?p=19002
Woman threatened with exile, children held in vendetta against Jerusalem family
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 9 Aug — In an apparent vendetta against Jerusalem native Nasser Abu Sanad, the Israeli occupation authorities have arrested four of his sons and are pursuing banishing his wife to Jordan. His sons, ranging in age from 13 to 18 years, have all been arrested on suspicion of throwing stones at Israeli occupation forces. Abu Sanad himself spent seven years in Israeli custody and was just recently released. With regards to his wife Ala al-Hadira, she is wanted by the occupation authorities for allegedly staying in Jerusalem illegally. They seek to exile her to Jordan. The woman left for Jordan seven years ago to visit her mother but was not allowed to return.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bc
Egyptian ambassador breaks fast with exile-threatened Jerusalem politicians
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 9 Aug — Egyptian ambassador to the Palestinian territories Yasser Othman has broken fast with the exile-threatened Jerusalem politicians as the men mark their 405th day in asylum. Accompanying the ambassador was his deputy Tariq Abdul-Hamid. They joined scores of local Jerusalemites for nighttime prayers … The men, who are sitting in at the Red Cross in the city’s Sheikh Jarrah district, showed appreciation for the visit and expression of concern,
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd
IOF bulldozes Palestinian land east of Al-Khalil to expand settlements
AL-KHALIL (PIC) 9 aug — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) bulldozed 19 dunums of Palestinian land in Baka‘a area to the east of Al-Khalil on Monday in preparation for annexing them to nearby Jewish settlements, local sources said. They said that the IOF soldiers, accompanied by police and border police forces and civil administration officials raided the area and destroyed part of the irrigation network and confiscated it. The sources noted that the act was the second of its kind and targeted lands owned by two Palestinian citizens. They charged that the step was meant to evict the farmers out of their land and to annex it to the nearby settlements of Kharsina and Kiryat Arba. The Baka‘a is the most fertile area in the region and its farmers are constantly harassed by Jewish settlers.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd
Otherwise occupied – the spirit of sacrifice / Amira Hass
Haaretz 8 Aug — Ilana Dayan told her listeners last week that the tent protesters can learn a lot from the settlers; a disturbing new report about dwindling Palestinian population in Area C confirms her remarks, though probably not in the way she intended … These remarks by Dayan offer a good lesson for those seeking social justice: Don’t look at individual matters like the size of the settlers’ mobile homes and villas, or their niceness. Focus on the policy that makes it possible to place mobile homes and build single-story homes and Jewish neighborhoods and housing for Jews and permits individual ranches, and two meters away from them razes Palestinian tents and houses. On both sides of the Green Line, but lack of space obliges us to focus on its eastern side.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/otherwise-occupied-the-spirit-of-sacrifice-1.377525
Settlers
‘Dozens’ of settlers enter West Bank holy site
TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma‘an) 9 Aug — Thirty settlers living in the West Bank city of Hebron entered the Tomb of Othniel illegally on Tuesday, Israeli news reports said. Police and military forces evacuated the settlers who entered in protest of an army order rescinding permission to visit, the Israeli news site Ynet reported.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=411984
Extremist Jews invade Al-Aqsa Mosque for the second day
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 9 Aug — Under heavy police protection, Jewish settlers for the second day are provocatively roaming the Islamic Al-Aqsa Mosque as they mark Tisha B’Av, in memory of the destruction of the alleged Temple. Since 7am Tuesday, police have been seeing that Jews enter the mosque through the Mughrabi gate in back-to-back small groups in numbers larger than those who entered the mosque a day earlier. The intruders have been roaming in the mosque’s courtyards and prayer areas as Israeli police have threatened to prosecute and eject any Muslims who approach them. Reports show that Muslims observing I’tikaf at the mosque have even been forced out. Turmoil has enveloped the Muslim worshipers, and they have responded to the provocation by chanting “God is greater” in the faces of the intruders.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcO
Israeli settlers still wary leftist bodies stand behind the social protest / Akiva Eldar
Haaretz 9 Aug — Settler leaders understand levels of government construction in West Bank are controversial in wake of protests over lack of housing; Yeshiva Har Bracha head Rabbi says settlers wary of protests’ socialist trends that will privilege ‘a large and hostile Arab minority.’
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/israeli-settlers-still-wary-leftist-bodies-stand-behind-the-social-protest-1.377712
Israeli forces
Israeli police officers caught taking bribes for permitting smuggling from Palestinian Authority
Haaretz 9 Aug — In most cases, police charge around NIS 1,000 to let a vehicle through a checkpoint without examination, according to indictments; majority of cases are in the Jerusalem area.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israeli-police-officers-caught-taking-bribes-for-permitting-smuggling-from-palestinian-authority-1.377689
IOF troops round up 17 Hamas supporters in Al-Khalil including 5 brothers
AL-KHALIL (PIC) 9 Aug — A big number of Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stormed Al-Khalil city at dawn Tuesday and launched a wide-scale arrest campaign in lines of Hamas cadres and supporters, Palestinian sources said. They said that the invading forces encircled four suburbs then started to break into homes and arrested Hamas leader Ayed Dudeen, who was recently released from prolonged administrative detention, and five brothers from the Qawasmi family … The soldiers arrested Ezzat Al-Natshe and his brother, the brothers Asem and Asy Al-Qawasmi, and Jalal Yaghmur, who was preparing for his wedding, along with his uncle and cousin …
In the village of Sa‘eer, the IOF soldiers broke into the home of Akram Jabarin and wreaked havoc on it before taking away a number of young men in the village.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bc
Israeli military invades Ni‘lin village 7 August 2011
Ni‘lin Sons 8 Aug — On the 7th of August at 2:30am, 13 military jeeps entered the village of Ni‘lin, took control of its southern region, and proceeded towards the nearby village of Qibya to arrest a Palestinian following an aggressive raid the previous night. Locals curious about the raid have yet to ascertain why the man was arrested. This comes following an incitement to escalate tension by the Israeli military in a raid the previous night at 11:20 pm, when two military jeeps raided the town of Ni‘lin from the opposite side of the illegal Israeli separation wall through the adjacent fields, and began firing loud flares into the air, resulting in brush fires across these fields.
http://www.nilin-village.org/2011/08/08/israeli-military-invades-nilin-village-7-august-2011/
Gaza
Medics: Elderly woman injured by Israeli fire in Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 9 Aug — A 75-year-old Palestinian woman was injured by Israeli fire on Tuesday in the central Gaza Strip, medics said. Medical officials said the woman sustained moderate injuries after she was fired on by Israeli soldiers east of Juhor Ad-Dik. Witnesses said Israeli army tanks crossed the border into Gaza and clashed with Palestinian fighters before retreating.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=411914
Video: Gaza struggles with electricity crisis
PressTV 9 Aug – Under Israeli blockade for over five years, Gaza’s electrical crisis continues unabated. As a result, Gaza experiences outages of up to 12 hours a day, severely disrupting normal functioning of humanitarian infrastructure. The situation is specially hard during the Muslim Holy month of Ramadan. Most Gazans are forced to have their Iftar meals at dark with many unable to even cook a meal due to power outages. According to the Palestinian Non Governmental Organization network (PNGO), it’s incumbent on Israel as the occupying power to provide for the needs of the people, including adequate power, what it hasn’t done in 44 years.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/193039.html
Qassam fighters confront Israeli military infiltration
GAZA (PIC) 9 Aug — Palestinian resistance fighters of the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, confronted a special Israeli force that was sneaking into Juhr Al-Deek, south east of Gaza Strip, on Tuesday. Local sources told the PIC reporter that a group of the Qassam Brigades detected the infiltrating Israeli army unit near the garbage dump in Juhr Al-Deek. The sources said that the Qassam fighters fired mortar shells and an RPG projectile that directly hit the unit, adding that the unit withdrew after probable casualties. [no way to tell if this last is true, since the Israeli army doesn’t acknowledge such casualties]
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcO
2,000 Palestinians flee Libya violence
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 9 Aug — The Palestinian general consul in Alexandria Jamaal Al-Jamal said Tuesday that over 2,000 Palestinians have returned to the Gaza Strip from Libya as a consequence of the unrest there. President Mahmoud Abbas has given instructions to the relevant authorities to facilitate the return of others, he said, adding that Palestinian embassies in Tripoli, Alexandria and Cairo were coordinating with each other to assist their return … Over 34,000 Palestinian families live in Libya, numbering around 150,000 people.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=411908
Gazans campaign to save the children of Somalia / Philip Weiss
Mondoweiss 7 Aug — If an Israel terrorist sent a bag of potato chips to the starving people of Somalia, the New York Times would have put that on the front page and US TV news networks would have scrambled to interview the guy. Yet, the people of Gaza (who are still under siege), have been organizing a collective campaign to help the people of Somalia and I did not see anything about it in the Western press. (The poster above says: From Gaza…hand in hand: Let us save the children of Somalia”).
https://mondoweiss.net/2011/08/gazans-campaign-to-save-the-children-of-somalia.html
While in Gaza: the other Gilad Shalits / Johnny Barber
8 Aug — Even in Gaza, Shalit’s name comes up often. I attended the weekly demonstration of prisoners families held outside the ICRC every Monday. Mothers, fathers, wives, and children hold photos or posters of loved ones imprisoned in Israel for months, years, some for decades. A gentleman, recognizing I was from the U.S., said sarcastically, “Don’t these people know there is only one prisoner? His name is Shalit.” Since 1967, 700,000 Palestinians have been “detained” by Israel. Currently 7000 people are imprisoned. 37 of them are women; over 300 of them are children. When I visited the Ministry of Detainees in Gaza City I was challenged by the minister to name another region of the world where such a ministry was needed.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=17030
InGaza: Seeking leisure in Gaza under siege / Eva Bartlett
[with photos] 9 Aug — On any given evening, Gaza’s small downtown pedestrian area, the Jundi, is crowded with adults and children. Many are fleeing the heat of their homes during the regular power cuts. The majority are there for want of something to do, even if that means merely sitting on the park’s simple concrete benches to talk and sip tea. Snack vendors sell roasted nuts and seeds, and tea and coffee sellers circulate with flasks of sweet mint tea and spicy Arabic coffee. In recent years, mimicking New York City’s Central Park, three horses and the old-fashioned style carriages they pull, also circulate the park.
http://ingaza.wordpress.com/2011/08/09/seeking-leisure-in-gaza-under-siege/
Detention
Decision to release prisoner who finished sentence rescinded
RAMALLAH (PIC) 9 Aug — Israeli occupation authorities have retracted a decision to release prisoner Alaa Tahir Samar, 28, from Jenin governorate, after his eight-year prison term came to an end a few days ago. Sources among prisoners in the Negev prison said Samar was informed that he would be released on Thursday. The prison administration has yet to give a reason why it has taken back the decision. Prisoners deem the move as part of a psychological warfare in response to a farewell ceremony that prisoners launched ahead of Samar’s release.
In a separate development, an Israeli court sentenced Monday Hamas leader and former Aqaba mayor Mustafa Saeed Abu Arra to six months in administrative detention after the public prosecutor failed to pin an indictment on him … It has been one year since Abu Arra has been released from spending two years in administrative prior to his recent arrest.
Meanwhile, Amjad Beshkar, from the Askar refugee camp east of Nablus, has been sentenced to a second term of six months in administrative detention, the ISFHR added.The Ofer military court has thrown out the extension and is working on preparing an indictment, but it is expected that the Israeli intelligence agency will appeal the court’s decision in the next few days.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcO
Rights group calls for release of Al-Bireh mayor’s daughter
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 9 Aug — A Palestinian prisoners’ rights group on Tuesday called for the release of Bushra Al-Tawil, the daughter of the mayor of Al-Bireh, who has been held by Israeli authorities for a month without charge. Israeli forces arrested Al-Tawil, 18, on July 6, 2011 after a raid on her family home in Al-Bireh. No explanation was given for her arrest, and more than a month later she has not been charged with any crime, human rights network for Palestinian prisoners UFree said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=411783
Refugees
Ain al Hilweh refugees reeling after latest clashes
SIDON, Lebanon 9 Aug : Residents of the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh are devastated by the extensive damage to their property after hours of armed clashes between local groups in the camp which left six wounded over the weekend, two of whom are said to be in a critical condition. Saturday’s altercation, which was the most violent in a year, pitted gunmen from Fatah against Islamists from Jund al-Sham, which is allied to the Al-Qaeda-inspired group Fatah al-Islam. Thirteen year-old Salah George and youth Ahmad Mubarak are on life support systems.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/palestine/palestinian-refugees/9793-ain-al-hilweh-refugees-reeling-after-latest-clashes.html
Bias / Discrimination
‘Train ticket? We don’t serve women here’
Ynet 9 Aug — Haredi woman seeking to purchase light rail ticket in one of Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods sent to stand located two blocks away. Her husband, on the other hand, receives full-service treatment
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4106419,00.html
Israeli nursing school rescinds ban on speaking Russian and Arabic
Haaretz 9 Aug — The Health Ministry has instructed the School of Nursing in Ashkelon, part of the city’s Barzilai Medical Center, to withdraw an order banning students from speaking any language other than Hebrew on campus.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israeli-nursing-school-rescinds-ban-on-speaking-russian-and-arabic-1.377680
Political / Diplomatic / International
Arab states to head UN in September
WASHINGTON (Ynet) 9 Aug — Two Arab states will head the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly in September, the month which is expected to see a vote on recognition for a Palestinian state. Lebanon will serve as president of the Security Council in September and Qatar will head the General Assembly for one year as of next month.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4106365,00.html
Erekat denies Palestinian plans to delay bid for UN recognition
Haaretz 9 Aug — Chief Palestinian negotiator tells WAFA that ‘the recognition train has already left for New York’; Al Sharq Al-Awsat reports that the PA wants to delay UN bid, fearing cutoff of U.S. aid to West Bank.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/erekat-denies-palestinian-plans-to-delay-bid-for-un-recognition-1.377830
Palestinians study UN status options
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) — Permanent Palestinian observer to the United Nations Riyad Mansour said Tuesday that the option of changing Palestine’s status from “observer entity” to a “non-member state” is still being studied. Mansour told the Italian news agency AKI that becoming a non-member state “does not invalidate the right to become a member state as recommended by several UN resolutions such as resolution 181 in 1947.”
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=411801
US ‘deeply concerned’ by Israel’s approval of East Jerusalem construction
Haaretz/AP 9 Aug — U.S. criticism comes days after EU’s Catherine Ashton and Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat criticized Israel’s decision to approve the building of 930 homes in Har Homa neighborhood.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/u-s-deeply-concerned-by-israel-s-approval-of-east-jerusalem-construction-plans-1.377864
Barak: Don’t cut funding to defense budget
TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma‘an) 9 Aug — Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday said Israel should not cut funding for the military because “security-wise we don’t live in Switzerland of Finland.”
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=411975
Israel ‘deploys drones’ over offshore gas fields
JERUSALEM (AFP) 9 Aug — Israel has deployed drones to keep watch on gas fields off its northern coast, fearing attack by the Hezbollah militia from neighboring Lebanon, the Jerusalem Post daily reported on Tuesday. The fields lie in a part of the Mediterranean that is claimed by Israel for gas exploration and production, but Lebanon says the fields lie within its territorial waters.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=411946
Analysis / Opinion / Human interest
‘Recently I was someone, now I’m nobody’ / Mats Svensson
Pal. Chron. 8 Aug — I have visited Muhammad around sixty times. But it is only now that we begin to really talk to each other … Over a long period of time we came to meet several times each week. We sat on his porch when the dragon passed and lay down heavily in front of his house. The dragon that shut out the light, which meant that the sun set already at three pm, making the view over the old city disappear. For him, it meant that everything died, plans, dreams and a possible future. ”Recently I was someone,” he says again. He says it with heavy and sad eyes. I had just thought about leaving, I had completed my visit, I wanted to return to Jerusalem, I was going to the American Colony in the evening. But I stayed and began to listen to someone who no longer felt that he was somebody … He would like to show me everything he is proud of, his expertise. “But Mats, I cannot show you that. I can’t even show you what I have done. I can’t bring you to the people who are grateful for what I have built. I have no rights left, I cannot even bear the fruit of what I own. Perhaps the most difficult is the fact that I cannot care for my 102 olive trees. Well, I can take care of two. You can see them through the window. The other 100 are a few kilometers from the checkpoint between Abu Dis and Bethlehem. But they are too close to an Israeli settlement. The last time I tried to harvest the trees was eight years ago. I was driven away like a dog…”
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=17031
Haaretz editorial: Netanyahu must distance himself from Lieberman
9 Aug — …It seems that even Netanyahu is not inclined to listen to the foreign minister’s bizarre suggestion to abandon the West Bank to anarchy, a step that would force Israel itself to bear responsibility for the welfare and fate of all the citizens in the area. But if Netanyahu does not distance himself from the attempt of one the most senior ministers in his government to spread belligerence, he will not be able to fulfill his obligation to ensure peace and security.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/netanyahu-must-distance-himself-from-lieberman-1.377715
Focus USA – American idyll / Natasha Mozgovaya
WASHINGTON (Haaretz) 9 Aug – There are about 500,000 Israelis living in the U.S. and many of them have likely asked themselves in the past few weeks if they would be among those setting up tents on Rothschild Boulevard or pushing a stroller in a protest …Israelis living in the U.S. for years seemed to be as befuddled as Americans seeing reports about the tent cities on CNN. Do the Israelis, with 5.8 percent unemployment, know that in the U.S. unemployment is stuck over 9 percent? Would they try to complain about the rent in Manhattan? What do they expect the government to do? Don’t they want to solve first the Palestinian-Israeli issue? Those who came to the U.S. more recently were divided among those who said they vividly remembered the feeling of helplessness and anger, with both partners working and having no chance to buy an apartment in the middle of Tel Aviv, even if they were natives of the city – and those who said, well, that’s nice, but enough of the mothership’s troubles.
http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/focus-u-s-a/american-idyll-1.377713
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