Israel shuts down charitable organization, kindergarten and soccer club in Silwan

Land, property theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Apartheid

Center: Israel expanding south Hebron settlement
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 29 Jan — The Land Research Center said on Sunday that the Israel is expanding the Karmel settlement in south Hebron. Israeli forces have started digging on 10 dunams of the land to the south of the settlement, the center says. The report added that the land belongs to the al-Hathalin family in Um al-Kher village, which lies just a few meters from the Israeli settlement.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=456380

Israeli police close soccer club, charity fund in Silwan
TEL AVIV (Ma‘an) 29 Jan — Israeli police shut down two organizations in East Jerusalem on Sunday, Israeli media reported. The soccer club and charity fund in the Silwan neighborhood will be closed for 30 days, Israeli news site Ynet reported. They are alleged to be connected to Hamas, the report said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=456403

Israeli police close charitable associations in Silwan
JERUSALEM (WAFA) 29 Jan – Israeli police Sunday closed Silwan Charitable Society, one of its kindergartens, as well as the Islamic Silwan Club in the East Jerusalem town of Silwan, according to Head of the Committee for the Defense of Silwan, Fakhri Abu Diab. He said that Israeli police surrounded the neighborhood of al-Bustan, in Silwan and several other adjacent neighborhoods and arrested Board Member of Silwan charitable society Khalil al-Abbasi. He added that Israeli police seeks to Judaize the area and completely remove the neighborhood for the benefit of building Talmudic gardens in addition to several other projects.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18847

Israeli municipality demolishes caravan, room in East Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (WAFA) 30 Jan – Members of West Jerusalem’s Israeli municipality Monday demolished a residential caravan [AmEng: trailer] dwelled [in] by a Palestinian family in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina and a room in a house in nearby Shu‘fat, according to witnesses. A large Israeli police force and municipal staff used a bulldozer to demolish the two structures, forcing displacement of the family that lives in the caravan and cracks in the house where the room and a retaining wall were demolished. Witnesses said that in spite of police cordon on the two areas, residents in Beit Hanina clashed with police trying to stop the demolition. One person was arrested. In Shu‘fat, a bulldozer demolished a 30-square meter room added to an already existing house claiming the room was built without permit. Palestinians live in caravans, which they believe do not require a building permit, or expand an existing house mainly because residents of East Jerusalem have a difficult time, if at all, getting Israeli municipality building permits.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18852

Israeli forces hand Palestinians in Jordan Valley demolition orders
NABLUS (WAFA) 30 Jan – Israeli forces Monday handed demolition orders to three Palestinian brothers in the Jordan Valley area of Aqraba, said an activist. Ghassan Daghlas, an activist monitoring settlement activities in the northern West Bank, told WAFA that Israeli soldiers handed the three brothers notices that their tin shacks, which they use as residence, will be demolished.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18856

Kufr ad-Dik: at the crossroads of Israeli confiscation
ISM 30 Jan by Neil — The village of Kufr ad-Dik in the Salfit region of the West Bank has become the latest in a series of villages to launch weekly protests against mass land theft by Israeli occupying forces. Residents of Kufr ad-Dik took part in their fifth demonstration on Friday, 27th of January. While this demonstration was short due to weather conditions, the previous demonstration on the 20th of January was much longer. Israeli forces used large amounts of tear gas to repel the protesters before firing more gas directly into the village and using rubber bullets on some remaining demonstrators. Two ISM activists were the only internationals present at the most recent demonstration, and there were   no Israeli activists. This is in spite of the presence of perhaps dozens of internationals and Israelis at the  nearby demonstration in Nabi Saleh.
http://palsolidarity.org/2012/01/kufr-ad-dik-at-the-crossroads-of-israeli-confiscation/

Israel endorses construction plans in 70 West Bank settlements
RAMALLAH (PIC) 30 Jan — The Israeli government has endorsed plans to construct more houses in 70 settlements distributed in various West Bank areas, the Israeli newspaper Jerusalem Post said on Monday. It said that 57 of those settlements were outside the separation wall, adding that the premier’s office had published in a list the names of 557 settlements supported by the government. The paper said that the office did not mention any restrictions on building in those settlements. The chairman of the Jordan Valley settlements council expressed pleasure that his settlements were enlisted in this list, adding that he was ready to build 150 new houses.
Link to www.palestine-info.co.uk/

Stop the Jewish National Fund greenwashing ‘Green Sunday’ February 5, 2012
29 Jan — The Jewish National Fund has designated Sunday 5th February as ‘Green Sunday’, when it encourages people to donate money to ‘plant trees in Israel’.  The JNF claims to have environmental objectives.  Don’t be taken in.  The JNF’s tree planting is a cover for ethnic cleansing. The JNF exists to acquire land in Israel/Palestine for the sole use of Jewish people.  For more than 100 years, the JNF has been complicit in expulsions of Palestinians from their homes, the destruction of their villages and prevention of the return of refugees – by planting trees over the remnants of the destroyed homes. Environmentalists are asked to use the opportunity of the JNF’s ‘Green Sunday’ to take a stand against this greenwash, when ethnic cleansing masquerades as environmental action.  Don’t support the JNF’s ‘Green Sunday’, but publicly denounce the JNF.
http://palsolidarity.org/2012/01/stop-the-jewish-national-fund-greenwashing-green-sunday-february-5-2012/

A call from Palestinians in Palestine to join the Global March to Jerusalem
29 Jan — Join us as we intensify our struggle against forced exile and the system of Israeli apartheid on Land Day 2012. We Palestinians have been ethnically cleansed and uprooted from our lands starting in the 1948 Nakba (Catastrophe) which resulted in the creation of the millions of refugees who are now living in the Diaspora. Nineteen years later, in 1967, Israel illegally annexed East-Jerusalem and the West Bank in a move which marked the Naksa (Setback), and subjected the remaining Palestinians to a brutal military occupation. We are now in 2012, and we are still living in exile or under the Israeli apartheid regime, the illegal construction of colonial settlements is confiscating the remaining parts of Palestine …
http://palsolidarity.org/2012/01/a-call-from-palestinians-in-palestine-to-join-the-global-march-to-jerusalem/

Video: Israeli landmines threaten Golan people
PressTV 29 Jan — On Saturday, a landmine went off in a village on the Golan Heights, but no casualties were reported. A Golan resident told Press TV that landmines are not a new thing in their life and they have got used to them. “To the Israeli authority, we have no right to demand anything and they force us to sign papers to prove that,” he added. Israel planted new landmines in the UN-monitored buffer zone of the Golan Heights bordering Lebanon following a deadly incident on May 15, 2011, in which Israeli soldiers killed at least 13 pro-Palestinian protesters during a demonstration against the Israeli occupation.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/223753.html

Settlers

Israel police cancel school tour of Hebron with Breaking the Silence
29 Jan — Decision comes hours after Education Ministry says it would allow students to visit Hebron on Sunday and meet with members of group that collects testimony from soldiers who have served in the West Bank … Speaking to Army Radio, a Breaking the Silence spokesperson said that the meeting was cancelled over “pressure and the inability of Hebron police to protect us from settler violence.”
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-police-cancel-school-tour-of-hebron-with-breaking-the-silence-1.409797

Jewish settler takes over land near Jenin
JENIN (WAFA) 30 Jan – A Jewish settler took over an agricultural land that belongs to a Palestinian in Nazlat Zeid village, located behind the Apartheid Wall, southwest of Jenin, a local source said Monday. Coordinator of the National Campaign against the Wall, Abdelraouf Barre, told WAFA that a settler broke into the land a week ago, planted olive trees and fenced it under the pretext that he leased the land from the Israeli government. Barre said that the Palestinian who owns the land was prevented from entering it since establishing the Apartheid Wall because he was not issued a permit. Jewish settlers of Shaked and Hinnanit settlements continue to break into Palestinian-owned land that falls behind the Wall and which amounts to 120 dunums, complained residents of Nazlat Zeid, Ya‘bad and al-Araqa, near Jenin.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18854

Villagers: Settlers hold up Palestinian driver at gunpoint
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 30 Jan — Israeli settlers threatened a Palestinian man at gunpoint in south Hebron on Monday, he told Ma‘an. Mohammad Al-Hathalin, from Um al-Kher, said he was returning from Hebron when two Israelis from neighboring Karmel settlement stopped his car and forced their way in. They demanded at gunpoint he drive them to the area of Khashem al-Daraj.
“I thought they were Special Forces… I was scared and I asked them to step out of the car, but they refused to do so. I was able to escape out of the car and that’s when they got out of the car and left,” Al-Hathalin told Ma‘an.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=456542

Gaza

Israeli shelling targets agricultural land east of Gaza
GAZA (WAFA) 30 Jan – Israeli tanks Monday fired several shells targeting Palestinian agricultural land in al-Zaytoun, a neighborhood in eastern Gaza, according to witnesses. No injuries were reported.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18859

AID policy: Islamic agencies battle the odds in Gaza
GAZA CITY (IRIN) 30 Jan — Secours Islamique France is a respected aid agency, part of the global Islamic Relief network based in the UK, but when it comes to helping Palestinians in Gaza, its operations are challenged by both Israeli bureaucracy and its own “no-contact” policy with the Hamas officials who control the territory. Hamas is branded a “terror” organization by most western countries, despite their victory in the 2006 Palestinian legislative council elections. That requires Secours Islamique France, and all other international charities working in Gaza, to tread extremely carefully to avoid falling foul of anti-terror legislation … According to an American-Muslim aid worker in Gaza: “The relationship between the US and Israel discourages US-based Islamic INGOs from delivering aid to the OPT… [as an example, your editor has been informed by Islamic Relief that she can no longer support an orphan in Gaza because the US gov’t will not renew the permit]
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=94750

Political detention / Court actions

Israeli army arrests 14 Palestinians in West Bank
WEST BANK (WAFA) 30 Jan – Israeli forces Monday arrested 14 Palestinians from various areas of the West Bank, according to local and Palestinian security sources. Three Palestinians were arrested from the village of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron, and another three were arrested in the village of Taqoa, east of Bethlehem, said sources…
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18855

Israeli forces detain 3 near Hebron
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 29 Jan — Israeli forces detained three Palestinians in the Hebron district early Sunday, locals told Ma‘an. Soldiers raided Beit Ummar at dawn, detaining two people, spokesman of the town’s popular committee Mohammad Ayyad Awad told Ma‘an. Forces ransacked the house of Fathi Fakhri Ikhlil and ordered him and his two sons outside the house for an hour and a half, before his eldest son Nasser, 23, returned from work, Awad said. The soldiers then detained Nasser before raiding another home in the Wadi al-Sheik neighborhood, he added. They then detained Muhammad, 20, from his father’s home, Awad added. Clashes broke out during the detention raid, with some residents throwing stones at the soldiers, he said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=456365

Israeli soldiers arrest wife of prisoner
RAMALLAH (PIC) 29 Jan — Israeli soldiers arrested the wife of a Palestinian prisoner who was on her way to visit him on Sunday, the Palestinian prisoner’s association said. It said in a press release that Samia Mashahra was detained at the Bisan military roadblock while en route to visit her husband in Gilbo’a prison. The association urged international human rights groups and the Red Cross to assume their responsibility in protecting relatives of Palestinian prisoners and demand whatever necessary measures to guarantee their safety while on their way to and back from visitations. It expressed absolute concern toward the growing persecution of families of prisoners during visits.
http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/israeli-soldiers-arrest-wife-of-prisoner/

Report: Israeli court charges 5 Silwan teens
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 30 Jan — Five Palestinian teenagers from East Jerusalem were charged Monday with throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at security forces, Israeli media reported. The indictment at the Israeli Jerusalem District Court says the group named themselves Milad Ayyash after a Palestinian killed during clashes in their Jerusalem neighborhood Silwan in May 2011, Israeli daily Ynet reported.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=456555

Report: 3 indicted over plan to shoot soldiers
TEL AVIV (Ma‘an) 30 Jan — An Israeli court on Monday indicted three Palestinians on charges of planning a shooting attack on Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank, Israeli media reported. Imam Kanoah, 26, and Mohamad Abu Ali, 20, from towns inside Israel and 29-year-old Ibrahim Zahara, from Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, are accused of planning to shoot soldiers at a Nablus checkpoint, the Israeli news site Ynet reported.  Kanoah gave Abu Ali funds from Islamic Jihad to buy a rifle, the report said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=456643

Hearing postponed for Jihad leader on hunger strike
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 30 Jan — An Israeli military court on Monday postponed the hearing of an Islamic Jihad detainee on hunger strike for 44 days.  Khader Adnan will now appear at Ofer military court near Ramallah on Wednesday.  The Islamic Jihad leader was transferred to an Israeli hospital to receive medical attention by Palestinian doctors after his condition worsened, the prisoners society said on Sunday. Leader of Islamic Jihad Ahmad Al-Mdallal lauded Adnan’s hunger strike, which was launched to protest his treatment by Israeli prison authorities and the practice of detention without charge.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=456511

Solidarity with Khader Adnan
The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat calls for solidarity with Khader Adnan and all of the steadfast prisoners inside the jails of the Israeli occupation who daily confront with their bodies and their lives the ongoing attacks of the occupation army and prison guards. Addameer has issued a call to action – we encourage you to take up Addameer’s call, linked here, and also: Picket, protest or call the Israeli embassy or consulate in your location and demand the immediate freedom of Khader Adnan, Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian political prisoners.
http://palsolidarity.org/2012/01/solidarity-with-khader-adnan/

Fact Sheet: Detention of Palestinian political prisoners / Shazia Arshad
MEMO 29 Jan — … The 2006 Palestinian elections were overseen by international observers, who declared them to be free and fair (more open, it has been said, than the 2004 re-election of George W Bush). Hamas ended up as the democratically-elected Palestinian government. A number of PLC members under the Change and Reform List (including Hamas members and supporters) were also chosen by the electorate and became the target of the Israeli authorities’ constant campaign of arrest and detention. There are, at the moment, 27 PLC members and 2 Ministers being detained by the Israeli authorities. Download fact sheet
http://palsolidarity.org/2012/01/detention-of-palestinian-political-prisoners/

Palestine TV denies Netanyahu’s allegations of inciting against Israelis
RAMALLAH (WAFA) 30 Jan – The state-run Palestine TV Monday denied Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s allegations and what he called “Palestinian incitement to kill Israelis and a glorification of the killers of Itamar murder,” according to a press release. Netanyahu asked the Palestinian Authority to condemn Palestine TV following a phone call, during a TV show about Palestinian prisoners, with the mother and aunt of Palestinian Hakim Awad, 18, from the village of Awarta, near Nablus, who was sentenced to five life terms after he was found guilty of killing five members of a Jewish family in the settlement of Itamar. Awad’s aunt said, during the phone call, that that her nephew was a “hero” and a “legend.”  Palestine TV stressed, in a press release, that this prisoners’ show is dedicated for human purposes; as a way to help prisoners, who are banned from family visitations, to stay in touch with their families. It said that what was said by the mother and the aunt innocently during the phone call, which took place on Thursday during a live show, does not express any opinion or an official position of the TV nor the Palestinian Authority.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18860

Racism / Discrimination

Arabs expected to win Safed student elections despite ethnic tensions
Haaretz 30 Jan — Arab students at Safed Academic College, who have recently formed their own faction, are expected to win the student elections on Monday, just over a year after a wave of anti-Arab racism erupted in the northern Israeli city. Two political parties, one Arab and the other mixed Arab-Jewish, are gearing up to face off in Monday’s student union elections. http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/arabs-expected-to-win-safed-student-elections-despite-ethnic-tensions-1.410021

Court cuts Arab-Israeli rape-by-deception sentence
JPost 27 Jan — In a unanimous ruling on Thursday, the Supreme Court cut the prison sentence of an Arab-Israeli man convicted of rape-by-deception, from 18 months to nine months. Sabbar Kashour had appealed against his sentence following his conviction in the Jerusalem District Court in July 2010 … Kashour was convicted of rape even though the complainant in the case, identified only as M.T., had consented to sex with him … In Kashour’s case the judges found M.T. had consented to sex after he deceived her about his identity, telling her he was single, Jewish and seeking a serious romantic connection, when in reality he was married, not Jewish and sought only a “no strings attached” sexual encounter.
http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=255363

Political news

Reconciliation committee agrees work plan
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 30 Jan — A committee tasked with implementing the national reconciliation deal set up governorate subcommittees and developed an annual work plan after meeting on Monday. The “public freedoms committee” is tasked with hammering out a number of tenets of the unity deal signed in May last year, including political prisoners, passports, closure of institutions, travel bans and freedom of political expression. Committee members said in a press conference after the meeting that it had distributed its tasks among members.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=456636

Haniyeh leaves Gaza for second international tour
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 30 Jan — Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh left the Gaza Strip on Monday, for his second international tour in weeks.  Departing through the Rafah crossing with Egypt, Haniyeh will first head to Qatar to meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jasim al-Thani. The Gaza premier will present the Qatari leadership with a number of projects to reconstruct Gaza, and Qatar has already expressed its willingness to contribute, Haniyeh said. Gaza government officials had previously indicated his tour would include stops in Iran and Kuwait.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=456521

Palestinian-Israeli Amman talks are not negotiations, says official
RAMALLAH (WAFA) 20 Jan – Fatah Central Committee member Azzam al-Ahmad Monday told Voice of Palestine radio that the meetings in Jordan between Israelis and Palestinians were “exploratory talks and not negotiations.” He noted that the Central Committee meeting on Sunday emphasized that resumption of negotiations with Israel will require halt to settlements and recognition of the 1967 borders. He said attempts by the Quartet that includes the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia to continue the talks will not lead to any progress in the peace process due to Israeli intransigence.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18857

Arab League meeting to discuss exploratory talks re-scheduled, says Arab official
CAIRO (WAFA) 29 Jan – The Arab League re-scheduled the Arab ministers’ meeting to discuss the recent Palestinian-Israeli exploratory meetings to February 15, the Arab League Deputy Secretary-General, Ahmad Bin Hali, Sunday told reporters.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18849

PLO member parties urge halt to Israel talks
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 29 Jan — Parties with membership of the PLO are urging its leaders to halt talks with Israel until it freezes settlement building, the day before the leadership are set to decide its next steps. In a statement released Sunday, the 12 parties called on the PLO Executive Committee to end the exploratory talks in Amman, after a Quartet deadline to submit positions on borders and security passed on Thursday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=456339

Palestinian source: Jerusalem is out of negotiations, settlers would stay in West Bank
PNN 30 Jan — A Palestinian official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Sunday that during the exploratory negotiations, Israel submitted a project that shows a map about the borders of an upcoming Palestinian state, which is “impossible” to accept. The official (name was not revealed) said that the Israeli representatives presented orally their principles concerning the lands in the last meeting that was held in Jordan, 25th of January, under the supervision of the Quartet of the Middle East; which consists of the United States, United Nations, Russia and the European Nation. The borders’ map revealed that the Israeli principles must practically correspond with the Israeli security fence that Israel has built in the West Bank, which makes Jerusalem under the authority of Israel.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/top-stories/743-palestinian-source-jerusalem-is-out-of-negotiations-settlers-would-stay-in-west-bank

Molcho ‘suggests Israel could give up Jordan Valley’
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 30 Jan  — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s special envoy Yitzhak Molcho has informed the Palestinians in Amman that Israel will be ready to give up the Jordan Valley as part of the final status solution, an Israeli newspaper reported Monday.  Hebrew-language Maariv reported that Molcho suggested during the exploratory meetings in Amman that Israel would agree to abandon control on the Jordan Valley in exchange for intensive security measures at the Jordan river. Commenting on the report, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said that such leaks “are meant to distort the negotiations which both sides agreed to keep secret and to avoid leaking information to media outlets.” Meanwhile, Palestinian officials told Maariv that Israel requested to maintain control of the Jordan Valley for 10 more years.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=456454

PM: Israeli presence necessary in Jordan Valley
JPost 30 Jan — Israel will only sign an agreement with the Palestinians if it includes an Israeli security presence in the Jordan Valley, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Monday.  At the same time, Netanyahu has never ruled out that such a presence could be part of a larger international force.
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=255794

Meshal: Hamas won’t tolerate Israeli schemes to turn Jordan into Palestinian homeland
Haaretz/Reuters 29 Jan — Hamas chief Khaled Meshal on Sunday made his first official visit to Jordan since the kingdom expelled him more than a decade ago and after talks with King Abdullah insisted that Jordan will not be a substitute homeland for the Palestinians. “We are happy with this new good start … We are keen on building strong ties with Jordan and on its security, stability and interests,” AFP quotes Meshal as saying in a statement after the meeting.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/meshal-hamas-won-t-tolerate-israeli-schemes-to-turn-jordan-into-palestinian-homeland-1.409873

Palestinian Authority suspends plans to raise taxes
RAMALLAH (Reuters) 29 Jan — The Palestinian Authority announced on Sunday it was suspending plans to raise income tax that have sparked widespread protests but said it was still seeking ways to cut costs in 2012 to plug a gap resulting from lower-than-expected foreign aid revenues.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=456422

Netanyahu poised to win Likud primaries despite far-right challenge
Reuters 30 Jan — In the Likud leadership poll, Netanyahu’s only challenger is Moshe Feiglin, a far-right settler with little chance of unseating the PM … National elections are not due until late 2013, and Netanyahu’s decision to hold the Likud primaries now has raised speculation that he intends to call a national vote closer to the time of the U.S. presidential election late this year … Feiglin applauded U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich for recently calling the Palestinians an “invented people” and thought Israel should pay Palestinians living in West Bank land they seek for a state to leave.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/netanyahu-poised-to-win-likud-primaries-despite-far-right-challenge-1.410069

Air Force drone crashed near Gedera
Ynet 29 Jan –  An Eitan-typeUnmanned Aerial Vehicle, Israel’s largest drone, crashed near Moshav Yesodot on Sunday. No injuries were reported. An initial investigation suggests that the aircraft exceeded its flight restrictions. The damage is currently estimated at nearly $5 million.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4182105,00.html

or then again, there is this version:
Likely Hezbollah drone explodes at secret Israeli airbase / Richard Silverstein
Tikun Olam 29 Jan — An exclusive report from a confidential highly-placed Israeli source says that a booby-trapped drone crashed and exploded at the top-secret Israeli airbase Sdot Micha.  Sdot Micha (also profiled here) is the home of the Israeli missile arsenal including its long-range Jerichos capable of striking Iran.  There were civilian and military eyewitnesses to the crash, which happened within the perimeter fence of the facility, which covers a large area just outside Bet Shemesh.
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2012/01/29/drone-explodes-inside-secret-israeli-airbase/

Other news

Palestinian dies under torture in Iraqi detention
GAZA (PIC) 30 Jan — A 30-year-old Palestinian man died in Iraq three days ago as a result of torture and severe beating in an Iraqi jail, his family in Breij refugee camp to the east of Gaza said on Monday. The sources told Safa news agency that Emad Abdulsalam lived in Doura, to the south of Baghdad, for 30 years and was arrested three days back. They said that he was rushed to a hospital in the capital but died on arrival due to repercussions of the severe torture. They said that his brother Jihad, 30, was killed in the same way at the hands of Iraqi security forces a few years earlier in Baghdad during the American occupation of Iraq.
Link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Israeli hackers deface Palestinian rights group website
RAMALLAH (WAFA) 29 Jan – The official website of the National Assembly of Palestinian Martyrs Families (NAPMF) was attacked by Israeli hackers, Sunday said a press release issued by the general secretariat of the assembly. It said that Israeli hackers defaced the site with anti-racist slogans such as “welcome to hell” and pictures that aim to spread terror and panic among Palestinians. Mohammad Sbaihat , the secretary general of NAPMF said that the Israeli occupation aims through those outrageous acts to obliterate its aggressive and criminal policy of killing Palestinians children, youth, elders, and women, which the site is working on exposing through publishing stories of Palestinians, particularly children who were killed in cold blood by the Israeli occupation.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18844

Report: Jordan, Israel to build solar thermal plant
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 30 Jan — Jordan and Israel are planning to build on a large solar thermal power plant on their border, Israeli press said Monday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=456577

Cabinet examining plan for Med-Red railway
The Marker 30 Jan — The cabinet yesterday began examining a plan for building railway links between the Mediterranean and Red Sea coasts, which would create a new route for Europe-Asia trade that could compete with the Suez Canal.
http://english.themarker.com/cabinet-examining-plan-for-med-red-railway-1.409957

A truly inspiring story
Abdel Wahab acted to help Jews in Tunisia but does not meet criteria of being a Righteous Gentile — Khaled Abdel Wahab was a noble, generous and good man. When he saw the plight of two Jewish families that had been evicted from their homes 69 years ago in Mahdia, Tunis, he took pity on them and hosted them on his estate, as reported by his daughter, Faiza Abdul- Wahab, in her January 28 op-ed “An Arab ‘Righteous Gentile’: A daughter’s story.”
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?ID=255796&R=R1

Film shows Palestinians, Jews saving lives
JPost 27 Jan — No one believed it could happen, but it has: An Israeli living in England has made a politics-free film about cooperation between Jewish and Palestinian volunteer paramedics for the Orthodox Jerusalem organization United Hatzalah, who save lives together in the capital’s western and eastern neighborhoods. The 25-minute program, Jerusalem SOS, has been broadcast four times this month by the global Arab TV network Al Jazeera in English, which has also put it online for all to see.
http://www.jpost.com/Health/Article.aspx?id=255366

Shas to fight bill that would help find women draft dodgers
Haaretz 28 Jan — Shas is enraged by government backing of a bill that identifies girls who falsely claim to be religious to avoid service.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/shas-to-fight-bill-that-would-help-find-women-draft-dodgers-1.3228

Analysis / Opinion

Lessons in apartheid / Salman Masalha
30 Jan — Zionism did not merely pave paths of ethnic discrimination in the occupied territories. Discrimination against civilians exists in every corner of the country ... the slogan “a light unto the nations” is repeated here ad nauseum. It is therefore worthwhile comparing the situation in Israel with that among “the nations.” Take, for example, the Population Registry Law. During the era of apartheid in South Africa, the citizens of that country were forced to register themselves with the authorities on the basis of their skin color: white, black or colored. In Israel it is not possible to oblige people to sign up in the registry according to their race or color, since the Jews themselves belong to assorted colors and races. With no other option, the Zionist mind was forced to invent a unique solution that was suitable to this place, and which answers the need for separation, and thus it was that the registration was born, of Jews, Arabs, Druze and so forth, in the Israeli Interior Ministry. 
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/lessons-in-apartheid-1.409939

Arraf to CPDS: Israel losing the PR battle
30 Jan — … “Through the years we have not done a very good job of conveying our plight, and that’s largely because telling our story was left to our ‘official spokespeople’ who didn’t know how to communicate well with the western media”, said Arraf. “On the other side, Israel depends largely on PR, a fundamental part of its strategy. One of the biggest propaganda projects is The Israel Project. Its annual budget for last year alone was eleven million dollars. This is not counting the official support of the Israeli government, companies, and AIPAC”. “Israel is losing the PR battle for various reasons: law and justice are on our side, there is an increasing awareness among Palestinians, the growth of alternative media like Facebook and Twitter, and, I believe, the effect of the International Solidarity Movement”, Arraf continued.
http://palsolidarity.org/2012/01/arraf-to-cpds-israel-losing-the-pr-battle/

Does helping Palestinians beautify the occupation? / Amira Hass
30 Jan — There is a thorn in the side of the Israeli prohibitions industry, in the guise of several stubborn and persistent women of retirement age. In a word: nudniks. They are the MachsomWatch volunteers, who during the past seven years have been offering their persistence in order to appeal the travel ban that the Shin Bet security service imposes on Palestinians who seek work in Israel. The MachsomWatch organization of female volunteers, which began over a decade ago with the monitoring of physical and administrative checkpoints on the West Bank, has developed various areas of expertise: travel bans for security reasons, the military courts, police fines, permits for reasons of health, restrictions in the Jordan Valley and more.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/does-helping-palestinians-beautify-the-occupation-1.409946

Haaretz editorial: Students must be exposed to the Israeli occupation
30 Jan — The so-called heritage curriculum introduced by Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar hides the occupation and its injustices from pupils.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/students-must-be-exposed-to-the-israeli-occupation-1.409940

God rules all in 2012 Israel, even the state / Gideon Levy
29 Jan — Israel: Not what you thought, not what the world thought, not what Israelis imagine themselves to think. Israeli society isn’t secular, it isn’t liberal and it isn’t enlightened.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/god-rules-all-in-2012-israel-even-the-state-1.409739

Our never-ending Holocaust / Merav Michaeli
30 Jan — The issue that should have sparked panic in last week’s poll on religion is the total consensus among Israeli Jews that the ‘guiding principle’ for the country is ‘to remember the Holocaust.’ … As a country, as a nation, Israel has never confronted the trauma of the Holocaust. The shock from the terrible tragedy and the guilt feelings of the pre-state Yishuv leadership for not being able to save the Jews of Europe – plus the presence of the men and women who survived and were constant reminders of both traumas – prompted Israel to repress the Holocaust at first, and then to turn it into a placard in the service of the national trauma, to reinforce the constant existential fear and the aggressiveness that comes with it. The survivors themselves have never been treated right. Just yesterday it was reported, once again, that half of Israel’s Holocaust survivors are dependent on welfare stipends and that the government has once again reduced its support of them.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/our-never-ending-holocaust-1.409942

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