West Bank
Video: IDF stops joint Jewish-Palestinian olive harvest
JPost 26 Oct by Leon Sverdlov — “We won’t surrender to settler violence, and will stand with Palestinian farmers.” — Approximately 100 activists from the NGO Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR) and the Israeli grassroots movement Standing Together gathered on Friday to participate in the season’s 17th joint olive harvest in the West Bank, but were subsequently driven out by the IDF and Border Police forces, according to new footage. The harvest is taking place in several locations across the northern West Bank, according to Standing Together, in the Palestinian villages Yusuf, Burin and Atara and “done in solidarity with Palestinian farmers who live in the West Bank.” According to Standing Together activist Doron Aruch, the harvest has been taking place for 17 years. The Friday harvest in Burin, she said, was interrupted by settlers from Yitzhar who called IDF troops to the area where the harvest was taking place, in order to sabotage the event. The soldiers, as seen in the video, declared the area a “closed military zone,” driving out the activists. One of the soldiers can be heard saying that “harvesting is allowed, but not for left-wing activists.” Yitzhar is a settlement often seen associated with religious extremism. Its residents have reportedly participated in several attacks against Palestinians, causing damage to property and have attacked IDF soldiers on several occasions. In 2006, a group of settlers who studied in the Yitzhar yeshiva were arrested for allegedly firing several hand-made Qassam-style rockets into the neighboring Palestinian villages….
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/IDF-stops-joint-Jewish-Palestinian-olive-harvest-605802
For 2nd time in 3 days, Palestinian town targeted in apparent hate crime
Times of Israel 25 Oct by Jacon Magid — Palestinians in Yatma woke up Friday morning to find their northern West Bank village targeted by vandals in the second apparent hate crime in the area in three days. Police have opened an investigation into the incident and were preparing to enter the village, roughly 8 kilometers south of the hardline Yitzhar settlement. According to Hebrew media reports, security forces believe a suspect who torched a police tent near Yitzhar on Thursday night before fleeing was behind the fresh vandalism. Like in Wednesday’s attack in the central West Bank village of al-Bireh, some 30 cars had windows smashed or tires slashed and the suspects graffitied Hebrew slogans referencing an outpost neighborhood of Yitzhar whose residents have carried out violent attacks on Israeli troops. “Closed military zone,” and “regards from the Yitzhar hilltop,” were found spray-painted on vehicles, along with Stars of David, in photos provided by the Yatma municipality. At the beginning of the week, the IDF extended an order sealing off the Kumi Ori outpost of Yitzhar to non-residents. No arrests have been made since the Wednesday incident in al-Bireh. …
Earlier Thursday evening, Haaretz reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government ignored recommendations received five times over the past year from the Israel Defense Forces to demolish a caravan belonging to some of the most extreme young settlers in Kumi Ori, which is located three kilometers southwest of Yitzhar. A spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office declined to comment on the report.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-2nd-time-in-3-days-palestinian-town-targeted-in-apparent-hate-crime/
Illegal Israeli colonists write racist graffiti near Nablus
IMEMC 28 Oct — Several extremist Israeli colonists infiltrated, on Monday at dawn, into Huwwara town, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, and wrote racist graffiti on the walls of a Palestinian home. Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian Authority official who monitors Israel’s illegal colonialist activities in northern West Bank, said the Israeli assailants wrote graffiti on the walls of one home. Daghlas added that the home is owned by Sabri Najib Nassar and is located near the junction leading to Nablus-Qalqilia roads. Daghlas stated that the colonists have carried out more than 62 attacks in Nablus governorate in the last two weeks.
In related news, several colonists invaded the Kifl Hares town, north of the central West Bank city of Salfit, and stormed the area of historic Islamic shrines, while Israeli soldiers closed all surrounding roads, to prevent the Palestinians from entering it.
On Friday evening, the colonists attacked a family and several international solidarity activists, in a Palestinian olive orchard in Kafr ed-Deek town, west of Salfit.
On Saturday, Israeli colonists chopped 25 olive trees belonging to Palestinian farmers in the village of Nahhalin, east of Bethlehem in the West Bank.
On Wednesday, illegal colonists attack from Mabo Dothan outpost, which was built on Palestinian lands in Ya‘bad town, west of the northern West Bank city of Jenin, attacked many Palestinians picking olive trees in their orchards.
https://imemc.org/article/illegal-israeli-colonists-write-racist-graffiti-near-nablus/
Farmers denied entry to their land behind Israeli apartheid wall
WAFA 27 Oct — Israeli occupation forces today prevented Palestinian farmers from accessing their own groves located on the other side of the Israeli segregation barrier near the central West Bank town of Salfit, local sources told WAFA. Ibrahim Hamad, director of the Salfit Directorate of Agriculture, told WAFA that Israeli soldiers manning one of the barrier’s gates, denied farmers access to their own lands for the annual olive harvest. The farmers had proper Israeli permits allowing them to cross through the gate, yet were still denied. Israeli army also denied access of more farmers to their lands, behind the segregation barrier near the village of Mas’ha, west of Salfit. Thousands of Palestinian families anxiously wait for the olive harvest season every year, which is often the main source of income for most families.
https://imemc.org/article/farmers-denied-entry-to-their-land-behind-israeli-apartheid-wall/
Soldiers invade stores, force them shut, in Al-‘Issawiya
IMEMC 28 Oct — Israeli soldiers invaded, on Sunday evening, the town of al-‘Issawiya, in occupied East Jerusalem, before storming many stores, and forced them to close. Media sources said the many army jeeps invaded the town, before the soldiers stopped and harassed many Palestinians, while inspecting their ID cards and searching them. They added that the soldiers invaded many shops in the town, and attacked several shop owners, before forcing them to close and leave. It worth mentioning that, on Sunday at dawn, the soldiers invaded and ransacked many homes in the town and abducted nine Palestinians. The town has been subject to constant invasions, the violent searches of homes and stores, in addition to the abduction of dozens of its residents, high fines and fees imposed on the Palestinians, and the demolition of homes and property.
https://imemc.org/article/soldiers-invade-stores-force-them-shut-in-al-isawiya/
Army causes family to suffer effects of teargas inhalation near Jerusalem
IMEMC 25 Oct — Israeli soldiers invaded, on Thursday evening, the al-Ezariyya town, southeast of occupied East Jerusalem, and attacked protesters, before firing gas bombs at them, and many surrounding homes, causing a family to suffer the effects of teargas inhalation. Medical sources said the soldiers fired many gas bombs at random, some striking a house in the town, causing the entire family to suffer the effects of teargas inhalation. They added that medics rushed to the home and provided the needed treatment to the wounded family. The soldiers also chased many youngsters in the town and withdrew later without abducting any Palestinians from the town.
https://imemc.org/article/army-causes-family-to-suffer-effects-of-teargas-inhalation-near-jerusalem/
Army closes main entrance of Al-‘Arroub refugee camp
IMEMC 28 Oct — Israeli soldiers closed, on Sunday evening, the main entrance of the al-‘Arroub refugee camp, north of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, and assaulted many Palestinian protesters. Media sources in Hebron said the soldiers closed the main entrance of the al-‘Arroub refugee camp, which links with the Jerusalem-Hebron road. They added that the soldiers prevented the Palestinians from entering or leaving the refugee camp, and closed the nearby junction, blocking traffic on the main road. Many Palestinians protested the invasion and the closure, and hurled stones at the soldiers who fired a barrage of gas bombs and concussion grenades, causing many Palestinians to suffer the effects of teargas inhalation.
In related news, the soldiers installed a sudden military roadblock at the main entrance of Hibla town, south of the northern West Bank city of Qalqilia, before stopping and searching many cars, and abducted one Palestinian, identified as Ibrahim Jamal Zeid, 21.
https://imemc.org/article/army-closes-main-entrance-of-al-arroub-refugee-camp/
Seriously wounded Palestinian woman hooked up to life support machines
IMEMC 31 Oct — The Palestinian Detainees Committee has reported that the Palestinian woman who was shot and seriously injured by Israeli army fire on Wednesday morning is currently in a very critical condition, and is hooked up to life support machines at an Israeli hospital. Karim Ajwa, a lawyer of the Committee, said that the wounded woman, Soheir Ahmad Islamiyah, 38, was moved by the soldiers to Shaare Zedek Medical Center, in occupied Jerusalem. Ajwa stated that he managed to see the seriously wounded woman at the Israeli hospital, and added that she is in a critical condition, currently dependent on life support machines at the Intensive Care Unit. He also said that the Ofar Israeli military court, near Ramallah in central West Bank, will be holding a hearing on the case of the wounded woman, this coming Sunday. It is worth mentioning that Soheir was shot and seriously injured\, on Wednesday morning near the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, in the southern part of the West Bank, after the army claimed she attempted to stab them. After shooting her, the soldiers prevented Palestinian medics from approaching her to provide her with urgently needed medical care, and later called for an Israeli ambulance and transferred her to Shaare Zedek. No soldiers were injured in the alleged stabbing attempt.
https://imemc.org/article/seriously-wounded-palestinian-woman-hooked-to-life-support-machines/
Israel rearrests Palestinian MP, daughter says
JERUSALEM (AFP) 31 Oct — Israeli forces on Thursday rearrested a Palestinian lawmaker who was freed in February after being held without trial for 20 months over links to an outlawed leftist group, her daughter said. “My mother Khalida Jarrar was arrested from our house in Ramallah” at about 3:00 am (0100 GMT), Jarrar’s daughter Yafa posted on Facebook. Spokespeople for Israel’s Shin Bet security service, which generally directs such arrests, could not immediately be reached for comment. Jarrar, 56, was previously arrested on July 2, 2017, for being a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a movement considered a terrorist organisation by Israel, the United States and the European Union. The Ramallah-based Palestinian Prisoners Club told AFP that Palestinian writer Ali Jaradat, a known PFLP member, was also arrested overnight, as well as 10 other people whose identities the club did not disclose. Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi condemned the arrests. “We strongly condemn the overnight raids of Ramallah, Bethlehem and other Palestinian cities by Israeli occupation forces and their targeted detention of several activists, including elected representative and political leader Khalida Jarrar,” she said. “This is the third time Israeli occupation forces detain Representative Khalida Jarrar, who is also a prominent human rights defender.” Jarrar is a member of the largely defunct Palestinian parliament where she represents the PFLP….
https://www.france24.com/en/20191031-israel-rearrests-palestinian-mp-daughter-says
Minor among 18 detained from West Bank
JERUSALEM, Wednesday, October 30, 2019 (WAFA) – Israeli forces overnight detained 18 Palestinians, including a minor and three siblings, and ransacked houses across the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS). PPS confirmed that Israeli forces detained four Palestinians from Beit Duqqu village, northwest of Jerusalem. It added that two other Palestinians, including a 14-year-old minor, were rounded up from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan …
Israeli forces frequently raid Palestinian houses almost on a daily basis across the West Bank on the pretext of searching for “wanted” Palestinians, triggering clashes with residents. These raids, which take place also in areas under the full control of the Palestinian Authority, are conducted with no need for a search warrant, whenever and wherever the military chooses in keeping with its sweeping arbitrary powers.
http://english.wafa.ps/page.aspx?id=Lv2EdRa113915316570aLv2EdR
Punitive demolition
VIDEO: Demolished Palestinian house becomes conflict symbol
AFP 1 Nov — The piles of rubble that Latifa Naji used to call home have become an unlikely symbol in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The two-storey cement home in the Al-Amari refugee camp in the occupied West Bank has been demolished by the Israeli army four times, most recently this month, as punishment for attacks carried out by the 71-year-old’s sons. For Palestinians the desire to keep rebuilding symbolises an ability to withstand Israeli collective punishment and a refusal to be forced from their homes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGGphV8TJuw
Prisoners / Bannings
Israeli guard fires tear gas into prisoner’s hospital room
EI 1 Nov by Tamara Nassar — An Israeli prison guard deployed to watch a hospitalized Palestinian prisoner reportedly fired tear gas into the intensive care unit room where the man was convalescing after treatment for injuries sustained during interrogation. The Hebrew newspaper Maariv reported that an Israel Prison Service guard “accidentally” emitted tear gas in Samer Arbeed’s room at the Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem earlier this month, requiring doctors to intervene. Maariv said the incident was never reported to the prison service.
Arbeed was hospitalized on 27 September following his interrogation by Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, the Shin Bet. But being hospitalized has not stopped his ordeal and Israeli prison authorities have continued to question Arbeed even while in the ICU. Prisoners rights group Addameer said Israel’s torture of Arbeed caused him pneumonia and eleven broken ribs, among other serious injuries, potentially making exposure to tear gas even more detrimental to his health condition. United Nations rights experts are calling on Israel to investigate claims of torture of Arbeed. Addameer’s Mahmoud Hassan, Arbeed’s lawyer, was not informed of the tear gas incident. In fact, the head of the ICU gave Hassan a medical report indicating that deterioration in Arbeed’s pulmonary system was due to a “contamination,” Addameer stated. Israel extended Arbeed’s detention by eight days during a court session held at the ICU on 22 October after he was gassed. Hassan was barred from attending that session as well. The Shin Bet accuses Arbeed of involvement in the killing of Israeli teen Rina Shnerb.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israeli-guards-fire-tear-gas-prisoners-hospital-room
Four administrative detainees still on hunger strike
IMEMC/Agencies 18 Oct — Four Palestinian administrative detainees held by Israel remain on hunger strike against their indefinite incarceration without charge or trial, including one who has been consistently refusing food for 97 days in a row, the Palestinian Prisoners Commission said, today. Ismail Ali, from Abu Dis, to the east of Jerusalem, has been on hunger strike for 97 days, today. The Israeli High Court, yesterday, rejected his petition for release. The commission said that Ali’s health has seriously deteriorated, due to his long fast. Another administrative detainee, Hiba Labadi, a Jordanian citizen who has been on hunger strike for 35 days, also in protest against her administrative detention without charge or trial, was transferred to hospital following a deterioration in her health, said the Prisoners Commission … A third hunger striker, Ahmad Zahran, who has been fasting for 37 days, has had his administrative detention order extended by four more months, two days before his current one was supposed to end. The fourth is Musab Hindi, who has been on hunger strike for 35 days, also demanding his release from administrative detention.
https://imemc.org/article/four-administrative-detainees-still-on-hunger-strike/
Israel issues travel ban against Amnesty campaigner from West Bank
MEE 31 Oct by Areeb Ullah — Israel has issued a travel ban against a Palestinian campaigner for Amnesty International amid a growing Israeli crackdown on human rights groups inside the West Bank and Gaza Strip. On 26 October, Israeli authorities stopped Laith Abu Zeyad, Amnesty’s campaigner on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), from leaving the West Bank to attend a relative’s funeral in Jordan. Zeyad was forced to wait at the Allenby Bridge on the Israeli border with Jordan for four hours before being told he was banned from travelling abroad by Israeli intelligence for “security reasons”, Amnesty said in a press release on Thursday. In September, he was denied a humanitarian permit to accompany his mother to Jerusalem for cancer treatment also on the grounds of “security reasons” which were not disclosed to him at the time. Kumi Naidoo, secretary-general of Amnesty International, condemned the travel ban and described Israeli authorities’ claim to have security reasons for banning Zeyad as “totally absurd”. “Their failure to provide any details to justify the ban reveals its true intent. This is a sinister move imposed as punishment for his work defending human rights of Palestinians,” Naidoo said in a statement….
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-issues-travel-ban-against-amnesty-international-campaigner-west-bank
Gaza
1 dead as Israel hits Gaza after rockets fired across border
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) 1 Nov by Fares Akram — Israeli airstrikes on Gaza killed a Palestinian man Saturday as aircraft pounded militant sites in response to barrages of rockets launched toward Israel from the seaside enclave. The exchange of fire shattered a monthlong lull across the volatile frontier. Gaza’s Health Ministry said Ahmed Mohammad al-Shehri, 27, died from shrapnel injuries during the Israeli bombings that continued through the early hours of Saturday. He was among three men who sustained moderate or serious wounds from one of the airstrikes. Witnesses at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis said the three were sitting in an orchard adjacent to one of the militant posts that was hit. In a statement, the Israeli military said its warplanes targeted military compounds affiliated with Gaza’s Hamas rulers. The targets included weapons manufacturing and storage facilities, a naval base and a compound serving Hamas’ aerial defense array …
Late on Friday, two barrages of 10 rockets were launched into southern Israel within minutes, causing damage to a house. There were no reports of casualties. Israeli police said shrapnel damaged a house in the southern town of Sderot and video footage showed a car near the structure with windows blown out by debris.The Israeli military said seven rockets were fired in the first incident and the Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted them. Minutes later, three rockets were launched and only one was intercepted. No Palestinian groups claimed responsibility for the rocket fire. Israel blames Hamas for any fire from the enclave.
http://www.wboc.com/story/41262315/1-dead-as-israel-hits-gaza-after-rockets-fired-across-border
81st GMR: IOF shot and injured 144 Palestinian civilians, including 53 children, 3 women, 2 paramedics and a journalist
PCHR 1 Nov — …The increased number of injuries in this week’s GMR protest reflects an escalation in IOF use of excessive force, as 73 civilians sustained live bullet injuries – including 4 in critical condition – in addition to other injuries by rubber bullets and tear gas canisters, mainly in protesters’ upper bodies. Today’s protest was titled “Down with the Balfour Declaration” as it coincided with its 102nd anniversary. The Balfour Declaration was made by former British Foreign Affairs Secretary Arthur Balfour declaring “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” Large crowds participated in the protest, as thousands of civilians joined across the 5 GMR encampments raising the Palestinian flag and chanting. The protests lasted from 14:00 to 18:30 and involved speeches and folklore performances. Hundreds of civilians protested at varied distances from the Gaza border with Israel, where some protestors set tires attempted to throw stones, Molotov Cocktails and firecrackers at IOF, who responded with live and rubber bullets as well as tear gas canisters …
The following is a summary of today’s events along the Gaza Strip border:
Northern Gaza Strip: IOF shot and injured 47 civilians, including 20 children, 2 women and a paramedic: 24 with live bullets and shrapnel; 19 with rubber bullets; and 4 were hit with tear gas canisters. Shady Fayez Awadallah Awadallah (33), a paramedic, was shot with a rubber bullet in his right leg. Also, Moath Mohammed Mohammed Abu-Amira (25) was shot in the head with a live bullet; he is in extremely critical condition…
Rafah: IOF shot and injured 39 civilians, including 10 children and a journalist; three injuries were deemed critical: 27 with live bullets and shrapnel, 8 with rubber bullets and 4 were hit with tear gas canisters. Abdulrahman Mohammed Deeb al-Khatib (42), a freelance journalist, sustained a rubber-bullet wound to his right arm. Ahmed Jum’a al-Lolahy (20) and Mohammed Saleh Ahmed Abu-Jarbou‘ (20) were shot in their lower extremities with live bullets, and Mahmoud Abdulrahman Ramadan Abu-Taim (18) sustained a live bullet to the head; all three are in critical condition….
https://pchrgaza.org/en/?p=13128
Health officials say Gaza teen electrocuted during rainfall
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) 26 Oct — Gaza’s Health Ministry says a Palestinian teenager has been electrocuted after touching an electric pole outside his home during heavy rains. Local emergency crews identified the boy Saturday as Mahmoud al-Belbisi, 16. Palestinian authorities in the coastal enclave said they were prepared for a rare hurricane-like weather system that was expected to hit the eastern part of the Mediterranean on Saturday. The system lessened but still resulted in heavy rain. Gaza, ruled by the militant Hamas group and blockaded by Israel and Egypt, has rundown infrastructure and residents are vulnerable to such mishaps. Health officials said the teenager touched the electric pole in a puddle and died immediately. Photos showed people using ropes and wood sticks to drag the body away from the pole.
https://apnews.com/6354ebaa599f484799d72cc350eed729
Israeli soldier sentenced over killing of Gaza teen
Al Jazeera 31 Oct — An Israeli military court sentenced a soldier to one month of the military’s equivalent of community service over the killing of a Palestinian teenager after he opened fire without authorisation. The unnamed soldier was convicted on Monday for “acting without authorisation in a manner endangering to life and wellbeing”, it said in a statement. Othman Rami Halles, 15, was shot dead during protests by the Israel fence east of the Gaza Strip on July 13, 2018, the Palestinian health ministry said at the time. A video shared by the Defense for Children rights organisation showed Halles standing by the separation fence near several women and children holding up Palestinian flags. Halles is then seen attempting to climb the fence before he was shot in the torso, falling down (see video) … This is the first time an Israeli soldier has been convicted over the killing of a Palestinian involved in the weekly Gaza demonstrations, a spokesman for Jerusalem-based human rights organisation B’Tselem told dpa news agency on Wednesday. After a plea bargain, the court sentenced the soldier to 30 days in prison with military labour and a suspended term of another 60 days, and he was demoted to the rank of private. The investigation had found no evidence of a “causal link between the soldier’s fire” and the teenager’s death, the army said.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/israeli-soldier-sentenced-killing-gaza-teen-191031090537481.html
Israeli military strikes Gaza after rocket attack
JERUSALEM (AP) 31 Oct — The Israeli military says it has struck targets in the Gaza Strip in response to a Palestinian rocket attack. The army said that tank and aircraft fire struck two Hamas military posts in northern Gaza. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Earlier Thursday, the army said a single rocket was fired toward Israel from Gaza. There were no reports of damage or injuries on the Israeli side.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/israeli-military-strikes-gaza-after-rocket-attack/2019/10/31/222367fa-fc1b-11e9-9e02-1d45cb3dfa8f_story.html
Polluted water leading cause of child mortality in Gaza, report says
[behind paywall] Haaretz 16 Oct by Yaniv Kubovich — Illness caused by water pollution is a leading cause of child mortality in the Gaza Strip, says a study by the RAND Corporation, a copy of which was obtained by Haaretz. The study shows that water pollution accounts for more than a quarter of illnesses in Gaza and that more than 12 percent of child deaths up until four years ago was linked to gastrointestinal disorders due to water pollution. Since that time these numbers have continued to grow. The collapse of water infrastructure has led to a sharp rise in germs and viruses such as rotavirus, cholera and salmonella, the report says … Today 97 percent of drinking water in the Strip is not drinkable by any recognized international standard … The study shows Gaza schools have one toilet per 75 pupils and one sink for washing hands per 80. Most of this water is either recycled or from a reservoir. As a result, the very presence of children in these schools puts them at risk of contracting gastrointestinal diseases. Schools, public buildings and hospitals are only cleaned when necessary in order to conserve water. Hospital staff only wash their hands when it’s essential and not on a regular basis when going from one patient to another, in order to conserve the water for life-saving treatment. The researchers estimate that within two years, even the isolated sources of water used today will cease to operate without proper maintenance….
https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/.premium.MAGAZINE-polluted-water-a-leading-cause-of-gazan-child-mortality-says-rand-corp-study-1.6566812
A hug of death
EI 14 Oct by Hamza Abu Eltarabesh — Muhammad Jarada was walking home from work when he saw a man hop off his motorbike and hug a police officer. A moment later, Jarada was knocked down by the force of an explosion; everything seemed to go completely dark. “When I realized what had happened, I saw there were bodies of police officers on the ground,” Jarada, a carpenter, said. “I ran to my house immediately.” The incident occurred on the evening of 28 August. The man on the motorbike has subsequently been named as Abdulaziz al-Hajjaj, aged 26. He blew himself up after embracing Alaa al-Gharabli, a 32-year-old police officer then staffing a checkpoint at al-Dahdouh crossroads in the Tel al-Hawa area of Gaza City … Abdulaziz al-Hajjaj had been suspected by the Gaza authorities of supporting Islamic State. He had been detained earlier this year for making explosive material but was released following a short period, according to Gaza’s interior ministry. The attack he carried out was one of two suicide bombings on 28 August. The second took place less than an hour later …
Islamic State’s branch in the Sinai – a region of Egypt that borders Gaza – reportedly declared war on Hamas last year. A video attributed to Islamic State accused Hamas, which oversees Gaza’s administration, of apostasy because it has participated in elections. Eyad al-Buzom, a spokesperson for Gaza’s interior ministry, said that some arrests have been made since the bombings occurred in August. The authorities are investigating the likelihood that Islamic State has recruited a group in Gaza via the Internet. The sources of funding to the group are also being probed….
https://electronicintifada.net/content/hug-death/28656
Palestinian journalist Bassem Moheisen detained by Hamas forces in Gaza since October 23
Beirut, 1 Nov — Hamas security forces should immediately release journalist Bassam Mohammad Moheisen, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On October 23, officers of the Hamas-affiliated Internal Security Forces arrested Moheisen, a reporter for the Palestinian National Authority-affiliated Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation in Gaza, at the forces’ headquarters west of Gaza City after the journalist responded to a summons, according to a statement by Moheisen’s employer and news reports. The journalist’s family has not been able to visit him in detention, and authorities have not announced any charges or reason for the arrest, his brother Baha Moheisen told the regional press freedom group Skeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom. “Hamas authorities in Gaza have again demonstrated how low press freedom ranks in their priorities,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Representative Ignacio Miguel Delgado. “Hamas forces must immediately release Bassem Moheisen and allow journalists to do their jobs freely and without fear of reprisal.” In a statement published on Facebook on October 25, the Fatah-affiliated Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate said that Moheisen had been arrested for his posts on social media….
https://cpj.org/2019/11/palestinian-journalist-bassam-moheisen-detained-by.php
Desperate work for desperate people
EI 15 Oct by Amjad Ayman Yaghi — On 5 May, Israeli airplanes struck targets in Gaza. The bombings came with the usual tragic consequences: 25 Palestinains were killed, among them 14 civilians. Four Israeli civilians also died in rocket fire from Gaza. It was one of those “spikes in tensions” that for the briefest of moments shines a media spotlight on Gaza.
That spotlight didn’t stay long enough to see what else happened. As calm returned, a contractor, Muhammad Abu Jebah, gathered together a group of laborers to extract metal from the rubble of the Abu Qamar building, which was destroyed in one of the bombing raids. Abu Jebah thinks of it as a new industry, one that arose after Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli attack on Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009, and one that illustrates the lengths to which Palestinians in Gaza have to go to survive. Trucks and bulldozers move in first to clear the rubble. Then a team of men filter through the building to smash concrete and extract the metal inside. Once that is done, they realign the metal and reconstitute any large stones. It is backbreaking hand-scarring work. It is also potentially toxic, according to environmentalists. But it is necessary since Israel is prohibiting steel and other building materials from entering Gaza. “Most of the men working for me feed a dozen or so relatives,” Abu Jebah told The Electronic Intifada …
According to Ahmed Hilles, an environmental scientist at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, material from destroyed buildings can contain pollutants that are hazardous both to people and the environment. Hilles has done some testing on samples of the concrete in the rubble. He found traces of nickel, lead and arsenic, as well as explosive materials….
https://electronicintifada.net/content/desperate-work-desperate-people/28626
Palestinian fisherman cashes in on monster tuna haul off Gaza coast
Times of Israel 31 Oct by Adam Rasgon — A Palestinian fisherman had an unexpected windfall when he caught two large tuna fish off the coast of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, which he sold for a total of NIS 5,000 ($1,417), a union official said. The tuna fish weighed in at 80 (176 lb) and 160 kilograms (353 lb), respectively, according to Nizar Ayyash, the head of the Fishermen’s Union in the territory. “He made the catch in the deep waters,” Ayyash told The Times of Israel. “That is where the tuna is located.” In recent months Israel has extended the range that Gazans can fish to as far as 12 nautical miles off the coast, giving fishermen access to the tuna. Pictures posted on social media showed a group of Palestinians crowding around one of the tuna fish. For part of the summer, Israel frequently increased and decreased the size of the permitted fishing zone off the coast of the enclave, which Palestinian fishermen decried as a policy of collective punishment. At the time, Israeli security officials said the amendments were a response to the increases and decreases in arson balloons and, in some cases, rockets that Palestinians in Gaza had launched into Israel.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinian-fisherman-cashes-in-on-tuna-catch-off-gaza-coast/
Israel still preventing exit of processed foods for sale from Gaza
MEMO 31 Oct — Israeli authorities are still preventing the exit of processed foods for sale outside of the occupied Gaza Strip, reported freedom of movement NGO Gisha yesterday. In a press release, Gisha announced that it had written a letter this week demanding that Israel’s Health Ministry “take immediate action to institute clear procedures and guidelines for coordinating the transfer of processed foods from Gaza for sale in the West Bank”. Gisha has also demanded that the State Attorney’s Office “examine why in the past six months the Health Ministry has failed to respond to multiple inquiries by Gisha on behalf of Gaza manufacturers attempting to market their products in the West Bank.” Since June 2007, in the context of an ongoing, crippling blockade, Israel has effectively banned the exit of processed foods from the Gaza Strip for sale in the occupied West Bank, Israel and abroad. In late 2018, the Israeli government responded to a Gisha-filed petition by arguing that no prohibition exists – but “also admitted to not having established a mechanism to allow for coordination of this process in compliance with Ministry of Health requirements”….
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191031-israel-still-preventing-exit-of-processed-foods-for-sale-from-gaza/
IVF births boom in the Gaza Strip of Palestine
TRT WORLD 30 Oct by Eleonora Vio — With the size of a family tied to social status and growing infertility – not to mention politicians keen to win support by offering couples what they most desire – IVF has become big business in the Gaza Strip The hangar is filled to the brim and the agitation is palpable. More than 6,000 couples from every corner of the Gaza Strip joined the contest. Only a hundred will be chosen. On one side, men smoke and laugh, their gaze fixed on the organisers. Across from them are women covered in long cloaks, enjoying trays full of sweet and savory snacks with hesitance. Someone makes a call for silence and a young man walks up the stage and starts picking little notes from a bowl. And the announcement “the next beneficiaries of the free In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) will be…” follows. “When I heard our names, I couldn’t believe it,” says 34-year-old Omar a year later, as he lightly touches his wife’s leg. “It may sound like a hazard to have children in these poor conditions,” he continues, giving us enough time to notice that he lives in a dark and bare space along with his 30-year-old wife Warda and another 27 family members. “But life without kids is meaningless and Allah will help us.”….
https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/ivf-births-boom-in-the-gaza-strip-of-palestine-30969
Land, property theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Settlements
Peace Now says Israeli approved construction of 2,342 settler homes in West Bank
i24NEWS/AFP 31 Oct — NGO says move increases number of housing units approved by almost 100% since US President Trump elected — Israel has approved the construction of 2,342 settler homes in the West Bank, settlement watchdog Peace Now said on Thursday. It said the decision was taken on October 10 and that 59 percent of the new homes will be erected in “settlements that Israel likely may evacuate under a peace agreement” with the Palestinians. According to Peace Now, which closely monitors Israeli settlement building, plans for 8,337 housing units in the settlements have been approved since the beginning of the year. It said this represented an increase of close to 50 percent compared with 2018 when plans for 5,618 housing units were approved. “This brings the average number of housing units approved in the three years since President Trump was elected, to 6,899 housing units, almost twice the average in the three years preceding them,” the NGO said … “Netanyahu continues to sabotage the possibility of a political agreement with the Palestinians by promoting more settlement construction in the West Bank, including in places where Israel may have to evacuate as part of a future agreement,” Peace Now said.
https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/1572534913-peace-now-says-israel-approved-construction-of-2-342-settler-homes-in-west-bank
Israel displaces Araqib villagers in Negev for 165th time
IMEMC/Agencies 31 Oct — The Israeli authorities Tuesday evening demolished all structures in the Palestinian Bedouin village of Araqib, in the Negev desert, for the 165th consecutive time, displacing its residents again. According to local sources, Israeli police forces and employees from the Bedouin development authority, which is responsible for such demolitions, stormed the village and forcibly removed the residents from their homes before wreaking havoc on everything. Police forces arrested Sheikh Sayyah Attouri, chief of the village, who has been arrested more than once before during similar demolition campaigns. The police also arrested his son, Aziz, but later released him and ordered him for interrogation on Thursday. Recently, the Israeli authorities indicted Sheikh Attouri and two of his sons as well as local activist Saleem Attouri over different claims, including illegal construction and appropriation of state land. The Israeli authorities also imposed exorbitant financial penalties on the Araqib villagers in recent times.
Araqib is one of several “unrecognized” Bedouin villages in the Negev desert. The demolition of this, and other villages in the Negev is a systematic Israeli policy aimed at expelling the native population from the Negev, and forcing them into government-zoned areas to pave the way to expand and build new settlements for Jewish-only communities.
https://imemc.org/article/israel-displaces-araqib-villagers-in-negev-for-165th-time/
Israeli military prepares to demolish rooms in south of West Bank
HEBRON, Sunday, October 27, 2019 (WAFA) – The Israeli military ordered the Palestinian dwellers of five rooms in a village in Masafer Yatta in the south of the West Bank to evacuate them in preparation to demolish them, according to a local activist. Rateb Jabour, from the anti-wall, anti-settlements movement in the south of the West Bank, told WAFA that an army force raided Maghayer al-Abeed village and informed Shehadeh Salameh Shehadeh, his three sons and their families, as well as their mother, to evacuate their separated rooms they use as dwelling in order to demolish them. He said the family was not handed any written order, but was informed only verbally. Masafer Yatta is located in Area C of the occupied West Bank
http://english.wafa.ps/page.aspx?id=ckrs4La113888667486ackrs4L
Six Palestinians receive demolition notices
IMEMC/Agencies 30 Oct — Israeli forces, Tuesday, notified six Palestinians of their intention to demolish their homes in Kobar town, north of Ramallah city, according to a municipal source. Izzat Badwan, the mayor of Kobar, said that an Israeli military force, along with officers of the so-called ‘Israeli Civil Administration’, an arm of the Israeli military government, stormed the town in the early morning hours, where they handed six residents notices to demolish their homes under the pretext of being constructed in Area C. Badwan noted that two of the houses slated for demolition are inhabited, whereas the four others are under construction. He confirmed that the Israeli military force exited the town and remained deployed at the outskirts of the town before raiding it once again. During the resulting confrontations, soldiers opened fire towards local children and youth, who protested the raid, causing some to suffocate from tear gas.
https://imemc.org/article/six-palestinians-receive-demolition-notices/
Israeli forces storm Palestinian school in West Bank, confiscating mobile cafeteria
MEE 28 Oct by Shatha Hammad — Israeli forces raided a school in the village of Dahr al-Maleh in the West Bank, demolished its wall and confiscated a mobile container that was used as a cafeteria on Monday, the head of the village council told Middle East Eye. Israeli forces stormed into the village at 6.30am, smashing through the gates of the primary school and breaking down its doors, Omar al-Khatib said. The Dahr Al Maleh Elementary Mixed School, located south of Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank, has been under constant threat of being demolished and has not been granted permission for any construction on its premises. Due to the lack of space, parents donated a mobile container for the school to utilise as a cafeteria and kitchen, according to Khatib. Israeli troops confiscated tools, a refrigerator, gas stove, cleaning equipment and stationery, he said. The school also known as “Tahaddi (Challenge) 17 School” opened in January, with Italian support. It has 38 students aged five to 15 years old and employs eight teachers … Israeli authorities claim the school is outside the structural plan demarcated for the village, although its foundation is only 20 metres off the plan, Khatib said … The village of Dhar al-Maleh is located behind the separation wall, in place since 2002. Access is strictly restricted by checkpoints and Israeli occupying forces permit only residents and landowners to enter the village, causing significant isolation….
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-forces-demolish-school-jenin-confiscate-cafeteria
As Palestinians build schools in Area C of West Bank, Israel issues demolition orders against them
BETHLEHEM, Wednesday, October 30, 2019 (WAFA) – The Palestinian government and the European Union (EU) inaugurated today Al Aqban Elementary Mixed School in Al Aqban Village in the Bethlehem district in the south of the West Bank but located in the area designated as C, which is under full Israeli military rule. At the same time, the Ministry of Education denounced today Israeli plans to demolish another school in Area C also in the south of the West Bank. It said in a statement that the Israeli military issued a demolition order against Simia Elementary Mixed School built in the Samoa area south of Hebron and attended by 40 students, describing the order as a crime and a violation of all international laws and conventions. Speaking at the Al Aqban school inauguration ceremony, Minister of Local Government Majdi Al Saleh said the area referred to as “C” is Palestinian land and an essential part of the Palestinian state without which there will be no stability or peace … Acting EU Representative Thomas Nicholson pointed out that Al-Aqban School is one of the largest schools funded by the European Union in the areas named “C” for an amount of 750,000 euros. The school has a total area of 1200 square meters and will serve more than 250 students.
http://english.wafa.ps/page.aspx?id=1k0u7ya113921027088a1k0u7y
Israel to establish waste-to-energy plant in illegal West Bank settlement
MEMO 31 Oct — Israeli occupation authorities are set to establish a waste-to-energy plant in Ma’ale Adumim, a major illegal settlement in the central West Bank, according to human rights NGO B’Tselem, “unlawfully exploiting Palestinian territory for its own needs”. Earlier this month, the Israeli government issued a tender for the establishment of the plant, at an estimated cost of some one billion shekels ($284 million). B’Tselem noted that while such a development appears “ecologically positive”, building the plant in the West Bank is violation of “the prohibition in international law on exploiting resources in an occupied territory for the benefit of the occupying power”. Furthermore, the human rights group added, “if established, the plant will be built without taking the Palestinian population of the West Bank and its views on the matter into account.” The plant will be located close to the Mishor Adumim industrial park, between occupied East Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, within the jurisdiction of Ma’ale Adumim settlement. Near the site are “small, isolated Palestinian shepherd communities”….
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191031-israel-to-establish-waste-to-energy-plant-in-illegal-west-bank-settlement/
Palestinian storm settlement outpost in West Bank
RAMALLAH (Asharq Al-Awsat) 27 Oct — Palestinian and foreign activists stormed on Saturday an Israeli settlement outpost in the northern Jordan Valley in the West Bank. They removed the Israeli flag and raised a Palestinian one before the Israeli army intervened, detaining three activists. Settlers had set up the outpost two years ago in Bardala village, located in the Jordan Valley, and called it “Salit.” “We broke into the outpost, and we had a chance to remove the Israeli flag and raise the Palestinian flag,” Abdullah Abu Rahma, an anti-settlement activist, told AFP. “So far, the Israeli army is holding three of the activists who participated with us,” Abu Rahma noted. The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said the army detained seven journalists who were present at the scene.
https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1963831/palestinians-storm-settlement-outpost-west-bank
Charity to protest West Bank land buys
The Forward 31 oct by Aiden Pink — The largest Jewish denomination in the United States is turning down a donation from an iconic Israeli charity, alleging that the charity tricked the movement by buying and then hiding land purchases in the West Bank. Keren Kayemet LeYisrael-Jewish National Fund is probably best known in the United States for its famous blue tzedakah box and for planting trees in the Holy Land. The quasi-governmental organization is also a major owner and purchaser of land throughout Israel, and the Union of Reform Judaism has long supported it. Yet on Tuesday, URJ president Rick Jacobs published a series of tweets accusing the charity of “deceiving the board of directors and most senior leaders in the organization.” … Reform representatives – who have for decades sat on the KKL-JNF board and approved new CEOs – claimed to have discovered that a KKL-JNF subsidiary had purchased more than 50 million shekels ($14 million) worth of land in politically-sensitive West Bank areas like Jericho and Hebron, Israeli journalist Raviv Drucker reported earlier this week. What’s more, the movement claims that those purchases were hidden from Reform representatives on the KKL board….
https://forward.com/news/israel/434031/reform-jewish-urj-kkl-jnf-jewish-national-fund-israel-west-bank/
‘Zionism won’: Adelsons hail opening of controversial medical school in West Bank
[behind paywall] Haaretz 28 Oct by Shira Kadari-Ovadia — Despite obstacles, the philanthropist couple joined students and officials to celebrate the start of the academic year as the university tries to fight its reputation as a ‘settler’ institution — ...[Miriam Adelson] spoke of lofty ideals such as Zionism, Jewish pride, and love of the land. She made it clear how important the day was for her and her husband. Dr. Adelson referred to a quote from the post-biblical Jewish sages about how the Land of Israel is acquired through tribulation and made reference to those who tried to prevent the opening of the school….
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-zionism-won-adelsons-hail-opening-of-controversial-medical-school-in-west-bank-1.8032370
BDS
Panic over BDS reaches fever pitch
EI 30 Oct by Barry Trachtenberg — The Czech parliament’s decision to pass a resolution condemning the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions movement as anti-Semitic last week is only the most recent example of how the panic over BDS has reached a fever pitch. This latest round of attempts to stop public criticism of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians began in Britain in May. Jeremy Hunt, at the time foreign secretary and running for the leadership of the Conservative Party, attacked supporters of BDS by declaring that “boycotting Israel – the world’s only Jewish state – is anti-Semitic.” Far more unnerving, Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, passed a resolution that same month that condemned BDS as inherently anti-Semitic …
In the United States, anxiety over BDS is just as palpable and extends to any perceived slight against the Jewish people. By the start of the summer, 27 individual states had already adopted anti-BDS legislation or executive orders. When New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in June referred to the appalling detention centers in the southern US holding migrants seeking asylum as “concentration camps,” she was met with a storm of protest. She was accused of denigrating the Holocaust and, by extension, the sensitivities of the Jewish people … In late July, the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed its own resolution condemning BDS in a 398-to-17 vote…
Now it is common to hear reports that a “new anti-Semitism” typified by the BDS movement threatens to endanger Jews on a scale not seen since the World War II and the Nazi Holocaust … Although these comments profess to alert us to a looming catastrophe, they are motivated less by any tangible threat than they are part of a persistent campaign to prevent discussions that are critical toward Israel’s treatment of Palestinians….
https://electronicintifada.net/content/panic-over-bds-reaches-fever-pitch/28786
Norway’s capital says it won’t buy Israeli settlement goods
EI 28 Oct by Ali Abunimah — Norway’s capital is banning goods and services from Israeli settlements from public contracts. The ban on purchases from Israel’s colonies on occupied Palestinian land is contained in the platform of the Oslo city council’s new ruling coalition. In their 2019-2023 plan, the Socialist Left, Green and Labor parties commit to ensuring that public procurement does not include “goods and services produced on territory occupied in violation of international law by companies operating under the permission of the occupying power.” Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Syria’s Golan Heights is a war crime. “The Palestinian people, who have to deal with the illegal occupation of their territory every single day, deserve international attention and support,” Sunniva Eidsvoll, leader of the Socialist Left Party in the Oslo city council, said. “It is a shared global responsibility to help ensure that human rights and international law are not violated.” “I am proud that the Oslo city council is now taking steps to prevent goods and services purchased by the city from supporting an illegal occupation of Palestine or other territories,” Eidsvoll added. The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the steering group for the global boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign, welcomed the move.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/norways-capital-says-it-wont-buy-israeli-settlement-goods
Opinion: Puma keeps helping Israel sports-wash its human rights abuses / Aya Khattab
Al Jazeera 27 Oct — Companies like Puma which back Israeli sport associations purposefully ignore the oppression of Palestinian athletes — Ever since I started playing football as a young girl, I dreamed of making it to the Palestinian national women’s football team. And I did! I made my way up through the ranks, starting on the U-16 team, and I am now a defender on the national team. But realising my dream meant not only hard work, but also facing yet another side of Israel’s oppressive military rule and system of racial discrimination. Being an athlete in Palestine is not easy. Here, it is not possible to say the game is above politics or conflict … We are constantly subjected to humiliating searches at military checkpoints when we travel for training sessions or events. Our matches get interrupted and raided by armed soldiers. Our pitches get swallowed by ever-expanding illegal settlements and our stadiums destroyed by Israeli bombs …
Last year, global sportswear manufacturer Puma signed a four-year sponsorship deal with the Israel Football Association (IFA). The IFA includes teams from Israel’s illegal settlements which are built on land stolen from Palestinian families in violation of international law … Puma’s sponsorship of the IFA, and the international legitimacy that it grants, signal to Israel’s racist far-right regime that its expansion of illegal settlements by pushing Palestinian families off their ancestral lands can continue with impunity….
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/puma-helping-israel-sports-wash-human-rights-abuses-191025123042055.html
Other news
MADA denounces recent wave of violations against Palestinian journalists
IMEMC/Agencies 28 Oct — The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) has condemned the recent wave of violations against a number of Palestinian journalists. Some of these violations were committed by Israeli occupation forces, while the other violations – especially the abduction of several journalists – were carried out by Palestinian security services, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israeli forces detained five Palestinian journalists on Sunday (26/10/2019), while they were covering a peaceful protest against settlements and Israeli attacks in the area of “Al-Himma” in the northern Jordan Valley, east of Tubas. Later, the journalists were transferred to the settlement of “Ariel”, which is located in the lands of Salfit. The journalists were interrogated individually, on the pretext of “being in a closed military zone, participating in an illegal activity and obstructing the work of Israeli soldiers.” Moreover, the Israeli interrogators took the journalists’ fingerprints and photographs, and, after about 15 hours of detention, they were released. However, the equipment belonging to the journalists was not returned to them …
Before this, two Palestinian journalists were injured by Israeli rubber-coated metal bullets while they were covering two separate events in Ramallah and Nablus. Also, three Palestinian journalists were assaulted by Israeli soldiers while covering a march against settlements in the town of Turmus ‘Ayya, near Ramallah.
In parallel, Palestinian security services in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have recently detained and are still holding four journalists….
https://imemc.org/article/mada-denounces-recent-wave-of-violations-against-palestinian-journalists/
Palestinian court orders block of dozens of news websites and Facebook pages
BEIRUT 25 Oct — The Palestinian National Authority should immediately lift a ban on dozens of news websites and Facebook pages, and allow news outlets in the country to publish freely online, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On October 17, the Ramallah Magistrate Court ordered local internet service providers to block access to at least 25 news websites within the West Bank and Gaza, following a request from the Palestinian attorney general’s office, according to reports from the regional press freedom group Skeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom, the Palestinian online rights organization Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, and the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate. Nadim Nashif, director of the Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, and Louay Ghoul, director of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate in Gaza, confirmed to CPJ that the block was in effect in the West Bank and Gaza. CPJ received mixed reports from Gaza, with at least two users able to access some of the pages that were ordered to be blocked. CPJ was able to access the pages from the United States and Lebanon. The order was issued under Article 39 of the Palestinian cybercrime law. … The blocked news websites include pro-Hamas outlets, organizations supportive of Palestinian politician Mohammad Dahlan, and independent news outlets, according to those reports. A list of the banned websites published by local news website Al-Watan Voice includes:….
https://cpj.org/2019/10/palestinian-court-blocks-dozens-of-news-websites-a.php
Palestinian anti-PA activist says Facebook closed his popular page
Times of Israel 29 Oct by Adam Rasgon — A well-known Palestinian activist critical of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says that Facebook has taken down his page, which had approximately 998,000 followers. Fadi Elsalameen said on Monday that Facebook unpublished his page in late September, but did not inform him why it made the move. Elsalameen, 35, is originally from as-Samu, a village south of Hebron, but he currently lives in Washington, DC. He has been accused of being close to exiled Fatah member and Abbas rival Mohammed Dahlan, but he has adamantly denied the claim. “The page criticized corruption in the Palestinian Authority and freedom of speech violations against Palestinians,” Elsalameen told The Times of Israel in a phone interview. “The page also asked critical questions: Why have we not had presidential elections in 15 years? Why do young people and women not have a greater role in politics?” A Fatah official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, contended that the page had consistently made false allegations against Palestinian officials … A teacher in Hebron said Elsalemeen’s page was widely followed by many in the West Bank … Elsalameen also said that he has hired a lawyer in the US in an effort to restore the page….
https://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinian-anti-pa-activist-says-facebook-closed-his-popular-page/
Palestinians seek economic disengagement through West Bank port
RAMALLAH (Al-Monitor) 31 Oct by Aziza Nofal — Hussein al-Sheikh, the head of the General Authority for Civil Affairs, discussed the establishment of a land port in the West Bank during a meeting with the private sector at the Ramallah and al-Bireh Chamber of Commerce and Industry Oct. 7. The land port would receive goods entering the Palestinian territories from Israeli ports. “There is an Israeli agreement to establish this port, but on their terms, which has delayed its establishment so far,” Sheikh said. He added that Israel would only allow the entry of certain goods. The Palestinian side rejected this and demanded customs clearance for all goods imported by Palestinian traders to this port. This problem is not new. The Palestinian-Israeli agreement in September 2012 to establish this port also ended in failure and without an agreement on the location of the port. This time, however, Sheikh said if the port was established it would be in the town of Tarqumiyah, where the Palestinian Authority’s Palestinian Industrial Estates and Free Zones Authority (PIEFZA) is located, and it would be affiliated with the Tarqumiyah industrial zone….
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2019/10/land-port-west-bank-israel-economic-disengagement.html
Augusta Victoria Hospital out of service; PA refuses to pay debts
IMEMC/Agencies 28 Oct — Augusta Victoria Hospital (AVH), in occupied Jerusalem, Sunday evening, launched a distress call entitled “The Future of AVH Hospital is in Danger,” which has reached a dead end, according to administration. The hospital said, in a statement, that the Palestinian government did not transfer any funds to the hospital and refuses to pay its debts, which have now reached NIS 200 million. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtayah said, Sunday afternoon, that the Ministry of Finance transferred NIS 20 million. The director general of the hospital, Walid Namour, said that there were no medicines, and that the hospital is incapable of providing treatment services, calling for immediate funds to buy medicine. Namour added that the NIS 20 million in question had not reached the hospital, and, even if it did, only constitutes only 10% of the debt. Dozens of patients, especially cancer patients, some of them from Gaza, complained of the hospital’s refusal to treat them because of the debt crisis, and the lack of cancer drugs in the hospital. He noted, according to Al Ray Palestinian Media Agency, that the pharmaceutical companies specializing in cancer treatment, and a number of other serious diseases, have stopped dealing with the hospital.
https://imemc.org/article/augusta-victoria-hospital-out-of-service-pa-refuses-to-pay-debts/
Gaza’s Hamas says ready for Palestinian elections
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) 28 Oct — Gaza’s Hamas rulers say they’re ready to hold Palestinian elections — a potentially significant step that could help end a 12-year rift with the rival Palestinian Authority. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh made the announcement Monday after a meeting with the head of the Palestinian Central Election Commission, Hanna Nasser. However, there was no indication whether the meeting overcame the obstacles that have scuttled similar pledges in the past. The Islamic militant group Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006. The following year, the group seized control of Gaza from the forces of President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party. Attempts at reconciliation and holding new elections have repeatedly failed, leaving the Palestinians divided between two governments, one in Gaza and the other in the West Bank.
https://apnews.com/d9328a805596412b929b69fdde6f3e00
Violence is rising in Israel’s Arab community and falling in West Bank, data shows
[behind paywall] Haaretz 29 Oct by Jack Khoury — Amid protests by the Arab community in Israel against perceived police inaction, Haaretz has found that while the murder rate shows a year-on-year increase among Israeli Arabs, it seems to be trending down in the West Bank. Researchers and public figures on both sides attribute the change to improvements in law enforcement in the West Bank, and to the fact that traditional clan structure, which takes an active role in solving local disputes, has been eroding in Israel. According to the Aman Center, an organization that combats violence in the Israeli Arab community, the number of murder victims in Israel has climbed steadily from 58 in 2015 to 75 in 2018. The number for 2019 to date is 77. Aman emphasized that 80 percent of the victims were killed by guns….
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-violence-is-rising-in-israel-s-arab-community-and-falling-in-west-bank-data-shows-1.8053722
Jordan recalls ambassador to Israel to protest detentions
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) 29 Oct — Jordan on Tuesday announced it was recalling its ambassador to Israel for consultations to protest Israel’s detention of a pair of Jordanians who have been held without charges for the past two months. Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi wrote on Twitter Tuesday that Jordan was taking the step because of Israel’s refusal “to heed our legitimate demands” to release the pair. “We hold Israeli government responsible for the lives of our citizens whose health conditions have severely deteriorated in illegal arbitrary detention,” he said. “We will take all necessary legal & diplomatic measures to ensure their safe return home.” The case has further soured what already is a tense relationship between the two countries, which marked the 25-year anniversary of their landmark peace agreement over the weekend. Israel’s Foreign Ministry said it was checking the Jordanian announcement with authorities in Amman.
Israel detained Heba al-Labadi on Aug. 20 and Abdul Rahman Miri on Sept. 2 as they entered the West Bank from Jordan. Both are being held in administrative detention, an Israeli policy that allows the open-ended detentions of people suspected of security offenses without filing charges. Supporters say that both are suffering from serious health problems. Labadi, 32, has been on a hunger strike for 37 days, and her lawyer, Raslan Mahajne, said her condition is poor. Miri, 29, has been battling cancer since 2010 and requires regular check-ups, according to the Palestinian Commission of Detainees Affairs, which is assisting him. Mahajne said an Israeli military court on Tuesday refused an appeal to release Miri. He said the court is expected to rule on al-Labadi’s appeal in the coming days.
https://apnews.com/99e07a5f6a2d42a18a0771df00b7f96c
Banned from visiting by Israel? There’s an app for that
Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) 30 Oct — After two openly critical US congresswomen were banned by Israel from visiting the Palestinian territories, developers are using technology to bring the territories to them and the wider world. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, two leftwing Democrats who have previously voiced support for a boycott of Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians, planned a visit in August that would have taken them to the Palestinian territories. They became the first members of the US Congress to be banned by Israel, with President Donald Trump, a Republican, saying the Jewish state would show “great weakness” if it let them in. Now, a new virtual reality application has been launched to give everyone the chance to tour the sites that were on the congresswomen’s itinerary. Tlaib and Omar, part of a group of four prominent leftwing congresswomen dubbed The Squad, were scheduled to visit east Jerusalem, Hebron, Bethlehem and other parts of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. The free app Palestine VR includes four to 12-minute-long 360 degree video clips from those locations. Each clip is narrated by a different tour guide, many of whom were to have accompanied the congresswomen during their trip….
https://www.france24.com/en/20191030-banned-from-visiting-by-israel-there-s-an-app-for-that
NBC News: Microsoft funds Israeli firm that spies on West Bank Palestinians
MEMO 29 Oct — Microsoft has invested in an Israeli startup that uses facial recognition to spy on Palestinians throughout the occupied West Bank, “in spite of the tech giant’s public pledge to avoid using the technology if it encroaches on democratic freedoms”, NBC News has reported. AnyVision, headquartered in Israel but with offices in the United States, the United Kingdom and Singapore, sells an “advanced tactical surveillance” software system, Better Tomorrow. “It lets customers identify individuals and objects in any live camera feed, such as a security camera or a smartphone, and then track targets as they move between different feeds,” said the report. NBC News’ investigative report concluded that “AnyVision’s technology powers a secret military surveillance project throughout the West Bank” – a project “so successful that AnyVision won the country’s [Israel’s] top defence prize in 2018”. As noted by NBC News, “Palestinians living in the West Bank do not have Israeli citizenship or voting rights but are subject to movement restrictions and surveillance by the Israeli government….
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191029-nbc-news-microsoft-funds-israel-firm-that-spies-on-west-bank-palestinians/
Led by Sanders, Democrats vow to press Israel on Palestinian state
Washington (AFP) 28 Oct — Democratic presidential contenders vowed Monday to switch gears sharply from Donald Trump’s hawkish embrace of Israel, pledging they would press for a peace settlement that leads to a Palestinian state. Half a year after Democratic candidates all shunned the annual conference of AIPAC, the historic pro-Israel lobby, five candidates came in person to deliver a peace message in the same Washington convention center before J Street, a left-leaning group which argues that it is more in tune with American Jews. Senator Bernie Sanders, who rarely talks about his Jewish faith, explained how the murder of much of his father’s family in the Holocaust shaped his progressive views. “If there is any people on earth who understands the danger of racism and white nationalism, it is certainly the Jewish people,” Sanders said to thunderous applause. “Let me underline this because it will be misunderstood — it is not anti-Semitism to say that the Netanyahu government has been racist. It is a fact,” he said. “We demand that the Israeli government sit down with the Palestinian people and negotiate an agreement that works for all parties,” he said. Sanders said his message to Israel would be, “if you want military aid, you are going to have to fundamentally change your relationship” with the Palestinians….
https://www.france24.com/en/20191028-led-by-sanders-democrats-vow-to-press-israel-on-palestinian-state
Duke students protest speech by Tzipi Livni, former Israeli foreign minister accused of war crimes
Common Dreams 28 Oct by Brett Wilkins– “Hosting [Livni] for a lecture minimizes the lives and deaths of her victims while encouraging future reproductions of her crimes.” Students at Duke University in North Carolina repeatedly interrupted a recent speaking event featuring Tzipi Livni, the former Israeli foreign minister who has been the subject of arrest warrants and a lawsuit in three countries for her alleged role in war crimes committed during the 2008-09 Cast Lead invasion of Gaza. The Duke Chronicle reports around two dozen protesters interrupted Livni at the October 23 event, with one student standing and shouting that Cast Lead “was a massacre” before the ex-minister could answer her first question. As soon as the first protester paused, more students stood and shouted at Livni. Some of them read names and held photos of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces. A few minutes later, the protesters began to leave the auditorium while chanting “shame” and “you don’t belong here” to Livni….
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/10/28/duke-students-protest-speech-tzipi-livni-former-israeli-foreign-minister-accused
Lawsuit: Muslim boy questioned at Ohio school about religion
CLEVELAND (AP) 29 Oct by Mark Gillespie — The parents of a 10-year-old Muslim boy who said he was questioned by an Ohio student teacher about his patriotism and religious beliefs and was told to undress to determine if he had been physically abused at home have filed a federal lawsuit claiming the boy’s civil rights were violated last November … According to the complaint, the boy was in a math class last November when the student teacher repeatedly asked why he looked sad. The boy responded he was fine, yet the woman ordered him out of the classroom despite his protests, the lawsuit said. It was then, the lawsuit said, that the student teacher began asking the boy about his religion, whether he believed in God, whether he loved America and whether any of his relatives have died. The lawsuit describes the boy as having darker skin and hair and notes that he is of Palestinian heritage….
https://apnews.com/24043979643948efbda408acc39d18ed
Murdered student remembered in Victoria causes
Australian Associated Press 26 Oct by Christine McGinn — The legacy of international student Aiia Maasarwe murdered in Melbourne lives on with her father launching a fellowship, while a university scholarship is set up in her honour. The Aiia Maasarwe Memorial Medical Fellowship Program will provide financial support to Palestinian physicians training in Israeli hospitals. Aiia’s father Saeed Maasarwe launched the program in honour of his 21-year-old daughter in Melbourne on Sunday for the international Project Rozana initiative. “I hope we cannot forget Aiia. Aiia all the time, she think positive and think good for everyone,” he said, in broken English. “I wish all the people can just remember Aiia for the good thing(s) and the positive and to look every day in the light, not in the dark things.” The inaugural fellowship has been awarded to senior paediatrician Khadra Salami to complete two-year paediatric bone marrow transplant training program in Jerusalem. It aims to ensure Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza can access the same level of health care to those living in Israel … The January 2019 murder of Ms Maasarwe, a Palestinian Arab of Israeli citizenship who had moved to Australia to study, sent shock waves across the country. Rallies were organised across Australia to show support to the Maasarwe family….
https://au.news.yahoo.com/vic-fellowship-honours-murdered-student-163015797–spt.html
groups.yahoo.com/group/f_shadi (listserv)
www.Mondoweiss.net (various headlines, but byline always ‘Kate’)West Bank
Video: IDF stops joint Jewish-Palestinian olive harvest
JPost 26 Oct by Leon Sverdlov — “We won’t surrender to settler violence, and will stand with Palestinian farmers.” — Approximately 100 activists from the NGO Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR) and the Israeli grassroots movement Standing Together gathered on Friday to participate in the season’s 17th joint olive harvest in the West Bank, but were subsequently driven out by the IDF and Border Police forces, according to new footage. The harvest is taking place in several locations across the northern West Bank, according to Standing Together, in the Palestinian villages Yusuf, Burin and Atara and “done in solidarity with Palestinian farmers who live in the West Bank.” According to Standing Together activist Doron Aruch, the harvest has been taking place for 17 years. The Friday harvest in Burin, she said, was interrupted by settlers from Yitzhar who called IDF troops to the area where the harvest was taking place, in order to sabotage the event. The soldiers, as seen in the video, declared the area a “closed military zone,” driving out the activists. One of the soldiers can be heard saying that “harvesting is allowed, but not for left-wing activists.” Yitzhar is a settlement often seen associated with religious extremism. Its residents have reportedly participated in several attacks against Palestinians, causing damage to property and have attacked IDF soldiers on several occasions. In 2006, a group of settlers who studied in the Yitzhar yeshiva were arrested for allegedly firing several hand-made Qassam-style rockets into the neighboring Palestinian villages….
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/IDF-stops-joint-Jewish-Palestinian-olive-harvest-605802
For 2nd time in 3 days, Palestinian town targeted in apparent hate crime
Times of Israel 25 Oct by Jacon Magid — Palestinians in Yatma woke up Friday morning to find their northern West Bank village targeted by vandals in the second apparent hate crime in the area in three days. Police have opened an investigation into the incident and were preparing to enter the village, roughly 8 kilometers south of the hardline Yitzhar settlement. According to Hebrew media reports, security forces believe a suspect who torched a police tent near Yitzhar on Thursday night before fleeing was behind the fresh vandalism. Like in Wednesday’s attack in the central West Bank village of al-Bireh, some 30 cars had windows smashed or tires slashed and the suspects graffitied Hebrew slogans referencing an outpost neighborhood of Yitzhar whose residents have carried out violent attacks on Israeli troops. “Closed military zone,” and “regards from the Yitzhar hilltop,” were found spray-painted on vehicles, along with Stars of David, in photos provided by the Yatma municipality. At the beginning of the week, the IDF extended an order sealing off the Kumi Ori outpost of Yitzhar to non-residents. No arrests have been made since the Wednesday incident in al-Bireh. …
Earlier Thursday evening, Haaretz reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government ignored recommendations received five times over the past year from the Israel Defense Forces to demolish a caravan belonging to some of the most extreme young settlers in Kumi Ori, which is located three kilometers southwest of Yitzhar. A spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office declined to comment on the report.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-2nd-time-in-3-days-palestinian-town-targeted-in-apparent-hate-crime/
Illegal Israeli colonists write racist graffiti near Nablus
IMEMC 28 Oct — Several extremist Israeli colonists infiltrated, on Monday at dawn, into Huwwara town, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, and wrote racist graffiti on the walls of a Palestinian home. Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian Authority official who monitors Israel’s illegal colonialist activities in northern West Bank, said the Israeli assailants wrote graffiti on the walls of one home. Daghlas added that the home is owned by Sabri Najib Nassar and is located near the junction leading to Nablus-Qalqilia roads. Daghlas stated that the colonists have carried out more than 62 attacks in Nablus governorate in the last two weeks.
In related news, several colonists invaded the Kifl Hares town, north of the central West Bank city of Salfit, and stormed the area of historic Islamic shrines, while Israeli soldiers closed all surrounding roads, to prevent the Palestinians from entering it.
On Friday evening, the colonists attacked a family and several international solidarity activists, in a Palestinian olive orchard in Kafr ed-Deek town, west of Salfit.
On Saturday, Israeli colonists chopped 25 olive trees belonging to Palestinian farmers in the village of Nahhalin, east of Bethlehem in the West Bank.
On Wednesday, illegal colonists attack from Mabo Dothan outpost, which was built on Palestinian lands in Ya‘bad town, west of the northern West Bank city of Jenin, attacked many Palestinians picking olive trees in their orchards.
https://imemc.org/article/illegal-israeli-colonists-write-racist-graffiti-near-nablus/
Farmers denied entry to their land behind Israeli apartheid wall
WAFA 27 Oct — Israeli occupation forces today prevented Palestinian farmers from accessing their own groves located on the other side of the Israeli segregation barrier near the central West Bank town of Salfit, local sources told WAFA. Ibrahim Hamad, director of the Salfit Directorate of Agriculture, told WAFA that Israeli soldiers manning one of the barrier’s gates, denied farmers access to their own lands for the annual olive harvest. The farmers had proper Israeli permits allowing them to cross through the gate, yet were still denied. Israeli army also denied access of more farmers to their lands, behind the segregation barrier near the village of Mas’ha, west of Salfit. Thousands of Palestinian families anxiously wait for the olive harvest season every year, which is often the main source of income for most families.
https://imemc.org/article/farmers-denied-entry-to-their-land-behind-israeli-apartheid-wall/
Soldiers invade stores, force them shut, in Al-‘Issawiya
IMEMC 28 Oct — Israeli soldiers invaded, on Sunday evening, the town of al-‘Issawiya, in occupied East Jerusalem, before storming many stores, and forced them to close. Media sources said the many army jeeps invaded the town, before the soldiers stopped and harassed many Palestinians, while inspecting their ID cards and searching them. They added that the soldiers invaded many shops in the town, and attacked several shop owners, before forcing them to close and leave. It worth mentioning that, on Sunday at dawn, the soldiers invaded and ransacked many homes in the town and abducted nine Palestinians. The town has been subject to constant invasions, the violent searches of homes and stores, in addition to the abduction of dozens of its residents, high fines and fees imposed on the Palestinians, and the demolition of homes and property.
https://imemc.org/article/soldiers-invade-stores-force-them-shut-in-al-isawiya/
Army causes family to suffer effects of teargas inhalation near Jerusalem
IMEMC 25 Oct — Israeli soldiers invaded, on Thursday evening, the al-Ezariyya town, southeast of occupied East Jerusalem, and attacked protesters, before firing gas bombs at them, and many surrounding homes, causing a family to suffer the effects of teargas inhalation. Medical sources said the soldiers fired many gas bombs at random, some striking a house in the town, causing the entire family to suffer the effects of teargas inhalation. They added that medics rushed to the home and provided the needed treatment to the wounded family. The soldiers also chased many youngsters in the town and withdrew later without abducting any Palestinians from the town.
https://imemc.org/article/army-causes-family-to-suffer-effects-of-teargas-inhalation-near-jerusalem/
Army closes main entrance of Al-‘Arroub refugee camp
IMEMC 28 Oct — Israeli soldiers closed, on Sunday evening, the main entrance of the al-‘Arroub refugee camp, north of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, and assaulted many Palestinian protesters. Media sources in Hebron said the soldiers closed the main entrance of the al-‘Arroub refugee camp, which links with the Jerusalem-Hebron road. They added that the soldiers prevented the Palestinians from entering or leaving the refugee camp, and closed the nearby junction, blocking traffic on the main road. Many Palestinians protested the invasion and the closure, and hurled stones at the soldiers who fired a barrage of gas bombs and concussion grenades, causing many Palestinians to suffer the effects of teargas inhalation.
In related news, the soldiers installed a sudden military roadblock at the main entrance of Hibla town, south of the northern West Bank city of Qalqilia, before stopping and searching many cars, and abducted one Palestinian, identified as Ibrahim Jamal Zeid, 21.
https://imemc.org/article/army-closes-main-entrance-of-al-arroub-refugee-camp/
Seriously wounded Palestinian woman hooked up to life support machines
IMEMC 31 Oct — The Palestinian Detainees Committee has reported that the Palestinian woman who was shot and seriously injured by Israeli army fire on Wednesday morning is currently in a very critical condition, and is hooked up to life support machines at an Israeli hospital. Karim Ajwa, a lawyer of the Committee, said that the wounded woman, Soheir Ahmad Islamiyah, 38, was moved by the soldiers to Shaare Zedek Medical Center, in occupied Jerusalem. Ajwa stated that he managed to see the seriously wounded woman at the Israeli hospital, and added that she is in a critical condition, currently dependent on life support machines at the Intensive Care Unit. He also said that the Ofar Israeli military court, near Ramallah in central West Bank, will be holding a hearing on the case of the wounded woman, this coming Sunday. It is worth mentioning that Soheir was shot and seriously injured\, on Wednesday morning near the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, in the southern part of the West Bank, after the army claimed she attempted to stab them. After shooting her, the soldiers prevented Palestinian medics from approaching her to provide her with urgently needed medical care, and later called for an Israeli ambulance and transferred her to Shaare Zedek. No soldiers were injured in the alleged stabbing attempt.
https://imemc.org/article/seriously-wounded-palestinian-woman-hooked-to-life-support-machines/
Israel rearrests Palestinian MP, daughter says
JERUSALEM (AFP) 31 Oct — Israeli forces on Thursday rearrested a Palestinian lawmaker who was freed in February after being held without trial for 20 months over links to an outlawed leftist group, her daughter said. “My mother Khalida Jarrar was arrested from our house in Ramallah” at about 3:00 am (0100 GMT), Jarrar’s daughter Yafa posted on Facebook. Spokespeople for Israel’s Shin Bet security service, which generally directs such arrests, could not immediately be reached for comment. Jarrar, 56, was previously arrested on July 2, 2017, for being a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a movement considered a terrorist organisation by Israel, the United States and the European Union. The Ramallah-based Palestinian Prisoners Club told AFP that Palestinian writer Ali Jaradat, a known PFLP member, was also arrested overnight, as well as 10 other people whose identities the club did not disclose. Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi condemned the arrests. “We strongly condemn the overnight raids of Ramallah, Bethlehem and other Palestinian cities by Israeli occupation forces and their targeted detention of several activists, including elected representative and political leader Khalida Jarrar,” she said. “This is the third time Israeli occupation forces detain Representative Khalida Jarrar, who is also a prominent human rights defender.” Jarrar is a member of the largely defunct Palestinian parliament where she represents the PFLP….
https://www.france24.com/en/20191031-israel-rearrests-palestinian-mp-daughter-says
Minor among 18 detained from West Bank
JERUSALEM, Wednesday, October 30, 2019 (WAFA) – Israeli forces overnight detained 18 Palestinians, including a minor and three siblings, and ransacked houses across the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS). PPS confirmed that Israeli forces detained four Palestinians from Beit Duqqu village, northwest of Jerusalem. It added that two other Palestinians, including a 14-year-old minor, were rounded up from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan …
Israeli forces frequently raid Palestinian houses almost on a daily basis across the West Bank on the pretext of searching for “wanted” Palestinians, triggering clashes with residents. These raids, which take place also in areas under the full control of the Palestinian Authority, are conducted with no need for a search warrant, whenever and wherever the military chooses in keeping with its sweeping arbitrary powers.
http://english.wafa.ps/page.aspx?id=Lv2EdRa113915316570aLv2EdR
Punitive demolition
VIDEO: Demolished Palestinian house becomes conflict symbol
AFP 1 Nov — The piles of rubble that Latifa Naji used to call home have become an unlikely symbol in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The two-storey cement home in the Al-Amari refugee camp in the occupied West Bank has been demolished by the Israeli army four times, most recently this month, as punishment for attacks carried out by the 71-year-old’s sons. For Palestinians the desire to keep rebuilding symbolises an ability to withstand Israeli collective punishment and a refusal to be forced from their homes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGGphV8TJuw
Prisoners / Bannings
Israeli guard fires tear gas into prisoner’s hospital room
EI 1 Nov by Tamara Nassar — An Israeli prison guard deployed to watch a hospitalized Palestinian prisoner reportedly fired tear gas into the intensive care unit room where the man was convalescing after treatment for injuries sustained during interrogation. The Hebrew newspaper Maariv reported that an Israel Prison Service guard “accidentally” emitted tear gas in Samer Arbeed’s room at the Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem earlier this month, requiring doctors to intervene. Maariv said the incident was never reported to the prison service.
Arbeed was hospitalized on 27 September following his interrogation by Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, the Shin Bet. But being hospitalized has not stopped his ordeal and Israeli prison authorities have continued to question Arbeed even while in the ICU. Prisoners rights group Addameer said Israel’s torture of Arbeed caused him pneumonia and eleven broken ribs, among other serious injuries, potentially making exposure to tear gas even more detrimental to his health condition. United Nations rights experts are calling on Israel to investigate claims of torture of Arbeed. Addameer’s Mahmoud Hassan, Arbeed’s lawyer, was not informed of the tear gas incident. In fact, the head of the ICU gave Hassan a medical report indicating that deterioration in Arbeed’s pulmonary system was due to a “contamination,” Addameer stated. Israel extended Arbeed’s detention by eight days during a court session held at the ICU on 22 October after he was gassed. Hassan was barred from attending that session as well. The Shin Bet accuses Arbeed of involvement in the killing of Israeli teen Rina Shnerb.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israeli-guards-fire-tear-gas-prisoners-hospital-room
Four administrative detainees still on hunger strike
IMEMC/Agencies 18 Oct — Four Palestinian administrative detainees held by Israel remain on hunger strike against their indefinite incarceration without charge or trial, including one who has been consistently refusing food for 97 days in a row, the Palestinian Prisoners Commission said, today. Ismail Ali, from Abu Dis, to the east of Jerusalem, has been on hunger strike for 97 days, today. The Israeli High Court, yesterday, rejected his petition for release. The commission said that Ali’s health has seriously deteriorated, due to his long fast. Another administrative detainee, Hiba Labadi, a Jordanian citizen who has been on hunger strike for 35 days, also in protest against her administrative detention without charge or trial, was transferred to hospital following a deterioration in her health, said the Prisoners Commission … A third hunger striker, Ahmad Zahran, who has been fasting for 37 days, has had his administrative detention order extended by four more months, two days before his current one was supposed to end. The fourth is Musab Hindi, who has been on hunger strike for 35 days, also demanding his release from administrative detention.
https://imemc.org/article/four-administrative-detainees-still-on-hunger-strike/
Israel issues travel ban against Amnesty campaigner from West Bank
MEE 31 Oct by Areeb Ullah — Israel has issued a travel ban against a Palestinian campaigner for Amnesty International amid a growing Israeli crackdown on human rights groups inside the West Bank and Gaza Strip. On 26 October, Israeli authorities stopped Laith Abu Zeyad, Amnesty’s campaigner on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), from leaving the West Bank to attend a relative’s funeral in Jordan. Zeyad was forced to wait at the Allenby Bridge on the Israeli border with Jordan for four hours before being told he was banned from travelling abroad by Israeli intelligence for “security reasons”, Amnesty said in a press release on Thursday. In September, he was denied a humanitarian permit to accompany his mother to Jerusalem for cancer treatment also on the grounds of “security reasons” which were not disclosed to him at the time. Kumi Naidoo, secretary-general of Amnesty International, condemned the travel ban and described Israeli authorities’ claim to have security reasons for banning Zeyad as “totally absurd”. “Their failure to provide any details to justify the ban reveals its true intent. This is a sinister move imposed as punishment for his work defending human rights of Palestinians,” Naidoo said in a statement….
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-issues-travel-ban-against-amnesty-international-campaigner-west-bank
Gaza
1 dead as Israel hits Gaza after rockets fired across border
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) 1 Nov by Fares Akram — Israeli airstrikes on Gaza killed a Palestinian man Saturday as aircraft pounded militant sites in response to barrages of rockets launched toward Israel from the seaside enclave. The exchange of fire shattered a monthlong lull across the volatile frontier. Gaza’s Health Ministry said Ahmed Mohammad al-Shehri, 27, died from shrapnel injuries during the Israeli bombings that continued through the early hours of Saturday. He was among three men who sustained moderate or serious wounds from one of the airstrikes. Witnesses at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis said the three were sitting in an orchard adjacent to one of the militant posts that was hit. In a statement, the Israeli military said its warplanes targeted military compounds affiliated with Gaza’s Hamas rulers. The targets included weapons manufacturing and storage facilities, a naval base and a compound serving Hamas’ aerial defense array …
Late on Friday, two barrages of 10 rockets were launched into southern Israel within minutes, causing damage to a house. There were no reports of casualties. Israeli police said shrapnel damaged a house in the southern town of Sderot and video footage showed a car near the structure with windows blown out by debris.The Israeli military said seven rockets were fired in the first incident and the Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted them. Minutes later, three rockets were launched and only one was intercepted. No Palestinian groups claimed responsibility for the rocket fire. Israel blames Hamas for any fire from the enclave.
http://www.wboc.com/story/41262315/1-dead-as-israel-hits-gaza-after-rockets-fired-across-border
81st GMR: IOF shot and injured 144 Palestinian civilians, including 53 children, 3 women, 2 paramedics and a journalist
PCHR 1 Nov — …The increased number of injuries in this week’s GMR protest reflects an escalation in IOF use of excessive force, as 73 civilians sustained live bullet injuries – including 4 in critical condition – in addition to other injuries by rubber bullets and tear gas canisters, mainly in protesters’ upper bodies. Today’s protest was titled “Down with the Balfour Declaration” as it coincided with its 102nd anniversary. The Balfour Declaration was made by former British Foreign Affairs Secretary Arthur Balfour declaring “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” Large crowds participated in the protest, as thousands of civilians joined across the 5 GMR encampments raising the Palestinian flag and chanting. The protests lasted from 14:00 to 18:30 and involved speeches and folklore performances. Hundreds of civilians protested at varied distances from the Gaza border with Israel, where some protestors set tires attempted to throw stones, Molotov Cocktails and firecrackers at IOF, who responded with live and rubber bullets as well as tear gas canisters …
The following is a summary of today’s events along the Gaza Strip border:
Northern Gaza Strip: IOF shot and injured 47 civilians, including 20 children, 2 women and a paramedic: 24 with live bullets and shrapnel; 19 with rubber bullets; and 4 were hit with tear gas canisters. Shady Fayez Awadallah Awadallah (33), a paramedic, was shot with a rubber bullet in his right leg. Also, Moath Mohammed Mohammed Abu-Amira (25) was shot in the head with a live bullet; he is in extremely critical condition…
Rafah: IOF shot and injured 39 civilians, including 10 children and a journalist; three injuries were deemed critical: 27 with live bullets and shrapnel, 8 with rubber bullets and 4 were hit with tear gas canisters. Abdulrahman Mohammed Deeb al-Khatib (42), a freelance journalist, sustained a rubber-bullet wound to his right arm. Ahmed Jum’a al-Lolahy (20) and Mohammed Saleh Ahmed Abu-Jarbou‘ (20) were shot in their lower extremities with live bullets, and Mahmoud Abdulrahman Ramadan Abu-Taim (18) sustained a live bullet to the head; all three are in critical condition….
https://pchrgaza.org/en/?p=13128
Health officials say Gaza teen electrocuted during rainfall
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) 26 Oct — Gaza’s Health Ministry says a Palestinian teenager has been electrocuted after touching an electric pole outside his home during heavy rains. Local emergency crews identified the boy Saturday as Mahmoud al-Belbisi, 16. Palestinian authorities in the coastal enclave said they were prepared for a rare hurricane-like weather system that was expected to hit the eastern part of the Mediterranean on Saturday. The system lessened but still resulted in heavy rain. Gaza, ruled by the militant Hamas group and blockaded by Israel and Egypt, has rundown infrastructure and residents are vulnerable to such mishaps. Health officials said the teenager touched the electric pole in a puddle and died immediately. Photos showed people using ropes and wood sticks to drag the body away from the pole.
https://apnews.com/6354ebaa599f484799d72cc350eed729
Israeli soldier sentenced over killing of Gaza teen
Al Jazeera 31 Oct — An Israeli military court sentenced a soldier to one month of the military’s equivalent of community service over the killing of a Palestinian teenager after he opened fire without authorisation. The unnamed soldier was convicted on Monday for “acting without authorisation in a manner endangering to life and wellbeing”, it said in a statement. Othman Rami Halles, 15, was shot dead during protests by the Israel fence east of the Gaza Strip on July 13, 2018, the Palestinian health ministry said at the time. A video shared by the Defense for Children rights organisation showed Halles standing by the separation fence near several women and children holding up Palestinian flags. Halles is then seen attempting to climb the fence before he was shot in the torso, falling down (see video) … This is the first time an Israeli soldier has been convicted over the killing of a Palestinian involved in the weekly Gaza demonstrations, a spokesman for Jerusalem-based human rights organisation B’Tselem told dpa news agency on Wednesday. After a plea bargain, the court sentenced the soldier to 30 days in prison with military labour and a suspended term of another 60 days, and he was demoted to the rank of private. The investigation had found no evidence of a “causal link between the soldier’s fire” and the teenager’s death, the army said.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/israeli-soldier-sentenced-killing-gaza-teen-191031090537481.html
Israeli military strikes Gaza after rocket attack
JERUSALEM (AP) 31 Oct — The Israeli military says it has struck targets in the Gaza Strip in response to a Palestinian rocket attack. The army said that tank and aircraft fire struck two Hamas military posts in northern Gaza. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Earlier Thursday, the army said a single rocket was fired toward Israel from Gaza. There were no reports of damage or injuries on the Israeli side.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/israeli-military-strikes-gaza-after-rocket-attack/2019/10/31/222367fa-fc1b-11e9-9e02-1d45cb3dfa8f_story.html
Polluted water leading cause of child mortality in Gaza, report says
[behind paywall] Haaretz 16 Oct by Yaniv Kubovich — Illness caused by water pollution is a leading cause of child mortality in the Gaza Strip, says a study by the RAND Corporation, a copy of which was obtained by Haaretz. The study shows that water pollution accounts for more than a quarter of illnesses in Gaza and that more than 12 percent of child deaths up until four years ago was linked to gastrointestinal disorders due to water pollution. Since that time these numbers have continued to grow. The collapse of water infrastructure has led to a sharp rise in germs and viruses such as rotavirus, cholera and salmonella, the report says … Today 97 percent of drinking water in the Strip is not drinkable by any recognized international standard … The study shows Gaza schools have one toilet per 75 pupils and one sink for washing hands per 80. Most of this water is either recycled or from a reservoir. As a result, the very presence of children in these schools puts them at risk of contracting gastrointestinal diseases. Schools, public buildings and hospitals are only cleaned when necessary in order to conserve water. Hospital staff only wash their hands when it’s essential and not on a regular basis when going from one patient to another, in order to conserve the water for life-saving treatment. The researchers estimate that within two years, even the isolated sources of water used today will cease to operate without proper maintenance….
https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/.premium.MAGAZINE-polluted-water-a-leading-cause-of-gazan-child-mortality-says-rand-corp-study-1.6566812
A hug of death
EI 14 Oct by Hamza Abu Eltarabesh — Muhammad Jarada was walking home from work when he saw a man hop off his motorbike and hug a police officer. A moment later, Jarada was knocked down by the force of an explosion; everything seemed to go completely dark. “When I realized what had happened, I saw there were bodies of police officers on the ground,” Jarada, a carpenter, said. “I ran to my house immediately.” The incident occurred on the evening of 28 August. The man on the motorbike has subsequently been named as Abdulaziz al-Hajjaj, aged 26. He blew himself up after embracing Alaa al-Gharabli, a 32-year-old police officer then staffing a checkpoint at al-Dahdouh crossroads in the Tel al-Hawa area of Gaza City … Abdulaziz al-Hajjaj had been suspected by the Gaza authorities of supporting Islamic State. He had been detained earlier this year for making explosive material but was released following a short period, according to Gaza’s interior ministry. The attack he carried out was one of two suicide bombings on 28 August. The second took place less than an hour later …
Islamic State’s branch in the Sinai – a region of Egypt that borders Gaza – reportedly declared war on Hamas last year. A video attributed to Islamic State accused Hamas, which oversees Gaza’s administration, of apostasy because it has participated in elections. Eyad al-Buzom, a spokesperson for Gaza’s interior ministry, said that some arrests have been made since the bombings occurred in August. The authorities are investigating the likelihood that Islamic State has recruited a group in Gaza via the Internet. The sources of funding to the group are also being probed….
https://electronicintifada.net/content/hug-death/28656
Palestinian journalist Bassem Moheisen detained by Hamas forces in Gaza since October 23
Beirut, 1 Nov — Hamas security forces should immediately release journalist Bassam Mohammad Moheisen, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On October 23, officers of the Hamas-affiliated Internal Security Forces arrested Moheisen, a reporter for the Palestinian National Authority-affiliated Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation in Gaza, at the forces’ headquarters west of Gaza City after the journalist responded to a summons, according to a statement by Moheisen’s employer and news reports. The journalist’s family has not been able to visit him in detention, and authorities have not announced any charges or reason for the arrest, his brother Baha Moheisen told the regional press freedom group Skeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom. “Hamas authorities in Gaza have again demonstrated how low press freedom ranks in their priorities,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Representative Ignacio Miguel Delgado. “Hamas forces must immediately release Bassem Moheisen and allow journalists to do their jobs freely and without fear of reprisal.” In a statement published on Facebook on October 25, the Fatah-affiliated Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate said that Moheisen had been arrested for his posts on social media….
https://cpj.org/2019/11/palestinian-journalist-bassam-moheisen-detained-by.php
Desperate work for desperate people
EI 15 Oct by Amjad Ayman Yaghi — On 5 May, Israeli airplanes struck targets in Gaza. The bombings came with the usual tragic consequences: 25 Palestinains were killed, among them 14 civilians. Four Israeli civilians also died in rocket fire from Gaza. It was one of those “spikes in tensions” that for the briefest of moments shines a media spotlight on Gaza.
That spotlight didn’t stay long enough to see what else happened. As calm returned, a contractor, Muhammad Abu Jebah, gathered together a group of laborers to extract metal from the rubble of the Abu Qamar building, which was destroyed in one of the bombing raids. Abu Jebah thinks of it as a new industry, one that arose after Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli attack on Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009, and one that illustrates the lengths to which Palestinians in Gaza have to go to survive. Trucks and bulldozers move in first to clear the rubble. Then a team of men filter through the building to smash concrete and extract the metal inside. Once that is done, they realign the metal and reconstitute any large stones. It is backbreaking hand-scarring work. It is also potentially toxic, according to environmentalists. But it is necessary since Israel is prohibiting steel and other building materials from entering Gaza. “Most of the men working for me feed a dozen or so relatives,” Abu Jebah told The Electronic Intifada …
According to Ahmed Hilles, an environmental scientist at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, material from destroyed buildings can contain pollutants that are hazardous both to people and the environment. Hilles has done some testing on samples of the concrete in the rubble. He found traces of nickel, lead and arsenic, as well as explosive materials….
https://electronicintifada.net/content/desperate-work-desperate-people/28626
Palestinian fisherman cashes in on monster tuna haul off Gaza coast
Times of Israel 31 Oct by Adam Rasgon — A Palestinian fisherman had an unexpected windfall when he caught two large tuna fish off the coast of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, which he sold for a total of NIS 5,000 ($1,417), a union official said. The tuna fish weighed in at 80 (176 lb) and 160 kilograms (353 lb), respectively, according to Nizar Ayyash, the head of the Fishermen’s Union in the territory. “He made the catch in the deep waters,” Ayyash told The Times of Israel. “That is where the tuna is located.” In recent months Israel has extended the range that Gazans can fish to as far as 12 nautical miles off the coast, giving fishermen access to the tuna. Pictures posted on social media showed a group of Palestinians crowding around one of the tuna fish. For part of the summer, Israel frequently increased and decreased the size of the permitted fishing zone off the coast of the enclave, which Palestinian fishermen decried as a policy of collective punishment. At the time, Israeli security officials said the amendments were a response to the increases and decreases in arson balloons and, in some cases, rockets that Palestinians in Gaza had launched into Israel.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinian-fisherman-cashes-in-on-tuna-catch-off-gaza-coast/
Israel still preventing exit of processed foods for sale from Gaza
MEMO 31 Oct — Israeli authorities are still preventing the exit of processed foods for sale outside of the occupied Gaza Strip, reported freedom of movement NGO Gisha yesterday. In a press release, Gisha announced that it had written a letter this week demanding that Israel’s Health Ministry “take immediate action to institute clear procedures and guidelines for coordinating the transfer of processed foods from Gaza for sale in the West Bank”. Gisha has also demanded that the State Attorney’s Office “examine why in the past six months the Health Ministry has failed to respond to multiple inquiries by Gisha on behalf of Gaza manufacturers attempting to market their products in the West Bank.” Since June 2007, in the context of an ongoing, crippling blockade, Israel has effectively banned the exit of processed foods from the Gaza Strip for sale in the occupied West Bank, Israel and abroad. In late 2018, the Israeli government responded to a Gisha-filed petition by arguing that no prohibition exists – but “also admitted to not having established a mechanism to allow for coordination of this process in compliance with Ministry of Health requirements”….
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191031-israel-still-preventing-exit-of-processed-foods-for-sale-from-gaza/
IVF births boom in the Gaza Strip of Palestine
TRT WORLD 30 Oct by Eleonora Vio — With the size of a family tied to social status and growing infertility – not to mention politicians keen to win support by offering couples what they most desire – IVF has become big business in the Gaza Strip The hangar is filled to the brim and the agitation is palpable. More than 6,000 couples from every corner of the Gaza Strip joined the contest. Only a hundred will be chosen. On one side, men smoke and laugh, their gaze fixed on the organisers. Across from them are women covered in long cloaks, enjoying trays full of sweet and savory snacks with hesitance. Someone makes a call for silence and a young man walks up the stage and starts picking little notes from a bowl. And the announcement “the next beneficiaries of the free In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) will be…” follows. “When I heard our names, I couldn’t believe it,” says 34-year-old Omar a year later, as he lightly touches his wife’s leg. “It may sound like a hazard to have children in these poor conditions,” he continues, giving us enough time to notice that he lives in a dark and bare space along with his 30-year-old wife Warda and another 27 family members. “But life without kids is meaningless and Allah will help us.”….
https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/ivf-births-boom-in-the-gaza-strip-of-palestine-30969
Land, property theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Settlements
Peace Now says Israeli approved construction of 2,342 settler homes in West Bank
i24NEWS/AFP 31 Oct — NGO says move increases number of housing units approved by almost 100% since US President Trump elected — Israel has approved the construction of 2,342 settler homes in the West Bank, settlement watchdog Peace Now said on Thursday. It said the decision was taken on October 10 and that 59 percent of the new homes will be erected in “settlements that Israel likely may evacuate under a peace agreement” with the Palestinians. According to Peace Now, which closely monitors Israeli settlement building, plans for 8,337 housing units in the settlements have been approved since the beginning of the year. It said this represented an increase of close to 50 percent compared with 2018 when plans for 5,618 housing units were approved. “This brings the average number of housing units approved in the three years since President Trump was elected, to 6,899 housing units, almost twice the average in the three years preceding them,” the NGO said … “Netanyahu continues to sabotage the possibility of a political agreement with the Palestinians by promoting more settlement construction in the West Bank, including in places where Israel may have to evacuate as part of a future agreement,” Peace Now said.
https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/1572534913-peace-now-says-israel-approved-construction-of-2-342-settler-homes-in-west-bank
Israel displaces Araqib villagers in Negev for 165th time
IMEMC/Agencies 31 Oct — The Israeli authorities Tuesday evening demolished all structures in the Palestinian Bedouin village of Araqib, in the Negev desert, for the 165th consecutive time, displacing its residents again. According to local sources, Israeli police forces and employees from the Bedouin development authority, which is responsible for such demolitions, stormed the village and forcibly removed the residents from their homes before wreaking havoc on everything. Police forces arrested Sheikh Sayyah Attouri, chief of the village, who has been arrested more than once before during similar demolition campaigns. The police also arrested his son, Aziz, but later released him and ordered him for interrogation on Thursday. Recently, the Israeli authorities indicted Sheikh Attouri and two of his sons as well as local activist Saleem Attouri over different claims, including illegal construction and appropriation of state land. The Israeli authorities also imposed exorbitant financial penalties on the Araqib villagers in recent times.
Araqib is one of several “unrecognized” Bedouin villages in the Negev desert. The demolition of this, and other villages in the Negev is a systematic Israeli policy aimed at expelling the native population from the Negev, and forcing them into government-zoned areas to pave the way to expand and build new settlements for Jewish-only communities.
https://imemc.org/article/israel-displaces-araqib-villagers-in-negev-for-165th-time/
Israeli military prepares to demolish rooms in south of West Bank
HEBRON, Sunday, October 27, 2019 (WAFA) – The Israeli military ordered the Palestinian dwellers of five rooms in a village in Masafer Yatta in the south of the West Bank to evacuate them in preparation to demolish them, according to a local activist. Rateb Jabour, from the anti-wall, anti-settlements movement in the south of the West Bank, told WAFA that an army force raided Maghayer al-Abeed village and informed Shehadeh Salameh Shehadeh, his three sons and their families, as well as their mother, to evacuate their separated rooms they use as dwelling in order to demolish them. He said the family was not handed any written order, but was informed only verbally. Masafer Yatta is located in Area C of the occupied West Bank
http://english.wafa.ps/page.aspx?id=ckrs4La113888667486ackrs4L
Six Palestinians receive demolition notices
IMEMC/Agencies 30 Oct — Israeli forces, Tuesday, notified six Palestinians of their intention to demolish their homes in Kobar town, north of Ramallah city, according to a municipal source. Izzat Badwan, the mayor of Kobar, said that an Israeli military force, along with officers of the so-called ‘Israeli Civil Administration’, an arm of the Israeli military government, stormed the town in the early morning hours, where they handed six residents notices to demolish their homes under the pretext of being constructed in Area C. Badwan noted that two of the houses slated for demolition are inhabited, whereas the four others are under construction. He confirmed that the Israeli military force exited the town and remained deployed at the outskirts of the town before raiding it once again. During the resulting confrontations, soldiers opened fire towards local children and youth, who protested the raid, causing some to suffocate from tear gas.
https://imemc.org/article/six-palestinians-receive-demolition-notices/
Israeli forces storm Palestinian school in West Bank, confiscating mobile cafeteria
MEE 28 Oct by Shatha Hammad — Israeli forces raided a school in the village of Dahr al-Maleh in the West Bank, demolished its wall and confiscated a mobile container that was used as a cafeteria on Monday, the head of the village council told Middle East Eye. Israeli forces stormed into the village at 6.30am, smashing through the gates of the primary school and breaking down its doors, Omar al-Khatib said. The Dahr Al Maleh Elementary Mixed School, located south of Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank, has been under constant threat of being demolished and has not been granted permission for any construction on its premises. Due to the lack of space, parents donated a mobile container for the school to utilise as a cafeteria and kitchen, according to Khatib. Israeli troops confiscated tools, a refrigerator, gas stove, cleaning equipment and stationery, he said. The school also known as “Tahaddi (Challenge) 17 School” opened in January, with Italian support. It has 38 students aged five to 15 years old and employs eight teachers … Israeli authorities claim the school is outside the structural plan demarcated for the village, although its foundation is only 20 metres off the plan, Khatib said … The village of Dhar al-Maleh is located behind the separation wall, in place since 2002. Access is strictly restricted by checkpoints and Israeli occupying forces permit only residents and landowners to enter the village, causing significant isolation….
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-forces-demolish-school-jenin-confiscate-cafeteria
As Palestinians build schools in Area C of West Bank, Israel issues demolition orders against them
BETHLEHEM, Wednesday, October 30, 2019 (WAFA) – The Palestinian government and the European Union (EU) inaugurated today Al Aqban Elementary Mixed School in Al Aqban Village in the Bethlehem district in the south of the West Bank but located in the area designated as C, which is under full Israeli military rule. At the same time, the Ministry of Education denounced today Israeli plans to demolish another school in Area C also in the south of the West Bank. It said in a statement that the Israeli military issued a demolition order against Simia Elementary Mixed School built in the Samoa area south of Hebron and attended by 40 students, describing the order as a crime and a violation of all international laws and conventions. Speaking at the Al Aqban school inauguration ceremony, Minister of Local Government Majdi Al Saleh said the area referred to as “C” is Palestinian land and an essential part of the Palestinian state without which there will be no stability or peace … Acting EU Representative Thomas Nicholson pointed out that Al-Aqban School is one of the largest schools funded by the European Union in the areas named “C” for an amount of 750,000 euros. The school has a total area of 1200 square meters and will serve more than 250 students.
http://english.wafa.ps/page.aspx?id=1k0u7ya113921027088a1k0u7y
Israel to establish waste-to-energy plant in illegal West Bank settlement
MEMO 31 Oct — Israeli occupation authorities are set to establish a waste-to-energy plant in Ma’ale Adumim, a major illegal settlement in the central West Bank, according to human rights NGO B’Tselem, “unlawfully exploiting Palestinian territory for its own needs”. Earlier this month, the Israeli government issued a tender for the establishment of the plant, at an estimated cost of some one billion shekels ($284 million). B’Tselem noted that while such a development appears “ecologically positive”, building the plant in the West Bank is violation of “the prohibition in international law on exploiting resources in an occupied territory for the benefit of the occupying power”. Furthermore, the human rights group added, “if established, the plant will be built without taking the Palestinian population of the West Bank and its views on the matter into account.” The plant will be located close to the Mishor Adumim industrial park, between occupied East Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, within the jurisdiction of Ma’ale Adumim settlement. Near the site are “small, isolated Palestinian shepherd communities”….
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191031-israel-to-establish-waste-to-energy-plant-in-illegal-west-bank-settlement/
Palestinian storm settlement outpost in West Bank
RAMALLAH (Asharq Al-Awsat) 27 Oct — Palestinian and foreign activists stormed on Saturday an Israeli settlement outpost in the northern Jordan Valley in the West Bank. They removed the Israeli flag and raised a Palestinian one before the Israeli army intervened, detaining three activists. Settlers had set up the outpost two years ago in Bardala village, located in the Jordan Valley, and called it “Salit.” “We broke into the outpost, and we had a chance to remove the Israeli flag and raise the Palestinian flag,” Abdullah Abu Rahma, an anti-settlement activist, told AFP. “So far, the Israeli army is holding three of the activists who participated with us,” Abu Rahma noted. The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said the army detained seven journalists who were present at the scene.
https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1963831/palestinians-storm-settlement-outpost-west-bank
Charity to protest West Bank land buys
The Forward 31 oct by Aiden Pink — The largest Jewish denomination in the United States is turning down a donation from an iconic Israeli charity, alleging that the charity tricked the movement by buying and then hiding land purchases in the West Bank. Keren Kayemet LeYisrael-Jewish National Fund is probably best known in the United States for its famous blue tzedakah box and for planting trees in the Holy Land. The quasi-governmental organization is also a major owner and purchaser of land throughout Israel, and the Union of Reform Judaism has long supported it. Yet on Tuesday, URJ president Rick Jacobs published a series of tweets accusing the charity of “deceiving the board of directors and most senior leaders in the organization.” … Reform representatives – who have for decades sat on the KKL-JNF board and approved new CEOs – claimed to have discovered that a KKL-JNF subsidiary had purchased more than 50 million shekels ($14 million) worth of land in politically-sensitive West Bank areas like Jericho and Hebron, Israeli journalist Raviv Drucker reported earlier this week. What’s more, the movement claims that those purchases were hidden from Reform representatives on the KKL board….
https://forward.com/news/israel/434031/reform-jewish-urj-kkl-jnf-jewish-national-fund-israel-west-bank/
‘Zionism won’: Adelsons hail opening of controversial medical school in West Bank
[behind paywall] Haaretz 28 Oct by Shira Kadari-Ovadia — Despite obstacles, the philanthropist couple joined students and officials to celebrate the start of the academic year as the university tries to fight its reputation as a ‘settler’ institution — ...[Miriam Adelson] spoke of lofty ideals such as Zionism, Jewish pride, and love of the land. She made it clear how important the day was for her and her husband. Dr. Adelson referred to a quote from the post-biblical Jewish sages about how the Land of Israel is acquired through tribulation and made reference to those who tried to prevent the opening of the school….
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-zionism-won-adelsons-hail-opening-of-controversial-medical-school-in-west-bank-1.8032370
BDS
Panic over BDS reaches fever pitch
EI 30 Oct by Barry Trachtenberg — The Czech parliament’s decision to pass a resolution condemning the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions movement as anti-Semitic last week is only the most recent example of how the panic over BDS has reached a fever pitch. This latest round of attempts to stop public criticism of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians began in Britain in May. Jeremy Hunt, at the time foreign secretary and running for the leadership of the Conservative Party, attacked supporters of BDS by declaring that “boycotting Israel – the world’s only Jewish state – is anti-Semitic.” Far more unnerving, Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, passed a resolution that same month that condemned BDS as inherently anti-Semitic …
In the United States, anxiety over BDS is just as palpable and extends to any perceived slight against the Jewish people. By the start of the summer, 27 individual states had already adopted anti-BDS legislation or executive orders. When New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in June referred to the appalling detention centers in the southern US holding migrants seeking asylum as “concentration camps,” she was met with a storm of protest. She was accused of denigrating the Holocaust and, by extension, the sensitivities of the Jewish people … In late July, the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed its own resolution condemning BDS in a 398-to-17 vote…
Now it is common to hear reports that a “new anti-Semitism” typified by the BDS movement threatens to endanger Jews on a scale not seen since the World War II and the Nazi Holocaust … Although these comments profess to alert us to a looming catastrophe, they are motivated less by any tangible threat than they are part of a persistent campaign to prevent discussions that are critical toward Israel’s treatment of Palestinians….
https://electronicintifada.net/content/panic-over-bds-reaches-fever-pitch/28786
Norway’s capital says it won’t buy Israeli settlement goods
EI 28 Oct by Ali Abunimah — Norway’s capital is banning goods and services from Israeli settlements from public contracts. The ban on purchases from Israel’s colonies on occupied Palestinian land is contained in the platform of the Oslo city council’s new ruling coalition. In their 2019-2023 plan, the Socialist Left, Green and Labor parties commit to ensuring that public procurement does not include “goods and services produced on territory occupied in violation of international law by companies operating under the permission of the occupying power.” Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Syria’s Golan Heights is a war crime. “The Palestinian people, who have to deal with the illegal occupation of their territory every single day, deserve international attention and support,” Sunniva Eidsvoll, leader of the Socialist Left Party in the Oslo city council, said. “It is a shared global responsibility to help ensure that human rights and international law are not violated.” “I am proud that the Oslo city council is now taking steps to prevent goods and services purchased by the city from supporting an illegal occupation of Palestine or other territories,” Eidsvoll added. The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the steering group for the global boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign, welcomed the move.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/norways-capital-says-it-wont-buy-israeli-settlement-goods
Opinion: Puma keeps helping Israel sports-wash its human rights abuses / Aya Khattab
Al Jazeera 27 Oct — Companies like Puma which back Israeli sport associations purposefully ignore the oppression of Palestinian athletes — Ever since I started playing football as a young girl, I dreamed of making it to the Palestinian national women’s football team. And I did! I made my way up through the ranks, starting on the U-16 team, and I am now a defender on the national team. But realising my dream meant not only hard work, but also facing yet another side of Israel’s oppressive military rule and system of racial discrimination. Being an athlete in Palestine is not easy. Here, it is not possible to say the game is above politics or conflict … We are constantly subjected to humiliating searches at military checkpoints when we travel for training sessions or events. Our matches get interrupted and raided by armed soldiers. Our pitches get swallowed by ever-expanding illegal settlements and our stadiums destroyed by Israeli bombs …
Last year, global sportswear manufacturer Puma signed a four-year sponsorship deal with the Israel Football Association (IFA). The IFA includes teams from Israel’s illegal settlements which are built on land stolen from Palestinian families in violation of international law … Puma’s sponsorship of the IFA, and the international legitimacy that it grants, signal to Israel’s racist far-right regime that its expansion of illegal settlements by pushing Palestinian families off their ancestral lands can continue with impunity….
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/puma-helping-israel-sports-wash-human-rights-abuses-191025123042055.html
Other news
MADA denounces recent wave of violations against Palestinian journalists
IMEMC/Agencies 28 Oct — The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) has condemned the recent wave of violations against a number of Palestinian journalists. Some of these violations were committed by Israeli occupation forces, while the other violations – especially the abduction of several journalists – were carried out by Palestinian security services, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israeli forces detained five Palestinian journalists on Sunday (26/10/2019), while they were covering a peaceful protest against settlements and Israeli attacks in the area of “Al-Himma” in the northern Jordan Valley, east of Tubas. Later, the journalists were transferred to the settlement of “Ariel”, which is located in the lands of Salfit. The journalists were interrogated individually, on the pretext of “being in a closed military zone, participating in an illegal activity and obstructing the work of Israeli soldiers.” Moreover, the Israeli interrogators took the journalists’ fingerprints and photographs, and, after about 15 hours of detention, they were released. However, the equipment belonging to the journalists was not returned to them …
Before this, two Palestinian journalists were injured by Israeli rubber-coated metal bullets while they were covering two separate events in Ramallah and Nablus. Also, three Palestinian journalists were assaulted by Israeli soldiers while covering a march against settlements in the town of Turmus ‘Ayya, near Ramallah.
In parallel, Palestinian security services in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have recently detained and are still holding four journalists….
https://imemc.org/article/mada-denounces-recent-wave-of-violations-against-palestinian-journalists/
Palestinian court orders block of dozens of news websites and Facebook pages
BEIRUT 25 Oct — The Palestinian National Authority should immediately lift a ban on dozens of news websites and Facebook pages, and allow news outlets in the country to publish freely online, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On October 17, the Ramallah Magistrate Court ordered local internet service providers to block access to at least 25 news websites within the West Bank and Gaza, following a request from the Palestinian attorney general’s office, according to reports from the regional press freedom group Skeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom, the Palestinian online rights organization Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, and the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate. Nadim Nashif, director of the Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, and Louay Ghoul, director of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate in Gaza, confirmed to CPJ that the block was in effect in the West Bank and Gaza. CPJ received mixed reports from Gaza, with at least two users able to access some of the pages that were ordered to be blocked. CPJ was able to access the pages from the United States and Lebanon. The order was issued under Article 39 of the Palestinian cybercrime law. … The blocked news websites include pro-Hamas outlets, organizations supportive of Palestinian politician Mohammad Dahlan, and independent news outlets, according to those reports. A list of the banned websites published by local news website Al-Watan Voice includes:….
https://cpj.org/2019/10/palestinian-court-blocks-dozens-of-news-websites-a.php
Palestinian anti-PA activist says Facebook closed his popular page
Times of Israel 29 Oct by Adam Rasgon — A well-known Palestinian activist critical of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says that Facebook has taken down his page, which had approximately 998,000 followers. Fadi Elsalameen said on Monday that Facebook unpublished his page in late September, but did not inform him why it made the move. Elsalameen, 35, is originally from as-Samu, a village south of Hebron, but he currently lives in Washington, DC. He has been accused of being close to exiled Fatah member and Abbas rival Mohammed Dahlan, but he has adamantly denied the claim. “The page criticized corruption in the Palestinian Authority and freedom of speech violations against Palestinians,” Elsalameen told The Times of Israel in a phone interview. “The page also asked critical questions: Why have we not had presidential elections in 15 years? Why do young people and women not have a greater role in politics?” A Fatah official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, contended that the page had consistently made false allegations against Palestinian officials … A teacher in Hebron said Elsalemeen’s page was widely followed by many in the West Bank … Elsalameen also said that he has hired a lawyer in the US in an effort to restore the page….
https://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinian-anti-pa-activist-says-facebook-closed-his-popular-page/
Palestinians seek economic disengagement through West Bank port
RAMALLAH (Al-Monitor) 31 Oct by Aziza Nofal — Hussein al-Sheikh, the head of the General Authority for Civil Affairs, discussed the establishment of a land port in the West Bank during a meeting with the private sector at the Ramallah and al-Bireh Chamber of Commerce and Industry Oct. 7. The land port would receive goods entering the Palestinian territories from Israeli ports. “There is an Israeli agreement to establish this port, but on their terms, which has delayed its establishment so far,” Sheikh said. He added that Israel would only allow the entry of certain goods. The Palestinian side rejected this and demanded customs clearance for all goods imported by Palestinian traders to this port. This problem is not new. The Palestinian-Israeli agreement in September 2012 to establish this port also ended in failure and without an agreement on the location of the port. This time, however, Sheikh said if the port was established it would be in the town of Tarqumiyah, where the Palestinian Authority’s Palestinian Industrial Estates and Free Zones Authority (PIEFZA) is located, and it would be affiliated with the Tarqumiyah industrial zone….
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2019/10/land-port-west-bank-israel-economic-disengagement.html
Augusta Victoria Hospital out of service; PA refuses to pay debts
IMEMC/Agencies 28 Oct — Augusta Victoria Hospital (AVH), in occupied Jerusalem, Sunday evening, launched a distress call entitled “The Future of AVH Hospital is in Danger,” which has reached a dead end, according to administration. The hospital said, in a statement, that the Palestinian government did not transfer any funds to the hospital and refuses to pay its debts, which have now reached NIS 200 million. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtayah said, Sunday afternoon, that the Ministry of Finance transferred NIS 20 million. The director general of the hospital, Walid Namour, said that there were no medicines, and that the hospital is incapable of providing treatment services, calling for immediate funds to buy medicine. Namour added that the NIS 20 million in question had not reached the hospital, and, even if it did, only constitutes only 10% of the debt. Dozens of patients, especially cancer patients, some of them from Gaza, complained of the hospital’s refusal to treat them because of the debt crisis, and the lack of cancer drugs in the hospital. He noted, according to Al Ray Palestinian Media Agency, that the pharmaceutical companies specializing in cancer treatment, and a number of other serious diseases, have stopped dealing with the hospital.
https://imemc.org/article/augusta-victoria-hospital-out-of-service-pa-refuses-to-pay-debts/
Gaza’s Hamas says ready for Palestinian elections
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) 28 Oct — Gaza’s Hamas rulers say they’re ready to hold Palestinian elections — a potentially significant step that could help end a 12-year rift with the rival Palestinian Authority. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh made the announcement Monday after a meeting with the head of the Palestinian Central Election Commission, Hanna Nasser. However, there was no indication whether the meeting overcame the obstacles that have scuttled similar pledges in the past. The Islamic militant group Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006. The following year, the group seized control of Gaza from the forces of President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party. Attempts at reconciliation and holding new elections have repeatedly failed, leaving the Palestinians divided between two governments, one in Gaza and the other in the West Bank.
https://apnews.com/d9328a805596412b929b69fdde6f3e00
Violence is rising in Israel’s Arab community and falling in West Bank, data shows
[behind paywall] Haaretz 29 Oct by Jack Khoury — Amid protests by the Arab community in Israel against perceived police inaction, Haaretz has found that while the murder rate shows a year-on-year increase among Israeli Arabs, it seems to be trending down in the West Bank. Researchers and public figures on both sides attribute the change to improvements in law enforcement in the West Bank, and to the fact that traditional clan structure, which takes an active role in solving local disputes, has been eroding in Israel. According to the Aman Center, an organization that combats violence in the Israeli Arab community, the number of murder victims in Israel has climbed steadily from 58 in 2015 to 75 in 2018. The number for 2019 to date is 77. Aman emphasized that 80 percent of the victims were killed by guns….
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-violence-is-rising-in-israel-s-arab-community-and-falling-in-west-bank-data-shows-1.8053722
Jordan recalls ambassador to Israel to protest detentions
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) 29 Oct — Jordan on Tuesday announced it was recalling its ambassador to Israel for consultations to protest Israel’s detention of a pair of Jordanians who have been held without charges for the past two months. Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi wrote on Twitter Tuesday that Jordan was taking the step because of Israel’s refusal “to heed our legitimate demands” to release the pair. “We hold Israeli government responsible for the lives of our citizens whose health conditions have severely deteriorated in illegal arbitrary detention,” he said. “We will take all necessary legal & diplomatic measures to ensure their safe return home.” The case has further soured what already is a tense relationship between the two countries, which marked the 25-year anniversary of their landmark peace agreement over the weekend. Israel’s Foreign Ministry said it was checking the Jordanian announcement with authorities in Amman.
Israel detained Heba al-Labadi on Aug. 20 and Abdul Rahman Miri on Sept. 2 as they entered the West Bank from Jordan. Both are being held in administrative detention, an Israeli policy that allows the open-ended detentions of people suspected of security offenses without filing charges. Supporters say that both are suffering from serious health problems. Labadi, 32, has been on a hunger strike for 37 days, and her lawyer, Raslan Mahajne, said her condition is poor. Miri, 29, has been battling cancer since 2010 and requires regular check-ups, according to the Palestinian Commission of Detainees Affairs, which is assisting him. Mahajne said an Israeli military court on Tuesday refused an appeal to release Miri. He said the court is expected to rule on al-Labadi’s appeal in the coming days.
https://apnews.com/99e07a5f6a2d42a18a0771df00b7f96c
Banned from visiting by Israel? There’s an app for that
Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) 30 Oct — After two openly critical US congresswomen were banned by Israel from visiting the Palestinian territories, developers are using technology to bring the territories to them and the wider world. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, two leftwing Democrats who have previously voiced support for a boycott of Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians, planned a visit in August that would have taken them to the Palestinian territories. They became the first members of the US Congress to be banned by Israel, with President Donald Trump, a Republican, saying the Jewish state would show “great weakness” if it let them in. Now, a new virtual reality application has been launched to give everyone the chance to tour the sites that were on the congresswomen’s itinerary. Tlaib and Omar, part of a group of four prominent leftwing congresswomen dubbed The Squad, were scheduled to visit east Jerusalem, Hebron, Bethlehem and other parts of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. The free app Palestine VR includes four to 12-minute-long 360 degree video clips from those locations. Each clip is narrated by a different tour guide, many of whom were to have accompanied the congresswomen during their trip….
https://www.france24.com/en/20191030-banned-from-visiting-by-israel-there-s-an-app-for-that
NBC News: Microsoft funds Israeli firm that spies on West Bank Palestinians
MEMO 29 Oct — Microsoft has invested in an Israeli startup that uses facial recognition to spy on Palestinians throughout the occupied West Bank, “in spite of the tech giant’s public pledge to avoid using the technology if it encroaches on democratic freedoms”, NBC News has reported. AnyVision, headquartered in Israel but with offices in the United States, the United Kingdom and Singapore, sells an “advanced tactical surveillance” software system, Better Tomorrow. “It lets customers identify individuals and objects in any live camera feed, such as a security camera or a smartphone, and then track targets as they move between different feeds,” said the report. NBC News’ investigative report concluded that “AnyVision’s technology powers a secret military surveillance project throughout the West Bank” – a project “so successful that AnyVision won the country’s [Israel’s] top defence prize in 2018”. As noted by NBC News, “Palestinians living in the West Bank do not have Israeli citizenship or voting rights but are subject to movement restrictions and surveillance by the Israeli government….
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191029-nbc-news-microsoft-funds-israel-firm-that-spies-on-west-bank-palestinians/
Led by Sanders, Democrats vow to press Israel on Palestinian state
Washington (AFP) 28 Oct — Democratic presidential contenders vowed Monday to switch gears sharply from Donald Trump’s hawkish embrace of Israel, pledging they would press for a peace settlement that leads to a Palestinian state. Half a year after Democratic candidates all shunned the annual conference of AIPAC, the historic pro-Israel lobby, five candidates came in person to deliver a peace message in the same Washington convention center before J Street, a left-leaning group which argues that it is more in tune with American Jews. Senator Bernie Sanders, who rarely talks about his Jewish faith, explained how the murder of much of his father’s family in the Holocaust shaped his progressive views. “If there is any people on earth who understands the danger of racism and white nationalism, it is certainly the Jewish people,” Sanders said to thunderous applause. “Let me underline this because it will be misunderstood — it is not anti-Semitism to say that the Netanyahu government has been racist. It is a fact,” he said. “We demand that the Israeli government sit down with the Palestinian people and negotiate an agreement that works for all parties,” he said. Sanders said his message to Israel would be, “if you want military aid, you are going to have to fundamentally change your relationship” with the Palestinians….
https://www.france24.com/en/20191028-led-by-sanders-democrats-vow-to-press-israel-on-palestinian-state
Duke students protest speech by Tzipi Livni, former Israeli foreign minister accused of war crimes
Common Dreams 28 Oct by Brett Wilkins– “Hosting [Livni] for a lecture minimizes the lives and deaths of her victims while encouraging future reproductions of her crimes.” Students at Duke University in North Carolina repeatedly interrupted a recent speaking event featuring Tzipi Livni, the former Israeli foreign minister who has been the subject of arrest warrants and a lawsuit in three countries for her alleged role in war crimes committed during the 2008-09 Cast Lead invasion of Gaza. The Duke Chronicle reports around two dozen protesters interrupted Livni at the October 23 event, with one student standing and shouting that Cast Lead “was a massacre” before the ex-minister could answer her first question. As soon as the first protester paused, more students stood and shouted at Livni. Some of them read names and held photos of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces. A few minutes later, the protesters began to leave the auditorium while chanting “shame” and “you don’t belong here” to Livni….
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/10/28/duke-students-protest-speech-tzipi-livni-former-israeli-foreign-minister-accused
Lawsuit: Muslim boy questioned at Ohio school about religion
CLEVELAND (AP) 29 Oct by Mark Gillespie — The parents of a 10-year-old Muslim boy who said he was questioned by an Ohio student teacher about his patriotism and religious beliefs and was told to undress to determine if he had been physically abused at home have filed a federal lawsuit claiming the boy’s civil rights were violated last November … According to the complaint, the boy was in a math class last November when the student teacher repeatedly asked why he looked sad. The boy responded he was fine, yet the woman ordered him out of the classroom despite his protests, the lawsuit said. It was then, the lawsuit said, that the student teacher began asking the boy about his religion, whether he believed in God, whether he loved America and whether any of his relatives have died. The lawsuit describes the boy as having darker skin and hair and notes that he is of Palestinian heritage….
https://apnews.com/24043979643948efbda408acc39d18ed
Murdered student remembered in Victoria causes
Australian Associated Press 26 Oct by Christine McGinn — The legacy of international student Aiia Maasarwe murdered in Melbourne lives on with her father launching a fellowship, while a university scholarship is set up in her honour. The Aiia Maasarwe Memorial Medical Fellowship Program will provide financial support to Palestinian physicians training in Israeli hospitals. Aiia’s father Saeed Maasarwe launched the program in honour of his 21-year-old daughter in Melbourne on Sunday for the international Project Rozana initiative. “I hope we cannot forget Aiia. Aiia all the time, she think positive and think good for everyone,” he said, in broken English. “I wish all the people can just remember Aiia for the good thing(s) and the positive and to look every day in the light, not in the dark things.” The inaugural fellowship has been awarded to senior paediatrician Khadra Salami to complete two-year paediatric bone marrow transplant training program in Jerusalem. It aims to ensure Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza can access the same level of health care to those living in Israel … The January 2019 murder of Ms Maasarwe, a Palestinian Arab of Israeli citizenship who had moved to Australia to study, sent shock waves across the country. Rallies were organised across Australia to show support to the Maasarwe family….
https://au.news.yahoo.com/vic-fellowship-honours-murdered-student-163015797–spt.html
groups.yahoo.com/group/f_shadi (listserv)
Kate~ there appears to be some repitition in your compilation in error. Yikes.
Thanks for this. How in the hell can Biden even hold to his pro- Israeli apartheid views and actions via votes and voice and support their terrorist actions? How can any Israeli Jew or American Jew abide it? How can any other American or so- called Westerner support these marauders and thieves and murderers? I cannot fathom any of it. I don’t know if you have read this one yet. From Amira Hass:
“A Wall, Arrests and Close Surveillance: How Israel Fences in a Palestinian Family
Their every move is filmed, every exit from their house depends on the army and they may access their land three times a year at most. The Gharib family has been living this way since Israel surrounded them with settlers
Nothing unusual happened this week to Sa’adat Gharib and his family from the village of Beit Ijza northwest of Jerusalem. That is, if you don’t take the olive harvest into account. This routine is what makes the family a microcosm of the Palestinian situation.
Life in the enclaves. The enclave the Gharib family lives in is especially small; maybe it should be called a fenced-in pocket. On three sides, a 6-meter-high fence surrounds the one-story house and the short path leading to it from Sa’adat’s brothers’ house to the south. An unpaved, sunken road, blocked by concrete walls and fences, closes in on the house from the south and cuts it off from the family’s olive grove and the village’s lands.
Above it is a concrete bridge. Under the bridge on the east, behind a locked door made of iron bars, steps lead to the sunken road, which is intended only for Israeli military vehicles. The soldiers have the key to the door and at any moment they can open it and enter the path leading to the family’s house.
The house. It was built in 1979 on land the family says has belonged to them from as far back as the Ottoman era. The village’s ancient stone houses attest wordlessly to the continuity of life there.
The permanent threat of being cut off. A large iron gate leans on the concrete wall on the sunken road. The soldiers can move it at will and block the entrance to the fenced-in house, cutting it off at any moment from the village’s other houses.
In the first three months after the fence was built at the end of 2006, the entrance was blocked all the time, Gharib says. To leave, the family had to negotiate by phone with the police at the nearby Atarot industrial zone, or get the Red Cross to help out. “Sometimes we waited for several hours for them to come and open it,” he said. …
The neighbors are settlers. The settlement is Givon Hahadasha. “I don’t talk to them, they don’t talk to me,” Gharib says. About 3 meters separate the house from the fence. At a similar distance on the other side stand the neighbors’ villas. Their cars drive along the fence and park in its shade.
Gharib hung a green sheet along the bottom part of the fence to obtain a semblance of privacy. Or the illusion of privacy. The setters’ villas are two or three stories high and are abundant with greenery. This past Wednesday a woman was watering plants on her balcony and explaining something to her son. “Tomer,” she called out to him. Three women came down the stairs outside another house and discussed something in Hebrew. “Sometimes I lift the green sheet,” says 10-year-old Sabri, “and look at the settlers’ children playing. I say ‘Shalom’ to them.” …
Proportionality. This is how Supreme Court President Aharon Barak justified the go-ahead he gave the army to surround the family’s house with a fence, destroy part of its groves for the separation barrier and block the family’s direct access to the groves. Access to the groves, he ruled, would be permitted through gates in the separation barrier.
Twice a year. If this is what Barak meant it’s impossible to say. But the residents of Biddu, Beit Ijza and Beit Duqqu may go to their lands only for a few days twice a year, three at the most: at plowing, grape harvesting and olive picking. The two locked gates are set in a barbed-wire fence beside the security road winding through their land.
“This year they wouldn’t let us harvest the grapes,” a Biddu resident said Tuesday, waiting for the Border Police to open the gate. This season the gates are opened for eight days over two weeks. At the end of week, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, they are closed. People like Sa’adat Gharib are forced to miss work in order to pick their olives.
Sumud – steadfastness. “My son Sabri didn’t know his grandfather Sabri,” Gharib says. “But he knows we’ll never leave the house and never give it and our land up.” ”
https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/.premium-a-wall-arrests-and-close-surveillance-how-israel-fences-in-a-palestinian-family-1.8065708?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
https://time.com/5714146/olive-harvest-west-bank/
Time Magazine, Nov. 1/19
“Olive Groves in the West Bank Have Become a Battleground. That’s Why Volunteers Come From Around the World to Help at Harvest Time.”
EXCERPTS:
“The politicization of the olive tree is evident at every twist and turn of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, including this year’s Israeli election. Days after Benjamin Netanyahu’s campaign promise on September 10 to formally annex the Jordan Valley, the Israeli Civil Administration (ICA) issued an order to uproot hundreds of olive trees owned by Palestinians in the valley right before a planned harvest. As Israeli settlements continue to expand in the West Bank, clashes between settlers and Palestinians have surged, often manifesting in the targeting of farmers and their properties—particularly during the harvest season. Over 800,000 Palestinian olive trees have been uprooted by Israeli authorities and settlers since 1967, according to research from the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem. In 2012, two E.U. heads-of-mission reports found that violent Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians especially targeted farmers. Between 2005 and 2013, Israeli NGO Yesh Din found that, out of 211 reported incidents of trees that were cut down, set ablaze, stolen, or otherwise vandalized in the West Bank, only four have led to police indictments.”
“In 2006, nine human rights organizations filed a petition urging the Israeli high court to allow Palestinian farmers safe access to their olive groves during the harvest. It was unanimously granted. ‘Our policy is to allow Palestinians to get every last olive from every last tree, even if that tree is in the middle of a settlement,’ a spokesman for the ICA, the Israeli governing body in the West Bank, told the LA Times when the decision was first announced. While it was considered a victory at the time, the various ways in which the ruling has not been upheld, or has proved ineffective, has fueled an enduring global response.”
“For over a decade, hundreds of volunteers from around the world have traveled to the West Bank each year to accompany Palestinian farmers to olive groves in high risk areas. To Be There, the organization through which Jones planned his expedition, was formed in 2013 by a group of local Palestinians, and is one of many local and international groups who recruit volunteers for the harvest. ‘Their impact is multidimensional,’ says Baha Hilo, one of its founders. ‘It’s about understanding, bearing witness, and buying time so that families can harvest as much as they can.’ The description of the harvest program on To Be There’s website makes clear the protective function of international volunteers: ‘One of the most important roles you play during your visit is that of a witness,’ it reads. ‘From experience, we have observed that Israeli settlers and soldiers behave differently in the presence of ‘internationals’ which contributes to a greater sense of safety felt by Palestinians. They feel more assured in the knowledge that they, and their plight under occupation, are not being ignored – that they are not invisible.'”
For the record:
http://normanfinkelstein.com/2019/11/03/81st-friday-of-gaza-demonstration/
November 3/19, Blog, News
Total number of casualties on Nov. 1/19, 81st Friday of Gaza Demonstrations and total number of casualties since March 30, 2018.