“This time they destroyed everything”: Uprooted Bedouins face more evictions

Hundreds of Israeli police were deployed to demolish the Bedouin village of Atir-Umm al-Hieran.(Oren Ziv / ActiveStills)

by Jillian Kestler-D’Amours, The Electronic Intifada

A clothesline hangs between heaps of twisted metal and cracked slabs of concrete, while a handful of olive trees lay haphazardly, their roots exposed, under the scorching Naqab desert sun.

Less than a week ago, this was where approximately 600 Israeli police officers were deployed to demolish 18 structures, including 10 homes, and uproot 600 trees in the “unrecognized” Palestinian Bedouin village of Atir-Umm al-Hieran, just 30 minutes from the major city of Bir al-Saba (Beersheva).

Residents reported seeing approximately thirty flatbed trucks haul away most of the rubble, while Israeli police set up a dozen roadblocks in both directions along the main road, preventing residents from trying to stop the bulldozers. Only a few destroyed buildings were left behind and broken toys, notebooks and other personal effects remained scattered across the sand.

“It’s the worst thing that can happen,” said Khader Abu al-Qian, a village elder, from the shade of a makeshift tent across the street from the scene of the destruction.

The Israeli authorities demolished two homes in Atir once before, in 2007. But police and agents with the Israel Land Administration regularly come to the village to take photographs of buildings, Abu al-Qian explained. They even once asked him if he would rather demolish the village himself, or wait for them to do it.

“More extreme”

Despite this experience, Abu al-Qian said that last week’s demolition — in an area of the village home to fifty persons, including over two dozen children — was something completely different.

“They have become more extreme in everything,” he told The Electronic Intifada. “I wasn’t ready for this. I didn’t imagine they could ‘clean’ the area like this.”

Abu al-Qian’s 18-year-old son Nour echoed this sentiment.

“This time, they destroyed everything,” Nour, who witnessed the demolition from beginning to end, told The Electronic Intifada. He said residents had no time to take their belongings out of their homes before the demolitions were carried out.

Nour now sleeps in a makeshift tent with four of his siblings; inside the tent, thin mats and blankets were piled on cinderblocks, gathering dust as the wind swept through the village. “It’s very difficult. But we will rebuild the houses. We will remain here,” he said.

Some 200,000 Palestinian Bedouin citizens of Israel live in the country’s southern Naqab (Negev) desert region. Though they constitute approximately 30 percent of the area’s total population, the Bedouin live on just five percent of the land. Many have legal claims to their lands pending before Israeli courts.

Lack of services

Approximately half of the Bedouin community lives in government-planned townships, which suffer from high unemployment and poverty, and a widespread lack of services. The other half live in three dozen unrecognized villages, like Atir-Umm al-Hieran.

Israel does not provide these unrecognized villages with basic services, including water, electricity, schools, or health facilities, and regularly demolishes homes and other structures.

Israel has pursued a policy of Bedouin urbanization for decades, in an effort to contain the Bedouin population on as little land as possible. In 2008, Israel appointed former high court judge Eliezer Goldberg to look into “Bedouin settlement” issues in the Naqab.

Shortly afterwards, a new committee was formed to implement Goldberg’s findings under Ehud Prawer, director of planning policy in the prime minister’s office.

The Prawer Plan, as it became known, suggested forcibly evicting 40 percent of the Bedouin community — between 30,000 and 40,000 people — from their homes, and moving them into urban townships. The Israeli cabinet approved the Prawer Plan in its original form in September 2011.

After Benny Begin, then a minister, made very minor changes to the plan, an updated version was approved in January of this year, and lauded by the government as a generous proposal that will help modernize the Bedouin community.

“The goal of this historic decision is to put an end to the spread of illegal building by Negev Bedouin and lead to the better integration of the Bedouin into Israeli society,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after the plan was finalized (“Cabinet approves Minister Benny Begin’s recommendations on formalizing the status of Bedouin settlement in the Negev,” Prime Minister’s Office, 27 January 2013).

“This brave decision will facilitate the continued development and prosperity of the Negev, for the benefit of all its residents.”

Affront to basic rights

But both local and international human rights bodies, including Amnesty International and the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, among others, have criticized the plan as an affront to the Bedouin’s basic human rights.

“Forcibly evicting tens of thousands of Bedouin from communities where they have lived for generations cannot be justified in the name of economic development or any other reason,” said Ann Harrison, deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.

“What the proposed law does is send the Bedouin communities into a human rights desert by stripping already vulnerable citizens of legal safeguards against house demolitions and forced evictions. This blatantly violates international law,” Harrison added (“Israel: New government must scrap plans to forcibly evict Bedouin,” 20 April 2013).

According to many local activists, last week’s demolition in Atir-Umm al-Hieran was the largest display of Israeli force in demolishing a Bedouin village so far this year, and has drawn comparisons to the first demolition of another unrecognized village, al-Araqib.

In July 2010, more than 1,200 Israeli police destroyed 46 structures, including 30 homes, in al-Araqib and made all 300 village residents homeless overnight.

But it wasn’t the first time the Israeli authorities have aimed to displace Bedouin families in Atir-Umm al-Hieran.

After some 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forcibly evicted from their homes following the creation of the Israeli state in 1948, the villagers were moved from their community in Khirbet Zubaleh, which today is a Jewish-Israeli community called Kibbutz Shuval.

After being transferred a handful of other times, the Israeli government finally resettled the residents to the Wadi Atory area in 1956, on an order from the Israeli military governor in the Naqab at the time. This is where they built the community of Atir-Umm al-Hieran that exists today.

Approximately 1,000 residents — all members of the Abu al-Qian Bedouin tribe — live in Atir-Umm al-Hieran. A single, pothole-ridden road leads to and from the village, which sits just northwest of the recognized Bedouin township of Hura.

Facing eviction

In Atir, the Israeli government aims to build a forest in the exact spot residents now live, while in place of Umm al-Hieran, the state plans to build a Jewish-only town, named Hiran. If these plans go ahead, all 1,000 Bedouin living in the area will be evicted against their will.

“They will start in villages [where] there are no land claims. The people of Umm al-Hieran and Atir and Wadi al-Naam [the largest unrecognized Bedouin village in the Naqab] are people who were already displaced once, twice or three times. They are not sitting on their ancestral lands, so they will start with them,” said Dr. Thabet Abu Ras, head of the Naqab office of Adalah, the legal center for Arab minority rights in Israel.

Abu Ras told The Electronic Intifada that Israel is not only trying to evict Bedouin citizens, but also erase all traces of Arab presence in the Naqab or Negev desert.

“It’s amazing how the government is trying to uproot the people and their history in the same place. They were uprooting all the trees that are associated with the Arabs,” he said. “I think the government is intensifying its efforts to implement Prawer before even the law is passed.”

The Prawer Plan will be brought to the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, for a first reading in the process of becoming a law next Monday (27 May).

Meanwhile, small demonstrations have been held in Bedouin communities throughout the Negev against the plan over the past week, and a protest is planned for Monday in front of the Knesset as well.

“There are lots of tensions in the field. There is a lot of mobilization. Young people now are more involved in this, but until now, we didn’t succeed to bring all the tribes to work together. But it can happen,” Abu Ras said.

“People are insisting on staying in their lands. They can demolish their houses, but they will stay on the land.”

Palestine: 85 percent of east Jerusalem children are below the poverty line,olive trees burned with chemicals & youths held at the Ibrahimi Mosque

Report: 85 percent of east Jerusalem children are below the poverty line

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– The association of civil rights in the occupied Palestinian lands released facts about the life of the Palestinian natives in east Jerusalem showing that 85 percent of east Jerusalem children lives below the poverty line, describing it as the worst rate of all time.

According to its figures, there are 371,844 Palestinians comprising 39 percent of the total population in Jerusalem.

79.5 percent of the total Palestinian residents in east Jerusalem lives below the poverty line.

Three social welfare offices in east Jerusalem serve more than one third of the Palestinian population, while 18 such offices operate in west Jerusalem, not to mention the fact that one social worker’s caseloads in east Jerusalem are about double those of west Jerusalem.

Its fact sheet also showed that in 2012, welfare services identified 7,748 at-risk children in east Jerusalem, adding that 86 children, who suffered from violence and neglect, were taken out of their homes over the past three years.

Because of the shortage of welfare workers, not all cases are fully and speedily attended to, the fact sheet noted.

As for education, it said that only 46 percent of east Jerusalem students study in official municipal schools, while there is a chronic shortage of over 1,000 classrooms in east Jerusalem.

————————————————————————————-

Settlers burn olive trees with chemicals in Nablus

NABLUS, (PIC)– Laboratory results carried out by residents of Burin village, southern Nablus, showed that Jewish settlers used during attacks on the village lands toxic chemicals that burned thousands of acres of olive trees and agricultural crops.

Eyewitnesses and residents of the village said that the settlers sprayed toxic chemicals on the olive trees and agricultural crops, which led to burning them.

The villagers and their lands are constantly exposed to attacks by settlers, especially from the settlements of Brakhah and Yitzhar established on the lands of Burin village.

————————————————————————————-

IOF holds Palestinian youths at the Ibrahimi Mosque

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)– AL-KHALIL, (PIC)– Israeli occupation forces (IOF) detained a number of Palestinian youths at the electronic gate set up at the main entrance to the Ibrahimi Mosque in al-Khalil as they arrived to perform Friday prayers in the Mosque.

According to eyewitnesses, the soldiers prevented the young men from praying, held them outside the mosque’s main gates and examined their identities.

The young men were freed after Friday prayers, except for Asem Atta Tamimi, aged 18, who was arrested for being wanted for the Israeli forces, and was taken to an unknown destination.

Meanwhile, the Israeli authorities on Saturday afternoon tightened military procedures at the Zatara checkpoint southern the city of Nablus, in the north of the West Bank, and searched the passing vehicles, informed local sources said.

There are no clear reasons behind the move. However, since the killing of a settler near the checkpoint about three weeks ago, the IOF intensified the military procedures in the area.

————————————————————————————-

Israeli forces assault captive Shahatit during his transfer to hospital

GAZA, (PIC)– Israeli prison authorities transferred on Thursday night detainee Mansour al-Shahatit, from Dura in al-Khalil, from a solitary confinement cell in Ramon prison to Soroka Hospital, after his health seriously deteriorated.

Palestinian Prisoners’ Center for Studies held the occupation prison authorities fully responsible for the deterioration of health condition of the patient captive, as they have been refusing to provide him with necessary treatment.

The Center’s Media Director Riad al-Ashqar said that the prisoner suffers from heart problems and a broken leg, as well as shortness of breath as he spent long period in the solitary confinement.

The prison administration accepted to move Shahatit to the hospital after prisoners’ protest. He was bleeding and fell unconscious as he was harshly attacked by the Israeli forces during his transfer to the hospital.

Ashqar said the prisoner Mansour al-Shahatit is exposed to slow death in the Israeli jails, due to the deliberate medical neglect that exacerbated his illnesses.

Captive Shahatit was arrested on March 11, 2003 and was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment. He has been subjected to severe torture during the investigation, which affected his health condition.

Palestine: Eleven houses demolished within one day & Israeli restrictions on movement of Palestinians collective punishment

Occupation demolishes 11 Jerusalemite houses within one day

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– The Israeli authorities on Tuesday demolished 11 apartments in the occupied city of Jerusalem, displacing more than one hundred Jerusalemite citizens, mostly women and children.

Wadi Al-Helwa Information Center said in a report published on Wednesday that the Jerusalem municipality teams, accompanied by military and police forces, demolished in Tur neighborhood and Jabal Mukaber in eastern Jerusalem 7 Palestinian houses and a residential building of four apartments.

The occupation authorities said the apartments were built without a permit on lands threatened with confiscation, and started the demolition without any prior notice.

The Information Center said the residential building in the Jabal Mukaber, which consisted of four apartments, has been built since 1973, and that some years ago the occupation tried to buy it.

The building’s owner asserted that he had repeatedly tried to obtain building permits from all Israeli competent authorities, but his request was turned down because of the occupation’s plans to confiscate the building for establishing Jewish Gardens in its place.

————————————————————————————–

Amnesty: Israeli restrictions on movement of Palestinians collective punishment

RAMALLAH, (PIC)– The Israeli stringent restrictions imposed on the movement of Palestinians serve as a “collective punishment” of the population of Gaza and the West Bank in flagrant violation of the international law, an international human rights organization said.

Amnesty International stated in its yearly report that more than 500 Israeli military checkpoints and barriers continued to hinder Palestinian movement, in addition to a 700km fence/wall, mostly on Palestinian land within the West Bank, especially in East Jerusalem and parts of al-Khalil and the Jordan Valley.

The report pointed out that West Bank Palestinians are forced to get Israeli permits while the Israeli settlers are allowed to move freely in those areas.

Movement restrictions compelled some 200,000 Palestinians from 70 villages to take detours between two to five times longer than the direct route to reach the closest city, undermining their access to basic services, the report said.

The human rights organization confirmed that Israeli authorities generally withheld construction permits from Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem and Area C ( which constitutes 60% of the West Bank territories), where Israel retains full authority for planning and zoning, impeding their right to adequate housing.

More than 620 Palestinian houses and other facilities were demolished. Almost 1100 Palestinians were displaced as a result, more than 1400 others were affected by demolitions of 170 animal shelters and 46 cisterns, the report added.

Settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank increased, the organization said, noting the establishment of 14 new settlement outposts for the first time since 7 years.

Regarding Palestinian prisoners, Amnesty confirmed that Israel held more than 4,200 Palestinian prisoners by the end of this year including 178 administrative detainees (held without trial or charge). Reports of torture and other ill-treatment of detainees continued.

The authorities also intensified demolitions of Palestinian homes inside Israel, particularly in officially “unrecognized” villages, where all construction is banned, the report said.

Amnesty yearly report added that “shacks and other structures in al-‘Araqib, an “unrecognized” village in the Negev, were demolished at least 20 times in 2011, following other demolitions in 2010.”

————————————————————————————–

IOA releases Palestinian prisoner after 15 years in custody

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)– The Israeli Occupation Authorities (IOA) released on Thursday a Palestinian prisoner from al-Khalil in the southern West Bank after serving 15 years in Israeli prisons for being affiliated with al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing.

The IOA released the prisoner Magdy Ibrahim Jabari, 35, at Shamaa checkpoint near Dahrya town in al-Khalil, where he was greeted by dozens of his relatives and friends and liberated prisoners.

Magdi Ibrahim Jabari has spent 15 years detention on charges of affiliation to al-Qassam Brigades, and trying to capture Israeli soldiers. He was arrested in 1997 where he was jailed in Nafha, Negev and Raymond prisons.

————————————————————————————-

IPS transfers Abu Sisi to Eichel solitary confinement

GAZA, (PIC)– The Israeli Prison Service (IPS) has transferred the isolated prisoner Dirar Abu Sisi, director of Gaza power plant, from Ohlikdar solitary confinement to Eishel isolation in Beersheba in southern 1948-occupied territories, human rights institution stated.

Breaking the Chains Institution confirmed that Abu Sisi, detained and isolated since 2 years, was transferred from Ohlikdar to Eichel solitary confinement.

Dirar Abu Sisi, 43, was kidnapped by the Israeli Intelligence (Mossad) from the Ukraine on February 18, 2011, and then transferred to Israeli jails where he is being isolated for the past two years.

Abu Sisi is the sole Palestinian prisoner who was kidnapped outside the Palestinian territories and the only isolated prisoner in Israeli jails since two years where the IPS refused to put an end to his isolation following the Dignity strike in 11 April 2012.

Palestine: Israelis still deny the kiling of al-Dorra, children run over, homes demolished & 2350 holy sites desecrated

(File photo)

Al Mezan: Israeli denial of al-Dorra Killing is a new attempt to hide IOF crimes

GAZA, (PIC)– Al Mezan Center for Human Rights strongly denounced the Israeli authorities’ denial of its responsibility for the killing of the child Mohammed al-Durra during the second Palestinian uprising in 2000, saying that it is “a new Israeli attempt to exempt forces from responsibility for violations of International law.”

The Israeli government’s investigation committee, which was formed in September 2012 in order to conduct investigations into the killing of the Palestinian child, Mohammed al-Durra, stated that at the end of the film that captured the incident and was aired by the French television channel France 2, al-Durra was still alive.

Al Mezan Center for Human Rights condemns “Israel’s policy of denial as an attempt to escape its responsibility for the death of Mohammed. The formation of the investigation committee came 12 years after the incident, heard no witnesses and reviewed no credible resources about the event.”

The French channel’s correspondent who filmed the incident where Jamal al-Durra and his young son were targeted and were trying to protect themselves from live fire.

The Israeli occupation forces continue to mislead public opinion regarding its actions in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), especially in the Gaza Strip, the center noted.

Al Mezan stressed that “Israel has thus far refused to cooperate with almost all of the UN investigative missions to the oPt.”

Israel has amended its laws to prevent Palestinians’ access to any form of justice or redress within the Israeli justice system. This development entrenches a serious state of impunity and denial of any remedies for Palestinians affected by Israel’s occupation of the oPt and acts as encouragement to the Israeli occupying forces to violate the rules of international law, the center added in its press release.

The center concluded by stressing that the international community’s failure to stand by its obligations has further encouraged Israel to continue with its crimes and policies of denial and impunity, with complete disregard to its obligation under International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law.

————————————————————————————-

In Two Separate Incidents; Two Children Injured By Settlers Vehicles

by Saed Bannoura – IMEMC & Agencies

Palestinian medical sources have reported that two Palestinian children have been seriously injured, on Wednesday, in two separate incidents after being rammed by settlers’ vehicles in the West Bank districts of Hebron and Nablus.

The sources said that a 9-year-old child was seriously injured after being rammed by a settlers’ car east in As-Salayma neighborhood, east of the Ibrahimi Mosque, in Hebron city. She was moved to a local hospital; the settler fled the scene.

Furthermore, a 16-year-old Palestinian child, identified as Marwan Zakariyya ‘As’ous, suffered serious injuries and was moved to the Rafidia Hospital, after being rammed by a settler’s car at the Beta Junction, south of Nablus.

Usama Malhees, head of the Rafidia Hospital, stated that the ‘As’ous suffered various fractures and is currently on life support at the Intensive Care Unit.

On May 14, Hanin Bassem Al-Ja’bary, 7, was injured after a settler rammed her with his vehicle close to the Ibrahimi Mosque, in the Old City of Hebron. The settler fled the scene.

Dozens of claims have been filed with the Israeli police and the military in the occupied territories regarding hit and run ramming incidents carried out by Israeli settlers, but no actual measures were taken on the ground.

————————————————————————————-

Jewish extremists run over a Palestinian female student near Safed

NAZARETH, (PIC)– A female student at the Safed College, in the northern 1948-occupied territories, sustained injuries after being run over deliberately by Jewish extremists’ vehicle; while crossing the road heading to her college.

The Association of Arab students at Safed College asserted in a press statement that they recognized the car which belongs to supporters of the Jewish extremist Bar Salab.

Following the incident, the ambulances arrived to the place and took the student to the Western Galilee Hospital to receive treatment, while her father filed a complaint to the Israeli police.

The Association demanded the Israeli police to enforce the law and chase those extremists; especially because they fled from the place after running over the young woman.

Few days ago, Jewish extremists wrote racist slogans on the wall of an apartment in the city inhabited by three Palestinian female students from the same college.

————————————————————————————-

IOF demolishes two homes in Jerusalem

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) raided on Tuesday Khelit al-Ain area in al-Tur neighborhood in Jerusalem and demolished two homes belonging to Abu Sa’alan family.

IOF demolished the two houses under the pretext of being built without permit in addition to bulldozing the garden surrounding the two buildings that housed 7 people.

The houses’ owners confirmed that the buildings were established since 12 years ago, noting that the family tried to obtain a building permit, but were unable to do so.

The Israeli municipal authorities imposed fines and issued demolition order against the mentioning houses three years ago, the family emphasized.

Khelit al-Ain area is threatened to be confiscated by the Israeli authorities in order to implement “National Parks” scheme that will confiscate 740 dunums of al-Tur and al-Isawiya lands.

It’s worth mentioning that 4 houses owned by Ghaith family have been demolished recently led to the displacement of 27 people.

According to the UN reports, 33 percent of all Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem lack Israeli-issued building permits, potentially placing at least 93,100 residents at risk of displacement. The reports show that 95 percent of Palestinian applications for a building permit are rejected.

————————————————————————————

Occupation desecrates 2350 holy sites in Palestine 48

NAZARETH, (PIC)– A Palestinian Foundation, located in the 48 occupied territories, revealed that “Israeli gangs have been using malicious methods to destruct and Judaize Islamic and Christian holy places in order to blur the Palestinian landmarks over the past 65 years.

Al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowments and Heritage said, in a press release on Tuesday, that Islamic and Christian holy sites are subjected to an Israeli continuous and tireless Judaization policy aiming to remove its Arab and Islamic character.

Nearly 2350 Palestinian Islamic and Christian holy sites have been desecrated by the Israeli occupation in the occupied territories in 1948, the Foundation confirmed.

1350 holy sites including graves, mosques, churches and chapels in the northern area of the Palestinian territories were either partially or fully demolished by Israel, Abdul Majeed Aghbariya, head of the sanctities portfolio at the Foundation reported.

Furthermore, Aghbariya pointed out that about 1,000 holy sites in the southern part of the occupied territories have also been desecrated. He noted that the report only included the Arab coastal cities such as Acre, Haifa, Jaffa, Al-Lid and Ramla.

Hundreds of graves and mosques have been totally destroyed and turned into restaurants, bars, museums and synagogues, he added.

Palestine: Israeli soldiers shoot boy in chest, UNESCO delegation’s visit cancelled & attack on village

Israeli soldiers shoot Palestinian boy in chest

Press TV

Israeli troops have shot and critically injured a Palestinian boy in the chest in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian security and hospital sources.

The troopers of the Israeli regime shot 12-year-old Atta Mohammed Sharadeh on Tuesday outside the Jelazoun refugee camp, near Ramallah, AFP reported.

Palestinian paramedics said Sharadeh was hit in the chest and the bullet exited through his back. The boy was transported to a Ramallah hospital, where he is in critical condition.

The Jelazoun refugee camp is close to the so-called Beit El Israeli settlement.

Earlier in the day, clashes had broken out between Palestinians and Israeli troops, The clashes erupted shortly after the occupying Israeli forces stormed the refugee camp.

Palestinian youths – angry over the presence of Israeli soldiers at the camp site – hurled stones and bottles at the Israeli troops, who fired live bullets in return.

Palestinian youth and children have been among the most vulnerable victims of the Israeli soldiers’ brutality in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip…

————————————————————————————-

Researcher: ‘Israel’ cancels UNESCO delegation’s visit to hide its crimes

RAMALLAH, (PIC)– The Jerusalemite researcher Jamal Amr stated that canceling UNESCO delegation’s visit to Jerusalem by the occupation authorities aims to hide the Israeli violations.

The UNESCO delegation came under Israeli conditions after international guarantees to Israel not to prosecute its violations, he stated.

He told Quds press that the occupation rejects any international investigation of its crimes. The occupation tries to hide its violations against Arab and Islamic monuments in Jerusalem.

The Jerusalemite researcher denied the alleged victory over Israeli authorities by accepting the committee’s visit to Jerusalem. Israel managed to escape from international condemnation by canceling the 5 draft resolutions against its practices in Jerusalem.

The occupation asked not to include the Mughrabi Gate or al-Aqsa mosque within the delegation’s visit in order to hide its excavation and violations.

Hebrew media sources reported that Israel decided on Monday to cancel a planned visit by UNESCO delegation to the occupied Jerusalem.

————————————————————————————–

Settlers attack a Palestinian village in the Negev

NEGEV, (PIC) — Palestinian sources in the Bedouin village of Bir Hadaj in the Negev, in the southern 1948 territories, said that Jewish extremists from Ratmim settlement attacked the village and its residents on Sunday evening.

Salman Ibn Ehmid, head of the local committee in the village, told Quds Press that a group of settlers from Ratmim settlement attacked the citizen Eid Abu Habak, and set fire to his tent and some of his properties.

The settlers closed the Western road leading to Bear Hadaj. In response, the villagers closed the eastern road to the settlement.

Ibn Ehmid added that he was attacked by one of the settlers and that confrontations erupted between the Palestinians and the Israelis; thus the occupation police forces intervened.

For his part; Arab MK Talab Abu Arar accused the Israeli police of standing by the Jewish settlers, as it arrested one of the Palestinian villagers.

He demanded the Israeli police to immediately arrest the settler who set fire to the tent, as well as the one who attacked the head of the local committee.

The town of Bir Hadaj has been recently exposed to repeated attacks by the Israeli policemen who have been storming the village in order to distribute demolition orders for a number of houses.

Palestine: Excavations, demolitions, banned weapons used against demonstrators & lands burned

Excavations in the Buraq Square and Umayyad palaces

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– The Israeli occupation authority has accelerated on Monday its excavation and destruction in Buraq square and Umayyad palaces south of al-Aqsa mosque as a prelude to establish the so-called “Israeli Strauss Center project”, a new Jewish-only building includes a police station and a Rabbi visitors centre.

Al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage confirmed that Israeli bulldozers started digging on Monday morning in the Buraq area for the installation of steel shoring columns. The excavations led to the removal of several Arab and Islamic monuments in the area.

The occupation authority has been, for several months, carrying out extensive excavations in Umayyad palaces area as a prelude to turn it into an airport for the alleged Temple.

Al-Aqsa Foundation said that the occupation authorities seek to establish a “Talmudic Park” surrounding Al-Aqsa Mosque at the expense of al-Rahma Gate.

The occupation escalated its Judaization projects in al-Aqsa mosque aiming to build its alleged Temple on the ruins of al-Aqsa mosque the third holiest site in Islam.

————————————————————————————

Occupation demolishes 4 commercial structures west of Jenin

JENIN, (PIC)– IOF troops raided on Monday morning the village of Bartaa al-Sharqeyya which is isolated behind the apartheid wall and demolished warehouses and shops in the market area and the industrial area at the village, less than two weeks after a similar onslaught against the village.

Eyewitnesses told the PIC correspondent that military bulldozers accompanied the invading forces and started the demolition after isolating the village from its surroundings.

Residents said that the occupation forces set up a roadblock that isolated the village from Bartaa al-Gharbeyya which lies inside the green line.

Local sources said that the occupation forces demolished for commercial structures belonging to the Kabaha family.

————————————————————————————-

Villagers threatened with ethnic cleansing hold a sit in outside Beit Eil court

Al-Khalil, (PIC)– Dozens of Palestinian families from eight villages south of al-Khalil, held a sit-in outside the headquarters of the Israeli Civil Administration, in Beit Eil, on Sunday afternoon, during a Court hearing to look into the appeal made ​​by the villagers against the demolition of their homes due to lack of license.

The IOF moved villagers by force hundreds of meters from the administration building while allowing settlers to attend the Court hearing.

The Israeli ministry of war decided to demolish eight Palestinian villages south of Hebron known as “Susia” villages, they are: Jazz, Taban, Wasfi, Alfkhait, Alhalawa, Almarakz, Janba and Kharouba at pretext of building without a permit.

Villagers say they are subjected to forced displacement and ethnic cleansing and the continuous attacks of Jewish settlers. The further emphasize that they will not leave their land which they inherited from their ancestors.

A number of seniors who attended the sit-in said they possess title-deeds dating back to the Ottoman era, known as the “taboo”.

————————————————————————————–

IOF goes back to using banned weapons against demonstrators

NAZARETH, (PIC)– Hebrew media sources revealed that Israeli army has renewed using banned weapons during the suppression of peaceful Palestinian demonstrations in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli army used snipers to stop a Palestinian protest near Beit El settlement in the West Bank town of Ramallah last week, Maariv Hebrew newspaper stated on Sunday.

The newspaper said that the Israeli soldiers followed their leaders’ commands to open fire, using “Tutu” bullets, claiming the protestors were approaching the settlement.

It is worth mentioning that number of Israeli MKs have called for allowing Israeli soldiers to open fire towards Palestinian protesters in the West Bank especially after seeing Israeli soldiers fleeing during clashes with Palestinian youths due to their leaders’ restrictions imposed on them, they claimed.

Tutu bullets are classified by Israeli army as non-lethal weapon. However many Palestinians were killed due to being shot by Tutu bullets.

The Israeli general prosecutor has issued decisions over the past years to prevent the use of these bullets.

Israeli army had previously used snipers to stop protesters during the first and second Palestinian uprisings, killing and injuring many Palestinians.

————————————————————————————-

IOF raids al-Khalil, settlers burn lands in Nablus

AL-KHALIL, NABLUS, (PIC)– Israeli occupation forces (IOF) raided Palestinian towns and villages around al-Khalil on Monday and erected military checkpoints at their entrances.

Several military vehicles raided and searched a number of houses in Beit Ummar town north of al-Khalil. No arrests were reported. The IOF also broke into Dura, Samu, and Yatta towns south of the city and set up checkpoints on their entrances, local sources confirmed.

Israeli military vehicles were stationed the entrances to Aroub refugee camp and Seir town in the city of al-Khalil, the sources added.

The Israeli military measures in the Palestinian towns around al-Khalil came a few days after clashes that erupted between the IOF and Palestinian youths led to several injuries among the Israeli soldiers and the burning of a military jeep.

Meanwhile, Israeli settlers from Gilad settlement set fire to Palestinian lands belonging to villagers from the villages of Immatin and Fara’ta in an attempt to burn the wheat crop.

Eyewitnesses said that the Israeli forces prevented the Palestinian farmers from reaching their fields to put out the fire and arrested a Palestinian villager claiming he was trying to attack the soldiers.

————————————————————————————

Israeli forces arrest 2 fishermen from Gaza

GAZA, (PIC)– Israeli navy forces detained on Sunday night two Palestinian fishermen off the coast of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip.

PIC’s correspondent quoted eyewitnesses and human rights sources as saying that the two brothers Mahmoud and Khaled Zayed were arrested while fishing then were taken to an unknown location and their boat was confiscated.

The occupation forces’ attacks on fishermen in Gaza persist; including opening fire at them, confiscating their equipment, and arresting them, in violation of the truce agreement between the Palestinian resistance and the Israeli occupation which was reached with Egyptian mediation last November.

The fishing zone for Palestinians in Gaza was determined to 6 miles, as part of a ceasefire that ended an eight-day conflict between Israel and Hamas in November; however in March Israel’s army announced that the fishing zone would be reduced from six to three miles following a rocket attack.

————————————————————————————–

Settlers severely beat handicapped boy near Hebron

HEBRON (Ma’an</strong>) — Settlers assaulted a 16-year-old handicapped boy in Yatta on Tuesday, leaving him with bruising all over his body, official news agency Wafa reported.

Mohammad Shawaheen, 16, was attacked east of Yatta by settlers from Maon. He was taken to hospital for treatment

Last week, settlers from Maon torched two dunams of wheat fields in the south Hebron hills, which villagers managed to prevent from spreading to nearby land and homes.

Israeli forces rarely prosecute settlers for violence against Palestinians and their property, which is routine in the occupied West Bank.

Palestine: A march in Al Aqsa Mosque in protest at its desecration & demands about the condition of sick captive

Worshipers stage a march in Al Aqsa Mosque in protest at its desecration

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– Worshipers at Al Aqsa Mosque staged a march in its squares after Friday prayers; in protest at settlers’ raids and the targeting of the mosque by the occupation.

The protesters chanted slogans condemning the occupation and calling for supporting Al Aqsa Mosque.

Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, head of the Supreme Islamic Council, asserted during Friday sermon that Al Aqsa Mosque is a red line for all Muslims, stressing the Muslims’ rejection for all the occupation authorities and settlers’ schemes.

Sheikh Sabri reminded of the fatwa he issued almost four years ago and which prohibits the exchange of land.

Palestine is not for sale nor for compromise because it is a purely Islamic endowment, he said.

————————————————————————————-

An organization demands that condition of sick captive be revealed

GAZA, (PIC)– The Palestinian Center for Prisoners’ Studies demanded that the Israeli Prison Authority reveals the nature of illness of captive Muhammad al-Sharha, 32, from the town of Dura, south of al-Khalil, who is suspected of having throat cancer.

The center said that Sharha has been in detention for the past 12 years. Two years ago, he started suffering from a swelling in his neck. For long months the IPA refused to take him to a hospital to be examined. They only took him to hospital after fellow captives took protest steps. There was talk after that of him suffering from a throat cancer similar to that suffered by martyr Maysara Abu Hamdeyyah, who was kept in prison, without proper medical treatment, till he died.

The center added that doctors have not informed him officially of this, neither have they denied it. Samples were taken two months ago for testing, but till now neither the prisoner nor his family has been informed of the nature of the illness. His family are living in constant worry as the initial diagnosis suggest cancer.

The center held the occupation authority fully responsible for the life of the captive, because it concealed the truth about his illness, giving the illness time to take hold and become difficult to treat, similar to what they did with martyr Maysara Abu Hamdeyyah.

Settlers attack West Bank farmer twice a week

by Jillian Kestler-D’Amours, The Electronic Intifada

ASIRA AL-QIBLIYA, West Bank (IPS) – Ibrahim Makhlouf reached for two wooden planks lying in the hallway and placed them expertly in an L-shape along the seams of his front door.

“Open [the door],” he beckoned, knowing that doing so was nearly impossible. “Every night, we put this here,” he said. “For the settlers.”

Makhlouf’s home sits on the outskirts of the West Bank village of Asira al-Qibliya, only 500 meters from the illegal Israeli settlement outpost of Shalhevet Farm, an offshoot of the equally illegal settlement of Yitzhar.

Makhlouf said that his house was attacked by Israeli settlers at least two times per week and has been vandalized more than 100 times. The windows on Makhlouf’s two-story home all have bars on the outside to prevent them from shattering when settlers throw stones.

“No safety”

“When we see the settlers, we send the children to another house. What can we do?” Makhlouf, who lives with his wife and six children, said. “We’re afraid. There is no safety.”

Since the Shalhevet Farm outpost was established in 1999, Makhlouf said he has been barred from accessing some 16 dunums of his family’s land (a dunum is 1,000 square meters) which was traditionally used to plant figs, grapes, olives and other trees, and from using a freshwater spring.

“It is my father and grandfather’s land, but now settlers are planting, and I can’t even enter it. They want to confiscate the land and houses and control the whole area to extend their settlements,” Makhlouf said.

“The [Israeli] government encourages them, with money and protection from the soldiers,” he added. “The government and the settlers are one.”

In recent weeks, the United States has asked Israel to freeze settlement construction in the West Bank in order to restart long-stalled talks with the Palestinian Authority. On 30 April, the Arab League said it would support potential land swaps along the 1967 Green Line — the internationally-recognized armistice line between present-day Israel and the occupied West Bank — in negotiations of final borders between Israel and a future Palestinian state.

Illegal

But the growth of Israeli settlement outposts in the West Bank, like Shalhevet Farm, has been almost entirely omitted from the conversation. Such outposts are often precursors to full-fledged settlements.

Both the outposts and the settlements themselves are illegal under international law. Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention also forbids an occupying power from transferring its civilian population to the territory it occupies.

For Palestinians, settlements and outposts have the same negative impact on their lives. But the Israeli government views only outposts, not the entire settlements, as illegal, sometimes dismantling them for being built without the required permits and then relocating residents to nearby settlements.

Settlements are generally much larger than outposts and receive full services and infrastructure, although the Israeli government does also provide outposts, which generally begin as a few caravans on a hilltop, with basic services such as water and electricity. The Israeli army also protects outpost residents, as it does all other Israeli settlers.

Land grab

Israeli settlement outposts were first built in the mid-1990s, during a freeze on settlement construction imposed by then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. A few years later, Israeli leader Ariel Sharon famously urged Israeli settlers to seize every hilltop. “Whatever you grab will be ours. What you don’t grab will not be ours,” he said.

In 2005, at the behest of the Israeli government, lawyer Talia Sasson reported that the outposts were illegal under Israeli law. To be considered legal, a settlement must be established by a government decision, be built on “state land,” possess a building plan and have clear, territorial boundaries.

Outposts fail to meet these criteria, although earlier this week, the Israeli government announced plans to examine whether it could retroactively “legalize” four outposts.

Today approximately 100 Israeli settlement outposts dot the West Bank. While most begin small, they develop quickly, and many have cement houses, paved roads, playgrounds and day-care centers.

In the case of Shalhevet Farm, Peace Now, an Israeli organization that works against Israeli settlements in the West Bank, found that the Israeli ministry of housing spent 1.1 million shekels (more than $300,000) to connect the outpost to basic infrastructure. The Israeli water company Mekorot provides it with water.

Controlling the land

Many outposts also serve an important geopolitical aim.

According to a report by the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din, some outposts aim “to create Jewish continuity and connect isolated settlements with settlement blocs, in order to prevent future evacuation. Even though each of these outposts is home to only a few dozens of families, the outposts can completely control the land or the road around it” (“The road to dispossession,” February 2013 [PDF]).

Violence against Palestinians and their property emanating from settlement outposts has also been well documented. After a Palestinian man killed an Israeli settler earlier this month near Nablus, the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq documented 13 settler attacks against Palestinians in one week in the area (“In one week: 13 attacks by settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank,” 9 May 2013).

Viciously attacked

Munir Jibreel Qaddous, a 38-year-old farmer from the West Bank village of Burin, was viciously attacked by Israeli settlers in 2011, while the Israeli army and police looked on and did nothing.

White caravans of the settlement outpost of Bracha B, an extension of the Bracha settlement, overlook much of Burin’s farmland, and settlers regularly vandalize Palestinian property and attack their homes in the village, Qaddous explained.

Data collected by Yesh Din shows that between 2005-2012, more than 91 percent of complaints filed by Palestinians against acts of Israeli settler violence were closed without an indictment. Of this, 84 percent were closed due to the Israeli police’s failure to properly investigate the crimes (“Law enforcement upon Israeli civilians in the West Bank,” March 2012 [PDF]).

“All of them are the same,” said Qaddous, referring to Israeli settlers living in settlements and unauthorized outposts. He witnessed the Bracha B outpost’s construction and gradual expansion.

“In 1999, a watch-tower was put up, then trailers were erected. Then, there were 15 cement houses. Before the settlers came, they put [in] a road, electricity and water,” he said.

“This area is a very strategic area of the West Bank. After five or ten years, maybe you will see settlers on every hill.”

Palestine: Youths make their way into apartheid wall, many injured in clashes & 18 houses demolished

Palestinian youths make their way into Jerusalem through ‘Israel’s’ apartheid wall

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– A group of Palestinian young men was able on Friday evening to knock down part of Israel’s segregation wall near Abu Dis town to the east of occupied Jerusalem, particularly in the area known as Kabsa.

The young men used pickaxes to make a hole in the wall and then entered Jerusalem carrying Palestinian flags in a step intended to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe).

The Palestinian information center (PIC) reporter in Jerusalem said that the Israeli army immediately dispatched a unit of Israeli soldiers to the area to confront the young men.

The soldiers, then, started to fire rubber bullets at the young men who responded by throwing stones.

Later, the Israeli occupation forces invaded Abu Dis town and clashed with dozens of young men inside its neighborhoods.

Several young men suffered tear gas and bullet injuries during the events.

————————————————————————————–

New road connects Israeli settlement with the Ibrahimi Mosque

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)– An Israeli team of civil engineers from Kiryat Arba settlement, built on Palestinian territories in al-Khalil, started land surveying of a road in Husain valley, in order to pave a new road connecting the settlement with the Ibrahimi Mosque.

The so-called ‘Hebron’s Council of Settlements’ has surveyed the dirt road locating on Palestinians’ lands and lined signals on the street as a prelude to establish a new road linking between Kiryat Arba settlement and the Ibrahimi mosque, local sources told Al-Khalil Reconstruction Committee.

Since more than a year the settlers have been trying to establish the road at the expense of the Palestinian lands in Husain valley, the sources added.

The Palestinian residents have appealed to the local institutions to stand against these Israeli schemes that aim to annex more lands to Kiryat Arba settlement.

In the same context, Israeli occupation soldiers set up surveillance cameras on the roofs of several houses south of the Ibrahimi Mosque.

————————————————————————————–

30 Palestinians wounded in clashes with Israeli soldiers in Al-Khalil

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)– About 30 Palestinians were injured on Friday afternoon during violent clashes with the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in Al-Aroub refugee camp and Beit Ummar town in Al-Khalil city.

Coordinator of Beit Ummar popular committee Mohamed Awad said that 14 Palestinian young men sustained injuries when the IOF attacked an event held in Beit Ummar in solidarity with prisoner Ahmed Awad.

One of the young men suffered a serious injury in his left hand and the others suffered rubber bullet injuries.

The IOF also kidnapped a 15-year old boy named Quteiba Sabarneh during the clashes.

In Al-Aroub refugee camp, another young man named Luay Al-Badawi suffered serious injuries in his head and face, and 16 others had different wounds.

————————————————————————————–

More than 20 Palestinians injured in different clashes east of Ramallah

RAMALLAH, (PIC)– More than 12 Palestinians on Friday afternoon sustained different injuries during clashes with the Israeli occupation forces near the entrance to Jalazoun refugee camp east of Ramallah city.

According to the Palestinian information center (PIC) reporter in Ramallah, the IOF fired live bullets intensively at the angry young men.

Other clashes also broke out after the Friday prayers in Silwad town east of Ramallah between Palestinian worshipers and Israeli soldiers, who fired a barrage of rubber bullets and tear gas grenades at the protestors.

Consequently, more than 10 Palestinians suffered injuries and one was reportedly detained during the violent events.

Some foreign and local journalists, including a cameraman working for Anatolia news agency, were brutally attacked by the IOF.

In another incident, hundreds of Palestinians performed their Friday prayers on their lands in Deir Jarir village east of Ramallah after they used a bulldozer to level the road leading to these lands.

The IOF, however, attacked the bulldozer and the Palestinian worshipers with tear gas and rubber bullets.

A horde of Jewish settlers also attacked the Palestinians during their presence on their lands and fired live bullets at them with no reported injuries.

The intensity of the tear gas attacks caused vast tracts of cultivated lands to catch fire.

————————————————————————————-

Israeli authorities demolish 18 Palestinian houses in the Negev

NAZARETH, (PIC)– The Israeli authorities’ bulldozers accompanied by a large police force and special units demolished on Thursday morning 18 Palestinian houses in the village of Atir in the Negev, in southern 1948-occupied Palestine.

Arab MK Taleb Abu Arar said in remarks to Quds Press that nearly 500 policemen from special units stormed the area to protect the bulldozers while demolishing the houses belonging to the family of Abu al-Ki’an.

The policemen imposed a tight blockade on the houses that were demolished and prevented the residents from entering or approaching them.

Abu Arar warned of the aggravation of the situation and the outbreak of an uprising in the Negev due to the policy of displacement adopted by the Israeli occupation authorities, pointing out that due to the demolition about 40 people, including women and children, have become homeless.

The Israeli bulldozers have also destroyed sheep barns and uprooted about 600 olive trees.

For his part, Sheikh Osama Uqbi official of the Islamic Movement in the Negev described the demolition operations as “crime against humanity”, and stressed on the steadfastness of the residents and their adherence to their land.

Palestine: ‘Israel’ arrests 28 children within 2 weeks & plans to legalize four unauthorized West Bank outposts

Israel arrests 28 children within 2 weeks

RAMALLAH, (PIC)– A Palestinian official report showed that the Israeli occupation forces have arrested 28 children from different cities and villages in the occupied West Bank, since the beginning of the month of May.

The report noted that the occupation forces “continued its aggression against the Palestinian children, as they arrested during the first half of May 28 children, and injured dozens of others during attacks on them by Israeli soldiers and settlers.”

Data of the Ministry of Prisoners’ Affairs states that the occupation forces have arrested since the start of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000 until the 7th of May 2013 nearly 9500 children under the age of eighteen, at the rate of 760 children per year.

Israel is still holding in its jails 243 Palestinian children, 42 of them are under the age of 16.

————————————————————————————-

“Israel” plans to legalize four unauthorized West Bank outposts

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)– Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now said on Thursday that the Netanyahu government wants to give retroactive approval to four unauthorized West Bank settlement outposts already slated for demolition.

Haaretz newspaper reported that “in a document submitted to the High Court of Justice on Tuesday, the state said that it will act to legalize four West Bank outposts for which a delimitation order was issued in 2003.”

The four outposts in question are: Givat Asaf, Mitzpeh Lakhish, Ma’aleh Rehavam and Givat Haroeh. They have been established on privately-owned Palestinian lands in the West Bank.

Palestine: Hundreds of worshipers, students rally in Al-Aqsa Mosque, cultivated land lot bulldozed & more minors are detained

Ongoing Nakba: Powerful infographic from Visualizing Palestine shows century of land theft, expulsion (click to view)

————————————————————————————–

Watch: “From Al-Araqib to Susiya” – Palestinians highlight ‘Israel’s’ ongoing efforts to expel them (click to read/watch)

————————————————————————————-

Hundreds of worshipers and students rally in Al-Aqsa Mosque

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– Al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage said hundreds of worshipers and students from Jerusalem and 1948 territories accompanied by Islamic Movement leaders rallied on Wednesday in Al-Aqsa Mosque to support Jerusalemites

The Islamic Movement leader Sheikh Taysir Khalidi said that 20 buses carrying Palestinians from the 1948-occupied territories headed toward Al-Aqsa Mosque to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Nakba.

He said the move was called for by a number of political parties and movements, which urged Palestinians from the 1948 territories to flock to Jerusalem to support its residents and defend Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Resurrection against the settlers and Jewish extremists’ fierce attacks.

Al-Aqsa Foundation reported that nearly 70 settlers, guarded by the Israeli police, stormed on Wednesday morning Al-Aqsa Mosque from the Mughrabi Gate, and desecrated its courtyards.

The Foundation pointed out that the pace of raids in Al-Aqsa has increased, especially in recent days, and warned that the incursions will continue in the coming days.

Meanwhile, Kiryat Arba settlers in addition to a number of Jewish organizations announced their intention to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque and organize inside it a celebration for their children on the occasion of the Shavuot Feast.

————————————————————————————–

Rabbi accompanies Jewish settlers on storming of Aqsa

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– Extremist rabbi Yisrael Ariel stormed the holy Aqsa mosque in occupied Jerusalem on Thursday at the head of a group of Jewish settlers.

Jerusalemite sources said that groups of Jewish settlers stormed the Aqsa mosque via the Maghareba gate and strolled inside it under heavy police escort.

Worshipers and Quran students inside the mosque chanted Allahu Akbar to protest the tour.

For his part, Mahmoud Abu Atta, the spokesman for the Aqsa Foundation for endowment and Heritage, said that 32 settlers broke into the Aqsa mosque in three groups and toured its plazas and attempted to offer Talmudic rituals.

Abu Atta said that the Israeli police forces tightened security measures in and around the holy site and took shots of worshipers and students.

Tension is running high in occupied Jerusalem and the vicinity of the Aqsa mosque in light of the heavy deployment of Israeli police and military forces in anticipation of more such storming by Jewish settlers.

————————————————————————————-

IOF soldiers bulldoze cultivated land lot

NABLUS, (PIC)– Israeli occupation forces (IOF) bulldozed Palestinian cultivated land lot in Aqraba village near Nablus claiming that it was “state owned”.

Hamza Direiya, a member of the committee in defense of Aqraba land, said that the soldiers destroyed the 25-dunum land planted with olive and almond trees south of the village.

He said that the soldiers also destroyed a water well used in irrigating that land owned by Ayham Direiya.

The activist said that the land owner, who has been reclaiming the land for the past two years, suffered heavy material losses, adding that the Israeli authorities did not recognize the land owner’s title deeds proving his ownership of the land.

————————————————————————————-

IOF soldiers detain 20 Palestinians mostly children

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)– Israeli occupation forces (IOF) detained 20 Palestinians, mostly children, in Tabaka village, south of Al-Khalil, on Thursday.

Local sources said that dozens of IOF soldiers broke into houses in the village and searched them using police dogs and rounded up 150 citizens in one of the squares before arresting 20 of them.

The soldiers targeted children in the age category 14-18 in the arrest campaign and interrogated them on the attack on an army jeep that was burnt in the attack during confrontations on Wednesday on the Nakba anniversary, the sources said.

They pointed out that the IOF released 18 of those arrested after quick interrogation and retained two behind bars.

Palestine: MK calls for building synagogue inside the Al Aqsa, confrontations in Al-Khalil, child arrested& the Aqsa mosque stormed

(File photo)

MK calls for building synagogue inside the Aqsa mosque

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– Mordechai Eugev, a member of the Israeli Knesset, called on his government to build a synagogue in the Aqsa mosque’s southern area.

The Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage said in a press release on Wednesday that the Israeli escalation against the Aqsa mosque was ongoing, the latest being an article by MP Eugev, a member of the fanatic party Habayit Hayehudi, that called for building a synagogue inside it.

The statement coincided with the distribution of a detailed map of the alleged temple by Jewish settlers during their storming of the Aqsa mosque.

Sheikh Kamal Al-Khatib, deputy leader of the Islamic movement in 1948 occupied Palestine, described the recent storming of the Aqsa as “unprecedented” as far as the quantity and proximity of storming days are concerned.

Khatib warned that the Knesset speaker and members’ calls for more such storming were part of new political drive to create a new de facto situation in the holy site.

————————————————————————————-

Violent confrontations in Al-Khalil, child arrested

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)– Israeli occupation forces (IOF) encircled Arroub refugee camp, south of Al-Khalil, on Wednesday and showered young men with teargas canisters and metal bullets.

Eyewitnesses told the PIC that the young men were demonstrating on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the Nakba and threw stones and crude firebombs at the soldiers.

Groups of young men said that commemorating the Nakba should include marching to settlements and military positions and not dancing and singing inside Palestinian cities surrounded by settlements and IOF soldiers.

Meanwhile, IOF soldiers arrested a Palestinian man and a child from Beit Ummar village, north of Al-Khalil, on Tuesday night.

Local sources said that the IOF arrested the schoolchild, Hakam Al-Alami, after the Israeli intelligence interrogated him at Gush Etzion detention center, north of Al-Khalil.

IOF soldiers rounded up eight university students and children in Beit Ummar over the past three days.

Jewish settlers start building religious institute in Bethlehem outpost

BETHLEHEM, (PIC)– Jewish settlers started building a religious institute in a settlement outpost in Khader village, Bethlehem province.

Ahmed Salah, the coordinator of the popular committee in Al-Khader, told Quds Press on Tuesday that the institute was almost completed.

He said that the institute was being built in Tal Hatmar outpost that was built over 500 dunums of the village land in 2000.

He said that building an institute in that outpost means turning it into an official settlement. He recalled that the outpost was dismantled but the settlers rebuilt it 13 years ago.

————————————————————————————

Jewish settlers storm the Aqsa mosque

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– 35 Jewish settlers stormed the Aqsa mosque in occupied Jerusalem on Wednesday through the Maghareba gate.

Local sources said that 50 Jewish children also attempted to break into the mosque via King Faisal gate.

The sources said that tension was running high in the holy site as Muslims inside it continue to chant Allahu Akbar (God is Great).

Fanatic Jewish organizations called for storming and desecrating the Aqsa mosque on the occasion of “Shavuot” on Wednesday and Thursday.

Palestine: Israelis continue violence, demolition orders, more lands confiscated & 7 million refugees since Nakba

(File photo)

Jewish settlers deface graves, destroy agricultural installations

NABLUS, (PIC)– Jewish settlers destroyed a number of agricultural installations and defaced graves near Sawiya village, south of Nablus, on Monday.

Ghassan Daghlas, in charge of monitoring settlement activity north of the West Bank, said that the settlers attacked and destroyed a hothouse and two tractors owned by Abdulaziz Nasrallah.

He said that the settlers vandalized graves and wrote racist graffiti on them in addition to “Price Tag”.

————————————————————————————

Jewish settlers set Palestinian farm crops on fire

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)– Jewish settlers set on fire Palestinian farm crops in Yatta town, south of Al-Khalil, on Monday morning.

Local sources said that a number of settlers sneaked into the area from the nearby settlement of Maon and torched the crops owned by a member of Awad family.

They said that big numbers of Israeli army soldiers were present at the time of the attack but did not intervene to stop it.

Meanwhile, Israeli occupation forces served notices to citizens in Yatta and Daheriya that their water wells and other agricultural installations would be razed at the pretext they fell in areas under full control of the Israeli occupation authorities according to the Oslo accords.

————————————————————————————–

Jewish settlers set alight 20 dunums of cultivated land

NABLUS, (PIC)– Jewish settlers set ablaze more than 20 dunums of cultivated land lots in Qaryut village, south of Nablus, on Monday and prevented their owners from approaching to put it off.

Bashar Al-Qaryuti, in charge with monitoring settlement activity in the village, said that dozens of settlers from the settlement of Shilo started the fire that burnt the land cultivated with barley, wheat, and olives.

He charged that the Israeli occupation forces provided protection for the settlers and blocked the land owners, 25 individuals, from extinguishing the fire.

Jewish settlers’ attacks in the West Bank have been on the rise lately in the absence of deterrence in light of the PA quelling of any form of resistance.

————————————————————————————

Jewish settlers torch three cars in Arab village

NAZARETH, (PIC)– Jewish settlers stormed the village of Um Al-Qatf in 1948 occupied Palestine and torched three cars at dawn Tuesday, locals said.

They said that the settlers wrote racist graffiti on walls of the village’s mosque and drew the red Star of David.

In the same context, the Hebrew radio said that racist anti-Arab slogans were written on one of the buildings in Safad city also in 1948 occupied Palestine.

————————————————————————————

IOA serves notices for the demolition of 14 houses near Jericho

JERICHO, (PIC</strong>)– The Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) served notices for the demolition of 14 houses in Oja village near Jericho in the central Jordan Valley on Monday morning.

Local sources said that the notices were delivered by Israeli occupation forces after storming the village, adding that all houses were in the Najada suburb.

They said that the IOA claimed that all buildings were built without permit and that the houses were built in area C.

The sources recalled that IOA teams razed three houses in the same village last week in line with a demolition spree in all areas of the Jordan Valley.

————————————————————————————

Israeli demolition orders in occupied Jerusalem

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– The Israeli municipal authorities in Jerusalem has issued a demolition order against a building under construction consisting of 6 apartments under the pretext of being built without permit in Beit Hanina town.

The building construction was permitted since two years ago. However, the Israeli authorities claimed that the contractor has breached the permit’s terms, said the building’s owner.

The Municipal authorities have issued randomly demolition orders on Sunday against 4 other houses in Wadi Hilweh neighborhood in the town of Silwan, including an Islamic Waqf property that was established before the Israeli occupation of Jerusalem in 1967, Wadi Hilweh Information Center revealed.

Israeli police and border guards have stormed children’s playground, while a camera crew filmed the place. Verbal confrontations took place between the Israeli forces and Palestinian residents when the Israeli forces closed some lanes preventing the children from having access to their houses.

Wadi Hilweh Information Center said that the Israeli municipality of occupied Jerusalem issued three demolition orders including an administrative demolition order that permits the implementation of the demolition process in 24 hours while the judicial demolition orders could be postponed several times.

The Israeli occupation continued its demolition policy in occupied Jerusalem in an attempt to impose its control over the city and reduce the Palestinian presence in the city.

————————————————————————————

Issawi calls for more support of prisoners’ issue

RAMALLAH, (PIC)– The Jerusalemite prisoner Samer Issawi has called on his supporters during his hunger strike that lasted for 8 months to continue solidarity campaigns in support of the prisoners’ issue.

In his letter published by the Islamic Jihad movement’s media office, Issawi pointed to the sick prisoners held in Ramle prison hospital who suffer the Israeli deliberate medical neglect.

Issawi, detained in Ramle prison, stressed that all Muslims are responsible for the prisoners’ suffering, quoting prophet Mohamed peace be upon him as saying “You see the believers as regards their being merciful among themselves and showing love among themselves and being kind, resembling one body, so that, if any part of the body is not well then the whole body shares the sleeplessness (insomnia) and fever with it.”

Samer Issawi was arrested in 2002 and sentenced to 26 years. He was released in Wafa al-Ahrar deal in 2011. He was re-arrested by Israeli authorities under the pretext of violating his release terms where he declared an open hunger strike protesting his re-arrest. Issawi reached a deal by which he will be released in October after an 8-month long hunger strike.

Palestinian liberated prisoners confirmed that Ramle prison hospital was “slaughter house” and not a hospital.

————————————————————————————-

Israeli scheme to confiscate more Jordan Valley lands

NAZARETH, (PIC)– Hebrew media sources revealed on Monday a new Israeli scheme to establish a city for Bedouins in Jordan Valley to facilitate the confiscation of their lands in the northern West Bank.

Palestinian experts considered the new Israeli scheme as a new Israeli attempt to confiscate more lands in the Jordan Valley and to displace the Bedouins without any possible prosecution.

The Israeli Civil Administration planned to establish a new city in the Jordan Valley for the Bedouins in an attempt to isolate and besiege them in certain areas as a prelude to confiscate their lands, similar to what the Israeli government has done and is still doing to the Bedouins in Negev desert, where they were forced to live in certain areas so that their land can be confiscated, Israeli media sources confirmed.

The Israeli “Nueama” project will be established over 1800 Dunums. The Palestinian Bedouins will be forced to get construction permits from the Israeli Civil Administration under the pretext that the area is located in Area C.

————————————————————————————

7 million Palestinian refugees since Palestinian Nakba

RAMALLAH, (PIC)– More than 7 million Palestinian refugees, uprooted from their homes and lands since the Palestinian Nakba (the usurpation of Palestine), are still hoping to return to their homeland, and reject the notion of land swaps.

Many of the Palestinian families who fled Palestine still hold keys to their homes after being forced to leave their lands and homes at gunpoint.

MP Mona Mansour stressed the right of return for all Palestinian refugees who were forcibly expelled from their historical lands. She confirmed her total rejection of the notion of land swaps, warning of its seriousness on the Palestinian cause.

Dr Abdel Sattar Qassem Professor of Political studies confirmed that Nakba anniversary highlights the Palestinian refugees’ adherence to their right of return despite their difficult living conditions in refugee camps.

The refugee Ahmed Abu Saada from Jalazoun refugee camp confirmed that the Palestinian right of return will never be compromised. Resistance is the only reliable option to return to our homeland, he stressed.

The Palestinian expert in settlements affairs Khalil Tufkaji expressed his rejection to the idea of land swaps, saying that it legalizes the Israeli settlement and prevents the territorial contiguity of the Palestinian desired state.

The Palestinian right of return is a sacred right inherited by successive generations and no one is entitled to compromise it, the refugee, Hamdan Khamis from the Askar refugee camp east of Nablus said.

In 1948, nearly 714 thousand Palestinians were forcibly displaced from the homes and ended up in various internal and external refugee camps.

Millions of refugees are still displaced in various refugee camps as Israel continues to deny their internationally-guaranteed Right of Return to their homes.

Palestine: Four houses to be razed in Silwan, farmer and his wife expelled from their land & committee warns of attempt to seize Al-Aqsa

IOA to demolish four houses in Silwan

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– The Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) served four demolition notices in Wadi Hilwa suburb in Silwan town, south of the Aqsa mosque, on Sunday.

The Wadi Hilwa information center said that owners of four houses in the suburb were notified of the demolition decision, adding that orders to that effect were glued on their homes.

It said that the demolition orders were indiscriminate as one of the buildings was built dozens of years before the occupation of Jerusalem and its owner did not maintain it or add anything new to it because it was owned by the Islamic Awkaf (endowment).

The center pointed out that the Israeli municipality teams, escorted by security forces, broke into a children’s playground and took shots of it after measuring its total area.

————————————————————————————-

Jewish settlers expel farmer and his wife from their land

JENIN, (PIC)– Guards of a Jewish settlement prevented farmer Nader Subaih and his wife from entering their land in Khader village near to the settlement.

Subaih said that three guards of the Efrat settlement ordered him and his wife to leave under gun threat.

He said that the guards insulted him and his wife and attempted to beat them. He added that the guards took his ID and only gave it back when he left his five dunum piece of land, which is adjacent to the settlement’s barbed wire.

Subaih said that settlers routinely assault him and his land with the aim to terrorize him away and take control of it.

————————————————————————————

Islamic-Christian Committee warns of ‘Israel’s’ attempt to seize Al-Aqsa

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– Islamic-Christian Committee for Support of Jerusalem and holy sites warned on Sunday of the intention of Israeli Ministry of Religious Affairs to put forward a series of legal amendments enabling settlers to perform rituals in Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Committee considered that such steps and procedures represent clear and explicit infringement against Al-Aqsa Mosque and aim to divide it, in preparation for its demolition and the construction of the alleged temple on its ruins.

It condemned the ongoing raids in Al-Aqsa courtyards, the persistent violations of the occupation government, and the international silence regarding these violations.

For his part, Secretary-General of the Committee Dr. Hanna Issa pointed to the Israeli army’s intention to create a military college on the lands of Jabel Mukaber in occupied East Jerusalem, and said this scheme is designed to impose Israel’s control over Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Islamic-Christian Committee called on all those able to reach Al-Aqsa Mosque to intensify their presence in its courtyards; in order to deter the occupation and thwart its plans.

It also appealed to the international community’s states, institutions and organizations to intervene and put an end to the occupation and the settlers’ violations in the Mosque, stressing that the occupation forces have surpassed all red lines and have violated all international laws and norms.

————————————————————————————

Health condition of Palestinian prisoner deteriorating

NABLUS, (PIC)– The prison administration of the Israeli Eshel prison has been refusing to provide treatment for prisoner Tamer Al-Reemawi, which badly affected his health condition.

The Palestinian prisoner’s society said in a statement on Sunday that Tamer, who is serving three life sentences, was plagued with a neurological disease.

It said that his condition exacerbated when he was kept in isolation along with three other Palestinian prisoners with Jewish homicide convicts.

The society explained that the Eshel administration was holding Reemawi along with the three other prisoners in one room in section 3, which is allocated for homicide prisoners.

Tamer’s mother called for providing her son with proper medication, adding that his health was worsening after refusing to take his medicine over the past few days in protest at his incarceration condition and medical neglect. The mother had visited her son a few days ago.

Palestine: Putrid liquid spared in people/houses, school teachers detained & injuries, arrests in Jerusalem

Prisoner’s family from Gaza appeals for the release of its patient son

GAZA, (PIC)– Family of Palestinian prisoner Mustafa Ali Abu Haniyeh, from the Gaza Strip, appealed to international and human rights organizations to immediately intervene to save the life of its patient son and release him from the Israeli jails.

The family of captive Abu Haniyeh, aged 40 from the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, called on the humanitarian and human rights organizations and the Red Cross to intervene and pressure the Israeli occupation authorities to release its son who suffers from several serious illnesses.

Captive Abu Haniyeh is held now in Nafha prison. He is sentenced to 15 years imprisonment, of which he has already spent 9 years.

His wife Maha confirmed that his health condition has been deteriorating, as he suffers from a stomach ulcer, breathing difficulties, and vision problems.

She pointed out that the policy of medical neglect adopted by the Israeli prison administration had exacerbated the health condition of her husband.

Mrs. Abu Haniyeh added that the prison authorities have recently transferred her ill husband to Nafha prison, and expressed concern about his condition, holding the occupation authorities fully responsible for his life.

The Israeli authorities detain in its jails nearly five thousand Palestinian prisoners, including 450 captives from the Gaza Strip, most of them are serving long terms.

————————————————————————————-

Israeli navy gunboats open heavy machinegun fire at Palestinian fishermen

GAZA, (PIC)– Israeli navy gunboats opened heavy machinegun fire at Palestinian fishing boats working off the coast of central Gaza Strip on Saturday night.

Local sources told the PIC reporter that the gunboats opened intensive fire at the boats that were fishing off the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

Israeli gunboats occasionally fire at Palestinian fishing boats and impede their work even within the reduced three nautical miles radius.

———————————————————————————–

IOF soldiers deploy in Al-Khalil, detain schoolteachers

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)– Israeli occupation forces (IOF) detained three teachers working at Janba school near Yatta, south of Al-Khalil province, on Sunday morning.

Local sources said that the soldiers detained the teacher while on their way to school, which is near to a Jewish settlement.

They said that IOF soldiers also roamed the streets of two villages near Al-Khalil city and broke into a number of suburbs and the Old City of Al-Khalil.

The sources said that the soldiers broke into a number of homes in the process and searched them.

————————————————————————————–

Injuries, arrests reported in Jerusalem night clashes

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– A number of Jerusalemites were injured in Saturday night clashes with Israeli occupation forces in Bab Hitta and Saadiya alleys near the Aqsa mosque.

Wadi Hilwa information center said in a statement on Sunday that a number of Jerusalemites were hit with metal and rubber bullets in the “violent” confrontations.

It said that the soldiers used live and rubber bullets in addition to teargas and stun grenades to quell the young Jerusalemites.

In a related context, a number of Jerusalemites suffered burns and breathing problems in clashes with the Israeli forces in Tur suburb in occupied Jerusalem while a young man was detained during the confrontations.