Palestine: Israeli authorities raze Araqib village for 52nd time, Gaza comes under sea, land gunfire & dog attacks

(File photo)

Israeli authorities raze Araqib village for 52nd time

NEGEV, (PIC)– The Israeli authorities went on the rampage for the 52nd time and razed the entire Bedouin village of Araqib in the Negev on Wednesday.

The Israeli radio said that inspectors at the interior ministry and the land of Israel department destroyed the temporary houses of Araqib village for being “illegal”.

Inhabitants of the village have rebuilt the village, with the help of Negev Bedouins and activists, each time the Israeli authorities flattened it.

————————————————————————————-

Southern Gaza comes under sea, land gunfire

KHAN YOUNIS, (PIC)– Israeli occupation forces (IOF) fired from land and sea positions at the southern Gaza Strip district of Khan Younis late on Tuesday night.

Local sources told the PIC reporter that IOF soldiers in Kissufim outpost fired at fields and residential quarters on the eastern flank of the Khan Younis district before midnight Tuesday.

The sources said that no casualties were suffered in the shooting that targeted Qarara and Deir Al-Balah.

At the same time, Israeli gunboats fired at the western coast of Khan Younis with no human or material losses reported.

————————————————————————————–

Settlers’ Dogs Attack Palestinians in AL-Khalil

Al Ahed news

A settler in al-Khalil released his dogs on Palestinian villagers in the South Khalil Hills on Wednesday, Palestinian news agency Ma’an quoted a local committee as saying.

The coordinator of the popular committee against settlements in Yatta stated that a settler from Susiya unleashed his dogs near al-Sumu and Haribat al-Nabi.

Settlers in the area often release their sheep onto Palestinian land to damage their agriculture, al-Jabour added.
In March, “Israeli” Knesset member Ahmad Tibi alleged that settlers in the West Bank were training dogs to attack Palestinians.

Meanwhile, Human rights group condemned using dogs to search and attack Palestinians, labeling it “unacceptable and immoral.”

This comes as clashes erupted near the Fawwar refugee camp south of al-Khalil on Monday, after “Israeli” settlers and soldiers attacked Palestinian civilians.

Eyewitnesses revealed that the settlers, guarded by the occupation forces, raided the entrance to the camp and started throwing stones at the citizens, which led to the outbreak of violent clashes during which a number of Palestinians suffered suffocation.

The witnesses added that more than 40 “Israeli” military vehicles were deployed near the camp and on the street leading to the settlement of Njihut, built on Palestinian citizens’ lands south of al-Khalil.

————————————————————————————-

Zahhar to Al-Manar Website: We Know Nothing about Any ‘Issued Statement’

by Israa Al-Fass, Al Manar

Leader in Hamas Movement Mahmoud Az-Zahhar stressed on Wednesday the movement’s good relation with Hezbollah, as well as with various elements in the Arab and Islamic world.

Speaking to Al-Manar website, Az-Zahhar considered that “differences in opinions does not ruin relations,” indicating that the movement’s branch in Gaza did not know anything about the statement claimed to be issued by Hamas over its relation with the resistance in Lebanon.

In parallel, the Hamas official stated that the movement’s relation with the Islamic Republic of Iran was “stable” despite the internal changes in the Islamic Republic, and refuted media claims about an end in the relations between the two parts.

He said that none of the Iranian officials tackled such an issue, and ruled out that any changes would occur to Iran’s relation with Hamas and the resistance movements after Sheikh Hasan Rouhani’s election.

When asked about some Muslim scholars’ calls for “Jihad in Syria”, he just said: “Those Muslim scholars hold the responsibility of their calls.”

Regarding the Palestinian resistance movement’s stance from the Syrian crisis, Az-Zahhar assured Hamas’s neutral stance on this issue, as well as any internal issue in the Arab world, indicating that its only concern was fighting the Israeli occupation.

“When the Liberation Organization interfered in internal Arab issues it lost and caused losses to the Palestinian cause… and when it left Jordan and took part in the Beirut crisis during the 70s it lost power and abandoned resistance…” he added.

Palestine: ‘Statehood idea at ‘dead-end’, unrepentant former Israeli commander razed entire villages, demolition orders & arrests

Palestinian statehood idea at ‘dead-end’: Israel minister

Press TV

Israeli Economy Minister Naftali Bennett says that the idea of establishing an independent Palestinian state has reached a dead end.

“The idea that a Palestinian state will be founded within … Israel has reached a dead end,” Bennett said on Monday.

Bennett, who heads the hardline nationalist Jewish Home Party, said the most important thing Israel should do is to build more settler units.

The Israeli minister has consistently voiced opposition to the two-state solution backed by key Israeli ally Washington and the rest of the international community.

Following Bennett’s remarks, Chief Palestinian Authority Negotiator Saeb Erekat accused Israel of officially declaring the death of the two-state solution.

“Several high-ranking Israeli officials have made clear statements regarding their position to actively work against the internationally endorsed two-state solution on the 1967 borders,” Erakat said.

Erekat says the comments by high-ranking Israeli officials against the two-state solution are not isolated events, but a reaffirmation of political platforms and radical beliefs.

A report released last month revealed that the Israeli regime confiscated 1,977 acres of the Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank for its settlement activity during 2012.

The settlements, which cover an area roughly equal to 1,035 soccer fields and twice as big as New York’s Central Park, were approved by “military order,” the Israeli daily Haaretz reported on May 27.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds in 1967.

————————————————————————————–

Former Israeli commander confesses to razing entire villages during Nakba

NAZARETH, (PIC)– A former Israeli army commander has confessed to razing entire Arab villages in the Nakba that led to the creation of Israel on the land of Palestine.

Brig. Gen. (res.) Yitzhak Pundak said in an interview with the Israeli army radio Monday on the occasion of his 100th birthday, “My conscience is at ease with that, because if we hadn’t done so, then there would be no state by now. There would be a million more Arabs.”

Pundak was the commander of the 53rd Battalion of the Givati Brigade during the Nakba and went on to supervise the establishment of the Armored Corps. He was also Ambassador in Tanzania and a founder of Arad.

In reply to a question about his keenness to lecture Israeli soldiers despite his old age, he said: “Israel is in danger today exactly as it was in 1948. If Jews do not fight as they did during the war of independence the state will be in danger.”

“War unites the Jewish people,” he added.

He spoke with pain of the 145 soldiers who were killed under his command over the years, and said that if they woke up miraculously and saw the division in today’s Israel, “they would run back to their graves.”

————————————————————————————-

Jewish settlers puncture 28 Palestinian cars in OJ

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– A group of fanatic Jewish settlers attacked Palestinian cars in Abu Gush area west of occupied Jerusalem on Tuesday and sprayed racist graffiti on walls.

A statement for the Israeli police spokeswoman said that unknown assailants punctured the tires of 28 cars owned by Arabs that were parked in Abu Gush area.

She added that racist statements were sprayed on nearby walls including that of “Price Tag” and others calling for the departure of Arabs.

Attacks by price tag gangs have recently escalated in occupied Jerusalem amidst lax Israeli security efforts to track down those involved.

————————————————————————————

Arrests and demolition orders in Jerusalem

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– The Israeli police and municipal crews have carried out raid campaign at dawn on Monday in Beit Hanina, Salam and Shufat refugee camp near the city of Jerusalem. A number of arrests were reported.

The Israeli police broke into a Palestinian building in Tel al-Foul and arrested 25 citizens living in it under the pretext of establishing a building without permit, an eyewitness confirmed.

The sources added that a fine of 800 shekels ($225) was imposed against each one of the detainees, pointing out that 80 other citizens were also arrested for the same charge in Salam and Shufat camps.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces stormed Shuafat refugee camp and arrested a number of shopkeepers for “tax evasion”.

The Jerusalem municipality crews along with the Israeli police raided the village of Silwan on Monday morning, and handed out three administrative demolition orders for commercial facilities.

The Israeli authorities have escalated recently its demolition policy against Palestinian properties and escalated settlement constructions in Palestinian neighborhoods within the so-called “Holy Basin”.

————————————————————————————

Raids and arrests in al-Khalil

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)– An Israeli large force has stormed Dura town south of al-Khalil this morning where they conducted raid and search operations in number of houses.

The Israeli force tightened its military restrictions in Dura and its surrounding villages where they prevented the citizens from performing the Dawn prayer in the mosque.

Three Palestinians were arrested including 2 minors where they were taken to unknown destination in light of Israeli ongoing search operations for the wanted persons who opened fire towards an Israeli military vehicle near Khursa junction 6 days ago.

Meanwhile, the Israeli soldiers raided Durwa area in Halhul north of al-Khalil where they erected military checkpoints. As a result, Palestinian youths stoned the soldiers who, in turn, fired tear gas leading to one injury. No arrests were reported.

————————————————————————————

Mother of sick detainee appeals for his life

JENIN, (PIC)– Amena Al-Saadi, the mother of detainee Nahar Al-Saadi, appealed to human rights groups to intervene and save his life in Israeli captivity.

Prisoner Saadi has so far served ten years of his life sentence and his health condition is worsening due to deliberate medical neglect and repeated isolation punishments.

Saadi, 31, is currently held in solitary confinement in Shatta prison and suffers from ulcer, curved spine, and dental problems.

The mother voiced fears for the life of her son since no treatment is being accorded to him, charging that holding her son in isolation ran contrary to human values and ethics.

She said that her son was in need of help of his fellow internees in view of his health condition.

“Yes, we are funding the occupation,” Swedish minister glibly tells Gaza youth

(File photo)

by Rana Baker, EI

When your hosts arrive late to a meeting then leave you in the middle of the discussion, you might accept the reasons they provide and not get irritated. But when they fail to address the points you raise as though you never even raised them, one cannot but find this behavior very disrespectful, if not downright rude.

On Monday, together with other young Palestinians, I was invited to attend a meeting with Gunilla Carlsson, Sweden’s Minister of International Development Cooperation and vice chairman of the Moderate Party, a center-right political.

We met at a fancy restaurant-cafe overlooking the sea in Gaza City. Although Carlsson was there on time, we could not start before other Swedish officials and at least one journalist joined us about five to ten minutes later. It was difficult to distinguish journalists from officials because pictures were being taken all throughout the meeting.

We were all there to discuss what “they,” the European Union, can do for “us,” the youth of Gaza living under Israeli occupation. Although I am convinced of the uselessness and eurocentrism of this kind of discussion, I did not hesitate to accept the invitation because it is always amusing to hear the hypocrisy firsthand.

Evading Israel’s responsibility

Carlsson, clad in a traditional Palestinian embroidery dress, began by suggesting that Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank should be “brought together” noting, with a smirk, that people in the West Bank refer to themselves as “West Bankers,” just as people in Gaza often refer to themselves as “Gazans.” However, she made no mention of Israel’s policy of dividing Palestinians and forcing them into separate bantustans, with municipal powers at best. We told her that bringing Palestinians “together” in the physical sense is impossible due to the Israeli-controlled Erez checkpoint that perches between us.

Carlsson nodded – nodding was the mantra – then went on to blame Hamas for cracking down on cultural activities and youth gatherings, implying that had it not been for the Hamas government and its security apparatus, Gaza would have flourished culturally.

I explained to Carlsson that Israel is the primary actor in the deterioration of the social and cultural life in the Gaza Strip, and that Israel’s missiles neither spare students nor universities. I also gave the example of the recent Palestine Festival of Literature in Gaza, during which members of the Hamas youth, and even some of the group’s high-profile officials, attended a few of the events and participated just like anyone in the audience.

This notion was reiterated more than once by many of us who were in the discussion. Seeing that no one agreed with her complete evasion of Israel’s responsibility for dwindling cultural and social conditions, Carlsson asked: “So you think we should talk to Hamas?” But before anyone could answer she said: “But you know our contact policy in the EU. We are waiting for the Palestinian elections to be held.”

At this point everyone at the table, save the Swedish officials of course, burst out laughing. “Good luck waiting,” commented Yasmeen El-Khoudary, a blogger and co-founder of the Diwan Ghazza cultural forum. I could barely keep silent, and literally had to bite my lip to avoid cracking up.

“Yes, we are funding the occupation”

Carlsson was not impressed. The reaction was perhaps not what she expected. “So how do you think we [in the EU] can help?”

Here the conversation started to sting. Carlsson was obviously expecting us to ask her to supervise an initiative that calls for fighting misogyny under the “Islamist rule” of Hamas or against the “Islamization” of the Gaza Strip.

”You can do a lot,” I answered, “the EU has influence over Israel but it is simply not interested.” Here Carlsson turned her face, talked to the waiter, then an official, as if I was not speaking to her. “For example,” I continued raising my voice a little bit, “the EU decided that settlement products will be labeled as thus but this is taking longer than needed, the EU also upgraded its trade relations with Israel last year.”

Carlsson did not address any of my points. In between her chat with the waiter and official, she nodded and nodded, but being so focused on what the official was telling her, in a low voice of course, I do not think she heard much of what I was saying.

Sameeha Elwan, a blogger and human rights worker, also criticized EU’s policy and double standards. “Yes, we are funding the occupation, you can blame us” Carlsson finally confessed.

“I can ask you to fund a cultural project,” I added, “but this does not address the root cause of the problem which is the Israeli occupation…” Fidgeting and once again chatting with the same official just as I spoke, Carlsson suddenly interrupted me saying that they are late and “have to go” to another meeting.

But she and her crew apparently had a few more minutes to take pictures with us, though definitely not to address or at least listen to what we were saying.

Warmth toward occupiers, threats toward Palestinians

One day after the meeting, Gunilla Carlsson met Yair Lapid, Israel’s finance minister and a so-called “centrist” who is open in his anti-Palestinian views. Tweeting her picture with him, both grinning, she described the meeting as “good.” Of course, Carlsson was not there to discuss the taxes Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority then withholds at the whim of its prime minister.

Gunilla Carlsson, who shamelessly meets with Israeli politicians involved in war crimes and the bloody and brutal occupation of the Palestinian people, comes to Gaza through the Erez crossing — a right Palestinians are denied — with the approval of the same Hamas government which she refuses to recognize, then has the guts to criticize them and behave as though our liberation cannot but come through the European Union’s imperialist and pro-Israel policies.

But Carlsson’s hypocrisy does not end here. On 14 June, she threatened to cut financial aid to the Palestinian Authority should negotiations with Israel not resume. What is most disgusting about this is Carlsson’s failure to voice the same threats to Israel whose relentless land theft and colonization in the West Bank constitute the primary obstacles to the resumption of the “peace process.”

In fact, Carlsson not only failed to criticize Israel’s settlement expansion policy and disinterest in peace but bizarrely praised Yitzhak Molcho, Israel’s chief negotiator, as “committed,” “serious,” and “engaged for peace.”

Our meeting at least served one useful purpose. It was a reminder that liberation, the end of racism, famine, and poverty, do not come through double-faced, disrespectful, and Eurocentric politicians such as Gunilla Carlsson.

Palestine: Foundation urges protection of Al-Aqsa Mosque, 75-year-old woman assaulted & family survives shelling

Aqsa foundation urges Muslim nation to move to protect Aqsa Mosque

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– The Aqsa foundation for endowment and heritage appealed to the Muslim nation to urgently move to save the Aqsa Mosque from Judaization, warning that the Mosque is facing fateful and critical moments.

In a press release on Sunday, the Aqsa foundation said the Jews prepared detailed maps, blueprints, models and tools to build their alleged temple on the ruins of the Aqsa Mosque.

It asserted that Israel’s channel 2 broadcast a report on Saturday evening about the process of building the alleged temple of Solomon and revealed that there are materials and tools in place to be used in the construction process.

The foundation noted that the release of such report took place a few days after a horde of Israeli right-wing journalists and media figures defiled the Aqsa Mosque. Their news agencies, at the same time, made special reports confirming that the Israeli regime and its Jewish arms had prepared plans to carry out a major assault on the Aqsa Mosque.

————————————————————————————-

Jewish settlers assault 75-year-old woman

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– A 75-year-old Jerusalemite woman, Fatima Ajjaj, was injured in Givat Shaul west of occupied Jerusalem on Sunday after three Jewish settlers assaulted her.

Her son, Abed, said that his mother was visiting his brother in Kfar Shaul hospital and when she went out at 0200 pm (local time) three Jewish settlers attacked her while she was waiting for a cab to take her home.

He said that the extremist settlers threw his mother to the ground and kicked and beat her while shouting racist slurs such as “Death to Arabs”. He pointed out that his mother was sick and had undergone three surgeries.

In a similar incident, two Jerusalemite young women complained to police that they came under attack last Friday.

The young women, both in their early twenties, said that Jewish settlers attacked them while on their way to work.

The first Layali Al-Sayyad, from Tur suburb, said that she suffered broken nose and swelling under her eye in addition to other bruises, while the second Anwar Abu Ramuz, from Wadi Qadum, said that she also suffered a broken nose and swelling in the eye and face.

————————————————————————————

Gazan family survives IOF artillery shelling, four Gazans arrested

KHAN YOUNIS, (PIC)– A Gazan family in Abasan village to the east of Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip, survived an Israeli army shelling on Monday morning.

An Israeli army shell exploded a few meters away from the family in Abasan Al-Kabira, eyewitnesses said, adding that no casualties were suffered.

Meanwhile, Israeli occupation forces (IOF) arrested four Palestinians from Qarara, north of Khan Younis, on Sunday night, eyewitnesses told the PIC reporter.

They said that IOF soldiers detained the four while trying to infiltrate into 1948 occupied Palestine.

He said that the four are in the age category 17 – 20, quoting inhabitants in their village as saying that they were trying to look for jobs in 1948 occupied Palestine.

Palestine: Occupation forces blast commercial store, Al Aqsa stormed & trees uprooted

(File photo)

IOF blast commercial store during wide campaign in Al-Khalil

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)– The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) at dawn Sunday detonated a commercial store in Wadi Abu Katila area in Al-Khalil city, detained its owner and occupied the roofs of some houses belonging to Annajjar family.

Eyewitnesses told the Palestinian information center that a large number of Israeli soldiers raided Wadi Abu Katila area and blew up a commercial store near Omar Bin Abdul Aziz Mosque.

The IOF also stormed the house of the store owner, Rami Haimoni, and destroyed all its furniture before they kidnapped him and took him to an unknown place.

In Al-Arroub refugee camp, a young man named Khaled Al-Jendi suffered wounds when Israeli soldiers physically assaulted him during a raid on the camp.

They also severely beat a workmen named Mohamed Ruzaikat, from Tafoh town in Al-Khalil, after they prevented him from going to his workplace in the 1948 occupied lands.

In separate incidents, the IOF stormed on the same day different neighborhoods in the towns of Dura and Idna, intercepted cars for search and raided some homes.

They also kidnapped a Palestinian citizen named Abdul-Moez Jarewi during a campaign in Al-Fahes area, southeast of Al-Khalil.

In Bethlehem, the IOF invaded Beit Jala town and Abu Najim village and handed two young men summonses for interrogation from the Israeli intelligence.

————————————————————————————

Jewish settlers storm Aqsa mosque

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– Jewish settlers including journalists from various media outlets broke into the holy Aqsa mosque in occupied Jerusalem on Sunday morning and strolled inside its plazas.

Eyewitnesses said that around 70 settlers provocatively roamed various plazas inside the holy site amidst tight security measures.

They said that the settlers were taking shots of various areas even the places where children memorize the holy Quran.

————————————————————————————

Jewish settlers uproot Palestinian olive trees

NABLUS, (PIC)– Jewish settlers chopped down olive trees and tore down a small warehouse in Qasra village to the south of Nablus on Saturday night.

Abduladheem Wadi, the chairman of the village’s municipal council, told Quds Press on Sunday that the group of settlers came from the nearby settlement outpost Aish Kodesh.

He added that they attacked one of the fields and uprooted olive trees and seedlings in addition to destroying the warehouse.

Wadi pointed out that the attack was the four of its kind by settlers from Aish Kodesh against that same farm owned by Ali Hassan.

He charged those settlers with attempting to terrorize the farmer into abandoning his field in a bid to facilitate annexing it to their outpost.

————————————————————————————

IOF quell march commemorating three villages ethnically cleansed by “Israel”

RAMALLAH, (PIC)– The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) attacked on Saturday afternoon a Palestinian march advocating the return of the Palestinians to the ethnically-cleansed villages of Latrun-Imwas, Yalu and Beit Nuba in the West Bank.

The Palestinian information center (PIC) reporter said that hundreds of families rallied near Beit Lakia west of Ramallah and marched towards their villages, which were destroyed in 1967 and annexed to the Israeli occupied lands.

As they reached the segregation wall that separates them from their villages, the IOF fired a hail of tear gas grenades leading to the burning of one bus and two cars parked in a nearby area as well as agricultural crops.

Some of the families, who were displaced from their villages, still live near the segregation wall and are exposed to constant harassment by the IOF to force them to leave the area.

The natives of the three villages organize an annual march to commemorate the destruction of their villages and their displacement from their homes in 1969.

Palestine: 13-year-old threatened with rape by Israeli interrogators, 30 violations against fishermen in 3 months, excavations & more housing units

(File photo)

13-year-old child released on bail after interrogator threatened to rape him

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– The Magistrate Court in Jerusalem ordered the release of 13-year-old Jerusalemite child Ismail Muhaisen on bail.

The father, Tawfik Muhaisen, said on Friday that the court ordered the release of his son on Thursday after paying a one thousand shekels bail in addition to another 5000 shekels bail to paid by a third party.

He said that the court also put the conditions that Ismail should not approach the mountain area near his hometown of Issawiye and should not talk with his friends, who are accused of starting fire in that area, for three months.

The father said that one of the Israeli interrogators threatened his son that he would bring a Sudanese man to rape him in order to force him to confess. He added that the judge ordered an investigation into the incident.

Israeli police forces arrested six children in Issawiye last week on the charge of starting fire in the town’s nearby hills. They were released a few days later with the same conditions imposed on Ismail.

————————————————————————————-

Settlers burn two cars, deface wall of building with racist slurs in J’lem

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– Extremist Jewish settlers at dawn Friday set fire to two Palestinian-owned cars and spray-painted racist slurs and threats on the wall of a residential building in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem.

Mousa Al-Alami, one of the residents in the building, told the Palestinian information center (PIC) that at about two o’clock in the morning of Friday he came back from his workplace and saw two cars of his neighbors ablaze and a gang of five settlers fleeing the scene as they sensed his presence.

Alami expressed his belief that the settlers used a flammable substance to burn the cars, noting that one of the settlers wearing a yarmulke (Jewish cap) was spray-painting anti-Arab slurs and threats with a signature referring to the price tag gang on the walls of the Palestinian apartment building.

Another resident, Adnan Abdul-Latif, said he spotted two days ago one of the Jewish settlers watching the apartment building, which is located close to street number one in Sheikh Jarrah area.

As it usually happens when settlers from the price tag gang launch terrorist attacks on Palestinian natives in the occupied Palestinian territories, Israeli policemen showed up pretending to really conducting an investigation into the matter.

The residents of the building are absolutely positive that such police investigation will not lead to the arrest of the perpetrators, Abdul-Latif added.

In a separate incident, a group of Jewish settlers on the same day destroyed Christian tombstones in the Orthodox cemetery in Jaffa city and defaced some of the graves with anti-Palestinian graffiti.

According to police investigations, Jewish settlers knocked down many tombstones, wrote blasphemous remarks, price tag gang’s signatures, and drew David Stars on some graves.

The settlers also defaced a fence wall surrounding a Palestinian building in Jaffa with hate slurs, punctured the tires of five cars and ruined their paints with anti-Arab graffiti.

————————————————————————————-

OCHA: Communities in the Jerusalem periphery at risk of forcible transfer

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned of the serious conditions of around 2,300 Palestinians, two thirds of them children, who reside in about 20 small herding communities in the hills east of Jerusalem, in Area C.

Over 80% of the residents are refugees, a status they acquired following their eviction from their place of residence in southern Israel in the early 1950’s where these communities have gradually lost access to much of their grazing land due to settlement expansion, according to OCHA report.

The report pointed out that most of the families have pending demolition orders against their homes, none of the communities have been connected to the electricity network and only half are connected to the water network.

Between 2008 and 2012, over 4,000 Palestinians, mostly from herding communities, were forcibly displaced due to the demolition of their homes on the grounds that they have no building permits, OCHA stated.

The report confirmed that herding communities in Area C are some of the most vulnerable in the West Bank –about 34% are food insecure.

————————————————————————————

PCHR: 30 Israeli violations against Palestinian fishermen in 3 months

GAZA, (PIC)– Nearly 30 Israeli violations were carried out by the Israeli naval forces against Palestinian fishermen along the Gaza sea within 3 months, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) reported.

The PCHR report has documented the Israeli human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory carried out between March 1st, 2013 and May 31st, 2013

The report documented 29 shooting incidents, which resulted in one injury, two incidents of chasing fishermen leading to two arrests, and the confiscation of one boat and fishing tools.

The report pointed out that the Israeli Navy has imposed restrictions on fishermen at sea, including narrowing the permitted fishing zone for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip from six to three nautical miles during the period between March 21st, 2013 and May 20, 2013, in violation to the cease-fire signed between Hamas and Israeli authorities under Egyptian mediation in Nov. 2012.

On May 21st, 2013 Israel has re-allowed fishermen an increased access to the fishing zone from three to six nautical miles, PCHR stated.

85 percent of the Israeli attacks were reported in areas that fishermen have been allowed to access, the report said, adding that Israel has progressively imposed restrictions on Palestinian fishermen’s access to the sea.

“Israel’s acts constitute a flagrant violation of the rules of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and International Human Rights Law (IHRL) since it systematically prevents the fishermen’s community from their most basic rights, particularly that they are mere civilians who do not pose the least threat to Israeli naval forces,” Khalil Shahin, Director of PCHR’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR) Unit, said.

It is worth mentioning that there are more than 70,000 people in Gaza who are dependent on fishing as the main source of income.

————————————————————————————-

Palestinian citizen wounded in IOF shooting in central Gaza

GAZA, (PIC)– A Palestinian man was wounded on Friday night in Wadi Salaqa to the east of Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza Strip at the hands of Israeli occupation forces (IOF).

Palestinian security sources told the PIC reporter that Omar Abu Mihareb, 48, was hit with a bullet in his right thigh and was taken to hospital.

Medical sources said that Abu Mihareb was in stable condition, adding that the victim was inside his home opposite the IOF Kissufim outpost when he was hit with the bullet.

————————————————————————————

Elad funds excavations in Silwan

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– Elad, right-wing Israeli settlement organization, is “indirectly paying the salary of a Tel Aviv University researcher heading an archeological dig in East Jerusalem,” Haaretz Hebrew newspaper revealed on Thursday.

“The Institute of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University began the dig about six months ago in the City of David National Park in the predominately Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan”, the newspaper said.

The excavations caused widespread protest against the university, due to its working with Elad, while “Tel Aviv University claims the dig and associated research are being carried out in cooperation with the Israel Antiquities Authority, without any connection to Elad.”

Haaretz confirmed that Elad has not only been involved with the dig from the start with the university’s knowledge but it is also paying the salary of an archeologist from the university who was appointed to head the dig.

The Hebrew newspaper referred to a meeting “held prior to the dig in November 2012 show that Gadot, David Be’eri, the director of Elad, and officials from the Antiquities Authority were in attendance”. At the meeting, logistics, mechanical tools and laborers were mandated to Elad.

“Additionally, an agreement between the Antiquities Authority and Tel Aviv University commits the authority to pay Gadot’s salary of NIS 23,000 per month for the dig”.

But the entire excavation budget comes directly from Elad. Elad paid NIS 385,000 for a 40-day exploratory dig. Since then, Elad has continued to fund the dig on a regular basis, Haaretz explained.

————————————————————————————–

1000 new housing units in Bethlehem

BETHLEHEM, (PIC)– Minister of Housing and Construction, Uri Ariel, declared on Thursday plans to build on thousand new housing units in Gush Etzion settlement bloc built on Palestinian lands in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.

The construction plan was approved after a meeting between the Israeli Housing and War Ministers and head of the Regional Council of Gush Etzion. Of the 1000 housing units, 650 are existing apartments that have now been approved by War Minister Moshe Ya’alon, Hebrew sources said.

Meanwhile, Yediot Ahronot Hebrew newspaper revealed on Wednesday Israeli plans to build 675 new housing units in the settlement of Itamar built on Beit Furik and Awarta villages in Nablus.

According to the plan, the settlement will be doubled 100%, the newspaper pointed.

“Netanyahu has decided to change the rules and ruin any chance of reviving talks. The government has become addicted to the construction of settlements that will not remain in Israel under any agreement. It will fall to Israel’s citizens to pay the diplomatic and financial cost,” the newspaper quoted the Israeli Peace Now organization as saying commenting on the Israeli new settlement plan.

Palestine: Al-Aqsa Foundation condemns organizing Formula 1 race in OJ & streets closed, lands confiscated

Al-Aqsa Foundation condemns organizing Formula 1 race in occupied Jerusalem

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– Al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage (AFEH) warned that the aim behind organizing Formula 1 car race in the vicinity of the Old City wall and al-Aqsa mosque is the reinforcement of Judaization projects.

The Formula 1 race is taking place in the occupied city of Jerusalem with the participation of the Ferrari World team, under local and international sponsorship.

The Foundation warned of the seriousness of such activities that come within the framework of the Judaization plans implemented by the occupation authorities in the city of Jerusalem.

The presence of Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Dome of the Rock and al-Buraq Wall, in addition to alleyways of the old town in the promotional video of the race confirms the Israeli Judaization plans, the Foundation said.

Al-Aqsa Foundation pointed out that is slated to start from the neighborhoods in the western part of Jerusalem towards the eastern part, in the vicinity of the Old City wall.

Between 50 to 100 thousands spectators are expected to attend the race, under the sponsorship Kaspersky Company specialized in computer protection programs.

Israeli occupation police closed main streets leading to the Old City in occupied Jerusalem on Thursday and Friday due to the preparations for the organization of the Formula 1 race.

————————————————————————————

IOF closes streets, confiscates lands in Jerusalem

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– Israeli occupation police closed main streets leading to the Old City in occupied Jerusalem on Thursday, local sources said.

The Israeli decision to close the streets came due to the preparations for the organization of the Formula 1 race, which will take place on Thursday and Friday in the occupied city of Jerusalem with the participation of the Ferrari World team, under the sponsorship Kaspersky Company specialized in computer protection programs.

The police declared, in a statement, their intention to close the streets leading to al-Khalil, Asbat, and Al Magharibah Gates in the Old City on Thursday and Friday, according to Jerusalemite sources.

The race will be launched from the neighborhoods in the western part of Jerusalem towards the eastern part, in the vicinity of the Old City wall.

For its part; the Jerusalem’s Sports Federations Group asserted that the Ferrari race comes within the framework of the Judaization plans implemented by the occupation in the city of Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, the Israeli police, accompanied with bulldozers and trucks, evacuated on Wednesday Wadi Joz car park east of Jerusalem claiming that it belongs to Israel Lands Administration (ILA).

Siyam, Abu Ta’a, and Farhan families confirmed that the car park was established on their own lands, declaring their intention to prosecute the ILA for its racial policy.

The families confirmed that the Israeli authorities have notified them since 6 months to evacuate the car park.

The park owners affirmed that they have official documents confirming their ownership of the land, where they appealed to the Israeli Municipal Authorities which permitted them to rehabilitate the park to be used as a car park, however they were surprised yesterday by the ILA breaking into the park.

————————————————————————————

Shirin Issawi banned from practicing her job for 2 more years

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– The Israeli authorities banned the Jerusalemite lawyer Shirin Issawi, the sister of prisoner Samer Issawi, from practicing her work under “security reasons.”

The decision was issued by the Israeli prosecutor, where she was banned over the 3 previous years from practicing her work as a lawyer since her arrest in 2010, she clarified.

Shirin stated in a press release that she was due to resume her work yesterday but she was surprised by an Israeli decision that renews the ban for two more years.

Shirin was held for a whole year in Israeli jails. Her brother Samer Issawi went on hunger strike for more than 8 months protesting his re-arrest after being liberated in Wafa al-Ahrar deal.

Palestine: Christian Cemetery defaced, diggings near Al-Maghariba Gate, violence towards Pals., demolitions & more land taken

(File photo)

Settlers Deface Christian Cemetery In Jaffa

by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

[Thursday June 13 2013] a number of extremist Israel settlers carried out another Price Tag attack, this time targeting a Christian Cemetery in Jaffa, and spray-painted “Price Tag”, and “Revenge” on tombstones.

Israeli Ynet News has reported that more Price Tag graffiti were discovered on a residential building close to the cemetery, near the home of Khaled Kaboub, an Arab District Court Judge in Tel Aviv.

The Ynet added that the police initiated an investigation into the attack, and that, so far, no suspects have been apprehended.

Talking to the Ynet, attorney Ahmad Balha, stated that is a very dangerous act that shows hatred for the Arab residents of Jaffa, and strongly denounced continued attacks against sacred sites.

He added that a meeting will be held, on Thursday, to discuss measures against these serious attacks and violations.

Resident Mahmoud Eghbariyya said that this “criminal attack cannot be ignored”, and that the Israeli government and police are failing to act.

In related news, the Israeli Police revealed Wednesday [June 12 2013] that Israeli settlers carried out 165 Price Tag attacks against the Palestinians and their property, in the West Bank, and in the 1948 territories since the beginning of this year.

The attacks targeted Palestinian lands and orchards, cars, property, mosques, churches and several Islamic and Christian graveyards.

———————————————————————————–

General strike in Negev protesting forced eviction of inhabitants

NEGEV, (PIC)– Arabs in the Negev desert announced a general strike on Thursday protesting the Israeli authorities’ planned forced eviction of them.

Forces in the Negev said that the strike was meant to object to the Prawer Plan on relocation and resettlement of Negev Bedouins that would be tabled with parliament soon.

They said that the protests would start with marches and demonstrations in front of the Israeli government compound in Beersheba.

————————————————————————————-

‘Israel’ initiates diggings near Al-Maghariba Gate for building of Jewish center

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– The Israeli antiquities authority started new diggings near Al-Maghariba Gate square in Silwan district, north of the Aqsa Mosque, as a prelude to building a huge Jewish center.

Wadi Hilwa information center said on Wednesday that the Israeli antiquities authority started its construction works on a piece of land belonging to Siyam family and erected metal poles inside holes that had been made last Monday at the entrance of a residential alley in Wadi Hilwa neighborhood.

The center added that the Israeli police escorted the Israeli workmen at the digging sites at the pretext they had permits allowing them to do their jobs. However, the workmen refused to show these permits to the residents.

Residents from Silwan district had managed to prevent two three days ago the workmen from continuing their digging works and setting up tin sheets at the entrance of their populated alley where their homes are located, but the workmen came again on Thursday under police guard and resumed the diggings.

According to the center, the Israeli occupation authority wants to establish a Jewish archaeological center of seven floors in Al-Maghariba Gate square. The center extends over an area of 3,000 square meters.

————————————————————————————-

Israeli officer forces Palestinian to drink wine at gunpoint

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)– An Israeli intelligence officer forced a Palestinian young man from Beit Ummar town in Al-Khalil to drink a bottle of wine at gunpoint.

The incident happened when Mohamed Abu Diya, a 24-year old young man from Safa area in Beit Ummar, was on his way back home, according to the spokesman for the popular committee against settlement in Beit Ummar Mohamed Awad.

As Abu Diya was walking near the Israeli military tower at the entrance of Beit Ummar town at around 7:15 pm on Tuesday evening, Israeli soldiers intercepted him and took him in chain to the tower before they embarked on questioning him about the names of the Palestinians who participated in recent events in Beit Ummar.

Because he was not responding to their questions as they liked, the soldiers called for an intelligence officer known in the area as Captin Sedqi who, in turn, hurled questions at him, showed him some names and asked him to identify them, but Abu Diya insisted on not giving any information.

Then the intelligence officer pointed a gun at Abu Diya’s head and forced him to drink a whole bottle of wine leading him to lose his consciousness and stay lying on the floor inside the tower for some time before the soldiers carried him and threw him out.

Some Palestinian passersby, according to spokesman Awad, spotted Abu Diya in poor shape and took him to his house.

The citizens who helped him said they found him near the tower smelling a strong odor of alcohol.

Mohamed Abu Diya had been detained and abused by the Israeli occupation forces before, and he suffered a serious injury to his head in 2009 when jailers in Ashkelon prison brutally assaulted him.

————————————————————————————-

Jewish settlers use knives in assaulting Jerusalemite old woman, young man

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– Jewish settlers attacked two Jerusalemites, including a 60-year-old woman and a young man, while walking opposite the Maghareba gate in Silwan.

Majd Halisy said on Wednesday that six settlers attacked his uncle’s wife Hayam Halisy, 60, and a young man using pepper guns and sharp tools.

He said that the settlers, 17 to 30 years in age, also used a knife in attacking the young man.

In another incident, Halisy said that a group of four settlers broke into his home and that of his cousin in Silwan and when he shouted at them they ran away. He added that he tried to follow them but he saw them chase another Jerusalemite with knives in their hands.

————————————————————————————

Health of Abdullah al-Barghouthi deteriorates further at Afula hospital

NABLUS, (PIC)– The heath condition of the prisoner of Abdullah al-Barghouthi, held at Afula hospital under harsh conditions, has seriously deteriorated where he refused to have medical tests or to take vitamins, the Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS) reveled.

Al-Barghouthi, who declared a hunger strike since early May, is held handcuffed and shackled to his bed in the hospital suffering frequent lightheadedness and pains all over his body, the PPS lawyer confirmed following his visit to the hunger striker.

The hunger striker told the lawyer that the Israeli jailers prevented him from wearing the hospital cloths or to take shower, holding him shackled to the bed.

Five Jordanian prisoners, led by Abdullah al-Barghouthi, have been on hunger strike since May 2013 to demand transfer to a Jordanian prison to serve out their sentences. They are also demanding that Israel reveals the whereabouts of 20 Jordanian prisoners who have disappeared whilst in Israeli custody, and the return of the remains of others killed during fighting with Israel who have been thrown into numbered graves.

————————————————————————————

IOF demolishes two houses, farm building in Jenin

JININ, (PIC)– Israeli bulldozers demolished on Wednesday two homes, a livestock farm building and a room under construction in the village of Barta’a, south if Jenin.

Nearly 20 Israeli military vehicles and bulldozers stormed the village, erected checkpoint at its entrance, and started demolishing the houses and a farm building for livestock and poultry, as well as a room which is under construction, all of which belong to Ahmed Omar Qabaha.

The Israeli forces claimed that the two houses, totaling 170 square meters, were built without permit in area C that is under Israeli control, the sources said.

The sources pointed out that the Israeli forces threatened to demolish every house built in the area.

Ahmad Omar Qabaha, the houses’ owner, said that the Israeli authorities have handed him earlier a demolition order, saying that all houses in the area are threatened with demolition.

The Israeli authorities escalated demolition and confiscation policy in the village in order to displace its people after being isolated since ten years behind the Apartheid Wall.

A B’Tselem report noted that Area C is home to an estimated 180,000 Palestinians, and the Israeli authorities’ planning and construction policy almost completely ignores their needs by refusing to recognize most of the villages in the area.

————————————————————————————-

Israeli scheme to expand 9 settlements in WB

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– Israeli government has approved a plan to expand 9 settlements in the West Bank, most notably Borjan west of Salfit northern West Bank.

The so-called Supreme Israeli Council for organization, the settlement subcommittee in Bethel City Administration, declared a new settlement project to build new settlement units in 9 West Bank settlements.

Khalil Tafakji, director of the maps section at the Orient House in occupied Jerusalem, said that this settlement project includes the establishment of 550 new housing units.

He also pointed to the presence of another Israeli scheme (No. 163/3) to expand Itamar settlement built on land of the Palestinian village of Awarta. The project includes changing agricultural land to residential land, he added.

He affirmed that this settlement project stretches along five square kilometers over Nablus and Jordan Valley land, where a number of outposts were already built.

According to the plan, Borjan illegal settlement will be expanded to five times its size, where it will include 550 new housing units in addition to playgrounds and commercial centers over 2572 dunums.

Al-Tufkaji pointed out that the Israeli authorities legalized the settlement in April 2012 as a prelude to implement this scheme, saying that the settlement includes currently 100 housing units that will be doubled within one year.

————————————————————————————

IOA plans building 675 new housing units south of Nablus

NABLUS, (PIC)– The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) is planning to expand many West Bank settlements and the latest plan was to build 675 new housing units south of Nablus.

Yediot Ahronot newspaper said on Wednesday night that the new plan envisages expanding a number of settlements in the West Bank at a rate of 100%.

It said that the new housing units would be added to Itamar settlement established on lands owned by villagers in Beit Furik and Orta villages, south of Nablus.

It said that the building would increase the area of Itamar, inhabited by 100 families, by 100%, noting that former war minister Ehud Barak had authorized the building before the latest parliamentary elections.

The scheme stipulates building 538 new units and rehabilitating 137 others that were already built.

Palestine: Up to six mass graves discovered in Jaffa, children sentenced to jail, demolition orders, eviction & trees destroyed

Israeli military court sentenced two Palestinian children to jail

JENIN, (PIC)– The Israeli military court in Salem, north of the West Bank, sentenced two Palestinian children from Burkin village in Jenin to three months in jail without any consideration to their age.

Local sources said that the court sentenced 13-year-old Ahmed Khalaf and 14-year-old Osama Subuh to three months in jail and a fine of 2000 shekels on each one of them.

The sources said that the court refused the lawyer’s request for their release in view of their age and insisted that they should stand trial.

Both children were arrested around a month ago near the Jalama checkpoint, north of Jenin.

————————————————————————————-

IOA transfers 12-year-old detainee to hospital

BETHLEHEM, (PIC)– The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) transferred a 12-year-old Palestinian child to Hadassah Ein Karem hospital in Jerusalem only few hours after his arrest.

The director of the Palestinian prisoner’s society in Bethlehem, Abdulfattah Khalil, told Quds Press on Tuesday that medical sources informed the family of the child Husam Khalifa, of his transfer to hospital late last night.

Khalil said that the child’s father, from Bethlehem, was with him until 02:00 am (local time) Tuesday after Israeli occupation forces summoned him to a roadblock where his son Husam was being held.

He said that Husam was in good health and did not suffer any health problems before his detention.

Khalil expressed concern that the child might have been beaten and tortured after his father left him, holding the IOA fully responsible for his life.

————————————————————————————

Demolition orders and arrests in Jerusalem

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– The Israeli Municipal authorities in Jerusalem have handed on Monday demolition orders against 4 buildings in Shuafat, Beit Hanina, and Silwan.

The lawyer Zied Abd al-Majid said that the mentioned buildings in Shuafat consist of 6 apartments, explaining that one of the houses was established since 1999 under a construction permit, however the Israeli authorities canceled the permit under the pretext of violating the construction law.

The lawyer added that the Israeli Jerusalem Municipality started renewing the demolition orders against Jerusalemite houses asking the residents to demolish their houses by themselves to avoid the demolition expenses.

In another context, the Israeli occupation continue its repressive measures in occupied Jerusalem, where Israeli border guards attacked on Monday evening a 13-year-old Palestinian child using pepper spray.

The child’s father said that his son was standing waiting for him near Bab al-Sahera when Israeli soldiers stopped their vehicle and sprayed pepper spray on the child’s eyes while.

The child was transferred to Hadassah Ein Karem hospital, the father said, pointing that a video documenting the attack was handed to the Israeli police in Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces arrested a child from Issawiya town in occupied Jerusalem after storming his parents’ house and took him to al-Maskoubiya detention center.

The Israeli soldiers also arrested a Jerusalemite youth from Beit Hanina and took him to unknown destination.

A 13-year-old child was also arrested in the Old City in Jerusalem for throwing a Molotov cocktail at an Israeli outpost, while his father confirmed that his child has no relation to the incident.

The Israeli police has arrested last week the child’s brother, 15, and extended his detention to June 20.

Meanwhile, the Israeli authorities released on Monday the Jerusalemite prisoner Mohammed Jamal Mahmoud from Issawiyya, after spending two and a half years in Israeli jails.

————————————————————————————-

IOA orders eviction of Bedouin families

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) ordered members of the Ka’abna tribe to leave their Bedouin homes near Beit Hanina village in occupied Jerusalem.

Local sources said that the IOA ordered eight families comprising 53 individuals to leave their homes, which are adjacent to Bir Nabala to the north west of Jerusalem.

They said that the family members staged a sit-in since the morning hours on Tuesday in protest at the eviction notice.

Salem Abu Dahuk, the chairman of Jerusalem Bedouin Society, said that the suffering of the Ka’abna family with occupation is a long one.

He said that the tribe’s suffering started with the establishment of the Israeli industrial area Atarut on the land of Bir Nabala, adding that the racist, separation wall then divided their land and deprived them of basic services such as education and health yet the tribesmen remained steadfast and refused to leave their land.

————————————————————————————–

Jewish settlers torch olive trees in Bethlehem village

BETHLEHEM, (PIC)– Jewish settlers torched olive trees near Nahalin village, west of Bethlehem, on Tuesday night.

Eyewitnesses said that settlers from Beitar Illit settlement, established on village land, started the fire in the olive fields.

They said the blaze destroyed more than ten olive trees in Khirbat Al-Deir near the village before the inhabitants could put out the fire.

————————————————————————————-

Jerusalemite ordered to pay 13,000 dollars to compensate a usurping settler

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– Israeli forces Judaization campaigns and brutal practices against Jerusalemites aiming to displace them from the holy city continue.

The Israeli Magistrate’s Court imposed a 13-thousand-dollar sum against the Jerusalemite Daoud Siam, 35, for his alleged attack on an Israeli settler who tried to confiscate the house of Siam’s grandfather, Wadi Hilweh Information Center revealed.

Siam told the center that the court issued a decision in absentia on Sunday asking him to pay a 13-thousand-dollar sum to the Israeli settler who claimed to have been assaulted by Siam.

The case dates back over four years, Siam said. In 2009, four Israeli settlers tried to break into the house of Siam’s grandfather in Wadi Hilweh in Silwan while no one was home. When Daoud arrived one of the settlers instantly raised his gun and then they withdrew after verbal altercation.

Siam was then arrested and detained for 24 hours and a fine of 1,500 shekels, and 150 hours of community service, in addition to 3 years imprisonment with a stay of execution for 6 months.

According to the court’s decision, the first sentence was a compensation to the public right, however the new order is a compensation to the settler.

‘Israel’ bars children over eight from visiting fathers in prison

(File photo)

by Joe Catron, The Electronic Intifada

On 20 May, Obeida Shamali visited his father, Ahmad Abd Alraheem Shamali, in Israel’s Nafha prison. It was the first time they had seen each other since Israeli forces captured Ahmad in August 2008.

“I was very happy,” the seven-year-old said. He was sitting under a picture of his father in his family’s house in Gaza City’s al-Shajaiyeh neighborhood. “Before it, I imagined how his face would look when I met him, because I hadn’t seen him for such a long time.”

A fighter with Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Ahmad has been sentenced to 18 years in prison by an Israeli military court.

Like hundreds of local children, Obeida had been unable to visit his father for years. In June 2007, a year before capturing his father, Israel banned all visits to Palestinian detainees by families from the Gaza Strip. To end a mass hunger strike in its prisons, it eased this restriction in May last year. Israel promised to allow visits by parents and spouses, starting two months later.

Promise broken

But children of detainees remained unable to visit their incarcerated parents for almost another year. Only last month, on 6 May, did Israel allow seven children — all younger than eight years old — to accompany 54 other members of prisoners’ families through the Erez checkpoint, which separates Gaza from present-day Israel. Some 33 children have now joined four prison visits, according to Dibeh Fakhr, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, which coordinates family visits to detainees with the Israeli authorities.

A recent report on the policy by the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem described the current visitation regime. “Visits are permitted very infrequently, only once a week on Mondays, and then only at one prison facility at a time: Nafha, Ramon and Eshel (Dekel),” according to the group. “As a result, each eligible inmate receives a visit once every three or four months. In contrast, inmates from Israel or from the West Bank who are held on criminal or security grounds may receive visits once every two weeks” (“Israel prohibits Gazan children from visiting imprisoned fathers,” 23 May 2013).

“We were all flying with happiness,” Najah Shamali, Ahmad’s mother and Obeida’s grandmother, said about the news that their entire family would be able to visit Ahmad for the first time. “The whole family celebrated. Everyone obsessed about the visit and could hardly wait for it to come.”

“No justification”

But the visit might have been Obeida’s last. Israel’s new policy still bars Gaza Strip children aged eight or older from visiting their detained parents. And Obeida’s eighth birthday — on 10 July — will almost certainly come before his family’s next visit.

“These policies show that the main aim of the Israeli prison system is to destroy the well-being of prisoners,” Rifat Kassis, the director of Defence for Children International — Palestine Section, said. “There is no justification for imposing these restrictions on Palestinian children from communicating and visiting their fathers in Israeli prisons. Even the security justification Israel uses to justify its policies are not in line with its human rights obligations and cannot stand.”

According to Kassis, Israel’s restrictions on family visits violate not only its responsibilities under international law, but also its own written regulations. “Denying political prisoners, especially those who are from the Gaza Strip, from their visitation rights for prolonged periods of time and imposing restrictions on them when they enjoy this right, including putting limitations and restrictions on who is eligible to visit them, is a form of collective punishment,” he said.

“The right of prisoners to receive visitors, especially near relatives, at regular intervals and as frequently as possible is recognized by the Fourth Geneva Convention.

“These practices are not in conformity with the Israeli Prison Service instructions related to the right of visitation of prisoners. The IPS instructions reads that the prisoners have the right to receive family visits after three months of imprisonment, once every two weeks.”

At the end of April, Israel held 511 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, according to B’Tselem. Many are detained for lengthy sentences. “Most of their children are [older than] eight years,” said Osama Wahidi, a spokesman for the Hussam Association, a Gaza-based group for current and former detainees. “Very few are younger.”

The Hussam Association campaigns around issues of family visitation, issuing statements and holding rallies at the ICRC. Many of its activities, Wahidi said, aim to draw the attention of international media and human rights organizations.

“Their positions are very bad,” he said. “When [Israeli soldier] Gilad Shalit was detained by the Palestinian resistance here in Gaza, every human rights organization talked about him. At the same time, most of them, and the international media, never mentioned Palestinian detainees. But they demanded that Shalit should be released. He was a soldier; he was holding a weapon; he was targeting Palestinian civilians.”

“We don’t have a magic wand to release all the detainees. That’s why we are trying to find ways to talk about the suffering of detainees, their families, and their children. We don’t have any other way.”

“Above the law”

At a weekly sit-in by detainees’ families and supporters at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), several detainees’ children shared their experiences of the visitation policy.

“I send him voice messages through a radio station, and written messages through the ICRC,” said Nisma al-Aqraa, the 15-year-old daughter of Mahed Faraj al-Aqraa. She has not seen her father, a fighter for the Popular Resistance Committees’ al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades, since his capture by Israeli forces in July 2007. Categorized as a “permanent sick detainee” in the Ramleh prison hospital, where he is serving three life sentences, both of his legs have been amputated.

“I saw him behind a glass barrier,” Hamze Helles complained. “I couldn’t go inside.” Hamze, who had just turned eight when Israel’s policy shifted on 6 May, was able to visit his father Majed Khalil Helles, a fighter for Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades sentenced to five years, in Nafha prison on 20 May, through an apparent administrative oversight. It was Hamze’s first visit since his father’s capture by Israeli forces in August 2008.

“It doesn’t make any sense to deprive a small child who will never cause any harm to Israel,” Wahidi said. “It’s not logical. But Israel doesn’t care about its reputation. It feels like it is a state above the law, that no one can hold it accountable for its crimes. Nobody in the international community has shown otherwise.”

Palestine: Worker, youth wounded in shootings & central Gaza raided

Maan Images

Jewish settler fires at Palestinian workers wounding one of them

QALQILIA, (PIC)– A 21-year-old Palestinian worker from Azun Atma village was wounded in his leg when an Israeli settler opened fire at a group of workers in Qalqilia on Tuesday.

Local sources said that the guard of Oranit settlement, established on the village land, indiscriminately opened machinegun fire at a group of workers while trying to cross into 1948 occupied land.

They said that the workers were trying to cross through an unfinished section of the racist, separation wall when the guard fired at them and injured Abdullah Al-Barri, 21, in his leg.

Hundreds of workers try to cross into 1948 occupied land through holes or incomplete sections of the separation wall to look for jobs.

————————————————————————————-

Palestinian youth seriously wounded in IOF shooting

KHAN YOUNIS, (PIC)– A Palestinian young man was seriously wounded at noon Monday at the hands of Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stationed east of Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip.

Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra, the health ministry’s spokesman, told the PIC reporter that the 21-year-old youth was seriously wounded in the shooting.

He said that the youth was hit with a bullet in his chest while working in his field.

Qudra said that the youth was taken to the European hospital where his condition was described as critical.

IOF soldiers target farmers working near the security fence in a bid to terrorize them away from their land after the recent calm agreement allowed them to return to their fields.

————————————————————————————-

IOF soldiers raid central Gaza

DEIR AL-BALAH, (PIC)– Israeli occupation forces (IOF) raided eastern Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning.

Local sources told the PIC reporter that the soldiers escorted six bulldozers that combed and bulldozed land in the area.

IOF soldiers routinely raid border areas in the coastal enclave in violation of the calm agreement concluded in Cairo last November.

Palestine: Netanyahu says it’s Anti-Semitism to accuse ‘Israel’ of war crimes, bulldozers raze land & demolition notifications

IOA bulldozers raze land in Tur to serve settlement project

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) bulldozed Palestinian fields in Khilat Al-Ein area between Tur and Issawiya village in occupied Jerusalem and arrested a Palestinian for trying to stop the bulldozers.

Local sources said that Israeli occupation forces arrested Khader Abul Humus, a member of the follow up committee in Issawiya, for participating along with others in confronting the bulldozers.

The sources said that the Israeli bulldozers were destroying cultivated land to pave the way for constructing streets serving the serious settlement project E1, which targets seizing more than 700 dunums in the area and practically isolates Jerusalem from the West Bank.

Raed Abu Rayala, the spokesman for the follow up committee in Issawiye, said that the IOA was planning to build parks for settlers in the area over 740 dunums.

IOA bulldozers recently demolished a number of houses for Palestinian citizens in Khilat Al-Ein to wipe out any Palestinian presence in the area.

———————————————————————————–

IOA serves demolition notifications in Silwan

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– Israeli municipality teams accompanied by occupation forces served demolition notifications in Silwan suburb in occupied Jerusalem on Monday.

The Wadi Hilwa information center said that the teams took shots of Silwan suburbs, alleys and houses then glued the notifications on a number of them.

It said that the team glued one such notification on a car wash and another on Wadi Hilwa playground, where no building is established.

The center pointed out that the threatened buildings include several apartments and their demolition would render dozens of people homeless.

Palestine: Israelis defile Aqsa Mosque courtyard this morning

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– Extremist Jewish settlers escorted by policemen desecrated the Aqsa Mosque courtyard on Sunday morning coming from Al-Maghariba Gate.

A female eyewitness told Safa news agency that three groups of settlers walked around the Aqsa Mosque courtyard and some of them performed Talmudic rituals.

She said that a large number of female and male religious students are also present in the courtyard protecting any attempt by the settlers to enter the Mosque’s buildings.

She added that the Israeli police imposed restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers to their Aqsa Mosque, checked their IDs and took photos of the Muslim religious sessions in the courtyard.

She noted that many Palestinian worshipers inside the Mosque are on alert as many extremist Jewish groups have declared their intents to enter the Mosque, expecting that the next few hours could see the coming of more settlers and tourists.

Palestine: Kanaan village destroyed for the third time, 50 injured/13 others displaced in 1 week & more schemes to confiscate lands

IOF destroys Kanaan village in al-Khalil for the third time

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)– Israeli occupation forces (IOF) demolished on Saturday the village of Kanaan 3, which had been established by Palestinian and foreign activists on lands near the village of Surif near al-Khalil, south of the West Bank.

The activists and organizers of the event told Quds Press’s correspondent that the Israeli soldiers attacked them and demolished the tent they had erected near a checkpoint in the village of Surif.

They added that the tent was erected in an expression of their rejection of the occupation policy of land confiscation, and the continued erection of checkpoints at the entrances to West Bank towns.

One of the activists revealed that the event was organized by the popular committees in the south of the West Bank.

The tent was scheduled to be erected near Etzion settlement complex; however due to the soldiers’ intensive presence, it was set up in the area of Jaba.

The activist added that large Israeli military forces arrived to the place, suppressed the participants, and destroyed the tent.

The Israeli soldiers arrested 3 activists following clashes that erupted between the two sides. Some other activists suffered suffocation due to tear gas and stun grenades fired by the occupation soldiers.

Israel plans to seize the land of Kanaan village to expand their illegal settlements.

————————————————————————————

OCHA: 50 Palestinians injured, 13 others displaced in one week

RAMALLAH, (PIC)– A UN report said that around 50 Palestinians were injured in the West Bank and Gaza, 1,000 olive trees were damaged, and 30 people were displaced in East Jerusalem as a result of demolitions during the past week.

In its weekly report on Israeli human rights violations against Palestinians, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that 50 Palestinians were injured in clashes with Israeli forces, the majority of whom were minors.

The report (from 28 May to 3 June 2013) documented 18 Israeli attacks against Palestinian property and one that led to a Palestinian injury (in Gilo settlement in Jerusalem). “This represents a 50 per cent increase compared to the weekly average of such incidents so far in 2013. No settlers were injured this week.”

The report said that Israeli settlers set fire to or cut down at least 1,220 olive trees and slashed the tires, sprayed graffiti on or set fire to at least 16 cars. Anti-Christian and “price-tag” graffiti was sprayed by Israeli settlers on a church in the Old City of Jerusalem and on several houses and cars in Beitillu village in Ramallah.

The Israeli authorities demolished 4 Palestinian-owned structures in East Jerusalem and Area C on the grounds that they lacked Israeli issued building permits. As a result 13 people, including five children, were displaced and the livelihoods of 34 other people were affected, the UN report documented during the past week.

The weekly report affirmed that a Palestinian farmer was shot and injured in Gaza Strip by Israeli forces while he was approximately “300 meters from the fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip”.

Israeli forces also conducted at least two land leveling operations a few hundred meters on the Gaza side of the fence on 29 May. These incidents took place in the context of access restrictions imposed by the Israeli military in areas near the fence, the report said.

————————————————————————————-

Jewish settlers storm Kafl Hares town, verbally attack its residents

SALFIT, (PIC)– Hundreds of Jewish settlers under military protection stormed Friday morning Kafl Hares town in the northern side of Salfit city at the pretext of performing rituals.

According to eyewitnesses, the Israeli occupation forces erected barriers at the entrances to the town and prevented the Palestinian citizens from leaving or entering it.

They added that the settlers entered the town aboard large buses and performed rituals inside the shrine of prophets Joshua and Kafel in the town and verbally attacked Palestinian citizens.

Consequently, the soldiers fired tear gas grenades at Palestinian young men from the town after they clashed with the settlers as a result of their provocative remarks.

In an earlier incident, a horde of Jewish settlers attacked on Thursday evening many Palestinian cars near the junction of Za’atara to the east of Salfit city, taking advantage of the presence of an Israeli military unit in the area.

Eyewitnesses reported that the settlers threw stones for several hours at the passing Palestinian cars at night and caused damage to many of them.

The settlers also verbally attacked the citizens and threatened to kill them while the Israeli soldiers kept watching idly.

The presence of the soldiers encouraged the settlers to extend their attack on Palestinian cars along the road of Yitzhar settlement, south of Nablus.

In Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood east of Jerusalem, another group of fanatic settlers at dawn on the same day set fire to a Palestinian car.

Yasser Najib reported that Jewish settlers gathered around his house in the neighborhood and then torched his car.

————————————————————————————-

Warning of Israeli schemes to confiscate Sawwanah land in Jerusalem

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– Khalil Tafakji, the settlement affairs expert and director of the maps section at Orient House in occupied Jerusalem, warned of Israeli plans to confiscate lands in Sawwanah area eastern the Old City of Jerusalem.

He referred to the Declaration submitted by an Israeli lawyer on May 28 that gave several Palestinian families a 30-day deadline to appeal against the Israeli claims of their ownership to the land.

Tafakji told the PIC that the Palestinian families in Sawwanah area have official documents that affirm their ownership to the land. However the Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) ignored these documents in order to implement their settlement projects.

The Palestinian expert pointed to the Israeli scheme to build 22 settlement units in the neighboring area which reinforces the Israeli Judaization plans to turn the area into a mosaic of settlements.

He said that the IOA constructs museums and buildings related to the Jewish and Talmudic heritage in order to change the city’s Arab and Islamic landmarks and to bring more settlers to the area to reinforce the Israeli control over the area.

Tafakji added that the IOA prevented the Palestinian construction in a large part of the Old City of Jerusalem while allowing free building of Israeli settlement units.

He warned of the Israeli government’s decision to expand the implementation of the Israeli law of seizing the “absentee property” in Jerusalem, saying that the Palestinians now only own 13% of Jerusalem.

On the 46th anniversary of the Naksa, Tafakji said that in 1967 there was no Israeli presence in the holy city, however today there are 200 thousand Israelis in the city.

There was not one Israeli settlement unit in Jerusalem before 1967, while today there are 42 thousand Israeli settlement units in the city, he noted.

Before the Naksa, Palestinians were controlling 100% of Jerusalem but today they only own 13% of the city, he said.

————————————————————————————

550 new settlement units in WB

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– A new settlement project to build more housing units and to expand settlements built on Palestinian villages in the West Bank was announced by the Israeli occupation authority.

Khalil Tafakji, director of the maps section at the Orient House in occupied Jerusalem, said that this settlement project includes the establishment of 550 new housing units.

He also pointed to the presence of another Israeli scheme (No. 163/3) to expand Itamar settlement built on land of the Palestinian village of Awarta. The project includes changing agricultural land to residential land, he added.

He affirmed that this settlement project stretches along five square kilometers over Nablus and Jordan Valley land, where a number of outposts were already built.

Marching to Jerusalem

(File photo)

Searching for Dignity in Occupied East Jerusalem

by SARAH MARUSEK, source

46 years ago this month, Israel seized East Jerusalem, the home of many significant holy sites for Muslims, Christians and Jews, as well as the proposed capital for any future Palestinian state. Since then, Israel has increasingly undertaken measures, particularly the placing of restrictions on Palestinian movement, the construction of a separation wall, the confiscation of Palestinian land, and the building of Jewish-only settlements, that are threatening to push out the Palestinian presence in Jerusalem entirely.

Indeed, according to a report issued last December by the International Crisis Group, Jerusalem “no longer is the city it was” even “in 2000, when Israelis and Palestinians first negotiated its fate.” And this was the case despite the fact that many countries and international institutions have frequently criticized the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem, and the UN has deemed some of the above measures against international law.

In the absence of any international effort to actually stop Israel’s attempt to “change facts on the ground” in the holy city, and during a time when Palestinians are once again increasingly mobilizing through nonviolent political actions, such as the recent mass prisoner hunger strikes, weekly demonstrations against the separation wall, and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, many thousands of Palestinians are mobilizing today in a Global March to Jerusalem to draw attention to the continued violations against East Jerusalem and its people. Palestinians will assemble in Beit Hanoun, the nearest point possible to Jerusalem in Gaza, to hold a peaceful rally, and nonviolent demonstrations will also take place in Jerusalem and throughout the West Bank, as well as in Cairo, the Jordan Valley, and many major cities around the world.

Unfortunately many Americans will not learn about these peaceful protests today unless they turn violent, even though some solidarity demonstrations are also happening here in the US. And even if Americans do learn about the protests, it may take a documentary film (and possibly even an academy award nomination) to really communicate to them the context for why these protests are happening at all – about what the Israeli occupation really means for Palestinians living in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Back in 2011, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) at the UN issued a worrying report that Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem were becoming increasingly vulnerable.[1] And two years later, the situation has deteriorated even more.

Palestinians cannot move freely in Jerusalem, or between the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Numerous checkpoints either deny them entry or delay their passage from one place to another, limiting their access to health and educational services, separating their families, and threatening their livelihoods. Indeed Palestinians from the West Bank, both Christian and Muslim alike, must have permits to even access places of worship. And Israel grants few permits, often completely denying them to men under the age of 40, as was the case during Ramadan last year, preventing many Palestinian males the freedom to pray at one of Islam’s holiest sites, the Al-Aqsa Mosque. And earlier this year the PLO accused Israel of only issuing 30 to 40 per cent of the permits requested by West Bank-based Palestinian Christians hoping to spend Easter in Jerusalem.

Israel’s continued construction of the separation wall further limits Palestinian mobility, as well as isolates the East Jerusalem economy. A recent report by the UN blamed Israeli “segregation policies” for causing deep economic isolation leaving more than 80 percent of Palestinian children living in poverty. According to the human rights organization B’Tselem, 8.5% of the West Bank area (including Jerusalem) was seized during the construction of the separation wall, which began in 2002. Although the International Court of Justice, the principal judicial organ of the UN, declared in 2004 that construction of the wall must cease, and demanded that those sections located in the occupied territories be dismantled, construction of the wall continues to this day.

The Israeli authorities also regularly demolish Palestinian homes and businesses on the pretext of rules and regulations, but in reality it is extremely difficult for Palestinians to get permission to build or register anything, even when existing homes have been lived in for many years. Despite the massive need to build new homes for Palestinians, only 13 percent of East Jerusalem is zoned for Palestinian construction, and much of this area is already built-up. Furthermore, the number of permits that Israel grants each year is well below Palestinians’ extraordinarily high demand for housing.

These kinds of bureaucratic measures often reify the physical structures of occupation that isolate East Jerusalem, making life for Palestinians in the city unbearable. For example, Palestinians in East Jerusalem are defined as permanent residents, but only if they can prove that their “center of life” lies within either West Jerusalem or Israel. And according to the OCHA report, the application process for those Palestinians who seek to unify their families is now almost impossible to successfully complete.

And then, of course, there are the illegal settlements. Over one third of the area within the extended boundary of East Jerusalem has been appropriated for settlements (remember this is in comparison to the 13 per cent approved for Palestinians). Approximately 180,000 Jewish settlers are living in settlements today, and Israel has plans to continue building settlements in East Jerusalem, despite international condemnation.

On top of all this oppression, extremist settlers regularly carry out “price tag” attacks against Palestinians, including their Christian and Islamic holy sites, supposedly in retaliation for Israeli government policies that are unpopular with the settler population. Only last Friday, settlers attacked the Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem by spraying graffiti on its walls with anti-Christian slogans like “Christians are monkeys” and “Christians are slaves.” Israeli police forces also continue arresting politically active Palestinians in East Jerusalem, including women and children, many of who are being held in indefinite detention without charge. Dozens have been arrested in the last month alone.

These are just some of the characteristics of occupation that Palestinians living in East Jerusalem have to endure, and help to explain why so many Palestinians are symbolically marching to Jerusalem today. Similar to the recent wave of Arab Uprisings, this is as much about politics as about human dignity. But only in this case if change is ever to be realized, then the world has to do more than issue statements and reports about ending the occupation of a city that is so important to our shared history that it should be for us all.

Sarah Marusek earned her PhD in social science from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University and is currently a traveling faculty member with SIT Study Abroad. She is also a member of International Executive Committee of the Global March to Jerusalem

Notes.
[1] http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_jerusalem_report_2011_03_23_web_english.pdf