Systemic malfunctioning of the labor and financial markets

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)

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Syrian opposition representative to “Israeli” TV: Satisfied with encouraging strike

Syrian opposition representative to “Israeli” TV: Satisfied with encouraging strike

Al Manar

(See video in original source) The “Israeli” channel 2 hosted on Sunday the representative of the “armed opposition” in Syria, and particularly in the city of Homs.

The man, who identified himself as Hassan Ristnawi, called the channel to express his joy and delight with the “Israeli” aggression against his country.
He further pointed out that “the Syrian opposition” is so much satisfied.

“Recently the Syrian regime escalated its attacks against us [the so-called Free Syrian Army],” he said, and noted that “the whole world is watching what is happening without moving.”

However, according to Ristnawi, “the “Israeli” attacks were very encouraging.”

“The “Israeli” strike delighted the hearts of opposition fighters on the ground and provided the FSA with spirits after its members suffered despair,” he told the “Israeli” channel.

Meanwhile, the Syrian opposition spokesman in Homs was keen on confirming that he is well aware that he was speaking to the “Israeli” television.

“Shalom to everyone with you,” he ended his conversation.

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UN: Syrian Militants Used Deadly Sarin Gas

Al Manar

Syrian militants have made use of the deadly nerve agent sarin in their war-torn country’s conflict, UN human rights investigator Carla del Ponte has said.

“According to the testimonies we have gathered, the rebels have used chemical weapons, making use of sarin gas,” del Ponte, a former war crimes prosecutor, said in an interview with Swiss radio late on Sunday.

“We still have to deepen our investigation, verify and confirm (the findings) through new witness testimony, but according to what we have established so far, it is at the moment opponents of the regime who are using sarin gas,” she added.

She stressed that the UN commission of inquiry on Syria, which she is a part of, had far from finished its investigation.

Sarin is a powerful neurotoxin developed by Nazi scientists in the 1930s. Originally developed as a pesticide, sarin was used to deadly effect in the 1988 raid on the Kurdish village of Halabja in northern Iraq. A Japanese cult also used sarin in two attacks in the 1990s.

The gas works by being inhaled or absorbed through the skin and kills by crippling the nervous system.

Symptoms include nausea and violent headaches, blurred or tunnel vision, drooling, muscular convulsions, respiratory arrest, loss of consciousness and then death, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. In high doses, sarin paralyses the muscles around the lungs and prevents chemicals from “switching off” the body’s secretions, so victims suffocate or drown as their lungs fill with mucus and saliva. Even a tiny dose of sarin — which, like other nerve gases such as soman, tabun and VX, is odourless, colourless and tasteless — can be deadly if it enters the respiratory system, or if a drop comes into contact with the skin.

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Harrowing video shows Israeli soldiers arresting Hebron children

by Maureen Clare Murphy, EI

Two videos of Israeli soldiers arresting three young boys in Hebron give a harrowing glimpse into the everyday violence faced by children in the occupied West Bank city where settlers have taken over Palestinian homes under the protection of the army. (Videos embedded above and below.)

The videos, published by the group Youth Against Settlements, show a chaotic scene of settlers confronting Israeli soldiers, Palestinian residents and international observers at Shuhada Street on Sunday. The heavily-armed Israeli soldiers drag away three young boys while Palestinians and an international activist attempt to intervene. One of the boys wails with fright as he is pulled away. A woman who identifies herself as the mother of one of the children defiantly goes into the Israeli army jeep and manages to remove one of the boys from it.

According to the International Solidarity Movement in Hebron, Palestinian children were walking home from school when they were attacked by a child from one of the settlements in the city center, who was accompanied by his two older brothers. Youth Against Settlements told The Electronic Intifada via email that the children from the settlement were waiting for the Palestinian students as they exited the school.

The younger child from the settlement began “throwing sticks, beating … and hurling insults” at one of the Palestinian children in the video, identified by the International Solidarity Movement as 12-year-old Ahmed Abu Heikel.

The ISM adds:

As soon as Ahmed defended himself against the beatings, the settler children immediately called for soldiers at nearby checkpoints who came running. Eyewitnesses state that the Palestinian children were not violent. The settler children pointed out Ahmed and [his 11-year-old brother] Mouawieh as well as their classmate Bilal Said, who were violently grabbed and pushed against a wall by soldiers.

A crowd of about 50 people quickly gathered, mostly Palestinian neighbours and classmates as well as international activists, journalists and settlers. The crowd, and especially the headmistress of Qortoba school, Noora Zayer, who was walking with the boys and witnessed the attack, insisted that the arrest was unacceptable. Bystanders and international activists managed to de-arrest Bilal, who then ran away. However Ahmed and Mouawieh were arrested; Ahmed is apparently being charged with assaulting the Israeli soldier who was called to the scene by the settler children and grabbed the Palestinian rather than the settler child.

A non-violent Swedish activist who intervened peacefully on behalf of the children has also been arrested and is being charged with assaulting a soldier. The two children and the Swedish activist were taken away separately in military jeeps [author’s note: the activist was taken away in a police van]. The Swedish activist is currently being held in Givat Havot settlement near Hebron city, whilst Ahmed and Mouawieh are being held in interrogation centres.

The Israeli soldiers took no action against the settler children who had instigated the attack. The police summoned the youngest settler child who had attacked Ahmed and spoke to him in the presence of his parents for about half a minute, after which he was allowed to go back home without any repercussions.

The ISM states that the brothers were released a few hours after their arrest, and that Ahmed had his fingerprints taken and that Mouawieh was kicked in the stomach by a soldier.

The activist who Israeli soldiers are seen shoving in the videos is in detention and faces deportation, according to the ISM, who say that “He was beaten during his arrest and hit with a gun. Soldiers conducted two mock executions by pointing guns at his head, loading them and pretending to press the trigger. He was blindfolded and kept inside the military base in Hebron, where he could hear the crying of the arrested children next to him.”

Child arrests in Hebron

The incident captured in the harrowing videos is hardly an isolated event. Video shows Israeli soldiers, backed up by armed settlers, arresting a 14-year-old boy in Hebron two weeks ago.

Christian Peacemaker Teams released a report last month documenting dozens of arrests of Palestinian children aged 15 and under in Hebron between February and mid-April of this year.

Meanwhile Israeli soldiers were caught on video using a handcuffed Palestinian teen as a human shield as they fired at protesters in the West Bank village of Abu Dis, near Jerusalem, last month.

According to the rights group Defence for Children International – Palestine Section, 236 Palestinian children were in Israeli detention in February of this year, 39 of them aged 15 or younger.

Palestinian children routinely detained and arrested by Israeli authorities

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Palestine: Clip shows Israeli soldiers using teenager as human shield & several towns in WB raided

Clip shows Israeli soldiers using Palestinian teenager as human shield

Press TV

A video clip has emerged showing Israeli troops using a handcuffed Palestinian teenager as human shield during a protest in East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

According to the video, posted on YouTube by the Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-Palestine), the helmeted Israeli soldiers remove the young Palestinian from an armored jeep.

The boy, with his hands cuffed and held above his head, is then forced to stand beside the Israeli soldiers, who later start firing on Palestinian protesters.

The incident occurred in Abu Dis neighborhood of East al-Quds on Friday.

DCI-Palestine says the Israeli soldiers frequently use Palestinian children as human shield.

“We’re outraged that Israeli soldiers continue to use Palestinian children as human shields with impunity,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish of DCI-Palestine.

Abu Eqtaish also stated that the teen in this case “was deliberately exposed to danger after he had been taken into custody.”

“Israeli authorities must conduct a prompt, transparent and impartial investigation and hold the perpetrators accountable.”

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Israeli TV Report to improve the occupation’s image

NAZARETH, (PIC)– The Israeli military censor has allowed the Israeli Channel 2 television crew to document Palestinian children’s arrest process in al-Khalil for allegedly throwing stones in an attempt to demonstrate the “Israeli positive image” during arrest processes.

The Israeli TV report tried to improve the Israeli soldier’s image during storming Palestinian houses in “kindly” way, giving the detainee’s family the opportunity to say goodbye to their children and to check on their condition after arrest.

However, the Israeli arrest process is carried out violently by the occupation soldiers, where they daily storm the Palestinian houses at night, searching and damaging their properties and attacking the detainee’s family members.

The TV report, aired on the Israeli second channel, filmed the Israeli soldiers breakings into Aroub refugee camp in al-Khalil to arrest Palestinian children under the pretext of throwing stones at settlers’ vehicles.

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IOF raids several Palestinian towns in WB

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)– The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) raided several towns in Bethlehem and al-Khalil southern occupied West Bank, while summoning a Palestinian citizen for investigation.

The sources confirmed that Israeli forces raided the towns of Nuba, Dahria and several suburbs in the city of al-Khalil, while dozens of settlers stormed Qalks town under the protection of Israeli soldiers for several hours.

The Israeli army stormed the towns of Dar Salah, Kheder, Dheisheh, Aida refugee camp, and several suburbs of the city of Bethlehem, while the occupation summoned the citizen Ramzi Mesaieed, from Aida refugee camp, to Etzion detention center near Bethlehem for interrogation.

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