Gaza under blockade
Egyptian navy attacks fishermen in Palestinian waters
GAZA (PIC) 15 Sept — The Egyptian naval forces opened fire on Saturday evening at Palestinian fishermen and physically assaulted two of them during an incursion into the territorial waters of the Gaza Strip. Dean of the Gazan fishermen Nizar Ayyash told the Palestinian information center (PIC) that Egyptian naval soldiers detained fisherman Omar Bardawil, 40, along with his son Ziyad, 13, and brutally beat him before confiscating the outboard motor of his boat. Ayyash said this incident was the second of its kind after the Egyptian navy had wounded two weeks ago two Gazan fishermen and kidnapped five others during an armed attack on them in Gaza territorial waters … For its part, the Hamas Movement strongly denounced the Egyptian navy for violating the Palestinian maritime borders and launching a wanton attack on Gazan fishermen.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Israeli gunboats open fire at Palestinian fishing boats
GAZA (PIC) 15 Sept — Israeli gunboats opened heavy machine gun fire at Palestinian fishing boats off the coast of Gaza city and Sudaniya area, north of Gaza Strip, on Sunday morning. A PIC reporter said that no casualties or damages were reported in the heavy shooting that targeted fishermen and their boats.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Rafah crossing still closed for fifth day
RAFAH (PIC) 15 Sept — Egyptian authorities continued to shut down the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip for the fifth day running on Sunday. Maher Abu Sabha, the director general of borders and crossings, said Egyptian authorities were still closing the terminal and that any new development would be published on the ministry’s website. Egyptian authorities closed the crossing last Wednesday following an explosion in the Egyptian military intelligence building in Egyptian Rafah town and kept it closed since then. The Palestinian government, legislative council, and human rights groups called for opening the crossing to enable citizens to exercise their right of travel and movement especially when thousands were stranded on both sides of the crossing.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Dozens of Palestinians held at Cairo airport
CAIRO (PIC) 15 Sept — Egyptian authorities refuse to allow entry for dozens of Palestinians arriving from various countries en route to Gaza Strip. Egyptian security sources told the PIC that the authorities did not show any concern with the condition of those Palestinians, some of whom have residence permits in Egypt. They said that the airport authorities would not allow them to enter Cairo without giving any reason. The sources noted that some of those Palestinian citizens had spent several days at the deportation room in the airport, adding that the trapped Palestinians were dismayed at the maltreatment.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Abu Marzouk: Egypt’s bias in favor of Palestine serves its national security
CAIRO (PIC) 14 Sept — Senior member of Hamas’s political bureau Mousa Abu Marzouk said that the bias in favor of the Palestinian cause and the refusal to engage in hostile activities against the Palestinian resistance have always been, since 1948, an essential part of Egypt’s national security and should remain like this.
Abu Marzouk made his remarks on Friday on his Facebook page, commenting on an Egyptian TV talk show in which the speakers launched scathing attacks on the Palestinians, especially those in Gaza. During the TV program, the host demanded leader of the military coup Abdul-Fattah Asisi to close Rafah border crossing forever, not to allow Gaza patient to enter Egypt for medical treatment, have all Palestinian residents in Egypt arrested, have the citizenship of all Palestinian holders of Egyptian passports revoked, bomb Gaza and kill its people.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Egypt to reopen Gaza borders: Palestinian diplomat
GAZA (Xinhua) 15 Sept — A Palestinian diplomat said Sunday that Egypt had promised to reopen Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip “soon.” Barakat Al-Farra, the Palestinian ambassador to Egypt, did not give a specific date for the reopening of the only passenger border crossing bypassing Israel … “There are Egyptian assurances that the crossing will reopen soon,” Al-Farra told a local FM radio broadcasting from Gaza. He added that traveling will remain restricted to humanitarian cases, holders of foreign passports, and students “until the situation in Sinai improves.” Hamas’ authorities in Gaza say that more than 10,000 people have applied for traveling through the crossing, but Egypt only allows a maximum of 300 people to exit every day after the crossing is opened.
link to news.xinhuanet.com
Petition — Egypt: Open Gaza’s Rafah Crossing!
Avaaz 14 September
link to avaaz.org
Israel exploits Egypt turmoil to increase attacks on Gaza farmers
GAZA CITY (Electronic Intifada) 12 Sept by Joe Catron — Farming in the Gaza Strip’s ‘buffer zone’ is hazardous under the best circumstances. Israeli troops routinely shoot live ammunition at Palestinian farmers in the free-fire area, which stretches hundreds of meters into the besieged territory from the barrier separating it and Israel, and invade their fields with tanks and bulldozers. But Israel’s aggression against civilians in the area has escalated since the Egyptian army deposed elected president Muhammad Morsi and installed a new government on 3 July, according to Gaza’s farmers. “After the coup in Egypt, the Israelis began shooting more heavily,” said Abu Jamal Abu Taima, a farmer in Khuzaa, a village in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza … “Egypt was the guarantor of the last ceasefire agreement [in 2012],” he said. “Now the Israelis are free to do whatever they want.” “Just a few months ago, there was no gunfire. Now there is. We aren’t even in season yet, but they have already started to shoot.” Morsi’s government brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian resistance groups on 21 November last year, ending eight days of Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip and retaliatory fire from groups in the territory. As part of the agreement, Israel reduced the “buffer zone,” which it had imposed in 2005, from 300 meters to 100 meters, according to the the Israeli military’s civil administrative unit, COGAT. “According to the ceasefire, farmers could reach nearly all their lands,” Abu Jamal Abu Taima said. “These days, the Israelis are shooting farmers at 500 meters [from the boundary].”
link to electronicintifada.net
Life depends on water but my tap is dry: life in Gaza without water
Blog by Sally Idwedar 14 Sept — …The system here was a bit confusing to me at first. I couldn’t understand WHY we just didn’t have any water. Let me explain how it works (or doesn’t work). Most homes in Gaza have huge plastic reservoir tanks for 2000 liters on the roof depending on the size of your family and size of your home. These tanks supply water when the municipal supply is not working. When the municipal supply and electricity are BOTH on at the same time- the tanks are refilled. A small electric motor pump engages and pushes the water up to these tanks. This is a great backup system however it is not fail safe. Sometimes it seems the stars have to align before we can have water. If the electricity is off at the pumping station – and this happens often as there are fuel shortages and generators cannot be fueled – then there is no water. If the electricity is on at the pumping station but off at your home – water cannot be pumped up to the tanks on the roof. If it is not our day to have water from the municipal system – which is every 2 days only – and there is no water in the tanks on the roof because of no electricity – then there is no water. Of course the water that does come out of the taps when it is available is undrinkable. High levels of nitrates and salt make it unfit for consumption. When I first came to Gaza my hair started to fall out and I developed a rash and itchy skin because of the contaminants. Even now if I stay in the shower too long my skin becomes irritated and forget about getting water in your eyes- they will be red and burn for days. The water even makes kitchen utensils and anything it touches rust in a few months.
link to sallyidwedar.wordpress.com
Photos: Gaza in life, love, dignity and strength / Sami Kishawi
13 Sept — …This summer, in 2013, I crossed through Rafah with my camera pointed up not down. I wanted to capture the dignity and strength of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip from the very start. I wanted to share their emotions just as much as their stories. I also wanted to capture the mysterious glow that illuminates Gaza even when the sun hides behind the curvature of the sea. I wish I could show you what my eyes saw. But the best I can do is show you what my camera saw. I hope it shows you Gaza like you’ve never seen it before.
link to smpalestine.com
Land, property theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing
Families evacuate their homes in Al-Qirmi neighborhood due to Israeli excavations and the negligence of officials
[includes photos] Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 11 Sept — Several families in Al-Qirmi neighbourhood evacuated their homes on Wednesday because of the continuous Israeli excavations in the area which led to significant damages in the houses. The damages occurred in two buildings in Al-Qirmi neighbourhood where 240 individuals from the families of Asmar, Ja’bari, Salaymeh, Sa’di Abu Asab, Wahbeh and Al-Tayeb live. Locals explained that the entrance of Hosh Al-Asmar completely collapsed, and big cracks occurred in the residential apartments in addition to the falling of big stones, knowing that the young men placed iron trusses at the entrance of the Hosh in order to protect the buildings. Locals also said that the cracks significantly increased in the last few years due to the Israeli excavations under their neighbourhood, where there is a tunnel that connects Al-Qirmi neighbourhood with the Saraya, and another one that connects it with Al-Khawajat market and Al-Attareen market. Locals of Al-Qirmi neighbourhood denounced the negligence of officials from the Islamic Awqaf department and Al-Qirmi neighbourhood construction and renovations committees despite the pleas and appeals to renovate the neighbourhood to prevent the Jerusalem municipality from forcing the residents to leave their homes after ranking them as ‘dangerous buildings’. The locals pointed out the Israeli ambitions in their neighbourhood and their attempts to control its properties in twisted ways, knowing that there is 11 settlement outposts in the area. The municipality crews asked the residents to evacuate their home within 48 hours.
link to silwanic.net
‘Palestinians are losing their right to Jerusalem’
[with map] 972mag 15 Sept by Matt Surrusco — +972 speaks with Yudith Oppenheimer, executive director of Israeli NGO Ir Amim, about the possibility of two national capitals in a shared Jerusalem and how the city should or could be divided between Israelis and Palestinians – … What issues facing Jerusalem residents concern you most right now and why? Two major issues, and they are interconnected. One is the growing attack on Palestinians’ permanent residency status. It reflects Israel’s policy as of 1967 to absorb East Jerusalem without fully absorbing the people of East Jerusalem, denying them political rights, citizenship and everything that entails. There is nothing permanent about permanent residency and people live in fear of losing their status. More than 15,000 Palestinians lost their permanent residency over the past 15 to 20 years, and the rest have to prove that their center of life is in Jerusalem. They were born here, they lived here for four generations, and now we treat them as if they were always temporary residents. They are effectively losing their right to the city. The second issue is the restriction on planning and development. While Israel is building neighborhoods for 2,000 Israelis in East Jerusalem, it hasn’t built one new neighborhood for Palestinians, and puts severe restrictions on construction within existing Palestinian neighborhoods. Israel is constantly pushing Palestinians to neighborhoods behind the separation barrier — but still within the Jerusalem municipality – where services do not exist and quality of life conditions are very poor.
link to 972mag.com
Politics eats into Palestinian breadbasket
JIFTLICK, Occupied West Bank (IPS) 14 Sept by Jillian Kestler-D’Amours — In the Jordan Valley, contrasts are stark. Lush green agricultural fields and fenced-in greenhouses belong to the Israeli settlements that dot the landscape and benefit from the area’s abundant water supply on one hand. On the other, Palestinian farmers denied access to their lands and other resources by the Israeli authorities struggle to cultivate the most basic crops and make a living wage. “It’s a struggle for the farmers,” Palestinian farmer Ahmad Said Moahri told IPS from his home in Jiftlick, a Palestinian village in the Jordan Valley. “The farmers lose money sometimes by farming the land, but they cannot leave or Israel will take it.” … The Jordan Valley constitutes nearly 30 percent of the West Bank; 87.5 percent of this area is located in Area C, which falls under complete Israeli military control. Today, some 9,300 Israeli settlers and 65,000 Palestinians live in the Jordan Valley. Palestinians are prohibited from accessing almost 95 percent of Jordan Valley, as half the land is being used by Israeli settlements, and the Israeli army declared another 45 percent as closed military zones, which are off-limits to Palestinians. The Jordan Valley is known as the Palestinian breadbasket, as most of the West Bank’s arable land is located there. In a 2010 report, the World Bank stated that if Palestinians could access 50,000 more dunams of land and additional water resources in the area, they could earn approximately one billion dollars annually. This economic potential is not lost on Palestinian, or Israeli, leaders.
link to reliefweb.int
Jordan Valley lands handed to Israeli colonists
Gulfnews 11 Sept by Nasouh Nazzal — The Israeli occupation has been demining the area to give plots to Jewish colonists — Ramallah: Palestinian landowners are preparing to sue Israel and some of its colonists over the redistribution of huge plots of land along the West Bank-Jordanian boundary in the Jordan Valley areas to Israeli colonists. Israeli occupation authorities have been removing previously installed landmines from the land to make it suitable for growing wheat and watermelon. “The Israeli occupation forces have already handed hordes of colonists 16,000 acres of land on the Palestinian-Jordanian border,” said Arif Daraghmah, an expert in Israeli colonial activities and head of Al Maleh Village and the Bedouin areas in the Jordan Valley areas in an interview with Gulf News. “Five thousand acres of illegally seized lands have already been committed and handed over to the International Zionist Movement in an official order issued by the Israeli Civil Administration which controls Zone C of the West Bank and runs the Palestinian related affairs in Zones A and B.”
link to gulfnews.com
IOF soldiers evacuate ten families from Jordan Valley
JERICHO (PIC) 14 Sept — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) forced members of ten Bedouin families in the Jordan Valley to evacuate their homes in preparation for war maneuvers. Local sources said that IOF soldiers stormed the Burj and Mayta areas in Malih in the Jordan Valley and served notifications to ten families to evacuate their homes at the pretext of staging military maneuvers on Tuesday. The families, however, said that the matter was not related to preserving their lives and property but rather was part of an IOF plan to compel them to desert their land.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Jewish settlers set Palestinian house on fire
NABLUS (PIC) 15 Sept — Jewish settlers set a Palestinian house that was still under construction on fire in Madma village, south of Nablus, at dawn Sunday. Ghassan Daghlas, monitoring Israeli settlement activity north of the West Bank, said the settlers came from Yitzhar settlement, established on Palestinian land south of Nablus. He said that the house was about to be completed and his owner was preparing for moving into it, adding that the arson attack destroyed construction material used in building the house such as wood and pipes among others. The house is located north of Madma near a water tank that was recently built there, Daghlas said, adding that the settlers protested the establishment of the tank due to its proximity to their settlement.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
1948 Palestinians commemorate 56th anniversary of Sandala village massacre
NAZARETH (PIC) 14 Sept — Hundreds of Palestinian natives from the 1948 occupied lands participated on Friday in a rally commemorating the 56th anniversary of the Israeli massacre in Sandala village that had claimed the lives of 15 students in 1957. The incident also rendered many other students injured and happened when an Israeli explosive device exploded at them as they were en route to their homes after finishing their school day … During the rally, Sheikh Ra’ed Salah, head of the freedoms committee and the Islamic Movement in the 1948 occupied lands, delivered a speech about the massacre. Sheikh Salah pledged in his speech that his committee would work on erecting a monument commemorating the martyrs of Sandala village and publishing a book about their lives.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Palestinian youth assert right of return with direct action
HAIFA (Electronic Intifada) 11 Sept by Nadim Nashef — During the summer of 2013 a new grassroots movement burst onto the scene and announced itself as a major development in the long struggle for the right of return for Palestinian refugees. Activities occurring throughout the Galilee region of present-day Israel have been held which reaffirm the connection of the younger generation of internally displaced Palestinians to their ancestral villages. Events and projects simultaneously take practical steps to realize this long-denied, fundamental right. The right of return is one of the most evocative and central issues for Palestinians ever since the Nakba (catastrophe) of 1948, which saw the destruction of more than 530 Arab villages and the displacement of approximately 800,000 Palestinians. The majority of them ended up as refugees in neighboring Arab states, or in those parts of Palestine which initially remained outside of Israeli control, namely the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Between 30,000 and 40,000 managed to remain inside the new state of Israel, however, finding refuge in nearby towns which had survived the ethnic cleansing of the majority of Palestine’s villages.
link to electronicintifada.net
Restriction of movement
The real Ramallah
Haaretz 15 Sept by Gideon Levy — …Traveling to Ramallah in the evening is seen [by Israelis] as a heroic quest, from which (almost) nobody ever returns alive. I’m not complaining about Dayan. How can he, or other Israelis, know better? When huge road signs warn Israelis not to enter Area A; when the memory of the past is still bleeding and scary; and when the media and security forces ceaselessly spread fears – most of them false – then the trip to Ramallah, a stone’s throw from Tel Aviv, seems like a suicide mission. Back to reality. The West Bank has been quiet in recent years. Soldiers who lost their way there still returned safely. The risk of entering it is smaller than the risk of driving on Route 6. Throughout 2012, no Israeli was killed in the West Bank, and only one has been killed since the beginning of this year. The West Bank’s roads are relatively open to Palestinians and – wonder of wonders – terror has not resumed. The conclusions should be clear: it is safe to open the West Bank. Israel’s Arab citizens, who have been allowed to enter for a long time, have improved the economy there and contributed to its calm. The entrance of Jewish Israelis – and, of course, the controlled entrance of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to work and trade in Israel – will do everyone good. Tens of thousands of Palestinians vacationed in Tel Aviv a few weeks ago, and nobody was the worse for it. The Gaza Strip should open up as well. The economy won’t solve the national problem, but it can generate a different atmosphere in anticipation of the two-state or one-state solution. When will we understand that a thriving Gaza Strip and a prosperous Nablus are (also) good for Israel? When will we realize that the people there are not monsters?
link to www.haaretz.com
Crossing Qalandiya checkpoint on Yom Kippur
Mondoweiss 15 Sept by Philip Weiss — Being in Jerusalem for Yom Kippur, I sought to experience the policy of closures for religious holidays. I wanted to see for myself: What are the differences in freedom of movement, for the Muslim and the Jew, in this occupied city on a high holiday? … On Saturday I planned to go to the West Bank so I could break my fast with Jews in Ramallah. But everyone I spoke to said that I would not be able to get in to the West Bank because Israel shuts the checkpoints for Yom Kippur … Still, I resolved to go. I had a story: They won’t let you travel on your holy day, and they won’t let you travel on their holy day either. As it turned out, at 2 o’clock on Yom Kippur, I got the 18 bus in East Jerusalem and went right through Qalandiya checkpoint. No problem. No traffic. A soldier waved our bus through. In the opposite lanes, I could see Palestinians in a line of cars, waiting to get in to the Jerusalem side. Many seemed to be getting through … My friends in Ramallah all marveled that I had gotten in. And today when I returned to Jerusalem – passing under gunpoint this time at Qalandiya, called on to produce my passport – folks here did too. So you got through! they exclaimed. No! The [Palestinian] super at the research institute shook his head in puzzlement. “We never know,” he said. At first I thought I had no story. I had moved wherever I wanted on Yom Kippur. It was when the super shook his head and said with a hapless smile, “We never know,” I understood that the contempt was the story. No one on the Palestinian side had any idea of the true conditions. They subsisted on rumors and speculation. They were told by authorities that Qalandia would be closed. But Qalandia was open. They were not citizens seen worthy of receiving correct information. They were subjects, under an arbitrary sovereign.
link to mondoweiss.net
IOA closes Ibrahimi mosque for Muslims, opens it for Jews
AL-KHALIL (PIC) 14 Sept — The Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) closed the Ibrahimi mosque in Al-Khalil for two days starting Saturday and opened it for Jews to celebrate Yom Kippur. The director of Awkaf in Al-Khalil, Tayseer Abu Snene, said that the Ibrahimi mosque would be closed in full before Palestinian worshipers while Jews would be allowed free access to all its hallways and yards.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Violence / Raids / Attacks / Clashes / Illegal arrests
Israeli forces ‘assault, detain’ Tulkarem teen
QALQILIYA (Ma‘an) 15 Sept — Israeli forces on Sunday detained and assaulted Ali Abdullah Swiedan, 14, from ‘Azzoun village in Qalqiliya district, the Palestinian prisoners society said. In a statement, the PPS quoted the boy’s father as saying that Israeli forces detained Ali while he was on land belonging to the family. Ali’s father saw him in the Israeli military jeep and noted that he was exhausted, while his clothes were torn up by Israeli forces. Ali has recently undergone surgery, his father said. Lafi Nasoura, the director of the PPS office in Qalqiliya, said that the Israeli forces detain children frequently, and he called on rights groups to challenge the practice.
link to www.maannews.net
Two workers injured by army fire near Hebron
IMEMC — [Sunday at dawn September 15, 2013] Palestinian medical sources have reported that two Palestinian day laborers have been injured by Israeli army fire in the Ramadeen area, close to the Green Line, near the southern West Bank city of Hebron. The sources said that the soldiers chased dozens of workers trying to cross into Israel to search for work, kidnapped two workers, and wounded two others. The two wounded workers suffered various burns as the army fired firebombs at them; one of the workers suffered fist degree burns. Palestinian medics said that Nash’at Nimer Bashir, 23, suffered various burns in his abdomen and arms, while Khaled Nimir Suleiman, 21, suffered burns in his back. Eyewitnesses said that the soldiers fired firebombs at a car transporting the workers causing it to catch fire. The wounded have been moved to the Hebron Governmental Hospital, in Hebron, and received the needed medical treatment.
In related news, soldiers invaded Beit Ummar town, near Hebron, and kidnapped two children identified as Bader Ibrahim Abu Maria, 17, and Amjad Saber Abu Maria, 17. The two were moved to the Etzion military base; they were kidnapped after the army invaded Beit Ummar on Saturday night after midnight. Their families were not informed of their arrest, causing them to panic after being unable to locate them; the families were only informed on Sunday morning when the Israeli District Coordination Office told them that their sons would be sent to court soon for what was described as ‘security violations’.
link to www.imemc.org
Journal — Illegal Israeli settlers attack Palestinian farmer attempting to harvest almonds
KAFR QALIL, Occupied Palestine (ISM) 14 Sept by Nablus Team — Late Friday night we received a call to accompany a farmer to harvest almonds early the following morning in Kafr Qalil, a village south of Nablus. This is a completely normal activity, harvesting crops when they are ripe and ready-to-pick; however, in Palestine, simply trying to tend to one’s land can be a life-risking event. At times, international activists and observers accompany Palestinian farmers whose lands are close to settlements and who are at great risk for attack. For some settlers, though a limited minority, international presence can act as a deterrent against violence. For the settlement of Bracha, widely known for its unfettered brutality against Palestinians, there seems to be little that can influence the scope and scale of their attacks … We discussed our plan should the settlers attack again and reassured ourselves that the majority would likely be in synagogue all day, as it was the holiday of Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement … We walked the long, windy hills until we reached the groves where we split into two groups, two of us taking the higher hill and four, including the farmer and his son, taking the lower … No more than five minutes later, in a flash of white, the settlers attacked. Without warning, around 15 men and teenage boys began running through the trees, shouting abuses and hurling massive stones toward the farmer, his son and the members of EAPPI. As I called to my partner to warn him, the settlers also began charging toward me, also throwing stones and screaming. Needless to say, and not at all an overstatement, we all ran for our lives.
link to palsolidarity.org
Clashes take place in Al-Eesawiyya in Jerusalem
IMEMC — Friday evening [September 13, 2013] dozens of Israeli soldiers invaded the Al-Eesawiyya town, north of occupied East Jerusalem, and clashed with dozens of local youths. Local sources have reported that several military jeeps and a few Israeli police cars accompanied by a bulldozer, invaded the town, and placed a sand barrier connecting the town with the French Hill settlement, built on Palestinian lands. Mohammad Abu Al-Hummus, member of the Follow-up Committee in Al-Eesawiyya, stated that dozens of soldiers were deployed at the entrance of the town, since early morning hours Friday, as part of the strict closure enforced on the West Bank, and Arab neighborhoods in occupied Jerusalem as Israel marks ‘Atonement Day’.
link to www.imemc.org
Three children kidnapped near Jenin
IMEMC — Sunday morning [September 15, 2013] Israeli soldiers kidnapped three children from Ya‘bod town, south of the northern West Bank city of Jenin, and installed a roadblock at the eastern entrance of the village, searched cars and interrogated several residents. Local sources have reported that the soldiers invaded the western neighborhood of Ya‘bod, broke into and searched several homes and kidnapped the three children. The soldiers also invaded Zibda nearby village. The sources identified that kidnapped children are Adham Ibrahim Abu Rmeila, Mohammad Abdul-Nasser Abady, and Hani Talal Zayed. [Ma‘an: All three are aged between 14 and 15 years old.]
On Saturday, soldiers based on the Container roadblock, north east of the West Bank city of Bethlehem, kidnapped a young Palestinian man from Beit Fajjar town, near Bethlehem. The kidnapped man has been identified as Fadi Mahmoud Taqatqa, 24; he was kidnapped after the army stopped a Palestinian car at the roadblock.
Last week, Israeli soldiers carried out at least 31 military invasion into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, shot and wounded at least 40 Palestinians and kidnapped dozens, including 17 children.
link to www.imemc.org
Boy, 10, detained in Hebron
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 15 Sept — Israeli forces detained on Sunday a boy from al-‘Arrub refugee camp near Hebron, locals said. Noureddin Abdul-Hafith Abu Shamaa, 10, was being held for allegedly throwing rocks at Israeli military vehicles. Witnesses said that Abu Shamaa was interrogated for three hours before taking him to a unknown destination.
link to www.maannews.net
Detainees
Detainees in Ramla jail go on hunger strike in protest at medical neglect policy
RAMALLAH (PIC) 15 Sept – The Palestinian patients in Ramla jail infirmary started on Sunday an open-ended hunger strike in protest at the medical neglect policy pursued against them by the prison administation after they gave it a chance to respond to their demands in this regard … The society quoted Riyadh Al-Amour, representative of the Palestinian patients in Ramla infirmary, as saying that their protest steps would continue indefinitely unless all patients receive appropriate medical treatment without any delay. Amour said that the Ramla administration is reluctant to provide appropriate medical treatment for the sick detainees and refuses to allow some of them to undergo surgeries or medical tests. The society also said that the Ramla administration threatened to take punitive measures against all detainees who intend to engage in protest steps. The society noted that the visit rooms of the Ramla infirmary are not clean and full of dirt and odors, while the food served to the patients are either insufficient or inedible.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Administrative detainees to start their protest next month
RAMALLAH (PIC) 14 Sept — Tadhamun Foundation for Human Rights said that the administrative detainees in the Israeli jails are determined to implement their protest steps starting next October in case the Israeli prison administration does not meet their demands. Researcher at the Foundation Ahmed Beitawi explained that the administrative prisoners will begin their protest program next month in case the Israeli prison administration refuses to end the policy of administrative detention. He quoted captive Nabil Natsheh, held in administrative detention in the Ofer jail, as saying that these steps will be gradual and will begin next October by boycotting the administrative courts, in coordination with the lawyers…
The number of administrative detainees in Israeli jails has recently increased to about 150 prisoners; the majority of them are liberated prisoners. There are 50 administrative detainees in the Ofer jail, while the rest are held in the Negev and other jails. The administrative prisoners, held without trial or charge, demand their immediate release or transferring their files to courts.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Palestinian refugees elsewhere
Al-Wafaa campaign asks for more relief aid to Palestine refugees in Syria
BRUSSELS (PIC) 14 Sept — European al-Wafaa campaign asked free people of the world to continue supporting the campaign in providing the Palestinian refugee camps in Syria with necessary humanitarian aid especially that what has been transferred of aid is about to run out. The Palestinian refugee camps’ suffering is beyond our expectations, Al-Wafa campaign said, adding that it is still in Syria and will remain there as long as it can to provide badly needed relief material to those refugees.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Sidon schools overwhelmed by number of refugees
SIDON, Lebanon (Daily Star) 14 Sept by Mohammed Zaatari — An increase in Palestinian refugee students from Syria is likely to overwhelm schools in Sidon’s refugee camps of Ain al-Hilweh and Mieh Mieh, which are already struggling to accommodate more than 10,000 local Palestinian students. Local and international relief organizations, with the cooperation of UNRWA, have been trying to secure classroom space for 2,700 Palestinian Syrian students, to be distributed among three schools in Ain al-Hilweh. Another 200 students, who are non-Palestinian refugees from Syria, are living in the camp and cannot be taken in by schools run by UNRWA. Abu Ishaq Maqdah, head of the Palestinian Relief Unions in the Sidon camps, said this influx of students resulted from the arrival of 3,600 families of Syrian Palestinians, in addition to 330 Syrian families.
link to www.dailystar.com.lb
UNRWA able to continue assisting the 18 kidney dialysis patients in North thanks to European support
LEBANON (ReliefWeb) 13 Sept — Thanks to an emergency donation to UNRWA, just received from two European countries in response to the Agency’s humanitarian appeal in the North, UNRWA will be able to continue to support 18 registered patients from the North in receiving urgent and ongoing kidney dialysis treatment. The patients would otherwise be in a life-threatening situation.
link to reliefweb.int
BDS
Over 500 academics call on EU not to water down new Israeli settlement guidelines
BDSmovement 12 Sept — Over 500 academics, including researchers from 13 European Union member states, have today written to the EU’s head of Foreign Policy, urging the EU not to water down its new guidelines preventing EU funding from being awarded to Israeli projects and entities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem (download letter with list of signatories here
link to www.bdsmovement.net
Political, other news
Abbas, Hamdallah to meet on new government
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 15 Sept — President Mahmoud Abbas will meet caretaker prime minister Rami Hamdallah on Monday to discuss the new government formation, the president’s adviser said. Nimr Hammad said that Abbas would return to the West Bank on Monday, but did not determine if Hamdallah would announce the new cabinet on Tuesday or not. Abbas asked Hamdallah to form the new government on Aug. 13, and gave him a time-frame of 5 weeks.
link to www.maannews.net
95% of govt workers on strike
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 15 Sept — Around 95 percent of government employees answered their union’s call to strike on Sunday, the union chief said. Bassam Zakarneh told Ma‘an that the strike was the first step of protests held by the union until the government meets their demands … Zakarneh claimed that Basel Ramahi, general director at the Ministry of Finance, issued a memo indicating that employees will receive pay cuts for days they go on strike.
link to www.maannews.net
Govt: Door still open to reach agreement with union
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 15 Sept — Government spokesman Ihab Bseiso said that the door was still open to hold talks and reach an amicable agreement with the workers’ union, which went on strike Sunday. Bseiso told Ma‘an that the crisis in different sectors was a result of accumulated issues related to the reduction of international financial support, and the political position of the government after deciding to go to the UN … Bseiso added that despite receiving over 52 million euros in internal aid, it would not be enough to resolve the crisis right away. He also said that an investigation would be opened into allegations that some ministers threatened employees for going on strike. The government believes that it is necessary to deal with employees transparently and respect their right to strike, he said.
link to www.maannews.net
Jihad leader: Arafat killed for not giving in to talk demands
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 14 Sept — Islamic Jihad leader Mohammed al-Hindi said Friday that late president Yasser Arafat was killed for not giving in to pressure to sign an agreement at the Camp David summit in 2000. Speaking during a rally in Gaza City, al-Hindi said that Arafat was under a lot of pressure to sign an agreement in 2000 with Ehud Barak, but refused to give in. Arafat was put under siege after returning from the summit, before being poisoned for his unyielding position, the Islamist leader said. The late Palestinian leader refused to give away Jerusalem, al-Hindi said, and set red lines on Palestinian national rights.
link to www.maannews.net
Right-wing MKs tell Netanyahu: Don’t give land to Palestinians
Haaretz 16 Sept by Jonathan Lis — Seventeen members of the governing coalition, including five deputy ministers, called on Netanyahu to refuse any deal that involves ceding land before he met with Kerry.
link to www.haaretz.com
Palestinian leaders, parents upset their students are using Israeli textbooks
JERUSALEM (Washington Post) 14 Sept — It’s the beginning of a new school year in Israel, and as the bells ring, girls dressed in button-down tunics, skinny jeans and head scarves are dashing into an entirely new kind of classroom experience — one where Palestinian children in East Jerusalem are for the first time studying Israeli textbooks. In other cities, this might be just a bureaucratic tweaking of educational priorities. But here in East Jerusalem, the switch to Israeli course work — with its emphasis on not only math and science, but also Hebrew language and Israeli history — is potentially incendiary. …the curriculum has been branded by Palestinian officials in Ramallah, the administrative center of the West Bank, as a bullying tactic by an occupying power seeking to brainwash its young charges.
link to triblive.com
Analysis / Opinion
A look at Israeli military orders: from the draconian to the absurd / Sally Idwedar
5 Sept — Today there are over 2500 military orders and countless amendments. It wasn’t until the 80′s that a compilation of the orders were put together so the general public could have access to the Occupation’s ‘laws’. Even today it is hard to find the exact details of some of the early orders and texts. I will share a small selection of these orders that control all facets of Palestinian life and apply to only Palestinians- not illegal Israeli settlers … Military Order #107 publishes a list of 60 prohibited school textbooks. Publications banned include works on Arabic grammar, histories of the Crusades and works on Arab nationalism.
Military Order #1079 (amends M.O.107) prohibits video and audio work of a political nature. Publishes new list of over 1000 items including all United Nations Resolutions pertaining to Palestine, poetry, novels, etc. Military Order #101 forbids a gathering of more than 10 people unless the Israeli military receives advance notice with names of all participants … The most absurd orders impacting a large section of the Palestinian population are the regulations levied at farmers. Military Order #818 establishes how Palestinians can plant decorative flowers. Military Order #1147 (amendment) requires Palestinians to get permission from the Israeli military to grow onions. Military Order #1015 (8/27/82) requires Palestinians to get Israeli military permission to plant and grow fruit trees. Permits expire in one year or each June 15th. Military Order #96 forbids transport or purchase of goods on a donkey….
link to sallyidwedar.wordpress.com
Two decades after Oslo: the agreement that uprooted Palestine / Orouba Othman
Al-Akhbar 14 Sept — …Twenty years were enough for the PLO to take off the robe of the Palestinian revolution and don the suit of security coordination. Twenty years and the permanent solution to the questions of Jerusalem, the refugees, the borders, the water, the prisoners, and security arrangements are still pending and Palestinian negotiators keep avoiding them. Twenty years have passed and settlements continue to spread like cancer in the West Bank and Occupied Jerusalem. Twenty years and the refugee question remains the same, ever since the 1948 nakba and 1967 setback took away their villages and towns. Additionally, UN Resolution 194, calling for the return of refugees to their original homes and their financial compensation, was never implemented. It was merely ink on paper. Twenty years have gone by and Palestinian negotiators still use the same methods, without learning their lessons. In the past, they committed numerous mistakes. But today, the maximum ambition is to establish an airport in the West Bank, explore for natural gas off the coast of Gaza, and inaugurate vital touristic projects in areas classified C. They are only concerned with receiving guarantees from the Israeli enemy to increase the number of permits for Palestinian workers.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
The Oslo Accords’ calamities / Neve Gordon
Al Jazeera 12 Sept — The colonial framework of the Oslo agreements need to be replaced, writes scholar – On the eve of the September 1993 Oslo agreements, just before responsibilities were transferred from Israeli hands to the Palestinian Authority, five percent of Gaza’s residents did not have access to running water. Twenty years later, the United Nations estimates that more than 80 percent of Gazans buy bottled drinking water either because they are not connected to water supply or because the water they receive is undrinkable. The water crisis in the Gaza Strip is just one concrete manifestation of Oslo’s legacy. Surveying the contemporary Palestinian landscape, everywhere one looks calamities meet the eye. During the first 27 years of occupation (1967-1993), Israel killed an estimated 1,850 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. By contrast, during the 20 years since Oslo it has killed more than 7,100. Following the implementation of Oslo’s so-called separation principle – best captured through Ehud Barak’s slogan “us here, them there” – the average number of annual Palestinian deaths actually increased fivefold.Along similar lines, the peace accords have increased the economic fragility of the Palestinians … Twenty years after Oslo, Palestinian society is completely dependent on humanitarian assistance … Finally, two decades after Oslo, Palestinian society is divided, with the Hamas government in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank suffering from an acute legitimacy crisis. The crucial question – not least now, when Israelis and Palestinians are back at the negotiation table – is whether these developments are due to some kind of malfunction of the Oslo process, or whether they are its natural manifestation.
The answer lies in the Oslo agreements themselves … Instead of stipulating the principles for the withdrawal of Israeli power from the Occupied Territories, the Oslo agreements actually specify how Palestinian space would be restructured and Israel’s power would be reorganised. One cannot fully understand the reorganisation of power in the territories without considering the way the Oslo agreements restructured Palestinian space while preserving Israel’s distinction between the Palestinians and their land. As Israel transferred many of the responsibilities for managing the population to the Palestinian Authority, it retained direct control over most Palestinian space and over what John Torpey has called the “legitimate means of movement”
link to www.aljazeera.com
Oslo agreement impoverished Jerusalem / Sergio Yahni
AIC 11 Sept — Jerusalem is the largest and most populated city in Israel. Political and economic developments since the start of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in the early 1990s, however, have also rendered it Israel’s poorest city. 80 percent of Palestinians and 25 percent of Israelis in Jerusalem live under the poverty line … The Bank of Israel’s research division revealed in 2010 that 41% of East and West Jerusalem’s residents were living below the poverty line, and a report published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) stated that the poverty rate is 25% among Israeli citizens and close to 80% among the Palestinian population in East Jerusalem. It also reported that 85% of Palestinian children in East Jerusalem and 45% of Israeli children throughout Jerusalem live under the poverty line. In a study released on May 8, 2013, UNCTAD claimed that the high poverty rate in East Jerusalem is a result of the isolation imposed on the Palestinian residents by Israel since the Oslo agreements. The study also stated that, prior to the 1993 Oslo Accords, East Jerusalem’s economy constituted 15% of the Palestinian economy, and has since shrunk to only 7% in recent years.
link to www.alternativenews.org
The Oslo Accords: A gigantic disaster for the Palestinians / Khalid Amayreh
PIC 15 Sept — A few days ago, I asked a Palestinian lawyer from my hometown, Dura, if it was possible for me to file a suit case against “The State of Israel” in a Palestinian court. On 25 February, 1953, Israeli troops murdered virtually my entire family, including my three paternal uncles as well as three other relatives. In addition to the cold-blooded murder, the Israeli army then seized our entire property upon which our life depended to a large extent, including 250-300 sheep, condemning my family to live in a state of abject [poverty] for more than thirty years. No apology or mea culpa or acknowledgment of guilt or responsibility has ever been made by the State of Israel. The Lawyer, Muhammed Rabai’ stared at me, saying: “Mr. Amayreh, it seems your knowledge in matters of law is modest. The Oslo Accords gave Israel all the assets and gave us all the liabilities.” … Twenty long years have now passed since the conclusion of the hapless agreement. And there is an absolute consensus among Palestinians, regardless of their political orientation, that the agreement was a disaster for the Palestinian people and their national cause … Twenty years have gone by and will not return. They took with them the Canaanite, Islamic, and Christian identity of Jerusalem. Ultimately, Oslo, where Palestinian negotiators gambled with their fortunes, is a tragedy, whose chapters the Palestinians have endured.
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