2014-11-30

Violence / Suppression of protests / Raids

18-year-old Palestinian and ISM volunteer both shot in the chest with .22 live ammunition

KUFR QADDUM, Occupied Palestine (ISM) 28 Nov — During the weekly Kufr Qaddum protest today, an 18-year-old Palestinian demonstrator and an ISM volunteer, were both shot in the chest with .22 live ammunition. The Italian activist, known as Patrick, was wearing a yellow high visibility jacket when he was shot. 11 Palestinian demonstrators were wounded at the Kufr Qaddum protest. 18-year-old Sami Jumma was shot twice with live ammunition, once in the hand and once in the chest. He required surgery and is now in a stable condition. The remaining 10 injured protesters were shot with rubber-coated steel bullets and four required hospital treatment. One of whom was a 10-year-old child, although all four have now been discharged. “We were standing with a group of Palestinian demonstrators when Patrick was shot. The military had fired three rounds of tear gas, and then a shot rang out an Patrick stumbled back. There was between five and ten minutes from the last tear gas canister fired and the bullet that shot Patrick. He was just standing there, peacefully protesting, wearing a hi-viz jacket, he wasn’t doing anything and they just decided to shoot him,” stated an ISM activist present at Kufr Qaddum. Patrick is currently stable; the bullet entered through his chest and it is now lodged in his chest cavity, he remains in hospital under observation. In 2003, Israeli forces closed the road connecting Kufr Qaddum with the city of Nablus, and since then at least three people have died due to the increased travel time to the closest hospital. A journey that used to take 10 minutes now takes over 30. In 2011, Kufr Qaddum began their weekly demonstrations. Ally Cohen, ISM media coordinator said, “The bullet entered Patrick’s chest near a main blood vessel, but thankfully did not puncture it. If God forbid it had, the lengthened journey to the hospital because of the closed road could have cost Patrick his life.”
http://palsolidarity.org/2014/11/18-year-old-palestinian-and-ism-volunteer-both-shot-in-the-chest-with-22-live-ammunition/

Israeli forces injure youth with live fire during Ramallah-area raid

RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 28 Nov — One Palestinian was injured by live fire and others by rubber-coated steel bullets after Israeli soldiers opened fire on protesters in the village of Deir ‘Ammar west of Ramallah late Thursday. Israeli soldiers raided the village and declared it a closed military zone, and during the raid, soldiers fired tear-gas canisters and stun grenades at groups of villagers who came out to protest. Palestinian youths threw rocks at Israeli soldiers as they raided the village while Israeli soldiers opened live fire, injuring an unidentified youth. The youth injured by live bullets was taken to a hospital for treatment. Several others were injured by rubber-coated steel bullets. The reason for the raid were not known, and Israeli military spokeswoman told Ma‘an she was unfamiliar with the incident.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=743319

Palestinian injured as Israeli forces disperse march near Ramallah

RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 28 Nov — One Palestinian was injured and dozens of other Palestinian and international activists suffered from excessive tear-gas inhalation after Israeli soldiers violently dispersed a weekly protest march in the village of Bil‘in near Ramallah on Friday. The march began at the center of the village in protest against the Israeli occupation and the separation wall, and in solidarity with Jerusalem and its holy sites. Israeli forces, however, prevented protesters from marching toward their lands that have been confiscated to build the separation wall. Soldiers fired rubber-coated steel bullets, tear-gas canisters, and stun grenades toward protesters, hitting one. Sixteen-year-old Muhammad Abu Rahmeh was injured after a tear-gas canister fired by the soldiers hit his leg.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=743367

Israeli police assault and abduct young woman and disabled mother in East Jerusalem

IMEMC/Agencies 27 Nov — A disabled Jerusalemite woman, Nadya al-Maghribi, aged 55, along with her 22-year-old daughter, Amani, were assaulted by Israeli police, Tuesday, upon which the daughter was taken into custody and, subsequently, the mother, while she was attending the daughter’s Wednesday court hearing. WAFA correspondence reports that, earlier on Tuesday, around 10 Israeli policemen intercepted Amani and her diabetic mother as they were leaving their house in occupied East Jerusalem’s al-Tur neighborhood (Mount of Olives). The mother said that one of the officers stuck his foot out and tripped her, causing her to fall to the ground and, when her daughter rushed to help her up, she was severely beaten by police. The mother reportedly suffers from a partial paralysis in one of her legs, and depends on crutches to help her walk. Police forces attacked Amani on her head, with the butts of their rifles, while pulling her hair and kicking her in the abdomen with their boots, numerous times, before finally dragging her to their jeep and tearing her clothes. An attorney with Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association said that 55-year-old Nadia Mughrabi was arrested while she was attending the trial for her daughter, who was herself arrested for allegedly attempting to attack one of the policemen.
http://www.imemc.org/article/69849

Israeli woman, Palestinian man injured in car attacks in 48-occupied lands

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 28 Nov — An Israeli policewoman and an Palestinian citizen suffered injuries in separate vehicular attacks on Thursday in different areas of the 1948 occupied lands. The policewoman was run over by a Palestinian car in Bat Yam city in central Israel, Israel’s police said. It added in a statement that the driver of the car was arrested after a car chase in Rishon LeZion area outside Tel Aviv. The police have not disclosed the identity of the attacker or the motivation behind the incident.

Shortly before this incident, a Palestinian young man was rammed by an Israeli truck in the Arab city of Kafr Qasem in the central region of the 1948 occupied lands. The man sustained moderate injuries, but the driver ran away immediately after the accident, an Israeli police source told Yedioth Ahronoth. He added that the police are investigating whether the incident was deliberate or a just an accident. Earlier this week, an Israeli driver had run over and killed a Palestinian man near an Israeli checkpoint in northern West Bank.
http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=68881

Twilight Zone: Injury, then insult, at the hands of the Israel army

Haaretz 28 Nov by Gideon Levy & Alex Levac — IDF soldiers fired four rounds at Ahmed Hassouna, leaving the young man from Beitunia paralyzed. Then it turned out they were looking for someone else — The last of the guests left at 2 A.M., and Ahmed Hassouna was going downstairs to close the gates to the house. Before that, he had driven some of the guests home to the nearby Al-Amari refugee camp in Ramallah. Members of the family had gathered to celebrate the birthday of Ahmed’s nephew. His sister, Nagham, was now following him down the stairs carrying a bag of garbage. She was asking Ahmed to open the wicket in the back of the house, so she could throw the refuse into the garbage bin on the street, before he locked up for the night. Nagham is going down the stairs, Ahmed is waiting out on the street, next to the garbage bin. It’s 2 A.M. on Wednesday, November 12, in the town of Beitunia, on the outskirts of Ramallah. The burst of gunfire was sudden and short. Hassouna says now that he didn’t notice the Israel Defense Forces soldiers hiding behind the bin on the street. He adds that he heard no warning, either. Apparently, four rounds were fired at him – from a distance of three to four meters. Three bullets struck Hassouna, two in his legs. The third slammed into his hip, penetrated his spine and wreaked havoc. Since that night, he’s been hospitalized, with both legs paralyzed. He may never walk again. Hassouna, 20, had been working in the family’s auto-parts business. His father has a standing entry permit to Israel, as a merchant; the family does not involve itself in politics or the Palestinian struggle. They are 1948 refugees from Lod, who moved to the relatively affluent town of Beitunia a few years ago, after decades in the Al-Amari camp. Their comparatively tranquil life was shattered on that night, two weeks ago … To date, no one from the IDF has contacted the family – not to explain, not to investigate, much less to apologize. A relative, Maha Hassouna, the secretary of the Hadash party faction in the Knesset and a resident of Lod, says she is appalled that no one is taking responsibility for the mistaken shooting.
http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/twilight-zone/.premium-1.628931

Video: 20-year-old Palestinian activist violently detained and arrested at Hebron checkpoint

HEBRON, Occupied Palestine (ISM, Khalil Team) 28 Nov — Israeli forces violently detained and arrested twenty-year-old Palestinian activist Imad Altrash at approximately two o’clock yesterday in al-Khalil (Hebron). Soldiers accused him of insulting and yelling at them at Shuhada checkpoint. No soldiers claimed that Imad threatened them or behaved violently. On the way to the checkpoint, ISM activists ran through cold and rain as sheets of water poured down the street. Imad stood exposed, standing just behind a cement barricade on the side of the road leading up the checkpoint. One of the first things he said was, “I’ve been standing here for two hours.” Shuhada checkpoint has been closed for the past seven days as part of a policy of collective punishment directed at the Palestinians in surrounding neighbourhoods after the checkpoint was burnt during clashes last Friday. The checkpoint connects Bab a-Zawiya, a neighbourhood in H1 (supposedly under full Palestinian authority) to Tel Rumeida, an H2 residential area under full Israeli military and civil control. Israeli soldiers have been for the past several days denying passage through the checkpoint to Palestinians including children, elderly people and teachers from nearby schools who should have special permission to pass. Video footage from Human Rights Defenders Palestine shows soldiers violently dragging Imad up the stairs of the checkpoint and holding him in a headlock as they push him around.
http://palsolidarity.org/2014/11/20-year-old-palestinian-activist-violently-detained-and-arrested-at-hebron-checkpoint/

Israeli settlers continue their attacks against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank

PCHR 26 Nov — The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns the Israeli settlers’ ongoing and escalated attacks on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank. The latest of these attacks has been against a house belonging to a Palestinian woman in Kherbet Abu Falah village, northeast of Ramallah, and throwing a tear gas canister and a sound bomb into the house balcony, due to which the balcony contents caught fire.  PCHR believes the Israeli forces’ cover-up of settlers’ attacks and even support and protection for them encourage settlers to continue their systematic attacks against the Palestinian civilians.  PCHR believes further that such crimes come in the context of the continuing incitement by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people …  According to investigations conducted by PCHR, in the early morning on Sunday, 23 November 2014, a group of settlers sneaked into Kherbet Abu Falah village, northeast of Ramallah.  They headed towards a house belonging to Huda Abdul Ghani Abdul Rahim Hamayel (54) and tried to raid it. They broke the balcony’s window, spilled an incendiary substance inside and set fire to the balcony’s contents after throwing a tear gas canister and a sound bomb inside.  The armchairs, chairs, curtains and other furniture pieces in the balcony caught fire.  The settlers wrote on the house walls in Hebrew “Death to Arabs, avenging the blood of religious Jews”. They also drew David Star, pointing to the Jews who were killed by a Palestinian from Jerusalem in occupied Jerusalem inside a synagogue 5 days before this attack.  It should be noted that it is the first time that settlers have used tear gas canisters and sound bombs in their attacks against Palestinian civilians and their property in the oPt.
http://www.imemc.org/article/69839

Further settler attacks in Hebron and Qalqilia

IMEMC/Agencies 28 Nov — Israeli settlers, on Thursday, attempted to kidnap a Palestinian minor to the south of Hebron, while others attacked a car shop and its owner in Qalqilia, according to security sources.  According to WAFA correspondents, settlers from the settlement “Nahal Negohot“, built illegally on land west of Dura, to the south of Hebron, attempted to kidnap 11-year-old Amir Abu Sharar before local residents intervened and saved the child from abduction. Meanwhile, in the area of Qalqilia, settlers attacked a car shop and severely beat the owner, Ahmad Abu Bakir, before fleeing the scene. Mr. Abu Bakir reportedly sustained bruises throughout his body and was transferred to a hospital for treatment. WAFA notes that settler attacks — which have been ongoing for years, with Israeli forces making no attempts to stop them — have escalated recently in light of the current tension in the region, particularly in Jerusalem.
http://www.imemc.org/article/69857

Israeli forces raid homes in Tuqu‘ east of Bethlehem

BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 29 Nov– Israeli forces on Friday raided the Bethlehem-area village of Tuqu‘, forcing their way into several homes and firing large amounts of tear gas in clashes that subsequently broke out. Several Palestinians suffered from severe tear-gas suffocation and fainting during clashes with Israeli forces, and a Ma‘an reporter said that Israeli soldiers fired rubber-coated steel bullets at locals who came out to protest. Israeli soldiers raided several houses in the village and reportedly damaged possessions. Two of the properties raided belonged to Moussa al-Umour and Daoud al-Umour. Israeli forces broke the front doors and windows of the homes as they raided them, locals said. Clashes erupted on Thursday as well between Palestinian youths and Israeli soldiers at the western entrance of Tuqu‘.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=743427

PCHR report on Israel human rights violations in the oPt (Nov 13-19, 2014)

PCHR-Gaza 27 Nov — Israeli attacks in the West Bank & Gaza:  Shootings: During the reporting period, a Palestinian bus driver from Abu Dees village, southeast of occupied East Jerusalem, was strangled to death in the West Jerusalem. There are suspicions that extremist settlers committed this crime. Moreover, 21 Palestinian civilians, including 6 children, were wounded in the West Bank. In the Gaza Strip, 3 civilians, including a child, were wounded near the border fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel. A Palestinian child from the Gaza Strip died of wounds he sustained during the latest Israeli offensive [details follow, e.g.: On 13 November 2014, 3 civilians, including a child, were wounded when Israeli forces moved into the new ‘Askar refugee camp, northeast of Nablus. On the same day, an 11-year-old male sustained a bullet wound to the right eye, due to which he lost vision and sustained fractures to the nose and skull. The boy was wounded during an Israeli incursion into al-Eisawiya village, north of East Jerusalem. On 15 November 2014, a 21-year-old civilian from Qalandya refugee camp, north of Jerusalem, sustained wounds to the right arm, due to which his right arm was amputated from the shoulder. He was wounded due to the explosion of a suspicious object of the Israeli forces’ military remnants. On 18 November 2014, a 17-year-old civilian sustained 2 bullet wounds to the left shoulder and right side of the chest and a 21-year-old civilian was hit by a gas canister to the left leg when about 40 settlers from “Yitzhar” settlement attacked ‘Ourif [or ‘Urif] secondary school for boys [south of Nablus] under the protection of Israeli forces. On the same day, 6 Palestinian civilians, including a paramedic, were wounded when Israeli forces raided houses belonging to the families of Ghassan and Ouday Abu Jamal in al-Mukkaber Mount village, southeast of East Jerusalem [etc.] … Incursions: During the reporting period,Israeli forces conducted at least 54 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank.During these incursions, Israeli forces arrested at least 78 Palestinians, including 12 children. 46 of these civilians, including 5 children and 2 women, were arrested in East Jerusalem….
http://www.imemc.org/article/69850

Israeli soldier confesses to abusing Palestinian man for fun

NAZARETH (PIC) 25 Nov — The Israeli leftist group Breaking the Silence on Monday unveiled a new confession made by an Israeli soldier showing some of the repressive practices the Palestinians are exposed to at West Bank checkpoints. The soldier, who worked for an army engineering unit during the first intifada in the West Bank, said that during the intifada, he, like many other soldiers, enjoyed harassing and humiliating peaceful Palestinian civilians and families. He explained how he had enjoyed maltreating a Palestinian father at a checkpoint when he insulted him in front of his family and forced him to leave his car on a rainy day and remove the tires with no reason. He added he and his fellow soldiers loved to see him getting wet in the rain and laughed at the man, but that incident made him feel sorry for many years until he eventually decided to make his confession. [See the organization’s website, like this page of videos]
http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=68846

Followup on recent Jerusalem attacks and alleged attacks

Israel revokes residency of Jerusalem attacker’s widow

Al-Akhbar/AFP/Ma‘an 27 Nov — Israel on Wednesday revoked the residency rights of the widow of a Palestinian who carried out a deadly attack on a Jerusalem synagogue, drawing condemnation from human rights groups. “I have ordered the cancellation of Nadia Abu Jamal’s permit to stay in Israel. Anyone who is involved in terror must take into account that there are likely to be implications for their family members too,” Israeli Interior Minister Gilad Erdan said in a statement. Cousins Ghassan and Uday Abu Jamal, from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabal al-Mukabbir, were shot dead by Israeli police after storming a synagogue with meat cleavers and a gun and killing four Zionist rabbis and an Israeli policeman on November 18. The statement said Nadia had been granted residency in East Jerusalem, a Palestinian land annexed by Israel in a move never recognized by the international community, under a “family reunification” clause allowing residents of the Israeli-occupied territories to stay with spouses who hold either Israeli citizenship or permanent residency. The move came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Sunday that the Israeli government is to seek powers to strip 1948 Palestinians or Palestinian residents of Jerusalem of their residency and welfare rights if they or their relatives participate in or incited violence, even stone-throwing. “It cannot be that those who attack Israeli citizens and call for the elimination of the State of Israel will enjoy rights such as National Insurance – and their family members as well, who support them,” Netanyahu told ministers during a cabinet meeting.”This law is important in order to exact a price from those who engage in attacks and incitement, including the throwing of stones and firebombs,” his office quoted him as saying.

Israeli rights group B’Tselem slammed the decision to revoke Abu Jamal’s residency permit. “We object to this measure. It’s abuse of a minister’s authority and a form of collective punishment,” spokeswoman Sarit Michaeli told AFP. “She isn’t accused of any harm, and the revoking of her residency status will actually mean she will be banished from her home and thrown out of the city she lives in,” she said.”Residency and social benefits … aren’t gifts or favors the authorities bestow and can then take away. They’re essential aspects of people’s existence,” Michaeli said.

Meanwhile in a statement on Sunday, Erdan confirmed he had cancelled the permanent residence of Mahmoud Nadi, who served a 10 year prison sentence for driving a man responsible for a 2001 bombing at a Tel Aviv nightclub. The decision, which was communicated to Nadi in a letter sent by Erdan, involves cancellation of Nadi’s entry in the population registry and the revocation of his blue Israeli ID card, and means he will no longer be eligible to receive any social benefits, such as national insurance or health insurance. The so-called “blue ID” is an Israeli identification card issued by the interior ministry that entitles holders to national insurance and freedom of movement throughout the country.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/israel-revokes-residency-jerusalem-attackers-widow

IOA to bury bodies of deceased youths in secret cemetery

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 26 Nov — The Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) notified the families of the murdered Palestinian youths, Ghassan and Udai [Abu Jamal], of intent to bury their bodies in the so-called Israeli cemeteries of numbers. A letter sent to the families’ lawyer by Shaul Gordon, the general attorney of the Israeli occupation police, threatened to never return the bodies of the deceased youths and to withhold their bodies in an Israeli graveyard. The letter further mentioned the IOA’s intents to knock down the homes of Udai and Ghassan’s families. Such “exceptional” measures have allegedly been issued as a means to deter further anti-Israeli occupation attacks. Earlier, the Israeli prosecutor general’s office on Monday transferred jurisdiction over appeals to return the bodies of Ghassan and Udai to the police’s legal adviser.
http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=68854

Israeli court freezes demolitions of Jerusalem attack suspect homes

JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 27 Nov — The Israeli Supreme Court decided to freeze demolition orders against the homes of two East Jerusalem Palestinians suspected of killing five men in an attack on a Jerusalem synagogue until a verdict on the families’ appeals are decided. The freeze comes as a surprise amid weeks of violence in Jerusalem, where Israeli authorities have insisted on carrying out numerous punitive home demolitions against the families of Palestinians thought to have carried out attacks on Israelis. A lawyer from the Palestinian Addameer Prisoner’s Support and Human Rights Organization, Muhammad Mahmoud, said that the Israeli Supreme Court issued a temporary order to freeze the order calling for the demolition of the homes of the families of Ghassan and Udayy Abu Jamal homes until the court decides on the appeal presented by the family and the HAMOKED Center for the Defense of the Individual. A session by the Supreme Court will be held in the coming few days, he added. The Israeli authorities delivered the demolition orders to the family of the two suspects last Thursday, amid a wave of similar demolitions.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=743219

‘Home demolitions have not stopped attacks’

SILWAN, Jerusalem (Al Jazeera) 19 Nov by Dalia Hatuqa — Palestinians say their long-simmering frustrations over Israel’s oppressive measures are finally boiling over — Enas al-Shaludi was sitting on an old, worn-out couch, huddled under a thick blanket in front of an electric heater, despite the unusually warm late November day. With one hand, she clutched a picture of her son, AbdelRahman, who on October 22, drove his car into a Jerusalem light rail stop crowded with pedestrians. Two people were killed: a three-month-old baby girl and a woman hailing from Ecuador. Shaludi was shot and succumbed to injuries later. Enas sat with a solemn look on her face. As well as grieving over a son, last night she also lost her home. Overnight Wednesday, Israeli forces demolished her family’s apartment in a four-storey building in Silwan, a majority-Palestinian neighbourhood, which has slowly been targeted by Israeli settlement …  Family members said Israeli forces came to the building – housing approximately 50 people in eight apartments – at about 1am. They forced everyone to head to a tent a few metres away. Some of the children left the building with no shoes or socks, and AbdelRahman’s grandmother was not allowed to go to the bathroom, so she was forced to urinate herself, said Amer al-Shaludi, AbdelRahman’s uncle. “They kept us outside until they were done blowing up the house at about 4am,” Amer said … The demolition left seven members of Shaludi’s immediate family – his parents, two brothers and three daughters – homeless. For now, they will be staying with the extended family in the building until they figure out what to do next, Enas said …

For decades, Israel has demolished homes of Palestinians accused of carrying out attacks. But in 2005, the practice, which authorities said was necessary for “deterrence”, was halted. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week pledged to speed up the demolitions of homes of those involved in attacks. This came a day after two Palestinian men – also from Jerusalem – killed five Israelis in a synagogue in the western part of the city. Human rights groups had long maintained that home demolitions were an act of collective punishment. “It doesn’t deter; on the contrary, it inflames and increases the hatred even more,” said Jeff Halper, the founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.”What it does is it helps the Israeli people feel that they’ve been avenged.” In 2004, Moshe Ya’alon, a former army chief of staff, formed a review committee to look into the practice of punitive home demolitions. The committee found that it did more harm to Israeli interests, than it did to deter future attacks…. Israeli authorities had long maintained that fear of house demolitions led to families turning in their relatives to stop them from carrying out attacks.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/11/demolitions-not-stopped-attacks-20141119113711144909.html

Israel sent Palestinian Authority letter to ‘stop incitement’ over bus driver’s death

Mondoweiss 27 Nov by Allison Deger — When news broke of a Palestinian bus driver’s body found hanging by a metal cord in the rear of an Israeli bus in a West Jerusalem parking lot, two separate narratives developed. The death came in the midst of a bitter pattern of attacks on Israeli and Palestinian civilians across the city and the official reason given in the autopsy by Israel was that Yousef Hassan al-Ramouni, 32, had committed suicide. However, the Palestinian media, government, family of the deceased, and witnesses to the body, most importantly a pathologist that sat in on the medical exam, all said otherwise, contradicting, the police’s pronouncement that there was “no suspicion of criminal activity.” According to Israeli medical professionals at Abu Kabir hospital in Jerusalem where the exam took place, Palestinian pathologist Dr. Saber al-Aloul agreed with their analysis that the death was self-inflicted. But Dr. al-Aloul sent his own report with different findings that suggest homicide to the Palestinian Authority. He then spoke of foul play to the Palestinian outlet Ma’an News Agency … But with the Palestinian narrative of homicide gaining steam, as well on social media, more action was taken. Mondoweiss has obtained a copy of a letter authored by the Israeli General Coordinator of the Palestinian territories to the Palestinian Authority, asking them “to stop such incitement and bring the genuine facts regarding the circumstances of death of the deceased, to the attention of the Palestinian public.” In Israel, incitement is a crime punishable with a prison sentence. The letter also links al-Ramouni’s death, and the Palestinian media coverage that labeled it a murder to last week’s attack on a synagogue where five Israelis, four rabbis and one Druze police officer, were killed by cousins and East Jerusalem residents Ghassan and Oday and Abu Jamal.
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/11/palestinian-authority-incitement

Shin Bet: Construction worker’s death was terror

Ynet 26 Nov by Raanan Ben-Zur — The police have informed the family of Netanel Roi Arami, a 26-year-old Israeli construction worker who fell to his death in September, that their son was probably killed, it was cleared for publication Wednesday morning. Arami owned a construction company contracted to do exterior work on a hi-rise building in central Israel. During the fatal day in mid September, Arami was rappelling along the side of the Petah Tikvah building in order to seal vent openings when both his cables snapped and he fell 11 stories to his death. The police first said his death was an accident, while his family maintained otherwise, now it has been cleared for publication that the family has been right all along. The Petah Tivka court further cleared for publication that the Shin Bet had arrested three suspects for their role in his murder, now openly being investigated as a terror attack, but were eventually released. “This was not a work related accident, Netanel was a professional,” his family said at the time, and now it seems the police could agree. Over 50 workers were at the site of the time, the majority of which are Israel-Arabs and Palestinians, as well as a few Chinese nationals, but none have been arrested. The workers, for their part, claim his death was an accident. At the end of September it was cleared for publication that the police were also investigating the nationalistic angle of the case, but fell short of admitting that the murder was such an attack. Hours afterwards, his parents held a press conference and said: “My son was murdered because he was Jewish, there’s no other reason,” said Miriam, his mother.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4596356,00.html

Together, apart and afraid: living in Jerusalem

AFP 24 Nov — The two young Jerusalem shop assistants wear similar clothes and makeup. Only their names tell them apart as Israeli and Palestinian. But they know that talking about events outside might test their friendship. Avital and Iman spend their days chatting at a budget clothes shop in west Jerusalem. They look almost identical, dressed from the store’s “winter collection” and wearing their dark, straightened hair the same way. But months of violence in the Holy City, including a spate of deadly Palestinian attacks against Israelis, have ramped up tensions. It is a subject Avital and Iman avoid discussing. Last week, two Palestinians armed with a gun and meat cleavers killed five people at a synagogue — the culmination of months of tension, and after a series of apparent “lone-wolf” attacks, including hit-and-runs in which Palestinian drivers killed four people. “We’ve been working together for a few months, and we’ve been getting along,” said Iman, 21, from the Arab east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Beit Safafa. “But we avoid talking about what’s been happening because we both know that conversation could end badly.” Twenty-two-year-old Avital, who lives in the Jewish neighbourhood of Talpiot, agrees that it is best to avoid certain topics. – Burned alive – “We don’t talk about the incidents. There’s what happens in the shop and what happens outside. The two are separate.” The violence in Jerusalem began in earnest in July, when Jewish extremists burned alive a 16-year-old Palestinian boy in apparent revenge for the killing of three Jewish teenagers in the occupied West Bank … On the surface, a fragile coexistence exists in public parks, shopping centres and workplaces, with Palestinians crossing from east to west Jerusalem to work in often menial jobs. But other than out of professional or economic necessity, Israelis and Palestinians do not tend to mix, increasingly avoiding each other for fear of random or revenge attacks. – The proof is cuddles – “I’m scared of being assaulted,” said Iman, who did not want to give her family name. Raada, a Palestinian working at a Talpiot nursery, said Jewish parents now regard her with increasing suspicion. “I learned that some parents demanded the Shin Bet (Israel’s domestic security service) vet me,” she said, also refusing to give her family name. “I’ve looked after Jewish children for years. These people’s kids come in each morning and cuddle me. Is that not enough proof for them?”
https://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/together-apart-afraid-living-jerusalem-150717887.html

Detentions / Prisoners / Court actions

Israeli takes record for world’s youngest prisoner, 11 months old

IMEMC/Agencies 27 Nov — 11-month-old Balqis Ghawadra became the youngest prisoner in the world, after visiting her father in Eshel Israeli prison, occupied Beer Sheva. Nihal Ghannam Ghawadra from Bir Al-Basha village, near Jenin, waited passionately [patiently?] for the permission to visit her husband, Mu’ammar, only to be separated from her two little children, and to see her entire family become prisoners, Ahrar Center for Prisoners Studies and Human Rights reports. According to the PNN, Nihal headed to the prison on Wednesday, with her daughter Balqis, 11 months, and son Baraa’, age 2. As soon as she arrived, the three were separated. Nihal was imprisoned, along with her two children, under the pretext of sneaking a mobile phone to her husband. The entire family has now been imprisoned, as a result. Mu’ammar’s mother told Ahrar that her daughter in law called to inform her that Israeli authorities had imprisoned her and her children, and began calling on people to help release them from the prison.
http://www.imemc.org/article/69853

Israel releases 2 infants detained with mother on jail visit

BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 27 Nov — Israel on Thursday afternoon released two infants who were detained by authorities after accompanying their mother on a visit to see their father in an Israeli jail. Executive director of the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society Abdullah al-Zghari said that the two children — nine-month-old Balqis Ghawadra and two-year-old Baraa Ghawadra — had been delivered to the organization from the Holy Family Hospital in Bethlehem after Israeli authorities dropped them off there. Al-Zghari added that the children had been detained, along with their mother, who is still in Israeli custody, in a social affairs office in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba since Wednesday. Al-Zghari identified the mother of the children as Nihal Ghawadra from Bir al-Basha near Jenin. Her husband is Muammar Ghawadra, a prisoner who was released during the Shalit swap deal with Hamas in 2011 after he spent eight years in Israeli custody, but was rearrested by Israeli authorities in June 2014 in violation of the agreement.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=743226

Israel detains 17-year-old girl claiming she planned to stab soldier

HEBRON (Ma‘an) 28 Nov — The Israeli army detained a 17-year-old Palestinian from Hebron after claiming that she was planning to stab an Israeli soldier, Israeli media reported. Hebrew-language news site Walla said that the girl refused to undergo a search at the military checkpoint near the Ibrahimi mosque near Hebron’s Old City, leading soldiers to threaten her with their guns in order to force her to undergo a search. The Israeli army said that they found a knife on the girl in the inspection that followed. Palestinian sources told a Ma’an reporter in Hebron that the 17-year-old was identified as Hala Musallam Abu Sall and that she was from the al-‘Arrub refugee camp in northern Hebron. Abu Sall was taken for interrogation by Israeli intelligence services.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=743317

Soldiers kidnap twelve Palestinians in the West Bank

IMEMC/Agencies 26 Nov — Israeli soldiers invaded, on Wednesday at dawn, various Palestinian communities in different parts of the occupied West Bank, broke into homes and ransacked them, and kidnapped twelve Palestinians. Local sources in Bethlehem have reported that several armored military vehicles invaded Wadi Fokkin village, west of Bethlehem, and kidnapped three Palestinians … Soldiers also invaded the al-Fawwar refugee camp, south of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, and kidnapped three Palestinians after breaking into their homes and ransacking them. The three have been identified as Rajeh Abu ‘Ajamiyya, 42, ‘Ala Mustafa al-Ballass, 23, and Wisam Fayez Abdullah, 21.  Abdullah was kidnapped after the soldiers invaded his family home, searching for his brother who was there at the time of the invasion, and the soldiers kidnapped him instead … In occupied Jerusalem, soldiers kidnapped four Palestinians, including a young woman who was assaulted by the soldiers. Three of the kidnapped Palestinians have been identified as Anas Dabash and Mahdi ‘Attoun from Sur Baher, and Amani Maghrebi from the at-Tour town. In related news, soldiers invaded the central West Bank city of Ramallah, in addition to al-Bireh and Betunia towns, and kidnapped two Palestinians identified as Fayez Abu Warda and Hussein Abu Kweik.
http://www.imemc.org/article/69842

Soldiers kidnap 15 Palestinians in West Bank, Jerusalem

IMEMC/Agencies 27 Nov by Saed Bannoura — Israeli soldiers kidnapped, on Thursday at dawn, fifteen Palestinians in different parts of the occupied West Bank, and in occupied East Jerusalem, and took them to a number of interrogation and detention centers. The Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA) stated that dozens of soldiers invaded different neighborhoods in Hebron city, in the southern part of the occupied West Bank, and Beit Ummar nearby town, and kidnapped eight Palestinians … In addition, soldiers invaded a bakery in the ‘Asseeda area in Hebron, and detained the workers for several hours. The soldiers also fired gas bombs at a number of homes in the area.  In occupied Jerusalem, soldiers invaded the al-‘Eesawiyya town, and the Shu‘fat refugee camp, in the center of the city, and kidnapped four Palestinians. Also in Jerusalem, soldiers invaded and ransacked a number of homes in the Old City, and nearby neighborhoods, and interrogated several Palestinians. Soldiers also handed ‘Adel Issa Hijazi, 42, from Bethlehem, a warrant for interrogation in the Etzion military base. Hijazi was trying to cross the Za’tara Israeli military roadblock, south of the northern west Bank city of Nablus. In addition, soldiers invaded the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem, broke into and searched several homes, and kidnapped three Palestinians.
http://www.imemc.org/article/69851

Israeli court postpones female detainee’s trial for the 20th time

JENIN (PIC) 27 Nov — The Salem military court has postponed Wednesday the trial of the female detainee Muna Qudan, 43, for the twentieth consecutive time. Family sources told the PIC reporter that the Israeli court postponed Qudan’s hearing till December 22, aiming to extend her detention as much as they can without charge or trial. The female detainee was arrested more than once in Israeli jails most recently was in November 2012 after serving three years behind Israeli bars. Her brother and fiancé are also held in Israeli jails.

Meanwhile, Israeli authorities renewed for the fifth time in a row the administrative detention of the leader in Hamas Movement Adnan Hosari for six additional months. The detainee’s lawyer informed his family that the court extended Hosari’s administrative detention for five months a week before his release, the PIC reporter confirmed. Hosari served more than five years in Israeli jails, and 18 months in PA prisons for being affiliated with Hamas.
http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=68867

2 Palestinians to be detained without trial for 6 months

JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 29 Nov — Israeli authorities on Friday transferred two East Jerusalem Palestinian detainees to administrative detention without charge or trial, where they will reportedly be kept for the next six months. Amjad Abu Asab, who is head of an East Jerusalem committee of prisoners’ families, told Ma‘an that Israel transferred Amjad al-Natsheh, 20, from ‘Anata and Sadeq Ghaith from Silwan for six months of administrative detention. Al-Natsheh was detained four days ago as a result of a Facebook post in which he said he wished to die as a “martyr.” Abu Asab said that Israeli interrogators accused him of planning a terror attack as a result of his post. Al-Natsheh, however, reportedly denied the charge, saying that the post represented “just a wish.” Abu Asab said that Ghaith, meanwhile, was detained last Tuesday with his brother Adnan Ghaith, who is the secretary-general of the Fatah movement in Jerusalem. Administrative detention refers to the tactic of keeping a prisoner without charge or trial for extended periods of time, often due to “security” concerns. Israel routinely uses this tactic on detained Palestinians, even though international law stipulates it only be used in exceptional circumstances. According to Israeli human rights groups B’tselem, in Aug. 2014, 473 Palestinians were being kept in administrative detention in Israeli prisons, down from a high of nearly 1,000 in 2002.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=743327

Land, property theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Judaization / Restriction of movement

Lieberman unveils racist peace plan: Pay Palestinians to leave Israel

Mondoweiss 28 Nov by Philip Weiss — The latest shocker, reported in Haaretz. Maybe the New York Times will cover this before long, and lament its beloved Israeli democracy for even permitting such discussion. By a leading government minister who seeks to be Prime Minister. Barak Ravid reports: ‘Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Friday published an updated platform for his party, Yisrael Beiteinu, which includes a “peace plan” that calls on the government to encourage the transfer of Israeli Arabs to a Palestinian state by offering them “economic incentives.”’
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/11/lieberman-unveils-palestinians

Israel denies residency to Arab Israelis’ Palestinian spouses

GAZA CITY (Al-Monitor) 28 Nov by Hana Salah — Israeli restrictions on movement between the West Bank and Gaza are not only an obstacle for Palestinians living there, but also for the Arab Israeli spouses of men or women holding Palestinian nationality. After the outbreak of the second intifada, the Israeli government passed a temporary measure in 2003 to deny residency or citizenship to Palestinians living in the occupied territories. It has been continually extended, most recently in March 2014. Arab Israeli citizens were, however, allowed to enter Gaza to reunite with their spouses or families. The Israeli spouse must renew his or her residence in Israel every six months … According to the Israeli human rights organization, B’Tselem, “Israel does not consider family reunification a right for the Palestinians, but rather a gesture of compassion.” Israeli authorities have not released the precise number of Israeli citizens living in Gaza, but based on data provided in 2013 by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories to B’Tselem, of which Al-Monitor obtained a copy, about 425 Israelis live in Gaza, including 157 under the age of 16. Shai Grunberg, spokeswoman for the Gisha Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, told Al-Monitor, “Israeli citizens married to Gazans have the right to enter Gaza without delay. But since the implementation of the disengagement plan in 2005, they have faced two main problems: bureaucratic procedures for obtaining visitor permits and difficulty getting children of Israelis born in Gaza being recognized [as Israelis].” Israeli authorities require Gaza-born children of Israeli Arabs to undergo expensive genetic tests and go through complicated bureaucratic procedures. As a result, many of them approach human rights organizations to lobby for them. Gisha has helped children of Israeli citizens receive passports, which are guaranteed by law. According to Yehia al-Muhareb, lawyer at Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza, Palestinian human rights organizations in Gaza also dedicate part of their work to getting reunification cases heard in Israeli courts….
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/11/israel-policy-palestinian-arab-family-reunification.html

50 rabbis call for storming the Aqsa platform

Middle East Monitor 28 Nov — A group of 50 rabbis affiliated with an extremely right-wing Zionist movement have signed a petition calling for the storming of Al-Aqsa the day after tomorrow. A number of right-wing groups published statements on their websites yesterday evening claiming that this petition comes in the wake of what they described as “terrorist events in Jerusalem and pointing the finger of blame on those who ascend to the Temple Mount [Al-Aqsa]”. The petition signed by the rabbis said: “One of the important ways in which we can demand our right to the Temple Mount is to ascend the Temple Mount. We believe that our presence in the Temple Mount is guided by pure and traditional Jewish teachings and laws and we are proud to uphold these values as we ascend to the mountain of purity.” The most prominent rabbis to sign the petition are Dov Lior, Nahum Rabinovitch and Ram Hacohen. Some of these religious figures have issued religious rulings ordering the killing of Arabs. The petition considered the [attempted] murder of right-wing Jewish activist Yehuda Glick “a catalyst that will continue to promote Jewish ascension to the Temple Mount”.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/15540-50-rabbis-call-for-storming-the-aqsa-platform

Three elderly Palestinians live in Ajami Park to protest against their eviction

[with photos] Middle East Monitor 28 Nov — Three older members of the Abu Al-Ayoun family have been living in a tent for the past seven months in the Ajami Central Park in Jaffa in protest of their forced eviction from their home on Ha’ Dolfin Street in the Ajami neighbourhood 10 years ago. The youngest of the group, a 75-year-old woman told Arabs48 that the Israeli government created false papers in order to expel her from her home in Ajami. The family then moved from one rented house to another since their forced eviction but have had to deal with provocations from various homeowners and have been forced to move into smaller spaces due to the city’s housing crisis. The family has since relocated to a tent in the Ajami Central Park and have filed a lawsuit against the housing corporation that wronged them a decade ago. The elderly woman has taken to camping in the cold weather and she insists that she will not leave her tent unless she is returned to the house that was seized from her. She refused donations and called upon Jaffa city officials to see to it that her trial takes place so she may live out her life in dignity.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/15544-three-elderly-palestinians-live-in-ajami-park-to-protest-against-their-eviction

Israeli authorities renew travel ban against Sheikh Raed Salah

UMM AL-FAHM (PIC) 27 Nov — Israel’s interior ministry on Wednesday renewed a travel ban against Sheikh Raed Salah, the leader of the Islamic Movement in 1948 Occupied Palestine. Israel’s interior minister Gild Erdan issued an order for maintaining the travel ban against Sheikh Salah under the security pretext. The ban is set to be in effect until January 9. Salah is an outspoken opponent of Israel’s illegal settlement policies and Judaization plots. Some observers have said that the travel ban renewal against the man aims to tighten the noose around him against the background of his defense of Al-Aqsa Mosque. Salah, meanwhile, was unfazed by the ban, saying in comment that the Israeli occupation authorities would never succeed in laying a siege around his voice, even if they managed to lay a siege around his body. “My voice is the voice of every free man in the Arab world,” Salah said. “This voice cannot be silenced or broken because it is the voice of right against the evil perpetrated by the Israeli occupation,” he added. Describing the Israeli move as “racist”, Salah added that Israel was mistaken in believing that it could break the will of the Palestinians.
http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=68861

Israeli forces ban 5 from Aqsa for 3 months

JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 26 Nov – Israeli forces on Tuesday handed five Palestinian residents of Jerusalem military orders banning them from the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound for three months. Two women were among the five Palestinians. Sources identified the five as Dalal al-Hashlamoun, Latifa Abd al-Latif, 17-year-old Abd al-Athim Abu Sbeih, 16-year-old Muhammad Abu Sneina and 19-year-old Karam Bassam Ramlawi.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=742791

Gaza

Palestinian injured as Israeli forces open fire in northern Gaza Strip

GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 29 Nov — A Palestinian was injured late Friday after Israeli forces opened fire near the border with the Gaza Strip east of Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip, medical sources told Ma‘an. Spokesman for the Gaza Ministry of Health Asraf al-Qidra told Ma‘an that a Palestinian youth in his twenties was hit in his right foot with live fire after Israeli soldiers shot at Palestinians east of Jabaliya. Al-Qidra added that the youth was subsequently brought to the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, where his injuries were reported as moderate.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=743421

Israeli forces open fire on Gaza near Khan Younis

GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 28 Nov — Israeli forces deployed on the border in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday morning opened fire at Palestinian homes and properties in the area, witnesses said. Israeli forces deployed near the Kissufim military base opened fire east of al-Qarrara, located north of Khan Younis, twice early Friday, once after midnight and again later in the morning, the witnesses told Ma‘an. They said the attacks were fired toward Palestinian homes in the area, but that no injuries were reported. The incident came only hours after Israeli forces fired a tank shell into the Gaza Strip on Thursday after claiming that shots had been fired at an Israeli military vehicle near the border. Although the shell caused no reported injuries, it marked the most serious escalation on the Gaza border since the end of a massive Israeli assault over the summer that left nearly 2,200 Palestinians dead and over 11,000 injured, the vast majority of them civilians … Fadil Muhammad Halawah, 32, was shot dead on Sunday while hunting birds east of Jabaliya. He was the first Palestinian to be killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip since the signing of a ceasefire agreement in late August.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=743310

UNRWA declares a state of emergency in Gaza amid severe flooding

[with photos] BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 27 Nov — The UN’s Palestine refugee agency UNRWA on Thursday evening declared a state of emergency in Gaza City amid massive rains that have shut down normal life in parts of the besieged coastal enclave’s largest city. A major storm over the past week has filled the streets of Gaza City with water and sewage, causing further misery for the more than 100,000 Palestinians left homeless — including nearly 30,000 still staying in emergency shelters — from Israel’s massive offensive over summer that also left nearly 2,200 dead. UNRWA said in a statement that 63 schools across Gaza City and 43 schools across the Northern Gaza Strip governorate had been closed Thursday due to the flooding. Hundreds of residents in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City had also been evacuated due to the rise of a “storm water lagoon” that had flooded many homes in the area. “The flooding is exacerbating the already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza caused by blockade and the unprecedented destruction from the latest Israeli offensive,” the UN agency said in a post on its Facebook. The agency, which is already massively stretched due to the summer’s conflict, said that it was “providing emergency fuel to supply back-up generators for pumping stations, portable pumps, municipalities, water, sanitation and health facilities.” … The floods are exacerbated by a chronic lack of fuel that limits how much water can be pumped out of flood-stricken areas. The fuel shortages are a result of the eight-year-old Israeli siege, which also limits the import of other kinds of machinery related to pumping and sewage management that could help Gazans combat the floods … Thursday marks the fourth straight day of unusually heavy rain across the region, causing temperatures to dip across Palestine. The West Bank has also experienced flooding as a result of the storm, causing difficult driving conditions in many of the region’s hillier villages and cities … Al-Areda said that the flooding had hit cities in the northern parts of the West Bank more severely than any other. The worst hit has been Qalqiliya as it is surrounded on all sides by the Israeli separation wall, making water-pumping a complex and difficult task.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=743255

Top UN official aloof as Gaza is ‘submerged in despair’

Electronic Intifada 28 Nov by Ali Abunimah — A senior UN official has declined to respond to mounting warnings that the failure of his so-called Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism could lead to a breakdown of the August ceasefire that ended Israel’s 51-day massacre in the territory. Anger is growing over the fact that there has been virtually no rebuilding, a situation made worse by devastating floods that have prompted UN agencies to declare a “state of emergency.” “We do not have any comments,” Nicole Ganz, spokesperson for Robert Serry, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO) said in an email to The Electronic Intifada on Thursday. The curt reply came in response to a statement from Gaza’s private sector bodies rejecting the UN-sponsored reconstruction plan. In October, The Electronic Intifada revealed details of the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism, pushed by Serry and signed by Israel and the PA. It calls for onerous restrictions on building supplies and monitoring for Palestinians trying to rebuild their homes. It also gives Israel intrusive access to private information about Palestinian families, collected by the UN, which Israel can then use to veto who gets aid.
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/top-un-official-aloof-gaza-submerged-despair

Hamas: UN amends Gaza reconstruction plan after talks

BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 27 Nov — A senior Hamas official claimed Thursday that the

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