West Bank settlements target French immigrants
Alternative News 15 Feb — The West Bank settlement council of Samaria is targeting potential Jewish immigrants from France, encouraging them to move to five specially selected settlements in the northern West Bank — The settler-affiliated news site Arutz 7 reports that Gershon Mesika, Head of the Samaria regional council, and his deputy, Yossi Dagan, held home meetings in Paris last week, during which they provided practical information about the area, the settlements and their characters, educational systems and housing possibilities. Following these home meetings, an in-depth tour of the northern West Bank settlement area is being conducted this week for potential immigrants. Gershon Mesika, who is under police investigation for alleged acts of corruption, stated that “Numerous settlements are interested in absorbing immigrants from France, with the knowledge that this is Zionism and a true mission. We conducted in-depth examinations concerning the demands of the immigrants and participating settlements, such that the absorption will be positive both amongst the immigrants and residents of the settlements themselves”. Last summer a group of ten immigrating families from France were taken directly from the airport to the northern West Bank settlement of Yakir, where a system of “community immigrant absorption” was implemented in which the immigrants were adopted by local residents. The project was judged a success, and Mesika ordered expansion of the project to include four additional settlements.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/news/495-west-bank-settlements-target-french-immigrants
Violence / Raids / Suppression of protests / Arrests — West Bank / Jerusalem
Israeli forces critically injure Palestinian with live fire in ‘Azzun
QALQILIYA (Ma‘an) 14 Feb — A 20-year-old Palestinian was injured Saturday after Israeli soldiers shot him in the head with a live bullet as he was taking part in a march in the Qalqiliya-area village of ‘Azzun in the northern West Bank. The victim of the Israeli attack was identified as Imad Suleiman al-Khawli, and he was taken to the Qalqiliya Governmental Hospital for treatment where his injuries were described as critical. Al-Khawli was one of many taking part in a rally demanding Israeli authorities lift restrictions on freedom of movement for Palestinian residents of ‘Azzun. The march set off from the center of ‘Azzun towards the eastern entrance of the town, which according to Israeli rights monitor B’tselem has been closed since 1990. As marchers gathered in the area, Israeli soldiers shot tear-gas canisters and live fire at the crowds. Al-Khawli was left injured along with dozens more who suffered from excessive tear gas inhalation, including the governor of Qalqiliya region … ‘Azzun’s approximately 10,000 residents have long been subject to Israeli military restrictions, and for a number of years in the 2000s all entrances to the town were blocked except a tunnel into neighboring villages. The tunnel was sometimes blocked as well, forcing locals to travel on foot. In the last decade most restrictions on movement have been lifted, but the eastern entrance remains blocked by Israeli military order. ‘Azzun is surrounded on all sides by areas under Israeli military control and an Israeli settlement bloc sits directly to the south. It has one of the highest rates of detainees per capita of all villages in the occupied West Bank, including many children.
http://www.maannews.com/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?id=759430
Photos: Israeli soldiers attack Palestinian protests
Alternative News 15 Feb — Israeli military troops prevented Palestinians from protesting this weekend against the ongoing occupation of Palestinian lands.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/activism/popular-resistance/498-israeli-soldiers-attack-palestinian-protests
UK Labour Party candidate beaten and arrested by Israeli soldiers at protest in Palestine
IMEMC/Agencies 16 Feb by Alexandra Halaby — A human rights activist from Tyneside, in North East England, claims he was beaten and abused after being arrested while taking part in a peaceful demonstration in Palestine on Friday. Mick Bowman, aged 57, from the United Kingdom, said he was pepper sprayed in the face from less than six inches away during his arrest Friday afternoon. He was then detained without charge by Israeli soldiers for 24 hours and then released. The case of Mr. Bowman’s violent arrest is being investigated by an Israeli authorities who claim that his alleged treatment was “unacceptable” and “inappropriate,” according to a statement received by IMEMC. Mr. Bowman is a member of the Newcastle Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (NPSC) located in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England. He is also actively involved with his local branch of Amnesty International. Bowman was taking part in a peaceful demonstration along with other international solidarity volunteers protesting Israel’s continuous violations of Palestinian human rights in the village of Bil‘in, located in the West Bank just north of Ramallah. Witnesses at the Bil‘in protest tell IMEMC that Mr. Bowman did not commit any violent acts and that he was arrested for no apparent reason. Palestinian, Israeli, and international activists gather in the village of Bil‘in each Friday to protest the construction of the illegal Israeli separation wall which has divided the village. Previously, President Jimmy Carter has joined the Bil‘in protests, as has Richard Branson. In April 2009, a Palestinian man, Bassem Abu Rahmeh was killed when an Israeli soldier fired a teargas canister into his chest.
http://www.imemc.org/article/70605
Taxi driver assaulted in West Jerusalem
IMEMC/Agencies 15 Feb — A number of Israelis, on Saturday night, assaulted a Palestinian taxi driver while he was at work in West Jerusalem, according to witnesses. WAFA reports that witnesses present at the scene said a group of Israelis attacked Ibrahim Bader, who works as a taxi driver, and bruised him throughout his body. Bader was transferred to hospital for medical treatment. This incident is a continuity of previous attacks seemingly targeting Palestinians in areas where they live next to and work with Israelis.
http://www.imemc.org/article/70601
Leftist Jewish and Palestinian legislators call for end to racist attacks in Israel
IMEMC/Agencies 15 Feb by Celine Hagbard — A coalition of political parties in Israel that includes the two Arab parties and a left-wing Jewish party launched a campaign Saturday to call for unity and demand an end to the racist attacks against Palestinians that have plagued Israel for the past year. The three parties involved in the effort are Hadash (a Jewish party), and the two Palestinian parties in the Israeli Knesset: Balad and Ta’al (United Arab List). Some of the incidents of racism over the past year include the burning to death of a Palestinian teenager by right-wing Israeli extremists, multiple beatings, shootings and stonings of Palestinian youth by Israeli settlers, and demonstrations by right-wing Israelis calling for the expulsion of both Palestinians in Israel and Africans who came to Israel seeking refuge from the wars in their countries. At the event to launch the campaign, Jewish Israeli Knesset Member Dov Khenin stated, ” Jews and Arabs must stand together against the ugly wave of hatred and racism. Anyone who has eyes to see and ears to hear and a heart to feel what happened here last summer should stand by us”.
http://www.imemc.org/article/70583
Palestinian journalists increasingly finding themselves in the line of IDF fire
Haaretz 15 Feb by Amira Hass — A Palestinian cameraman was shot by an Israeli soldier in December while filming a demonstration in the West Bank. It’s still unclear if the Israeli authorities will investigate — Around 1 P.M. on Friday December 5, during the weekly demonstration in the West Bank village of Kafr Qadoum, an Israel Defense Forces soldier shot a Palestinian television cameraman with live ammunition. The bullet penetrated the cameraman’s left shin. He was operated on, but still suffers pain and has trouble walking, limiting his ability to work. A precise hit on an unarmed man whose profession and task were clear is a signal to Palestinian journalists – until proven otherwise – that the IDF is seeking to stop them covering the demonstrations. Journalists say it’s an infringement of press freedom, and it isn’t the only incident. Just this month, a tear-gas canister was shot right at the leg of another press cameraman in Kafr Qadoum. Palestinian journalists claim there has been an increase in direct military assaults against them in the last year. The cameraman shot directly in the leg by the Israeli soldier is 36-year-old Bashar Saleh of Qalqilyah, an employee of Palestine TV … Like everyone else, Saleh began running away from the spray. He made his way to the corner of another street and positioned himself 80 to 100 meters from a group of Israeli soldiers. He positioned his camera on a tripod, stood behind it and began filming again. Perhaps two minutes later, he fell to the ground. He hadn’t heard the shot and says he thinks it was fired with a silencer. There was no mistaking his work as a television journalist at the time, he adds. The identity of the person who shot him has not been made public, but it’s known that he was part of a joint IDF and Border Police force that was given the task of dispersing the demonstration by force. Saleh managed to film part of the contingent a few seconds before he was shot…
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.642481
Israeli forces injure 36 Palestinians
Alternative News 15 Feb — Israeli forces injured 36 Palestinians, including nine children, in various clashes throughout the West Bank from 3-9 February. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that of these, six were injured with live ammunition, including four children. On 4 February, Israeli forces raided the Nablus-area As Sawiya Al Lubban Secondary School for Boys while students were in class, and fired sound bombs in the school premises, disrupting classes and forcing all the students to leave the school. The incident occurred after Israeli settlers alleged that they had been hit by stones thrown from the school premises. According to initial information provided by the UN Working Group on Grave Violations, a steep increase was observed in incidents affecting students and/or disrupting schooling in the West Bank, with 152 such incidents recorded in 2014 compared to 46 in 2013. Out of the total number of such incidents in 2014, eight involved As Sawiya Al Lubban Secondary School. On 6 February, in the South Hebron Hills, near the settlement of Ma’on, Israeli forces beat and detained two 15-year-old children over night, following complaints by the settlement head that they were grazing their sheep on land planned for the expansion of the settlement. Overall, Israeli forces conducted 96 search and arrest operations during the week, compared to a weekly average of 87 during 2014. One third were carried out in the Jerusalem governorate, and three triggered clashes resulting in five injuries, including two children, injured by live ammunition.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/news/494-israeli-forces-injure-36-palestinians
Army kidnaps eight Palestinians in West Bank, Jerusalem
IMEMC/Agencies 16 Feb — Israeli soldiers invaded, on Monday at dawn, several communities in the occupied West Bank, and Jerusalem, and kidnapped seven Palestinians, in addition to a Palestinian who was kidnapped on Sunday at night. Media sources in Hebron, in the southern part of the West Bank, said the soldiers broke into a number of homes in the city, violently searched them, and kidnapped a former political prisoner, identified as Shafiq al-Qawamsa. Al-Qawasma is a political leader of Hamas in Hebron, and the father of two Palestinians who were killed by the Israeli army. The soldiers also invaded the home of Meqdad ‘Omar al-Qawama, 18 years of age, in the same neighborhood, and kidnapped him; he is the nephew of Shafiq. In occupied Jerusalem, undercover soldiers invaded four homes in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and the at-Tour town, and kidnapped four Palestinians, including two children … The soldiers also invaded ‘Ejja (or ‘Ajja) village, south of Jenin, installed a roadblock four more than two hours, stopped and searched dozens of cards and inspected the ID cards of the residents while searching and interrogating them. This is the second invasion into the village in one week, local sources said. Furthermore, several army vehicles invaded Za‘tara town, east of Bethlehem, and kidnapped Hareth Fuad Abu ‘Amreyya, 27 years of age. Late on Sunday at night, soldiers invaded the northern West Bank city of Jenin, and kidnapped a Palestinian identified as Bashar Issa Sabalan, 24 years of age.
http://www.imemc.org/article/70608
Israeli police arrest sixteen Palestinians in the Galilee
IMEMC/Agencies 16 Feb — The Arabs48 news website has reported that Israeli police officers conducted a massive search campaign in the Galilee in order to kidnap and detain Palestinian workers, and arrested sixteen. It added that the police said the kidnapped Palestinians entered Israel and worked there without permits. They have all been interrogated for hours before some of them were released, while others await trial in the Nazareth District Court, as the police is asking for remand. The police and undercover units have been extensively operating in Arab towns in an attempt to locate and arrest Palestinian workers from different parts of the occupied territories, in order to prosecute them. Many face imprisonment and very high fines. Palestinian workers, who largely work in construction, face constant harassment by the police. Although many of them carry work permits, Israeli officers regularly destroy their papers, or just refuse to recognize them, although they were issued by various Israeli District Coordination offices. The vast majority of Palestinian workers have to spend their nights under trees, or in warehouses, construction sites and certain shelters, and face various dangers, arrest and harassment, but take their chances in order to provide livelihood for their families.
http://www.imemc.org/article/70609
Prisoners / Court actions
Freed Palestinian schoolgirl insists on her innocence
BEITIN, Palestinian Territories (AFP) 14 Feb — A 14-year-old girl who has become a symbol for Palestinian minors arrested by Israel insisted on Saturday after serving a 45-day sentence that she had been unjustly imprisoned. “I do not admit to any crime: I was not throwing stones — I had no knife on me,” Malak al-Khatib told AFP. She was arrested on her way home from school on December 31, and a military court sentenced her in late January to two months as part of a plea bargain in which she admitted to picking up a stone to throw at Israeli cars. Khatib was convicted of being in possession of a knife with the intention of using it to stab security personnel if arrested. “After two hours of interrogation, a soldier forced me to sign a paper in Hebrew,” said Khatib, who does not understand the language. A white and black Palestinian keffiyeh scarf draped across her shoulders, Khatib sat among friends as relatives, Palestinian officials and journalists paraded through the family home, as they have since her release on Friday … Her family repeatedly said that none of its members had ever been arrested by the Israelis before, a rarity in the occupied West Bank.
http://news.yahoo.com/freed-palestinian-schoolgirl-insists-her-innocence-165437847.html
Officer suspected of killing Bedouin youth returned to custody after temporary release
Haaretz 15 Feb by Shirly Seidler — Jerusalem District Court had ordered release on grounds that cause of death had not been determined, only for Supreme Court to accept prosecution’s appeal — The Jerusalem District Court ordered the release Friday of the policeman suspected of illegally shooting and killing Sami al-Ja‘ar of Rahat last month, noting that because the pathologist’s report has not yet been filed cause of death had not yet been determined. According to Judge Moshe Drori, vice president of the Jerusalem District Court, where the case is being heard, as long as cause of death has not been determined, there is no reason to hold the officer in custody. However, the officer was returned to custody Saturday after the Supreme Court accepted the prosecution’s appeal against the release. The police officer has now been remanded until Tuesday. The officer’s identity has not been made public and his family is under protection since his arrest following threats on his life and theirs. The officer was arrested Thursday following an investigation by the unit in the Justice Ministry that investigates police conduct in which he implicated himself in the shooting death of al-Ja‘ar, who was killed during a drug arrest in Rahat. The investigation revealed that the officer did not report the shooting in real time, changed his story a number of times during questioning and also provided false information.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.642529
Supreme Court rejects appeal of Gaza arms smuggler who claims Shin Bet obtained coerced confession
Jerusalem Post 15 Feb by Yonah Jeremy Bob — The Supreme Court voted 2-1 to reject the appeal of a Gaza man who sought to overturn his conviction for arms smuggling by arguing that his confession was obtained improperly either by abuse or when he was physically unhealthy. The majority vote on the appeal of Fawzi Ramilat was carried by Supreme Court President Miriam Naor and Justice Noam Sohlberg against a dissenting vote by Justice Yoram Danziger. It was handed down recently but only announced officially on Sunday. Ramilat was convicted of involvement in illegally smuggling hundreds of Kalashnikov rifles, handguns, explosives and persons around and across the Gaza, Sinai and Israel borders between 2004 and 2009. He was sentenced to nine years in prison as a key player, though not the central one, in the smuggling. All three justices disregarded Ramilat’s claims of being abused, while expressing concern with aspects of his health and state of mind during the interrogation. Naor and Sohlberg showed some concern that Ramilat was interrogated “intensively” despite having medical problems following his arrest and against a doctor’s recommendation that Ramilat be given 14 days of rest without interrogation. Ramilat was shot and wounded in his left knee and in one of his hands and arrested on December 12, 2009, and was subsequently hospitalized….
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Supreme-Court-rejects-appeal-of-Gaza-arms-smuggler-who-claims-Shin-Bet-obtained-coerced-confession-391118
Rights group: Israel ignores torture complaints of Palestinian detainees
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 14 Feb — Physicians for Human Rights said that none of 850 torture complaints filed against the Shin Bet over the past several years has been investigated. A document submitted by the Israeli occupation authority to the high court of justice this week showed that the number of torture complaints lodged against Israel’s internal intelligence agency has grown fourfold since 2012. The document was intended to respond to a complaint filed by a Palestinian prisoner who claimed his exposure to torture at the hands of Shin Bet investigators. The victim, a Palestinian man from the West Bank, claimed he had suffered severe physical and psychological injuries during two months of detention, including painful handcuffing for long hours, sleep deprivation, forced body shaking, loud noises, poor nutrition and threats against him and his family. Physicians for Human Rights and the Public Committee against Torture in the 1948 occupied lands filed the complaint on behalf of the detainee two years ago to the Israeli ministry of justice, in which they demanded the investigation of the detainee’s claims to determine if criminal charges would be filed against the interrogators. The two organizations turned to the high court of justice after one and a half years passed without receiving a single response from the justice ministry. Physicians for Human Rights said that there is no effective way to lodge complaints against Israel’s security elements.
http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=70152
Young dancer jailed by Israel for taking part in protest
EI 13 Feb by Charlotte Kates — Lina Khattab, 18, is in her first year of media studies at Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank. An accomplished dancer, she is a member of the renowned troupe El-Funoun. She was arrested by the Israeli military on 13 December as she joined fellow university students in a march to Israel’s Ofer prison, which holds Palestinian political prisoners. El-Funoun has produced a video of scenes from her arrest spliced with some of her performances with the troupe, which specializes in the traditional Palestinian dance dabke. Khattab has now been imprisoned for nearly two months and brought before the military court at Ofer nine times. Her last hearing on 25 January was a closed session; no family or observers were allowed to enter the military court. Her next appearance before the military court is scheduled for 16 February. Israeli military prosecutors are scheduled to present witnesses against her. Khattab is charged with “throwing stones” and “participating in an unlawful demonstration.” Samidoun, a network of North America-based activists supporting Palestinian prisoners, notes that these are “frequent and arbitrary charges leveled at Palestinians who participate in or are near popular demonstrations against the Israeli occupation.” “In the last couple of years, it was not so common to arrest women for throwing stones, but we believe this case is part of increasing attacks on peaceful resistance activities,” said Sahar Francis, director of Addameer, a group campaigning for the rights of Palestinian prisoners.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/young-dancer-jailed-israel-taking-part-protest/14269
Land, property theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Apartheid
Expansion procedures begun in illegal Bethlehem settlement
IMEMC/Agencies 15 Feb — Israeli authorities, on Saturday, began construction work for the expansion of the Israeli settlement of “Tzur Hadassah“, built illegally on the land of Wadi Fukin village, to the west of Bethlehem, according to a local official. Head of the village council, Ahmad Sokar, told WAFA Palestinian News & Info Agency that Israeli forces proceeded with bulldozing the land, using dynamite to blow up rocks, given its presence in a mountainous area, to open way for construction work. The explosions’ sound alarmed the residents living nearby, particularly children, while the splattering rocks resulting from the explosion damaged nearby agricultural land. He stated that these expansions aim to establish new settlement outposts in the area, particularly following the latest Israeli announcement of new tenders for the expansion of the settlements of Bitar Elit and Tzur Hadassah. Sokar warned that such actions would pose great danger on the residents, the infrastructure, and on springs, used by locals to irrigate their crops and as drinking water. He expressed grave concern over these settlement schemes, which would engulf the village from all sides, turning it into an island surrounded by settlements from all sides, forming an obstacle to residents’ movements and access to their land.
http://www.imemc.org/article/70598
Illegal West Bank settlement booming at expense of Palestinian land
SALFIT (Ma‘an) 15 Feb — Bulldozers working for Israeli settlers have been seen leveling private Palestinian fields in the northern outskirts of Deir Istiya village in the central West Bank. Witnesses told Ma‘an that the activity was part of the ongoing major expansion of the illegal Israeli settlement of Yaqir. Khalid Maali, a Salfit-based researcher who monitors settlement growth, says the illegal Yaqir settlement has been prospering recently at the expense of private lands of the Palestinian villages of Deir Istiya, Haris, and Qarawat Bani Hassan. Construction work has been ongoing on a major project which started last year to build 1,200 settler houses. He said that the settlement was established in 1981 and was one of the first illegal settlements in Salfit district.
http://www.maannews.com/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=759445
Israeli demolition of Palestinian woman’s home ‘a double crime’
EI 11 Feb by Budour Youssef Hassan — A massive Israeli police force raided the Palestinian neighborhood of Bayarat Shannir in Lydd, a city in present-day Israel, on Tuesday morning. Armed to the teeth and accompanied by bulldozers, hundreds of police officers stormed the neighborhood and sealed all entrances. At 10am, the police demolished the home of Hana al-Naqib, a mother of four, saying that it was built without a permit. Hana and her children, aged 7, 8, 14 and 15, were violently expelled from their newly-built home, as were the neighbors who came to support them … Daoud and his siblings were thrown outside into the cold with their mother … – A double crime – Ongoing demolitions of Palestinian homes in Lydd are part and parcel of right-wing mayor Yair Revivo’s war against the city’s indigenous Palestinians. But those who seem to be the most systematically targeted and pay the heaviest price are often women. “Every demolition is a crime, but destroying the home of a single and unemployed mother who couldn’t even afford the money to hire a good lawyer is a double crime,” says social worker Samah Salaimeh. She is the director of Na’am, a feminist organization that works with Palestinian women who live in the central towns of present-day Israel. “You cannot take away gender from this equation,” she said. “Women like Hana are the easiest target of the Israeli authorities. They stand on their own against an entire army of police, bureaucrats and judges, with neither the money nor the power to stand any chance of winning,” Salaimeh told The Electronic Intifada. Salaimeh herself was first prevented from entering Bayarat Shannir to stand with Hana and her children during the demolition as the police closed entrances to prevent solidarity actions in other parts of the city … Hana al-Naqib’s home was built on land privately owned by her father and acknowledged as the family’s private property in the Israeli state registry. “My family, neighbors and other generous people from the city provided me with the money to help build this home,” a weeping Hana told The Electronic Intifada. “We moved [in] to it three months ago. It was the first time that the children could enjoy a semblance of privacy and stability, to have a place they could call home. But as you see, our happiness was short-lived,” she said … – Apartheid – What is happening in Bayarat Shannir is a naked manifestation of Israel’s apartheid policies. For twelve years, the Palestinian neighborhood has been encircled by a concrete wall, 1.5 kilometers long and four meters high, to separate it from the nearby Jewish colony of Nir Tzvi.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/israeli-demolition-palestinian-womans-home-double-crime/14262
Israel balks before evicting Bedouin in West Bank community
Haaretz 16 Feb by Amira Hass — The Israeli authorities in the West Bank have ruled that legal proceedings must be seen through before a Bedouin community east of Jerusalem can be evicted from prefab housing deemed illegal. Early this month, the Civil Administration replaced 15 eviction orders with stop-work orders, allowing for the reprieve. The eviction orders stated that members of the Kaabneh Bedouin living in prefab homes in the community of Arara would have to leave their homes within 48 hours. These orders were issued in early January under a statute describing the inhabitants as “new squatters,” even though Kaabneh Bedouin have been living there for 30 years. In this community, as in others east of Jerusalem, tin shacks have been replaced by sturdier prefab dwellings donated by European organizations. The area taken up by each dwelling is no greater than that taken up by a shack, but the Civil Administration says the construction is illegal. The Bedouin at Arara are among those Israel wants to live, against their will, in one large town to be built north of Jericho … The representative, attorney Shlomo Lecker, told Haaretz that the inspector who served the eviction order has known the Kaabneh community for many years and thus could have known that the term “new squatters” was wrong.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.642493
Mayors of Bethlehem, Beit Jala, Beit Sahour meet pope in Vatican
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 15 Feb — Mayor of Bethlehem Vera Baboun along with mayor of Beit Jala Niqula Khamis and mayor of Beit Sahour Hani al-Hayik met on Saturday with Pope Francis at St Peter’s Square in the Vatican City. They handed him a letter complaining about Israel’s separation wall being built around Cremisan Monastery near Beit Jala. The mayors also gave the pontiff an olive wood souvenir of the Last Supper on behalf of the owners of lands slated for confiscation in Cremisan Valley. The pontiff, for his part, gave the mayors souvenirs as well after they joined a mass he presided over in St Peter’s Square. “I have always prayed and continue to pray for peace and security in the whole world and I will always pray for the holy land which thirsts for peace,” he was quoted as saying. Separately, the three mayors held a meeting with the Holy See’s prime minister Archbishop Pietro Parolin and updated him on the latest development in the Cremisan case. They used maps to explain the major harm Israel’s separation wall will cause the owners of lands near the monastery in Beit Jala. They explained that Israeli bulldozers uprooted thousands of olive trees and other trees adding that more than 750 acres of private agricultural land would be segregated on the Israeli part of the wall. The mayors also explained that Israel’s separation wall would segregate Cremisan Monastery with all its 200-acre area as well as the Silesian Sisters Convert with all its 40-acre area. Both monasteries will be on the Israeli side once the section of the separation wall is completed. Last month 16 archbishops from Europe and North America visited the Silesian Sisters Convert on the edge of the valley near Beit Jala to protest the construction of Israel’s separation wall in the area.
http://www.maannews.com/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=759443
Jerusalem: Over 20,000 Palestinian homes to be demolished
IMEMC/Agencies 15 Feb — The Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights (JCSER) has revealed that more than 20,000 Palestine homes in Jerusalem have been shortlisted to be demolished by Israeli authorities. According to the PNN, Ziad Hamouri, the center’s head, stated that the reason why these homes will be demolished is that they were built without licences issued by the Israeli municipality in the occupied city of Jerusalem. Applications for such licenses submitted by Palestinians are rarely ever approved, and Israelis use the licence issue as a pretext to get rid of the centuries-old Palestinian existence in Jerusalem, says Hamouri. Few Palestinians can even afford a building license, even if an application is approved. “The Israeli demands for a construction licence are punitive financially and procedurally,” Hamouri further stated. “Every licence takes from five to eight years to be issued and they cost from $30,000 to $50,000 each.” Jews living in the city, however, do not have to go through such complicated procedures.
http://www.imemc.org/article/70593
Lubya in the pines — a visit to an ethnically cleansed Palestinian village
Mondoweiss 13 Feb by Hatim Kanaaneh — The last short story in my forthcoming collection, Chief Complaint: A Country Doctor’s Tales of Life in Galilee, deals with memories and memorabilia of refugees from the village of Lubya. In preparation for the book’s launch this February 24 at The Center For Palestinian Studies, Columbia University, I decided to make a visit to the grounds of the destroyed village. Here is the account of my visit: Yesterday, Toufiq Khateeb, my lifelong friend, and I imposed on Naif Hijjo – Abu-Maher to us and to his neighbors and friends in Dayr-Hanna, his host community since 1948 – to take us for a visit to the ruins of his village of Lubya. The entire area of what once was Lubya is fully camouflaged by a pine forest with a well-advertised recreational park. A large sign at the official entrance welcomes visitors to the “Lavi Forest.” In large Hebrew letters, it prominently gives credit to the park’s sponsors and overseers: The Ministry of Education, The Sports Authority, The Lower Galilee Regional Council and the Kfar Tabor Local Authority. A map of the “Lavi Active Recreational Park” is shown with official recognition in smaller English letters given to the South African Jewish community that originally footed the bill for the forestation project … The choice of the foreign coniferous trees was not accidental, Abu-Maher thinks. It turns out that Israel’s world-famous “greening of the desert” had actually operated in reverse fashion. The cumulative acidity of the dropped foliage from the forest’s pine canopy was sufficient to kill nearly every native plant it shaded. It was an inventive yet natural way to lay claim to the conquered land in the name of the foreign newcomers. Even native olives, hardy enough to survive the fickleness of the region’s weather for several millennia, struggle to survive the forestation holocaust….
http://mondoweiss.net/2015/02/ethnically-cleansed-palestinian
Al-Aqsa
PLO: Jewish organization to start excavations under Aqsa mosque
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 15 Feb — A right-wing Jewish organization called the Western Wall Heritage Foundation has circulated an invitation for bids to conduct excavations in tunnels under the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a top Palestinian official said Sunday. Ahmad Qurei, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said the work would start on Feb. 20. In a statement, Qurei, who chairs a PLO department for Jerusalem affairs, described the move as dangerous. He said that Israeli engineers and contractors had toured the al-Aqsa mosque compound secretly a few days ago to explore the location before they submit their bids. The Israeli occupation government, added the statement, through these “aggressive excavations,” plans to create new paths and chambers under the Western Wall of the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in order to enhance its grab on the Old City of Jerusalem and eventually transform it into a Jewish city both physically and demographically. Israel has already excavated dozens of tunnels under the Old City as part of its efforts to displace the indigenous Palestinian residents and replace them with Jewish settlers, according to Qurei. One of the tunnels, he said, runs from Ein Silwan to the western wall of the al-Aqsa mosque. Another major tunnel runs from the wall to the Omari school in the Muslim quarter. A third tunnel runs from the Muslim Quarter to the Western Wall of the al-Aqsa mosque. In addition, added Qurei, there are ongoing excavations in attempts to connect between illegal settlement outposts in the Old City.
http://www.maannews.com/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=759442
Gaza
Nonprofit humanitarian organization to bring solar energy to Gaza
IMEMC/Agencies 15 Feb by Alexandra Halaby — Gaza is in desperate need of power. One organization hopes to bring clean, renewable energy to Gaza with the installation of solar panels. Over the past few months an international team of humanitarians have been organizing a project which would bring solar power to Gaza. Gaza engineer Naji Abu Shaaban along with his group of engineers in Gaza have been working around the clock to make this solar project a reality. Outside of Gaza are a number of supporters of this project which include internationally recognized artist Martha Tjoe Nij, who has supported the project from her home in Suriname. A Turkish webmaster, Hatice, volunteered her time to create a website for the Solar Gaza project, which has evolved from #SolarGaza when it was started on Twitter as an idea, to its new official title Solar Gaza Lights. The goals of the project are aimed specifically at solar power restoration of electricity for the most needy in Gaza. The organization has teamed up with the Jerusalem Development Fund’s office in Gaza to help with alleviating electricity shortages by donating solar power units. The project also intends on creating employment opportunities for project engineers in Gaza. Utilizing local talent is part of the strategy the group decided on from the beginning.
http://www.imemc.org/article/70604
Photo Essay: Healing in post-war Gaza
Washington Post 13 Feb by Nicole Crowder Photography by Heidi Levine – Difficult to look at — so many missing limbs, and all of this suffering unnecessary
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sight/wp/2015/02/13/healing-in-post-war-gaza/
In photos: Gaza families live in the rubble of their bombed homes
GAZA CITY (EI) 12 Feb by Patrick Strickland and Ezz Zanoun — Deeb al-Aajleh, photographed above, has survived every Israeli war on Palestinians since the Nakba, the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine. “I lived the wars, the intifadas, everything, but nothing was as bad as the last attack,” al-Aajleh, 74, a resident of the Shujaiya district of Gaza City, told The Electronic Intifada. Israeli forces dropped bombs and fired shells into the neighborhood during the first weeks of the 51-day war on Gaza. On 20 July, drones circled above, missiles slammed into homes and tank shells pounded apartment blocks. Dozens of residents were killed and even more injured by the end of the day. The majority of homes in the eastern part of the district were obliterated and every building bears bullet holes and the markings of shell attacks. Throughout the neighborhood, dozens of mosques, several schools, government buildings and a hospital were all turned into massive piles of rubble. Charred family photographs, destroyed furniture, collapsed stairwells and prayer mats are all visible amid the wreckage. As Israel’s siege severely limits the amount of building supplies allowed into Gaza and donor countries fail to make good on reconstruction pledges, families sit on plastic lawn chairs in front of their toppled homes and wait.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/photos-gaza-families-live-rubble-their-bombed-homes/14268
Hamas celebrates 3 men who married widows of ‘martyred’ brothers
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 15 Feb — The Hamas movement organized on Saturday a ceremony at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip to make public the signing of marriage contracts of three widows whose husbands “died martyrs” during the last Israeli military offensive. Each of the three widows has married a brother of her husband. Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Zahhar attended the ceremony along with a group of Hamas officials from the central Gaza Strip. “This is God’s will on Earth as Jihad and resistance will continue until the liberation of al-Quds (Jerusalem) and every span of the hand of Palestinian land. Martyrs leave life but their message remains eternal.” Zahhar applauded the brothers who decided to fulfill the trust left by their brothers who “died martyrs” in the war. He said that “this pleasant marriage is a tool of happiness despite the wounds.”
http://www.maannews.com/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=759441
Arsonists torch car of Hamas ministry official in northern Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 15 Feb — Unidentified arsonists in Jabaliya in northern Gaza on Sunday set fire to a car belonging to a senior official in the interior ministry of the former Hamas-run government, human rights sources said. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the employee of a human rights group in Gaza told Ma‘an that the car belonged to Ramadan al-Naooq, the director of information technology for the ministry’s administration and planning department. The arsonists fled the scene, while Hamas-affiliated security guards arrived and began an investigation into the attack. Last month, a similar attack targeted a car belonging to a senior security officer in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City.
http://www.maannews.com/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=759444
Irish foreign minister arrives in Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 16 Feb — An Irish delegation of 14 officials, including foreign minister Charles Flanagan, entered the Gaza Strip on Monday via the Erez crossing. The visit is expected to last several hours and the delegation will tour areas of the territory destroyed by Israel’s military offensive last summer.
http://www.maannews.com/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=759461
With Iran’s rocket men who start Gaza’s wars / Creede Newton
GAZA CITY (Daily Beast) ?14 Feb — “Ok, we have five minutes to prepare,” says a one of the eight men wearing balaclavas to hide their faces as they walk into a small olive grove on the outskirts of Gaza City. They’re carrying bulging duffle bags. The scene looks like some perverse trip to the gym. And they are going to perform exercises, but not with weights. These are Hezbollah’s best friends on the southern border of Israel. Some would say they are Iran’s shock troops. And these are the men who start wars. When they begin to launch missiles and Israel responds, then Hamas and Islamic Jihad respond, too. And the rest is pure carnage. The buzz of Israeli drones above serves as the soundtrack as these members of the al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades unload homemade rockets, two launchers, Kalashnikov rifles, ammunition and walkie-talkies. There are no launches today. They are running drills … As I looked at the man on the phone, at the crouching commandos, and at the rockets that have been a driving force in three wars since 2008, launched against, or some would say in response to, Israel, until the Jewish State responds with massive firepower, followed by days and weeks of extraordinary violence in which thousands of Palestinians die, the scene was at once so martial and so banal that I realized the question I came here to answer — “Who are these men who start wars?” — would have some answers very different than the ones I’d expected … Perhaps you’ve never heard of the Salah al-Din Brigades. They were founded in 2000 as the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), a political group in Gaza. Their ranks consist of disaffected members of the Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces, Islamist organizations like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and the secular Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/02/14/with-iran-s-rocket-men-who-start-gaza-s-wars.html
BDS
700 British artists vow to boycott Israel
Al-Akhbar/Ma‘an 15 Feb — 700 British artists have signed a pledge to boycott Israel as long as it “continues to deny basic Palestinian rights,” the latest major success for the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement (BDS). “In response to the call from Palestinian artists and cultural workers for a cultural boycott of Israel, we pledge to accept neither professional invitations to Israel, nor funding, from any institutions linked to its government until it complies with international law and universal principles of human rights,” the call reads, according to the group Artists for Palestine UK, which organized the pledge. “We support the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality.” The signatories include artists from many fields, including writers, film directors, comedians, musicians, actors, theater directors, architects, and visual artists. The pledge’s supporters included many British citizens of Jewish heritage as well, including prominent actress Miriam Margolyes … One hundred of the artists who signed the pledge also published a letter in the Guardian newspaper on Friday explaining their decision.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/700-british-artists-vow-boycott-israel
‘Palestinians will be hurt far more by anti-Israel boycott than Israelis’
i24News 12 Feb — Israeli manufacturers say the Palestinian Authority is punishing its own people with the boycott it has declared against leading Israeli food products. Although Israeli sales to Palestinian-controlled areas in the West Bank and Gaza amount to some $250 million annually, they represents no more than one to three percent of the sales by the top five food makers. “The impact of a boycott like that on the big companies’ bottom line will be infinitesimal, even zero,” one industry executive told the daily Haaretz. Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip are the ones “who’ll feel the pain because they need Israeli food products more than the companies need their purchases.” The PA announced Monday it would bar products by Strauss Group, Tnuva, Jafora-Tabori, Osem and Prigat in response to Israel’s decision to stop the transfer of tax revenues that it collects for the PA. Palestinian merchants were given two weeks to sell off any their stocks of these products … “The products they sell in the PA are the most basic of the basic, and they sell them at low prices because they know consumers don’t have money to spend,” said the industry executive. “Profitability is much lower than in Israel.” Israeli executives also doubt the boycott can be effectively enforced, given that Israeli food makers supply about 70% of the processed food in Palestinian areas.
http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/middle-east/60879-150212-palestinians-will-be-hurt-far-more-by-anti-israel-boycott-than-israelis
Other news
PCHR report on Israeli human rights violations in the oPt (5-11 Feb 2015)
PCHR-Gaza 15 Feb — Shootings: During the reporting period, a Palestinian disabled died of wounds he had sustained during the latest Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, while a farmer was wounded and arrested at the eastern border in the central Gaza Strip. Moreover, Israeli forces wounded 5 Palestinian civilians, including 3 children, in the West Bank. In the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces continued to chase and fire at Palestinian fishing boats … Incursions: During the reporting period, Israeli forces conducted at least 67 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. During these incursions, Israeli forces arrested at least 44 Palestinians, including 6 children. Ten of these Palestinians, including 3 children, were arrested in Jerusalem. During the reporting period, Israeli forces confiscated NIS 50,000 from a house belonging to the Abu Aisha family in Hebron; NIS 8,170 from a house belonging to Mallah family in ‘Allar village, northeast of Tulkarm; and NIS 2,260 from a house belonging to Abu ‘Oun family in Jaba‘, south of Jenin…. [Full report]
http://www.imemc.org/article/70603
Israeli ministers clash over connecting West Bank city to water
i24News 14 Feb — Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon ordered earlier this week to hook up large apartment buildings in the new West Bank Palestinian city of Rawabi to water, bypassing the Israeli-Palestinian Joint Water Committee, which has not met in five years. Ya’alon, along with the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, ordered Israel’s Water Authority to provide water to the city – the first planned Palestinian city in the region. Hundreds of Palestinians purchased apartments in the new buildings, however were unable to move in because the city lacked running water, Jerusalem Post reported. However, Infrastructure Minister Silvan Shalom, whose office controls the Water Authority, refused Ya’alon’s instruction, saying that water and sewage projects in the West Bank require JWC approval, pinning the blame on the Palestinians who refused to convene the committee in recent years. According to security officials cited by the Jerusalem Post, Ya’alon and Mordechai are looking into ways to advance projects frozen because of the JWC’s extended dormant period. Rawabi is expected to eventually house 40,000 residents.
http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/middle-east/61156-150214-israeli-ministers-clash-over-connecting-west-bank-city-to-water
WATCH: Following killings, will Bedouin boycott the elections?
Israel Social TV 14 Feb [English subtitles] — Following the recent killing of two Bedouin men in the southern city of Rahat at the hands of Israeli police — along with years of discrimination in nearly every realm, dispossession and home demolitions — the younger generation of Bedouin are more reluctant to vote in the upcoming elections. Jews and Bedouin met in the Negev town Lakiya to discuss the difficulties currently facing the Bedouin community, and whether or not boycotting the elections will really bring about any significant change.
http://972mag.com/watch-following-killings-will-bedouin-boycott-the-elections/102680/
Palestinians want role in probing murder of Chapel Hill Muslims
Reuters 14 Feb — The Palestinian Authority on Saturday condemned as “terrorism” the killings of three young Palestinian-Americans in North Carolina and called on US authorities to include its investigators in the probe. Police have charged a neighbor with Tuesday’s shooting in the town of Chapel Hill of Deah Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister Razan Abu-Salha, 19, saying the incident followed a dispute over parking. But investigators said they were also looking into whether the suspect, Craig Stephen Hicks, was motivated by hatred toward the victims because they were Muslim. Branding Hicks “an American extremist and hateful racist”, the PA’s Foreign Ministry said the incident suggested a rise in dangerous discrimination against American Muslims. “We consider it a serious indication of the growth of racism and religious extremism which is a direct threat to the lives of hundreds of thousands of American citizens who follow the Islamic faith,” the ministry said in a statement. It called for “a serious investigation and the involvement of Palestinian investigators to clarify the circumstances of these assassinations and premeditated murders” in Chapel Hill.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4626464,00.html
Palestinian rappers fume at Israel’s Likud over song
Jerusalem (AFP) 15 Feb — Palestinian rappers threatened legal action Sunday against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party for using their song in an Islamic State group-themed campaign ad for Israel’s March election. The contentious new ad, which Likud released on Saturday, implied that a vote for the left would benefit the jihadist IS. The ad features actors portraying jihadists driving in a white pick-up with two standing in the rear carrying the black flag of IS, the extremist Sunni Muslim group that has seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq. The truck pulls up next to a car driven by an Israeli and a “jihadist” asks: “Which way to Jerusalem brother?” “Take the left,” the driver answers and the pick-up drives off, one of the actors firing an automatic rifle into the air. Two slogans appear on the screen: “The left will give in to terrorism” and “It’s us or them, there is only Likud, only Netanyahu.” The clip’s background music is a catchy hip-hop song by Amman-based Palestinian group Torabyeh called “Ghorbah”, which can be translated from Arabic as “exile”. Torabyeh denounced the unauthorised artistic collaboration with the Israeli party’s “electoral propoganda attacking the so-called Zionist ‘left-wing’.” “We strongly condemn and reject this ruthless infringement of intellectual property rights and the distortion of the reputation of Torabyeh,” the group said on their Facebook page. They said use of their song in this context “implicates the Torabyeh group by containing serious accusations of terrorism and association with IS which is consequently putting the group’s members lives at risk”. [See the Likud video as well as a video of the original Torabyeh song in this +972 article]
https://news.yahoo.com/palestinian-rappers-fume-israels-likud-over-song-182541302.html
Netanyahu calls for ‘massive immigration’ of European Jews to Israel
Ynet 15 Feb by Moran Azulay & Attila Somfalvi — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Sunday morning for the “massive immigration” of European Jews to Israel following the shooting attack outside a Copenhagen synagogue that killed a Danish Jew. Netanyahu says the government on Sunday will discuss a $46 million plan to encourage Jewish immigration from France, Belgium and Ukraine. “This wave of attacks is expected to continue,” Netanyahu said at the start of a Cabinet meeting. “Jews deserve security in every country, but we say to our Jewish brothers and sisters, Israel is your home.”
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4626738,00.html
Denmark’s Jews vow to stay as reports name Copenhagen killer as Palestinian
News Agencies 15 Feb – Danish Jews, who have historically enjoyed very good relations with fellow countrymen, reject Netanyahu’s call for immigration — The man suspected of killing two people in shootings in Copenhagen was identified in several Danish media outlets on Sunday as