Violence / Detentions — West Bank / Jerusalem
Family of Palestinian responsible for attack forced to leave Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 10 Mar — Five family members of a Palestinian killed after shooting and injuring two Israeli officers were denied Jerusalem residency and transferred to the occupied West Bank by the Israeli authorities, according to prisoners’ rights group Addameer. Lawyer for the group Muhammad Mahmoud said the family members of Fouad Abu Rajab — all of whom lived in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of al-‘Issawiya — were summoned to al-Maskobiya police station in Jerusalem. Mahmoud said the Israeli authorities following investigations moved to deport the family members to the West Bank on the grounds that they were living in Jerusalem illegally. The five were reportedly in the process of applying for Jerusalem residency, Mahmoud said, without adding further information regarding the status of their applications. Following the decision, Israeli police transported the family members to Qalandiya military checkpoint, one of the few access points from occupied East Jerusalem into the West Bank, according to Addameer. Mahmoud identified the five as Abu Rajab’s mother, his two sisters Reem and Rose, aged 19 and 16, and his two brothers Mahmoud and Muhammad, aged 15 and 14. Israeli police spokesperson Luba al-Samri said Israeli Minister of Internal Security, Gilad Erdan, had ordered the police to investigate the Rajab family’s legal status in Israel. Al-Samri said an application for family reunification by Rajab’s parents had been rejected by the Israeli authorities, making him, his father, and his sisters’ residency in al-Issawiya illegal. They had therefore been expelled to the occupied West Bank. Minister Erdan ordered the police with clear and strict directions to expel anyone who is illegally in Israel, in addition to continuing to fight “terrorism” everywhere and making those involved in “terrorism pay an expensive price without exceptions.” Abu Rajab’s mother is reportedly an Israeli citizen, but was forced to the West Bank in order to avoid being separated from her family. Abu Rajab, 21, was shot dead on Tuesday after allegedly firing gunshots at Israeli police forces near Salah al-Din Street in occupied East Jerusalem, injuring two Israeli officers. Israel has in the past revoked Jerusalem residency from family members of Palestinians who carry out attacks on Israelis.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770644
Jerusalem shooter’s last will: ‘Palestinian factions mustn’t claim responsibility for my attack’
JPost 10 Mar by Maayan Groisman — The Palestinian terrorist who carried out a shooting attack in Jerusalem Wednesday had demanded in his last will that Palestinian factions not claim responsibility for the terror attack he carried out. Mohammad Jamal Kaluti, 21, carried out a shooting attack on an Egged bus in the capital’s Ramot neighborhood Wednesday morning accompanied by another Palestinian, Abdel Malik Abu Kharub. After the two opened fire on the bus from a car they were driving in, they fired again at security forces, injuring a police officer. They were shot by Israeli policeman and died later. In his last will, Kaluti demanded the Palestinian factions: “Do not claim responsibility for my martyrdom-seeking operation. I do not belong to any faction and my martyrdom is a sacrifice for Allah.” Kaluti’s demand demonstrated a prevalent tendency among Palestinian terrorists in the recent wave of violence – disassociating themselves from official Palestinian terror organizations such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, who are no longer regarded as the champions of Palestinian resistance . . . In his last will, Kaluti also told his family: “Do not get upset because our house will be demolished.” In addition, Kaluti asked “Islamic armies” to “immediately act in order to liberate al-Aksa mosque.”
http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Jerusalem-shooters-last-will-Palestinian-factions-mustnt-claim-responsibility-for-my-attack-447508
4 Palestinians shot as Israeli forces disperse Friday protests
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) — Four Palestinians were shot and scores suffered from excessive tear gas inhalation after Israeli forces dispersed weekly protests in the occupied West Bank with rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas, and skunk water. Medics told Ma‘an that a teenager was hit in the eye with a rubber-coated steel bullet when clashes broke out with Israeli forces in the town of Abu Dis east of Jerusalem. Palestinian Red Crescent paramedics said three other Palestinians were injured with rubber-coated steel bullets, in addition to 15 others who suffered from tear gas inhalation. Local committee member Bassam Bahar said clashes took place near an Israeli military post in the town, where forces showered the area with tear gas and heavily fired rubber-coated steel bullets at Palestinian demonstrators. In the village of Bil‘in near Ramallah, Israeli forces reached the outskirts of the village from the southwestern side and fired tear gas and rubber-coated bullets at Palestinian, Israeli and foreign activists who had gathered for the occasion . . . In the village of Kafr Qaddum in the northern West Bank, dozens suffered from tear gas inhalation as Israeli forces dispersed the weekly protest calling for the reopening of the village’s main road, which has been closed for 13 years. The spokesman for the Popular Resistance in Qalqiliya, Murad Shtewei, said the Israeli army raided the village firing stun grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets. Shtewei added that they also sprayed skunk water, covering the home of at least one village resident in the foul-smelling liquid.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770657
Israeli police detain 250 Palestinians working illegally in Israel
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 11 Mar — Israeli forces detained at least 250 Palestinian workers without work permits inside Israel by the end of the day Thursday, Israeli police said. Israeli forces also raided 341 shops and work sites and administratively closed businesses that employ undocumented workers, police spokesperson Luba al-Samri said. A total of 30 Israelis were also detained for assisting undocumented Palestinian workers, including driving the workers or providing employment and accommodation. Israeli forces pledged to continue the search campaign for Palestinians working illegally in Israel “in order to maintain public safety in the country,” al-Samri said. The detention campaign followed a deadly attack in the coastal city of Jaffa on Tuesday carried out by a Palestinian reportedly living and working in Israel illegally . . . In December, [Israeli Minister of Internal Security Gilad] Erdan proposed legislation allowing Israeli police to close a business or a construction site for 30 days if residents of the West Bank were working there illegally, also imposing a fine on employers housing undocumented workers. Tens of thousands of Palestinian workers are forced to seek a living by working in Israel as the growth of an independent Palestinian economy has been stifled in the West Bank under the ongoing Israeli military occupation, according to Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770651
Palestinian teen detained, Israeli injured in Jerusalem stabbing
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 11 Mar — A stab attack took place near the Hebron Gate of occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City Friday, leaving one Israeli injured and a Palestinian suspect detained, Israeli police said. Israeli police spokesperson Luba al-Samri said a 29-year-old Israeli was stabbed in the upper body near the gate — also known as Jaffa Gate — by a suspect who fled the area. After searching the area, al-Samri said, police and border guards found a knife near the scene and later located a 19-year-old Palestinian suspect “hiding in an Old City alley.” The teen was detained and taken for interrogation. Al-Samri said the Palestinian was from the occupied West Bank town of Qabalan, near Nablus. The Israeli was transferred to a hospital with light to moderate wounds.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770655
Israeli soldiers wounded in shooting attack near Ramallah
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 11 Mar — At least two Israeli soldiers were reportedly wounded in a shooting attack at an Israeli army checkpoint in the central occupied West Bank on Friday evening, Israeli security sources said. An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma‘an that a gunman shot at Israeli soldiers when their vehicle was stopped at a checkpoint near Ramallah, wounding two soldiers who were evacuated to the hospital. She added that the assailant fled on foot, and that Israeli forces were searching the area for the attacker. The attack took place near the village of Beit Ur al-Tahta at a checkpoint on Route 443, an Israeli road which connects a number of illegal settlements in the Palestinian territory.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770658
Video and pictures: Raiding Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Silwan
SILWAN, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 10 Mar — Joint crews of municipality employees, Nature and Parks authority and Israeli forces raided on Thursday morning Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Silwan. Majd Gaith from the Information Center explained that occupation forces raided the center and checked his ID and then took pictures of the pictures hung on the walls; an officer said they were inciting. Gheith added that the forces issued the center a 475-NIS ticket under the pretext of placing a rope in front the center’s gate that is used to protect children when leaving the center. The forces gave the center 7 days to remove it or they will raid the center again. Gheith pointed out that the center placed the rope few months ago to protect the children from being run over especially that the municipality neglects the locals’ needs in terms of parking spots and sidewalks.
http://silwanic.net/?p=67698
Israeli forces order closure of Palestinian news outlet in Ramallah
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 11 Mar — Israeli forces during predawn raids on Friday ordered the closure of Falastin al-Yawm (Palestine Today) and TransMedia Production Company in the occupied West Bank hub of Ramallah, locals said. Locals told Ma‘an that forces stormed the media outlets’ headquarters in al-Bireh and detained two journalists, confiscated property, and delivered military orders for the offices to be shut down. The journalists were identified as Muhammad Amro from Hebron and Shbeib Shbeib from Burqa near Nablus. Both were taken to the Israeli military base in the nearby illegal settlement of Beit El. Israeli forces also detained head of the Falastin al-Yawm Faruq Elayyat from his home in Birzeit, a town near Ramallah. An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma‘an the closure order was issued against the owner of Falastin al-Yawm for “incitement,” adding that the station was “associated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, an illegal terror organization.” The raid was carried out through a joint operation between the Israeli military and Israel’s security agency Shin Bet, the spokesperson said, confirming that technical equipment and broadcast equipment had been confiscated. The spokesperson was unable to confirm if the closure was permanent or temporary, and had no reports of the closure of TransMedia Production Company.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770647
Israel helpless as young knife-wielding Palestinians run wild on its streets
Haaretz 12 Mar by Amos Harel — The government won’t call it this, but there’s no denying that Israel is facing a third intifada. What makes it different is that it’s being carried out by individuals who aren’t taking their lead from religious or political figures. And preventive measures run the risk of making matters worse — One night, a few weeks ago, an Israel Defense Forces unit entered the home of a Palestinian family in a northern West Bank village. According to the Shin Bet security service, the family’s 17-year-old son had bought an improvised “Carlo” rifle. The door was opened by the father of the household, the former head of the village council. He denied the suspicions outright. I know what my children do, he insisted. But a search of the youngster’s room turned up a hidden magazine and the rifle itself. The stunned father managed to slap his son before the soldiers and Shin Bet operatives took him into custody. The IDF officer commanding the unit stayed behind for a short conversation with the father. “I was sad for him,” the officer said this week. “It was obvious that he didn’t have the slightest idea what was going on.” The third intifada, which this week struck in Jaffa, Petah Tikva and several times in Jerusalem, is a melange of dozens of similar stories.
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.708136
Army kidnaps 33 Palestinians in the West Bank
IMEMC 10 Mar — The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) has reported that Israeli soldiers have kidnapped, late at night and on Thursday morning, 33 Palestinians in different parts of the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem, and that the arrests were mainly focused in the West Bank district of Qalqilia, Nablus and Hebron. Among the kidnapped are a father and his four sons. (Continued)
http://www.imemc.org/article/75224
Israel to close major Nablus checkpoint 5 hours daily
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 11 Mar — The Israeli military is expected to begin daily closures of Zaatara military checkpoint in southern Nablus for maintenance, the Palestinian military liaison said Thursday. The liason said they were officially informed by their Israeli counterpart that the checkpoint would be closed for five hours daily for those entering Nablus due to maintenance on Huwwara Street, adding that the closure may last for more than two months. An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma‘an they were aware of the planned maintenance, but could not give further information regarding what the maintenance would entail, or the exact start and end date of the closures. The expected times of closure fall primarily during rush hour periods, from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., and from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. The closures are likely to affect the movement of the over 200,000 Palestinians living in the Nablus governorate, which includes the city of Nablus, three refugee camps and fifteen villages. The movement of Palestinians in the area is heavily controlled as entrance and exit into the area is only possible through four permanent Israeli military checkpoints. Areas of the district have been closed on several occasions during unrest that spread across the occupied Palestinian territory in October, often following attacks carried out by Palestinian individuals on Israeli military forces stationed in the area, and particularly at checkpoints.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770650
For Palestinian-American teen’s family, home is where the body is buried
Haaretz 12 Mar by Gideon Levy & Alex Levac — A 16-year-old who went to school in his ancestral village in the West Bank and was planning to go back to the U.S. to study medicine was shot five times by Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint. They claimed he was wielding a knife — The family wanted to bury him wrapped in the flag of his country, the United States, but the locals insisted he be laid to rest in the flag of his nation, Palestine. In the end, his body was wrapped in both flags: the American flag during the ceremony held by the family, the Palestinian flag in the mass funeral that followed. Both flags were lowered into the grave together with 16-year-old Mahmoud Shaalan. The teenager, who may or may not have pulled a knife on Israeli soldiers, was shot by them – four times in his upper body, once in the leg. Eyewitnesses say the shooting continued even after he lay wounded on the road. Afterward, the witnesses say, the soldiers let him bleed and prevented a Palestinian ambulance from taking him to hospital. Shaalan lay on the road, his body stripped naked, uncovered, for two-and-a-half hours.
Born in Miami to a family whose members all have U.S. citizenship, Shaalan wanted to go to school in his ancestral village of Deir Dibwan, northeast of Ramallah, many of whose residents have moved to the United States over the years. Specifically, the town now has 8,000 residents, with another 14,000 of its former citizens and their families living in American ‘exile’ – although most still own large homes in Deir Dibwan and visit their relatives there in the summer, or even move there when they retire. “Little America,” the villagers here dub their little foreign province. Mahmoud Shaalan is the first shahid, or martyr for the cause, of this affluent, tranquil village. Mourning posters show him holding a report card with excellent grades – not with the usual submachine gun in the commemorative posters of most shahids . . . What happened on that Friday afternoon at the District Coordination Office crossing point for VIPs at the northern entrance to Ramallah, next to the Beit El settlement? According to the family and to testimony collected by Iyad Haddad, a field worker for the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, Mahmoud traveled to the neighboring village, Beitin, by taxi, intending to visit a cousin in nearby El Bireh. From Beitin he walked toward the checkpoint, a few hundred meters away. Pedestrians are usually not allowed to cross there, but sometimes the soldiers let them pass. In any event, there is no sign explaining what is allowed and what is forbidden at the checkpoint, which chokes off Ramallah from the north, for the benefit of Beit El’s settlers . . . The family does not believe that Mahmoud went to the checkpoint in order to stab a soldier. He was not politically involved, they say; he had a good life and was not especially interested in the occupation. In any event, he planned to return to the United States and live there. (Continued)
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.708155
Video: ‘Let him die’ say Israelis as Palestinian boy lies bleeding
EI 10 Mar by Maureen Clare Murphy — Graphic video shows a gravely injured Palestinian lying on the floor of a liquor store, apparently struggling to breathe, as Israelis curse him and call for him to die on Tuesday. “Die, you fucker, die, you son of a whore,” a man not seen in the video says in Hebrew. The wounded Palestinian is also called homophobic epithets. “Don’t call an ambulance, let him die,” the same man says . . . Radad is one of several Palestinians who have been killed in recent days during alleged attacks on Israelis in which an American tourist was slain and several others wounded. Another boy was shot dead by Israeli forces on Wednesday at a military checkpoint outside al-Zawiya, which was blockaded by the military late Tuesday after the alleged attack in Petah Tikva. An army spokesperson told the Ma‘an News Agency that an “assailant armed with a knife” approached the checkpoint and Israeli forces “thwarted” the attack by shooting the Palestinian dead. No Israelis were injured during the incident. “Locals said that Israeli soldiers shot and wounded a second Palestinian during the deadly encounter, although the army spokesperson had no information about a second Palestinian being shot during the incident,” Ma‘an reported. Ma‘an was told by a local official that both Palestinians were left bleeding while Palestinian emergency medics were prevented from reaching them. (Continued)
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/video-let-him-die-say-israelis-palestinian-boy-lays-bleeding
Land, property theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing
Israeli schools’ map to right-wing ignorance
Haaretz 11 Mar by Dror Etkes — The map of the country that seventh-graders use omits the Green Line and all Israeli Arab communities except Nazareth and Umm al-Fahm — It’s a standard map, used to teach seventh-graders the geography of “Israel,” according to its name. The name does not specify whether it’s a map of the “State of Israel” or of “Eretz Yisrael,” the Land of Israel, but even a brief glance is enough to establish that it is not a political map: It includes whole areas that are beyond the boundaries of the sovereign State of Israel. Nor is it a map of the Land of Israel, which according to the biblical promise extends from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates. The so-called Green Line marking Israel’s pre-1967 borders was erased from the maps back in the early 1970s, saving a generation of schoolchildren the need to acknowledge their state’s official eastern borders. It’s no wonder, then, that the majority of Israelis today cannot make the distinction between the State of Israel, a modern political concept, and the Land of Israel, a religious, historical and romantic concept that never had defined boundaries . . . Amazingly, also on the eastern side of the Green Line the Palestinians appear to constitute a negligible minority, even though this minority comprises around 82 percent of the population there. They live in hundreds of Palestinian cities and villages, only a small number of which appear on the map – among them a few of the main cities. On the map, settlements such as Karnei Shomron (population 6,500) and Kiryat Arba (pop. 7,000) appear to be the same size as the Palestinian cities. (Continued)
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.708169
Israeli authorities to demolish 13 homes, structures in ‘Azzun
QALQILIYA (Ma‘an) 10 Mar — Israeli forces on Thursday delivered stop-work and demolition orders to 13 Palestinian homes and structures in the occupied West Bank town of ‘Azzun, locals said. Hassan Shubaita, a local who documents Israeli violations in the Qalqilya-area town, told Ma‘an that Israeli military forces raided the area near route 55 before delivering the orders. Shubaita added that the notices included demolition of inhabited homes, homes under construction, and tin shacks which were reportedly built without the proper permits. The owners of the structures, along with the village mayor, plan to appeal the demolitions.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770643
Former Israeli defense officials back plan to separate Palestinian villages from Jerusalem
Haaretz 10 Mar by Nir Hasson — The Movement to Save Jewish Jerusalem wants Israel to wall 200,000 Palestinians out of the capital and deny their resident status — Shortly after two seemingly connected terror attacks in Jerusalem on Wednesday morning, a tourist bus drove around East Jerusalem’s neighborhoods. In the bus, which was flanked on either side by Border Police jeeps, were former cabinet minister Haim Ramon (Labor) and a number of former senior officials in the defense establishment. The officials were former police commanders Alik Ron, Arye Amit and David Zur, Col. (ret.) Shaul Arieli and former adviser to Jerusalem mayors Amir Cheshin – all members of the Movement to Save Jewish Jerusalem. The tour was intended to advance their plan to withdraw unilaterally from most of the capital’s Palestinian neighborhoods and build a new wall cutting them off from the city.
“A survey this week showed half of the Israeli public wants to expel Arabs. It’s impossible to expel Arabs, but it’s possible to build a wall,” said Ramon. The plan will correct two colossal historic mistakes Israel has made, he said. The first is the annexation of numerous Palestinian villages to Jerusalem immediately after the Six-Day War. The second is the separation fence that Ariel Sharon decided on, which left almost all of Jerusalem’s municipal area on the Israeli side of the wall . . . Under Ramon’s plan, a wall would cut off several neighborhoods, consisting of some 200,000 Palestinians, from Jerusalem. These neighborhoods’ residents would be denied resident status in Israel. Some would be allowed to work in the city with work permits, like West Bank Palestinians. Israel would keep the Old City and its surrounding neighborhoods, where an estimated 100,000 Palestinians live. (Continued)
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.707969
Gaza
Israeli airstrike kills 10-year-old Palestinian, injures 1
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 12 Mar — A ten-year-old Palestinian was killed and his sister seriously injured in an Israeli airstrike launched early Saturday in the northern Gaza Strip after rockets were fired from the besieged enclave. Spokesman for the Gaza Ministry of Health Ashraf al-Qidra confirmed the death of Yasin Suleiman Abu Khusah,10, and told Ma‘an his six-year-old sister Israa had sustained serious head injuries during the strike. A Ma‘an reporter based in Gaza said the children were in their house at the time of the strike, located in northwestern Beit Lahiya, adding that the family was still living in their home that was partially destroyed during the most recent Israeli offensive on the strip in 2014. Israa was transferred to Shifa Medical Center in Gaza City from Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya due to critical injuries, al-Qidra said. The Israeli army said the Israeli air force targeted four Hamas sites in the northern Gaza Strip after four rockets were fired from the strip Friday evening. The rockets landed in open areas in southern Israel, the army said, without reporting damage or injuries.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770660
Gaza suicide rates to rise
MEMO 11 Mar — Suicide rates in the Gaza Strip have seen a 35-40 per cent increase in recent months compared to the same period in 2013-15, according to the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor. The 2014 Israeli war on the Strip, the ongoing siege which has crippled the economy and destroyed employment prospects have been highlighted as the main reasons for the increase. Eighty per cent of Gazan households now live below the poverty line, while 43 per cent of adult residents are out of work. An estimated 80 Gazans tried or succeeded in taking their lives in January and February of this year. Suicides and attempted suicides averaged about 25-30 a month in 2013-2015. “The situation has never been worse,” says Zahia Al-Qarra, MD, a psychiatrist with the Gaza Community Mental Health Program. “In the past, Gazans have always been able to find a way out when it got very bad. They would work in Israel or abroad in Saudi Arabia or Kuwait. Even when those options were not available, they could escape through the tunnels into Egypt. But now that Israel and Egypt have destroyed most of the tunnels, there is no way out. We are trapped in Gaza. Everyone appears to be against us. All of the doors are locked.”
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/24450-gaza-suicide-rates-to-rise
Israel building ‘underground Iron Dome’ to tackle Gaza tunnel
MEMO 11 Mar — Israel is developing an “Underground Iron Dome” system to detect and destroy cross-border tunnels, Foreign Policy reported yesterday. The site quoted Israeli Channel 2 as saying that the local government has spent more than $250 million since 2004 in its efforts to thwart tunnel construction under the Gaza border. The United States has already set aside $40 million for the project in the 2016 financial year, in order “to establish anti-tunnel capabilities to detect, map, and neutralise underground tunnels that threaten the US or Israel,” said US Defence Department spokesman Christopher Sherwood. While the majority of the work in 2016 will be done in Israel, Sherwood added: “The US will receive prototypes, access to test sites, and the rights to any intellectual property.” Among the Israeli companies working to develop the new anti-tunnel mechanism are Elbit Systems and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, the same company that developed the Iron Dome rocket defence system. According to intelligence sources who spoke with Foreign Policy on the condition of anonymity, the system involves seismic sensors that can monitor underground vibrations. Since the beginning of 2016, nearly a dozen Hamas tunnels have collapsed on the Palestinians who were building them, killing at least 10 of the group’s members. While winter rains have been blamed as the culprit, the wave of collapses has led many here to wonder if Israel’s new secret weapon is already at work. Asked by the Palestinian Ma‘an news agency in February about whether Israel was behind recent tunnel collapses, the coordinator of government activities in the Palestinian territories, Israeli army Major General Yoav Mordechai, responded: “God knows.”
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/24448-israel-building-underground-iron-dome-to-tackle-gaza-tunnel
Liaison: Hundreds from Gaza to pray at Aqsa
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 11 Mar — Hundreds of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip headed to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem via the Erez crossing early Friday. Sources at the Palestinian liaison office told Ma’an that 300 worshipers above the age of 55 would perform Friday prayers and return to the Gaza Strip afterwards. The sources added that starting next week, Gazans of 50 years of age would also be allowed access to the holy site, following Israeli approval. The liaison said Israel may increase the number of Palestinians allowed to travel on Fridays to Aqsa from the besieged enclave to 400, including 50 merchants with “BMG” permits, six-month permits granted by Israel to Palestinian business people.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770649
Galant supports establishing Gaza seaport
IMEMC/Agencies 11 Mar — Israeli Minister of Construction and Housing Yoav Galant has expressed support for the idea of constructing a seaport for Gaza, explaining that it would release pressure on the Strip, which suffers due to ongoing economic siege. Galant, the former commander of the Southern Command, explained, in a speech to Israeli Channel 10, that the siege and heightened security between Egypt and Gaza, has turned the Gaza Strip into an isolated island without the necessities of life. He expressed his opinion that the construction of a seaport would solve this problem. He said, according to Al Ray Palestinian Media Agency, that Israel has three contradictory interests in establishing the port, as Israel seeks to realize calm in the south, not holding any responsibilities towards the people of Gaza and disarming the Strip. He supported the army’s request for establishing the port, explaining that it will be an outlet for Gazans, whom Israel exerts ongoing control over. Furthermore, constructing an artificial island, to act as port under Israeli supervision, would give Israel the ability to isolate the besieged coastal enclave whenever it wishes.
http://www.imemc.org/article/75232
Hamas delegation to visit Egypt next week
MEMO 11 Mar — Hamas is sending a delegation to Cairo next week to meet with Egyptian intelligence officials, a senior official revealed. “The Hamas delegation will be headed by Hamas Deputy Head of the Political Bureau Moussa Abu Marzouk, as well as other Hamas leaders who live outside the Gaza Strip,” the official, who requested anonymity, told Alkhaleejonline news site. Egypt has not permitted Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip to attend, the source added. According to the official, the delegation will meet to discuss accusations that Hamas was involved in the assassination of Egypt’s Chief Prosecutor Hisham Barakat. Barakat was killed by a car bomb last June. This week, suspects in the Barakat assassination case are said to have admitted that they were trained for six weeks by Hamas members in Gaza. In earlier comments to the news site, Khalil al- Hayyeh, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, described the Egyptian accusations as “null and void”, adding that this constituted a negative step in relations between Hamas and Egypt.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/24436-hamas-delegation-to-visit-egypt-next-week
‘Aleppo’s hell is better than this’: The Syrians who want out of Gaza
GAZA CITY (MEE) 9 Mar by Mohammed Omer — Refugees, including some of Palestinian descent, say life in besieged enclave is worse than war, and they dream of returning to Yarmouk — Refugees from Syria in Gaza are protesting to be allowed to leave, with some even saying they want to return home because conditions in the besieged Palestinian territory are so intolerable. Gaza is currently home to an estimated 1,200 refugees who are mainly from Syria but include others from Libya and Yemen. Most of them arrived through now-demolished tunnels that once linked the enclave to Egypt. Many say they were drawn there by promises of jobs, or in the hope of starting their own businesses, despite the challenges posed by Gaza’s near-decade-long blockade by Israel and Egypt. Some of them have Palestinian backgrounds and come from the refugee camp of Yarmouk, south of the Syrian capital Damascus, which is home to the descendants of families displaced from their lands in modern-day Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories in 1948 or during the Six Day War of 1967 between Israel and its Arab neighbours. Yarmouk has been the scene of regular fierce fighting between pro-government forces and rebels during Syria’s five-year war and was briefly captured by the Islamic State (IS) group last year. Last year, the UNRWA, the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, said that several thousand people in Yarmouk were living in “deeply abject conditions” and that the situation there was worse than in 2014 when the UN considered the camp to be a besieged area. But Abdullah Salman, who said he and others had been enticed to Gaza by an offer of work after fleeing from Syria to Egypt, told Middle East Eye that conditions even in war-ravaged Yamouk were preferable to life under the blockade. “Our suffering intensifies every day. We are four families living in one house,” said Salman, who went to Gaza believing there would be more opportunities than in Egypt, where many other Syrians are also looking for work.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/gaza-syrian-refugees-1269724324
Israel allows import of construction finishing materials into Gaza after three months’ freeze
GAZA (Xinhua) 10 Mar — Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Minister of Housing and Public Works, Mufeed aL-Hasaynah, declared Thursday that Israel officially granted the PNA initial approval to import construction finishing material into the besieged Gaza Strip, after three months freeze. Al-Hasaynah said in an emailed press statement that this would help finishing newly constructed housing units as part of the Gaza reconstruction plan, and clarified that the ministry is going to audit new orders to acquire new material for the reconstruction projects. Tariq Labad, spokesman for the Hamas-run Ministry of National Economy, told Xinhua that there are 30,000 applicants awaiting the finishing material. Labad said that around 1,500 applications were approved by Israeli authorities since last May before it was frozen, which lead to disrupting the construction of residential units, and negatively affected employment opportunities and contributed to the deterioration of Gaza’s economy . . . Finishing materials are usually designed for interior or exterior finishing, and a traditional finishing material is natural stone, which is durable and has an attractive appearance.
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.aspx?id=322961
No, Israel doesn’t give Gaza electricity for free
+972 Blog 11 Mar by Itamar Sha’altiel — Some senior figures in Israel are telling fairy tales — A number of journalists and figures in the Israeli media and public sphere have been making the claim recently that Israel provides free electricity to Hamas and the Gaza Strip, generally as part of an argument that the Israel is paying the Gazan government protection money in exchange for quiet along the southern border. The claims have been made in articles, op-eds, comments sections, online videos, and even by those who should really know better — like Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) Director Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yiftah Ron-Tal. First of all, that’s utter nonsense. Israel sells the Palestinians electricity, it doesn’t give it to them, it doesn’t gift it to them, and it doesn’t just transmit it for free. Unlike the situation in the West Bank, where there is indeed a growing debt to the IEC, payment for electricity in Gaza is automatically and immediately deducted from tax funds Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. In other words, Gaza does not owe any money to the Israel Electric Corporation. There is no debt. Nada. Haaretz’s Amira Hass wrote about it at some point, but the organization I work for, Gisha, checked with the Palestinian Finance Ministry in Ramallah. They informed us that Gaza’s electric bill is settled unilaterally. Israel only informs the Palestinians afterward. (Continued)
http://972mag.com/no-israel-doesnt-give-gaza-electricity-for-free/117812/
What does ‘My Palestine’ look like to a child in Gaza?
Daily Vox (South Africa) 11 Mar — They say pictures can say a thousand words, so why do we always insist on words? Gaza has been under a brutal Israeli blockade for more than eight years – collective punishment, as the civilised world would call it. The conditions are so precarious here that the UN says Gaza will be uninhabitable by 2020. And as usual, children continue to face the brunt of the blockade on food, supplies, fuel and power. One in five children lives in poverty, while one in ten lives in deep poverty, according to UNICEF. The burden of conflict on children has taken its toll. Under such dreadful conditions, what does “My Palestine” look like to a child in Gaza, who knows nothing else but the devastation around them? Who do they look up to? And, most importantly, could they draw it for us? The DAILY VOX went to find out.
http://www.thedailyvox.co.za/palestine-look-like-child-gaza/
Prisoners / Court actions
Al-Qeiq’s health sees gradual improvement
AL-KHALIL (PIC) 10 Mar — The wife of Palestinian journalist Muhammad al-Qeiq said Thursday her husband has started to recover from the health complications inflicted by a three-month hunger strike in an Israeli jail. Al-Qeiq’s wife, Fayhaa Shalash, said her husband has been undergoing the first stage of a medical therapy to treat a hyponatremia racking his body. She said though her husband is going through a slow recovery, his health has seen a gradual improvement. Al-Qeiq is still in need of other medical treatments and check-ups to restore his normal health status, his wife added. Al-Qeiq had lost 30 kilograms of his overall weight during a hunger strike he initiated in Israeli lock-ups in protest at his administrative detention, with neither charge nor trial.
http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=77326
Tamimi to be released under conditions and $1,000 fine
IMEMC/Agencies 11 Mar — Ofer Israeli military court, in the Ramallah region, on Thursday morning, 10 March 2016, has agreed to release activist Manal Tamimi (43) after two days of detention, on a fine of 4,000 shekels (approximately $1,000), and other restrictions. Restrictions include that Manal not publish any Facebook posts or photos about one of the Israeli border guards (Yousef Nasser Eddin), who complained that she shared a video of him violently attacking Palestinian paramedics and journalists, during clashes near Beit El checkpoint, to the north of Ramallah, back in October of 2015. Manal was also conditioned, according to the PNN, not to direct any “virtual threats” against any Israeli officers . . . On 8 March 2016, International Women’s Day, Manal was kidnapped from her home in Al-Nabi Saleh village, also near Ramallah, after Israeli forces stormed the home at 1:30 AM.
http://www.imemc.org/article/75233
Exclusive: 3 Palestinian minors indicted for Rami Levy stabbing spree, murder of Tuvia Weissman
JPost 10 Mar by Yonah Jeremy Bob — Three Palestinians minors were indicted in the Judea Military Court on Thursday for the February 18 stabbing spree in which Sgt. Tuvia Yanai Weissman was murdered. The three youths’ names, ages and hometowns are under a gag order. Two were charged with murder and two counts of attempted murder. The third was charged with being an accomplice to murder. If convicted as an accomplice, the sentence may be as severe as that meted out for murder. All three have been remanded until the end of their trial.
http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/3-Palestinian-minors-indicted-for-Rami-Levy-stabbing-spree-murder-of-Tuvia-Weissman-447530
Arrest made five months after Israeli fatally struck by car
Ynet 9 Mar by Yoav Siton & Elisha Ben Kimon — A Palestinian from Dhahiriya was arrested on Wednesday for fatally running over Abraham Asher Hasno at the Fuer junction near Hebron in October. The suspect was detained until recently at the Dhahiriya police station. After the Palestinian was released a few days ago, he was arrested in a joint operation that involved the Shin Bet, the IDF and the Duvdevan unit, following a period of intensive surveillance. The arrestee was taken for questioning by the security forces. Hasno was run over after he got out of his vehicle to avoid stones being thrown at him. The driver fled Dhahiriya, and later turned himself in to Palestinian security forces, claiming that it was an accident. Initially the event was not defined as an attack, but two weeks later the Defense Ministry recognized Hasno as a victim of hostile actions.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4776416,00.html
Other news
Weekly Report on Israeli human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territory (3-9 March)
PCHR-Gaza 10 Mar — Israeli forces continued to use excessive force in the oPt 6 Palestinian civilians, including a child and 2 women, were killed in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem. 8 Palestinian civilians, including 5 children, were wounded in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israeli forces continued to target the border areas along the Gaza Strip. A Palestinian civilian was wounded in the east of al-Maghazi refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip. 4 Palestinian civilians were wounded during peaceful protests organized near the border fence. Israeli forces conducted 85 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and 12 in occupied Jerusalem. 80 Palestinian civilians, including 25 children and 2 women, were arrested. Thirty of them, including 16 children and a woman were arrested in occupied Jerusalem. Among the arrested were a photojournalist and a doctor. Israeli forces raided Beit Ommar Orphanage. Israeli forces continued their efforts to create Jewish majority in occupied East Jerusalem. Israeli forces issued administrative demolition decisions against a number of houses and commercial stores in Silwan village [details of these and other events follow].
Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (03– 09 March 2016)
Palestinian teachers’ strike marks major rift between public and PA
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 11 Mar by Emily Mulder — Now entering its fourth week, a strike launched by Palestinian teachers has morphed into a major crisis for the Palestinian Authority as frustrations towards the political body continue to mount. The number of Palestinian teachers on strike has risen to at least 35,000, leaving over one million Palestinian students in the occupied West Bank out of school. Teachers have slammed the PA’s failure to deliver on promises made following a 2013 strike, and head of the PLO teachers’ union Ahmad Suhweil submitted his resignation by popular demand as teachers called for new representation in negotiations. The PA has said it is legally bound to negotiate solely with the union, and criticisms initially made by teachers in February have since mushroomed in reaction to the PA’s harsh response to strikers, with some informally calling for Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah’s resignation. While Hamdallah said this week that “people have the right to express their opinion” as part of the democratic process, the PM threatened administrative and legal procedures against teachers if they did not resume work, and PA security forces have prevented teachers from demonstrating. Rights organizations have denounced the PA and security forces for their efforts to prevent strikers from protesting, as well as for its detention of teachers. The strike and subsequent fallout marks one of the largest challenges to the PA in recent years, and is exposing longstanding internal rifts between the PA and the public.
http://maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770623
Al Mezan denounces arrests of Palestinian athletes and demands their immediate release
Al Mezan 8 Mar –Israeli occupation forces (IOF) continue to impede sports in Palestine and hinder the movement of Palestinian athletes through the destruction of sports fields, obstructing athletes’ freedom of movement within the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) and abroad, and constantly arresting athletes. Al Mezan Center for Human Rights (Al Mezan) denounces these Israeli violations and calls on the international community and International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) and other sports’ governing bodies to intervene to guarantee the safety of the arrested football players and ensure respect for the rules of international law in oPt. According to Al Mezan’s monitoring, at approximately 3pm on Thursday, 3 March 2016, Fadi Nimir Al Sharif, 28, a football player at the Al Hilal Football Club and a resident of Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza city, was arrested by IOF while traveling via Erez border crossing. His brother informed Al Mezan that in October 2015 Fadi suffered a tear in his cruciate ligament during a football match. He was recently granted permission to receive medical treatment inside Israel; therefore he traveled accompanied by his father to Al Makassed Hospital in Jerusalem for five days. On their way back to Gaza through Erez border crossing, Fadi was arrested and his father was allowed to return to Gaza. In another incident, at approximately 1 am on Sunday, 6 March 2016, IOF arrested Sami Fadil Al Da’our, 27; a football player in Al Somou’ Youth football Club in Hebron, West Bank. His brother informed Al Mezan that IOF raided Sami’s residence in Hebron and arrested him and confiscated his laptop. He was taken to the interrogation center in Ashkelon inside Israel. Sami is with a contract with his football club for a year. In a third incident, according to Al Mezan’s sources, on Friday, 4 March 2016, IOF arrested Mohamed Abu Khwais, a resident of Jerusalem. (Continued)
http://www.mezan.org/en/post/21211
The Native American model of Palestine’s future
EI 10 Mar by Steven Salaita — Comparison of Native Americans and Palestinians has become increasingly common. Thus arises a corresponding need to assess the problems and prospects of comparative analysis. Because I teach American Indian and Indigenous Studies in the Arab World, I’ve been thinking frequently about how we might productively engage Natives from spaces of Palestine solidarity. There’s no way to adequately represent the heterogeneity of Native and Palestinian viewpoints, commitments and ambitions. It is unwise to present Indian Country and Palestine as stable sites of inquiry, especially if we approach them in tandem. To compare Natives and Palestinians – or any constellation of discrete national communities – is to constantly balance the problems of vagueness with the value of structural critique. The point of comparison isn’t to theorize uniformity, but to discover political and intellectual paradigms that traverse national, cultural and geopolitical boundaries . . . People often assume that Natives have been permanently dispossessed or exist as ahistorical monuments of conquest unable to access modernity, if they exist at all. Based on this assumption, those concerned with the colonization of Palestine can be tempted to evoke Natives as the victims of a tragic fate that Palestinians must avoid. This formulation, however well-intentioned, does a tremendous disservice to Natives. A less sanguine reading might observe that it reinforces an ongoing colonial erasure of Indigenous peoples in (and beyond) North America. It is based on an inaccurate understanding of both the past and present. Of course we don’t want Palestinians to be forever deprived of their homeland or exist as romantic emblems of an irretrievable past. Nor do we want Israel to eternally occupy Palestine’s history. But Indian Country isn’t an example of such closures having occurred. The United States and Canada haven’t yet managed to settle the matter of their permanent supremacy. (Continued)
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/steven-salaita/native-american-model-palestines-future
G4S to pull out of Israel within two years
MEE 10 Mar — The world’s largest security firm G4S says that it is selling its operations in Israel within the next two years, but has denied that it is because of a years-long boycott campaign. G4S made the announcement when it released its end-of-year results on Wednesday, saying that it is selling its interests in Israel as part of a wider assets sale to increase profits. It also said that it would suspend some other controversial projects, such as US youth-justice centres, in a bid to boost profits after shares fell 12 percent in part due to growing costs of providing contract housing for destitute asylum seekers. The company has also warned shareholders that they risk losing $81mn if the government extends G4S’s asylum housing contract for a further two years. Over the past four years, the company, which reportedly employs 8,000 people in Israel with a turnover of $143mn, has been the target of a global BDS campaign. While G4S denies that its move is linked to the campaign, Mahmoud Nawajaa, a spokesman for the Palestinian BDS National Committee, said that BDS had undoubtedly pressed G4S into closing shop in Israel.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/g4s-pulling-out-israel-within-next-two-years-290642161
Is Israel on collision course with world’s largest Muslim country?
JPost 11 Mar — Israel must decide whether to grant entry permits to the foreign minister of Indonesia, who is planning a trip to meet Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah within the coming weeks, according to Channel 2. The world’s largest Muslim country is intent on bringing the Palestine question to the forefront of global diplomacy. To that end, Jakarta wants to inaugurate an honorary consulate office in the Palestinians’ provisional capital, Ramallah, next week. Last week, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo in Jakarta as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation held a summit meeting to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Is-Israel-on-collision-course-with-worlds-largest-Muslim-country-447636
Israel rebukes troops for 2015 killing of Spanish UNIFIL soldier
Haaretz 9 Mar by Gili Cohen — Soldiers involved in the artillery fire that killed a UNIFIL soldier last year have been disciplined, with Israel paying the Spanish corporal’s family €200,000 ($220,000) in compensation, military sources told Haaretz Wednesday. In the January 2015 incident, Israeli troops fired artillery, mortar and tank shells at a number of points in southern Lebanon. They were responding to a mortar barrage by Hezbollah that killed Maj. Yochai Kalangel and Staff Sgt. Dor Chaim Nini. According to the inquiry by the Israel Defense Forces, the artillery force’s professionalism was low during the incident. One of its shells accidentally hit a UNIFIL observation post, killing the UN peacekeeper, Francisco Javier Soria Toledo. This happened even though UNIFIL posts had been marked on IDF maps – their location was even available online. (Continued)
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.707900
Israeli forces deploy near Lebanese border
IMEMC/Agencies 11 Mar — Israeli occupation forces have now deployed troops and equipment along the Lebanese border, and stepped up military activities in the region on Wednesday, according to Lebanese sources. For the second consecutive day in a row, the army fired tear gas canisters at Lebanese herders and local farmers working near the border with the occupied Palestinian territories, The Daily Star reported, according to PNN. “We were proceeding with our lives normally, and everyone was working their land. Then we saw the Israeli patrol and its members begin shooting tear gas at us,” Mustafa Ahmad, one of the herders, said. On Tuesday, local residents said forces repeatedly shot tear gas canisters during the morning hours. Shortly after, a large number of Israeli military jeeps were stationed in an illegal Israeli settlement across [from?] the Lebanese village of Kfar Kila. According to witness accounts, the military used trees and shrubs for cover, and monitored the movements within Lebanon as motorized patrols were conducted. According to alBawaba, local sources say Israeli patrols along the border have increased in the past week, with Israeli soldiers taking up ambush positions in the area. The activities have sparked fears among local residents, who question the motives behind Israel’s latest transgression, The Daily Star said.
http://www.imemc.org/article/75228
Woman arrested in France for T-shirt critical of Israel
EI 11 Mar by Ali Abunimah — France has ratcheted up its draconian repression of free speech about Palestine with the arrest of a woman for wearing a T-shirt supporting the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement. The activist was taking part in a march for International Women’s Day in Paris last Sunday when undercover police swooped in and detained her for wearing a piece of clothing with th