NOVANEWS
Policeman faces murder charge in Nakba Day shooting of Palestinian teen
[with B'Tselem video] Haaretz 12 Nov by Chaim Levinson & Yaniv Kubovich — Border Police, soldiers had denied using live fire during protests in which two teens were killed, but bullet found in one of boys’ backpacks led to suspected gun – A Border Police officer arrested Tuesday over the killing of a Palestinian youth during Nakba Day protests six months ago is facing murder charges. His commander was also arrested for allegedly covering up the shooting. The Judea and Samaria District Police on Tuesday detained an enlisted border policeman on suspicion that he shot and killed Palestinian youth Nadim Nuwara. Two Palestinian teenagers, Nuwara and Muhammad Salameh, were killed during protests in Beitunia, near Ramallah in the West Bank, on May 15. The policeman’s commander was also arrested on suspicion that he knew that the policeman had shot the boy and not reported it. The commander was released to house arrest until Sunday. For some time, there were contradictions in the army and police versions of the killing, according to which no live fire was used but only means to disperse demonstrations. The district police, responsible for investigating the use of live fire by border policemen in the occupied territories, interrogated all the policemen present at the event. They denied using live rounds, despite Palestinian claims that the boys had been killed by live bullets … A breakthrough occurred after the Palestinians provided a bullet found in Nuwara’s backpack. The bullet prompted investigators to inspect the weapon of one of the policemen, leading to his arrest on suspicion that he had fired live bullets and had lied about his role in the shooting … A police spokesman commented that in light of recent reports the events in Bitunia are under investigation, which is under a gag order. The spokesperson stressed that the arrest of a suspect does not determine the guilt of a policeman.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.626011
Israeli gunman arrested in videotaped murder of Palestinian teen
Electronic Intifada 13 Nov by Ali Abunimah — On 15 May – the day Palestinians commemorate the Nakba, the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine – two Palestinian children were shot dead in cold blood. The killings of Nadim Siam Nuwara and Muhammad Abu al-Thahir by Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank village of Beitunia were caught in the graphic security camera footage below, and by CNN’s cameras. The wounding of a third child, Muhammad al-Azzeh, by live ammunition, was also captured on camera. “This is an opportunity for Israel to prove to the world that it is a nation where law prevails,” Nadim’s father, Siam, told Defence for Children International-Palestine (DCI-Palestine), which first published the video of the shootings and has been pursuing justice for the murdered children ever since … Since the beginning of 2014, DCI-Palestine has documented ten child fatalities in the West Bank caused by live ammunition. Conspiracy theories A number of Israeli and anti-Palestinian conspiracy theorists alleged that the videotaped shootings had been faked or manipulated by Palestinians to embarrass Israel. As +972 Magazine documents, these included Israeli defense minister Moshe Yaalon, Israeli army spokesperson Arye Shalicar, Israel Channel 2’s “military correspondent” Roni Daniel and Jonathan S. Tobin, editor of the US-based anti-Palestinian publication Commentary. The “media watchdog” CAMERA published an article claiming: “The usual suspects are pushing the story and video of the alleged killings has gotten a huge number of hits on YouTube, but it’s pretty clear that something is amiss with the story the Palestinians have told the world about what happened at Betunia.” Michael Oren, the CNN analyst and former Israeli ambassador to the US, also suggested in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that the video contained many “inconsistencies” and might have been faked. Will these propagandists and conspiracy theorists retract their statements in light of the murder indictment?
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israeli-gunman-arrested-videotaped-murder-palestinian-teen
Army instructed to use live ammunition against Palestinian protesters who use fireworks
IMEMC/Agencies 13 Nov — The Israel army has been given a green light to use live ammunition against Palestinian protesters who use fireworks against during clashes, especially amidst the increase in confrontations in occupied East Jerusalem due to escalating Israeli violations, and invasions into the al-Aqsa mosque, and Palestinian areas in the city. Israeli Channel 2 quoted a senior officer of the Central Command of the army, a division running Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank and Jerusalem, stating that Israel now views the use of fireworks as a “constantly evolving threat.” Lawyer Yousef Karram of the “Association for Civil Rights in Israel,” warned that the new decision is a very serious escalation that could affect the entire situation in the occupied territories, adding that the decision violates basic human rights. Karram added that this decision could lead to a large number of casualties, an issue that would cause further confrontations and escalation. He further stated that, since the use of fireworks during protests is a new phenomenon, the army guidelines do not have any clause regarding the means of countering it. “The army and police usually fire rubber-coated metal bullets, gas bombs, and concussion grenades,” Karram said, “The soldiers justify the use of live rounds by claiming they felt their lives were in danger. Even the black rounded rubber-coated metal bullets are very dangerous and fatal.” The decision to use live rounds is not a new strategy, as the military frequently resorts to live ammunition to counter protests, and in many cases used live rounds against nonviolent protests against the Annexation Wall and settlement. However, the “justification” this time comes under the pretext of countering the use of fireworks by the protesters, an issue that could grant the army a green light to use deadly fire under the guise of feeling threatened by fireworks, even if such a perceived threat was baseless. It is worth mentioning that there have been numerous fatalities among Palestinian protesters who were shot by what Israel calls rubber bullets, as those bullets are rounded pieces of metal covered with a very thin coating of rubber.
http://www.imemc.org/article/69703
Violence
Palestinian boy critically wounded at Jerusalem protest – apparently by police bullet
Haaretz 13 Nov by Nir Hasson — Saber Mahmoud, 11, was struck in the face during violent demonstration in the ‘Issawiya neighborhood — An 11-year-old Palestinian boy was critically wounded in the face, apparently by a sponge-tipped bullet, during a violent protest Thursday afternoon in the East Jerusalem neighborhood Issawiya. Haaretz reported recently that police handling disturbances in Jerusalem’s Arab neighborhoods have begun using a type of sponge-tipped bullet that is harder and more injurious than the kind they used to employ. Saber Mahmoud, who lives in Issawiya, was struck between the eye and nose, causing him to bleed profusely. He was taken to Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem, then transferred to Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Karem. In the morning a violent demonstration began in Issawiya after residents blocked off the entrances to the neighborhood, in protest against the police’s decision to close entry to Issawiya from Mt. Scopus and French Hill because of the escalation in violence in the area. East Jerusalem residents have long been complaining about the police’s riot-control methods. At the end of August, Mohammed Sunuqrut, 16, was killed by a police bullet to the head during a demonstration in Wadi Joz.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.626365
Israeli forces raid Ramallah-area apartment, shoot Palestinian
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 12 Nov — Israeli forces early Wednesday shot and seriously injured a Palestinian man and detained another after raiding an apartment building in the town of Beituniya south of Ramallah, locals said. Locals told Ma‘an that Israeli soldiers stormed the Khdeir building in the town and broke into an apartment where they opened fire at Ahmad Hussana, hitting him three times. He was shot twice in the feet and a third time in the waist. Witnesses said Hussana was left bleeding in the apartment for 30 minutes before soldiers allowed a Palestinian ambulance to take him to the hospital. The soldiers detained another man from the building, who was identified as Samir Awwad, locals said. Clashes then broke out in the area between Israeli forces and Palestinian youths, who pelted the the soldiers with stones. The soldiers responded with tear gas, stun grenades, and rubber-coated bullets. No injuries from the clashes were reported.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=739400
Israeli forces fire at Bethlehem home, destroy room
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 13 Nov — Israeli soldiers on Wednesday shot a tear gas grenade into a home in Bethlehem’s ‘Aida refugee camp during clashes with youths, causing a fire to break out and destroy the room. Locals told Ma‘an that the canister was fired out of a high-velocity tear-gas canister gun and hit part of the building located on the roof. After the canister hit the room, it caught fire and destroyed all of the property inside, before locals were able to rush upstairs and put the fire out while clashes continued in the area. Locals said that Israeli forces have fired tear gas into the camp every day for the last year, with local youths throwing rocks at the soldiers in response. In April, a woman in her 40s was killed after she suffocated on tear gas fumes fired by Israeli soldiers, and in May, Samih Wahish, a 64-year-old physician, died in a similar way. Aida camp is a frequent site of clashes because it is located beside Rachel’s Tomb, which is surrounded on three sides by the Israeli separation wall despite being in the middle of the Palestinian city of Bethlehem. Israeli forces have shot more than 60 youths with rubber-coated steel bullets and live bullets during clashes that have occurred almost daily over the course of the last year. There are 19 refugee camps in the occupied West Bank, within which live about a quarter of the 771,000 registered refugees in the territory.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=739846
Israel to demolish homes of Palestinians involved in attacks against Israelis
NABLUS (WAFA) 13 Nov – Israeli Forces Thursday raided two homes in Hebron and Nablus belonging to two Palestinians, suspected of being involved in latest attacks against Israelis, as a prelude to demolish them, while several Palestinians were injured during the Nablus raid, said local sources. Israeli forces raided ‘Askar refugee camp to the east of Nablus, where they broke into the family house of Nur al-Din Abu Hashiya, a Palestinian who was arrested by Israeli forces for allegedly stabbing an Israeli soldier in Tel Aviv on Monday. The soldier succumbed to his wounds later on Monday evening. Soldiers destroyed the front door of the house and took measurements of the house, as a prelude to demolish it. During the raid, forces fired live and rubber-coated metal bullets and tear gas canisters, injuring Hamdi al-‘Ud and Mahmoud ‘Ajjuri in their feet with live ammunition. They also injured several locals with rubber-coated bullets and caused many others to suffer from excessive tear gas inhalation. Meanwhile in Hebron, Israeli forces also took measurements of Maher al-Hashlamon’s house, who reportedly attacked last Monday three Israeli settlers outside the illegal settlement of Alon Shvut, part of the Gush Etzion bloc of settlements between Bethlehem and Hebron, killing a woman and injuring three other people. Maher al-Hashlamon is currently unconscious in the intensive care unit at Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center in Jerusalem after being shot and critically wounded by soldiers stationed near the scene.. This comes days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his cabinet approved a decision to demolish the houses of Palestinians involved in such attacks against Israelis.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=27038
Second mosque burnt in the West Bank this month
MUGHAYIR, Occupied Palestine (ISM, Ramallah Team) 12 Nov — At 18:00 yesterday, the Israeli army closed the main entrance to Mughayir village until midnight. At midnight the army infiltrated the village and patrolled its empty streets for the next four hours. Sometime between 2:30-3:30 am, villagers noticed that the mosque was on fire. Failing to put out the fire, the fire brigade was called, but by the time they had arrived from Ramallah, the fire had already spread along the ground floor of the mosque and the toilets. While local media reported Zionist settlers as the culprits, witnesses in the village did not see who was responsible. Mughayir mayor, Faraj Na’asan stated, “Of course we know who did it. They’ve done it before in 2012. Everybody was in their houses because the soldiers were patrolling the streets. It was either the soldiers, or settlers under their protection.” The Mughyir mosque is the second mosque to be burned by settlers this month. [The other was the Abu Baker Al-Siddiq mosque in Nablus city on October 13-14].
http://palsolidarity.org/2014/11/second-mosque-burnt-in-the-west-bank-this-month/
Ten torched mosques, zero indictments
Haaretz 13 Nov by Chaim Levinson — Since June 2011, 10 mosques in Israel and the West Bank have been set on fire by presumed right-wing Jewish extremists. No charges have been filed – Wednesday’s torching of a mosque in the Palestinian village of al-Mughayyir brings to 10 the number of Muslim houses of worship in Israel and the territories that have been targeted in arson attacks in less than three and a half years. No one has been charged in any of these incidents. In the first of these incidents, in June 2011, a different mosque in the Ramallah-area village was torched. The words “Price Tag – Alei Ayin” were sprayed in Hebrew at the building’s entrance, suggesting that the attack was prompted by the forcible evacuation in the previous week by the Israeli military of an unauthorized outpost of a nearby Jewish settlement. Some three months later, in October 2011, the mosque in the Galilee Bedouin village of Tuba-Zangariyye was set on fire in another presumed “price tag” action. The building was heavily damaged and a large number of religious books were destroyed in the fire….
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.626335
Police failing to investigate Jewish hate crimes in West Bank, says NGO
Haaretz 13 Nov by Chaim Levinson — Some 92 percent of complaints filed by Palestinians are closed and the criminal never found, according to a report by the Yesh Din human rights group, which has been tracking 1,045 complaints filed through the organization since 2005. The list of complaints includes shooting attacks, assault, stone-throwing, arson, cutting down trees, animal abuse, crop theft, construction on Palestinian-owned land, threats and attacks. All the actions mentioned in the complaints were committed by Israeli citizens. The statistics from 2013 and 2014 have led Yesh Din officials to conclude that the establishment of the new department set up the Judea and Samaria District Police to combat nationalistically-motivated crime has led to no improvement in the investigations. In addition, Yesh Din officials say that the percentage of failures of the Israel Police to investigate ideologically-motivated crime against Palestinians has only increased. The investigative authorities have completed handling 106 of the 159 cases that Yesh Din is currently tracking. Two indictments were served against the suspects in only two of the cases (1.9 percent). In comparison, 86 cases were closed on the grounds of “criminal unknown,” seven were closed “for lack of sufficient evidence,” and two others were closed on the grounds that “no felony was committed.” After studying the investigative material, Yesh Din officials appealed the closure of nine of the latter cases….
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.626301
Israeli police say youth planning ‘stabbing’ arrested near Modiin
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 13 Nov — A 17-year-old Palestinian was detained Wednesday near the Israeli settlement of Modiin west of Ramallah after Israeli forces claimed he was on his way to carry out a “stabbing attack” in Jerusalem, Israeli media reported early Thursday. The Hebrew-language Israeli news site Maariv reported that Israeli police were conducting a routine search in an area where Palestinian workers often attempt to cross without papers into Israel for work near the Modiin settlement when they noticed a Palestinian youth and searched him. The website said that the Israeli police found a knife and a screwdriver with the youth during the search. Police claimed that the youth confessed that he was on his way to “stab an Israeli bus driver” in Jerusalem. The youth was taken by the Israeli secret service Shabak for interrogation.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=739663
Worry grips Jerusalem residents awaiting next attack
JERUSALEM (AFP) 12 Nov by Daphne Rousseau — Rocked by weeks of deadly violence, Jerusalem is witnessing security measures not seen in years as residents try to maintain some semblance of normal life while awaiting the next attack. Raheli, who is eight months pregnant, recently stopped traveling on the city’s light railway system, which she dubs “the train of fear”, after deadly attacks at roadside stops by lone Palestinians … Earlier this month a Palestinian from east Jerusalem deliberately rammed his car into two groups of pedestrians, killing a border police officer and wounding another nine people, the second deadly car attack in two weeks … In west Jerusalem, in contrast to the darkest days of the second Palestinian intifada of 2000-2005, cafes, shops and restaurants carry on with business as usual. In a pizzeria on Ben Yehuda street — infamous as the site of several suicide attacks at the time — Ahd, a young Palestinian student chooses to spend her lunch at the table furthest away from other diners. “You can sense the aggression. That ranges from people looking at you aggressively to searching your bags at shopping malls,” she says. Jerusalem’s new daily routine has even seen a return of the so-called “yellow jackets”, private security guards who search people’s belongings at the entrances to buildings … Faced with a palpable change in the air — which some have already dubbed the “third intifada” — some Jerusalem residents have taken matters into their own hands. Yonatan, a salesman in a shop selling military equipment and self-defence gadgets, has been inundated by requests. “We’ve totally run out in recent days of pepper spray. It’s our most popular product and you can blind an attacker with it from up to three metres (yards) away,” he says.”We also sell batons and there’s been an increase in demand for tasers, which can electrocute and effectively paralyse.
http://news.yahoo.com/worry-grips-jerusalem-residents-awaiting-next-attack-205928922.html
Shattering a Jewish American myth: Jerusalem is no Disneyland / Jo-Ann Mort
Haaretz 13 Nov — Most American Jewish tour groups are shown a historical-religious theme park version of a nominally ‘united’ Jerusalem – in which the Arabic-speaking, Palestinian east of the city and its grievances is simply invisible — Imagine this is your city. Imagine that one of its neighborhoods is Shuafat, a walled-off refugee camp with 80,000 people and no legal order or adequate city services, where zealots who recognize the rule of a Supreme Being not a Supreme Court judge, take actions that are daily heightening tensions in the city and new tenants take over the top floor of a home under the veil of darkness and proclaim that they are “Judaizing” the street of an overwhelmingly Arab neighborhood, throwing out the belongings of the family who is living there and camping on the top floor with their children, and their guns. Welcome to Jerusalem, yes, Jerusalem. But, this isn’t the Jerusalem that most tourists see. Because this reality is invisible, not least when it’s unseen, it’s difficult to understand the eruption of violence that has pervaded the city since the summer.
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.626266
Al-Aqsa
Kerry says steps agreed to cool Jerusalem tempers
AMMAN (AFP) 14 Nov — US Secretary of State John Kerry said steps were agreed Thursday at talks in Amman to lower tensions between Israel and the Palestinians over the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem. Months-long unrest in annexed east Jerusalem has spread to the occupied West Bank and Arab communities across Israel in recent days, raising fears of a new Palestinian uprising. Kerry said the confidence-building steps, which will not be publicly spelled out, were agreed at a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Firm commitments” were made to maintain the status quo at the compound in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem which is holy to both Jews and Muslims, he said at a press conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh. Israel and Jordan, which has custodial rights at the compound, also agreed to take steps to “de-escalate the situation” in Jerusalem and to “restore confidence” … The flurry of diplomatic activity, which also saw Kerry meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in the morning, followed new clashes in east Jerusalem, where Israeli police fired tear gas, sound bombs and rubber bullets to disperse Palestinian demonstrators … “President Abbas and I this morning discussed constructive steps, real steps, not rhetoric, that people can take in order to de-escalate the situation. “He made it clear that he will do everything possible to restore calm and to the prevent the incitement of violence.”
http://news.yahoo.com/clashes-jerusalem-ahead-kerry-talks-abbas-115147522.html
Israel police drop age limits on Muslim prayer at Temple Mount
Haaretz 14 Nov by Nir Hasson — Unlike in previous weeks, Israel will allow Muslim worshippers to enter the Temple Mount compound for Friday prayers without imposing restrictions, the police announced on Thursday, Due to the rise in violence in Jerusalem in the past months, Israel Police enforced age restriction for Muslim prayers on the holy side, usually barring entrance men under 50 from entering the site. In addition, the police decided on the removal of two checkpoints recently placed on roads leading to the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiyah after protests by residents. The checkpoints have been placed at the village’s entrances to due to the continued violence in area. A statement announcing the moves was published by the police a short time after the conclusion of a meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Jordan’s King Abdullah II, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Amman. The three discussed tensions over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.626419
Israeli minister announces facial recognition surveillance at Al-Aqsa
Middle East Monitor 13 Nov — Israel’s Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch yesterday announced that visitors to Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound will soon be “scanned by a facial-recognition surveillance system that can pick out faces from a crowd.” The report in Haaretz, citing comments made by the Minister on Channel 1 News, also notes the minister’s promise to return metal detectors to the compound. Israeli news website Walla additionally reported that the Public Security Ministry has allocated 4 million shekels (just over $1 million) to carry out the new plan. Aharonovitch also said that in certain circumstances, he will prevent Members of Knesset from visiting the compound, in case of “an operational need” or if it may “lead to riots.” The minister added his voice to those urging punitive measures against Palestinians in East Jerusalem, saying that those who engage in protests and unrest could be stripped of their residency rights in the city.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/15244-israeli-minister-announces-facial-recognition-surveillance-at-al-aqsa
Islamic councils warn against Israel’s installing of electronic gates at entrances to Al-Aqsa Mosque
JERUSALEM (WAFA) 12 Nov – The council of Islamic Waqf and the Supreme Muslim Council (SMC) warned Wednesday against Israel’s plans to install electronic gates at the entrances leading to Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound in Jerusalem. The councils warned against a plan devised by the Israeli Internal Security Ministry to install e-gates at the mosque’s entrances, a step, they said, that is tantamount to imposing full Israeli control over the complex. Israeli media reportedly revealed that Israeli Internal Security crews are implementing in secret a plan to install checkpoints at all the gates leading to the mosque. The plan reportedly involves the installation of some metal detectors at walk-through electronic gates, in addition to the deployment of further police reinforcements. Israeli sources reportedly said that the sum of NIS 4 million (about $1 million) was allocated for the plan which is being implemented clandestinely by the Ministry crews in order not to cause a major upheaval.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=27033
The Temple Mount is a powder keg, and arsonists have the upper hand / Asher Schechter
Haaretz 14 Nov — …The Temple Mount is the holiest site for Judaism and the third holiest for Islam. It’s one of the most sensitive religious sites in the world — a massive powder keg, if you will. Now that this powder keg looks to be on the verge of exploding, note that this was no accidental fire. This was (and still is) an arson job. The immediate suspects, as many observers have pointed out, are the Israeli right-wing politicians challenging the decades-old status quo on the Temple Mount, over which the Muslim Waqf trust has retained religious control since Israel took over East Jerusalem in 1967. The right-wingers are insisting that Jews be allowed to pray there; they include Knesset members like Likud’s Miri Regev and Moshe Feiglin. These two, Housing Minister Uri Ariel and others have been key to the incredible resurgence of the Jewish Temple Mount movement in recent years, a resurgence that led to rumors that Israel sought to change the delicate status quo … Over the years, maintaining the status quo there by prohibiting Jewish prayer was critical to preventing an all-out religious war. The status quo wasn’t perfect by any means, but it allowed a delicate balance between the national and the religious. That balance is now eroding fast. Tension since 1929 The history of the Temple Mount is, of course, fraught with conflict … In 1929, 133 Jews were killed by Arabs partly motivated by rumors of a planned Jewish takeover of the mount. In 1996, riots broke out there following Netanyahu’s decision to open the Western Wall tunnels — a decision that again led to rumors of an imminent threat to Islamic control of the site. Seventeen Israeli soldiers and more than 100 Palestinians died, and scores were wounded. In the 1980s, the Jewish underground, a terrorist organization formed by members of the right-wing movement Gush Emunim, almost blew up the mosques on the mount, including the Dome of the Rock. The idea was to further a messianic redemption that would culminate with the construction of a Third Temple. In September 2000, Ariel Sharon (then opposition leader) made a high-profile visit to the mount. The day after, riots broke out there following Friday prayers, launching the second intifada. But now, at the outset of what may or may not be a third intifada, something is different. It’s not the violence as much as the way the events are being framed. For the most part, the movement to regain Jewish control of the Temple Mount has been limited to extremists … Not anymore. These days there appears to be a wider acceptance for a Jewish Temple Mount, tracking Israel’s right-wing shift and the erosion of its resistance to messianic rhetoric….
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.626094
Arrests
Israeli forces detain 2 young Palestinian men from the Old City
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 12 Nov – Israeli forces detained two young Palestinians while they were standing in front of their homes in Ras al-Amud neighborhood in the Old City of Jerusalem on Wednesday. Members of al-Ali family identified the detainees as Alaa al-Ali and his cousin Muhammad Amin al-Ghoul. They said that both young men were in front of their home while fierce clashes were ongoing in the al-Shayyah area of Ras al-Amud. Suddenly, a group of special force officers arrived and detained the two after beating them “brutally.” The family said that Alaa was released from Israeli custody on April 4 2013 after serving 12 years on the charge of being an activist with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=739424
Israeli forces detain 11 Palestinians in Jerusalem, Jenin
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 12 Nov — Israeli forces detained 10 young Palestinian men from East Jerusalem and one from Jenin in the northern West Bank overnight, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said. A statement said that early Wednesday morning, Israeli forces detained five young men from the Old City identified as Ibrahim Shweiki, Ahmad Odah, Rami Abu Gharbiyya, Muhammad Abu Sneina and Nur al-Din Abu Zneid, who was released only hours earlier. On Tuesday evening, Israeli forces detained Ahmad Abu Gharbiyya, Raed al-Ammuri … Furthermore, Israeli forces detained 18-year-old Muhammad Rashid al-Sheikh and 18-year-old Mahmoud Tawfiq Dar Abu Ismail from an agricultural field in the village of Beit Surik in northwest Jerusalem. In the Jenin district in the northern West Bank, Israeli forces detained 23-year-old Muhammad Sami Ghuneim from the village of Burqa. The Prisoner’s Society noted that Ghuneim is an officer in the Palestinian national security services.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=739440
Israeli police release 2 women, detain 2 teens
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 13 Nov — The Israeli police released late Wednesday two Palestinian women from Akka who were detained earlier that day when leaving the Al-Aqsa mosque. Hamza Qutteineh from Lawyers for Jerusalem said that during interrogation Asmahan Ali, 36, and Zeinab Aswad, 62, in the al-Qashla detention center, Ali was taken to the Hadassa Hospital in the al-Isawiya for treatment after she fainted. A day earlier Israeli police detained 11-year-old Muhammad Mahmoud Abu al-Hawa and Muhammad Khalid Odeh Abu Isbitan, 13, from the al-Tur town on Wednesday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=739640
Clashes as Israeli forces detain 27 across Jerusalem and West Bank
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 13 Nov — Israeli forces arrested 27 Palestinians across East Jerusalem and the West Bank overnight, while clashes erupted again in the flashpoint Jerusalem neighborhood of al-‘Issawiya. Israeli authorities conducted detention raids in the East Jerusalem neighborhoods of Silwan, al-Tur, al-Suwwana, and Jabal al-Mukabbir early Thursday, arresting nine Palestinians…
On Thursday, Palestinian residents of the village of al-‘Issawiya protested against the Israeli authorities’ recent decision to shut the main entrance to the village with cement blocks. Although the neighborhood is located directly beside the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on Mount Scopus, the cement blocks placed by police at the top of the village has led to major headaches for local residents. Local activist Muhammad Abu al-Hummus said on Thursday that villagers protested the closure by blocking the eastern entrance of the village. He said that Israeli soldiers had shut the main entrance to the village three times during the last two months, and the southern entrance to the village has been closed for three months. Abu al-Hummus said that dozens of students, teachers, and workers gathered at the entrances of al-‘Issawiya demanding Israeli forces to open the closed entrance. He added that clashes erupted at the eastern entrance between youths and Israeli soldiers. Dozens of locals suffered severe suffocation as soldiers fired tear-gas grenades at the crowds and leashed police dogs on them…
Also on Thursday, Israeli forces engaged in home raids across the West Bank, arresting 18 people. An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed the arrests, saying 15 were “suspected of involvement in terror and violent riots,” while three were suspected of “involvement in illegal activities.” The spokeswoman said that three of the Palestinians detained overnight were “Hamas operatives,” including two individuals taken from a village she called “Khirbat Bneizi” northwest of Ramallah as well one from Sa‘ir, southwest of Bethlehem. Of the remaining Palestinians detained overnight, she said that three were taken from homes in Beit Lid near Nablus, one from ‘Anabta east of Tulkaram, one from Rafidia northwest of Nablus, one from Beit Liqia southwest of Ramallah, four from Deir Ballut, three from Hizma southeast of Ramallah, and two from al-Rihiya, south of Hebron. Of those arrests, Ma‘an was able to independently verify 10 of the detainees … In the Bethlehem governorate in the southern West Bank, meanwhile, Israeli forces detained Fouad Omar Salah, 20, from the village of al-Khader and took him to the nearby Etzion detention center for interrogation on Thursday. Muhammad Salah, Fouad’s brother, told Ma‘an that Israeli forces raided their home around 1:00 a.m. and detained his brother after they had “wrecked” the home during the raid….
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=739665
Prisoners
Group: Barghouthi in solitary after calling for ‘armed resistance’
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 12 Nov – The Israeli Prison Service on Wednesday moved jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouthi to solitary confinement in Hadareim prison, a day after he sent a widely published letter from prison calling for armed resistance against the Israeli occupation, a rights group said. In a statement, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said that Barghouthi was being punished for the letter he sent Tuesday, on the 10th anniversary of the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. “Moving Barghouthi to solitary confinement because of a statement he sent on the Arafat anniversary is evidence that Arafat is still scaring them (the Israelis) from his grave,” said PPS chairman Qaddura Faris. “Marwan is scaring them from his prison cell,” Faris added. An IPS spokeswoman did not answer calls seeking comment. Barghouthi said in the letter that “choosing global and armed resistance” was being “faithful to Arafat’s legacy, to his ideas, and his principles for which tens of thousands died as martyrs.” … Barghouthi is serving five life sentences for alleged involvement in attacks on Israeli targets.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=739472
Palestinian succumbs to wounds sustained in Kerem Shalom explosion
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 13 Nov — A Palestinian man on Thursday succumbed to wounds sustained two days before when a tanker truck carrying diesel fuel from Israel to the Gaza Strip exploded on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, medical sources said. Spokesman for the Palestinian Ministry of Health Ashraf al-Qidra told Ma’an that Ahmad Youssef Bahlul succumbed to his wounds in the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Bahlul had sustained serious burns during the explosion in Kerem Shalom. Bahlul’s son, 17-year-old Muhammad, was killed in the explosion last Tuesday. An unidentified 60-year-old man also sustained moderate wounds in the explosion, whose cause has not yet been identified.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=739717
Israeli navy sinks Palestinian fishing boat off Gaza coast
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 12 Nov — Israeli naval boats on Wednesday evening fired at and sank a Palestinian fishing boat in the sea off the coast of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Witnesses said that army boats fired shells at a boat belonging to the al-Bardaweel family, completely destroying it in the process. People aboard the boat had jumped in the water by the time the shells hit, and as a result no injuries were reported. An Israeli military spokeswoman did not immediately return calls seeking comment. An Israeli army radio report, however, appeared to confirm the incident, adding that the fishermen had strayed more than six nautical miles from the shore.Since the signing of a ceasefire agreement that ended 50 days of fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants in Gaza on Aug. 26, the Israeli navy has fired at Gaza fishermen more than a dozen times under the pretext that they had surpassed fishing zone limits. The Aug. 26 agreement stipulated that Israel would immediately expand the fishing zone off Gaza’s coast, allowing fishermen to sail as far as six nautical miles from shore, and would continue to expand the area gradually. The fisherman who have been shot at, and even at times detained by Israeli forces, have insisted that they were well within the six-mile limit.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=739610
Palestinian injured as Israeli ordnance explodes in Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 12 Nov — A Palestinian man in Gaza was injured on Wednesday after Israeli ordnance exploded in Khan Younis, medics said. The man, identified only as M.A and said to be in his 20s, was taken to a hospital in the Khuzaa neighborhood with moderate injuries. Witnesses said he was removing rubble from a building destroyed during Israel’s summer military offensive when the explosion occurred. In October, four-year-old Muhammad Sami Abu Jrad was killed after he touched an unexploded Israeli ordnance in northern Gaza. The Gaza Strip is currently littered with a large number of unexploded Israeli ordnance, a constant reminder of the over 50-day Israeli offensive that left more than 2,150 dead, 11,200 injured, and more than 110,000 homeless.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=739521
Sweden to spend $3m to remove Gaza rubble
Middle East Monitor 13 Nov — The Palestinian government and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), with the support of Sweden, yesterday signed an agreement aimed at removing the rubble and debris in the Gaza Strip.The project will be implemented by the UNDP and funded by Sweden, and is set to cost $3 million. Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said this agreement is an important and positive step, paving the way for accelerating the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, especially with the onset of winter. A study issued by the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction (PECDAR), a semi-governmental institution which implements infrastructure and superstructure projects in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, estimated that there is approximately 2.8 million tonnes of debris in Gaza. Hamdallah said the debris removal project will provide job opportunities and help reduce the unemployment rate in the sector.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/europe/15255-sweden-to-spend-3m-to-remove-gaza-rubble
Hamas warns of ‘explosion’ if Israel prevents Gaza reconstruction
RAFAH (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) 14 Nov — The military wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas warned Thursday of renewed violence unless Israel allows the reconstruction of the war-battered Gaza Strip. “We are saying to all sides — if the siege on Gaza and the obstacles for reconstruction remain, there will be a new explosion,” said Abu Obeida, spokesman of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades … The United Nations brokered a deal allowing the delivery of construction materials to Gaza by ensuring they will not be diverted by Hamas militants. Last week, the UN announced the temporary reconstruction mechanism was to be launched under the auspices of a newly formed Palestinian unity government. “We hold the enemy fully responsible for an explosion if the reconstruction does not begin,” Abu Obeida said at a rally in Gaza City, warning that “the fight is not over.”
http://news.yahoo.com/hamas-warns-explosion-israel-prevents-gaza-reconstruction-225756887.html
Palestinians stuck at closed Rafah border for last 3 weeks
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 13 Nov — A group of Palestinians stuck on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing into Gaza on Thursday called upon Egypt to open the crossing after three weeks of closure in order to allow them to return to the Gaza Strip. “We have been stuck in Egypt for 20 days, but no one has helped us or even talks about us,” Talal Salim, one of those stuck at the crossing, told Ma‘an. The Palestinians stuck at the border are victims of the Egyptian government’s policies regarding the crossing’s opening hours, which can be sealed shut for weeks at a time with little notice. The most recent closure came after a bomb hit Egyptian soldiers in el-Arish, 50 kilometers (31 miles) west of the Gaza border. The crossing was closed in response, despite the lack of a clear relationship between the incident and Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=739743
UN human rights investigators denied entry to Israel for Gaza inquiry
JERUSALEM (Los Angeles Times) 12 Nov by Laura King & Batsheva Sobelman — Israel said late Wednesday that it would deny entry to representatives of the U.N. Human Rights Council who are investigating potential war crimes committed during the summer’s 50-day war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. While widely expected, the decision was likely to trigger fresh international criticism of Israel. The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is already on the defensive over plans for expanding settlements in the West Bank and a growing Jewish presence in traditionally Arab areas of east Jerusalem, which Palestinians want to be the capital of their future state … The Foreign Ministry said the Geneva-based rights council’s “obsessive hostility toward Israel” would make an impartial investigation impossible. Israel has long had a tense relationship with the council, accusing it of ignoring or downplaying rights violations emanating from the Palestinian side. The main practical effect of Israel’s decision to deny entry to the investigators is that they will be unable to travel to Gaza via the main Erez crossing, which Israel controls. It would be theoretically possible for the council’s representatives to reach the coastal enclave via Egypt, but the Rafah crossing from the Egyptian side has been closed amid confrontations between Egyptian forces and Islamic militants operating in the northern Sinai Peninsula.
http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-israel-united-nations-20141112-story.html
Israel to allow goods into Gaza via Kerem Shalom crossing
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 13 Nov – The Israeli authorities opened the Kerem Shalom crossing in the southeastern Gaza Strip to allow aid and goods into the enclave on Thursday. Raed Fattouh, a Palestinian official responsible for the entry of goods into Gaza, said that the Israeli authorities will allow 350 truckloads of goods for the trade, agricultural, transportation and aid sectors. Fattouh added that Israel will also allow five trucks of cement for international construction projects.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=739636
Israel says won’t cooperate with UN Gaza inquiry
Jerusalem (AFP) 12 Nov — Israel will not cooperate with a United Nations inquiry into its 50-day war with rocket-firing militants in Gaza this summer, a government spokesman said Wednesday. “Since the Schabas commission is not an inquiry but a commission that gives its conclusions in advance, Israel will not cooperate with the commission of the UN Human Rights Council over the last conflict with Hamas,” foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said in a statement. The decision had been taken because of the “obsessive hostility against Israel of this commission and the words of its president against Israel and its leaders,” he added.
http://news.yahoo.com/israel-says-wont-cooperate-un-gaza-inquiry-194907307.html
Jerusalem’s Palestinian neighborhoods can’t be erased from the map – or history / Yudith Oppenhimer
Haaretz 13 Nov — Backed by Netanyahu, Israeli settlers are plundering Palestinian neighborhoods under cover of the law, raising up community against community — The spoils of Silwan were there to be taken long ago, in ancient times. In Silwan/City of David, King David was strolling on the roof of his house when he saw Bathsheba bathing on a nearby roof. The rest is known. The prophet Nathan rebuked him with the beautiful parable of the poor man’s ewe, in which a rich man slaughtered a poor man’s sole sheep rather than one from his vast flock to serve a traveler. King David, the poet of psalms, did not argue that all was legal but rather hastened to say, “I have sinned against the Lord” (2 Samuel, 12:13). The leaders of the State of Israel do not speak in the language of psalms. When settler organizations enter Palestinian homes in Silwan in the dark of night — homes apparently purchased through labyrinthine transactions involving straw men and shadow companies, with anything but good faith — the prime minister of Israel responds with narrow legalistic arguments instead of showing true moral and political leadership. After the Bathsheba affair, the house of David had not one peaceful day. As the prophet Nathan foresaw, what David had done in the dark, his sons did in broad daylight … As in the past, so today, the curse of the parable’s poor man hovers over the city, where plundering under the cover of the law has become routine in Silwan, on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif, in Sheikh Jarrah, in Palestinian neighborhoods coopted by national parks and Israeli settlements
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.626152
Yasser Arafat: Why he still matters / Hussein Agha & Ahmad Samih Khalidi
The Guardian 13 Nov — Hated and venerated in equal measure, Yasser Arafat dominated the Palestinian landscape, and with it, much of the Middle East’s political map for almost five decades. His death 10 years ago, besieged and in miserable isolation, marked the beginning of the end of the revolution that reawakened the national consciousness of Palestinians and allowed them the possibility of determining their own fate on their own land. Authentic national leaders do not arise often. They are forged more by fate and circumstance than by human design. Ten years on, the full implications of Arafat’s era – a period in which he acted as founder of the political movement Fatah, leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation and president of the Palestinian National Authority – have yet to be understood. His most enduring legacy was to lead the Palestinians out of the material, political and moral devastation of the 1948 Nakba – the catastrophe which saw more than 700,000 Palestinians lose their homes in what became Israel – as a people and a cause. The fact that the Palestinian problem today occupies a central place in world affairs is in no little measure due to the man and his work. His other legacies may be open to dispute and it may also be too early to pass a final verdict on them. Arafat’s supporters would claim that without armed struggle, the Palestinian issue would have remained no more than yet another refugee problem alongside the many other displacements lingering on the periphery of the world’s conscience. His detractors would claim that the use of violence marred his reputation, and that his idiosyncratic rule did not serve his people well…
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2014/nov/13/-sp-yasser-arafat-why-he-still-matters
Remembering Abu Ammar 10 years on</